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!
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.
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
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!
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.
My thoughts go back to Kenya……..
I have had a lot of time to ponder since I returned from Kenya two months ago. In spite of the busyness of my life here, my thoughts frequently go back to my experiences there and the ongoing connections through email and phone calls and even in person with my fellow volunteers have kept it all very much alive. I also have received emails from Kenya including follow up from Lilian about her clients whom I saw in the Village. My attempt to present some of my experiences to my colleagues at the hospital reminded me that I always have volumes to share in too little time and that my exuberance and passion in sharing these experiences is something that everyone notices. I have tried to write a short article for a professional newsletter and struggled with how to put the experience into words with the right balance of facts and details for the reader with the powerful feelings that came with doing the work in Kenya. One comment that I often make is that the Kenyan people have a remarkable way of speaking authentically from their hearts, that they are not inhibited about doing that which contributes to making the experience so touching. It’s a way of connecting that I wish would happen more here because it seems we have lost some of our capacity to be that open in expressing ourselves eith the fast pace of life and its many demands and the turn to technology for communication. I feel however that there is an exception to that kind of heartfelt communication that I have grown to value in my interactions with the Kenyan people. This has to do with talking about grief and loss. I cannot identify this as a generalization of all Kenyan people since I have had far too little experience to make such an observation. However, it is an observation that has struck me in the course of my time spent with people there. In Nyumbani Village all the residents have had very powerful personal experiences of loss. There are 900 children who have lost there parents to AIDs and many have lost other close relatives as well. There are almost 100 grandparents many of whom have lost their children to AIDs. However, there seems to be a powerfully strong culture of silence around grief and loss. No one seems to speak of it. In the counseling center when interviewing clients I was often told tragic stories about losing loved ones, often a string of losses that was profoundly sad to hear, but was told in a hushed voice as if to say that there was something unspeakable about it. The most striking example was an adolescent girl who told me of losing both parents when she was very young, then her grandmother, then her uncle, all of whom had parented her. However she also told me that talking about these losses was a “secret” and that she had never talked about them before. The idea that there is a silence about such painful losses has stuck with me and has made me wonder about those photos that I have captured of those soulful, almost sad looking children’s faces–maybe those are a fleeting glimpse of what is unspoken.
I have given this some thought and talked with Lilian and Lloydie about some possible ideas I have for how to address this. I think perhaps an annual ritual of remembrance honoring those lost could be a step towards helping this community to share the burden of each other’s grief in a healing way. This would need to be done thoughtfully, embracing the culture of the village and with the blessing of those who oversee its care. This could be powerful shared experience in which people come together without actually individually saying very much or anything at all yet still give a voice to some silenced feelings that could be acknowledged in the sharing through song and ritual. One of the wonderful aspects of knowing that I am committed to returning to Kenya each year is that it gives me an opportunity to think about not only what I can do in the time that I am there, but also what could be helpful over the longer term. This is a shift in my connection and commitment that I am delighted to embrace.
Kenya, the oh so many faces…..and a heartwarming story, without a face.
Maasai children listening to a story
Although I have been home for almost two weeks now, it still feels as though I just left Kenya. The trip, the countryside, the people, my fellow volunteers have all still been very much on my mind. I have been missing my fellow travelers but have manged to bridge the gap with email conversations, exchanging photos back and forth and making plans for other events (in a post yet to come.) I have been reliving the experience in Kenya through editing hundreds of pictures. Although Kenya and the Kenyan people are very colorful with their bright clothing, the most powerful of the photographs for me are the black and white photos of faces thought so often seem to convey something unsaid. So I will share some of those:
Maasai child in the classroom
Two Maasai girls at school--I wonder what they are thinking?
One of the girls in my cottage at the Children's Home
A man at Nyumbani Village--I met him at the food containers and wished I knew how to speak Kikamba with him.
