pictures!

I've failed at keeping my blog up to date...

I have grand dreams of updating it next week but until then, I've spent some time uploading pictures so they can begin to tell the story.

More to come soon - promise!

Elisette

check out the pictures here: www.elisette2009.shutterfly.com

back up to bodo

I’ve put off writing about Bodo for a while now mostly because I just really don’t know how to write about it. I strongly dislike writing but I also know my memory is not strong enough to hold onto all that I’m experiencing here so I’m forcing myself to sit down and write. I’m going backwards in time quite a bit with this post, hopefully I will catch up soon…

February 20th, 2009:

Part of my program is to do a 10-day rural homestay to compare with our 6-week urban homestay so we sloooowly made our way down to Mombasa from Nairobi by an overnight train that was straight out of 1920. I loved the train! This was nothing like the commuter rail I take so frequently in Boston. We were first class, had a sleeping cabin and were served meals on board in the dining car – even the silverware was ancient!

Yeah, it was hot. Yeah, the train took 14 hours to get to Mombasa at 25 MPH. And yeah, the bathrooms were disgusting BUT at sunrise we all woke up to the most gorgeous view outside! True African bush for as far as we could see filled with acacia trees, mud huts and the random giraffe or zebra munching away on whatever green they could find. We then chugged our way into Mombasa as children living out in the middle of the bush ran up to the tracks to wave and shout greetings at us – it was a great welcome.

February 21st, 2009:

Sweaty, sticky and in desperate need of a shower we were denied all forms of hygiene and shuttled right into the middle of Mombasa to purchase kongas, our new uniform for our rural homestays. A konga is two large pieces of brightly colored cloth with a message across the bottom in Swahili. Usually the messages have a double meaning, one literal and one sexual. I kind of think about it like adding “in bed” to the end of your fortune cookie after a meal in a Chinese restaurant!

Continuously sweating from Mombasa’s intense humidity, we were dropped off in groups along Biashara Street (business street) to bargain down the best prices we could find for used kongas. We wanted used ones because the new ones come starched or waxed and are very uncomfortable until they have been worn and washed a couple times. I also felt confident that if it was used, the double meaning of the saying wouldn’t be too bad since another woman was willing to wear it before me.

I purchased two full kongas, one pink/black and another green/black, and two headscarves, one green/purple and one red/black/white, all washed and soft.

After a frustrating lunch trying to find anything vegetarian AND filling or nutritious (you can only pick one here, never both), we were back on the bus and on our way to Bodo, our rural village. I can assure you, we smelled like roses.

Two hours later we arrived in Bodo, a village of about 300 people eagerly awaiting our arrival. About 75 wide-eyed and excited children greeted us as they anxiously waited to meet their new siblings for the next 10 days.

Bodo was a sight to take in, it was straight out of a National Geographic with mud huts, thatch roofs, sand and palm trees everywhere. All of this was a lot to take in at first but nothing compared to how hard the heat hit me. I finally feel like I understand the meaning of “oppressive heat”, my body did not take well to the climate but its all part of the experience, right?!

Side note: I am currently reading The Poisonwood Bible and feel like many of my first impressions of Bodo were similar to the girls’ first impressions of Kilanga in the book. Though Congo in 1959 is not similar to Kenya in 2009, the village of Bodo and the village of Kilanga have many striking similarities and as I read Poisonwood now, after my experience in Bodo, I keep finding myself making connections and parallels to village life and social norms within the two villages. If you haven’t read Poisonwood – go get yourself a copy and read it! At page 197 I’m already obsessed.

I’m going to post this now, then write more later. I need to eat lunch and write a paper for class.

Love!

Elisette

ps: picutres to come in the next post - I'm on a hunt for internet that is fast enough to upload.

Valentine's Day Katika Kenya

March 9^th, 2009

Whoa!  A half hour to myself?!  This is such a rarity in Kenya – I cherish each moment I have to myself and its definitely time to catch up on my blog.. I apologize for being so MIA – the last six weeks have left my head spinning in multiple directions and its time to slow down and record some of my experiences and hopefully a couple funny stories.  When I find some faster internet (it must exist!) I will upload some pictures too.

