Interesting things...

First of all, I'm keeping a list of interesting things in Kenya. So, I'll post that first and then move on to this past Thursday. I am so behind with everything...I wish I could go online more often. But, I have been typing things up on my computer every night so I can simply copy and paste from Word when I get to the internet cafe. Maybe I'll e-mail my other posts to Anthony and he can post them for me. Stay tuned.

Interesting things in Kenya;

1) The toilets don’t have seats or lids just the bowl

2) You don’t call the toilet the bathroom or the restroom. Just the toilet…I’m going to the toilet. I asked the teacher at the school if those were the bathrooms and she looked at me like I was crazy- as if to say “why would the children bathe at school?!”.

3) Almost nothing to drink in restaurants (atleast in Gilgil) is cold except for liquor or beer. Warm coke, water, everything. Yuck. No ice is available either, well not that’s made with filtered water.

4) Spanish soap operas are incredibly popular here. They are dubbed in English not Swahili, and the voice-over actors don’t have Spanish accents. It is so weird to watch. There is something I can’t figure out, though- how can Mary and her friends/family watch and understand them, but they can’t understand us? Bizarre.

5) All of the commercials, advertisements, and billboards are in English. Some have Swahili under or next to the English but most don’t. Yet it seems like most people don’t understand a lot of English. I’m not sure what to make of that. And the advertisements aren’t just for American products they are for Kenyan and international companies, too. Huh.

6) Milk for cereal is served warm.

7) The news casters and reporters speak English, but any interviews done that involve people that speak Swahili are not translated into English. It’s kinda frustrating to watch the news and only understand half the story. Also, how do the Swahili-speakers understand the English?

8) There are almost no traffic lights or signs anywhere. The only place I have seen traffic lights are in center city Nairobi, and even then no one obeys them. I have only seen maybe 3 stop signs. And this isn’t because there are hardly any cars because the roads are full of them. Needless to say, people drive quite crazy.

9) Despite the crazy driving you almost never hear a horn beep unless it is someone beeping to say hi to someone else.

Thursday

Sorry, I feel like my last post was rushed, rambling, and confusing. I’m going to take my time with this one.

I found out that I am going to be placed in the Vumilia IDP (internally displaced peoples) camp in Gilgil. The people living here first arrived after the post-election violence in 2007. So, it’s been quite a while that they have been living away from their homes. We (me, Cat from Colorado and Nicole from Nebraska by way of Germany and England) arrived in Gilgil on Thursday and after meeting our house mother, Mary, and our other coordinator, Phyllis, and getting semi-settled in we were taken around the camp by Phyllis. Mary’s house is about a 10-15 mins walk from the actual camp. She’s technically a resident of the camp, too, but she lives in a nicer, more permanent house rather than a tent like everyone else. I’m not sure why. Maybe she had more money when she first fled here and was able to set up something more permanent? Next to her are other camp residents that are in similar tin homes. The Vumilia, which means patience and endurance in Swahili, camp is split into two parts; a lower camp and an upper one. The upper one is across from Mary’s house and to the left. The lower one is a 10-15 min walk behind her house and that is where the school is that we are teaching at. There is also another camp that is split into two parts as well, but I am not sure what it is called or why/how the people got there. It’s very hard for me to adequately explain it without pictures. We are situated in a valley and there are beautiful mountains and hills all around us. The terrain is rugged and dry, but the soil is very fertile and almost everyone grows something; corn, potatoes, tomatoes, spinach, cabbage, etc… Mary grows some vegetables and has some goats. I’m not sure if we drink their milk…I’m too afraid to ask. Haha. I haven’t gotten even the slightest bit sick yet, knock on wood, so it seems like everything is fine.

Phyllis came to Mary’s house with her son, Anthony (what a wonderful name!), on her back. He is 4.5 months old and is absolutely adorable! All the women carry their small children around on their backs. It is really beautiful to see. All the babies seem so happy, warm, and loved. As we got close to the camp I could better see what exactly the peoples’ homes looked like. I knew they were tents, but since they’ve been here for 4 years I wasn’t sure how they’d look. It seems as though everyone has tried to make the tents more permanent by adding wooden frames. Most homes also have some sort of fence around them with crops planted inside. As for bathrooms, there are what look like port-a-potties every few homes. A couple homes have their own and it is locked. Although they look like port-a-potties, I doubt they function like them because I’m guessing no one is coming to empty them all the way down in the valley. My guess is that it is just a pit toilet- like the one Mary has.

When Phyllis showed us around on Thursday we weren’t really able to see the school because another organization was preforming a medical camp and was using the classrooms as examining rooms. But, we were able to meet the teachers; Rose and Joyce, and the cook; Lucy. All three are very nice and were very happy to see us. Of course, we also met the kids, and they were incredibly excited to see 3 mzungas walking around. I brought my camera, and the kids starting running over saying “pickcha, pickcha” and posing/making faces. I took A LOT of pictures, and the kids loved seeing themselves on the screen. I knew my camera would be an object of fascination, but I wasn’t prepared for my watch to be. Every kid that came over to me was fascinated by it and wanted to press all the buttons. In some cases, it is hard to tell if the small children are boys or girls. Most young children have their heads shaved and are wearing clothes/colors of the opposite sex. So, it can get confusing sometimes. The kids are dressed in what look like donated clothes, most of which are tattered. Some don’t have shoes, and those that do wear holey ones. Almost all the kids have constantly snotty noses and sticky hands. But, they are so sweet, cute, and endearing that it is impossible not to fall in love with all of them. Some of the older kids know pretty decent English and they love to talk to you. The school is basically two rooms made of a wooden frame and covered in tin sheets. The floors are dirt and there are no real desks, instead the children sit on small benches with a high bench in front of them that is used as a desk. Each classroom has a small chalk board (with one eraser between them) and a desk for the teacher. One of the rooms is for the baby class and the other is for the middle and top class. I think top class only goes up to age 7 or 8; after that the (lucky) kids go to primary school for year one.


The school- the building on the left is the storage closet and where the cook, Lucy, cooks ugi and rice and beans for the kids. The painted building on the right is the baby classroom and there is another room attached to the right of it that is the top and middle classroom (you just can't see it in this pic).


After meeting everyone and playing with the kids for a while we went back to Mary’s. We got settled in our room, unpacked as best we could, and then went into town for some water and junk food. You know the necessities. Mary cooked us dinner, and I can’t remember what it was, but I remember it was good. Mary cooks all of our meals for us and she is a great cook. Everything is fresh and tasty. That night I didn’t sleep that great, I kept waking up to scratching noises. I thought maybe it was the dog (it sounded like he was on the roof at one point) or maybe the chain outside the window. The next morning I noticed there was a door leading into a room next to our room and I thought maybe it was the shower. So, I asked Mary and she said “that’s where I keep the goats”. I guess that’s what the scratching was.

Peace&Love
Ash