Pictures

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Safari, my last few weeks and being back home

For the second week that my mom and sister were visiting me, we went on a 7-day safari. There is no way I can describe how amazing it was. Instead of the animals being in cages, we were the ones in our Land Cruiser cage looking at the animals in their natural habitat. Not only did we get to see lions, zebras, giraffes, rhinos, gazelles, buffalo, flamingos, and many other exciting animals, we saw beautiful landscapes in the Maasai Mara National Park and Lake Elementaita, a soda lake near Nakuru. We also saw the unfortunate effects that humans have had on Kenyan nature.

The last two weeks of my stay in Mombasa, I continued working at Calvary Zion, becoming very good friends with the three mothers (caretakers) and playing with the children. Since the school year finishes at the end of November, all the high school students were back from boarding school, which made Calvary very crowded.

Caleb, the youngest baby, was being treated for malaria but wasn't getting any better, so he was taken to the government hospital in Mombasa where he was admitted for malaria and pneumonia. I visited him with one of the mothers, and luckily he is a strong baby and was becoming healthy very quickly. The hospital itself was very different than hospitals in the US. All the babies were in one long bed, separated by inch-high divisions, which I imagine can't be good when contagious diseases are involved. In Kenya, all children under five years old are offered free health care at government hospitals-which is more than the US can say about our health care system. While I was there, a baby in the next row over died which was a huge shock to me. Someone told me that the doctors often don't respond fast enough to what the mother's are observing about their children. It took me completely by surprise and made me think about what I could do with my interest in public health. Being able to see things happen in real time instead of reading about them is scary and completely hits home as cliche as that sounds. Fortunately, Caleb is healthy and back at Calvary, he lost some weight but with the appetite he has, he will gain in back in a week or so.

I was also invited to go with Florence to her village, Kaloleni, to meet her mother and her brothers. Her village is 45 minutes outside of town by matatu, had to slouch the whole time because the matatu had a low ceiling and every bump in the road meant a potential bump on my head. When we got to her village, we walked to her family's part of the village. There were tons of coconut trees because they can be sold for a nice profit upcountry in Nairobi. When we got there, I met her mother and two of her brothers and then we all got coconuts to drink "African soda" and eat the flesh which is weird but good. For lunch, we had kuku choma (grilled chicken), ugali and kachumbari (a salad with tomatoes, onions, cucumbers and lots and lots of salt) all of which were absolutely delicious.

My last night in Kenya, I was invited for dinner at my friend Ann's house. She made pilau with kachumbari and the most delicious mango and passion juice. It was a perfect ending to a great experience.

Now I am back home and it is very very cold! I went from humid 90s to snowy 20s, quite the temperature jump. I am currently planning my spring, looking for jobs and going to volunteer at the Boston Medical Center.

I will post pictures very soon.
Happy Holidays and Happy New Years!

Bombolulu and my immigrant experience

My mom and sister arrived in Mombasa this past weekend, so I have been showing them around and introducing them to all the wonderful Kenyan people I have met since I've been here.

Last week, I had to go into town to register at the immigration office. Even though my visa is for six months, after three months you have to register with the government. I tried to get a 14 day extension since I'm only here for nine more days after three months, but they said I had to pay for the three months. After filling out a few forms, I was told to wait in the hallway, then twenty minutes later I was fingerprinted and my passport was stamped with an extension of three months. So now I am an official alien resident of Kenya.

