Home TOMORROW

Hi!

My last few weeks have flown by. I finished my stay in Maasai land and was sad to leave the family. They are all really amazing people and I feel so lucky to have met them and experienced their kindness. While I was still in Maasai, I made a website for the night school. The address is www.ewangan.wordpress.com. Check it out!

Below is Nayia. She is 14 and actually amazing. She goes to school all day then comes home to do chores non stop (fetching water, cleaning, making dinner) until after dinner around 8:30 or 9:00 when she can sit down to do her homework. I can't even believe how hard she works - very different from my life when I was 14 and used to complain when I had to clean the bathroom once a week!

Nayia

Tananko, Salosh, Sema - these kids are soo fun!

Nayia, Risa, Sema, Salosh, Tananko - I thought Easter was a week earlier than reality so my roommate and I organized an Easter egg hunt. They had never done one before - very fun!

Lerry, Nene - she was shaving his head and he was not happy about it!

Last Thursday I travelled to Nairobi where I did an outreach program in Kibera. It is a program that was started by a volunteer a couple years ago. Volunteers go to Kibera twice a week to deliver food to 8 families and try to help them with medication and education. The program targets families who have no other way of getting income, either because of an injury or because the main bread winner died. It's a really great program and it was interesting meeting the families; the stories are pretty devestating. One of the little babies was recently tested positive for HIV. Isn't that terrible? Imagine living with that your whole life when you couldn't have done ANYTHING differently to prevent it. The program website is www.unitedforparity.org if you want more information.

Thursday night I came back to Nakuru to visit my old host family. It has been wonderful; it felt like coming home in a sense. Thursday night we stayed up until midnight catching up. Then Friday morning my roommate and I went to Kisumu where we spent the weekend. Kisumu is home to Lake Victoria which is the second largest fresh water lake in the world. It was awesome! We ate so much fish, went fishing and stayed in dodgy hotels. I have realized that is my favorite way to travel; arrive in a new city with no place to stay and no plans and just figure it out! One of the hotels we checked out didn't even have a bathroom, we would have had to go next door to use one! hahaha

Our ride back on Sunday was quite eventful. What should have been a 3 hour ride by matatu took almost 6. It started out by the driver deciding to jam TWENTY FIVE people into a 14 seater. hahaha - Luckily after two hours we got to switch matatus.

I just got back to Nairobi so I can catch my 8am flight tomorrow morning. I just can't believe it's almost over. Coming here has seriously been the best decision of my life. Kenya has changed me more than I have changed it, but I don't think I am done here. I don't know what the future holds, but all I know is I fell in love with this country and want to do more and more and more and more!

So, Kenya - it's been real! ASANTE SANA!
Lisa

Maasai Land

Hi!

So I made it to Maasai land about a week ago and so far have learned a ton. The Maasai people are so interesting. They are known for being honest and kind and I have definitely experienced that. I immediately felt welcome in their home. They make their living through tending cattle and goats...my family owns about 100 cows and even more goats. The animals stay in a big fenced in area outside and the older brothers spend their days taking care of the animals.

The scenery is BEAUTIFUL!

About my work: My days are pretty chill. The school is only a ten minute walk from my house so during the day I will go over there and help clean or play with the kids or help build shelves for the night school. Every night from 7-10:00 there is a night school that I help teach. It was started by three volunteers (one of whom I live with right now- she is amazing). It is the only Maasai night school in Kenya and it is a fully functioning primary school for people who have to tend the animals all day and can't attend school. The first day they started the school in December, there was 17 students. Now there are 40 students and 2 paid teachers. The students range in ages 12-30. They are all at different places in school; some are at a pre-school level and we are teaching them their letters, while others are at a grade 8 level. The school is completely free for the students! It is a really great program - it gives people the opportunity for education who otherwise wouldn't have one. They hope to expand to include women in the program and open other schools throughout Kenya.

About my family: I live with a family who has a total of 3 wives and 19 kids though there are only 2 wives around and 10 kids. The youngest is just over a year and he is adorable (he is actually one of the kids' kids) and the oldest is in their late 20's. It is so interesting - the wives build their own houses and live separately from each other. The dynamic is very interesting with the father; we rarely see him and he doesn't really talk to us or the kids. He always stays with one wife - not the one I live with.

