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