When it rains, it pours

Heavy winds and torrential downpours. Rainy season has officially begun. I’ve been spending most of my time here helping find construction materials and helping with some of the building of the new school. Today, while looking for good timber to build an outhouse for the kids, it started raining more heavily than I have ever thought possible. That’s saying something, because I used to live in Japan, Thailand, and South Korea, all of which have intense rainy seasons. Needless to say, Angelina, her daughter Kite, the architect who is helping with designing, and I had to stop everything and take cover. We found a nearby empty room, and three neighbor children joined us, giggling at my white skin and touching my hair. We ended up staying there for almost an hour, the rain becoming hail and pounding so loudly on the metal roof that Angelina had to cover her ears. But the rain is good. People depend on it so they can grow the little corn they have planted next to their homes.

Angelina and the architect, waiting it out

My new friends taking shelter from the rain

Today, I also had a few experiences with the crime that comes from poverty and lack of job opportunities. While we were running around, finding shovels and other tools, a boy of around 12 tried to steal my purse. He was from Madare, the poor part of Makutano that I wrote about in a previous post, and was very upset when I caught him. About 10 minutes later, I saw this boy and another boy from Madare in a fight over some corn. One boy had the other boy pinned on the ground and the architect I was with had to physically separate them. And then about 5 minutes after that, I saw two adult men fighting. One of the men had tried to pickpocket the other man and had been caught. At the time, Mercy, a teacher at Daylight, was sitting next to me. She told me that there are more and more thieves because no one can find jobs. Even educated people are having such a hard time finding work that they are turning to stealing. People have to hire others to look after their houses when they are not at home; otherwise they will be robbed. Even at Michael’s home, his brother is the “watchman”, waking up at around 1 am and walking around the yard until morning to make sure no one tries to break in. Before he was there, many things were stolen from the Kimpur family. Although crime happens everywhere, this makes me incredibly grateful to have the type of government that can at least provide food for those who don’t have any. We live in a country that tries to protect its children, assures all people a free education, and provides financial assistance for those in need. Yes, the system is not perfect. And yes, it is exploited by some. But the truth is, without it, people would constantly live in survival mode, not knowing when the next time is that they will eat and not having access to even the most basic of education. If that boy who tried to rob me didn’t have to worry about finding food, he would have a much different childhood.

Peter (left), Michael (center), and Michael's brother Lomaler (right) at the new school land

Putting up posts for the fence. The man on the right is the man who sold Daylight the land.

Tightening the barbed wire with my fan club watching. The boy in the white shirt on the left kept touching my hand to see if my skin was real :)

They were amazed I knew how to use a hammer!

Rolling out wire

My fans, with Peter (right)

Measuring for the toilet/outhouse

Digging holes for the school foundation. That pole was heavy!

Digging the hole for the outhouse

On a side note, tonight I walked out of my room to have dinner with Michael’s family and there were literally 18 cows eating grass in front of my door. Michael’s friend was trying to get his cows home, but it got dark and it is illegal to drive cows at night (police think the people are cattle rustlers and shoot them), so they are staying here until morning. Never a dull day! J

A day in the life...

Some people have been asking me what a normal day is like here. The Kimpur family house is like a well-oiled machine. Everyone knows their role, and everyone helps out. Since almost everything must be done manually, it is nice that there are always so many helpful hands. Recently, there have been about 15 people staying here. Some are family members, some are passersby, and some, like me, are honorary members of the family. Currently, all of Michael’s children are at home on school break. The oldest daughter goes to school in Uganda, so it has been a festive occasion having her home! Michael’s youngest sister, Rachel, also goes to school in Uganda and is staying here while she is on break. She will accompany me to Allale (Michael’s home village) later this week to translate and spend time with me. So, in total, this is who is currently “living” here. Keep in mind that everyone is staying in a small two-bedroom house, besides myself and Kristen, who are staying in a small room rented from the neighbors. Michael, his wife Angelina, his 4 daughters and 2 sons, Kristen (the girl they took in when her mother died), Kristen’s younger brother who is visiting, Michael’s sister Rachel, Nelly (a young woman who is helping with me and the house), Peter, and Lomaler (Michael’s younger brother). Oh, and me. Yep, that makes 15.

