Wedding Vacation

For months I have been looking forward to going home to attend my two very good friends, Luke Kincaid and Jamie Steinfeld’s wedding. Luke was my best friend from college. We spent many many days together studying and somehow managed to not kill eachother in the process. It was an unlikely friendship for both of us and we still joke about it to this day. He’s my partner in crime – always discussing the latest development project, architecture, and design. I met Jamie through Luke (of course) and she has become one of my very great girlfriends. Truly a sweeheart and a joy to be around. They have both become like family to me over the years and I was honored when they asked me to be a part of their bridal party.

So four months after moving to Kenya, I’m off to vacation back home in Oregon. 10 days of fun, filled with catching up with friends and family, hiking, wedding events, shopping, and most importantly…AMERICAN FOOD! Did I tell you I had a dream about Taco Bell one night? It’s true.

There aren’t really seasons in Kenya. Mainly just dry and wet and I LOVE fall! I was excited to dig through my storage unit and rediscover my old clothes that seemed new again – scarves, hats, jackets, boots. I took a hike with my good friend, John, and took some photos of the fall foliage.

 

Since there were several of us in the bridal party that had come from afar, Luke and Jamie had planned several outings the week before the wedding. Line dancing at Dukes (a first for me), a musical – the Company, first Thursday, etc. We will be making jokes about the Company for ages! There are many many stories to tell…

Luke with his sweet dance moves

The wedding was beautiful. Jamie was a beautiful. Luke…uh….yeah.

I ran into some old friends

It was a wonderful vacation but definitely not relaxing. I think I averaged about four hours of sleep each night. I had 22 hours on the airplane back to catch up on sleep, but I mainly found myself reflecting on my trip and life in Kenya. I have felt somewhat torn between two drastically different worlds these past four months. On one hand, I want to save the world. Help people. But at the same time, feel like I am missing so much back home – friends, family, familiarity, comfort, where things are somewhat predictable. Kenya and the work we are doing is anything but predictable.

I was surprised to find myself missing all the chaos of Kenya, the kids, smells, the May’s, the food (I can’t believe I said that!), my running trail. It’s a hard but simple life we live here, and oh so great. It’s good to be back. It took a vacation home to realize it, but Africa has officially gotten under my skin. Who knows what will come of it all…

Trick or Treat

Last week, (can you tell I’m a little behind on posting my blogs? ) Anne received an e-mail from the Embassy about this year’s Halloween Bizarre. For weeks, we had all been looking forward to a fun filled day of treats and Halloween festivities. I really get into dressing up for Halloween but ran out of time to make a costume this year. Ian and I joked that I should be Joseph for Halloween. He’s always really crafty with things he pulls out of our trash. I’m sure he could have thrown something together for me.

Eli was a ladybug and Lucy, a princess. Aren’t they so cute?! Joseph and Bernard joined in on the fun too.

After sitting between the kids in the backseat of the car, with them asking every 5 minutes if they had messed up their face paint, we finally made it to the party. FINALLY!

The ISK (International School of Kenya) campus was gorgeous. Just as nice as any college campus I’ve visited. The party however…wasn’t much of a party at all. Advertising booths were set up, food was cooking, music playing, but the candy (the most important part of Halloween)…MIA. Or at least FREE candy was missing. Someone must have missed the memo. Poor kids. Anne finally went and bought them some at one of the booths.

We had a nice day though. Definitely not your typical Halloween, that’s for sure. But then again…nothing in Kenya is ever typical!

Team Intel

A few weeks ago a team came to us from Intel. Over 200 employees applied and they chose 5. Their mission was to bring computers and train the staff and kids to use them. This is quite a task considering some people here have never even seen a computer, much less use one. I have been working with a couple teachers the past month trying to introduce them to the mouse. It’s been a true test of my patience but has also made me realize how fortunate I’ve been to have access to modern technology. I’ve used a computer since elementary school and owned one the majority of my life. It’s crazy for me to think of my life without one. It’s practically attached to my hip.