Two boys at the Children's Home-- I think with new haircuts and very impish grins
A Village child with an amazing face
Two of a group of children who ran up to us in Kibera asking "How are You?" in a chorus
Two Village children on the schoolground
One of the Village children who frequently stopped by our lodging to play
A small sampling of the many photos which I could share and there is a story to go with each and every one of them
Instead, however, I will tell you a story that doesn’t have a picture to go with it. When I left Kenya to come home I did so with a heavy heart because I wished that I could have stayed longer, there was more to be done and LLoydie, Deb and Kristin were headed off to another community and another orphanage called Talitha Kum. I had 6000 ksh (Kenyan Shillings) left of my donations (about $75) which had not yet been used. It had been left over after we bought as much of the ingredients for the Maasai school lunch program as we could fit into four grocery carts and I had set it aside for another purpose yet to be determined. So when I left Kenya, I put it in good hands with Lloydie with the thought that we could perhaps add to the porridge supplies or some other need might present itself. And so it did. When Deb and LLoydie were attending a “prayer group” for members of the community at Talitha Kum, a man, a social worker, spoke up about how he was praying for help for a child with whom he had been working for a long time. The child was an adolescent boy who had lost both parents to AIDs at a young age and had been living on the streets for eight years. He had managed to develop a relationship with him and the child had been remarkably going to school all those years by begging or stealing the money for school fees and a school uniform. When he took the National Exam, a requirement for all form 8 students (8th graders) to be considered for high school, he scored extremely high. On the basis of that he was accepted into a very fine government high school; these are the best schools in Kenya to which every student wants to be admitted. But the cost of travel to the school which was such a distance away was too much and he could not attend. The social worker took him and his records to the “Elite School” (I include the name because it’s so cool) which was a more local private school and asked if they could do anything for him. There he was told that if he could come up with the first year of tuition they would accept him and the next three years would be paid for by the school. So the social worker and the boy had raised a lot of money, but it wasn’t enough for him to start school in a few days. Hence the prayer at the meeting, and the connection with the remaining 6000 ksh. LLoydie and Deb spoke up and offered to pay the remainder with that 6000ksh and 2000 that they each through in and made arrangements to do so at the school. So this boy is now guaranteed an education, but equally important is that because he will be in boarding school as high schools are in Kenya, this will be the end of eight years of living on the streets for him–he will have a bed, a home, and three meals a day. He must be an incredibly resiliant young man to have survived on the streets while succeeding so well at school. I think that this was a perfect way to spend the rest of the donations. It always amazes me how little it takes to impact someone’s life in Kenya, how sometimes the pieces just fall into place. When I was talking to Lloydie today about many ongoing and future plans–and because we were really missing each other, she said we need to visit this boy and the social worker when we go back to Kenya. I think that sounds like a fine idea.
My last weekend in Kenya……….
Following our departure form Nyumbani Village on Saturday morning we drove back to Nairobi and then to Karen and our lodging at the Dimesse Sisters. We had a very long ride partially because we stooped at a worrdcarvers workshop and store but also becuase we got caught in a lot of traffic around Nairobi and arrived back much later than expected. The drive was yet another reminder of how much we appreciated our driver Justus since none of us would want to brave driving in the crazy Kenyan traffic or on the really bad Kenyan roads with crator size potholes and for which speed limits are determined not by signs but rather by enormous speed bumps. Knowing we were going to arrive late, Lloydie called ahead to let Sister Rhoda, the very hospitable and outgoing nun at Dimesse sisters that we would not make it back for lunch. She offered to leave a snack out for us and when we arrived mid afternoon there was a table set with a full course meal plus some extras treats. She wanted to be sure we got something to eat because we were “doing such good work.” You just have to love that Kenyan hospitality! And having just come from the village, this was especially a most delicious meal!
Carving a giraffe
We were headed to Nyumbani Children’s Home in the evening for movie night and had to make yet another trip to the local Nakumat to buy popcorn and such but a priority for everyone before that was to take a real well needed shower . We all seemed to emerge from our showeres slightly euphoric from the feeling of being squeaky clean again! So well groomed and well fed we set off to buy the movie treats and headed to the Children’s Home. In my cottage they were just finishing up with dinner and had to do the after dinner chores. Everyone pitches in with doing the dishes, sweeping, washing the floor, etc. After that was done they all watched the news, broadcast primarily in Kiswahilie, but the older children translated for me. After that we settled into a viewing of “Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs” as I dispensed cup after cup of cheese curls and juice baxes amidst a chorus of pleases and thank yous. That was my last evening at the Children’s Home.
