Super successful donation campaign! (August 21, 2011)

I want to say an enormous "THANK YOU" to everyone I know (and those I don't know) who gave so generously to the orphanage/school fundraiser.  Together, we raised:

$917 plus two full suitcases of supplies that were donated to the orphanage.

AMAZING!

Yesterday, Warren and I have a very successful trip to the orphanage, where we delivered all of the supplies that you sent as well as about $130 of supplies that we purchased here.  That means that we still have $800, which will be delivered to Sarah Higgins this week to fund that building of a fence around Ruberi Primary School's new fish pond so that fish protein can be part of lunch time starting in September. Our $800 will cover almost all of the cost of the fence project!

Time is short this morning, but I look forward to updating you with a much more detailed blog and pictures in a week or so, when I return from my week away with Warren.

Thank you again to those who have been so supportive!

A bittersweet taste of reality (August 7, 2011)

Yesterday was a bittersweet day for me.  Sweet, because I was thrilled at how supportive people have been in their attitudes and donations to the orphanage.  Bitter, because I found out that the management at the orphanage has some issues with corruption.  Sweet, because I talked to an amazing woman and community leader who has not let the roadblocks set up by dishonest or incompetent people stand in her way of finding effective ways of serving those in need.

Bittersweet reality- Chapter 1: The facts

This journey began on Friday evening, when I opened my email and found a wonderful email from my mother.  More members of my family had expressed an interest in donating supplies and money to the orphanage.  When this was added to the long list of people who had already generously offered their support, I started to have the inkling that we may raise more money than could be used for a one-time donation of supplies to the orphanage.  What an amazing problem!

I picked up the phone and called Sarah Higgins.  Sarah is an absolutely amazing woman who is very active in social and environmental issues around the lake.  To lend credibility to this statement, let me give you a short synopsis of her recent activities:

-       Actively supports of the Living Way Orphanage.

-       Runs an owl sanctuary, which takes in injured birds of prey, nurses them to health and re-integrates them back into the wild.

-       Is the secretary for the Lake Naivasha Riparian Association, a group that pushes for consolidarity in environmental conservation efforts around the lake.

-       Is on the board of governors for a recently established elementary school in Karagita.  The school was opened as an overflow school for Mereira Primary school, which at the time was serving 6000 primary school students and had class sizes of over 100.

-       Runs a bursary program that puts 10 students a year through secondary school.

-       I could go on, but I’ll leave it at that.

Because I knew that Sarah was a person of integrity and was an active supporter of the orphanage, she seemed to be a good person to talk to about how to best implement our orphanage donation.  Yesterday morning, we met for a coffee.  Here is a brief synopsis of what I learned from Sarah:

-       Do not give money directly to the orphanage.

-       The most essential food items (flour, beans and rice) are provided to the orphanage by the founder, a bishop living in North America.

-       The orphanage co-ordinator was also collecting food donations from other donors, including Sarah, of which he sold a portion and kept the profit for himself.

-       It is understandable how this situation came to be.  The co-ordinator is paid only a small pittance for his work.

-       The fact that some of the bulk food donations were sold to line someone’s pocket does not mean that the children are not in need.

-       The provision of well needed, but less marketable items is still a good way to support the orphanage and ensure that your donation is meeting its intended target.  Sarah suggested the following:

o   Fresh bread

o   Butter

o   Jam

o   Tea

o   Sugar

o   Cooking fat

o   Fresh produce

o   Dried milk

o   Pens/pencils

o   Exercise books/paper

o   Geometry sets

o   Reading books

o   Soap

o   Toothbrushes/toothpaste

o   Pads/panties

o   Socks

Despite the fact that there are some positive undertones to this, I felt disheartened.  I am certain that the supplies that everyone is sending will be put to good use, but what about the monetary donations?  In steps a sweet part of my day.

Sarah is on the board of governors for a primary school that was opened 4 years ago in Karagita.  Since the school’s inception, the board of governors and the Head Master have fought for it’s growth and development.  New (and nice!) classrooms have been built, a nursery school was added, rain water is collected for fresh drinking water, a parent run community garden has been established on the property and new parcels of land have been acquired for the future secondary school to be established.  The most recent victory for the school, however, is the start of a lunch program ,which will be launched in September.  Sarah’s passion for this program was obvious.  A similar program was enacted in another school where Sarah is involved and once the children had food in their stomachs’, their grades went up immediately.

A look at the school from the outside.  You can tell that school is out and renovations are underway.

This is the first grade 8 class that will be graduating from the school in September.

You may recall in a previous blog that I advocated for more rainwater collection for drinking water.   Seeing this made me very happy.

This interior of the kitchen-to-be is still under construction but is coming along quite well.

The government has donated two cookers for hot meal preparation and has agreed to partially subsidize the cost of lunch for the first 3 years of the program.  To complement this, the Head Master also fought hard to be a participant in a pilot program where a school is given the supplies needed to build a fishpond.  The fish this school produces and the vegetables they grow will be used to help provide sustainable healthy meals to the children. 

