Hamomi

The last post was part of the computer class that we (Brady and I) have been teaching at Hamomi. 

Laurel and Eric taught the students when they were here as well, and we’ve been reviewing some of what they learned before, practicing typing, and recently learning to write letters (both informal and formal).  Brady and I also hang out with the kids during PE, and have enjoyed playing football, kickball, and also many singing games that the kids enjoy.  Hide and Seek is also a favorite (some things seem to naturally transcend cultural boundaries.  Today Brady and I also adventured around to a local Kinyozi (barber shop) and he got his beard and hair cut and trimmed (see the convenient before and after pictures for easy reference).  It was fun, and the barber was excited to cut his first mzungu’s hair. 

I was able to have a nice conversation with him in Swahili and translating what he wanted his hair to look like felt like taking Aaron to get a hair cut for my Christmas present, where I had the power to make things look awful with a moment of neglect, or the wrong vocabulary in this case.  Many Kenyan men complain of bumps from shaving on their own here, and it is so cheap to go to the barber shop, that many go for both their beards and hair to be trimmed.  They use an electric razor for both the head and face.  Then after he was done, lathered up Brady’s face with 3 different applications of after shave.  It was quite the treatment, and if you get your head shaved it typically comes with a massage as well.  One of the fun things I’ve been up to lately is teaching a woman (and sometimes her friends as well) to use the computer.  I was walking to school and started talking with her about her life and mine, and what typeof things had brought us to the bridge together that morning.  When she heard that I was going to teach a computer class to a primary school, she asked me how much I charged for lessons, and said that learning to use a computer would greatly help her to communicate and organize, without depending on others as much.  I loved that it was something she suggested, and was so interested in that she was willing to pay for it.  So each Monday morning I go and sit with her on a hill by a stream and we learn about email and typing.  It’s been fun getting to know her, and watching her eyes be opened to a totally new tool.  I just finished reading the book the “Blue Sweater” by Jaqueline Novogratz who left a career at Chase Bank to pursue a course of empowering those around the globe in need.  It’s a fascinating narrative that I highly recommend, and was wonderful to read while here, as most of it takes place in the same part of East Africa where I am.  She eloquently elaborates on topics and emotions I feel each day, yet hadn’t fully sat down and recognized until I read similar things in her book. 

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!

Upcountry

We’ve just gotten back from going upcountry for the funeral.  It was quite an experience!  I’d been to the area before, but mainly just with Papa Matilda’s family, not Mama Matilda’s as was this time.  Families have a big plot of land, and a garden etc which they use for subsistence farming.  Then it typically gets subdivided so that each child can have a plot within the land.  So families live close to eachother.  We stayed with Mama Matilda’s cousin, Mama Carol.  She had been very worried that she did not know how to care for a mzungu, and was concerned I wouldn’t like to eat their food, and would be unhappy.  But Mama Matilda assured her I am easy, and we had a great time!  She enjoyed showing me their life there, and taking me around to greet all of her neighbors.

The funeral took place the day after we got there, and we all got up early and headed to her aunt’s house (the one who passed away) to get into matatus (like smallish 15 passenger vans) with other family and friends and go to the mortuary. 

After viewing the body, we went to the church and they brought the casket in, said a few words, sang songs, and then took it to the house where the funeral continued.  There were speeches given, songs sung, and then different family groups called up to have their pictures taken by the casket.  People were constantly coming and going from the service, and you could go in the back and talk, eat, play with kids, etc. and then return again.  I’ve been told that the aunt was bewitched by a woman who also bewitched 4 other people in the family.  So the real excitement/drama of the day came at night, after the burial (which happens on the property).  The family was trying to decide whether to burn the woman, and/or her house.  The group of family having this meeting did indeed leave to find her, but she had left the area, and they came back again.  Apparently they went again this morning, but I’m not sure if anything happened. 

Two of Mama Matilda’s cousins and I became good friends (Janet and Alex) and it was fun hanging out with them. 

Back at Mama Carol’s house, the first night, we had dinner, then decided that we wanted chicken.  So we killed a chicken that was running around and everyone did a little bit so that by the end we had a delicious soup.  My job was to hold the legs of the plucked chicken while someone took a machete to it and cut it up.  Then I had to wash all the parts to get some of the blood off.  It was funny thinking about how at home we are very careful to wash even a cutting board that has had raw chicken on it.  But instead, I held the legs, got blood all over me, hand rinsed the parts, and then used my hands to eat the chicken pieces out of the soup.  Haha.  I see people who live in Nairobi etc be neat and tidy here, always needing toilet paper for example.  But when the go back upcountry, they slip right into the life there and a tree with soft leaves becomes perfect.  I felt similar in that I had no care about being dirty or anything, just taking the experiences as they came and enjoying the blessing of being able to be part of a different life. 