Since my last post, which was quite awhile ago, I've started stopping at a bakery on my home from Calvary everyday. I have become good friends with Anne, the baker, and over the weekend, she showed us (me and Jess, the new volunteer) how to make mahambri. Mahambri are yeast doughnuts so instead of being solid, they puff up when thez are fried. They are made with cardomon and are absoloutely delicious. Then on Sunday, we went to church with Anne and her daughter, June, at Crossroads Fellowship a Baptist church, that is run by three American pastors. One of them came over to say hi, noticed my American accent and when I said I was from Boston he apologized about the Red Sox this year, funny considering we are half way across the world-- but I guess American residents of Kenya keep track of baseball and football (he mentioned that the Patriots were playing the Colts, then said he was from Indiana)

Today, I took my mom and sister to Bombolulu workshops. It is an organization that was started by a Swedish woman to provide disabled people with work. Started out as a farm but as more people needed jobs, it was converted to a bunch of workshops. There is woodcarving, jewelry making, tailoring, textile printing and leather work. Most people are either deaf, blind or handicapped because of polio. One of the most interesting aspects of Bombolulu workshops is the Mobility workshop that deals with the manufacturing of wheelchairs and "tricycles"-- wheelchairs that are bikes but instead of pedaling with your feet, its with your arms. The wheelchairs are made out of local materials so that they can be fixed by any mechanic and they are designed to be very tough as roads here are not always paved. Most of the workers in the Mobility workshop are deaf, as the noise from the metal work does not bother them. There is also a sponsor program set up to connect donors with individuals who need a wheelchair.

Another important aspect of this project is the subsidised housing provided for the workers. Houses were built right next to the workshops and are rented at very low prices. There is even a school within the compound so that young children can safely get to school and their parents don't have to take them far, which can be difficult for many.

We found out today that one of their major buyers is Ten Thousand Villages, which I'm sure many of you have been to (if you haven't, its is in Central sq and has beautiful artwork created by developing countries)

Tomorrow, we are planning on going to Fort Jesus (which I have already seen) and to the Jain temple which is supposed to be pretty interesting.

On Friday, we are flying to Nairobi where we will start our seven day safari which I am verz excited about.

If I don't post before Thanksgiving, I hope everyone has a great Thanksgiving, I know I will be thinking about all the delicious food I am missing.

rain mud rain sun rain mud rain sun MANGOES

Well it is officially the rainy season. We get rain every other day, sometimes more but it only actually rains for 10-20 minutes at a time. After it rains, it is incredibly muddy and your feet are only ever really clean for 5 minutes after a shower. Because of the rains, everything is really green but the ground dries up within a few hours, to the point where the ground is cracking.

Last weekend Chloe and I went to Lamu island for three days. Lamu is 7 hours north of Mombasa by bus and is closer to the Somali border. We had to take a speedboat to get to the island but once there getting around is either by foot or by donkey. Donkeys everywhere (heehaw). We stayed at Kipepeo (butterfly) Guesthouse, owned by a German woman and her Kenyan husband. Lamu itself is a traditional Swahili town and is mostly a Muslim town. The streets are very narrow and you have to stand up against the houses to get out of the way of people riding donkeys. One of the nights we were there, we ate at Ali Hippi's house, a man who hosts dinners for tourists at his house (he is in the Lonely Planet guide for Kenya). We had some really good seafood and Tamarind juice which was....interesting-- kind of like watered down and sweetened apple juice. We also went to Shella beach which is a speedboat away from Lamu town. The beach itself was very quiet and relaxing, unlike Bamburi beach which is packed, and I could read Spenser (Robert Parker) I found in a used bookshop. Lamu is also the best place to get fruit juice and milkshakes so we must have had at least 3 a day.

Last Thursday we got quite the surprise when we got to Mwokoeni. The director had been talking to Barclay's Bank for awhile and wasn't expecting any money from them but over the weekend, they donated money for a new roof (which was really needed because all the books were being rained on) and volunteers from the bank painted all the classrooms and the library. They also donated a huge bookshelf for the library which is great. The one slightly annoying thing was that when they repainted the library, they took all the books, that we had already sorted, out of the bookshelves and put them in huge bags. SO basically we have to reorganize all the books. Because we know what books there are now and how we want to set them up, we are hoping to have the library done by the time Chloe leaves this Saturday. After Mwokoeni, we went to the Bomobolulu workshops for a second time. Bombolulu workshops is a center for disabled people where they can rent subsidized houses and are employed by the workshops. We got a tour of the workshops and got to see how everything was made. The art is amazing and it is incredible how some of it is made. We met some blind women who coil wire using a rod and a turny thing and then who cut it into small metal rings used to make chains, all by touch!