The parents were recruited to dig the hole for the fish pond.  Given that grass in Naivasha is cut with a machete, I suspect this hole was also dug the old fashioned way.

The school's parent-tended veggie patch.  They also have a garden which is tended by the children in the 4-K club.

The catch (no pun intended): every fishpond needs a durable fence around it to keep the children safe and to keep the goats from drinking.  Unfortunately, all the money raised for the lunch program has been used to construct the kitchen.  So, my suggestion is this.  I think we all had a desire to support children whose needs are not being met.  Putting a fence up around the fishpond would help to ensure these primary school children are fed at least one balanced meal each day and are able to focus on learning and not on their grumbling belly.

For anyone who is helping out with a financial donation, I would love your input on this.  While, I believe this is a really great way to spend the money we’ve raised on something meaningful and tangible and with a group of people where I am sure that every penny will be used for its intended purpose, we are talking about your contribution.  If you have any thoughts, please let me know.

I've spoken so much about Sarah that it would be a shame not to show you who she is.  Here, she is speaking to Kimani, the school's Head Master and the man to be credited for getting the fishpond supplies.

Bittersweet reality - Chapter 2: The reflection

It saddens me that dishonest people exist.  I would love to live my life believing that everyone is as good as their word, but that is not the case.  From here, I see two paths.

1: Distrust people as a default setting.  Paint all people with the brush of “potentially dishonest”.  Don’t help those who genuinely need help because in doing so I may also be used by those who don’t.

2: Don’t let a bad experience jade you.  Continue helping, but don’t be naïve.  Be compassionate towards people but be aware that people may try to take advantage of you.  There are countless good ways to help others, so put in the time required to find a cause where you know the results of your efforts will be maximized. 

I chose path 2.  I am inspired by Sarah and her continued dedication to serving those in need despite the corruption and roadblocks she’s faced.  I hope that I can learn to look at new situations critically but not cynically.  I believe that denying help to someone in need because you fear dishonesty is a bigger error than helping someone who takes advantage of your generosity.  I will be firm, aware and critical but I won’t be jaded.

Waste not, want not (August 4, 2011)

This week brought a very interesting encounter with wildlife…. Well, actually, can I still call it wild”life”, if it was dead??  At this point, I would like to issue a disclaimer that this story is not for vegetarians or the weak of heart.  Now, let me start from the beginning.

For anyone who has not read my previous blogs, or who I have not succeeded in convincing that hippos can be very dangerous, let me give you an example.  There is a very large hippo that frequently walks several kilometers from the lake, where he spends his hot days, to graze on our property at night.  While they are certainly are magnificent to watch, hippos are well-known to attack people and it is very rare that anyone ever survives a hippo bite.  Needless-to-say, his presence made some of our neighbours nervous. 

Two weeks ago, this hippo was again seen in someone’s yard and this time the guard on our property was called to handle the situation.  Now, when I say “handle the situation”, I use the term loosely.  The guard approached the hippo on foot and waived his flashlight at it.  I must say that holding a flashlight would not bring me a great deal of comfort in this situation.  The outcome:  the hippo was startled by the light and turned to leave.  Feeling that he had accomplished his goal, the guard turned to walk back to his post at the gate.  At this point, the hippo turned around and bit the guard, severely injuring his arm and back.  He must have awfully good karma, though, because he did not die.

Last week, our friend the hippo again made his evening visit to graze on our property.  This time, the Kenya Wildlife Service was called to the scene.  It would seem that they are armed with more than flashlights, because in the morning, the hippo lay dead in the corner of the yard, with 5 small bullet holes as evidence that he wasn’t just sleeping.

This hippo is not sleeping.

Very small bullets given the size of the animal they were used to kill.

This is why people don't survive hippo bites.

  

Now, it turns out that word of a free hippo meat spreads quickly.  By 9am, the hippo was surrounded by 30-40 locals from Karagita, the slum across the road.  The men were armed with machetes (which are used here for cutting everything from lawns to hippo carcasses) and the women were carrying plastic bags and crates, ready to transport hippo meat.  The pictures below were taken once all of the meat had been removed from the outside of the hippo’s ribs.  What I found most striking, however, is how durable a hippo’s rib cage is.  Please note the man swinging the axe.  He swang several times while I was watching, but still did not manage to break through the bone to the meat underneath.

Gory, yes.  BUT, be it a hippo or a cow, this is where our meat comes from.  All of the meat taken off these bones was put to good use!

It takes many, many swings with an ax to break through a hippo's rib cage.

Eventually, duty called and I left the scene and returned to sorting sediment samples in my kitchen.  However, when the workday ended, I was curious to see what was left of my friend.  It turns out that nearly every part of a hippo can be eaten, because the picture below is all that remained.  Even the head was gone.  Interestingly, I learned later that the owners of the property had taken the head and they were able to get 15 kg of meat from the head alone.  Wow!!

This was all that remained of a car-sized hippo after all the meat was taken.

I must say, I was very impressed by the lack of wasted hippo.  I feel like it was not a life wasted.