So pretty much, the Intel team had their work cut out for them. They arrived on Wednesday and worked vigorously to install software and teach how to use these computers.

I’ve never seen the children more attentive to anything. They were all crowded around our teachers. Learning. Laughing. It was great to see. We invited the parents to join the fun and I think they enjoyed it just as much as the children did. Overall, I would say it was a great success.

Most people work as vendors (sales), house help (cleaning, washing, cooking, etc.), or in the shamba (garden). So for a Kenyan to have any computer skills is rare. A job as a typist is well respected and well paid at 30 shillings ($.40) per page typed. A high wage. Because of Intel’s generosity, these people are gaining exposure to valued skills. Thank you Intel!

Diwali

I was with some friends from church this past Saturday when Diwali was brought up. Diwali? I had no idea what they were talking about. One of the greatest things about living in Kenya is learning about other cultures and religions. Diwali, the festival of lights, is a five day celebration for Hindus. Each day there is a traditional ritual done, whether worshiping different idols (gold or cows), cooking great meals as a family, or shooting off fireworks.

Although we are all Christian, we thought it would be fun to find a party. The only problem…none of us knew where one was. We loaded up in the car and started driving around to the different temples. When we didn’t have luck there, we started following the pops and lights of nearby fireworks. Once we arrived, I soon found out why they call it the festival of lights.

Everyone was shooting off fireworks into a field. Even children had their own, and of course most of them were unsupervised. All you could hear were pops and squeals, smell sulfur, and see bursts of light through all the smoke. We almost got taken out a few times by things flying at our head. It was chaos!

Tents surrounded the field with food and souvineers for sale. Everyone got something different so we could sample it all. The food was wonderful! Pizza, samosas, spring rolls – the best spring rolls of my life! One guy got a traditional Indian dish, although good, we never could figure out what it was. I think I ate enough grease in one night to last me a few months.

I think we all felt like little kids again. Excited for something new and different, for fireworks, for greasy food.

We were the only mazungus/christians there. All night our group was being stared at. People just couldn’t figure out why we were there. We didn’t care…

some of the gang – Amanda, Lindsay, Kim, and Eric

Masai Warriors

The Masai Warriors are an indigenous African tribe native to Kenya and Tanzania. They are easily recognizable along the road in their colorful dressings herding cattle. Their lifestyle is centered around their cattle, which constitutes as their primary source of food. The measure of a man’s wealth is in terms of cattle and children – a herd of 50 is respectable, and the more children the better. A man who has plenty of one but not the other is considered to be poor. Their cattle graze anywhere that isn’t fenced in and are worth more than a human’s life. If you kill a cow, you will be killed. I’m always a little paranoid when I’m driving my car through a herd of them. A Masai myth says that God gave them all the cattle on earth, leading to the belief that rustling cattle from other tribes is a matter of taking back what is rightfully theirs, a practice that has become much less common.

Although young boys are sent out with the calves and lambs as soon as they can walk, childhood for boys is mostly playtime, with the exception of ritual beatings to test courage and endurance. Girls are responsible for chores like cooking and milking, skills which they learn from their mothers at an early age. One rite of passage from boyhood to the status of junior warrior is a painful circumcision ceremony, which is performed without an anesthetic. This ritual is typically performed by the elders, who use a sharpened knife and makeshift cattle hide bandages for the procedure. The boy must endure the operation in silence. Any expression of pain brings dishonor.

Traditionally, the Masai diet consists of meat, milk, maize-meal, and blood from cattle. The mixing of cattle blood and milk is done to prepare a ritual drink for special celebrations and as nourishment for the sick. Blood isn’t used as often as it used to because of a reduction in livestock numbers.

I know you are all dying to try this recipe:

Dumpster Diving

Kenya has no organized system for getting rid of trash. It’s just thrown EVERYWHERE. To see a trashcan is rare and almost unheard of in Thika. There are so few that when we do see them, we have to talk about it. It’s like a foreign object to us now.