Let’s back up quite a bit: February 14^th, 2009.

Valentine’s Day is HUGE here.  Its one of the many imports the US has spread to other countries and its been added to my “American Things I’m Ashamed Of” list.  V-Day is the most stereotypical version you could imagine.  Suggestions for how to celebrate with your lover were headline news in print and on TV for the week leading up to it.  Flowers, balloons, candies and cards were for sale everywhere – not one of these things is typically Kenyan in anyway, especially the flowers.  Apparently in some tribal cultural beliefs, live flowers and unsafe to have in your home since they could potentially have spiritual powers and harm you or your family.  However, on Valentine’s Day, it is considered a lovely gift for your lover.  My home stay is filled with various arrangements of silk flowers that collect dust, reminiscent of my Israeli grandmother’s apartment in Jaffa, Israel. 

My brother Cliff consulted with me many times on what to buy his girlfriend Pricilla.  We eventually decided on flowers and a picture frame with a picture of the two of them camping – she loved it.

They’ve been together for about a year now and are an interesting couple.  She’s Kikuyu and he is Luo – rival tribes culturally and especially politically.  I know my Luo host parents love Pracilla and support their relationship.  My mom is fed up with tribal divisions and yells at the TV screen during news stories about the severe rift between tribes, especially these two.  Cliff says Pracilla’s parents are supportive but Pracilla revealed a bit of her tribal alliance earlier today when she asked me if I voted for Obama…

Let me back up a bit.  In Kenya we’ve felt an overwhelming excitement about Obama as president.  He’s Luo, or at least his father was which makes him Luo.  Realistically though, I doubt he has much of a connection with or knowledge of the “typical” Luo characteristics – I still can’t quite tell the differences, I’m not sure there really are so many...  But there was a saying here by Luos that went “There will be a Luo president in America before there is one in Kenya” which is all too telling of the current political situation in Kenya with a false Kikuyu government in power over the elected Luo one.  So on the whole in Kenya, there is major support of Obama, he’s well loved here.  Kenyans have thanked me for electing him and the children in our neighborhood sing songs about him.  He’s a huge source of pride for Kenya.

However, Pracilla asked me the other day if I voted for him and why I voted for him.  I wasn’t sure where she was taking the conversation so I simplified and explained that I’m a democrat and Obama was the democratic candidate and that I disliked (understatement!) the opposing candidate.  She made a face and said “Oh.”  I then asked her if she liked him and if she was happy he was elected.  She said. “He’s fine but his decisions don’t affect me so I don’t really care.”  I couldn’t hide my surprise at her comment and looked from her to my brother who was sitting next to her.  He told her to stop being “tribal” and to stop being “ridiculous”.  I tried to calmly explain to her that 1. He’s much better than the other candidate and that 2. His decisions definitely do affect her in Kenya.  I tried to explain how his environmental and economic policies have great impact on developing countries (among many other things) and that his decisions about foreign aid will directly impact Kenya.  She couldn’t care less and her boyfriend/my brother just kept repeating “stop being tribal!”.  I decided to let the conversation drop, though it was very calm and an interesting exchange. 

I am genuinely worried about the future of this country.  Its 2009 and journalists and talking heads on the news are already speculating about the expected violence for the 2012 ‘elections’.  The corruption here is rampant and nauseating.  There is scandal after scandal and no accountability for politicians.  It seeps into every realm of society and its grown to such a huge problem there are too many problems to know where to start! 

I look at other African countries with similar corruption problems in their past and fear the worst for Kenya.  Obviously, no situation is fit to generalize from but history continues to repeat itself, just with better technology…

1.     We’ve heard some scary tidbits that add up to a pretty grim picture: There was a large shipment of arms that was funded by the government to go to southern Sudan.  Rumor has it that the shipment never made it to Sudan, it is being held in the north as a stockpile for the Kikuyu when they decide they need weapons (next ‘elections’?)

2.     “some people” are making lists of Luos in Nairobi (it might have been just Kibera).  I am still unclear as to who is making the lists and of course, no one will answer why..

