Winding down the trip…with good food, good fun and more!
- Up close and personal….
So I am home now but there is still a lot that I want to share about our trip. We worked very hard on the trip, in fact it became a running joke that the definition of free time was having 3 free hours with only 6 hours of work to do in them! I have to say that we accomplished an enormous amount and it all felt tremendous.We did however save a little time for fun and relaxation at the end. The drive back from Nyumbani Village was very scenic and enjoyable as we were once again able to see beautiful countryside with mountains and terraced gardens or just people carrying on with life in Kenya.
However, the best things that we did on the drive back from Nyumbani Village was to stop at Wamunyu Carvers and the Giraffe Park. We had stopped at the carvers last year and I think it will now become a regular tradition. It is a men’s cooperative of gifted carvers who make many things out of wood and are fascinating to watch since many of the tools they use are larger than the delicate animals they carve….and they all start with a log!
Working on a giraffe
Story of Wamunyu Carvers
Not only do you get a tour and an opportunity to talk to the carvers, but you also get a chance to then shop from the huge store of hand carved wooden goods at far better prices than you will find anywhere else in Kenya. The only problem is deciding what to buy! Wamunyu carvers is not far from Nyumbani Village, but on the other end of the drive in Karen, just outside of Nairobi, is the Giraffe park where they rehabilitate rescued giraffes and are trying to raise more of the endangered Rothchild’s giraffes in captivity. Those are the species that look like they have on white knee socks. Before we could get to the giraffe park we hit the dreaded traffic pile up near Nairobi and it would have taken us about 3 hours to get through the city. So Justus our trusty driver and friend took us on one of his famous short cuts. This was the back way to avoid all the traffic and get what is affectionately known as a free “African Massage.” We had been on bumpy roads before (there are many in Kenya, but none quite like this one with holes capable of swallowing up half a car!) But it truly was a shortcut with a sense of humor and Justus was our hero once again.
The short cut–this wasn’t the worst part, but a part I could hold the camera still enough to shoot
Once we got to the giraffe park the giraffes were being “called” by the park rangers into visit us and so that we could feed them. They weren’t anywhere in sight at first but they gradually made their way toward the gazebo like stand where we were all waiting with a crowd of other people.
You can barely see them here…
and then they got closer
Then closer
Then much closer!
I even got to feed one!
They were not at all shy about getting close; many of us got to feed them and some people even got giraffe kisses! They are quite beautiful animals up close .
Beautiful animals!
This ended our fun on the way home from Nyumbani Village and everyone had first and foremost on their minds getting to the Spurwing guest house for the night where we knew we could take a long-awaited shower and would have something, anything other than Village food, for dinner. Having stayed in a cluster house with no electricity and no running water under hot conditions and having been running around in the red Kenyan soil for the week too, we were all feeling like a shower would be so heavenly. Having stayed at Spurwing in the past and knowing that they are good friends of Lloyd assured us of a great meal as well so we were in high spirits. We all emerged for dinner a little giddy with joy from being clean again. The following day we had on our agenda–packing–our personal things including all the things we had bought for souvenirs and gifts, finishing the distribution of donated items, and packing up the purchased Tuko Pamoja items to fly home with us all in duffels weighing less than but as close to 50 lbs as possible. We had another stop to make at the Children’s Home and I had a meeting with Lilian to debrief her about all the patients I had seen. We were however also scheduled to do something fun and relaxing that day by visiting the Kiambethu tea farm in Limuru, a wonderful place to learn about growing tea, see the gorgeous tea fields, drink tea, and have a delicious lunch of homemade food.
Entrance to the Kiambethu Tea Farm
Tea Fields
Perfectly sectioned tea fields
The garden at the Tea Farm
The house at the tea farm
All of us being entertained by the Colobus monkeys on the roof
A very welcome lunch at the tea farm
Going to the Kiambethu Tea House is a lovely relaxing experience. Fiona, the owner, gives a talk on the history of the farm and the history of tea growing in Kenya which is the largest exporter of tea in the world. Upon first arrival there are tea and biscuits on the veranda to go with her talk about how tea is grown and processed. Then there is a walk through the neighboring deciduous woods followed by juice wine or cocktails before lunch. Lunch is served outside on the lawn and is wonderful and homemade with lots of fresh garden vegetables especially enjoyable for us vegetarian types. And for dessert ice cream made from milk from the cows they refer to as the “ice cream makers”. And the delicious tea that we were served can also be purchased at a steal to take home.
After the tea farm we went back to finish up a few more things as most of us, all but Lloydie and Deb, would be departing that night. I had made arrangements to meet with Lilian at the Children’s Home for debriefing and still had one very important delivery to do there as well. I had to deliver a letter and more importantly hugs to Hannah from her sponsors Emma and Marie back in my home town. And then, of course it was irresistible to visit the other children who we hadn’t seen since last weekend even if we were interrupting their dinner–we just couldn’t help ourselves!
Hannah with a letter and picture from Emma
Kid’s shoes of one household
And so this was our last day in Kenya–a day with a little relaxation and lots of beauty to remind us of all of this country has to offer, a day of some hard goodbyes, yet we’ll be back next year, a day of already reminiscing about this amazing trip and work well done and already planning new things for the next one. I’ll keep blogging about this one for a while since I have a couple thousand photos and parts of the trip I haven’t shared yet. Thank you all to my fellow travelers and volunteers and especially the most incredible Lloydie Zaiser, my soul sister (even if she doesn’t know the definition of free time 🙂
Maize grows everywhere!
Nyumbani Village–always a unique experience
Nyumbani Village Child
We have just returned from Nyumbani Village! The internet connection was so slow there that I didn’t have the opportunity to blog, but as always time spent in the Village was an experience unlike any other. The week was so packed with activity and the group did so many diverse things that I can’t begin to recount all the projects in which everyone was involved.
Let me begin by saying that the ride to and from the Village was mostly through beautiful rural Kenyan countryside marked by a few communities.
Drive to Nyumbani Village
Along the way to Nyumbani Village
It is about a four-hour drive from Nairobi, but much of it is very scenic. The arrival at Nyumbani Village is marked by a unique entrance made out of bricks from the Kenyan soil as is the entire Village.
Entrance to Nyumbani Village
The Village itself is also quite beautiful. It was built on 1000 acres of what was originally arid land and is now the site of 25 clusters–a cluster being four brick houses arranged around a common watering hole with each house being home to one grandparent and 10 AIDS orphans. The Village is designed to preserve the Kamba culture so there are no modern conveniences in the homes–no electricity, no running water; food is prepared over flames outside, water is gathered outside, etc.
Inside Nyumbani Village
Another view of the Village
View through to the Administrative Offices
It’s always exciting to arrive in Nyumbani Village since as soon as we arrive the greetings begin! There are always brightly dressed grandmothers waiting to offer exuberant greetings in Kikambe with the special extra exuberant handshake or to break into spontaneous dance upon first sight. They are an extremely friendly group of women who do not hold back and are extremely agile when it comes to dancing. And once school is out there is a sea of children in mint green uniforms who quickly change into play clothes and snatch you up for playing and photos. these are a few of our neighbors from cluster 8 where we stayed and found out we were there within moments of our arrival.
Deb with the neighbor children
Once we had all barely settled in, basically dropped our things in our lodging (this year living in an actual cluster house as the Village residents do with no inside plumbing, water, or electricity) we were quickly off do other things starting with meeting with the various administrators talking about placements and activities to be done. some of the main activities were time spent in polytechnic doing carpentry, doing ongoing interviews with the grandparents for the memory book project, doing artwork with students for the memory books, working in sustainability and agriculture projects, building chicken coops, carrying on the business of Tuko Pamoja with the Shushus (grandmothers) and for me, doing psychiatric consultations that had been scheduled for me by the Village Counselor Lilian who was actually away during that week in Nairobi. We also interacted and enjoyed spending time with three interns doing long-term projects there and the Princeton fellow who is there for an entire year. In fact, Jill had come to Kenya partly to visit her friend who was at Nyumbani Village doing an internship.
Interns Anna, Becky and Ashton
Lloydie is also working on developing a sister school program with a school in Maryland at which her daughter is a teacher and brought donations of school supplies and soccer balls from there in addition to all the other clothing donations that we brought. Sorting of these and presenting them at a school assembly is always a fun thing to do. It is a great opportunity to see all the children together in the school yard and enjoy them.
Great toothless grins!
Karen in the crowd of Nyumbani children
Love her beautiful big eyes!
Clapping for the sister school
At the assembly
Buddies
I love pictures of feet…or hands
Lloydie and the sports teacher
This child made we wonder what he was thinking….
I spent a lot of time in Lilian’s office during week and have to say that I was much busier than in years past. It seems the word got out o the surrounding community that I was there and expectations were high that I would have answers or solutions for problems in which many cases there were none. on the first day in the clinic I saw 7 new patients all from the community who came in with children from 4 to adulthood who had never acquired any language skills. their difficulties ranged from anoxic brain damage acquired at birth to possible severe hearing impairment to severe autism and a number of them had a history of never having been evaluated before. It was quite incredible and profoundly sad because these parents did not really have an ideas of the problems with which they were dealing, has false information and in some cases false hopes because they had never been told the reality of the situation. Even on the second day that I was there another crowd of community people showed up when I had appoints scheduled for others from within Nyumbani Village and had to turn many away. The bright spot in all of this was the follow-up visit of the young man I had seen last year who had been acutely psychotic and through the round about of many different steps manage do get on medication. He came in with his father who told me his son was a new man and he was right. He had stayed on the medication until just recently and was profoundly different. He had not been back to school because they could not pay the school fees, but so wanted to be there and needed to go back on the medicine because of the return of some subtle symptoms . So we discussed both and I have to say it absolutely warmed my heart to see him doing so incredibly well. I saw him twice more before the week was up and arranged to pay for his school fees and am finishing the arrangements to get his medication. He starts back to school on Monday and is so grateful and so is his Dad. It’s a wonderful feel good story and its hard to say who amongst all of us is happiest! there were many stories that I heard in Lilian’s office and Sarah joined me for several days of that work. they were not all feel good stories, in fact, many were profoundly sad. There were times we just had to finish up with someone and close the door and shed a few tears because people have suffered such hardship; they have just endured so much. There was another young man who had spent 2 years caring for a sibling who was three years younger (when he was 12 and she was 9) before he came to the Village and now he was worried that if he left the Village after only 2 years at the Polytechnic School (the alternative to four years of high school) that he would not be able to support himself. All he wanted was to stay for the 2nd two years of the Polytechnic program so that he could feel secure about his future, but he had no one to sponsor him (pay his school fees). So Sarah, moved by his story, is now his sponsor, and going to tell him she had made these arrangements was another amazing bright moment. I remember being told by one of the administrators at the Lea Toto programs the first time I went to Kenya that you can get overwhelmed if you look at the whole picture and feel like you are not doing enough, but you have to remember that you can help the person that is right there in front of you and that makes a difference. I never forgot that. It was a very busy, sometimes profoundly sad, always moving, but also very rewarding time there in Lilian’s. Sometimes it was acknowledging the all too sad truth, sometimes only words of comfort and solace, sometimes just listening, sometimes trying to make something happen where things seem slow to impossible, and once in a while it was actually changing someone’s life.
In Lilian’s counseling office at Nyumbani Village
One of the other fun things I got to work on, partnered with Deb, with a group of Nyumbani Village students in the art group gathered to make art for the Memory Book. We asked them to focus their art on pictures of life in the Village and they did a great job. The Memory book, when it is finished , will be an amazing piece of history as well as a tribute to all of the grandparents raising AIDS orphans at Nyumbani Village. I haven’t participated in the interviewing since I have been always been busy consulting to Lilian at Nyumbani Village but I have had the pleasure of hearing about many of the interviews. The grandparents at the village are primarily grandmothers, but there are currently 3 grandfathers. they all have incredibly rich and unique histories full of the local culture. AS far as we know, since all (more than 100) haven’t yet been interviewed, the oldest is 104 (and still raising children). One of the most recently interviewed grandfathers participated n the Mau Mau Revolution which is a rich part of Kenyan’s quest for freedom from British rule. One of the eldest grandmothers at 97 once remarked to Deb, in an effort to market her baskets, “How do you expect a 97-year-old blind woman to make a living if you don’t buy her baskets?!” Many of them have rich histories and are rich characters passing down wonderful culture and traditions to the grandchildren.