Cottage E children cleaning up after dinner--everyone helps out
The plan for the next day, my final day in kenya was to do something fun and relaxing and Lloydie had scheduled us to go to a tea farm for a tour and for a lunch. I have to say that the drive there was quite beautiful and one of the most lush views of Kenyan vegetation. The day was beautiful like every other day, but a welcome bit cooler. As we got closer to the tea farms the view got more and more beautiful.
Fields of tea plants
We went to the Kiambethu Tea farm in Limuru which has been in existentence since 1910. The original beuatiful house is still there and has been in the same family for four generations. There is a beautiful garden on the property and a preserved section of the original deciduous forest.
Garden at Kiambethu Tea Farm
We began our tour with Fiona, the owner, showing us the original tea plant, now a non-harvasted tea tree, and then taking us inside for tea and telling us much more about the growing of tea as a criop and how it is processed at the local factory.
Fiona and the original tea plant
We then took a walk through the forest with Kamangi who pointed out much of the indiginous vegetation and its medicinal purposes. We met the geese of the fram and the cows who supply the milk for the delicious homemade ice cream.
Kamangi giving us a tour
Kiambethu cows
Kiambethu geese--they didn't seem that happy to have visitors
The walk was followed by drinks on the veranda and then by a very delicious lunch including fresh salad and vegetables and some of that homemade ice cream amongst other tasty treats for desserts. This was a wonderful thing to do on my final day in Kenya.
The group at the tea farm
Since I would soon be departing when Justus drove us back to our lodging we gave him a special gift for having been such a pleasure to work with and to let him know how much we appreciated him. The rest of the afternoon was spent sorting our 6 duffels of donations plus 4 additional huge duffels that were left by the last group.
Justus gets a thank you gift
Deb sorting donated clothing
I must admit that I got a pass for much of this so I could do some packing of my own, but more importantly so I could blog the rest of the time spent at the village since it had become a way for everyone else to be able to share their experiences too. As my bags were packed, the reality of leaving became all too real and the time was drawing nearer for me to head to the airport. I must admit that it was hard to leave since I knew that everyone else would be staying on for at least another week, but I could not be gone any longer from my practice. And it was, of course, especially hard to say goodbye. Though we talked about reuniting in the fall for the annual Nyumbani fund raising gala in D.C. and at least Deb and Lloydie and I were already talking about returning next January, that only softened the sting a little. We had all had this wonderful experience together, knowing that we were making a difference in people’s lives, loving all these adorable children, building relationships with many people, hearing their stories of hardship and loss, being moved to tears and being inspired by all of them to be better, do better, appreciate more….a bonding experience that will keep us forever connected to each other and to the people of Kenya.
Nyumbani Village…..so hard to say goodbye
Nyumbani Village-- signs at the crossroads
Kristen and Lloydie taking in the Village
The last few days at the Village were very full with activity and the final evening was a marvelous experience which could not have been a better send off. We did attend a celebration on Wednesday evening which was goodbye party to Soloman who is the laboratory technologist and to Mr. Multhi who is a teacher who has been reassigned by the government. It was quite a good dinner compared to the every meal of rice or ugali (very thick maize porridge) with sukumawiki (cooked kale and onions) or githuri (beans with onions and maize). We had Kenyan style sangria (assisted in the making by Kristen) and softdrinks that weren’t warm! Afterwards there was a bonfire with toasting the people leaving and singing and going around the circle with each person saying something about themselves: where they are from, what country they would like to visit, their favorite animal, etc. What was most striking was the number of people who stood up and spoke from the heart and also said “I am proud to be a Kenyan.”
The Kest volunteers all continued with working in various ways in different areas at the Village until Friday when it came time to take a field trip into Kitui to work on spending the rest of the donation money to purchase large numbers of plates, cups, silverware, sheets, etc. All have to be metal (except the sheets, of course) in order to meet the standard of sustainability established by the village. I stayed behind in the village as I had work to do in the counselling department, but heard that it was quite the shopping trip and that the group was extremely grateful to have our driver Justus who had rejoined us at the Village that morning. Justus is Kambe and speaks the local language, is extremely charming and great nogotiator. Lynne stayed behind to do an interview for the Susu memory book and ended up impromptu running the Young Ambassadors Club since the group didn’t return from shopping until 4 even though they expected to be back by early afternoon. It has been a true spirit and example of “tuko pamoja” (we all work together, we are all in this together) as we have worked here in the Village.