A couple of my little Kenyan brothers - Tanango and Saalosh

The house mom I live with, Grace is soooo nice! She barely speaks any English but she makes a huge effort to talk to us through the kids. The kids are also amazing. They are so quick to make friends and they felt like brothers and sisters even on the first night when they were already making fun of my laugh haha!

I don't have a picture of my host mom, but this shows how the traditional Maasai people dress. I mostly only see the elders dressed like this - with elongated ear lobes and lots of jewelry.

About my living conditions: There is no electricity here. The house is a 45 minute motorcycle ride away so most of the time I keep my phone off to conserve battery and save myself the long and expensive trip into town. There is also no running water at all and since it's so windy here I am really dirty all the time! There are bucket showers but it's only half a bucket of cold water so it's hard to get clean. As soon as I step in the water my feet make it super dirty. The toilet is a hole in the ground and the floors of the house are dirt. Oh, and I have fleas from all the animals around...the bites are so itchy! The days are really hot and dusty and the nights are super cold - I sleep in a sweatshirt and long pants most nights. The kitchen is a mud hut where they cook over the fire. It gets really smoky.

Making chapati - my favourite! It takes about 3 hours to cook though-such patience

Overall, I am learning so much about the Maasai and what it's like to live like them. The thing I find most inspiring about them is their desire for education. One of my brothers is 20 years old and is in class 8. Three years ago he started paying himself through school and was fast tracked through primary since his family didn't have the money to send him themselves. And some of the night school students walk 3-5 hours EACH WAY to get there every night. It's truly amazing how badly they want to be educated. Being able to read is something I never really appreciated before I came here and I see how hard people my age are working to learn.

Anyways, I only have a little over two weeks left here and I think it will be a bittersweet departure. I have loved my time here but I miss my family and friends. I am so excited to see you all!

Much love and see you all soon! 

Lisa

2 months in and life is good!

Hi everyone!

This is my last week in Nakuru! I am moving out to Maasai land for my last month to teach at a school there! I will have no electricity or internet unless I go into the nearest town so I will be basically off the grid. I am so excited but also so sad to leave my host family. The last two weeks I was the only volunteer here and we got especially close. Jane is so great - she has literally been my African mother. She has comforted me when I have been sad and supported me in all projects I took on. And James is so kind and honest. He always helps me with my Swahili and makes sure I'm happy with my placements. Finally, Lovelyne their daughter is SO cute...she is the happiest baby I have ever met! I will miss them sooo much.

Lovelyne!

My host family with my old roommate, Nessa

The last few weeks have been busy. I went back to the school thinking I would only stay for a day or two and then return to the women's crisis center, but I realized I had a lot to wrap up. Though I had finished the website and the Facebook page, no one knew how to use them! So I made a manual for them showing exactly how to update the website and I got anyone who had Facebook to 'Like' the Facebook page and the deputy has been updating it. They are now hoping to use the page to communicate with parents so I made business cards with the website, Facebook page and email on them to hand out to parents and teachers. I was very surprised at how few teachers had Facebook - I have been getting Facebook pages for some of them. The last few days I have been registering the grade 8 students for the KCPE which is a standardized exam that grade 8's all across the country must sit for. There are 123 students and I need to register them all and take all their pictures individually. Needless to say, it has been a lot of work!

One day I taught Creative Arts and they had a talent show complete with people singing duets and having dance competitions - was awesome!

I have also been working on starting an outreach program that I want to call 'From Girl to Girl.'
Who & Where? For the young girls in the Garbage slum aged 12-17. I want to target girls who are of school age who don't have access to their own source of income.
What and When? People will go once a month and talk to the girls about HIV/AIDS, relationships, self esteem, etc... and hand out sanitary pads.
Why? Education is critical in getting these young mothers out of there and stop the cycle from repeating itself. In order for the girls to listen to us, we need to bring something to give them and pads are the most relevant to our topics. The young girls use crude methods instead of pads and if they ever asked their parents to buy them something (if they have parents!), they would be mocked - either food or pads.

