this past week was something new and different from the beginning of my trip!
last weekend, i spent both days in the town of kakamega (where i work) which is about a 15-minute matatu ride from my home. matatus have become an integral part of my everyday life here... for better and for worse. most days, i walk from my home to the main road, which takes about 10 minutes. along the way, i pass a lot of neighbors who are out and about - some of whom i know or at least recognize, and some of whom just give me strange looks when i try to greet them in kiluhya, which is the tribal language. (so far, i only know 2 words in this language, and i'm guessing i won't know much more by the time i leave) anyway, i finally arrive at the main road, where i stand and wait for a matatu, which is basically a 14-passenger van. this is how most people get around when they're going long distances. they love to cram as many people as humanly possible into these, so the ride to work in the morning is always interesting. apparently, there are seatbelts on these things, which i only found out about recently. every once in a while, the police will stop the matatus to make sure everyone's wearing their seatbelts. i don't think i've ever actually seen someone wearing one, though. i think there are enough people on the matatu to soften the blow if there ever were to be an accident, though.
anyway, that's my main source of transportation! there are also these things called boda-bodas - bicycles w/ a seat on the back - and the guys who drive them are all over town, so i use them every once in a while. i recently learned how to sit on them w/o holding onto the handles, though, so i feel like i passed some sort of threshold into kenyan-ness or something. i'm becoming local, if only in small ways.
so anyway, last saturday, our group (the 5 of us, interns plus our coordinator) spent the day doing a grant-writing workshop in town. it was a really helpful experience - plus it was good to just see everyone and catch up on life. we are not required to write a grant, but the option is there for us if we see a need. sometimes interns have a great idea for a sustainable project and they just need some funding, so they write a grant - but others are doing different kinds of work that won't really benefit from funding. so, it basically just depends on where you work and what the organization/community needs most.
the next day, i went into town, bought a paper - The Daily Nation - and looked for a spot to read. unfortunately i haven't totally adapted yet, b/c i didn't realize that there might not be a great spot to sit outside and read, but i looked anyway. i ended up sitting in this sort-of park area in town - which was a good idea except for the little kids who kept coming up to me and staring. i definitely never forget that i'm white here. this weekend, we're in kisumu - which is more of a touristy place (though not much more) and we've seen multiple other mzungus (as we're called) and i definitely find it weird to see so many other westerners. the word mzungu techinically means "confused person" - apparently when the british first came here, they looked lost/confused - but it basically just means "white person." my host sister, christine, has informed me that this is very rude, and that i should be mad when people call me that, but so far her opinion hasn't stopped the myriad of neighborhood children who yell "mzungu mzungu" at me every morning when i go to work.
well, the past week at work was an interesting one! i spent a lot of time talking w/ my co-workers, trying to figure out as much as i could about the organization. overall, it was a frustrating week - trying to find a project to do that was big enough to be beneficial, but small enough to be feasible, and realistic enough to be sustainable. that was definitely a much harder task than i anticipated, but i feel like i'm at least learning a lot about NGOs and non-profits. by the end of the week, i had come up w/ a project that i think will work - for now at least! i may have to re-evaluate it later, but for now it's giving me something solid to do. i think i'm going to be working in the bee-keeping aspect of my organization (i know this may come as a surprise - and no, i have no experience/knowledge of that except what i've learned in the past 2 weeks!) but i think it's probably the best way to spend my time in terms of helping the bee-keepers generate income.
well i have much more to say, but i think this is long enough. thanks for reading and please email me and keep me updated w/ everything!!
lauren
Sunday, September 30, 2007
Friday, September 21, 2007
working girl
hello everyone! well it is friday afternoon here - i am almost done w/ my first full week of work!
on saturday, our orientation was over, so the 4 of us went to our separate homes, where we'll spend the next 3 months. we are on the outskirts of the town of kakamega, but all in different places. so on saturday, i met my host family and spent the weekend w/ them. i have a host mom, who is about 50 and has 6 grown children, one of whom lives w/ her. she is awesome - sort of intimidating, but very nice!! a lot of the women here are very submissive b/c of gender roles and such, but she is definitely very strong - so that is awesome! her son lives there, too, along w/ his 2 wives (who are about my age!) and 4 children - a 12-year-old girl, a 5-year-old boy, and two babies. it is definitely awkward to be living w/ a completely new family, in a totally different cultural context - but it's been fairly smooth so far! my swahili is not very good, and they are all very patient w/ me! luckily, they speak a little bit of english, so the communication barrier hasn't been too bad.