We have continued to interact with children and grandmothers and to build bonds and relationships that feel like they have been there much longer than they have existed in reality; that seems to be the Kenyan way.
Jefferson, a very nice young man whom I met in the Village
Walter playing with the children--an "action shot since he had just finished tickling that squirming one!
Another soulful face at Nyumbani Village
Brian, a retired Loretto school principal from Ireland volunteering in the Polytechnique School
On our final evening in the Village we were invited to two special events. The first was a dance performance in Cluster One for which there are no words to fully describe. The dance was done by the children with costumes, drums and other instruments and truly BLEW US AWAY!! I have a video which will give you a flavor–the performance was in one of the houses after the sun went down under the only light supply which is one solar powered light so the video is very dark, but please take a look and listen (it gets better after the beginning but I didn’t have a chance to edit…) These kids were tireless and could be professional. We all thought they must have extra joints with the way they moved!
First, the warm up, which was so good we thought it was the whole dance:
Then the whole performance which made us vicariously exhausted and revenous because they used so much energy!!
After the performance we went to dinner at the Village priest’s house. This was the 2nd time we had a break from sakumawiki and githiri in the village…and we were surprised to find that Lillian was there and had cooked the dinner! Everything was quite delicious and it was a nice opportunity to spend a final night with people we really like and to be more relaxed.
Last dinner in the Village
The following morning Lloydie and I set out early on Saturday morning to meet the high school students as they were arriving at Lawson High School to deliver letters from sponsors and I wanted to have another opportunity to see Caroline, the student that my family sponsors since though I had met her the night before we wanted to meet again and to take some pictures. I regret that so much of the week went by without spending more time with her but I will have to do better next year!
Students arriving at Lawson School on Saturdy Morning
Caroline, the student we sponsor, and me on the school ground
Lloydie and Immaculate to whom she delivered a sponsor letter
After our early visit to the high school we had an early arrival to breakfast since we knew that John, the really friendly cook who just loves Lloydie (and vice versa) was making a special breakfast (vs the usual packaged bread and margarine) of mandazis for our final morning. Mandazis are a really delicious Kenyan treat most similar to an American doughnut but much lighter and not as sweet. We also got to watch him make them and got them as fresh as they could possibly be!
John making delicious mandazis for us!
After breakfast it was time to say all of the final goodbyes– no more avoiding it. Despite the fact that the village is really really hot, the food is mostly repetitive, there is nothing cold to drink, the bathrooms are a real “experience”, staying clean for more than a minute is impossible…..it is really hard to leave. It is a truly magical place with such a unique spirit of working together to save lives and to create a true village that works together to raise children and to care for the elderly, to respect the earth, to respect the culture, and to respect the value of all life. As I have said before, it is impossible to capture in words, you just have to go there and experience it for yourself. It will steal your heart.
Saying goodbye to Susu Mary
Kristin saying goodbye to one of the children
"Goodbye"....no it's not goodbye, it's "see you later", or as everyone in Kenya says, "we are missing you already!"
More on Nyumbani Village–that special place
Kristen playing with Village children outside our lodging in the early evening
We have had a wonderful experience at Nyumbani Village with the children, the staff, the Susu’s; everyone we have come in contact with has been welcoming, grateful, and incredibly warm towards us. There are many complimentary things that we can say about the Kenyan people, but one trait that seems to characterize all of those whom we have met which is especially true in the Village is that they speak in such an unhibited way that is genuinely from the heart. It is very touching and something that I wish we could see more at home.
Our days have been busy with activities but there has always been a little unstructured time just to walk around the village and take in the beautiful surroundings or chat and play with children who are always out and about in the evening. The younger children are often out gathering firewood and carrying big piles of kindling.
Village boy gathering kindlking
Children picking and offering to share berries
These children love to have their pictures taken. There are many joyous, smiling and laughing faces and a natural tendency to hold hands or put their arms over each other’s shoulders, but there are some soulful faces too that often make me wonder what they are thinking because I know that they have experienced a lot of loss already in their young lives.
They also love to look at their pictures
Kids here love to have their pictures taken!