Drinking chai is how everyone here starts their day. Breakfast usually consists of 3-4 cups of chai at about 7 am. Sometimes, we also eat a “butter sandwich”, which is exactly what it sounds like, but usually it is just chai. At around 1-2 pm, we drink chai again for lunch. Sometimes we eat beans and rice, or on special days, chapati and potatoes. But usually again, chai is our lunch. Don’t be fooled by the lack of food early on in the day, however. Kenyans eat HUGE portions for dinner! At around 7-8 pm, everyone huddles around the small coffee table in the house, ready to eat ugali and sukomuwiki. By the way I’m sure that spelling is wrong. Basically, ugali is this compacted bread formed into a cake. It is made out of corn flour and water. Sukomuwiki is mostly shredded cabbage, with some tomatoes and green onions, that is cooked. You tear off a piece of ugali and eat it with a handful of sukomuwiki. It was definitely an acquired taste for me! It was also extremely difficult to get to the point where I could finish an entire plate, since the portions are twice the size as dinners in the States.

Dishes are done by hand, and so is the laundry. There are no machines here. Only hard work. Both of these tasks are done by using three buckets of water. For dishes, the first contains soap, and the second two are for rinsing. For laundry, the first is for soap, the second for this special detergent they use, and the third for rinsing. Because I am not used to scrubbing my clothes so hard, I have managed to develop scrapes all over my fingers from the friction it takes to actually get things clean. The toilet is basically a hole in the middle of concrete. The shower? Just concrete J There are no showers or bathtubs; bathing is done with, yes you guessed it, a bucket of water. Sometimes Angelina will heat up water for me to bathe with, which is SO much better than when it’s freezing.

I have gotten used to African living, with its conservation of water and manual duties. And what’s more, I truly feel like I am part of the family. I have learned how to make chapati, find good prices for vegetables at the open air market, and where to hang my clothes so that they dry faster. I have learned that I must always have a flashlight on me after dark because you never know when the power will go out for hours. I have even been given a Pokot name, Chepkomoy (spelling?), which basically means “the one who came when there was no rain”. My time here is already half over, and it saddens me to think of transitioning back to American living. True, we have so many technological advances that make things “easier”. But we miss out on the friendships that begin from singing while doing dishes bent over plastic buckets. And stories that are told in the 3 hour process of making chapatti together. These people have become dear to my heart. This is Kenya.

Michael's house

A neighbor boy hanging out in the doorway of my room

My room, complete with mosquito net

The view looking out from Michael's house. The toilets and shower are in the small building on the left.

The family "farm", where they grown corn. Almost everyone has at least a small field for crops.

Nelly doing laundry

Making chapati

With Angelina and Rachel, Michael's youngest sister

Rachel making chapati. The grey plastic bin behind her is where they store their clean water.

Doing dishes with Nelly

Children of hope

It has been a full week of exploring the area of Makutano, the part of Kapenguria that Michael and his family live in. Last Thursday, Angelina and Peter (Michael’s right hand man) took me everywhere: the open air markets, the local Muslim mosque, countless churches, and many different little street stores. They also took me to the poorest part of Makutano. It was here that I witnessed the harsh effects of poverty, and I will never forget what I saw. Houses with caved in roofs, no doors, and crumbling walls. Each were very small one-room shacks, and each housing numerous people. Almost every adult was drunk, and Peter protected me from those who approached me. But the thing that really got to me was the children. There were so many children. Many had clothing that was so threadbare it barely stayed on their bodies, and some were not clothed. And each had a huge smile at the sight of me, a “mzungu” (white foreigner). A small crowd of children followed me, saying “How are you?” over and over, since it is the only English they know. Most of the children have never attended school, and it broke my heart to think about what their future holds.

Luckily, the story does not end there. The next day I was able to go to Daylight for the first time. It was there that I met four children from the area I had visited the day before. Michael had gone to that area and talked to parents about the school. Even though those four children cannot even afford a school uniform (about $7), Daylight took them in and now they are students. Daylight is in the process of buying land and building a bigger school building where more children from that poor area (and other far away villages) can come to receive education, food, and love. Currently there are almost 100 children on the waiting list due to lack of space at the current school.   