Working on art for the Memory Books
Jen and two girls from the basketball team
Caroline, the student my family sponsors
As I mentioned previously, there were so many projects and activities in which the group was involved while we were in the Village. Jill did a lot of work with Polytechnic and sustainability. Jen worked with the Young Ambassadors–this is a group of Junior high students learning social responsibility and citizenship. Deb and Karen did a lot of grandparents interviews. We got to cheer at one of the Lawson High School (Nyumbani Village High School) basketball games which was the first place I caught up with Caroline the student I sponsor. We also had a little time to visit the next day before she had to leave to get her birth certificate and other items needed in preparation to take the national exam. The group also spent the better part of the day with the shu shus having a Tuko Pamoja meeting but this was a special one in which they demonstrated to us the technique of making their beautiful baskets. They too were delighted to hear the success of Tuko Pamoja, the fact that we are purchasing way more baskets this year, and that they will receive payment for a purchase twice a year. We also spent time carefully going over the features of the baskets that make them most likely to sell including quality, characteristic and colors and had a very attentive and receptive audience for that.
Nyumbani Village Shu shus
Rolling the sisal on her knee
A row of basket weavers
Looking over Tuko Pamoja materials
Nyumbani Shusus get the Tuko Pamoja certificate
A little spontaneous dancing breaks out….
Thanks to my generous donors, the KEST group was able to participate in building and in significantly contributing funding towards the chicken coop project for Nyumbani Village. The Village has always had some chickens but they fall prey to Mongoose and other animals and have not been plentiful enough or efficiently tended to enough to be a source of eggs. the goal is to have a chicken coop for all one hundred houses so that all the families will have a regular source of eggs to add a regular and nutritious source of protein to their diets. The KEST group helped to build one of the chicken coops. I was too busy in the clinic to take part, but I heard the stories–very hard work in Nyumbani Village, especially in the heat with everything being done and carried by hand. A nice looking product in the end however! I have to say that over all we truly lucked out with the weather this year! it must have been around 105 degrees the first day and we were all melting, but in a very unusual turn of events for this time of year, we have afternoon showers three days in a row that brought some cooler (relatively) air and we were all very grateful!
The chicken coop that KEST helped to build
Our last night in the village was a special treat. Instead of the usual food–ugali (maize porridge) or rice and sukumawiki (stewed kale with a few onions and tomatoes) or kitheri (beans and maize) we had a tasty coconut vegetable curry made by the interns. that was followed by a performance extrodinaire in one of the clusters to watch the children later joined by the grandparents dance traditional dances. that left us awe-struck!! Truly an amazing performance of human endurance flexibility and fast movement that always make me think that the Kamba people must have some extra joints in there somewhere to be able to dance like that, And biggest surprises were the grandfather of 84 years old and the tiny peanut of a six-year-old, his grandson who could dance unbelievably well! It was the perfect ending to our time in the Village!
Waiting for the dancing to start
The cutest little dancing machine!
The Shu shu joins in!
Grandfather and grandson
AND… we all to join in more than once being taken by the hand onto the dance floor by the young dancers, BUT fortunately none of the locals have cameras!
Stay tuned for adventures on the way home from Nyumbani Village–the Wumunu Carvers and the Giraffe park! And thank the heavens we have all had a real bath and oohed and aahed at the feeling of actually being clean from head to toe again– the Nyumbani experience is truly a road to appreciate the small things in life we take for granted like running water and a shower! And we have delighted in being served a delicious meal by Susan and Raphael Maina at the Spurwing House! We have a trip to the tea farm scheduled tomorrow then sadly some of start the journey home tomorrow night……
Resting on a log……being silly!
First Annual Tuko Pamoja Women’s Workshop—Pure Magic!!
Directing the way to the work shop
It would be very difficult to pick a favorite day that I have spent in Kenya, but if forced to choose, yesterday might be the one. We held our first Annual Tuko Pamoja Workshop for Women and it surpassed all of our expectations and imaginations for what it would be! All of us went to bed at night feeling as if we had been part of something truly amazing that day. It was the culmination of dreaming and planning and a whole lot of work on the part of LLoydie and Jen–a synergy of ideas and passion that came together to be a profoundly moving experience for all.
The workshop was well planned in advance and the logistics were all in place at the start of the day. We all began putting up the signs and getting the rooms for the workshops ready first thing in morning. The night before had been the shopping and preparing brigade for gift bags to go home with the Tuko Pamoja participants–each would be receiving a tote bag of maize flour, sugar, cooking oil, tea and powdered milk at the end of the day in addition to a small personal bag of toiletries containing soap, hand lotion and tissues. The attendees for the workshop were to be 3 women from each of the 6 women’s groups with which we work as well as the administrators of the groups if there were separate administrators–i.e. three women from PCDA , three from Kibera paper, three from the Nyumbani Village grandmothers group and three women from each of the three Lea Toto self-help groups and four administrators. The plan was to meet together as a whole group in the morning, to stay in separate groups rotating through four separate workshop session topics with a break for lunch and to meet together again in the afternoon. The women had all been asked to bring a sampling of their crafts to share on a display table with the other groups.
Jen setting up the name tags
Sarah “posing” with the goals and workshop session titles
Lloydie, Jill and Sarah getting ready with their name tags
Pre-briefing for the day and then we were off!
And then the women began to arrive and there was a sense of excitement and energy in the atmosphere. It was so clear that they were so happy to be involved–they were extremely warm in their greetings, many were dressed quite beautifully and they were profuse in their gratitude for being able to participate. When I say warm, I mean these women do not hold back–there was a lot of hugging, occasional spontaneous dancing and many comments that conveyed that they felt so special that this was being given to them. It was just wonderful to witness this from the very start of the day.
And the women began to arrive………
Dressed beautifully….
Deb and Jane look like they chose the same outfit for the workshop…
Once everyone had some a few minutes to enjoy tea and those Kenyan delights, mandazis, each of the U.S. board members teamed up with a group of artisans to facilitate them coming up with a group motto and mission statement and to give them their schedule of workshop sessions for the day. Lloydie made the opening remarks and each of the Board members spoke briefly about what would be the focus of their workshop.
Enjoying tea and mandazis
Motto and mission statement for Kibera Paper
We ran the workshops in four separate rooms. Since Lilian, the Nyumbani Village counselor and Kenyan Board member, and I ran our workshop all day I did not attend the others but I do have pictures to share. I was mostly out of my usual photographer role having entrusted my camera to Sarah out of my need to stay focused on my group. Lilian and I did workshop sessions on personal well-being. This was focused on a self-esteem building exercise, and a guided relaxation exercise. At the end of the first session, Lilian said to me–and I so wish I could convey this with her Kikamba accent– “Oh my God, I did not know we would be making this amazing impact on these women!” What prompted her comment was the combination of their willingness to be so authentic and expressive and their openness to being moved by the positive comments that their fellow group members made about them. They were also really receptive to the relaxation exercise which we worked on with them. In the last group as we finished the relaxation exercise accompanied by soft music, one of the women exclaimed, “Wow!” and another “Oh my God, I was almost asleep!” which really delighted me! Over the course of the day we heard stories of women who had endured great hardship and loss who were so very admired by their friends yet had never really heard these positive things about themselves before who were now hearing them and being very moved by them. It was quite touching to be a part of it.
Great signage thanks to Jill!
Lilian and me and the TP women in the personal well-being session
In addition to our session there were others focused on marketing, product design and quality control and finance. The marketing session was run by Lloydie and Maggie who is the marketing director at Amani Ya Jou. They talked about concepts and ideas to market to increase sales as well as effectively marketing directly to customers by doing some role-playing.
One of the marketing sessions
The product design and quality control session with Deb, Jen and Simon, Director of the Lea Toto Self Help Groups
The finance workshop with Karen, financial planner in New Hampshire and Susan Maina, Kenyan business owner
All the board members report that their workshop sessions went very well and that they accomplished a great deal. the knowledge flowed in both directions learning more about the challenges the women are facing in producing their crafts but also providing them with useful knowledge that will help them address their needs as they try to develop more of a local market, learn to budget and begin to save small amounts of money to put toward their ultimate goals, produce higher quality products with more consistency, introduce new products, and develop an increased sense of pride in accomplishing all of these goals. Our ultimate goal is to work with all of these groups until they become self sustainable and then expand Tuko Pamoja to take on collaboration with additional woman’s artisan groups.
In the middle of the day when we broke for lunch we could tell that things were going extremely well as we could see that all the groups were mingling. We also could tell that lunch was an extremely abundant meal for these women as they ate heartily and commented quite vocally on how much they were enjoying the food we had provided. During the break, women were looking at each others products and talking with each other, sitting with different group members for lunch, some even bought each others products. This just warmed our hearts because this was across tribes and in a situation in which, under other circumstances there might have been some competitive feelings. And it was clear that some of our women are HIV+ and other groups do not have this issue and there was potential for the stigma to be an issue (this is HUGE in Kenya) and none of this was present! These women embraced each other and it was heart warming to watch the heart of Tuko Pamoja (we are together) in action!
Sampling of tems on the display table
Sampling of Kibera Paper cards on the display table
At the end of the day, we all came together as a group once again and talked about how the day had gone, Lloydie explained that this day was the culmination of a dream a long time in the making and that the day was a very meaningful event on so many levels. Several times during the day i heard the same comment form women “I don not want this day to end!” She asked people in the room to give some feedback about what they had learned during the day and many people responded. Some of my favorite comments were:
Jen spoke up and said that she had a new understanding and even greater respect for just how hard some of the women work and how little time they actually have to put into their crafts and that its amazing that they accomplish even making the products that they make.
My absolute favorite comment was from Jackie of the Vision Self Help Group who spoke up by saying “I have learned about something I never knew in my entire life. I have learned about personal well-being, this is something we must do everyday!” Yes!! And for me that’s when the tears started and they didn’t stop for the rest of the program….
Then we began to give out the gifts. Lloydie held up the canvas bags , with the food goods inside, and the room broke into cheers JUST for the bags, and for Deb, that when she was moved to tears. Just for the bags……. without even knowing what was inside they were overcome with gratitude. We introduced the board once again and spoke about how honored we felt to be there with all of them sharing this day.
Lloydie talking about the food bag gifts
The Board feeling the excitement of the day
So we moved on to giving every woman a certificate of attendance, a bag of food items and toiletries with hand shaking and hearty hugs and even spontaneous dancing as we went down the line. Every Kenyan Board member was recognized and every contact person at each site was given special recognition and there was profuse cheering and clapping and an intense spirit of celebration in the air.
Hearty hugs in the line for certificates and gifts
Spontaneous dancing
And more hugs..
Following the certificates and the distribution of gift bags it was time to really close the day so we all held hands in one huge circle and one of the women led us in a tradition prayer in Swahili, Then it was powerfully magical as we sang a song led by first one woman and swayed in the circle as one voice became many and then became a song with many parts in beautiful harmony. And when that was done then Lilian led us in another song that began with one voice, that then became many, and then became a song with many parts all sung in harmony and we swayed together in a circle holding hands, many os us tearful, some of us with tears streaming down our faces as we took in this profoundly magical moment.
And then came the group photo and the goodbyes. And the day ended with a sense that we had truly accomplished something, feeling a little emotionally exhausted but oh so happy that the workshop had exceeded our expectations. And we all agreed that this is why we come here and that its impossible to truly convey what this feels like. And when people say that we are being generous to do this work the part they may not understand is that this the reward, that what you get back is immeasurable. The connection with these women overflows your heart. Karen remarked at dinner last night that she wished that every woman could be a part of an experience like this. We are the lucky ones to share this with these women who have so touched our hearts in ways that simply cannot be put into words.
A special goodbye and photo with Lilian
Tuko Pamoja Women”s Workshop group photo
For the students: Brunswick, Maine students send friendly greetings to Maasai children of Kenya!