3.     On Friday there were riots/bonfires in the streets of Nairobi – don’t worry, I was in Mombasa and they were way on the other side of town from where I live in Nairobi.  The cause: A UN report was released stating that the chief of police and the attorney general were responsible for extrajudicial killings of hundreds of people.  When Kibaki made a public statement that they would not be loosing their jobs or that their actions would be condemned or punished in anyway, a gang called Mungiki started rioting.  Two people were lynched in daylight – I’m not sure who/why but somehow connected.  This all lasted less than a day but people are angry and I feel like they have every right to be.  This government was not democratically elected and there are no channels for Kenyan citizens to voice their opinions peacefully, or any way at all.  Their “representatives” are worthless, there are not lobbyists or advocates for the constituents.  Their only resource is protest which leads to violence.  Actually, interesting Kiswahili fact – The verb to vote is kupiga which literally means to beat, as in hit!  But one can piga mswaki (to beat (brush) teeth) or one can piga the phone, but still the verb to vote is the same verb as to beat which might explain much of the post election violence… food for thought.

Ugh, its past my bedtime..

I was going to write about the slum we visited on the 14^th, the awesome youth organization within that slum that I loved and then the Zambia vs. Kenya soccer game we watched at the end.  I’ll have to write that tomorrow.

so instead of writing what I wanted to I rambled…

I’ve definitely become a little bit Kenyan!  Kenyans are the most verbose people I’ve encountered. Their language Swahili has one-word sentences which would translate to 4 or 6 or 8 words in English, but when Kenyan people speak in English, they can go on forever!  Even when you strategically try to ask simple yes or no questions (there really is no such thing out here..) Okay time for bed, more to come soon.

Lala salaama! (good night)

Elisette

a little delayed...

Right now I’m sitting in my living room watching international MTV, listening to the evening call to prayer from the loudspeakers of the mosque next door and smelling my Mama’s cooking from the kitchen.  She says I’m not allowed to help tonight, but I know she’ll gladly let me wash the dishes later!  I have no idea where to start, I need to write more frequently because so much happens each day.  I’ll start with school and go from there:

Classes start at 8:30am each day so the 5 people that live in my neighborhood meet up outside our security gates at 8 and walk to school together.  We walk along the dusty, rocky streets along with the young children in their school uniforms that shout “how are you!?” over and over again every time they see a muzungu (white person) – but imagine it in a little kid voice with the most adorable Kenyan accent – so entertaining.  We’ve been testing out different responses which get different reactions.  If we just wave back they smile, if we say “good!  How are you?” they giggle and repeat “How are you?” back to us (we think thats the only English they know since they don’t learn English until grade 3).  But if we respond in Swahili (“Nzuri sana! Na wewe?”) they look so confused and run away laughing – its wonderful.

Along with the adorable children, we walk to school as women with heavy parcels perfectly balanced on their heads walk towards their kiosks to set up shop for the day.  Butchers and fruit vendors set up their displays and stray dogs, chickens and goats try to find whatever scraps they can.  We are into our second week of school so the neighborhood seems to be used to us but the first few days we were definitely a spectacle.

Once at school we have our morning lecture, usually Kiswahili, from 8:30-12:30.  We are broken down into groups of 5 and I love the members of my group.  We spend most of our time laughing at the funny language and accidentally mixing in other foreign languages we speak, like Spanish or Hebrew or Arabic.  Many of the words have Arabic roots as does Hebrew so its easy to swap in some words.  Many of the verbs sound like they could be conjugated in Spanish and “si” means ‘yes’ in Spanish but it means ‘no’ or indicates the negative form of a verb in Kiswahili… Other than that the language actually sounds Asian or like Pokémon characters!  Its entirely hilarious to learn this language and when classes go 3.5 hours long with one break we often get punchy and delirious.  Our 5 rotating teachers all have distinct personalities and different teaching styles which keeps the rotation exciting.  My grasp of the language is minimal right now but it will jump quickly when we do our rural home stay starting on Saturday! 

After morning lecture we have a lunch break until 2pm.  We usually go to the few restaurants nearby, an expensive touristy café called Java, a cheap and delicious Ethiopian restaurant and an Asian place I haven’t tried yet.  The women in the house next door to school also cooks traditional Kenyan food (rice, beans/lentils and chipatti) and I’ve eaten from there the last two days, its cheap, tasty and convenient.  After lunch we often head to the cyber café for a quick and often frustrating email check then back to school for afternoon lecture. 