At Karibu Centre, we have a couple of large pits where we put all our trash. It’s burned a few times a week. I hate the smell of burning trash. It’s one of my least favorite things about living here.  The staff and their children always rummage through things before they are burned. It’s the Kenyan version of dumpster diving. Maybe I should call it pit pulling or something. It’s amazing what a kid or adult can pick out the trash and reuse as something else. I have to give them credit for being creative.

Trash, now treasure:

A cracked bucket was turned it into a stool/drum

Soda lids were turned into a car

A car was made out of an orange juice box and plastic lids from sour cream and yogurt.

A ziploc bag was used as a hat. Very fashionable!

One of our volunteers was so excited to take yogurt containers home for her kids to play with. A new toy for them!

A belt was made out of cardboard and wire and a tie made out of yellow duct tape. I wish I’d had my camera at the time. He was so proud of his new look.

In Oregon, I never thought much about trash other than what I could or couldn’t recycle. I guess giving kids trash to play with is Kenyas version of recycling.

Team Portland

Team Portland was here this week. When I found out they had arrived, I ran over to Ian and Anne’s yelling “Oregonians, Oregonians”. I have never been more excited to hug complete strangers. Just knowing they were from Portland was comforting. These seven women are the reason we are here. They have helped volunteer their time, energy, and money to help Orphans Overseas get the Karibu Centre started and now they have come to further help us train the staff.

The laughs were never ending it seemed. When Lori first arrived, she made a comment about smelling incense. We later corrected her that the smell wasn’t incense but trash burning. It quickly became a joke throughout their stay. We have lots of ‘incense’ here in Thika! (Love you Lori!)

Anne and I finally finished the apartment - the treehouse living room

The children that come to the Centre aren’t potty trained and sometimes pee and poop, well, anywhere. One day I got pooped on while holding a child in my lap. It happens. Well, our awesome teacher, Connie, brought these plastic aprons for the team to wear, just in case. It was funny to see them all suited up, with their hand sanitizer and wet wipes in the front pockets. The teachers loved it though. They’ve been wearing the aprons ever since.

The team in their 'uniforms'

It wouldn’t be a real Kenyan trip without visiting the Makongeni Market. Every week as Anne and I are walking to the market, we pass this man and his butchery. You might recognize his food from an earlier post when I ate one of his sausages. Since then, he has started cooking up heart, liver, intestine, you get the idea. I have been trying to get a picture of this for weeks now and he won’t let me. I’ve even offered to pay him and he still refuses. Well, we walk by and I introduce him to the women and all of a sudden he’s more than willing to take a picture. In fact, he wanted to pose for this picture like he was cutting the sausage.

With the exception of two creepy men that followed us the ENTIRE time and running away from a drunk stumbling man, I think the women really enjoyed the market.

We also visited the Giraffe Centre. Everyone got to feed the giraffes but Angie was the only one that wanted a kiss. It was great!

On our last night, we all went out to dinner at the famous Carnivore restaurant. It was the perfect way to end the week. We ate (or had the option to eat) turkey, liver, gizzard, beef, chicken, ostrich meatballs, and lamb. After eating beans and rice everyday, this was a nice change.

The whole gang before they left for the airport

This week was full of laughs, hard work, and tears and I was sad to see it all end. I thoroughly enjoyed their company and appreciate all they have done for Karibu.

Karibu Marathon

It all started when Tito, our guard, said he had high blood pressure. The next thing I knew, Anne had a plan to get his health back on track – doing cardio 3 -4 times a week and eating better, we would have Tito in good shape in no time. We decided to make a trail around the fence line of the campus for us all to work out on. I was so excited. I used to walk/run a lot back in Portland and since moving here, have really missed it. So today after work, I put on the one pair of work out shorts I brought, and off we went.