Telling the Maasai children about the artwork
Hello artists of Brunwick, Maine! Your artwork and the donated art supplies have traveled a long way to make it all the way past Kiserian, Kenya where the Maasai children live. The children here and the teachers and parents of the community were VERY grateful to receive them! The trip to their community is about an hour’s drive from where we are staying and we traveled through the town of Kiserian and through some beautiful countryside. It was common to see donkeys grazing on the side of the road or to see herds of cows crossing the street and even to have to stop for them as they pay absolutely no attention to the cars sometimes even if they are being herded. Often they are roaming free when not in town. We traveled through the Rift Valley which I wrote about in my last post for you.
Cows crossing!
Our group getting our photo taken in front of the view of the Rift Valley
The Maassai school sign
When we arrived at the school the children were all very excited to see us because they know that we always bring things that will add to their classrooms and do special projects with them. They are very smart children who are hard workers and love to learn but do not have all the books and supplies which children in the U.S. have. They have very few art supplies (maybe a few crayons) and their school has tin walls, a tin roof, windows with no glass, and until recently dirt floors. because of some donations they were recently able to make a cement floor on the school which has made it much better. All children who go to school in Kenya are required to wear school uniforms so you will notice that they are all dressed alike in the photos taken while they are at school. Although much of the time the Maasai rely on milk and meat to eat, when there are enough supplies to make it, the children get porridge made out of corn flour, dried milk, oil and sugar for lunch. When we arrived they had run out of the supplies for making hot lunch so the children were getting any lunch. However, we were able to get them enough supplies to make sure that there would be lunch for them for the next year.
Maasai Children waving as we arrive
Greetings from the Maasai children
The homes that the Maasai children live in are very different from the homes that we live in and they often raise the baby animals of their herds inside while they are young to keep them safe from predators. The Maasai are known for dressing in very bright clothing and wearing traditional tribal beaded jewelry. Even the very young children wear bracelets made out of beads.
Typical boma or Maasai home
Maasai women in their colorful clothes
When I told them about your art, I explained to the children and the parents that it was a way to send friendly greetings from America and that part of my goal in traveling is to teach the children at home about the cultures of other parts of the world and try to connect them to each other I explained that your artwork had many friendly sentiments and that Mrs. McCormack had been talking to you about Kenya and the Maasai people.
Showing the envelopes of art
Sharing the individual pieces of art
With their masks!
On the day before we had made masks with them so they had just been making masks. I shared some of the masks that came in the art work form some of you which made them laugh and clap!
enjoying the masks you sent!
I also explained to them that I would be making copies of the photos that I had taken of them the day before to share with all of you when I return to Brunswick. Since they do not have mirrors or any photos of themselves it was a special treat to take instant Polaroid photos of them and put them on a frame for them to bring home in the same way that you would have your picture taken at school.
Example of the photos taken of the Maasai children
I am hoping that we might be able to continue this exchange back and forth as I go to Kenya each year in the future. Although Many things about your lives are different, there is much more about you and the Maasai children that is the same and it would be a nice opportunity for you to learn more about that. A huge thank you to all the Brunswick, Maine artists and especially to Sharon McCormack for coordinating this with me!!
Maasai children in the classroom (including learning the word for” head” in English!)
Through the Rift Valley to see the Maasai Community
The Maasai Chief, Philip the Director of PCDA and KEST workers pose for a photo in front of the Rift Valley
We have been with the Maasai community of PCDA (Pastoral Care Development Alliance) for the past two days: we have loved and taught their children (and they have taught us), heard of their challenges and tried to help with some of them, sung and dance with beautiful Mommas and bought their goods, “broken bread” together and had a wonderful time of getting to know each other better.
The ride to Kiserian and beyond to their community was rich with culture and beauty as we drove to the opposite side of the Ngong hills (remember in” Out of Africa” Karen Blixen says, “I had a farm in Africa at the foot of the Ngong Hills…”) with views of the Rift Valley. We met Philip and his assistant Kristen in Kiserian where we picked them up to drive with us to the community. We had already previously met with Philip one evening a couple of nights earlier to discuss the needs of the community and how best to support them.
Philip, Director of PCDA and his assistant Christine
The drive to PCDA
The Maassai school
When we arrived at the school the children were all outside waiting for us with plenty of excitement and enthusiasm and then swarmed to greet us after we first drove by to use the facilities which were a little more welcoming (remember ALL is relative in Kenya) at the nearby church!
Maasai Children waving as we arrive
Greetings from the Maasai children
Sarah and Jill’s introduction to a pit toilet 🙂
Before we actually got to spend time with the children, we met with the chief and various other leaders of the PCDA community about our plans to offer support and to learn more about some of the challenges that the community is facing. One of their biggest challenges is adequate water since they are pastoralists and rely on having herd animals as a constant source of milk and meat which are their main dietary components. Currently their only reliable source of water is that which is piped into the community from a bore hole owned by a company which charges them by the liter and it is very expensive, The overarching challenge is poverty so having to pay for water is a huge expense. Since KEST has been involved they have been able to make improvements in their school such that they are not far from becoming a government accredited school which will offer them some federal funding and relieve some of the financial burden of running the school. They are very determined to properly educate their children and one very articulate woman got up and spoke about how the key to educating a community is educating a child and that her dream is that someday the Maasai women will achieve the equality that white women have achieved. The traditional Maasai Culture is very patriarchal, but they are working to make some changes such as educating all children, not just boys, and hoping that their children can someday be leaders in the country.
Maasai chief
We did a number of projects with the children that morning: making fans, making masks, and I took a Polaroid photo of each and everyone of them to take home to their Mommas. I had the very helpful assistance of Karen as the camera was clearly not designed to work that hard all at once, but the children were so thrilled and so patient as they waited their turns. We will make additional photos like these to give to the children in Maine who sent their art work over to this community. While we were finishing up their photos, the rest of the children and the KEST workers and staff had a football (soccer match).
One child showing his photo with its “frame”
With their masks!
Maasai children in the classroom
The soccer teams
We joined Philip, the Director, the teachers and staff for lunch under a tree with a wonderful, welcome breeze that offered some relief from the heat. We met a few parents of the children at the school through out the day but also went to the homes of some of the families in the afternoon.
Typical boma or Maasai home
Baby goats are protected from predators inside the boma–I loved petting this one!
Deb with Josephine
Having determined what were the most pressing needs of the community that we could try to address, before we left for the afternoon we made a plan to meet Philip in Kiserian again the next morning to shop for school supplies and the ingredients to make porridge. The children were no longer getting lunch at school because there were no supplies for making it. So we shopped for three months worth of porridge supplies and provided the funding to keep it going for the next year and committed to keep it funded in an ongoing way. We also shopped for all the school supplies needed to keep the school going and thanks to one of my generous donors we were able to order gym/sports uniforms for all of the children (Thank you Marie!). When we brought all of these things back to the school there were great expressions of gratitude from staff to parents and the children who just cheered about the sports uniforms! I also presented the art supplies and from the Brunswick, Maine students, but will write about that in a separate post for them.
Karen and one of the PCDA teachers with a bag of maize for porridge
In the afternoon we met with the self-help group of PCDA, the Maasai women of Tuko Pamoja. We had the usual business meeting with Jane, who is a nurse in the group and one of several who has excellent English, who was able to translate for the other members. We presented them with the Membership certificate, went over the order, and paid them for the completed items. We also did interviews to get their personal stories of their lives. We had time to visit together, shop from the wares and play with a few children who were there.
Presenting the Tuko Pamoja certificate to PCDA
On “onlooker” taking everything in.
I enjoyed the Maasai children–especially sweet little Elizabeth who so wanted me to paint her toenails red too!
Before departing we spent time expressing mutual appreciation and in the welcomed cool breeze in the hot sun we all swayed together as the women sang beautiful traditional Maasai music for us under a clear blue sky.
Maasai women in their colorful clothes
Tuko Pamoja-PCDA Group Photo
We headed back to home base at the Demise Sisters Retreat with a few stops on the agenda–one was a stop to meet the teachers at Philip’s son’s school because now he is in a different school because he has moved into Class 2 (grade 2) and can no longer go the Ororopil Preschool. When we arrived there, much to our surprise and extreme delight, a number of group members recognized this school from the movie, “The First Grader” , which if you haven’t seen I would highly recommend. It is a multi award-winning film which is the true inspiring and touching story of an 84 year-old Kenyan villager and ex Mau Mau freedom fighter, Kimani N’gan’ga Maruge, who fights for his right to go to school for the first time to get the education he could never afford.
Since we had all but one seen the film (although Philip did not know of its existence) and were really touched by it we were thrilled to see the school where it was filmed, meet the teachers who had played a part in the film, learn about the filming process, learn how they taught the children not to look at the camera and paid the children for their participation. Sarah was so excited she was in tears as she sat in Maruge’s desk!
Oloserian Academy–site of filming for “the First Grader”
Jill as “Maruge’
Philip and his son
The very cute children of Oloserian Academy
So this was unexpected surprise, one of many that has occurred in our travels full of magical moments. I am finishing up this post at the end of the day of the First Annual Tuko Pamoja Workshop for Women (I am behind on blogging because I have a nasty cold and there is only so much you can fit into a day!) But stay tuned, because THIS day, the workshop, was pure magic!
Sign at the turn before the Oloserian Academy
For the Students: Some Facts to Know about Kenya
Location of Kenya in Africa
So that you will know a little bit more about where we will be traveling to do this volunteer work in Kenya, I decided to post an entry about the country of Kenya and its people. Kenya is located in the Eastern part of Africa and in the part of the continent referred to as Sub Saharan since it is below the Sahara Desert. As you can see, part of the country is on the coast by the Indian Ocean and the country itself lies on the Equator. Although there are rainy and dry seasons, most of the time the temperature in Kenya is similar to warmest part of our summer. Nairobi, the capital city, is the largest city in East Africa and the orphanage where we will volunteering is located just outside of Nairobi in Karen. In the movie “Out of Africa” Karen Blixen moved to Kenya in 1913, to have a coffee plantation and befriend the local Kikuyu tribe; she later became a famous writer including her writing of the book which became the movie by the same title. The town of Karen is named after her.
Kenya has more than 70 different ethnic communities or tribes and 80 different dialects. Although the official language of the country is English, the national language is Swahili. Because there are so many different communities in the country the national motto is “Harambee” which is Swahili for “Let’s all pull together.” It’s likely that you are familiar with some other Swahili words if you have ever seen the Disney movie “The Lion King”. A number of swahili words were used in that movie, like “Simba” meaning “lion”, “Rafiki” meaning “friend”, and “Hakuna matata” which means “no worries.” Children are taught English in school, but most are able to speak Swahili or another tribal language. The most well-known of the Kenyan tribes are the Maasai, a nomadic tribe whose cattle are highly valued. They are striking to see because they are tall, lean and dress in red “shuka” (blankets) with elaborate beads and braided hair. We support a local Maasai community by bringing donations to their school such as supplies for their hot lunch program and school supplies, doing projects with their children, and buying beaded jewelry, belts and other items that are hand-made by the women.
Most of the Kenyan people are poor in comparison to Americans and many Kenyan people are extremely poor and therefore had difficulty having enough food to eat or are not able to stay healthy. The U.S. does try to help countries like Kenya and other poor countries in Africa by sending aid, but it is a small amount in comparison to the amount that is needed to take care of everyone who doesn’t have enough to eat or is sick.
Our earliest ancestors, Homo erectus, which evolved eventually into Homa sapiens, first inhabited the area around Lake Turkana in Kenya where their fossils were first discovered by the Leaky family. You may have heard of a place called the Great Rift Valley, which is over 3000 miles wide and runs through several countries in Africa including Kenya and is the place where the first human skull was found. It is also very beautiful landscape.
Great Rift Valley
Music, with both dancing and singing, are an important part of the Kenyan culture not just for entertainment, but more importantly for ceremony and ritual. Soccer is a national pastime and the most popular sport from children to adults. However, Kenyan’s middle and long distance runners are amongst the best in the world. Most of Kenya’s top long distance runners come from one tribe, the Kalenjin, and they have been responsible for winning many gold medals for Kenya in the last decade.