This is Mama Carol’s son, he thought that I was Paloma (a star of a recent Mexican soap dubbed into English and watched and talked about throughout the country) and was afraid of my celebrity status.  But he eventually warmed up to me, and even promised me one of the chicks of his chicken!

I’m like 6 days in and its already been quite an adventure!  I’m off to watch some rugby tomorrow, and see some old friends.  Thank you for all of the emails, it has been great hearing from such good friends and family!  I thought it would have been easier to describe the past few days, but its something totally unlike life in the US that its been difficult to do it justice.  So thanks for bearing with me, and I hope you now all have a bit more insight into life upcountry.  I’ve also come back carrying sugar cane, macadamia nuts,  and papaya (which neighbors brought for me), and lots of juicy, sweet mangoes!! 

Kwaheri (bye) for now.

London/ Arrival in Kenya

On my way to arriving in Kenya, I spent 10 or so hours in London.  It was fun taking the subway into the city and seeing St. Paul’s Cathedral (thanks for the tip Mom), whose grounds are apparently home to Occupy London.  Always funny when you can go so far away, and yet see the same things I would have if I’d stayed in the Bay Area.  I went to a pub near Trafalgar Square and they had a Big Ben Burger.  This might be one of the more embarrassing things that has happened to me- My first thought was “Stupid Steelers fans.  How could they even follow me here!?!?”  About 20 seconds later I pulled myself together and reacquainted myself with the fact that I was in London and Big Ben is kind of one of their biggest land marks.  Go Nikki… 

Matilda looking good and ready for school

I'm in Kenya now, and am staying with the family that I stayed with when I studied abroad here in 2009.  We live in Mwiki, which is a small area to the east of Nairobi (maybe google maps will help here...) They are wonderful and one of the happiest families I've ever met.  In Kenya, gender roles are very strict, and most men come home from work and put their feet up on the table and read the paper or watch tv.  They then wait for their wife to come and bring them tea and dinner (this is expected regardless of whether or not the wife also works a full time job).  But my family is completely different, constantly supporting eachother.  It's a fun environment to be in.  I'm going to cook the ugali (water and maize flour combined to look like mashed potatoes that is a staple of many African dishes) tonight for dinner, and learn to cook the rest of the meal.  My host mom is a wonderful cook, and intent on teaching me so that I can go home with a menu of atleast 4 meals at my disposal.  I had some chapati for lunch and was reminded at how far the times I have cooked it have fallen short.  

We had a hair braiding party to get the girls ready for school.  This is Mama Matilda and Abigail.

And Priscilla (another neighbor) playing with my hair (the kids love how soft it is) while I pleat Matilda's

Abigail listening to music

It’s funny how much Swahili has come back to me, and how I have to make a conscious effort to type each word of this in English.  The church service we went to today was in English and then translated to Kiswahili, so I was able to relearn a lot of words that I recognized when I heard them said there.  And as always, being with kids is the best way to learn a language.  They speak slower and if I don’t understand them, the just go about whatever they were doing before.  One of neighbor kids has taken it upon herself to be my tutor, and she teaches me words and sentences and then tests me to ensure I’ve learned properly.  I’m currently hanging out with Matilda, her friend Abigail, and Jasmine.  Matilda has grown so much, and is now 3 years old and in school with her best friend Abigail (also 3). Jasmine looks very similar to how Matilda did when I was there before.  Matilda has been in school for a week and has learned to write numbers, although it is evident that 7 is her favorite as she writes it wherever she can.  They are also enjoying typing with me now, and I had them type in their own names as their contribution.  The cutest thing they have done so far was when kids were gathering by the door to the apartment, the girls were telling them about me saying: "yeye si mzungu. yeye ni Nikki."  This means: "She is not white person/foreigner.  She is Nikki."  It was sweet, and when kids come over Matilda or Abigail tell them to say my name, to make sure they are allowed in.  

Baby Jasmine

Yesterday I went to town to meet up with Brian (aka "best friend") when he got off work, and also to run some errands a buy a phone etc.  I ended up running into a friend I'd made when here before.  I can't get over how small of a world it is sometimes!  Tomorrow we will head upcountry to where my host mom is from, for her aunt's funeral.  Even though its a somber occasion, I'm excited to go see her family and buy some mangoes which grow plentifully there.

 So to recap this random post- things here are great, and I'm excited as I make/remake connections and am getting things going.  Take care!