The afternoon lecture is either a society, health or development lecture by professionals in the field, often from University of Nairobi or a hospital or an organization based in Nairobi.  The true health and development lectures haven’t started yet, they start March 9^th and I’m looking forward to that.  We’ve had mostly history and society lectures mixed in with randomly placed topics like “Informal Economies” which is crucial to understanding Kenyan culture since 70% of the population participates in informal income generating activities. 

After afternoon lecture we head home to Kibera and often stop for some slooow internet for a bit on the way home.  At home I help my mama cook dinner and then the rest of the night is spent on the couch watching news in Swahili or watching soccer, depending on which teams are playing.  I go to bed so early here because there isn’t much else to do and I’m exhausted by the end of the day and wake up so early.  There are no weekends or free days to sleep in either.  In 6 weeks we have had two full free days which are spent doing homework or research for our independent projects or group research projects... 

more to come!  Internet is too slow to continue right now.  ugh.  

send me email updates! even just let me know what's going on in the world -- I'm so disconnected!

Elisette 

off to Mombasa and Bodo!

Hello blog-followers!

I'm sorry I haven't been able to post as often as I hoped.. I have NO free time and internet isn't the most convenient feature of this city. I'll get back on it soon!

right now, I'm off to an overnight train which will take me to Mombasa then another two hour trip to the village of Bodo where I will be doing my rural home stay. The village is very remote and entirely Muslim - I'm sure I'll have much to post when I return.

I hope all is well wherever you are reading this from. I love emails if anyone wants to send one - its like getting mail during summer camp! :-)

Kwa heri!

Elisette

some pictures from the first week

PICTURES!  I'll try to upload more when I have access to slightly speedy internet... Click on each picture to make it bigger)

The view of Ethiopia from the airplane

(L->R) Mike, Rachel, Grant, Elisette, and Stephen at Kolping Guesthouse

Crossing the street - definitely the most dangerous thing we do in Nairobi!

Our walk to school

Me and baby Hayden at the New Life Home Orphanage

Giraffes at the Giraffe Centre

our first guest house in Karen - from Out Of Africa

Nairobi traffic

View of Nairobi from our van during our driving city tour

A scene from my neighborhood on my way to school in the morning

my bedroom in my home stay

Hamjambo ni Kenya!

Hamjambo ni Kenya!

[hello to y’all from Kenya!]

whoa… am I really here? I arrived in Kenya over a week ago, though it feels like I’ve been here for months and yet it is still hard to believe that I have successfully transplanted myself to this new nyumbani (home). I have found no time to truly document my time here up until now and I apologize that much is probably lost as I look back, but the core of my experiences will hopefully be enjoyable. This post will be long, I’m sure, but don’t let that turn you away! I’m cramming a ton into this one and hopefully I will find some kind of routine and build time in to write more frequently.

The flight here was phenomenal, if you ever have an opportunity to fly Emirates Airlines – DO IT! I was definitely seated in an economy seat but truly felt like I was in business class. So many little things combined made the entire experience so enjoyable: free alcohol, gorgeous flight attendants (red lipstick is part of their uniform!), delicious food and twinkle lights that look like starts on the overhead compartments when they turn the lights out! Much more of course, but that is what sticks in my mind 9 days later. It was also so much fun to be on the group flight. You bond so quickly after you’ve experienced a two day long sweaty ordeal together and then you get to the customs line in Nairobi and wait in the same line without moving for an hour… The customs officer made a photocopy of each passport then handwrote every single detail of our main page in three different places. Carbon copy paper anyone?! Though, it was a good taste of the concept of “African Time” which I am already quite used to.

We have crammed so much into such a short amount of time but my energy is surprisingly still high! It has been a complete whirlwind of meeting new people, learning Swahili, trying to understand the complex subtleties of Kenyan culture and adjusting to an 8-hour time difference.