One of the things that for which Kenya is most famous is its national parks and reserves where wildlife can roam free. It is there where people are able to go on safari (Swahili word for journey) to see the animals in their usual habitat. Some of the animals that one might expect to see include:
The Maasai Mara is a national reserve that is very famous because between July and October each year over two million animals migrate from the Serengeti National Park in Tanzania to the greener pastures of the Maasai Mara National Reserve in Kenya. The migration has to cross the Mara River in the Maasai Mara where crocodiles will prey on them. This is one of the highlights as the animals try to cross the Mara River alive.
Kenya is a very beautiful country with friendly and welcoming people who are very appreciative of volunteers who come and offer help or donations. To say thank you they often sing and dance and often share generously what they do have to show their appreciation.
Singing, Dancing, and Making It Snow with the Mommas of Kenya
School children at the Kibera Paper location
Wow, we have been incredibly BUSY over the past two days!! I wish that I could blog every day because it seems that each day is so full of moments that are so moving, so profound, so joyful……and there are so many stories to tell. It is in many ways like being in a different world here because the poverty and hardship are so beyond imagination, the impact of AIDS touches everyone here, yet people remain resilient, joyful, and tell their stories with such authenticity from their hearts. We have continued our intensive focus on Tuko Pamoja as that is a very important goal of this trip. Supporting the caregivers of children with HIV or AIDS or the mothers of children living in extreme poverty is the most effective way to support families and communities and is at the heart of the mission of supporting the women artisans of Tuko Pamoja. Before telling you about our recent visits with Tuka Pamoja groups I just want to tell you who the group of travelers is this time. Sarah and Jill are the new travelers–Sarah is a nurse from North Carolina and Jill is an artist and preschool teacher from Arizona. Lloydie is our fearless leader and head honcho of KEST (Kenya Educational and Service Trips) and Jen is the junior head honcho at KEST (sorry I can’t remember your official titles.) Lloydie Jen, Deb, Karen and I are the U.S. Board members of Tuko Pamoja and have all made multiple trips to Kenya with Lloydie leading the pack at 13! Justus is our amazing driver who is always happy (I hear it’s a Kamba tribe trait 🙂 extremely helpful and has nerves of steel to be able to drive in Nairobi where the entire large city seems to have only one traffic light. So you have met the group–on with the experience.
The KEST Group–Deb, Sarah, Jen, LLoydie, Karen, Jill, Me and top center is Justus, our wonderful driver, translater, and friend
Yesterday we went to the final Lea Toto site (Nyumbani outreach clinic for children with HIV living in the slums of Nairobi) supported by Tuka Pamoja in Dandora, called the Vision Self Help Group. This group of women has been together for many years and was the first self-help group that I met. They make jewelry, beaded items and sewn items, all wonderful! Many of them are volunteer community health workers helping other families who have children with HIV and some are themselves HIV+. In fact Sarah, in the elegant peach colored garb above has been living with HIV for over 20 years and nearly died before she knew her HIV status. But now she is a community activitist, AIDS educator, is raising AIDS orphans, and is an empowered woman living positively with HIV. I had the opportunity to interview her and its amazing that she survived. HIV and AIDS are still very much stigmatized here despite the fact that so many people’s lives are touched by them. In Dandora, we also interviewed the women about their lives and had a business meeting about Tuka Pamoja. One of the things we always do is bring fruit and biscuits (cookies) when we come, but this year we also brought scarves for all the women so you may notice them in the pictures, We also presented them their official TP certificate.
Tuko Pamoja certificate for the Vision Self help group
Visit with the Vision Self Help Group of Dandora
One thing that we did a little differently here was to spend more time talking a circle as a larger group and by the time that was done, with the women expressing such gratitude and such heart-felt sentiments, there was not a dry eye, virtually everyone was in tears. Although we don’t see these women often the incredible warmth of the welcome, the sharing of the connection, the way we are brought into their lives and they into ours, the emotional exchange, it all leads to a profound connection. we did life story interviews, shopped from their wares, and it was all too soon time to leave with very hard to say goodbyes.
Group photo with the Vision Self Help Group
Following the time spent in Dandora, we had plans to do some “socially conscious shopping” in two sites where we have developed relationships with the staff and workers over time. The first stop was Amani (meaning peace in Swahili) which is a cooperative of African women refugees who have a very successful business selling many hand sewn items featuring hand died and batiked cloth. In fact, their business is so successful that we asked their marketing director, Maggie, to be a member of the TP Kenyan Board.
Maggie of Amani and Lloydie
We also made a stop at Kazuri Beads, another favorite place. This is another special place that now employs almost 350 people, predominantly women, many of whom are bused in from the slums. They receive excellent pay, have on site medical and day care and are treated very well. They make gorgeous pottery and ceramic beads from clay mined in Kenya. Learning about the process of mining and harvesting the clay, preparing it for shaping, hand shaping it, firing, then glazing and refiring it makes you appreciate the beauty of the beads even more. When we stopped at Kazuri Beads yesterday we were too late to see the workers because our day had gone too long so we could only do some shopping. So had to decide to leave early this morning to make sure that we could go back for the tour and especially to see the workers because we have a tradition of visiting them, getting welcomed in song and dance and handing out a little candy treat–lollipops this time, you may notice the sticks in the photos….
Making Kazuri Beads
Kazuri Bead factory workers enjoying the sweets
Kazuri Beads!!
We had to get an early start today to fit in the trip back to Kazuri Beads because we knew we had another full itinerary. In fact last night I had most of the group in my room helping me prepare for today’s project at Kibera Paper.
Late night project preparation
Today we headed to Kibera paper, the final Tuko Pamoja group from the slum area of Nairobi. This is the group of women who make l hand-made paper from recycled paper obtained from businesses into absolutely beautiful handmade cards which are each a piece of art. When we go to Kibera paper, anyone who hasn’t been there before has the opportunity for hands on instruction in paper making and making the cards. Deb and I have also established a tradition of sharing an art project with the women. So in addition to the Tuko Pamoja business meeting and presentation of the certificate, receiving our order and paying for it, doing the personal interviews, drinking chai and eating homemade mandazis (Kenyan like doughnuts) that one of the women had made for us, sharing in a circle, singing and dancing, we also did paper making and art projects which made for quite a busy time. Kibera paper was the fourth group that was so prepared and had 100% of their order ready for us even though we only expected 50 %. So all the groups are doing so well with getting their orders completed early, introducing new products and being professional in ways that will really make them successful!
Making cards, dancing, singing at Kibera Paper
Cecily and the TP certificate at Kibera Paper
Both Deb and I make handmade cards and decided to make a different kind of card with them. She made very fancy valentines and I decided to teach them a bit about snow by making snowflake cards. Since none of them had ever experienced snow, that was quite a lot of fun! I brought plenty of photos I had taken in the winter in Maine with various quantities of snow, but the big hit was one of my children when they were younger posing with a snowman they had made. The women really got into it once they once they got the technique for cutting a six pointed snowflake and the snowflakes and glitter were flying everywhere because there was a bit of a breeze and the paper was very light. At one point I looked down and there were about a dozen snowflakes on the ground by the table and it made me laugh to think we had made it snow in Kenya today! I love working with these women–they have a lot of spirit! So once again it was a hard goodbye with singing and dancing…..lots of hugs and tears.
Making snowflake cards
Following spending most of the day at Kibera Paper we drove further into Kibera to pay a visit of support the Power Women’s Self Help Group.
Glimpses of Kibera
They are also a Lea Toto founded self-help group, but through some extra support, really hard work and exceptionally good financial decisions they have become self-sustaining and own and operate their own shop to sell their goods. They have also recently expanded to having a hair salon attached to their shop. Their president, Everline, is on the TP Kenyan Board. We sat and talked with them about the history of their group, how they run the business, and let them know that the other self-help groups have similar aspirations and see them as an inspiration.
Everline of the Power Women”s Self Help Group
Power Women’s Hair Salon
It’s very late here in Kenya and its time to get a few hours of sleep before we head out in the morning on a little bit different path. It has been an intense, but very rewarding past few days. We will be headed to the Maasai community of PCDA to do more Tuko Pamoja business, but also to spend some time supporting other projects in that community. You may recall some of the time we spent with the Mommas and the children last year. If not, I will tell you ahead of time, the children are absolutely adorable, enthusiastic, engaging, beautiful little ones! Can’t wait……
Joyful Children’s Faces and Women Who Will Touch Your Heart
One of the Tuko Pamoja women and her children
We have had two busy and incredible days for the second and third days of our journey and an inability to recharge my electronics (mishap with the adapter we ultimately learned tripped the circuit breaker) left me wondering how I could possibly blog about these two days which were both so full of moments that had filled us with ideas and questions, left us speechless at moments, brought us to tears and touched our hearts.
We began yesterday at Nyumbani Children’s Home where the children are AIDS orphans and are HIV+ but get extremely good medical support and are doing very well. We arrived in the morning to many joyful greetings as the older children came out to greet us. There were plenty of hugs and remarks about how much they have grown especially from those of us who only see them once a year. All the children are really polite and respectful, but all have unique personalities and some have quite the enjoyable senses of humor. We were headed off the church , Kenyan style, which is a wonderful experience and tried to describe it to the new travelers, Sarah and Jillian, knowing that you can’t quite fully describe it—it is something you just have to experience. Everyone heads up to mass, even the really young children, dressed in Sunday clothes, and its a joyful migration to behold.
Lloydie with a child from Nyumbani Children’s Home headed to church
Once inside there are MANY children participating in the service–they are the choir, the musicians and drummers, the speakers, the servers, and my personal favorites, the dancers. And they are amazingly good at what they do! The youngest dancer who is getting taught the dances is 3 years old and has tremendous natural rhythm–and I am talking about African dancing and drumming, etc. And any children who aren’t in the front of the choir are singing and dancing–or drumming–at their seats. So this is a joyful, kid-friendly service in which priest talks to thee children, engages them, uses his sense of humor and they listen and participate. And if you are there as a visitor–you better clap, and sing and dance too!! They bless everyone who has a birthday that month and by doing it once a month practically all the children’s cottages have a birthday once a month–which brings a large cake and tub of ice cream. So we had our lunch and were invited to several birthday parties. The younger children are raised in cottages of families of 12 -14 children of mixed sexes with “Moms” who care for them. When they get older they move to the youth hostels which are divided by gender and are a little removed from the younger children.
In afternoon, we delivered bags of sidewalk chalk, temporary tattoos, and bottles of bubbles to each of the cottages. We also added 7 new scooters to the scooter supply. Sunday afternoon is the only concentrated time of free play that the children have so it is a caucophany of scooters going around the circular playground with the older children very lovingly teaching the younger ones the ropes of scootering
Scooters are very important at NCH and build strong legs
Faces of Nyumbani Children’s Home
As has been the tradition in the past when I have been at the Children’s Home, I planned to do face painting once again. I recruited some help from Sarah and Jill who asked me how I would let the children know when and where we would be with the face paint. I reassured them that all we had to do was set up outside somewhere and we would soon have children flocking to us. And so we did, and in no time we were surrounded by faces, and arm and hands…. And so we face painted for what was at least thee hours beside the playground with scootering, squealing children in the background and smiling children right there in front of us. I don’t know how many faces or arms we ended up painting but I know had a ball with all of them!
Just a few of the faces we painted!
We stayed around a little longer after that so that we could go cheer the boys at a football (here it would be soccer) game. Our wonderful driver Justus joined some others in creating a match team for the boys and we had a fun time cheering everyone on. By the time we actually left the Children’s Home it was about an hour and half later than we had planned and everyone was having a hard time saying goodbye even though we are going back next Sunday. We had plans to go out to dinner, one of two times which we will eat out during this trip, and after quickly cleaning up headed out to the restaurant Karen Blixen’s Estate (of Out of Africa fame).
Boys football game
While yesterday was a lot of fun –and definitely some work with painting a lot squirmy children and sorting the locations for numerous of those many duffels, today was definitely more work and business oriented but so very touching in so many ways. Today was purely focused on Tuko Pamoja and going to two sites where we work with women artisans groups in very compromised communities. We spent the morning in Kangami and Dagoretti, both slums of Nairobi, where Nyumbani runs the Lea Toto Programs (Swahili for to “care for a child”) offering outreach care to children who are HIV+.