last weekend i spent most of my time w/ the family on their compound. on saturday, the day consisted of a lot of sitting around and awkward conversation in broken swahili and english, so that was kind of a long day. on sunday morning, we went to church (where my host mom is sort of like an elder) and after 4 hours of singing and preaching in swahili, it was over. definitely a change. they are in no rush to stop the services! after that, we spent most of the day walking around, making dinner, and cleaning. being here has already made me very thankful for granola bars, starbucks, microwaves, subway, etc... b/c so much of the womens' time here is spent preparing food, cooking, and cleaning up afterward. i've already determined i would be an awful african housewife. however, it has been good to spend a lot of time in the kitchen w/ the women, b/c it's helped me get to know them better. i offer to help every night, but i think they're all still a little skeptical of my cooking skills, which they should be. most people here are surprised that i'm not married w/ children and that i don't really know how to cook - since most girls my age are and do. overall, i love my host family - they've been really good to me. it's difficult during the week, b/c i am normally at work most of the day, then when i get home, it's time to cook dinner and then go to bed - so i don't get to spend much time w/ them.
i also started my job this week - working at a non-profit here called Community Action for Rural Development. I've spent most of the week just talking w/ the other people who work there, walking around the area, reading materials, etc... to prepare to really start working. i work w/ 4 other national guys, so it will be an interesting dynamic i think! these past couple days we traveled to a nearby city to do a training program/conference on HIV/AIDS prevention in the work place. it was an interesting experience! it left me w/ a lot of questions about culture and society here. hopefully this semester i will find some answers to my questions, although these issues are so complex that i'm not sure how best to get answers! at the conference, my boss had me do two presentations - and i was not totally sure what the heck i was doing, but it was a good/humbling learning experience for me. i am realizing how hard it is to make sustainable changes, b/c so much of peoples' behavior is so rooted in culture and society - it's hard to know how to change, and what you should try to work toward. luckily, i have a really good support system here of FSD staff and other interns, so it'll be good to have people to walk through everything w/ me.
well i am currently on a random 1-hour break from work - my boss just told me to go take a break, so i'm at an internet cafe. the concept of work is a lot different than what i'm used to. most people take long lunches, or come in late, or take random breaks during the day - the pace of life is just a lot slower, which i'm finding to be both nice and unnerving.
so i have about an hour left of work today, and then i'm meeting up w/ 2 other interns to have a after-work drink to celebrate our first week of work!
tomorrow, all of us interns have a meeting in town - and then the rest of the weekend will probably be much like last weekend!
i will try to post some pictures as soon as i can - i keep forgetting to bring my camera to the internet cafe, but i'll try to remember next time! thank you so much for your love and prayers - please email me when you can to let me know what's going on w/ your lives!!
on saturday, our orientation was over, so the 4 of us went to our separate homes, where we'll spend the next 3 months. we are on the outskirts of the town of kakamega, but all in different places. so on saturday, i met my host family and spent the weekend w/ them. i have a host mom, who is about 50 and has 6 grown children, one of whom lives w/ her. she is awesome - sort of intimidating, but very nice!! a lot of the women here are very submissive b/c of gender roles and such, but she is definitely very strong - so that is awesome! her son lives there, too, along w/ his 2 wives (who are about my age!) and 4 children - a 12-year-old girl, a 5-year-old boy, and two babies. it is definitely awkward to be living w/ a completely new family, in a totally different cultural context - but it's been fairly smooth so far! my swahili is not very good, and they are all very patient w/ me! luckily, they speak a little bit of english, so the communication barrier hasn't been too bad.
