Greetings

Dear America,

How are you? We hope you are fine. We are pupils at Hamomi Children”s Centre.We are enjoying as you do.We like typing and playing football.We also like to cook.

The African Woman

Recently I have been spending a lot of time with Mama Matilda and Mama Ray, learning about the lives of the “African woman” who spends here days cleaning, cooking, and caring for her family.  The morning begins with a 6am wake up to get Matilda ready for school with a bath and breakfast.  We also cook and eat breakfast for ourselves.  We walk the kids to school for 7:15.  The morning is time to wash the clothes (in our house Mama Matilda washes them by hand in buckets with detergent and then I hang them up on the roof of our building and then fold them.  There is also the house to clean, as well as the dishes to wash (which varies in difficulty depending on if there is running water that day or if we have to walk downstairs and carry it up).  It’s fun during this time as the mamas get together and do their chores in close proximity to each other and we all talk together.  We cook lunch for ourselves and to bring for the kids at school.  Typically we split up the work, and one mama goes to take them in the morning and evening, and the other will bring them food at lunch.  There is also shopping to be done, and here, Mama Ray will go out and do all of the shopping for both families, while Mama Matilda stays home with the baby and watches the other kids as well.  Shopping involves lots of walking, and knowing the right places to buy things.  These women budget out their money for food to the last shilling, and will walk and walk just to save a few.  We buy vegetables in the little valley with gardens by Matilda’s school, and milk from a lady who lives near by.  Walking on the main road by where we live I could give a tour of our shopping, as we pass the butcher, the woman we but bananas from, the path to the grocery store where you buy flour, and the stand with the cheapest mangoes. 

The mamas have also discussed their desire to loose a little weight.  Bigger woman are definitely valued here more than in the US, but I’ve talked with many women who would feel better about themselves if they reduced a little bit.  So we’ve started a club.  Whenever I’m around in the mornings, we work out in the apartment together with a plan I put together typically revolving around jumping rope and doing abs.  The first day we did it was so much fun, as everyone was doing new things and therefore in a vulnerable state.  We kept making fun of each other’s form on the ab excersizes, and they enjoyed reminiscing about when they played sports like basketball and handball in high school.  We laughed so much, which is a nice ab work out in itself.  The goal is that after a while, they can laugh and watch as we get their husbands to try the exercises out (once they have mastered them of course).  Our club is called Luhya Legs, and its name leads to another great story.  My best friend’s mom has been counseling him on how to choose women, and said not to merely go for someone with a pretty face, but instead to give a girl a full once over looking from her head to her feet.  With insistence that the most important thing is that she has Luhya legs, which mean she is built strong like the women of their tribe have been.  The best example given to me of good Luhya legs is Serena Williams.  So ladies, if you feel you fit the bill- come on over and check out Kenya.  His mom is promising to put 13 cows and 1 goat (to lead them of course) on a plane over to the US as dowry.

Women here do not need to watch glamorous commercials with men professing their love through diamonds at random points throughout life to know how much they are worth.  Instead, there is a very traditional dowry associated with marriage.  Each tribe is different, as those from Embu where Mama and Papa Matilda are from, have a big formal meeting and negotiate the bride price (how many chickens, goats, cows, etc.).  My goal of going to a Kenyan wedding is yet to be fulfilled, but I’m getting closer, having walked by a wedding and watched the video of someone’s wedding in the past 2 weeks.  Luhyas always give the same 13 cows and a goat no matter who the girl is.  Luos give dowry once the wife has given birth, also in the form of livestock.  There are stories in Kenya of how Chelsea Clinton was valued at 40 cows when she visited here.

Things have become quite busy for me here.  I went to a workshop with Be The Change Kenya on Saturday which was really cool and all about training local children’s home directors and associates about how to communicate more pointedly and effectively.  It is all about building up the capacity of the leadership already in place, and I really like the organization so far.  For those of you who ultimate (hi east!) in the Bay Area, this is Scoops’s organization.  I’ve also been volunteering at Hamomi, a school in a slum that is mainly for orphans.  Another American (his name is Brady, he’s from Boston, and is super cool) and I have been teaching PE, and also a computer class to the kids.  I’ve also been doing some work with African Views that will have to make another posting of its own.  So very busy here, but doing lots of cool things!  I’ll write again soon, and maybe even include a picture (Lets be honest… Those of you who know me well would probably have thought it wasn’t really me writing if I had enough pictures to sustain 3 straight blog posts).  Hugs to you all!