Pictures on the periphery of Dagoretti
Both of the groups we work with there are self-help groups — groups composed of caregivers for children with HIV–some are mothers or other relatives who may be actually raising the children, some are volunteer community caregivers—all have come together to support each other and to make crafts to earn a living or supplement insufficient income for survival. We met in the morning with the Good Hope self-help group of Kangemi and in the afternoon with the Miracle Caregivers self-help group of Dagoretti. In both cases, the agenda was the same. We wanted to share with them that Tuko Pamoja had a successful year having sold 85% of its inventory, that we had increased our order by 30 % and talked with them about the upcoming workshop. We gave them a lot of positive feedback about how their products were so well received.
Some of the beaded products at Kangemi
We read to them the poem that I had written back in 2010 which was a tribute to Kenyan women and the way that has become tradition to open all Tuka Pamoja sales events and we gave them a certificate for being charter members of the Tuko Pamoja LLC which brought lots of cheering and clapping!
Tribute to the Women of Kenya
Oh women of Kenya,
do you know how beautiful you are?
With your dark eyes holding your
stories of such sorrow and despair
your shining faces still able to smile so lovely
despite hardship beyond imagination
Oh women of Kenya
do you know how strong you are?
To carry your sick children on your backs
for miles through the alleys of Kibera
to raise the children of a nation through
sickness and poverty with such love
Oh women of Kenya
do you know how powerful you are?
You are the true backbone of your country
the bricks and the mortar of your people,
the keepers of the culture and traditions
the past and the future
Oh women of Kenya
do you know how glorious you are?
you dance and sing with a lively spirit
that could fill the heavens
that suspends all time and lifts all hearts
with infectious joy
Oh women of Kenya
do you know how truly amazing you are?
You moved me in a way I could not have imagined
found places in my heart I never knew existed
A piece of me is there in Kenya with you
I am but a deep breath away and in my mind’s eye
I am remembering just how beautiful you are!
LLoydie showing the Tuko Pamoja certificate
Presenting the Tuko Pamoja Certificate
We also told the women that we thought a major key to the success that people felt a connection to their personal stories because we told about the group and at least the story of one woman at each of the sales events. In that regard we talked with them about developing a book with a photo and story of each woman and asked if we could interview all of them so that we could say more about each of them. We also asked to do a video interview of the two women who could speak English most fluently explaining that although we could tell their stories we felt it would be best if people could hear them in their own voices and from their hearts. So I had the honor of doing the video interviews and they were heart wrenching, touching, honest stories of hardship and resiliency that in some cases made me cry with the women, but they were phenomenal and I will never forget them. These women live on the edge all the time. They have to pay rent, school fees, and put food on the table and often there is not enough money to buy food. They are loving mothers who often raising other people’s (i.e. sibling’s who have died of AIDS) children. They have endured their own hardship through many losses to AIDS and other diseases, but are very committed to educating the children and creating better lives for them. They are truly quite amazing. Once you meet them you cannot avoid being touched by them and wanting to help in some way.
Son of one of the Tuka Pumoja women at Kangemi
We have arrived…and had a busy first day!
Our donation duffels gathered at Nairobi airport
Finally in Kenya!! We arrived late last night, close to midnight, after being delayed nearly two hours on the plane in London while snow was falling and the plane was getting deiced and desnowed. We were lucky to be on the early side of that snowstorm as subsequent flights were cancelled and we were so ready to finally be here! We were greeted by the warmest of smiles, hugs and shouts of “Karibu Kenya!” by Justus, our favorite, always good-spirited driver who delighted us by telling us that he would be our driver for the whole trip. We had 34 suitcases and duffels to collect before heading off the Dimesse Sisters, our lodging, where we arrived well after 1AM and got just organized to get to bed.
Jen, Justus, and Lloydie
After breakfast at 8, we reunited with Justus and were off to Nyumbani Children’s Home. We were headed to a meeting with Sister Mary Owens, the Executive Director of all the Nyumbani Programs, but of course met up with other staff and many smiling children and delivered many hugs along the way as we promised that we would be back all day tomorrow to spend time with the children. it is amazing to see ho much they’ve all grown!
“Baby” John who fell asleep in my lap last year
Deb high- fiving with a couple of little cuties
We met with Sister Mary to get an update about all of the Nyumbani Programs, to talk about various projects in which we will be involved, including the status of the chicken coop project and to talk about the plans for Tuka Pamoja while we are here. Tuka Pamoja is the company which we began to support the kenyan women artisans group who come from extreme poverty, the majority of which are connected to Nyumbani by either getting services through the Lea Toto programs catering to children who are HIV+ in the slum areas around Nairobi or by living in Nyumbani Village and being grandparents who are raising AIDS orphans. Sister Mary has been very supportive of Tuko Pamoja and the need to support the caregivers in addition to the children who are the primary recipients of support through Nyumbani. Following a productive conversation and pleasant visit as always with Sister Mary, we were off to get ready for the first annual joint meeting between the U.S. and Kenyan Boards of Tuko Pamoja.
Tuko Pamoja Board Meeting
Since this was the first time all of the U.S and Kenyan board members were together it was quite a thrill to be able to talk about how exciting it is that the first year of TP has exceeded our expectation in sales and enabled us to place an even larger order this year, to be planning a workshop for the women and to think long term about how to involve more women’s groups and to ultimately work towards helping the current women’s groups become self sustaining. There was a lot of excitement and synergy of good ideas in the air. We planned the Workshop for Women for next Saturday by working in pairs of one U.S. Board member paired with a Kenyan Board member of similar skills and I think we have a marvelous workshop planned! I got to spend some time with Lilian, yes, the counselor I usually work with at Nyumbani Village, and we came up with our portion of the workshop through which all the artisans groups will rotate next week—personal well being focused on self esteem, self care and nurturing, stress management, female identity issues, etc. The women will also have a chance to learn about finance and business, product development and marketing and much more. The goal of Tuko Pamoja is to help them have a sustainable income, but it is also to foster resiliency, an investment in the future and hope, a positive identity and pride, and a strong sense of valuing themselves and being valued. Its exciting and an honor to be part of this.
Young Artists Send Greetings from Brunswick, Maine to Kenya!
Really captures the spirit of this project!
Thank you Brunswick school artists!!! I am so excited about this project! Once again working with Sharon McCormack, a wonderful and enthusiastic art teacher in Brunswick Maine, we have organized an exchange of art and culture between local students and Kenyan children. Students from Coffin School and Harriet Beecher Stowe School have sent me many wonderful pieces of beautiful art work and a generous offering of donated art supplies as part of the Art of Giving Project.
Art supplies and envelopes of art work—wait until you see samples of the art
I had so much fun looking at the art work–there are so many pieces that I think I will be able to share them with more than one group of children in Kenya. Here are some samples of the wonderful work:
And look at these wonderful masks!
I wish that I could show all the art work since I had a wonderful time looking at each and every piece. The first stop will be with the Maasai community where I will bring the donated art supplies and many pieces of art. The Maasai children are wonderful enthusiastic learners who are in a new school in a poor community and do not have materials like art supplies. They will be thrilled to get the supplies and delighted to get greetings from the U.S.
Maasai children of Pastoral Care Development Alliance
This is the floor in their new school–it’s a lot different than yours.
And this is a Maasai house–silly me I’m trying to catch a baby goat and not very good at it!
Later I will post some more entries so that you learn more about the Maasai community and the children who live there. I can tell you that without a doubt they will be so excited to get your art, friendly greetings, and the art supplies. The other part of this project will happen when I am there working with the children. The Maasai children love to have their pictures taken and are fascinated to see them on my camera. They don’t ever have any pictures of themselves and they don’t even have mirrors. So I will be bringing a camera that takes small photos that print out instantly so that we can take a picture of every Maasai child and we will make a little frame so that they bring them home. It will be like getting a school picture which everyone is used to getting here at home, but will be very special to these children (and their parents) because they have never gotten them before. My camera also keeps a record of the photos so that when I return Mrs. McCormack and I and anyone else who wishes to volunteer (I already have one parent volunteer–thank you Judy Marblestone) will get together and make a photo of the Maasai children in the same kind of little frame to give to every child who made art work to send over. You will get to see a lot of smiling faces appreciating your friendly greetings! Later I will post about the other community where I will bring some of your art work. I will write some special posts for all of you at Coffin School and Harriet Beecher Stowe School and you will know that they are written for you because the titles will start with “FOR THE STUDENTS” Many thanks again to all especially Mrs. McCormack!
Chicken Coops, Chillin’ Mommas, Chirping Children …and Ugali?!
Nyumbani village–view through the schoolyard
And so we depart very soon—on January 17th. Everyone is counting the days and the lists of things to be done before departing are getting very long. This year is more complicated than most and with each year I wonder just how I am going to do it–to get ready to leave and then somehow it miraculously happens. We really have an incredible itinerary this year and a trip packed with things to accomplish. In fact, we keep packing in a little more….though I will admit I am one of the worst culprits for adding on projects. Just to give you an idea below is the link for our itinerary for my portion of the trip….before we added in the chicken coop supply buying and building, the photo project with the Maasai children and another project I am working on incorporating (that’s the one you might not know about yet Lloydie–surprise!)
You can see that Lloydie Zaiser is a master at color coded itineraries! She also has worked out the details of volunteer activities here:
Volunteer assignments in Kenya
You see… part of my goal in including these in the post is the hope that I might entice some potential interested volunteers for future trips (some of you already know who you are).
I want to tell you about some of the plans that we have in place so that you will have a preview of what we will be doing. Though we are departing from the States on Thursday the 17th, we don’t actually arrive in Nairobi until late Friday night. We might be exhausted, but I can tell you from experience that excitement will make us early risers and we’ll be off and running on Saturday morning since it will the first time waking up in the daylight in Kenya. One of the major goals of this trip will be to focus on Tuko Pamoja, our collaborative business with the Kenyan women artisans and that will begin right away by having a joint U.S. and Kenyan Board meeting on Saturday and dinner together on Saturday night. Now it might seem like a Board meeting sounds stuffy, but you have no idea—I’m talking about 10 people, all friends, half of whom haven’t seen each other in a year, 9 women and one man, who have enough passion about the Kenyan women artisan groups to blow the roof off the building. It could be problem that we are meeting in a sedate retreat center run by nuns…. Part of what we will be preparing for is the following Saturday we will be offering the first annual Workshop for Women for the Tuko Pamoja artisans. It will be their opportunity to participate in a workshop focused on product development and quality control, financial and business skills, personal nurturing, relaxation exercises and self-esteem (my part with my Kenyan Board counterpart, Lilian, the counselor from the village) and much more. We will have a lot of fun with them, a lot of positive feedback and skill building, new business cards, food bags for them to take home, and some personal items, some great bonding time and I am sure much singing, dancing, and probably some tears of only the best kind.
Vision Self Help Group of Dandora
The workshop will be after a week of going to all the sites where the women work to make their crafts–to the slums of Kibera, Dandora, Kangemi, and Kawangare where the Lea Toto outreach programs of Nyumbani provide services to families of children with HIV, and to the Maasai Community of the Pastoral Care Development Alliance.
Massai women of the PCDA craft group
The only group which we will not see before the workshop is the basket weaving grandmothers of Nyumbani Village, but we will see them when we spend all of the following week in the Village.
While we go to each site we have some other activities planned which will include outreach visits with the social workers to homes at the Lea Toto sites. These are always amazing touching experiences. At Kibera paper we will do another workshop with a shared art project for new card ideas. Last year I taught the women how to block print and had a wonderful time. This year I don’t have a plan yet but know I will and we will have a lovely touching time together. It will be a little bittersweet though as Hilder who so patiently taught us to make paper passed away since we were there last year. These women are so lovely, friendly and warm and so appreciative of the time we spend with them—of course that’s true of all these groups.
Hilder teaching me to make paper at Kibera paper
We also have some fun things planned with the Maasai Children at PCDA. I have to say that I had a wonderful time with them last year and I think that was partly because I got to paint their faces and I was assigned the volunteer “task” of being the photographer.
Maasai Children
Well I have managed to weasel my way back into that assignment this year by coming up with an actual photography project. We are going to make “school photos” for the children to take home. I have a polaroid digital camera that takes instant sticky back photos that we can mount on matte and these children who never have photos of themselves and are fascinated by the camera will bring photos home to their Mommas! I have also been in contact with the local art teacher , Sharon McCormick, who did the art exchange with me back in 2010. She now teaches the gifted and talented art class and her students thorough the “Art of Giving” project are going to send art work and art supplies for me to bring to the children. Lloydie can we fit in a little art work project with the PCDA children 🙂 ?