Children on their way back from the primary school
Children go to school at 7AM and arrive before the teacher to do homework and go home around 5 to eat dinner. All but the younger students go back to school in the evening to have a self quided homework session and the hugh school student go back to school for the same purpose on Saturday. In addition to a lot of school hours they all participate in household chores and wash their own clothes and help take care of the younger children. Sunday is a day off with Church in the morning, but they also have mass once during the week. We attended the mass with the primary school children on Wednesday morning. It begins at 7AM with a massive migration of children in green school uniforms from the school to the church and is quite something to watch!
Village boys in church
I have really valued my time working in the counseling office seeing the clients from adolescents to staff to community members whom Lilian identified as needing further evaluation. People were remarkably open with me, I believe because they trust Lilian, and we were able to work as a team to create some interventions that I think will be very helpful. With Lilian being the only counselor for so many people and there being no other volunteers to assist her and no psychiatric services available I really felt useful as well as feeling the importance of not waiting two years to return again—I think I need to return next year. I have tremendous respect for all that Lilian handles. She is like a mother to every child in the Village and even to some of the adults. She recognizes that these children have all experienced such incredible loss that sometimes they just need to stop by her office to get a hug or to connect briefly. One such child, Mwende, is in this photo with Lilian who told me that she has a special attachment to her. She was working in the social work department when she went on a home rescue to get children to bring them back to the village. Mwende was just a baby and had so many sores all over body that she couldn’t pick up without carefully wrapping her first. Other family members told Lilian to leave her behind because she would only survive for a day or two, but she brought her back to the Villlage and they were able to save her and she is a thriving child now.
Lilian and Mwende
We had many opportunities to take in the Kambe cultures but none were better that those offered by the Susu’s themselves. They are an extremely outgoing group of women who always want to shake your hand or give you a hug as well as a very animated quiz on the appropriate Kikombe greeting—all before they start dancing with you . Most do not speak any English, but mange to communicate okay. All of them weave really beautiful baskets from which we shopped heartily. We had a special treat with them on Wednesday in the form of a special dancing session which was both a performance and a lesson. It was quite amazing to watch them dance since when you see them walking around the village they often look a little slow and as if they are showing their age. Once they start dancing, however, watch out!
Susu's dancing
You will have a much better appreciation for how they move in the video’s below:
After the dancing was done we had gifts for them: sweets, Nyumbani canvass bags, and Washinton D.C. AIDS Walk Tee shirts (KEST had a team in the walk and the AIDS clinic had donated the shirts tio bring to Kenya). All, but especially the shirts were a big hit! lloydie also explained about the Women4Women Initiative and how that will included selling their baskets and they were quite excited about that.
Susu's wearing their AIDS walk shirts
Yes, they ALL really loved their shirts
We also met with the Current Young Ambassadors and ran an activity for them. Our final two days, and especially our final evening in the Village were quite the finale. The internet connection at the Village has been extremely slow and unpredictable making blogging a challenge though it seems only fitting in a way since technology is so foreign there. I am going to save the finale at the Village for the next post since it was especially wonderful and the goodbyes were certainly bittersweet.
Nyumbani Village–the first few days…magical, and more to come
We are here at Nyumbani Village! This is the place that I feel is most challenging to describe in words; the place that has brought me closest to the profound tragedy and heartache of Kenyan lives that is not so rare here as I have listentened to personal stories, yet has also lifted me to a magical, spiritual place that is beyond word as I have been surrounded by children singing and dancing traditional song with drums and incredible spirit and joy under the moonlit and star-filled Kenya sky.
The journey here was about four hours through major roads, small towns and then more rural areas. It was interesting sight seeing for beautiful landscape
Scenery on the way To Nyumbany Village in Kitui
and even some animal sitings–zebras, giraffes and more………..
When we first arrived at the Village we met with representatives from the different departments. First a bit about the Village itself. You may recall that the Village is a place that is pretty independent and the goal is to become fully self sustainable. Here orphans are matched with grandparents in a home–10 children to one grandparent who may have one ior two bilogical grandparents. Homes are very rustic made out of bricks oin the village property from the Kenyan clay. Four home are arranged around a common area to form a cluster housing a total of forty children and 4 grandparents. Currently construction is under way for Cluster 25 and there are 895 children living in the village.
