KEST and the Magical Magnetism of Shared Volunteerism
Volunteers from 2010 KEST Adult trip
We are off to Kenya in 19 days! I know that this time will fly by as I try to prepare to leave my office and home and gather up everything I need to be on my way. It’s time to direct some more concentrated attention on donations to be gathered, things needed for projects to be done while there, and eventually the overwhelming task of packing (I hate to pack even on a small scale and this is quite something else!)
I have been thinking about how exciting it is to return to Kenya and Nyumbani having been there before and how I am looking forward to seeing people again. I have just learned from Lloydie that we will have two more travelers, Lynne and Walter, joining our group so its wonderful to have a larger group. I have found myself immersed in thought about how this experience really gives me much more than I give in volunteering, how my endorphin levels soar every time I talk about the trip (I have actually been told that my face lights up) and how for weeks after I returned last time I couldn’t talk about the trip without getting teary or choked up because I was so deeply moved by the whole experience. I recently came across some medical literature about volunteerism and how volunteering actually increases the life span, at least in elders in whom it’s been best studied. But I think it must be true for others too because there is something about giving to others in need that just lifts you up and fills you up, and shifts your perspective to what’s important, like nothing else can. And the relationships that you make with other people when you share that experience of working for a common cause with all the joy, and the heartache too– those are lifelong bonds.
So this brings me to KEST, Kenya Educational and Service Trips (www.K-E-S-T.com). I can’t imagine going to Kenya in any other way than through KEST (and with you, Lloydie). KEST is a small operation started by one woman, Lloydie Zaiser, with a tremendous amount of enthusiasm, dedication, and love for the AIDS orphans of Kenya. It is still a tiny operation, yet I just received the annual report tucked in a holiday card (made by the women of Kibera paper of course) and have learned more about how KEST is expanding its mission beyond the Nyumbani Programs to two different sites, launching a number of new programs and increasing the number of volunteer trips to Kenya each year (I scanned the report so I could include it below in this post). This one little organization has done amazing things by bringing to Kenya so many volunteers and hundreds of duffels of donations and finding education sponsors for Nyumbani children and so much more….. I think this has a lot to do with the infectious enthusiasm and love of the mission that Lloydie brings to it as well as the incredible spirit of the Kenyan people that you get to soak up while you are there. But it also reflects the way that the totality of the experience profoundly binds you to each other and to the cause –what I referred to as the magical magnetism of shared volunteerism. Having been on one volunteer trip with KEST, you can’t just do one, you are now a KEST lifer! Your heart will call you back again to the children and the people and the country, to all of it. And if there are moments when you might not listening, you’ll get emails from Lloydie that will give you updates about the children that will pull at your heartstrings, or remind you of the touching moments in Kenya (or tease you about how it will be 8o degrees and sunny there in February when its snowy and cold in Maine.)
Lloydie, Mercy and the shoshos at Nyumbani Village
Lloydie playing finger games with the children at Nyumbani Village
So it gives me peace of mind and a very sweet feeling to look forward to this travel to Kenya and to Nyumbani and all of the other places we will visit and to know that I start out 2012 with all of my own blessings well in perspective and my intentions pointed in a very worthy direction.
“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” Margaret Mead
Returning to Kenya and Nyumbani!!
Children of Nyumbani Village
My last post was in June 2010–in some ways it seems like a long time ago and in some ways like yesterday. I am excited beyond words and extremely grateful to have the opportunity to return to Kenya again. I knew when I last left in February 2010 that I had been forever changed by the experience there and that my heart would bring me back again. Since leaving Kenya I have kept in contact with Lloydie, our fabulous trip leader, who has brought many other groups of volunteers to Kenya and who has the biggest heart of anyone I know. In fact in the fall of 2010, all five of the travelers in our group reunited in Washington DC at the annual Nyumbani gala and auction. We had the pleasure of escorting Joseph, the sustainability director of Nyumbani Village, who had never before been out of Kenya around Washington DC and, in particular, pointing President Obama’s “house” to him.