They have similar programs in some of the other slums and I think they are great so I wanted to start it here. Yesterday was supposed to be the first day, but unfortunately most of the girls in the age group I wanted to talk to were in school and could not attend. I was frustrated because I have waited for this to happen for the last month and I have worked hard to make sure that it happened smoothly but the person that I was working with was not so organized. But alas, this is Kenya! It's alright though, we still gave out the pads and some other women came with us who gave food to the children.

I have 2 Kenyan women that are going to take over the program now that I am leaving and they are amazing. They are going back next week and now that they know who to talk to directly, they will get it done.

Jane, my host mom broke her leg last week getting out of a matatu. She had to visit four hospitals to get a temporary cast since one hospital would have an x-ray machine but no doctor, and the next would have the opposite problem. The government hospitals are on strike so the private hospitals take advantage and overcharge for everything - it is quite a nuisance for her!

In closing, my time in Nakuru has been amazing. I have learned so much and met some really great people. The most important thing that I have learned is that Kenyan women are so strong. The culture here dictates that all kitchen work belongs to the women and it's a common story for the woman to be raising a child on her own or, if the husband is still around he is often a heavy drinker and leaves it to the woman to work, raise the child and also do all the house work. (obviously my host family is an exception!) These are some of the wonderful women I have met:

Edna - She is a friend of my host family. Since my house mom is pregnant with her second child (and now has a broken leg!) she has Edna come and help with the housework. Edna is so kind and so hardworking, I hardly ever see her sitting down. She found out about 2 months ago that she has cancer, but she took the news in stride. She took awhile off work to recover from her first treatments but now she is back to coming every day and working as hard as she can. Cancer tests and treatments are incredibly expensive here so she is worried about the money but I just can't believe her attitude. You would never know she was sick and had recently received such bad news from talking to her.

Grace - She is a 15-year-old girl who goes to my school. Her father passed away and her mother is in jail so it is left to her to care for her two younger siblings. Everytime they misbehave she blames herself for not raising them well enough - but it's so unfair for such a young girl to have to act as mother, father and sister to two children! When I think back to my problems when I was 15, they were just soo trivial - I have no idea how she does it. She is so selfless and never asks for anything except someone to talk to. She is a wonderful young woman and I will miss her so much. I hope there is a way we can keep in touch!

There are many, many more but I don't want to make this post too long. So, wish me luck in Maasai on my next adventure!

Safiri Salama,
Lisa

Life as a Volunteer

Life here is rewarding. The scenery is beautiful, the people are mainly kind and I count myself extremely lucky to be here. Sometimes I still find it surreal.

Hell's Gate National Park:

At Pride Rock (from the Lion King!) SO COOL!

So many zebras, wart hogs, buffalos

Playing soccer with some kids

 But the reality is that sometimes it is very challenging. When I came here, I expected to feel heartbroken. I expected to feel lonely and I expected to feel sad. What I didn't expect was to feel so angry. I feel angry when the millionth person of the day yells 'mzungu' (white person) at me (like yes, I know I'm white thank you!). I feel angry when people try to charge me a higher price because I am white. I feel angry when I am coming home after a long day at work and 10 kids are standing outside my door asking me for a sweet. I feel angry when I find that some people are lazy and do nothing to fix their own problems. I feel angry when I have to wait and wait and wait because everyone is on Kenyan time and nothing moves quickly. I feel angry at the free handouts people get for being pitied because it teaches them to work to be pitied more (instead of working to make money). Most of all I feel angry at myself for feeling so angry. It's not their fault. It's their culture they have been taught to yell 'mzungu' at white people. They have learned to charge white people higher because most white people don't know the difference. They have learned to ask white people for sweets since one probably gave them sweets once. Kenyan time is them valuing their relationships above all else and to change that would be to take away some of their culture.