THe Village has a home care program with social workers who also do outreach to the community, a counselling center, a medical clinic which also serves the surrounding community, a primary school, a high school, a church and more. We met with representatives from all of these and then had a tour of the current sustainability projects which are just fascinating and so creative. The major obstacle here is lack of reliable water and there are many ways that they have addressed that including building sand dams to trap the water when there are rains. They have a solar powered drip irrigation for the gardens and have a 10 year plan for planting Melia trees which have a 10 year maturation cycle and can be harvested for sale or building furniture. (see www.Trees4children.org) They are also producing bio-gas from cow manure to power the stove in the kitchen and have just begun an aquaponics program–growing Tilapia in a tank and running the water through several garden beds and recollecting it to both water the beds and filter the water to return it to thr fishtanks clean.
The Village is physically very pretty with overarching trees and sepia colored houses. There are always Susu’s and children bustling around in brightly colored clothing sporting huge smiles and exuberant welcomes and in the case of the Susu’s specila Kikambe handshakes, greetings and dances usually followed by burst of laughter.
Nyumbani Village
There are many opportunities to be of service in the village. There are always more hands needed in the sustainability program and there are several ongoing projects such as the KEST Memory Book being created for the Susus’s. Every grandparent in the village is being interviewed about their life and a book will be created of their history along with the life of their family now. The next step will be incorporating art from the children which is planned for next January—just one of the ways I am being beckoned back to help next year. There is also the Young Ambassadors Program begun by KEST to focus on Leadership, Citizenship and other Values. Since Kristen is a nurse she has been very warmly welcomed into the workings of the medical clinic.
Medical staff at Nyumbani Village-- yeah Kristen!
I have been working with Lillian, the Village psychologist, whom I met 2 years ago, who has had clients lined up for me waiting to see me. These have included people from the community, older adolescents from the Village and even staff from the Village. She refers to them as her “extreme cases” that she feels she needs to ask for assistance. I have felt honored to be entrusted with many incredible and tragic stories but also touched that I can really make a difference here. I have seen one young man a clear psychotic illness who very seriously needs medication treatment and oh, what gyrations we have had to go through to make that happen, but it will happen and that will really change things for him. For the psychiatrists among my readers, one pill of generic Zyprexa costs about 65 cents here! BTW, Lillian’s case load is 895 children, 90+ grandparents, over 100 staff and 70+ members of the community. I am the only volunteer she has—I need some recruits!!!!!
Lillian, the Village psychologist, and me
Lynn and Walter have spent time in sustainability and Walter has been thrilled to spend time at the Lawson High School since he is a private school principal and educator, Deb is continuing her work doing the interviews with the Susus accompanied by the social worker from home care and Lynne has joined her in the process. I have spent much of my time in the counseling office but have done a number of other things too. I made my way over to the food containers for the weekly food distribution and got to mingle with the Susus—something that will always put a smile on your face.
Susu's of Nyumbani Village
Just walking around the village there is much of village life to soak up and savor. The children are adorable. There are no toys here other than the ones they create or happen to find!
A creative toy of a bicycle rim from the Village children. They struck this pose when I asked for a picture.
Nyumbani Village children playing with a big tortoise
On Tuesday evening we did home visits at 2 clusters under the magnificent moonlit and starry sky that is like no other here. The day was very hot but the night had cooled down and there was a nice breeze. We were all gathered as the children from the 4 houses sang and sang and danced and danced for us—this was one of the most magical moment in the village I have ever experienced—one that reaches deep into your bones. I am posted two videos—you will see very little as it was quite hard to record in such low light. So you will only get glimpses here and there, but you will hear everything just as we did—I hope can use your imagination to take you under the beautiful Kenyan sky too.
Nyumbani Children’s Home and Donations
Today we spent much of the day back at the Nyumbani Children’s Home. We arrived in the morning in time to go to church with everyone.
Deb walking with a child to church
There has been an a feeling of excitement in the air throughout the past week as this has been the week of the summit meeting when all of the International Board Members and the Kenyan Board members meet with the Nyumbani administrators to discuss the Nyumbani programs, the progress, needs, future plans, etc. Today was the final day, so some special events were planned. I loved watching these children of the Board Members play since as the saying goes children have alot to teach us.