On the weekends we will be visiting Nyumbani Children”s Home. We may do food sorting, clothes sorting or other volunteer activities, but most of the volunteer time is spent just being with the children and loving them. It has become tradition for me to do face painting with the younger ones so I have already stocked up on face paint to travel. Last year Puritee, a former Children’s Home resident who is now grown up and living independently (the real miracle of the Children’s Home is the normalcy of this kind of outcome) joined with me in the face painting and I hope we will do that again. I will never forget the first year when I had preschool children chirping all around me in unison “I want to be Bahtamahn (Batman with the swahili accent!)
One little happy painted face
We head to Nyumbani Village for the second week and though living in the Village is rural and rustic and HOT, with lots of ugali (very heavy traditional Kenyan maize porridge that drops into your belly with a bang) at most meals, it is the most magical of the places we go. It is beautiful with lovely foliage and red Kenyan soil and smiling green clad children around every corner. The nights are cooler with the starriest sky you will ever see and if you are not treated to an up close and personal performance of singing or dancing by one of the families then you can often hear singing in the distance. We will be working on any number of things there. My primary focus is to work with Lilian, the sole village counselor for all 1000 children, 100 grandparents, the staff and community workers. There are no psychiatric services available. Lilian already has people chosen for me to see, gives me the key to an office and I get to work. I don’t think she has any idea what hours I work at home because around midday she will tell me I am working too hard and bring me chapatis and a drink. The KEST Volunteers have been working on memory book to preserve the history of the grandmothers or Shushus and one of my other projects while in the Village will be to work wit a group of children on art for the memory books. Lilian doesn’t yet know she has to share me in the afternoon and I might find it hard to pull myself away if there are too many people in need.
Lilian and me
There will be a lot of simultaneous projects going on with volunteers participating in various different activities at the Village. And then there’s the chicken coops. One of the big request from Nyumbani Village was funding and help with 100 chicken coops. This makes so much sense since having eggs will be a very self sustainable way to increase dietary protein and the village is all about sustainability in remarkably creative ways–like growing tilapia and filtering the tanks through a vegetable bed (aka aquaponics), using biodeisel (methane from cow manure) to fuel the stove, and using human urine to kill the termite hills. But when will we fit in the chicken coops?!
Dancing Shoshos
We always plan a special time to visit with the Shushus and they think they are teaching us to dance when really we don’t have a chance of ever dancing like they do–not in a million lessons! But we have a lot of fun!
There will be plenty of time to mingle with the children and I will get to visit with Caroline the student I sponsor for high school. Children are always out walking back and forth from school, gathering kindling in the evening, or just coming up to greet you.
Nyumbani Village children walking back from school
They loved to be photographed and to have your attention and are wonderful reminders of the success of this program. They are all AIDS orphans many of whom were rescued from unthinkable conditions after their parents died and now they are thriving healthy children. In fact the Village recently got international media attention for being a unique and successful model for raising AIDS orphans. news.yahoo.com/kenya-village-pairs-aids-orphans-grandparents-165643122.html One thing though that is always difficult is saying good bye at the Village. That is why last year I had to decide before I even left that I would be back this year and every year.
The need to do something good……and to say thank you.
Scenery on the way to the Rift valley
I had another catchy title with an alliteration planned for this post, something to pique the interest of the readers and take them into our planned itinerary in more detail, but I decided that it’s not where I am right now. It’s the holiday season which is certainly joyful in many ways and for me is a time that I stop to appreciate the people I care about and to really let the people I appreciate know that. It’s a time I reflect on my riches and want to share them in different ways whether it be with holiday gifts or the annual donation to the food kitchen or the homeless shelter or just putting something in the red kettle as I walk by. But this year I am also more acutely aware of the sad things in the world– the events in Connecticut, the loss of a family friend, other people’s losses, the death of another grandmother at Nyumbani Village, they seem to be all around. And so I’m a little too heavy-hearted for the catchy title.
I know however that going to Kenya is the perfect antidote, that doing something good for someone else also feeds my soul. Now that the busyness of the holidays is winding down I can hopefully do some more detailed planning for the specifics of some of the projects that I love to do so much when I am there. I know that the indomitable spirit of the dancing and singing Kenyan women and the broad smiles of the Kenyan children will be magical once again. I have been overwhelmed with how many people have opened their hearts and their wallets with such generosity because I received many donations to help with the work in Kenya. I know that some are still on their way. I think that everyone may be feeling the need to do something good and I hope that through the blog I will be able to convey what a difference your donations will make for the people we work with in Kenya and the depth of their gratitude. I wish everyone could join me there for just a few moments and share in the amazing connection with the people who speak from their hearts with such authenticity and know the true feeling of the phrase “tuko pamoja”, we are together. I recall leaving after the second day at Kibera Paper last year and having one of the women say, “though we will be far apart, our hearts will still be together.” That is the Kenyan way.
So I will do my best to let you all know how we are putting those donations to good use and to let you know with my words, photos and occasional videos, the magic of the experience that keeps me going back year after year, that connects me with people across the globe, and has left those people indelibly in my heart forever. A heartfelt thank you to everyone for your generosity in helping me to spread good will and in some cases, literally help people to survive. John F. Kennedy once said, “One person can make a difference, and everyone should try.” Thanks for trying along with me and please know that you have made a true difference in the lives of people whose hardship is difficult to imagine, but whose gratitude is unforgettable.
Gathering with the children at Nyumbani Village
Returning to Kenya….in just 41 days!
Acacia’s in the afternoon sun
In some ways in feels like a long time since we left beautiful Kenya and in other ways it feels like we just said goodbye. In the almost year since I’ve been there, much planning and work have taken place to get ready for this trip and of course our amazing leader Lloydie Zaiser and her fabulous sidekick Jen Geiling have put in an enormous amount of work not only planning this trip, but also Lloydie led a multiple week trip to Kenya over the summer. We have been hard at work planning our activities for Tuko Pamoja which in its first year has been a success beyond what we had hoped. In fact, the order has already been placed and the women are working starting to make the items now. For next years sales. There will be seven of us traveling to Kenya this year, 5 of us make up the Tuko Pamoja U.S. Board and have all been to Kenya before and we have 2 additional volunteers who have never been before who are very excited to be joining us.
So let me say a little bit about our plans for this trip. First of all I have to say that it is a wonderful whirlwind of an inspirational, industrious, impassioned and ambitious itinerary, like all the past trips, but even more so! WE will spend some time on the weekends at Nyumbani Children’s Home with multiple enrichment activities plan with the children and other volunteer activities. Having started the tradition of face painting with the little ones 2 years ago and realizing that they remembered the experience when I when I went last year means that this is a must for an annual activity–and one that I have so much fun doing with them. In fact the first place that we land is always the Children’s Home where we get the warmest of all possible welcomes.
Innocent–remember him?!
We will not spend much down time before we are up and running however as we arrive on Friday and have our Tuko Pamoja Board meeting with the Kenyan Board on Saturday. This will give us an opportunity to review the year and plan a day long workshop that we will host for the TP women on the following Saturday. More details will follow as I blog about it, but it is very exciting to have some plans to work with the Kenyan artisans groups in a way that will help them build business and financial skills, take pride in the wonderful work they are doing, collaborate in helping to grow their self esteem and empower them to feel truly successful. Prior to this workshop and during the week we will be visiting all of the women artisan groups except for the Shushus of Nyumbani Village who we will see the following week when we spend the whole week in the Village. We will go to the outreach clinics in the severely impoverished areas around Nairobi such as Kangemi, Dandora and Kibera. I”m delighted to say that there will be another art exchange with the women of Kibera paper who I had such a wonderful time teaching to block print last year. Yikes, I don’t have the project planned yet but I know I will come up with something that will be fun and valuable to exchange. We will also spend 2 days at the Maasai community of PCDA working with those women and their adorable children.
Maasai Children in the School yard
One of the plans I have for the children there is to use my new digital Polaroid camera which takes tiny sticky back pictures (2×3 inches) and mount them on some kind of backing so they will look framed and they can bring them home like “school pictures”. They never have pictures of themselves so I think this would be so special for them. Lloydie, since you know I have too many ideas for this trip all the time, you might not know about this plan yet….but doesn’t it sound like fun and something they would so enjoy bring ing home to their mothers?! On all our visits to the women artisan groups we will be reviewing their progress, offering support, going over the sales success of their products etc. During our visits we will be bringing various donations and supplies to different places–like for example last year we brought supplies that enabled the school lunch program (i.e. daily porridge) to continue at the Maasai school where for some it was the major food intake for the day. The work with Tuko Pamoja will culminate with the workshop and then we will head out to Nyumbani Village for the following week.
Nyumbani Village
While in Nyumbani Village there is always a lot to be done. Each year we get a list of donation requests along with bringing many duffels of donated clothing and other items with us. Once we get there we sort them and often the Village is the place with he greatest need for clothing and other things. This year amongst the list of requested items was supplies to make 100 chicken coops, one for each family (one grandparent and 10 orphans) in the Village.
Children of Nyumbani Village
Clearly we need to go out and purchase the supplies and part of our role will be to help to build the chicken coops! Now I am usually busy much of each day working in the clinic with Lilian doing psychiatric consultations but I have been encouraged to join in the fun of chicken coop building at least long enough for a good photo op. I have never built a chicken coop, but I’m very handy with tools, so this is not too daunting to me and if the who Shushus are participating it could be a wildly fun time. I will also be helping the children do art work for the Memory Book which is being created with the stories of all the grandparents of the Village. Lilian, who I recently corresponded with over email tells me she already has a client waiting list for me so I don’t think I will not have a problem with idle time! Then again, there is no idle time when we are in Kenya, just time full of amazement, magical time immersed in the culture, singing, dancing, and feeling connected to people who live across the globe and then stay forever in your heart. I will wrap up my stay after we return from the Village, but most of the group will stay on for another week and do some additional volunteer at another orphanage. Someday, I will stay longer too when it fits together better with the rest of my life. For now I feel really lucky to have discovered this kind of work, the wonderful people with whom I travel and the remarkable people of Kenya, many of whom have so little yet with which to get by, yet rejoice in life with amazing and admirable spirit that I wish everyone could experience. Keep reading my blog….I’ll do my best to share that as far as words will allow.
Lillian, the Village psychologist, and me
Relearning the Lesson: Life is precious, life is fragile…
The Tuko Pamoja Team have been singing our hearts out and sending greetings and news of our sales successes to the Kenyan Board and Tuko Pamoja artisans in Kenya. I think that we have lit cyberspace with our excitement as we have shared how people here have generously opened their hears and their wallets, wrote encouraging and inspiring comments in our guest book and truly enjoyed the Kenyan women’s crafts.
Cynthia’s cat claiming her Village Shushu basket
We have all felt the sense that this was better than expected and OMG, this is really going to work. “We might be on to something pretty TERRIFIC!” “This just makes my heart sing!” “And I’m singing the same tune right along with you!!!!” Well, you get the point—a lot of excitement, and joy, and truly a countdown to Kenya as we cant wait to share all this in person with the women of Tuko Pamoja.
Sadly, however, in the midst of this, we received word from Cecily that one of the Tuko Pamoja artisans, Hilder of Kibera paper had died suddenly after a brief illness. She traveled upcountry in Kenya to see family, returned feeling ill, was treated for malaria and died within a few days. She was the single mother of 3 children. Our hearts were deeply saddened to hear of this news, to think of her, her family and children and all of the women grieving at Kibera paper. If you saw the blog while we were at Kibera paper, you will recall Hilder as the very patient, welcoming lovely woman who taught everyone of us how to make paper.
Hider patiently demonstrated the process
from the beginning
And watched as we tried, often more than once….
….until we got it right. (I am usually the photographer so I am shooting Justus an unusually cheesy grin)
Despite the language barrier she had some humor along with us about the moments of our less than stellar performance and a very warm presence. And like all of the women at Kibera she drank tea and sang and danced with us (she is the first woman that Lloydie enjoins to dance). We enjoyed her very much and will miss her at Kibera Paper when we return in January.