This week, we are going to have a movie night at Calvary for all the adults who work there and then on Saturday, I am planning some things for Halloween. Bobbing for apples and mask making for the kids. I am also going to carve some pumpkins, we'll see how many I will carve once my hands are in pumpkin goo with the first one.

Today on our way to lunch at home, we stopped at the juice parlor and had MANGO JUICE!! Delicious and finally in season so I am very very excited.

I have been told that it has snowed in Cambridge which is crazy and that the leaves are absolutely amazing so enjoy the leaves and being cold as I try to stay as cool as possible in this heat ;)

Street Food

Just wanted to tell you about all the interesting and delicious street food here:
Roasted Corn: Corn on the cob roasted over a charcoal grill. Corn here isn't sweet and it is chewier so it is a good snack to munch on.
Mandazi: Fried Dough balls with cardomon mixed in
Fried Fish: Usually starts out as frozen Tilapia from Lake Victoria (about a 24 hour drive away from Mombasa)
Kimati: Fried Dough Balls coated in sugar
Sugar Cane: Cut up in small chunks and skinned, sugar cane is like chewing on wood soaked in sugar water--suprisingly refreshing
Passion Juice: Probably the most delicious juice I have ever had
Viazi (Potato in Swahili): Potatoes coated in a very thin batter then put in a little plastic bag topped with a vinager or tamarind sauce. Kids bite a hole in the bag and squeeze the potato out.

I have learned how to make pilau and mandazi so far and hope to learn many more dishes.

Fruit is sold from carts in the big junctions and the types vary according to the season, at the moment we have papaya, oranges, bananas, watermelon (but with lots and lots of seeds), passion fruit and pineapples but mangos will be coming back into season soon.

Last night we had a power cut and we could actually hear the sound of everything powering down. Today, the internet was out until late afternoon because they are installing a fiberoptic system in Mombasa and had to shut everyones internet off.

The library at Mwokoeni is finally starting to look like a library. We have sorted books by subject and have almost filled four bookshelves with books.

Robin- I've written in my journal every day without fail so thank you thank you thank you :)

Lots and lots to report

First off, I will blame the internet cafe across the road for being closed for almost 2 weeks as well as my flash drive that decided to stop working after I typed up my blog and then couldn't copy and paste it once I had internet but anyways here is a long post to make up for it.

Two weekends ago, along with two other volunteers, I went to Wasini Island, South of Mombasa, so close to the Tanzanian border that Chloe and Emma's phones got text messages from their network welcoming them to Tanzania. Wasini Island is right next to Kisite Mpunguti Marine Park (part of the Kenya Wildlife Service), where you can snorkel and see the coral reef. To get there we took a boat full of tourists which was a little weird as we are not used to being surrounded by tourists. On our way to the Marine Park, we saw a pod of bottlenose dolphins and when we got to the reef, we jumped off the boat to go snorkeling. There were tons of tropical fish, spots and stripes of all colors. I saw butterfly fish, angel fish, zebra fish, beautiful parrot fish and many others I couldn't identify. After snorkeling, we went to Wasini where we had crab, fish and coconut rice (yummmmm) for lunch. Chloe, Emma and I ate with our hands because we are used to it and because it is easier. At first, everyone else looked at us strangely but once they found out we were volunteers, they started asking us all sorts of questions.