Children of the Nyumbani Board Members in a sweet moment
The Nyumbani children did some extra singing and dancing during the mass as well as entertainment scheduled prior to a lunch in honor of the Board members. The entertainment included the preschoolers form the St. Paul Miki School through the “elementary school” age children.
Following the entertainment there were presentations to all the Form One students who will be leaving for boarding school and many heartfelt words from staff, children and others thanking the Board members for all that they do to keep Nyumbani going. There was, of course, frequent reference to Father D”Agostino who founded Nyumbani and acknowledgement of January as his birthday month. After many rounds of “sharing a few words” it was time for a special lunch. I was delighted to have a child, John, a toddler who had crawled up into my lap and fallen asleep during the presentations.
Sleepy John taking a nap in my lap
The KEST volunteers ate lunch at the tables with our host cottages and promised we would be back next Saturday.
Following the time at the Children’s Home it was time to hit the local Nakumat to stock up on water and a few other things to bring to The Village tomorrow. Also Lloydie, Justun and I, armed with the recipe ingredients for the porridge for the PCDA program set out to buy those ingredients (in great bulk requiring 3 shopping carts) with donation money that I had received earmarked for that purpose. We also pooled our donation money and discovered that we had quite a lot such that Lloydie could not zip it into the folder she usually uses—a very good problem to have! That will enable us to pay for the mattresses needed for the latest new people at the Village and to buy lots of much needed sheets. We will go shopping once we are in Kitui near the Village. THANK YOU DONORS!!!!!!
Donations for mattresses for the Village!!
We went out to dinner at Karen Blixen’s house this evening—a good meal before we are off to the Village. Tomorrow morning there will be a good long shower too! The days are very full but very wonderful. As I write this post somewhat sleepy eyed at midnight here, I can say that no day yet has gone by yet been without having deeply inspiring and touching moments. Off to the Village tomorrow……………
Kibera Paper and so much more……….
Wednesday and Thursday were two really packed days such that when I arrived back at our lodging on Thursday night after 10 I was too exhausted to get a blog post done.They were as usual two incredible days filled with new experiences, inspiration, dancing and singing and yes once again tears from being touched by the experience. You go through a lot of tissues here!
We spent the better part of two days at Kibera Paper. I blogged in an earlier post, before I departed, about how Kibera Paper employs women from the Kibera slum and enables them to earn income to support their families when they would otherwise not be able to afford the basic necessities of life. We had two incredible days working with the women at Kibera Paper, getting to know them, working alongside them , learning their craft, exchanging ideas with the 2 young male artists who create many of the designs and really touching each other’s hearts. The KEST volunteers learned from the women how to make cards from beginning to end—that included “processing” the recycled paper (squishing it by hand in the water) into mush and then making it into sheets.
Learning to make Kibera cards-- Start to finish!
We also painted, beaded and threaded some designs and glued them together, folded and threaded the cards, put the Kibera Paper logo and description on the bag and even signed some of them. Since they were in the process of making more of my favorite mother and baby cards I was especially delighted that we got to participate in the making of those. We really learned how time consuming and intricate a process it is to make Kibera cards since they are handmade every single step of the way in the finest detail.
Bothe Deb and I worked with the Mommas to help them create cards with a technique that we use. Deb brought a lot of materials to make valentines since we are coming upon that holiday and that is recognized in Kenya.
Deb's valentine project with the Kibera Paper women (even Justice helped out with this)
I really wanted to work with the woman to teach them a technique that they might be able to incorporate into their production and might be both fun by introducing something new, but also sustainable if I brought extra materials. I decided to teach them how to make small block prints with softcut linoleum and lino cutters and how to print them. If they liked the process and the designs, they would then be able to print the same blocks over and over again since I brought a lot of extra ink, printing paper and other materials to keep them going for a quite awhile. Wel, l I have to say that this was very exciting to me. They started out being very hesitant and unsure of themselves and by the end they were so proud of the work they had done that it just warmed my heart to see this unfold. I felt so happy to tell them what a wonderful job they had done and how proud I felt to have taught them. And they were profusely grateful for the lesson and the materials.
Kibera Paper women making block prints
Proud of their work!
Both days we enjoyed chai and biscuits together and shared a genuine exchange of warmth and affection. Lloydie explained the mission of the Women4Women Program and how it would work and its intention to increase their sales in the U.S. We also shopped heartily form their stock of cards which are just beautiful.