Hilder is the 2nd of the Tuko Pamoja artisans who has passed away since we left Kenya. You may recall that Jane of Maasai Village of PCDA died unexpectedly of illness as well.
Jane of PCDA
While I pay great homage to these woman for their strength of spirit, their resiliency and determination to care for their children under very difficult circumstances. I am reminded that their hard lives, lives in extreme poverty, with little access to good nutrition , health care, and many of the things that we take for granted—it all takes it toll. These women died young by our standards. I tried to find out what the average life span in Kenya is, but found conflicting figures. Its safe to say that it is at least 20 years younger than here in the U.S. and in the extremely compromised communities like Kibera it maybe as low as 30 years old.
So we send our truly heart felt condolences along to Hilder’s family and her friends and fellow artisans at Kibera paper and we carry on the work of Tuko Pamoja–the partnership with these and the other artisan groups in the hope of making some difference in their lives, helping them have an income they can count on, bringing them some hope for the future and with the hope that the long term toll of the hardship of their lives will somehow be a little lessened by our efforts and those who join with us.
Nyumbani and Tuko Pamoja–A lot to celebrate!!
I haven’t posted for awhile because I have been so so busy with all things Nyumbani and Tuko Pamoja! Many fellow KEST travelers and the Board of Tuko Pamoja met outside of Washington D.C. two weekends ago for a weekend chock full of events. On Friday evening was the Annual Fundraising Gala for Nyumbani which was also celebrating the 20th anniversary of the start of the Nyumbani programs. Everything began with Father D’Agostino, Jesuit priest and psychiatrist who wanted to do do something for the children who were dying of AIDS in Kenya. The Children’s home began as a hospice program, but things have changed a lot since then. At the gala, we got to view a new video celebrating 20 years of Father D’Ag’s vision of the Nyumbani Programs.
.Some of my fellow KEST travels reunited after having not been together since our travels together and it was a mighty spirited time celebrating the connections we have developed in this passion of caring for AIDs orphans.
KEST travelers reunite!
We both attended and volunteered at the GALA raising a lot of funds at the sales table! This summer, when I might usually paint Maine landscapes I painted Kenyan portraits which I donated for Gala auction.
Painting of Nyumbani Village Shushus
But the Gala was only one event in the several days we spent outside D.C. Tuko Pamoja also had a Board Meeting (or several) in which we reviewed the progress we have made toward working with the Kenyan Mommas to sell their goods in the U.S. and the plan, BIG PLANS we have as we move ahead!
Lloydie leading the Tuko Pamoja board meeting
Tuko Pamoja folder–Our motto from JFK “One person can make a difference and everyone should try. “
Not only do we have 8 sales events planned for this fall, the reception has been so great that we will be able to plan 6 or 7 for the spring. When we travel to Kenya in January we will have a meeting with Kenyan Board members and then a workshop for representatives from each group of women to offer training in financial and business skills, product quality control and development, and self esteem and professionalism. We have a lot more up our sleeves, but let me share some of the successes which have actually happened. Lloydie and Jen did a dry-run sales party the weekend before the board arrived and that was a great success. This was a warm up event for the weekend of the Gala when the kick-off sales party for Tuko Pamoj was scheduled to occur with Sister Mary Owens, the Executive Director of all the Nyumbani programs in Kenya, who was present as our honored guest. Sister Mary updated people on the status of Nyumbani and spoke with wisdom and inspiration about the need to support the mothers and grandmothers who are raising the children affected by AIDS in Kenya. She acknowledged that it is most often, as it should be “all about the children” yet it is the women who raise the children who also need to be supported. Jen and Lloydie show a photo of an individual woman from each of the groups and shared their personal story. And I was surprised to learn that my poem about Kenyan women (below) which it now seems I wrote a long time ago has become the ritual opening for all Tuko Pamoja events! Then we let everyone shop!
Shopping at Tuko Pamoja event
Nyumbani Village baskets
Kibera Paper cards
And shop they did!! After everyone was done we were excited to see what the proceeds from the first official Tuko Pamoja event had been and found that a whopping $2700 had been made!
Tuko Pamoja Board with Sister Mary Owens, Exec Dir of Nyumbani
After these events, cyberspace was lighting up between Rockville, MD (Lloydie Zaiser’s home) and many sites in Kenya as we shared news of future Tuko Pamoja plans and of its success with the Kenyan Board and the Mommas! We had a hard time departing for the weekend but we knew that some of us would meet again real soon as Tuka Pamoja would hit the road to New England in 2 weeks.
Over this past weekend, there were 2 additional TP events. I hosted an event in Brunswick Maine at the Frontier, a wonderful restaurant and establishment with a mission of highlighting global cultures. It was the perfect venue with an art walk Friday night for photos of beautiful Kenyan faces, a theatre for doing a presentation on our mission and about the Mommas and children, and a great space for setting up sales tables which were extremely well received. Thanks to the generous people who attended, many of whom were my friends, this Tuko Pamoja event netted another $2600. Because I was so busy with all aspects of the event, I cannot believe that I didn’t take a single photo, not one.
TP was back on the road this morning as LLoydie met Jen in Hanover New Hampshire for a home sales event at Karen Geiling’s house (another board member). Proceeds were another $1500! We are so excited that we have been able to surpass replacing the seed money that we borrowed (we also had generous donors) and will certainly have the funds to once again pay the mommas in full a fair market price for another big order when we return to Kenya. We have all been feeling the thrill of helping our sisters across the globe to have an income to feed their families and to feel some hope for the future.
Nyumbani Village Shu Shu weaving a basket
Maasai Momma of PCDA
Vision Self Help Group of Dandora
Kibera Paper Mommas
More faces, voices, news from Kenya and an update on Tuko Pamoja
Future rock band of Nyumbani Village
Despite the demands of my life here keeping me away from blogging there has been a lot going on with KEST, Nyumbani and Tuko Pamoja. As you know from my last post, Lloydie Zaiser accompanied a group of student volunteers to Kenya this summer and they had an amazing time. I didn’t have any of their photos the last time I posted but I do have some of them now.They went to all of the sites to which we had been ……plus a few more recreational ones like this (I just couldn’t resist including this photo!)
Jack Shorb being smooched by a youngster at the giraffe park
They spent time at Nyumbani Children’s Home, Nyumbani Village, the Pastoral Community Development Alliance of the Maasai Community and all the sites where we are collaborating with Kenyan women to sell their crafts.
“On your mark, get set, go!” using all the donated scooters at the Children’s Home
One of the summer KEST volunteers, Ellie Shorb, with children from the Nyumbani Children’s Home. What a great tee shirt!
Shushu Mary donated kuku (chicken) for the summer KEST volunteers dinner
And all the while during all the volunteer and fun activities–and there many goals accomplished, Lloydie was working on the goals of Toko Pumoja (Swahili for “we are together”). She was meeting with all the women of the various groups–the Self Help Groups of LeaToto, the women of Kibera Paper, the PCDA Maasai crafts women and the basket making Shushus of Nyumbani Village. She placed an order for their goods when she first arrived in Kenya and paid them half of the fair market value and when she left she paid them the other half and gathered the goods for 8 scheduled sales events in the U.S. So upon her departure from Kenya, 138 Kenyan mommas all living in poverty had sold their goods and been paid and were very happy to be making a better living. We now need to sell their goods in the U.S. and continue to expand the market here to keep this sustainable for them.
Shushus unbridled enthusiasm about Tuko Pamoja
Meanwhile back in the states, in Maryland, Jen was doing a stellar job of writing up the business plan for Tuko Pamoja with all the official verbiage and sparkle that it needed prepare it for an official entry into the Montgomery County MD business plan competition in which Tuko Pamoja emerged as a semifinalist!! Right after Lloydie returned from Kenya, she and Jen embarked on another adventure of presenting the business plan in the competition. If you knew Lloydie and Jen like I do then you would know that when they did their personal presentation there could not have been a more passionate duo! So now Tuko Pamoja appears in the Washington Post under “Capital Business” where everyone can go and vote for their favorite business plan of the competition. So please go to the website, view the video and vote so that you can help us get more coverage and support for Tuko Pamoja to further the cause in helping the Kenyan women and their children and communities! http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/capital-business/post/pick-your-pitch-which-business-plan-has-the-most-promise/2012/08/01/gJQAaTPMPX_blog.html
For those of you who live near me, SAVE THE DATE OF OCTOBER 13TH! that will be our own local Tuko Pamoja event at the Frontier. There will be a slide show and presentation in the theatre and sales of the Kenyan Women’s crafts before and after. (And if I’m really ambitious and have the time to prepare some hanging photography as part of the second Friday art walk the night before.)
Loydie and Jen– Tuko Pamoja– “We are together!”
Once Lloydie arrived home I started getting sweet photos by email and received a wonderful package in the mail. It was a grab bag of meaningful Kenyan items and some personal correspondence that just warmed my heart. First of all there were some awesome Tuka Pamoja items including a tee shirt with that very phrase and a painting which I recognized to be the artwork of the Kibera paper artists, the creators of our Tuka Pamoja logo.
Painting from the artists of Kibera Paper
Jefferson (left) who keeps in regular touch with me and another nice young man I’ve met at Nyumbani Village
Also in the package I received were letters from Caroline the student we sponsor at Nyumbani Village and from the boy who I started on some medication the last time I was there. He wrote to thank me for sending more medication to him (some samples) and to let me know that he was feeling well and that he is back at school (his father posed for a picture with Lloydie for me which I was delighted to receive.) I am anxious to see him again in January. From Caroline I got a lovely letter telling that she is working hard at her studies and that someday she would like to become a doctor. “I pray to God to continue giving you that heart of generosity you have with poor people and especially orphans….My brothers Joshua and Caleb have greeted you together with our house members and more so our grand shushu. We love you and we are hoping to see you when you will come. One philosopher said small deeds done are better than big deeds planned…..may God bless until I see you in early February as I will be graduating then…..” It would be hard not to be touched by the stories heard vicariously through the news from the summer travelers, the photos sent home, and the touching comments in hand written letters. I maintain contact with Lilian the village counselor who recently updated me on how the other children are doing at Nyumbani village……and asked if I had found any other psychiatrists who would like to come and volunteer yet. I told her I would keep working on that. If anyone would like to have a life changing experience, one you can’t really imagine in advance, and one that’s hard to even put into words, think about joining us on a trip to Kenya….its an annual experience that gets better each year….maybe 2014?
Caroline, the student my family sponsors at Lawson High School in Nyumbani Village
Update from Kenya and KEST
Nyumbani Children’s Home
As you may recall from my last post Lloydie has returned to Kenya with a group of travelers and I have had the pleasure of receiving updates from her and them and vicariously enjoying their experiences of being there. The group of young people with whom she has been traveling–Cavan, Izzy, Jack, and Catherine, ages 15-18–sound like they have had a wonderful experience and have done a terrific job of sending blog posts to their parents and including me so that I can post some updates. I am a little behind on posting since I was away on my annual art retreat last week but I was enjoying the blogs and Kenya was very much on my mind. In fact I think if I weren’t having such a wonderful experience retreating with my wonderful women artist friends I would have been feeling so sad not to be in Kenya myself!
As is always true when traveling with Lloydie Zaiser, this group of travelers covered a lot of ground! They first spent time at Nyumbani Children’s Home where the highlights seem to be attending mass in Kenyan style. Hearing the description made me smile and brought back memories of my first experience of attending the mass which is a joyous celebration of singing and dancing. “We ventured off into the Children’s Home in our nicer outfits to go to the 10:00 mass with the children. The mass lasted about an hour and a half and was full of music, dancing, singing, and laughter. The children were extremely involved and seemed to enjoy being there. It was evident that their faith was an important factor of their lives and contributed to their happiness.” The other highlight was the scooters– “After their lunch, we had a surprise for the children. We carried over 20 razor scooters from Spurwing to give to the children, all donated by KEST friends of Nyumbani. Their excitement was an amazing sight as they all grabbed scooters and rode in circles around the cottages. They never stopped smiling.” There were only a few scooters when I was there in January so I can only imagine the excitement!
