A peak inside the "Living Way Orphanage" (July 31, 2011)

Today was a much-anticipated day for me: I got to go to the orphanage and meet the children for myself!

In preparation for our visit, we stocked up on sweets - love of sugar is universal.

The orphanage, called “Living Way Orphanage”, is located about a 20-minute drive outside of Naivasha Town.  Actually, one of the first things I noticed was how isolated it is from pretty much everything.  After a 10-minute drive up the main highway, one must navigate another 10 minutes of windy, dirt road to arrive at the gate of the orphanage.  It was later pointed out to me that the owning land in an area this isolated is probably very affordable.

When you enter, you see the entire orphanage property is quite small, consisting of only a few buildings and a small amount of open space.  The first item on the agenda was a tour, starting with the girls’ dormitory.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by how warm it felt.  Each of the girl’s beds were covered in colourful pink sheets and each girl had a bright blue metal chest beside her bed to hold her belongings.  On a string hung across the breadth of the room was a series of many flags, but because I am internationally unaware, I have no idea which countries they represented.

This is the girls dormitory.

Next we saw the boys’ room, which was similar in contents to the girls’ room, except that the pink sheets were replaced with sheets of a more manly blue.  Also unique to the boys’ room were the sketches hanging on the walls that many of them copied from newspapers and magazines.  On young boy, Rueben, was particularly proud of his artwork and promised to make me a picture for me if only I could bring him some drawing paper and markers.

A bed and chest of belongings in the boys' room.

Next, we moved to a second building, which contained the school room (singular) and the food storage room.  Please note that the food storage room is empty.  To my surprise, this ended up being what the orphanage co-ordinator, Onasmes, identified as the thing that they needed most.  In fact, we left them a small amount of money before we parted today and Onasmes immediately went into town to buy groceries so that the children could eat lunch.

George and Godfrey show me their school room.

So it turns out that everyone learns to multiply in the same way!

This is the food storage room.  Please note the absence of the food.

After the tour, we spent some time hanging out with the children.  Most of them were full of enthusiasm, sang songs and were excited to pose for pictures.  The children were also sure to tell us what they thought they needed most.  Interestingly, none of them thought food was as big of a priority as school supplies.  After discussing the list of school supplies that they would most like, the girls also requested a private meeting to discuss things that boys would surely not understand.  Pads, panties and bikers (spandex-like shorts worn under skirts) were high on their priority list.  I’ve actually re-written the complete chicken-scratched supply list below.  It’s much more legible now!

School supplies

·      Shoes

·      Socks

·      School bags

·      Books to read (children’s books at various skill levels)

·      Pens, pencils, markers, pencil crayons, erasers

·      Paper

·      Exercise books

·      Geometry sets

·      Long, white girls socks for with school uniforms

·      Calculators

Items requested by the girls

·      Pads

·      Panties

·      Bikers

·      Long, white socks to be worn with school uniforms

·      Toothbrushes/toothpaste

·      Bars of soap

Food stuff (to be purchased in Kenya with monetary donations)

·      Maize flour (for making ugali)

·      Beans

·      Rice

·      Cooking fat

·      Sugar

·      Carrots and other vegetables

·      Tea leaves

The children had lots of their own ideas on what they needed more of.   While most children I know in Canada would be quick to tell you about their desperate need for a new iPod, these children were most interested in school supplies (and toothbrushes so they wouldn't have to share).

So, my thoughts are this.  I know that there have been some people who have already expressed an interested in sending school supplies and I think that is a great idea – the children will love it!  Warren is going to buy a big suitcase and collect supplies (school or otherwise) from anyone who wants to send them.  Kelly-Lyn, I did get your email and I will send an email to daybreak to tell them what is on the list.  Please say, “Thank you very much!” to all of your friends at daybreak for their help!

For anyone who is not interested in collecting and sending supplies or would prefer to help with a food donation, you could send me an email money transfer or send money with Warren and we will use it to buy food here.  We are going to look for a wholesaler where we can buy many of the food items for less money and in bulk, so any donation, no matter how big or small, will make a difference to how much food we can provide.

Thank you so much to everyone who has been excited about helping with this initiative.  I can’t wait to see what we can pull together!