When it came time to leave there was a lot of singing and dancing, the most joyous of which you can see in these videos.
There were also blessings in song and words shared in the Kenyan way which is to speak from the heart without being shy in a way that we don’t tend to do in the U.S. and when you experience it in Kenya it is so profoundly touching—well, that is why we always end up in tears. They are not shy about acknowledging that our hearts have been touched by each other and doing it in the loveliest of ways. And Kenyan goodbyes—well everyone gets hugs and you are escorted to your vehicle and hands are held, and more hugs and people are still waving as you drive away……
Since Kibera Cards are made on the property of a church and school where space is rented to allow for making and storing the cards , there are sometimes school children around as was the case when we were there. Since they were so adorable and I can never pass up an opportunity to photograph a child, I thought I would give you a peek and these children looking especially “smart” (Kenyan term for sharp, stylish) in their red school uniforms.
School children at Kibera Paper
Included in our two packed days were also some other activities, we drove into Kibera and stopped at a storefront that is run by one of the longest established Self Help Groups. They call themselves Power Women. Although not one of the groups for KEST’s Women4Women Initiative we did want to meet with them and to hear their story since they have a long history of success. And of course we came upon some other children and the usual chorus of children shouting after us “How are you?” which is what they do whenever they see white people (Mzungus) in Kibera.
Power Women in their Kibera store front
Kibera Kids
We also took a trip to Amani ya Juu (Higher Peace in Swahili), a women’s sewing and training program based in Nairobi for marginalized women and women refugees from many African Nations and cultures. The focus is on mentoring women, holistic development, producing quality environmentally friendly goods, peaceful existence and self sustainability. We had a lovely meal there and then browsed and purchased some of their goods.
Amani: the Peace Quilt and The Children's Peace Quilt
Finally, we actually managed to fit something more into these two days—on Thursday evening we took the adolescents who will be going away from the Nyumbani Children’s Home to begin high school Form 1 or fist year of high school) out for a celebratory evening. In Kenya, after eighth grade children take standardized exams and only are accepted into high school if they pass and get adequate scores. All high schools require tuition and are boarding schools and acceptance is based entirely on test scores. This is all very anxiety provoking. All 14 students from Nyumbani Children’s Home will be going on to high school and will be leaving in the early part of February. We took them to a “nyama choma” (literal translation=grilled meat) and had a meal, hired a DJ for dancing and they had a wonderful evening. We road on the bus with them and KEST volunteers danced under the disco ball with them! I had the pleasure of sitting next to Thomas, a very bright young man who is very articulate and we had some wonderful conversation. Lloydie gave them all a bag of catsup, peanut butter, and hot chocolate—apparently the most missed food items when away at boarding school. Sitting back, looking at all of them having a wonderful time, dancing up a storm, well, it’s something to marvel at considering that many of them were so sick when they arrived at Nyumbani Children’s Home that they weren’t expected to live. Now that truly is something to celebrate!
Nyumbani Children's Home Form One Students "Send Off" Dinner
NCH Form One students and KEST volunteers dance the night away
Next stop PCDA (Pastoral Community Development Alliance) in the Maasai community and some of the most adorable children…stay tuned. LLala Salama! (Goodnight)
Video clips from Kenya as Promised
We had the day at Kibera Paper and will be going back there tomorrow when I will once again be blogging about another incredible experience. In the meantime, I think I have conquered some of my technical issues and can upload a few videoclips to share–I have taken alot of video so will have more. But here are a few to wet your appetite.
My little friend Dolo in cottage E at the Nyumbani Children’s Home is quite an energetic 3 year aold with a big personality and drives the point home that these children are thriving with HIV under the care that they are receiving. Here is Dolo in action:
All of the children at the orphanage are thriving. Going to mass there is a joyous experience with a choir of child singers and child drummers and musicians and dancers. Everyone joins in the celebration. Here is a sneak preview of the children– I say a preview because I know that next Sunday when the international summit members are at the Children’s Home they will have a whole program of entertainment prepared.
This is Boniface and his wife from the Program for the Deaf singing for us:
I will have a post tomorrow about our experinence with the women at Kibera Paper….and more
Lynn Ouellette
Watoto Wote Wazuri 
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