But, the other feeling I didn't expect to feel was such helplessness. I hear story after story after story and realize again and again how vast this problem is. There is the 16 year old girl at work who was raped by her father and now cares for the child. There is the house cleaner who was diagnosed with cancer and can't afford the treatments or tests. There is the woman in the slums who has 14 children with different fathers - a victim of multiple rapes. There is the mentally challenged woman who can't get help for her disability. There are the children with learning disabilities that will never get diagnosed and the school will just assume them stupid. I just feel so helpless...I really don't know how to help. Giving people free things that aren't sustainable doesn't solve the problem; the next day they are back to where they are. Sponsoring a child through school is hard because most organizations are so corrupt. And I'm not here for very long and don't have much money so a large scale project is out of the question!

The people that really break my heart though are the children. They are so innocent, and yet are born into such extreme poverty. I was at the garbage slum again on Saturday and they was this little boy, no more than a year old. He was playing in the garbage and we noticed he had grease all over his hands and face - he was eating it, unknowing. A commonplace occurrence here...the children's playground is garbage.

Updates on my life: I am trying to start an initiative at one of the slums, but like everything in Kenya it takes patience. Will update when I know more. My placement is going well - I help the women make necklaces and hats and handbags to sell, I take care of the kids and I go visit schools to educate them about HIV/AIDS, relationships, sexual and gender based violence, child rights, etc...

I like forming connections with the women and becoming their friends. I also like teaching the kids about their rights and answering their questions...that's when I feel I am making the difference.

Anyways, I'm trying to be totally honest about my experiences and feelings which is why this post was kind of a downer. But all in all, this is an amazing experience and I am so thankful for the wonderful people I have met here and all the support I have back home in Canada.

Bye for now!
Lisa

Mombasa, Falls, Work and Matatus

Hi!

The last couple weeks have been very good. Last weekend I went to Mombasa, which is a city on the coast about 11 hours from where I live. I took a matatu from here to Nairobi, then an 8 hour over night bus ride. The city is really cool, it's so humid which was a nice change from the dust here in Nakuru. We stayed in a place called Stilts. It has a hostel feel to it and the rooms are treehouses. I slept outside with only a mosquito net to stand in between me and the great outdoors. One day I was napping and woke to a monkey jumping on my head! The monkeys also took some of my friend's money (not on purpose, but it was obvious they had been in our room and probably just threw it somewhere). Robbed by a monkey...only in Africa! Overall, it was a great trip. I met some really cool people from all over the world - even met someone who vacations in Gravenhurst! Small world...

Yesterday, my roommate and I took a matatu to Thomson's Falls. They were pretty incredible and the drive was cool because we drove right past the equator! We have also become very good at not being tricked into spending money - when we were climbing down the falls, someone came up saying we needed a guide and he would take us and we were like uhhh no we are fine!...and we totally DIDN'T need a guide!

I am finishing up at the school. Tuesday I will be changing placements to an orphanage in town because the school doesn't have enough work for me. They recently got 10 interns so there is really no shortage of teachers there. I am excited to start at the orphanage. I will be counselling young girls, watching the kids and helping out with cooking and whatever else they need help with.

This is the website I have been working on for the school: http://stjohnsprimarynakuru.wordpress.com/
and this is the Facebook page. Watch the video that my roommate, Nessa Tsui made that is posted to the page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/St-Johns-Primary-School/225246980902812

The website and Facebook page are mainly to be used for awareness of the school. Once I show it to the administration on Monday, I will get more a feel for what else they would like to see on it and will be able to teach them how to maintain it.

I will miss the kids since I am switching placements, although since I am here for 2 months still I am sure I will be able to go back for a few days here and there. This is one of my favorite classes - the grade 8s. We got them to write their dreams on paper and hold them up - a lot of future engineers, pilots and surgeons!

These are matatus (I took this pic off the web since I keep forgetting to take pictures myself even though I ride them almost daily! This place looks a lot like where I get dropped off in town - the people like to heckle me because I am white but I have learned how to ignore them and get past unscathed haha)

I find the system fascinating. There are no marked stops but people just seem to know where to go. When you want to get off the matatu, you just hit the roof and the driver will stop. They pile 20 people into one matatu at times, sometimes you will have random kids sitting on your lap or be holding random people's babies - which is also a testament to how trusting Kenyans are! It just seems so crazy that in North America, we spend so much time and money over-engineering and optimizing our public transit systems...but then you come here and this disorganized system works! In terms of wait times, it works far better here than North America, although they are not quite as safe.