Beasts of burden (July 21, 2011)

One very striking difference between Canada and Kenya is the role and treatment of animals.   I initially found some of these differences very difficult to cope with.  Allow me to give you some examples:

1:  Donkey’s are considered Naivasha’s “beasts of burden”.  They are tasked with pulling heavy carts of water, produce and people and it seems that they typically perform their work with little regard for their own comfort.  On more than one occasion I have seen a donkey fall, then try and try, to no avail, to regain his footing under the weight of the cart.  In fact, last week I was part of an impromptu donkey rescue team.  A single donkey was pulling a cart of produce down an incline and through the deep mud at the bottom.  In 12 inches of mud, the donkey lost his footing and fell, the cart landing on his flanks.  Myself and two of my colleagues struggled to lift the weight of the cart while the driver undid the donkey’s harness, allowing him to pull himself out of the mud.

This donkey cart is delivering water to Vincent's apartment.  This is clean water, provided by the Church to vendors at a very affordable rate.  Water is then sold at a rate of 7 shillings (~10 cents)/20 gallons to the people in town.

2:  Chickens are carried to the butchery by tying them to the roof of a bus.

3:  Dogs are not domesticated.  This, on its own, certainly does not offend me.  However, it breaks my heart a little when I see dogs and other livestock rummaging though dumpsites to find their meal, often consuming plastic that still tastes of the food it once held.  I also have a soft-spot in my heart for the mangy, three-legged dog that lives down the road.

Despite some of the unsavoury differences in the treatment of live animals, there are some things about the Kenyan approach to animals that I very much respect:

1: You cannot walk down a single city block without seeing at least one butchery with skinned animal carcasses hanging in the windows.  While this may seem vulgar, I think it is very admirable that everyone who eats meat understands exactly where their fried goat came from.  No one hides behind the inconspicuous, untraceable package of boneless, skinless chicken breasts at No Frills.

This man has just cut a chunk of meat off one of the animal parts hanging in the background to make our dinner.  Although this butchery currently only has parts of animals hanging, it is common to see full cows, goats or sheep.

2: Humans are not always at the top of the food chain.  In the two months I’ve been here, there have already been several hippo and buffalo attacks, which are typically lethal.  Please don’t think I believe this is anything other than tragic for those involved and their families.  I do, however, appreciate that there is something humbling about knowing that I, as a human being, am not always the master of nature.  Sometimes I am merely a part of the food chain.

3:  The chickens that arrived at the butchery tied to the top of a bus are either sold live or are killed upon order.  Again, there is something refreshing about watching a Kenyan carry a fully-feathered, dead chicken home for dinner and knowing that their family fully understands where their meal came from.  This has refueled my desire to raise, kill and eat my own chicken.  If I can’t do this, I should be a vegetarian.

Give more than you take: PART II (June 20, 2011)

I'd like to give you a quick follow up to my last blog which outlined several of the ways that a small amount of money can make a big difference in the life of someone here in Kenya.  I am leaning strongly towards supporting the local orphanage, which may include donating much needed supplies as well as money for school fees.  While I still think that the idea of collecting guttered rain water is really promising, I feel like the implementation of this might be out of the scope of what I can achieve on this trip.

I plan on organizing a trip to the orphanage in the next couple of weeks to visit the children and talk to the manager about the orphanage's needs.  If you're interested in contributing to the cause, stay tuned for my future blog about the trip and how we can help provide for some of these childrens' needs!  Again, if you have any feedback or idea on how we might best support the orphanage, I welcome the comments!

Give more than you take (July 13, 2011)

A wise person once told me that a responsible traveller should give more than he takes to the countries he visits.  Quite frankly, this is a sizable task given the amount of growth, learning and friendship that comes out of one’s travels.  None-the-less, I believe it to be true.  I have been challenged to step up my search for a way to leave behind something positive in Kenya by many of my loved once in Canada who are also looking for a way that they can make a positive contribution here.

In my active quest to find ways that a small group of people can create meaningful change, I have done some asking around.  It turns out that there is lots of ways to make a difference!

1: Give a family money to pay their children’s school fees.  In Kenya, most of the good schools are private and quite expensive.  Most of many parent’s salaries goes towards paying for their children’s education.  Some children also lack basic educational tools, such as light to study by after sundown.  Paying school fees and purchasing solar-powered desk lamps would give children some of the basic tools they need for their education.

2: Pay for a family to install gutters on their home for water collection.  Water availability is a big issue in Naivasha.  Most of the slums around the lake have no running water.  Actually, even in Naivasha Town, the lake’s semi-formal settlement, many homes lack running water.  Water is either collected directly from the lake or boreholes, or it is purchased from the “donkey guys”.  Aside for the obvious hygiene issues associated with drinking unpurified water, the water in this region is also very high in fluoride.  Consequently, the majority of citizens around Naivasha have fluorosis of the teeth.  Collecting clean, guttered rainwater presents free alternative to paying for water of sub-standard quality.  When the heavy rain comes in the rainy season, the clean water can be channeled into holding tanks large enough to sustain a family for months.