Even though it is school vacation now (classes start again on May 3), there were about 50 students of the total 150 students at Daylight on Friday. I was able to meet and talk with the Daylight teachers and headmaster, all of whom have obvious passion for their students’ futures. I was also able to bring two soccer balls, jump ropes, some classroom materials, including phonics flashcards and handwriting worksheets, books, some art supplies, and 3 laptop computers! The computers will be used at the school that is being built, as the current one has no power. A big thank you to Emily Smuder and Amy McGuire for donating two of the laptops, and to Abby Cullen for providing teachers with much needed resources! They were very excited to have materials to teach from. There is much more to say about the hope that is found in the children at Daylight, but I think pictures may speak louder than my thoughts.

 Their old soccer ball and two new ones. Can you guess which is the old one? :) 

 Playing soccer in front of the school

Jumping rope while Dan watches (Dan is the person who found the land for the new school)

Handing out candy. Everyone loves lollipops here, even the teachers wanted them.

Lollipops unite!

Government food aid for the most malnourished of the children

Daylight's headmaster

A Daylight classroom. Since resources are scarce, teachers make their own educational drawings on the backs of old bags of rice and corn

Children get porridge at school

Seeing a computer for the first time and looking at Daylight's website. The children LOVED seeing pictures of themselves!

Teachers looking at new English class materials

Excited to read :)

The current main school building, which consists of three classrooms

This boy always makes me smile. Michael's youngest child, Joshua

Generosity through poverty

   There has not been a day that has gone by that I haven’t been amazed by the generosity of those around me. Kenya is a very poor country, there are some political problems (and corruption that I mentioned in my last post), but it is a country of incredible generosity through the poverty. One of the things that I was most nervous about before I came here was about how to handle situations in which I am asked for money. I have been to other countries similar to Kenya before and have had many experiences with beggars on the street, but have never had someone who I have met through a friend ask me for something so directly. The more I am here, though, the more I see that this does not occur only with me. Frequently, people will show up at Michael’s door asking for help. Sometimes they need a ride to the hospital (Michael is one of the only people near with a vehicle) and sometimes they need financial assistance. Whatever the case, Michael will listen to their story, and more often than not, will help.

   When I talked about this issue with Michael on the way from Nairobi to Kapenguria, he explained to me how Kenyans have learned how to survive by becoming interdependent on each other. People share what little they have. He said there is a common saying to describe this cultural aspect: “Because you were, I am. Because I was, we are.” People would not make it here if they did not depend on each other.

   Michael and his family, along with Nathan Roberts, have spent years starting a school to help children who would not normally be able to access education. Many of these children are orphans from Michael’s tribe and the surrounding tribes. Some of them are from extremely poor families. Whatever the case, their lives are being changed because one family decided to give rather than keep. Even right now, as I am writing these words, there is a 17-year-old girl, Kristen, studying her chemistry homework next to me in my room. This girl is from Michael’s hometown. Her father died years ago, and her mother died this last December. Michael and his wife, Angelina, decided to take care of Kristen and she now lives with them. They are even working to find resources to help pay for Kristen’s high school tuition (which is about $1200 a year) so she can finish high school.

Kristen (back left) and three of Michael's children with their new soccer ball

Angelina (Michael's wife, left) and Lois

   This family gives everything they have to others, and especially to the children at Daylight. Yesterday, I gave Michael’s children a soccer ball, and before Angelina let me give it to them, she made sure that I had another soccer ball for the Daylight students. She did not want her children to have something if it meant the school children were overlooked. I have been inspired by the way the Kimpur family lives their lives. They have changed the future for so many children and families. When I asked Michael about it, he just simply said, “That is what Jesus told us to do. Look after his children.” This, in my opinion, is true Christianity.

Ostriches and Corruption

It has taken a while for me to access internet, so I apologize for those of you who thought something may have happened to me on the way to Kapenguria! It has been a long few days of traveling and getting my bearings. But I am alive and well, maybe more than well. The internet here ranges from non-existent to decent, depending on the cloud coverage, but I will try to update when I can. Anyways, here is a run-down of my time here so far…

I left Minneapolis Thursday afternoon, and after two stops in Chicago and Amsterdam, made it to Nairobi Friday night, Kenya time. I even made a friend on my last flight, an Austrian who is about twice my height and speaks an incredible amount of languages. His father works in Nairobi.