last weekend i spent most of my time w/ the family on their compound. on saturday, the day consisted of a lot of sitting around and awkward conversation in broken swahili and english, so that was kind of a long day. on sunday morning, we went to church (where my host mom is sort of like an elder) and after 4 hours of singing and preaching in swahili, it was over. definitely a change. they are in no rush to stop the services! after that, we spent most of the day walking around, making dinner, and cleaning. being here has already made me very thankful for granola bars, starbucks, microwaves, subway, etc... b/c so much of the womens' time here is spent preparing food, cooking, and cleaning up afterward. i've already determined i would be an awful african housewife. however, it has been good to spend a lot of time in the kitchen w/ the women, b/c it's helped me get to know them better. i offer to help every night, but i think they're all still a little skeptical of my cooking skills, which they should be. most people here are surprised that i'm not married w/ children and that i don't really know how to cook - since most girls my age are and do. overall, i love my host family - they've been really good to me. it's difficult during the week, b/c i am normally at work most of the day, then when i get home, it's time to cook dinner and then go to bed - so i don't get to spend much time w/ them.
i also started my job this week - working at a non-profit here called Community Action for Rural Development. I've spent most of the week just talking w/ the other people who work there, walking around the area, reading materials, etc... to prepare to really start working. i work w/ 4 other national guys, so it will be an interesting dynamic i think! these past couple days we traveled to a nearby city to do a training program/conference on HIV/AIDS prevention in the work place. it was an interesting experience! it left me w/ a lot of questions about culture and society here. hopefully this semester i will find some answers to my questions, although these issues are so complex that i'm not sure how best to get answers! at the conference, my boss had me do two presentations - and i was not totally sure what the heck i was doing, but it was a good/humbling learning experience for me. i am realizing how hard it is to make sustainable changes, b/c so much of peoples' behavior is so rooted in culture and society - it's hard to know how to change, and what you should try to work toward. luckily, i have a really good support system here of FSD staff and other interns, so it'll be good to have people to walk through everything w/ me.
well i am currently on a random 1-hour break from work - my boss just told me to go take a break, so i'm at an internet cafe. the concept of work is a lot different than what i'm used to. most people take long lunches, or come in late, or take random breaks during the day - the pace of life is just a lot slower, which i'm finding to be both nice and unnerving.
so i have about an hour left of work today, and then i'm meeting up w/ 2 other interns to have a after-work drink to celebrate our first week of work!
tomorrow, all of us interns have a meeting in town - and then the rest of the weekend will probably be much like last weekend!
i will try to post some pictures as soon as i can - i keep forgetting to bring my camera to the internet cafe, but i'll try to remember next time! thank you so much for your love and prayers - please email me when you can to let me know what's going on w/ your lives!!
Saturday, September 15, 2007
one week down!
hello everyone! well, i've officially been in kenya for one week now. i feel like i've already been here for a long time; it's hard to believe it's only been a week. this past week was quite a whirlwind! we spent the weekend in nairobi - mainly getting to know the city a little bit. one day, we were able to go to kibera, which is the largest slum in africa where over 1 million people live. it was definitely a crazy experience to visit there. after we went there, we drove about 10 minutes away to an indian restaurant for lunch. it was incredible - one minute we were in the middle of a huge slum full of impoverish people, and 10 minutes later we were sitting at an extremely nice restaurant that looked like it could've been in the middle of any american suburb. it was quite a contrast and something that was hard to think about and comprehend. i think it helped us all understand all of the inequality here - it gave us a first-hand experience of what we're trying to change.
then, on monday, we took a 9-hour bus ride from nairobi to kakamega, in western kenya. this is the city i'll be working in every day. we (myself, the 3 other interns, and the 2 program directors) have spent the week in a hotel in town. this week has been full of orientation-type stuff, like talking about working cross-culturally, doing development work, learning swahili (or at least trying to!) and many other things. it's been really great so far, b/c we've gotten to eat lunches and dinners at some interesting places (i LOVE the food so far) - so we've had a lot of fun nights just sitting around, eating and drinking and talking about anything and everything.
yesterday, we went to a town called kisumu which is about an hour away. we ate lunch there with a peace corps volunteer who talked to us about a lot of his experiences. there was a pool there, so we got to hang out by the pool and swim and soak up some of the equatorial sun! luckily, no one got burned :) it was a really fun day - it was nice to just relax w/ everyone before we start our jobs on monday! we will be working 9-5 on weekdays, but on weekends we're normally free to hang out or go on trips to random places. we've already planned to go whitewater rafting in uganda at some point!