The people on my program are exceptional and impressively intelligent, we quickly skipped over some silly icebreakers and shifted right into interesting and involved conversations. We also really know how to have fun – many hilarious stories have been shared and everyone has a good sense of humor when trying to navigate Kenyan social norms. I’ve gone out two nights so far with people from the group, it’s been a good release from all we have to absorb during the day. There are 25 students from various American universities, 22 girls and 3 boys, 24 undergraduates and 1 graduate student (from Heller at Brandeis!).

The academic directors (AD) here are wonderful and so attentive to our needs, its clear they have done this for many, many years and are prepared to handle any issue. Odoch Pido (Oh-dóh-ch) is from Uganda, we call him Mzee (Mmm-zay) which is a term of respect for an older man. The other AD is named Jamal Omar and is from the coast of Kenya and of the Swahili tribe; he is Muslim, younger than Odoch and always has funny stories about past participants and the trouble they got into. Jamal is very open and honest with the religious and cultural beliefs and norms of his community, it’s a rare look into a community I wouldn’t be able to access on my own – I’m fascinated by the coastal Muslim and tribal cultures! 42 tribes in Kenya alone. Mamma Mary is the general director, she is very motherly and protective but honest with us too. Our 5 Swahili instructors are fantastic – they all teach Swahili elsewhere, a couple to Peace Corps volunteers throughout the year. We have other advisors that help us facilitate research, which we will meet later on. So far we know that two of them are Fulbright scholars and professors at other universities in Nairobi and abroad.

We just completed a week of Orientation where we were able to get over our jetlag, get to know each other, understand the way the program works and learn some Swahili before being plopped in the city with our host families. Tomorrow (Saturday) we will be meeting our host families.

After getting off the plane we arrived as a group to Karen (Kaa-ren), a gorgeous and lush wealthy neighborhood on the outskirts of Nairobi. The town is named after Karen Blixen from Out of Africa and we stayed at the house where the movie was filmed. It was a convent run by very nice nuns – my sheets were made out of tablecloths!

The highlight of our time in Karen was going to a giraffe reserve where we fed giraffes out of our hands, lots of people got giraffe kisses, I wasn’t into the gift of saliva and took pictures for other people of their kisses instead. We then went to a lecture to learn about giraffes and their efforts to grow the population in Kenya since many of them were killed during a military training as practice targets many years ago. A giraffe’s gestation period is 15 months!!

After a couple days in Karen we relocated to another guesthouse run by nuns much closer to the city and walking distance from our school. Here, we have started our Swahili classes and gotten to know the area around our school a bit more.

My Swahili teacher, Mamma Rose, took us to an orphanage for HIV positive abandoned children. We walked in thinking we would just get a tour of the facilities but it was dinnertime and they didn’t have enough hands to feed bottles. We each were given a bottle and an adorable baby to feed and play with! The infants were all between 3 and 6 months old and adorable! While I was playing with my cute baby Hayden, I looked up and recognized one of the volunteers from Brandeis! It turns out Judith is volunteering at the orphanage as well! She is abroad from Brandeis on a different development program in Nairobi – we will definitely be seeing more of each other this semester.

After dinner and burp time we put the babies to bed and promised all the nurses there that we would be back to volunteer. The orphanage is walking distance from our school so I will definitely be going back to play after school. There are also toddlers and an ICU unit for very ill infants.

I have now arrived at my home stay, which is absolutely lovely. I feel so lucky to have such a wonderful family and I know this is going to be a rewarding experience. The home stay aspect of this program was definitely the largest challenge for me and I was so, so nervous to meet my family but all has turned out well so far and I’m thrilled to continue our cultural exchange. Let me introduce my new family:

Mamma Evie: My mom is such a sweet and open woman. She works as a “business woman” – I’m still trying to figure out what that means. I think she works in a market selling clothes, I’ll get back to you on that. I know she was laid off from her other job and explained her new job as a way to make ends meet so I’m unclear on what that means exactly. I’m trying to pry gradually since it is against Kenyan culture to ask personal questions – even questions like “how many children do you have?” it is thought that personal information can be used against you in some way so Kenyans 1. Don’t ask and 2. Lie all the time…

Mamma Evie has hosted at least 4 other students before and loves it. She’s very understanding of my needs and my lack of knowledge of basic Kenyan concepts; she’s always willing to explain. She is Luo as is her husband, they are “from Obama’s tribe!”. She’s been very open with me and loves to compare African men with American men. We’ve watched many soap operas together so far, we’ve also watched a riveting episode of Oprah.