In closing, I miss my family and friends a lot a lot! I went to church today and I missed my family SO much - it's just not the same without Max and Phil racing each other to be the last one standing up or without the family trying to make Bridget laugh whenever she is performing. I'm sending lots of love from across the world :)

Until next time!

Lisa

Week 3 - Medical Camp and School

Hi!

Internet is hard to find, which is why it's been awhile since I have posted! No pictures this time, sorry! Everything is good here, I have been running a lot and keeping busy.

This past weekend I was working at a medical camp run by the KCC Slum Project. This is their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/pages/KCC-Slum-Project/146771283768
They are an NGO managed by a young man from New Zealand that works with families, children and women in a slum in Naivasha. It started out with a group of volunteers like me who saw an awful situation and decided to build a school. The school feeds the kids one meal a day and the program runs tons of other outreach programs in the slum.

Last Monday, the slum suffered from a huge fire that affected about 3000 people. It was absolutely devastating to the people living there and the volunteers worked tirelessly to help and feed them. This is a newspaper article detailing the fire: http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/318492

Anyways, the medical camp was set up to help these people. 669 people attended the camp over the 2 days where they were provided with family planning support, HIV/AIDS testing, the kids were given multivitamins and de-worming tablets (they take a tablet and a few days later will throw up any worms they have contracted due to contaminated water, etc...), treatments for any illness or minor injury and most importantly everyone was fed! Oh and it was all FREE! I mostly helped wash dishes and cook...it was really hard work but extremely rewarding to feel like I was a part of something that great.

On another note, school is good even though I wish there was more opportunities to teach and do other work. I even offered to help in the kitchen today which I later regretted...they cook over a firewood stove in a little room and the ventilation is terrible. I was in there for 2.5 hours and my eyes were watering for almost the whole time and now my lungs can feel all the smoke! My favorite part of school is when I get to talk to the grade 8's. They can ask me any questions anonymously - I told them to think of me as their big sister. I get lots of questions about Canada and myself, but also questions about drugs, alcohol and relationships. Some of the questions that stand out in my mind are "Does your dad beat you?" and when I said no, the kids were shocked and didn't understand how I could be punished any other way! That's actually another thing about being here, the teachers hit the kids with rulers and chalk brushes until they cry and it's always hard to watch - I always just want to run up and give the kids a hug! Other questions I get are like "I love this girl, what should I do?" and funny things like that.

I'll leave with one last comment. I have been incredibly impressed by the Kenyan people's resilience. Death is far too common here, so people have a very realistic view about it. I have talked to so many people who have lost people close to them and their attitude is always the same...they always say something to the effect of, "we just know how to get through and keep going." One 13 year old girl in particular was telling me how her dad died about a year ago and she said "I get through it because I know God has a plan for me like he does for everyone...I just trust him and move on."

Until next time!

Lisa

Home life and trip to dump site

Hi everyone,

My family has been getting many questions. So to answer some of them: the place where I live has electricity which is very lucky. We have running water on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Although that's not very reliable - no running water today and it is Thursday. I had a bucket shower since I didn't shower yesterday either haha. The house has concrete floors and we sleep on wooden bunkbeds. The shower is literally right beside the toilet. There is a drain right in front of the toilet that the water goes into (no stall or anything). School goes from 8:20-4:10 and I have about a 20 minute walk to the school. I am also finding it very lucky that there are not too many mosquitos...although there is sooo much dust! I inhale about a tonne of dust everyday lol. These are some of the kids at the school:

Today was hard. We went to school in the morning and then in the afternoon we went into town with our host dad (James) and one of the teachers. We bought water for ourselves and then juice and bread because we were going  to visit the garbage slum which is very close to where we live. It was really hard to witness...there are so many families literally living on garbage. The way they survive is through running after trucks that dump garbage and picking through the garbage to find anything edible. The women knit hats and make cool purses out of the garbage to try to sell to visitors. There are 600 kids living in this slum and only about half can afford to go to school. It was really sad to see people living in such poverty. Most kids didn't even have shoes and they were walking on garbage all day.