The next day, we were asked to accompany all the kids from Calvary to a hotel where a party was organized by a Welsh pastor and two other people from his church. I thought it was going to be a bit strange but the kids really enjoyed themselves and that's what matters. They got to eat chicken and fries, something they never get at home and they got to swim in the pool which was really exciting. Since the hotel was right next to the ocean, the older kids (around my age) decided to go swimming there. Chloe and I hadn't been told that we would be able to swim so we hadn't brought our bathing suits but we really wanted to swim and we were feeling creative sooo, we bought two pieces of fabric each and used them to make bathing suits. For those of you on facebook, there are funny pictures that another volunteer who went back home posted up. ON the way back to Calvary, we fit 28 people in a matatu (14 is the normal and legal number of people). I held Kaleb, one of the babies, and Levis on my lap. Both fell asleep, so I became their car seats, holding up their heads making sure that they didn't crash into the window every time we went over a speed bump (and no seat belts of course). But everyone made it back all in one piece.

Last week went by very quickly because of how much of a routine we have set. At Calvary, we help out with chores and play with the children and at Mwokoeni, Chloe and I have found ourselves a project. The school has a library about half the size of the dining room at my dad's house, very small for a ton of books. There are stacks and stacks of books everywhere and piles of old papers that the teachers just pull out and leave in a mess. No organization whatsoever and none of the books are ever used. We decided that we are going to organize and clean the library so that students and teachers can use it. Almost all the books are from overseas, many from Chicago for some reason, and almost all are some sort of textbook. I found my AP Bio book in a stack and Chloe found a few books she used in school. It is a very
big project but it will be something we can do without getting in anyone's way and that will be helpful even after we leave.

This past Saturday, I went into town with Chloe and Mariam, a German woman doing a social work internship for school. We went to Biashara st where you can find the most beautiful cloth. There are three types of cloth:

Khanga always comes in pairs. It is a patterned rectangular cloth with a thick border that has another pattern and a Swahili saying (usually something religious). Kenyan women wear Khanga as a wraparound skirt and sometimes wear the matching cloth as a head scarf (Mombasa has a very big Muslim community) or to tie a baby to their back.

Kitenge has a pattern throughout the whole cloth, usually with a bigger motif than Khanga. It is usually a much bigger cloth and can be used to make dresses and skirts.

Kikoi is a woven cloth that is traditionally from the coast. It is one solid color with varying amounts of stripes and ends in tassels.

I plan on bringing back a lot of cloth, so I can show all of you when I get back.

Also, I may not be able to send that much snail mail as it gets to be quite expensive sending a letter to every friend. I can usually answer emails but the internet can be a bit fussy.

"life without love is like tea without sugar"

Life here has been really interesting, hectic, sometimes frustrating, funny, serious, sad and everything else.
On Monday, the younger kids at Calvary got their measles shots from the government so there was a lot of consoling involved but they were running around an hour later.

Tuesday, Chloe and I went to Mwokoeni where we had a frustrating day because there really isn't anything set for us to do and we felt like we were just replacing the teachers instead of helping. But today, we actually taught a few classes and have decided just to focus on the kids and help them as much as possible.

As for smells, it really depends where you are. As we walk to Calvary, there are two trash piles that don't usually smell bad because there are always goats, cows and chickens who I assume eat anything that would be perishable. The road is very dusty and there aren't many houses around so there aren't many distinct smells. At Calvary, there isn't a washing machine so the clothes often smell a little of pee because of the younger ones who still wet themselves. When the older girls braid the younger girl's hair into lines (or what we usually call cornrows), they sometimes you a steamer to help straighten their hair and then coconut oil to smooth it out. The coconut oil has a very specific smell which fills the room.

Yesterday, three of the workers had to pump the sewage out of the tank at Calvary and the pipe burst so the smell of sewage was everywhere, but it is so hot here that everything evaporates and the smell was pretty much gone when we left for home a few hours later.

At Mwokoeni, there is no real kitchen because the last place the kitchen was is very rundown so now they cook everything in a shack behind of the buildings. The pots are huge so the fire is huge which causes there to be a lot of smoke everywhere.

In other news, Joli, a 7 or 8 year old girl who is both deaf and mute, has been more responsive to our presence and lets us play with her a little more. She was brought to Calvary a few months ago because she had been abandoned on the street and the police took her in for 3 months waiting for a relative to show up, when no one did, they took her to Calvary. I hope that she will be able to go to a special school because it is clear that she finds it very frustrating not to be able to communicate.