The travelers visited the Lea Toto programs in Kangemi and Kawangware where outreach care is provided to children who have HIV and live in these areas in the slums around Nairobi. They learned about the programs and met two of the women’s Self Help groups. They shopped from the beautiful craftwork from the Self Help Groups who are part of the Tuko Pamoja project. “We went to see the beautiful bead work that the mamas had crafted for Lloydie’s upcoming business, Tuko Pamoja. We did a lot of shopping to support the women and fell in love with their work. While Lloydie was doing business with the women, we painted the entrance of the clinic and a hallway. This was not easy… very, very messy and sticky! We went to Kawangware Lea Toto where we met with the mommas of the Good Hope Self help Group. We interviewed them about their life and their work and got to know them very well. Their stories were inspiring! We did some more shopping with the women, knowing that our purchases would help them feed their children that very day. Then we did more painting in two of the Social Workers offices at the clinic. They came in to inspect the work and said, “Thank you for painting our floor!” The paint was very drippy! We very covered in white paint and even our Kenyan driver, Justus commented that he looked white! “
Women of Kibera Paper
They also visited Kibera Paper, another Tuko Pamoja group, where they too learned how to make paper. “After setting our paper out to dry, we sat with the women as they showed us how to make Angel cards. This took forever and included cutting our designs and sewing on beads. With a new appreciation of the work that goes into making ONE card, we went shopping and bought our own samples of this beautiful art.”
PCDA Maasai Women
They also went to PCDA, the Maasai community and had a wonderful time learning about the culture and doing activities with the children. The activities were educational and learning, play and a soccer game. “The home team was pre-schoolers ages four to six and two teachers, against the four of us, Lloydie and our driver, Sammy. After thirty minutes of humiliation by the skilled toddlers, our team finally lost, 3-1. The children cheered and laughed once they realized they beat two adults and four teenagers at a soccer match. As the teams lined up to high-five and congratulate one-another, we realized our day with the Maasai children was coming to an end. Before leaving we handed out shoes that had been donated for the children and they were very excited and grateful to get them.” Lloydie was also there to work on the business of the Tuko Pamoja project with the Maasai women and while doing that the students hiked to the top of a Kenyan mountain.
PCDA Maasai children
Their first blog post closed like this: ” Spirits are high; everyone is finally sleeping well, working hard, learning a lot and loving our new Kenyan friends. Our favorites are the adorable children, the inspiring women, and the precious animals we see each day.” Yes that is the experience and it only gets better.
Stay tuned for another update…….and Izzy, Cavan, Catherine or Jack, if you have some pictures to share I would love to include them!
“Tuko Pamoja”, We are Together….moving ahead full force, full spirited, full hearts!
Tuko Pamoja Business Card
The Tuko Pamoja project to create a sustainable income source for women’s artisans group whom we come to know and love in Kenya by creating a U.S. market place is moving ahead wonderfully as planned! With the help of some generous donors to raise the seed money, the first round of orders have been placed and the women are working on their crafts. LLoydie is headed off to Kenya next week with her young group of summer travelers with part of her itinerary being to pay for and pick up all the wares before she returns back to the U.S. Lloydie and Jen worked REALLY hard this spring putting all the business plans together and doing all kinds of leg work including creating the lovely brochure for the project below:
Tuko Pamoja brochure–part 1
Tuko Pamaja Brochure–part 2
You will note if you read the brochure that we have the next year mapped out with events planned in various places in the country–these are craft selling events. I hope to combine my own with a slide show, educational event about Kenya and AIDs orphans and maybe something else artistic like showing photographs. So LOCALS SAVE THE DATE OF OCTOBER 13th–here’s your opportunity to purchase those beautiful baskets, Kibera cards, that lovely jewelry you see me always wearing!! All five of the U.S. TP board members will be meeting in September to organize the crafts and send them off to the respective places where the events will be hosted and work on future plans for TP. This coincides with the annual fundraiser for Nyumbani in Washington DC which is a very festive event that also serves as a reunion for KEST travelers so it will be a few days of all things Kenyan–a time for socializing, working and planning for the future and re-experiencing the highlights of the best experiences of the work in Kenya. I have to say when this passionate, full of ideas group gets together there is a synergy that is like nothing else I’ve ever experienced.
The five TP board members, Lloydie and Jen of KEST, Deb who I traveled with last year, Karen who has traveled to Kenya in the past brings excellent business expertise and I will be returning to Kenya next January with some special plans for our TP women’s groups. We are always bursting with ideas but we know that some of the plans include some courses on finance and savings, another art exchange with Kibera paper ( an an event which I absolutely loved last time), and it goes without saying that we will celebrate with tea and lots of singing and dancing. I hope that I can interview (video) a few women so that you too have the honor of knowing them a bit better and realizing just what amazing and resilient women they are–they will touch your heart too. We will of course also be traveling to all the Nyumbani sites and being with the children and I will work with Lilian in my volunteer psychiatrist capacity so the Tuko Pamoja project will be a significant focus but certainly not the only focus. We will have many, many plans as always! But for the children who are lucky enough to still have mothers….the best may to take care of them is to empower their mothers.
When Lloydie returns from Kenya this summer we will probably start counting the days until we all return to Kenya on January 17, 2013. It warms my heart to know that she is there with her group of young travelers this summer but it’s so sad not to be going too! I gave up on making a list of telling her who to hug for me and just told her to hug everyone. I also told her to take a big deep breath of fresh Kenyan air as she listens to the children sing under the starriest of skies in Nyumbani Village because that is the most magical experience on earth for me and I’m sure my heart will feel full even across the globe when she does.
Sad news from Kenya– a reminder that life is precious
Jane and Helen
I received email news earlier this week that one of the women involved with our Tuko Pumoja project had died. We received an email from Philip of PCDA from the Maasai Village where we spent time while in Kenya in January that our Maasai friend Jane had passed away. This was especially hard to hear because we had just been there a short time ago and had spent time with the children at school, in the village, and interacting with the tiny community. In their visit last year Lloydie and Deb had spent time with the women building a “kitchen” (a traditional Maasai style thatched hut with dung walls) and tell an incredible story of carrying the roof down the road from the manyatta (village) to recycle it for the kitchen.
Philip's wife and baby coming from the kitchen
When we were there in January and each of us spent time with one woman in her home or boma, I was welcomed by Jane into her home. We conversed with the help of the neighbor girl Helen who spoke very good English and several children joined us in the merriment as they laughed at me trying to do dishes the Maasai way (with not much water) and trying to properly learn how to say the Maasai name that Jane gave to me ( Nashorrrrwah) with a rolling “r” sound not spoken in English, meaning “one who gives”. I love my Maasai name as I thought that Jane in our brief time had understood something about me.
At one moment Jane took of her bracelets from her wrist and gave it to me as a friendly gesture which I really appreciated. She also suggested that Helen show me the goats which was when I had my experience of trying to “catch a kid” as Helen had instructed me, which was a lot more difficult than she ended up making it look!
Holding Helen's kid with a sweet onlooker
After my kid catching experience, we visited again in the boma, also a traditional thatched structure with dung walls and only a tiny window of a couple of inches to let in a very little light. We all drank HOT chai together made over a fire in the darkened very HOT boma with perspiration on our faces and though I was really hot, I didn’t much mind because we were having fun, chatting and exchanging stories the best we could and it seemed rather magical to be across the world in this different culture yet realizing how we were 2 women who were very much the same in a lot of ways. We all gathered together before leaving the village and when I went to say goodbye to Jane we exchanged hugs and she took one of her beautiful necklaces off her neck and slipped it over my head. Helen wasn’t around at that moment, but we didn’t really need a translator for this interchange…..
Sitting in Jane's (left) home
And so I am thinking about Jane who seemed very young to me and not in any way ill at the time I met her. However, the average life span in Kenya is only 50. She was a lovely warm woman with a nice smile, very welcoming and very generous. And I am thinking of this little village who must be saddened by her loss. I know from Philip that Jane was raising her niece who was away at school in form 2 (second hear of high school) on the day when we were there and that now she has lost her aunt, after losing her father when she 8, her mother when she was 11, her grandmother when she was 13 and her grandmother when she was 15. We are all sad for her and the entire PCDA community. This is a reminder that having connections to people across the world in a different culture only makes the world feel smaller and that life everywhere is fragile and precious.
Zuri Watoto Wote–10,000 Views Later
The number of views on this blog surpassed 10,000 today. It’s hard to know what to think of that since I know that some readers have come from random search engines seeking out particular bits of information about Kenya, or AIDS or even to find pictures of animals from the safari which I took on my first trip to Kenya. But I do know that many of the visits were purposeful and I would like to think that I have shared my experiences in Kenya as a volunteer in an educational and inspirational way. The title of this blog, Zuri Watoto Wote, means by my rough translation “All the Beautiful Children” in Swahili. I chose it before I had ever been to Kenya and when I was attempting to learn a little bit of Swahili in advance. I still love the title now that I have met the many beautiful children there; I could have, however, called it “All the Beautiful People” because my connection isn’t only to the children. I knew that when I set out on that first trip to Kenya that I would be fulfilling a lifelong dream to visit Africa (truly since I was a child) and to do volunteer work in a third world country. I did not really have an idea of how much the experience would grab my heart, change my life and change me.
I have wanted to convey in my blog a broader sense of the Kenyan people than those stereotypes that people might have when they think of African countries stricken by AIDS and poverty. Yes, there is AIDS and there is much poverty, but there are also wonderful thriving people who are celebrating life despite their hardship and their poverty in a way that is truly enviable. And there are people who have a capacity for connection, grace and authentic communication which is touching and not lost in the superficiality of life’s busy pace. These are the beautiful people who I have met. I have played with, sung with, danced with, done art with, painted the faces of, many beautiful children, all orphans. I have listened to some sad stories and felt their pain, but have also seen them smile and laugh. All of these people are a testament to the human spirit. My greatest admiration has been for the women I have met, especially the mothers, who work so hard and sacrifice so much to take care of their children yet still retain such grace and dignity. And although I have had the role of the volunteer, the “helper”, who brings donations and professional expertise, I too have been “helped” by the interchange to have a broader sense of the world and her people and to feel a different sense of my place in it. I have seen the value of a strong cultural heritage, of living a simpler life and of appreciating what one does have, what I have, in a new way.
Earlier today I was watching Chimamanda Adichie, Nigerian author, who presented a TED talk entitled “The Danger of a Single Story”. She said in her talk “The single story creates stereotypes, and the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but that they are incomplete. They make one story become the only story.” When I listened to her it very much resonated with the experiences I have had and with what I learned by spending time with people in Kenya as I have had the privilege of hearing many stories and have learned so much from those who have told them to me.
So three years, 65 posts and 10,000 blog visits later its hard for me to imagine my life without this experience and all the people I have met and the touching moments I have shared. My fellow travelers will be life long friends and LLoydie Zaiser–we are kindred spirits in this mission and jointly have a lifetime of things to accomplish in Kenya–along with Jen and Deb……. Since my plan is to return to Kenya each year I hope to keep the blog going between trips with updates on news from Nyumbani and elsewhere in Kenya and with stateside activities such as Tuko Pamoja and preparations for the next trip.
I hope that if you are reading the blog and are touched by any of the stories that I relay that you will pass it on. When I originally set out to write the blog it was with the intention of making people more aware of the plight of AIDS orphans in Kenya and the concept of global citizenship. I have certainly learned that there is far more about which to be enlightened and hope to continue to share that which I continue to learn. I will close with a poem:
We are all the same
I am that man, that woman, that child,
I am just like them
Except that I was born lucky
In this land of privilege and plenty
Otherwise, we are the same
I am that man, that boy
Sent off to fight, to witness that
Which should never be seen,
To lose his youth, his self, perhaps
To die, we were born alike.
I am that woman, that mother
Who weeps for her sick child,
Who cannot work enough
To feed her children, to save them
But keeps trying, we are the same
I am that child, that baby
Thrown on a garbage heap,
Alone and unwanted, left to die
Somebody’s child, too sick to keep
She is like me; she is like you
Except we were born in the land of plenty
Where our eyes are shut and our ears
Do not hear, so we will not know
That we are those men, those women,
Those children, we are all the same.
Lynn Ouellette
Watoto Wote Wazuri 
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