Fluorosis of the teeth is very common in Naivasha.  It arises from the very high fluoride content in the ground and lake water.

3: Provide much needed supplies to the local orphanage.  The orphanage in Naivasha supports many parentless children and is often in need of basic necessities including sanitary napkins, soap, toilet paper, toothbushes and toothpaste.  They also lack transportation for the children and would be very grateful for a donation of one or more bicycles, which are a very common mode of transportation in this area.   A donation to the orphanage would help support one of the most vulnerable populations around Naivasha.

Over the course of the next couple weeks, I plan to do more investigation into the feasibility and value of each of these options.  In the meantime, if you are interested in making a contribution or you have any ideas on how to help, please comment on this blog.  I’d love to hear what you have to say!

My 10th + 15 birthday (July 10, 2011)

I turned the big 2-5 this year.  Yep, a quarter century (gosh, how old does that make my parents??)  However, when I awoke the morning of Monday, July 4, I didn’t really feel any different than the day before.  To be honest, I never really understood the big deal with birthdays anyways.   They really boil down to just another day.  I am the same person that I was the day before and that I will surely be the day after.  However, by the end of this birthday, I was reminded why it is oh-so important to celebrate birthdays.

I started the big day with a normal workday.  Vincent and I mapped a couple of residential areas and a couple of channels that flow from residential areas, to the lake.  We agreed to call it a night early, however, because my roommates and I had big plans to have dinner and make a cake.  On the walk back to our house, I was given my first birthday gift.  As we strolled through the field behind our house, I looked up and saw our cottage purchased on the hillside in front of me.  Between the house and I stood a beautiful stand of yellow-barked acacia trees and natural bush land, peppered with giraffes and waterbuck.  Could I ask for a more beautiful place to live?

When I arrived at the house, the festivities began.  I told you we planned to make a cake, but I didn’t tell you why this cake was special.  It was going to be an “Ugali cake”! For those of you who have never hear of ugali, it is hands down the most popular food in Kenya.  It is so popular, in fact, that people believe that if they don’t eat ugali for dinner, they will not sleep.  Ugali is quite a simple dish, made by mixing equal parts of boiling water and maize flower and mixing until the white blob has become thick enough to roll into small pieces and eat with your fingers.  Because ugali is really quite moist and has no distinct flavor of its own, we decided that we could probably use it to make a cake.  We got the water off to a rolling boil and before we added the maize flour to the water, I stirred a substantial amount of sugar into the flour.  By this point, the Kenyans among us were already cringing – why must muzungus add sugar to all the favourite Kenyan dishes!?  Thirty minutes, 2 bananas, a mango, 3 passionfruit and a bag of icing sugar later, our ugali cake was complete!  Admittedly, I have had better cakes, but the entire value of the cake was in the creation.  I haven’t laughed that hard in a long time!

This is how ugali is traditionally eaten..... Mmmmmm, so good!  (Side bar: this meal cost me $1)

This is how we have improved (or destroyed, depending on who you ask) ugali!

After dinner, I got to open my card and gifts.  It turns out that birthday card selection in Kenya is slightly smaller than the Shoppers Drug Mart collection.  The two options were “Happiness always dear 10-year old” or “May God bless you on your birthday”.  This selection doesn’t come as a particularly large surprise to me, given that Vincent often reminds me that God play a very important role in maintaining order in Kenya.  Kenya has good laws, but very poor enforcement capacity.  It is Vincent’s belief that the laws are followed because most of the population is highly religious and believes in a God who sees and judges their actions. 

Myself and my roomies, however, are from a country that seems to be less and less religious, so I got the “Happiness always dear 10 (+15) year old”.  The card, with the touching messages inside are among the most unique birthday cards I’ve ever received and will definitely find a permanent home in my memories box.  Finally, for the icing on the ugali cake, I got to open my gift.  My Kenyan roommate, Dorothy, gave me a lovely Kenyan skirt and the rest of my friends went together to buy me a new digital camera (Sadly, one of the guests at our Canada Day party two days earlier found my previous digital camera irresistible and took it home).  I was so touched by the gifts I nearly cried.  All of the laughter and all of the memories that I accumulated on July 4, 2011 have reminded me that although a birthday might be just another one of the 365 days in a year, celebrating it fully every year means that you are guaranteed to accumulate vibrant, happy memories with those you care about.  Always celebrate your birthday and always commemorate the birthdays of those you love!