Mamma Evie loves Israel or “the Israelites” as she says. She loves funny things about them like “how nice their skin is even though its so hot there!” She thinks they are such strong, special people and her interest in the country goes beyond a religious connection. She is really interested in the country and longs to visit, she asks so many questions and loves to hear about how similar I think Israel is to Kenya. I’m going to try and find her a gift from Israel or something that could pass as one here…I wish I’d known ahead of time. I’m going to teach her how to make falafel or something, she’ll love it.

Baba: Baba in Kiswahili is father. I was introduced to my father as Baba and when I asked his name, I was told “Baba”. So for now, that’s his name! He is also Luo and works as a draftsman for an architect. He goes to work in a full suit and is quiet but very welcoming. He has a huge, warm smile and loves his news and his soccer. He’s been quiet so far but today he joined in our conversation and was very interested in the upcoming Israeli elections and what I think Obama will do for Israel – all totally unprompted!

I tried to stay away from any religious or political conversation with my family until I knew where they stood but they happily dove right in and I feel that our thoughts are similarly aligned, I sense some good conversations about the corruption in Kenya coming up.

Charlotte: My sister Charlotte is a junior in high school and goes to boarding school. I know nothing about her except that she likes to dance but I will meet her when she has a break from school.

Cliff: Cliff is my 22 year old brother. He goes to a Christian college in Karen, where I first stayed. He’s majoring in Sociology with a minor in Anthropology; he wants to continue on to get his Masters in Public Health… Did they match me up well or what?! He is lovely and so thoughtful. We’ve already had a full on conversation on the role circumcision plays in Kenyan tribal culture and I look forward to having him help me with my research on informal sex education in the slums of Kibera. Cliff plays soccer for his college and loves the sport, I hope to watch some of his games in March when the season starts up.

So that’s my family, now my house: I live in the Ayany neighborhood of Nairobi, walking distance from school. My home is small and modest but sweet and will very quickly feel like home. The walls are cement and the roof is corrugated tin. Even though there is a massive drought, rain on a tin roof all night sounds miserable and I hope to not have that experience. The kitchen is tiny, the size of a narrow bathroom but actually has running water in the kitchen sink and the space is used well. A shower room with an actual showerhead is next door. I’m one of the few people on my program with a working shower but my shower only spits out scalding hot water and there is no cold to mix it with. So my friends with bucket showers at least wont burn their skin! I have yet to master the burning shower but I will try again tomorrow… Another tiny room with a toilet that occasionally flushes is next to the shower and the sink is outside in the hallway. A larger dining/living room is off the hallway with plush orange couches, a coffee table and the TV. The TV is always on and there is usually some kind of soap opera or dramatic forensic show on or a soccer game. Over the weekend we watched four soccer games, three of them ended in 0-0 – very exciting! We also eat dinner in this room, though not on a table. We hold our plates on our laps and serve ourselves buffet style off the coffee table.

I have not seen my parent’s room and I doubt I will. To get to my room you have to go through Cliff’s room but that hasn’t been a problem yet. My room is perfect. I have a double bed with a huge mosquito net to protect me at night. Windows that look out into the backyard (laundry lines) and a small table that I use as my closet. I also have a plastic chair and a laundry basket. A wall poster of Manchester United keeps me company at night and a very noisy ticking clock is waaay high up on the wall. Its very cozy and all mine, most of the other people on my program are sharing rooms with siblings or maids. I’m so happy to have my own room, I’ve barely had 5 minutes to myself before now, its lovely.

So I think that’s it for now. My cell phone can receive texts for free and I can send them for .12¢ each. Here is my number: +254-734-259-783. Remember the 11 or 8 hour time difference (depending on west/east coast)!

Internet is limited and expensive but do send me emails, I’ve been trying to be good and reply! I love hearing from the outside world, it helps me feel connected somehow. Let me know how you’re doing and I’ll try to post again soon!

Lala salaama (good night),

Elisette