#5: Wanawake na watoto

On Friday Feb. 12^th we travelled to see the organization Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK) in another part of Nairobi. After receiving a brief tour of the facility and an overview of what the organization does to help HIV infected women and families in Kenya, we were taken into homes of women who receive aid in the form of food and counseling from WOFAK. Since the government of Kenya began providing anti-retroviral therapy (ARVT) drugs for people suffering from HIV/AIDS, WOFAK has concentrated its efforts of helping to provide medicine to treat opportunistic infections, especially tuberculosis, and food (which is necessary for ARVTs to be effective). The majority of women have been left by their husbands, and left to support their families alone amidst stigma the community and the struggle to maintain their health and that of their children. Faced with undefeatable odds, these women often have nowhere to go and lack family support once their positive HIV status is discovered. The group I was with went into the home of a woman with two small children under the age of five, all of three of whom were HIV infected and currently taking ARVTs provided by the government, and sharing a single room with a bunk bed and a worn out love seat. The mother was not event thirty years old and was suffering from her third case of TB. Fortunately for the woman we visited, her husband was still around and working odd jobs he was able to find when his health did not fail. The major barrier facing her, aside from the struggle to maintain good health, was the inability to convince her husband to take his ARVTs regularly (especially when he felt well). When taken sporadically and only to treat opportunistic infections, patients can build up resistance to ARVTs, rendering them ineffective in treating any illness or in preventing transmission to others. Her story is one that is all too common among women in East Africa, and Kenya in particular. In the face of such misfortune in life, she held fast to a solid faith and dignity that any person should aspire to maintain.

On Saturday, Feb. 13^th we drove to a part of Nairobi called Mathare, one of Africa’s largest and poorest slums just outside the city center to visit the Mathare Youth Sports Association (MYSA), and to aid in a community trash cleanup effort. Out of all the organizations we have been exposed to thus far, MYSA is probably the most impressive and inspiring. As the largest self-help youth sports and community service organization in Africa, MYSA offers over 15,000 youth “a sporting chance on and off the field”. Since 1987, MYSA has been working to foster community development through Mathare’s children. Membership is free and offers the kids in this area not only a chance to do more than play soccer, but to become happy healthy human beings through AIDS prevention programs, civic engagement (slum cleanup and environmental improvement projects), and by providing spaces for youth to pursue their academic potential through the establishment of study halls and libraries within the community. In addition to all of this, Haba na Haba (step by step) is a branch off of MYSA which offers classes and programs in the arts (singing, dancing, drumming, painting, music recording, etc.) You name it, MYSA does it, and if they don’t, they probably have plans to do it soon. Through the sports association, youth have the opportunity to win scholarships to both secondary school and some small university/college scholarships. For more information, you can go to www.mysakenya.org. MYSA is by far the most amazing organization that we have been fortunate enough to visit so far, they're definitely getting things done :).

#4:Tutanana Kesho!

As my second week in Kenya is drawing to a close, life is beginning to feel more like a routine. We have officially had five days of class, and thus a whole week of Kiswahili lessons. Using the language is difficult though, when it seems like no one really completely EVER speaks swahili... My host family is making efforts to use it around me, despite the fact that each member speaks about 3+ languages a piece and usually just mixes all three.

Yesterday our SIT group visited the African Medical Research Foundation (AMREF)'s international headquarters in Nairobi and learned a little bit about how they aid in bringing health care to rural communities. As an NGO, AMREF not only trains community health workers for local clinics and dispensaries, but offers educational programs in every almost every type of health care training and builds wells and building sanitation facilities. Today we are going to see the WOFAK office in Nairobi (Women Fighting AIDS in Kenya) and then more Swahili lessons!

#3: Living Mativo

By the time Saturday came, I was ready to settle in to my host home. Mama Sally met me at the bus and helped me move all of my belongings inside, where I was excited to find out I had my own room! Well I was until I realized that as a result the three host children were now sharing not only a room barely bigger than mine, but also a bed... Mama Sally is the sweetest woman, and speaks English extremely well, so do the children and my host father, Martin. I have had so much fun getting to know them over the past few days and learning to fit myself into their lives! My host sister Joy is the youngest at seven years old, and by far helps me the most in learning Kiswahili. My brother Martin (Jr.) is nine years old, and my sister Angela is the oldest at 12 years.
Mama Sally works at a salon just a few minutes away from our home and my host father is an academic director at the University of Nairobi. I have had the privilege to hang out at the salon with Sally and the kids and learn about how Kenya women like to do their hair :). My host father was gone for the weekend away visiting family for the weekend, but I was able to finally meet him last night. All of my family members speak English extremely well, but most of the time converse in SHENG, which is a uniquely Kenyan mixture of English and Swahili. Thankfully, they are making efforts to use Swahili as much as possibly to aid in my learning of the language, which actually gets easier to pick up every day.