It started out with just the two of us, and then not too far into our run I heard this noise behind me. When I turned around, there was Ian and the rest of the staff, their kids, and the pregnant girls following. I have no idea how the girls managed to keep up running in flip flops and skirts. I was struggling in tennis shoes. Since we are still in the process of actually creating the trail, you really have to watch your step. I was just hoping a big snake wouldn’t pop out of the holes we were passing.

We created quite the spectacle. I’m not sure if people were more entertained by us running or our white legs. We had parents and kids from the surrounding slums at the fence watching us. They yelled ‘mazungu, hawaryu’ (whitey, how are you) repeatedly as we passed. It seemed like I was running a marathon, with my friends cheering me on.

One by one, the girls slowly dropped out of the race. After Ian had finished and it was down to Tito and I, we saw the girls had made a finish line for us to cross. Despite my best efforts, he was just too big and fast. My little legs just couldn’t keep up. He smoked me….big time.

Afterward, Tito needed a lot of water. Big baby!

Tito was showing us some of his sweet yoga moves.

When it was all said and done, my feet were sore, I had stickers in my socks, and my legs were scraped up from thorns…but it was great. We all had a lot of fun. I’m sure we will all be sore tomorrow, but I am so excited about our new Karibu running trail.

A Grand Day

I had made a deal with the mothers-to-be that they teach me how to make a traditional African dish, and I would make cake for them. So today they all reminded me that this was the day we made sweets. After the introduction and demonstration of the seat belt, four of us went to the grocery store for the ingredients. I decided Rice Krispie Treats would be fun to make, so we were on a mission for marshmallows and Rice Krispies.

When we got back, everyone pitched in to make this desert I had talked so much about. We made them Kenyan style – over an open fire on a chico. They don’t like the stove because it isn’t as hot as fire. Uh, okay. Cooking like this was a first for me, but whatever…I can roll with the punches. Everyone seemed to really enjoy them.

Later in the evening, we were all sitting around talking when I saw one of the girls eating something. A rock! I had completely forgotten about this. People eat them for calcium. I have seen them for sale at the market but had never actually seen anyone eat one. It looked like she was going to break a tooth but she said they were actually very soft. So weird!

During one of our random conversations, I asked how Kenyans dance. They told me they had to have a radio to play music, so they couldn’t. Well, lucky for them I had my laptop. I was going through my iTunes trying to find something good to dance to. Rap. Perfect! I played the first song I saw and the girls all stopped and looked at me like I was crazy. It was hilarious. They couldn’t believe we danced to that music in America. Then, I put on some Bob Marley. Everyone loves some Bob Marley right? Yes, including Kenyans. One by one I got them all to dance with me and turned our hang out room into one large dance party. We even had the cook’s two boys looking in the window from outside – peeping toms.

Since I had my laptop out, I started showing them pictures. One of the girls wants me to bring her to America so she can marry my brother, Ryan. Not sure how he’ll feel about that, but I’ll let him know! Explaining what a parade and snow is was very difficult, especially since they only speak in broken English. We even talked to my mom on Skype. It was just as fun for me to see their faces as it was for them to experience these things for the first time. A grand Saturday!

Power and Water Rationing

Life without power has become somewhat of a normal occurrence, and I’m told it will only get worse.  At first, I thought people were getting in a car accident and coincidentally hitting the same power pole. Then, I heard of this thing called power rationing.

Apparently, hydro-electricity is the only source for power in Kenya. And, of course we are in the middle of a drought so there hasn’t been enough water to formulate electricity. We have been told that they post the days/times power and water will be turned off in the paper but we have yet to actually find it printed anywhere. So power just kind of comes and goes randomly. Life is a little harder without power and makes for very cold showers (the heater is electric, of course). Luckily we haven’t experienced water rationing yet, but I dread the day it starts. We have been in the process of getting water tanks for a reserve water source.

Nairobi residents are on a rationing schedule and have had power and water only 2 or 3 days a week. One day they will have water but no power, and the next day power but no water. This has caused businesses to only be open when the power is working and makes for a very short work week.

Hopefully it rains soon, otherwise there will be many dark and stinky nights ahead!