Settling Into Kasigau

I'm sitting in the late afternoon sun in Rukanga, the biggest of the Kasigau villages with the most shops and activity. There is a revival meeting across the street, with loud music and bright blue chairs, more indications of an increased standard of living and even some expendable income. The interns have begun their first week of full time teaching, after twice around the mountain to meet at length with each of the five schools and determine equitable schedules for their work. I've posted one photo that shows how easy our supervision task is since the interns and a few Kenyan friends slid to their demise on a mountain climbing expedition last week-end. :)


Our constant companion is John Mwambuso Kapombe (2nd from the right in the sliding photo and third from the left in the standing group), whose name many of you will recognize as the first of the high school students we sponsored at Moi High School. He has grown up and provides entertainment, interpretation, and instruction on all things Taita. He is staying with us in the banda and gets along famously with the interns, especially Jesse. We have visited his family and he accompanies us to town each time we go. Everyone listens for his voice and his laugh especially.

Everyday I see evidence of the dramatic improvements in the community here. There are more shops with more goods and more food. People who were ill are better; there are many new buildings, more solar power in the bush communities, more kerosene, more motor bikes and cows and carts for carrying water. On our way to Voi today in the predawn, we even saw lights in the darkness once we came to Rukanga. Still, we ride around in the only private vehicle I've seen in Bungule, and life is far from easy for those who live here.

It is an unusual and not altogether comfortable experience being a "mzungu" in the midst of the Kenyan bush. We stand out by our appearance and our western ways. Our skin is pale and we appear sick to the little kids, or just plain scare them at first. There are expectations about our financial resources, easy to understand but wearing to experience day after day.

Stay tuned for more photos and check previous postings for photos, as there is a lag between writing, getting to town, and getting the photos into shape for posting. We'll be posting stories and photos of the other students we have been supporting at Voi, the schools, and the people in this fantastic place.
Kris

Back to Kasigau

We've made it to the Kasigau community, five small villages around Mt. Kasigau. We "picked" the WWU interns at the Nairobi Airport before 7 am on the 16th, and drove for about 4.5 hours to Voi, the nearest market town to Kasigau on the highway between Nairobi & Mombasa. A short stop for banking and groceries became an arduous 4 hours when the local bank machine ate someone's card, but this group of students are all troopers. Every one of them, despite being exhausted and jet lagged, was cheerful and gracious.

Our banda accommodation is quite nice, with the five women (Amy, Chanda, Julie, Madeline, and Molly) in one large dorm-type room, and Jesse in another with John, the student we sponsored at Moi High School. Ken and I have a room in another building close by, equidistant from the main structure and the loo/shower building. The food is great; we have a local cook who is a cousin to our friend Abs who owns/operates the banda. These photos are of the banda complex from above, with our host, and our cooks Lucy & Elizabeth.

Our "program" has been very busy to date: we have visited each of the five schools "around the hill": Jora, Makwasinyi, Rukanga, Kiteghe, and Bungule. Our banda and base of operations is in Bungule. We've met with all the headmasters and teachers, made a schedule for being in each school, and Ken has organized the students for screening and evaluating students in Kasigau schools who need extra support to be successful. The mother tongue in this region is Taita, and the school curriculum is mainly in English, so everyone is teaching and learning in their second or third languages (English; Kiswahili).

There have been many, many changes and developments in Kasigau since my last visit in 2006. There is electricity as close as Jora, about 5 km from the banda, and an internet/mobile phone signal from Rukanga (9 km). It has been rainy so there is a good maize crop and people have incomes from the crops, which shows in the increased number of water collection tanks, motor bikes, and other goods. Life is still simple and hard, but the general standard of living has improved greatly.

An NGO named African Promise has built new schools, preschools, school libraries and kitchens, which is a tremendous advantage. Our host and mentor, Abraham Jumapili, coordinates a club called A Better Education, and supports over 70 students at Moi High School. More on all that, and hopefully some photos, on my next trip into town.


We have returned to Voi today for weekly grocery shopping, internet, telephoning home, and market. I am happy to be among old friends in a place where so little goes so far, most of the power comes from people's brains and bodies, greetings take longer than meetings, and "hakuna matata" (no problems) is the response to most unanticipated difficulties.

Bye for now.
Kris

3 Days in Nairobi

The first part of a trip can be the most arduous, leaving behind the familiar routines of home and taking on the vagaries of travel...jet lag, lost bags, unknown languages...it can all be very disconcerting. I'm always aware of the contrasts in the world when traveling, and nowhere are those contrasts more obvious than in Kenya. Our budget allows us to stay in a very nice hotel, yet there is abject poverty in the adjacent neighborhoods. We are far away from home in a very large city, but reconnecting with old friends from previous trips, and being welcomed back to a small bush community.

We have been here in Nairobi now for three days, taking care of last minute business before meeting the students tomorrow morning at the airport and leaving for Bungule in the Kasigau community about 6 hours to the south and west. We were met at the airport by our friend Gaturu, who put his guiding skills to use showing us the Kenya Wildlife Orphanage. We took him home to Limuru with Ken driving and had an exciting adventure being lost in Nairobi in the dark with a rental car. Neither of us could remember why we had a rental car in the first place, but after one day Ken was driving like a local, which is only impressive enough to anyone who has been in Nairobi. We spent yesterday with John Mwambuso Kapombe, the young man many of our friends and family helped to sponsor at Moi High School, and his brother in law Julius, who was our guide, navigator, and co-pilot.

Stay tuned for new people and places the next time we have a signal.

Bellingham to London

We traveled to Kenya via London, with a 24 hour layover that allowed us time to stay close to the airport and take the train into town for some sightseeing. Coming from the states, it is easy to be envious of the public transportation available in many other countries. We were on a train and off at our hotel in 20 minutes from the airport, and into central London Paddington Station in another half hour. From there it was a nice walk to Hyde Park and Kensington Gardens, High Street shops and restaurants, and a relatively easy evening out. The hotel was in a predominantly Indian/Pakistani neighborhood, and downtown London was steeped in tradition and luxury. The entire short experience was quite different than where we came from and where we are going.

10 June 2010
We're on our way to Kenya, leaving the rain and wind of Bellingham and returning together for two months to the bush community that Ken & I have each visited separately. This time we are taking 6 student teaching interns from Western Washington University and I'm attempting a blog to share our trip with all of you. Follow along to see who they are, where we are going, and why we are compelled to return.

We will be living for 6 weeks in Kasigau, a remote community of 5 villages surrounding Mt.Kasigau in southern Kenya, and then traveling around East Africa a bit before returning home. Postings will be periodic at best because there is no power in the village where we are staying, and also no signal for computer or mobile phones. You can expect to see something of the life we are living away from home, and best of all, meet the people and see the places we are seeing.