Joseph taking in Washington DC
In addition, I have kept in touch with Lilian, the counselor at Nyumbai Village both to get follow up about the young men I evaluated there but also to be a source of support as she has such a huge job being the sole counselor to so many people. There have been the newsletters from Nyumbani, letters from the student we sponsor at Nyumbani Village, many heartfelt email updates and even a visit from Lloydie, and oh so many things beckoning me back. The most powerful, however, are my memories of those moments that moved me to tears, that showed me that although the problems with AIDs, orphans, and profound poverty are so overwhelmingly huge, one person can really make a difference, one deed can really have a powerful impact on someone else’s life.
And so we depart on January 19th. The group that is traveling this time will be four women–Lloydie, Deb, Kristen and me. Although I have not yet met Deb or Kristen, I know by the e-mails and past experience that we will be incredibly bonded by the end of the trip. The itinerary is similar to our last travel to Nyumbani, but with some extras this time. We will be spending much of our time on the weekends at Nyumbani Children’s Home just outside of Nairobi. You may recall that this is where the children are both AIDS orphans and are also HIV+. They are however thriving children who are staying healthy with good medical support and ARV medication.
Nyumbani Children’s Home
Innocent and me after facepainting at the St Paul Miki Preschool, Photo by Karen Orrick
For a week we will be at Nyumbani Village, in rural Kenya about an hour away from Nairobi. The Village is where there are about 700 AIDs orphans living in “families” of 10 being raised by a grandmother or “shosho”. The Village has its own school, medical clinic, counseling center, amazing sustainability program, etc. I will have a chance to work with Lilian again and will get to see Caroline, the student whom we sponsor. The Village is a truly magical place that is ripe with culture and alive with song and dance, smiling and laughter, despite the enormous trauma and losses that brought people there. For a nice up to date glimpse of life at the Children’s Home and the Village you can watch this video A Place Called Home by Shamus Fatzinger. I am very excited to see all those lively little children’s faces again!
Children at Nyumbani Village
We will be spending some time in the outreach clinics of the Lea Toto Programs in the slums around Nairobi. These programs provide services to families with children who are HIV+. We will however have more than one goal in mind in visiting these programs. At a number of sites, the women have developed groups who have learned a craft such as jewelry making. We met one of these groups during our last trip–the Vision Self Help Group in Dandora. I was very touched by having the opportunity to sit with them and hear their personal stories that were so compelling and filled with loss and heartache, yet incredible resilience, devotion to their children and compassion for each other. We will meet with them and other such groups to help them focus on establishing fair trade practices and business plans for selling their wares in the U.S. Another group is the women of Kibera Paper who make beautiful handmade cards, each a work of art, from recycled paper from the slums.
Examples of my favorite Kibera Cards designs
Lloydie has actually set up some time for us to have a workshop with them so that I can bring over some art supplies and work with them on some new ideas. I am very excited about this aspect of the trip which Lloydie has referred to as Women4Women. I was so deeply affected by the women whom we met in Kenya during our last trip and the ways in which they seemed to have such capacity to overcome such hardship that I wrote this poem about them and only recently, when thinking about the possibility of going back, did I revisit it:
These are only some of the highlights of the plans as the itinerary is very full. We are now in the stage of busily gathering donations of all different sorts–from medical supplies, to children socks and underwear, to office supplies, to Pampers and onesies with feet! Each of us needs to fill at least one fifty pound duffel with donations (and given that mattresses are on the list of needs and we’ll shop for more once we get there!) I better get gathering as I have a long way to go………
The one thing that I have a tinge of sadness about is that I will not be traveling with the same group of five this time. We had a very special bond by the end of the trip last time and Kenya just won’t be quite the same without them there. So I’m hoping that Mary, Karen and Tom will follow along with us and get inspired for a reunion trip in Kenya some year soon……
The “Five Travelers” at Lake Nukuru in 2010
Lynn Ouellette
Watoto Wote Wazuri 
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