The girl to my left is name Ruth and she is 19. She has a 3 year old baby which apparently is quite common in this slum.

They all sung a song at one point. It was beautiful. I tried to upload a video but it didn't work :(

It is hard because all of the people think that we are rich and will be able to give them lots of money. It's hard to say no to buying things for people, but I have to become better at recognizing their need but also recognizing that I'm not really in a place financially to fill everyone's needs. Especially since financial aid won't solve most of these problems unless there is a sound action plan to go along with it. Instead, I am trying to focus on more sustainable ways of helping...one thing I am doing is looking into building a website for the school to raise awareness of their issues. I have some other ideas...we will see what happens. :)
Kweheri!

Lisa

P.S. Shoutout to my beautiful sista Bridget...the kids here think your name is really funny!

First week teaching

Hellooooo friends,

So I arrived on Saturday and stayed at the volunteer house in Nairobi which was very nice. I stayed with a lot of other volunteers from the US and Europe mainly. It was a relaxing weekend where we toured Nairobi and hung out. On Sunday we went to church and let me tell you, it was a lot different from the Bracebridge masses I'm used to! (haha). The singing was very engaging and there was a lot of dancing. I found it very inspiring.

On Monday we had orientation. We were told to be ready by nine but Kenyan time nine actually means 11:30 haha. We ended up leaving for our placements a couple hours late. Then when we were driving in this huge van with 11 of us jammed in it, we ran out of gas and one of the guys had to ride a matatu (the public bus system in Kenya - large vans that fit 10-20 people and are relatively cheap to get around) to get more gas. But of course, there was a gas shortage so he had to go very far to get gas and didnt return for over an hour. We didn't arrive at our placements until 10pm with all the stops...only 4 hours late!

I am staying with a family - the parents are really nice and they have a 7 month old daughter. Her name is Lovelin and she is the happiest baby I have ever met. She is SO cute! There is another volunteer here from China. She is really interesting to talk to and the kids love learning kung fu from her.

ANDDDD now the school. It is a small school in size, but has 1000 kids from grades 1-8. There are 60-80 students in each class. There is only ONE text book for every 5-8 kids, isn't that crazy? That makes it hard to teach...with no overheads or photocopies or text books. My teaching schedule is very random, someone just takes me to a class, hands me a text book and says "teach." There is no prep time or anything beforehand, it's been weird.

After school, we have about an hour to play with the kids. They had a fashion show today for me where they take turns walking the catwalk...quite funny. They are always getting me to sing them songs, so I'm glad I spent so long at camp haha! They think my hair, arm hair and freckles are baffling. They have never seen white people before, so they ask me if the other girl from China is my sister hahaha! Overall, it's a little exhausting to be the center of attention at all times, but I'm sure the novelty will wear off soon lol.

I have much more to write, but don't have enough time. So, until next time...I will try to add pictures!

Lisa

Leaving...today!

Hi everyone!

For those who don't know, next Thursday I am off to Kenya where I will spend 3 months teaching at a local school. I will be teaching all subjects (math, science, english...) and be teaching kids in all grades. This will be my fifth work term (although it won't count for coop credit unless I do some kind of engineering work- but I only need 5/6 coops in order to graduate on time).

When I tell people how I'm spending my winter, the first question I hear is "why?" My interest in international development was sparked very young...I was recently reading a journal from when I was in grade 5 and my career goals were “to teach in underprivileged countries and write about my experiences.”

Then, when I was in grade 12 I went on a mission trip to Nicaragua with my high school. We painted a school and it was a really amazing experience. Though it was a short trip, it further solidified my interest in helping developing countries and ever since, I have wanted to do more.

But, since starting university I haven't done much that was aligned with that goal, so through this trip, I will be fulfilling a dream that I have had for a long time, and who knows what I will discover?

I recognize that 3 months isn't long enough to really change the world or anything, but I'm hoping to form some meaningful connections and if I can even help one person, I will consider this trip a huge success.

My flight leaves in 6.5 hours and I should be arriving Saturday morning at 7:00am their time. I'm so excited!!

Cheers,
Lisa