Michael met me at the airport with four other Kenyan men, who I like to think of as my bodyguards J and we went to his friend’s house on the outskirts of Nairobi to stay for the night. His friend used to be a congressman, so the house was very nice for Kenya and it even had a hot water shower! We ended up staying there Friday and Saturday night so I could rest before the long ride to Kapenguria. On Saturday, while we were at the market buying groceries, Michael casually mentions to me that we will be going to an ostrich farm. Oh, and that I would ride an ostrich. Yes, that’s what I said. It’s the only ostrich farm in East Africa, and you can buy anything from ostrich eggs to baby ostriches and ostrich meat. An egg costs about $30 and can feed a whole family. The things are huge, and weigh 1.5 kg, or about 3 lb. We also ended up staying there to eat, so I had the chance to eat ostrich. It tasted like chicken (I’m not kidding), and was seasoned kind of like Korean barbecue is.

 Before it started running. Those things are fast!

                                                                                Ostrich meat

An ostrich egg, sorry I'm sideways but it wouldn't save rotated...

We left the next morning at 4 a.m. to try to beat the horrible Nairobi traffic, and I had my first experience with how bad the roads can really be. The roads downtown Nairobi are quite nice, but in the outskirts (where we were staying), they are literally dirt with huge crevasses that you have to dodge while you also dodge oncoming traffic, pedestrians, and bikers. Because we left while it was still dark, I saw quite a few remnants of traffic accidents that had happened throughout the night due to the bad conditions of the roads. Kenya does not have an emergency number like the States does, so if someone has an accident and no one comes along to help, they are out of luck. One of the cars we saw still had someone inside, and I had the awful feeling that he did not survive the accident.

I also had my first taste of the corruption that can be found in the police force. There are several roadblocks along the roads, some equipped with strips of nails to ensure that everyone stops. Policemen stand at these sites and ask vehicles information about their destination, reason for traveling, etc. The roadblocks without the nail strips usually only stop taxis, but the highway patrol are different. They stop every car they can, and use any excuse necessary to get money from passengers. Michael had just bought insurance for the truck. They had already paid, and had the receipt, but the insurance sticker (that they use on the windshield) takes 3-4 days to arrive. Since they had to go to Nairobi to drop off Rachel, the girl who was here before I came, and pick me up, they could not wait for the sticker. So when we were stopped by the highway patrol, they threatened to take us all to the police station unless we gave them 20,000 Kshs (or almost $300). I didn’t even have that amount of money, but eventually they accepted 2,000 Ksh (about $30), which is quite a lot in Kenya. They said it was the “fine” for not having insurance, even though we DID have insurance, and would not give us a receipt. In other words, it went right in the patrolman’s pocket.

After almost 11 hours of traveling, we finally made it to Kapenguria, and to my temporary home. It has been great hanging out and talking with Michael’s children and wife, and I have begun to learn a little Pokot and Swahili. Pokot is the language spoken in Michael’s home and around me most of the time. It is a tribal language and not many people speak it. I will write more later about what it is like where I am staying (and post more pictures). But rest assured that I am being well taken care of. I am grateful to be able to experience Kenya in this way and to have such good company around me at all times.

A volcanic crater in the Great Rift Valley

Transportation, Kenya style

6 days from today I will be start the long journey across the Atlantic Ocean to the small town of Kapenguria, Kenya to visit my friend Michael and to volunteer at the school he started, Daylight Center. As of now, I feel excited, nervous, and extremely overwhelmed due to the lack of structure involved in this trip. Although I am planning on bringing laptops for the school as well as some ESL class materials, I am not completely sure how I am going to fill up the 5 weeks that I will be there (although I have heard rumors that I will help with the new school construction). I have this feeling that this trip's purpose will unfold itself as it happens, and am looking forward to what comes from it. I'll keep you posted :)

Kapenguria, Kenya

Information on Daylight Center and School:

http://www.daylightcenterpokot.org/