well, this morning we packed up and left the hotel, and in a few minutes, we'll be on our way to our respective villages (everyone lives outside of the city) to meet our host families! i'll be sure to write again soon once i start my job and meet my host family. please keep me updated on what's going on w/ your lives, too! kwaheri from kenya!!
then, on monday, we took a 9-hour bus ride from nairobi to kakamega, in western kenya. this is the city i'll be working in every day. we (myself, the 3 other interns, and the 2 program directors) have spent the week in a hotel in town. this week has been full of orientation-type stuff, like talking about working cross-culturally, doing development work, learning swahili (or at least trying to!) and many other things. it's been really great so far, b/c we've gotten to eat lunches and dinners at some interesting places (i LOVE the food so far) - so we've had a lot of fun nights just sitting around, eating and drinking and talking about anything and everything.
yesterday, we went to a town called kisumu which is about an hour away. we ate lunch there with a peace corps volunteer who talked to us about a lot of his experiences. there was a pool there, so we got to hang out by the pool and swim and soak up some of the equatorial sun! luckily, no one got burned :) it was a really fun day - it was nice to just relax w/ everyone before we start our jobs on monday! we will be working 9-5 on weekdays, but on weekends we're normally free to hang out or go on trips to random places. we've already planned to go whitewater rafting in uganda at some point!
well, this morning we packed up and left the hotel, and in a few minutes, we'll be on our way to our respective villages (everyone lives outside of the city) to meet our host families! i'll be sure to write again soon once i start my job and meet my host family. please keep me updated on what's going on w/ your lives, too! kwaheri from kenya!!
Sunday, September 9, 2007
finally here!
after about 2 days of traveling, i am finally here in kenya! i left thursday night and arrived at the nairobi airport yesterday morning. one of the other girls doing an internship was on the flight with me, so after getting off the plane we got our bags and met up w/ the guy who's the program coordinator in kakamega. we drove to the hotel, met the other 2 interns, and then just spent the day walking around the city and getting a feel for for everything. well i don't have much time now, b/c i was just informed that the internet cafe is closing in a couple of minutes!! i will update more next time! i hope all is well!!
Monday, September 3, 2007
getting ready to leave!
Hello family and friends!!
I am leaving for Kenya in 3 days - I will be there for 3 1/2 months doing an internship. I decided to create this blog because I thought it might be easy for me to just post my thoughts on here during my time in Kenya.
My email address is laurenehaney@gmail.com - I would love to hear from you while I'm gone. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to access the internet (I think fairly often, but I'm not sure yet), but I will try to write as often as I can!
I will spending my time there working for a non-profit organization called Community Action for Rural Development; their mission statement is as follows: "CARD was founded in 1998 by a group of business and professional philanthropists from the Kakamega district. The mission of the group is commitment to working with communities towards sustainable development in Western Kenya. " They work with people in the community - helping people start their own businesses, spreading HIV/AIDS awareness, education, women's rights, and environmental issues.
I am going through an organization called the Foundation for Sustainable Development, which is based in San Fransisco and sends interns to a variety of places - Africa, India, and Central/South America. Their website is www.fsdinternational.org if you'd like to find out more information!
I am so excited to have this opportunity. I will definitely miss home, but I am so excited to go! Thanks for reading! :)
I am leaving for Kenya in 3 days - I will be there for 3 1/2 months doing an internship. I decided to create this blog because I thought it might be easy for me to just post my thoughts on here during my time in Kenya.
My email address is laurenehaney@gmail.com - I would love to hear from you while I'm gone. I'm not sure how often I'll be able to access the internet (I think fairly often, but I'm not sure yet), but I will try to write as often as I can!
I will spending my time there working for a non-profit organization called Community Action for Rural Development; their mission statement is as follows: "CARD was founded in 1998 by a group of business and professional philanthropists from the Kakamega district. The mission of the group is commitment to working with communities towards sustainable development in Western Kenya. " They work with people in the community - helping people start their own businesses, spreading HIV/AIDS awareness, education, women's rights, and environmental issues.
I am going through an organization called the Foundation for Sustainable Development, which is based in San Fransisco and sends interns to a variety of places - Africa, India, and Central/South America. Their website is www.fsdinternational.org if you'd like to find out more information!
I am so excited to have this opportunity. I will definitely miss home, but I am so excited to go! Thanks for reading! :)
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