My family also has a girl named Purity from the rural areas who works in the house cooking, cleaning, and other chores. She speaks the least English out of everyone, but it forces me to use my Swahili :).

Since classes have begun at our office here in Nairobi, I have had three hours of Kiswahili instruction every day in the morning and lectures each afternoon. The Kiswahili is intense and at times overwhelming, but we have three instructors who trade off teaching us in groups of five, which helps.

The food is delicious here and the people are wonderful! I'm feeling more at home every day and find the area to be extremely accessible, despite the lake of internet, reliable electricity, and running hot water in my home.

#2: Orientation Week

After meeting up with the rest of the students in my group and the academic directors at the Mary Ward center hostel, we spent the week spending time getting to know the area and what the semester has in store. After breakfast the first morning we headed to the nearby Giraffe center just down the street, where we had the opportunity to feed and learn a little bit about one of Kenya’s endangered species. We were also able to take a short hike with a guide through the habitat. Following our Giraffe center visit, we headed to a bead factory named, Kazuri, who employs single mothers in the art of bead and pottery manufacturing and painting for local sale as well as export. The facility employs several hundred women and boasted a beautiful display of colors and fashions. We headed to the shopping center to purchase phones at the supermarket and then headed back to Mary Ward for lunch.

At four o’clock we met again for chai out in the gazebo and had a get-to-know you session with the academic directors Jamal and Odoch and the office managers Mama Mary and Miltone. All of whom I quickly grew to love J.

Tuesday we were split up into groups of four or five and did what SIT terms a “drop off” where we were taken to specific places around the city and told to go off and gather information. My group of four went to the University of Nairobi where we set out to find as much information as possible about student life, courses, available degrees, professors, and its history in general among other things. We simply set out to find thins of interest. It was challenging to find information without any direct instruction; we all seemed to have different ideas about to go about doing so. In the end we all had unique experiences and were able to strike up conversations with students and others on campus about the university. Other groups went to the Gender Violence Recovery Center, Kenyatta Hospital, the Bomb Blast (site of the 1998 US Embassy bombing) and train station. Afterward we all congregated and reported upon what we found.

The next few days we spent at the Mary Ward center receiving massive amounts of orientation and policy information. We received our first Swahili lesson from Mama Mary and our first Field Study Seminar lecture on ethnic and the tribal/cultural history of Kenya and East Africa from Donna. I think I learned more in that 2 or 3 hour span than I have ever learned about the region, or the continent in all.

On Thursday morning we departed from the Mary Ward Center and moved more to the interior of the city to another hostel name Kolping guest house. After settling into our rooms we had a ‘cross-cultural’ discussion with our Swahili instructions, Mama Mary and Donna, and gained a much more realistic perspective about what life would be like within our host families, specifically what not to do. After lunch we were taken on walking tours in groups by Swahili instructors around the district where our school and families are and then returned for dinner.

On Friday, a man from the Gender Violence Recovery Center came presented upon what the center does and how they came to exist through the Nairobi Women’s Hospital. It was a great presentation on all of the free services which the center provides to both women and children who are victims of sexual violence, physical violence, harmful traditional practices, etc. Since its inception, the GVRC has helped thousands of women and children receive the medical care they would normally not be able to afford.

On Saturday we all gathered up our things and headed out on the bus to our host homes. After a brief run in with a manhole, and the subsequent efforts to bring the bus back up to road level, we were off. We went through the neighborhoods dropping each student off one at a time, until reaching our respective homes. I was taken to my home in the Jamhuri estate/neighborhood and embarked upon what would be my first weekend with my host family, the Mativos.

#1: Arrival in Nairobi!

After about a 24 hour journey, I arrived in Nairobi last night around 9pm. I haven't been able to see much of the city other than the amazing view from my 5th floor hotel window. Luckily all of my flights were on time, and comfortable. From San Antonio to Houston, Houston to Amsterdam, and finally to Nairobi, it seemed like forever and a day before we landed in Kenya.

Just before we touched down in Amsterdam, the sun began to rise across the eastern sky in soft and almost etheral colors. As we landed, snow was falling lightly, covering everything in a beautiful layer of white powder. Luckily, but unfortunately it was only about an hour before I boarded the KLM flight to Nairobi, and this trip truly began to feel like a reality. After traversing Europe and northern Africa, and another seven and a half hours I arrived in Kenya. I even caught a few glipses of the entire horizon abaze with a brilliant red and orange sunset, it was breathtaking to say the least.

Customs etc. was a breeze, and somehow upon arrival all of my previous feelings of exhaustion disappeared and were replaced by feelings of excitement and amazement that I had arrived. I hailed a taxi and headed to the hotel, ready for some rest and relaxation.

This afternoon I meet up with my program and begin a week of orientation for my program. Hopefully there's something interesting to post soon!