Friday July 1st
I arrived in Kenya by bus on my way back from Uganda where I had rafted the Nile. My bus got into Nairobi, Kenya at about 6am. I was very relieved to see my luggage as someone had tried to steal it off the bus in the middle of the night. Quite scary. Eventually a member of Fadhili (the organization I am volunteering with) came to pick me up, he dropped me off at the homestay of Pastor Reginas I rested there until the other house members woke up. I met two people from London also going to orientation with me, Scott and Sasha. After talking with Scott, I was even more excited for my overland tour, as he had just finished doing the same tour I will be doing.
We left for orientation, and joined the other 45 or so people. We took tea and mandazi, then finally started. Orientation was long but okay, though a little unorganized as I have later come to the conclusion that most things Fadhili does are a little on the unorganized side. They told us the history of Fadhili, told us our placements, and locations, we listened to some of the guest speakers, mainly regarding different opportunities available to us, some of which sounded really really good. (Outreach weekend, Womens Outreach, Medical Camp, Clean-up weekend in Lilong, HIV/AIDS awareness, and Kibera slums)....so many things to do, so little time. Afterwards we went to the supermarked to get whatever it is we might need while we are at our placements. Then eventually after quite a bit of miscommunication and disorganization we split up into matatus and headed off to our homestay locations.
My Location
So, I am located in Maasailand, about 2-4 hours (depending on traffic) south of Nairobi on the outskirts of a town known as Kajiado. We finally arrived after a very long time, getting lost, and turning around only twice. Two other people from my orientation with me in Kajiado as well. David from Maryland, USA and Jetteka from Holland, both doing teaching placements as well.
Our New Home – Mamma Fatuma’s
From what IVHQ had implied, we were under the impressions that we would be living in the middloe of nowhere with traditional Maasai in a Manyatta with bomas, cattle, goats, no running water, and no electricity. This was definitely not the case! I was actually a little disappointed though, as I was really looking forward to all of that craziness. This was really my only expectation about anything on this trip so serves me right I guess, as it really is best to come with no expectations and just go with it and enjoy it. In the end though I really do enjoy living here at Mamma Fatuma’s and am secretly probably quite glad I get some amenities for this month.
So Mamma Fatuma’s, as I just mentioned really is still a very amazing place. We arrived quite late at night, so couldn’t see much we just knew we went through a small town and drove for quite a while out of the town, and there didn’t seem to be much of a road. When we got here we were met by Mamma Fatuma, a truly inspiring and hard working lady, Mommi, and Brad another volunteer doing a medical placement who has already been here for two months or so. Mammas house is very nice actually and decently sized. We do have power most of the time, though no running water. There is supposed to be another volunteer here but is away hiking in the jungle right now, and will be back later.
Saturday July, 2nd
In the morning we also got to meet Mommis two little girls. Djara (5) she is the cutest little thing, but is ill with Malaria right now, though you would never guess with the amount of energy she has. The other daughter is Kamema (11) she is much more shy and quiet than Djara but she is so intelligent. She really wants to be a doctor one day, she said that her favourite thing about Kenya is the education (Mommi and the girls recently moved here from Mali). On Saturday we didn’t do much more than go into town, meet some of Mammas friends, and see her businesses – she really is quite the business lady (her family has a shop, a timber yard, a real estate business, and are opening a car wash shortly) Saturday was also the first day that we got to experience our day toilet. Which is this tiny little tin shack with some pieces of wood for a floor and a very small hole down to the ground. Like I have said previously, I should have amazing thighs after all of these squatter toilets and having to pee in the bush when I will be camping. We only use this toilet during the day because it is placed about 50 feet from the house and with the wildlife it could be too dangerous to use it at night, though I wouldn’t be really worried about it.
Sunday July 3rd
We woke up had our tea and breakfast and Mamma even though she is Muslim, arranged for us to attend an African Church Service, so we walked the hour there, then met up with some of the people that had organized for us to go there. We waited around for a bit, and were quite entertaining to the local kids. When we finally went to church...it was interesting I suppose, we got there for the Swahili service, someone thought it was better for us to not go to the English service which was apparently right before. Parts of church were interesting and really nice, like when the girls from a nearby school all got up and danced and sang in their individual groups, and other parts weren’t so pleasant like when we sat there and got yelled at in Swahili (this is just how they preach though). Church was insanely long....3 hours insanely long! We did get driven back though, so that was nice at least. Sunday other than that was a lazy day and an early night to prepare for our first day of work the next day.
Monday July 4th – My Placement
So I was placed at a school called PBS (Primary Boarding School). This is an all boys school with about 550 students, 120 of them are day scholars the other 430 live there at the school during the 3 month terms. Each boarder pays 4,700 Kenyan Shillings per 3 months for school, food, and board.
I was quite nervous about going into PBS because: 1. It is an all boys school, 2. The children are between 7 and 17 years old, 3. I was the first volunteer to ever go there. Mamma switched it though so that David one of the volunteers I came with, would be placed with me at PBS to make it easier.
So in the morning we had our breakfast and Mamma, David, Jetteka, and I headed out. We dropped Jetteka off first, her school was about a 40 minute walk away, then we walked for another 45 minutes or so, and finally arrived at PBS. When we arrived we met the Headmaster, who was quite pleasant. He really wanted us to feel a part of the school so one of his ways of doing that was to give us traditional Maasai names. Mine is Nashipae, and David’s is Tajeu. Nashipae translates to one who is very happy and brings Joy, thats what I understood of it anyways. Tajeu translates to the one who has come to save. We were taken and introduced to all of the boys and classes, he introduced us with our Maasai names, and English names though he refused to call me Kate as it was not proper to him, so I am Madam Catherine Nashipae. It was a little awkward that he introduced us with our Maasai names and strongly encouraged the boys to use those names. He also told all of the students how he had prayed for so long for volunteers to come and help them, and we were the answers to their prayers. That was quite uncomfortable and was the start of my unease because he seemed to be setting really high expectations of us, which I am afraid I will not be able to reach and therefore disappoint these kids.
We went back to the office again, and discussed which classes we would be best teaching and which subjects. I am supposed to be doing English and Science for Classes 1 – 3. Then he kept talking about all of the issues that this school is facing particularly with water. It seemed then that he was really encouraging us to tell him what kind of things we could contribute to the school. He didn’t directly ask us for anything but it seemed to have a strong implication that we should help out with things financially mainly. He said to fix the water issue they would have to dig a bore-hole, when asked how much this would cost he replied with 3 million Ksh, or a more temporary solution would be too gutter the roofs which would cost 1 million Ksh. He also talked about how the boys needed mattresses as well. In the end David and I went our separate ways to help teach. I went to Class 2, which I was told would be my main class, and the boys seemed really excited for me to be there but they were extremely shy with me. I just watched Madam Grace teach until lunch and then we took Lunch....which consists of Maize and Beans every day, its not the worst thing in the world, but it gets old pretty fast. After lunch I just did some marking, and then David and I walked the hour it takes to get back to Mammas.
That is all for my first couple of days here in Kajiado, Kenya – will write more updates soon. Also I am going on an Outreach Weekend this weekend, and I’m sure will have much to report about that!
Missing everyone, and love you all!
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