The two babies seem much better and are both much more attentive. They are still very small and weak because they probably never used their arms or legs when they were in the hospital. Destiny is eating real food and Kaleb gobbles milk down to the point where we have to stop him so that he takes a breath.

Tomorrow, Chloe Emma and I are heading to Wasini, an island one hour south of Mombasa that has a beautiful national park including a coral reef where we will go snorkeling. We may even see dolphins!

I haven't been able to upload pictures because the internet is too slow but I have been taking pictures and will upload them when I have the chance :) Got some great ones of the kids playing around with my Survivor buff and some closeups of the giraffes we got to feed at Haller park.

Hope all is well

Where I live

I have been asked by my father to describe where I am living and the surrounding area so here goes.

I live in a one story house that has a living/dining space, a kitchen, a shower/sink room, a toilet room and three bedrooms. I share a room with Chloe, my fellow volunteer, Kelyn, Timo and Irene share a room and Njeri has the third room. The house we live in is part of the Blue Estate because there is a row of 20-30 identical houses with blue roofs. It is not an estate in the sense of a huge property with lots of houses, it is just called this because they all look the same. In front of the row of houses, there is a field of sorts that is used for cows and goats to graze, for young boys to play soccer and for the occasional “crusade”, an event where a church sets up a stand and uses it to dance and sing every night for a week (this happened last week). On the other side of the field, there are little shops including the cyber café where I write my posts. They are pretty run down and some are merely shacks. There is a main road that runs between the shops and the field that leads to Bamburi. The road is paved and is barely wide enough for two cars but often can fit two matatus and a cart full of tree trunks. There are no sidewalks so you walk along the side of the road and make sure that you are facing the cars that way it is harder for them to run you down. On the way to Calvary, the orphanage, there are lots of little fruit and vegetable shops as well as some places that sell eggs, and even some little shops that are kind of like corner stores at home. Our favorite place to stop is the juice parlor as it has really yummy passion fruit juice. Yesterday, I tried avocado juice mixed with passion juice which ended up with a thick passion juice, delicious!

Today, I am going to Haller Park with Chloe and Emma. Haller Park is a wildlife park near Mwokoeni that has giraffes, hippos, buffalo and other fun animals. We are hoping to make it in time to feed the giraffes!

How to tell time in Kenya, Chakula (food) and my work at Mwokoeni

Not only did I have to learn numbers in Kiswahili, I had to learn a new way of telling time. The day starts at six in the morning but here it is called: saa kumi na mbili (12 hours). Between one o'clock and six o'clock, you add six hours and between seven and twelve, you subtract six hours. The most confusing part is that when Kenyans are speaking English, they use the hours that we use but when they are speaking Kiswahili, they use Kenyan time. When kids are learning to tell time, they have to add or subtract hours from the time it says on the clock. Some families change their clocks to Kenyan time (I saw this done in a matatu).
As I am writing this post, it is 9:00 PM, saa tatu.
Kiswahili numbers:
1 - moja
2 - mbili
3 - tatu
4 - nne (pronounced inne)
5 - tano
6 - sita
7 - saba
8 - nane
9 - tisa
10 - kumi

Saa ngapi? - what time is it?
response: Saa tatu. (3 --> 9 o'clock)

Chakula = Food
Irene, Njeri's cousin and househelp, cooks lunch and dinner everyday. Startches include: rice, corn, chapati (kind of like thin naan) and ugali (a mash of some sort of grain). Usuall yshe makes some kind of stew dish with meat, onions and other vegetables.

Chai
We drink tons of chai (tea). Chai here is made with water (maji), milk (maziwa), ground up tea leaves and masala seasoning. Masala is made up of: ginger, cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, black pepper and nutmeg. You then add sugar to taste. At home we have it at least twice a day if not three or four times a day.

Today was my first day of working at Mwokoeni. We took two matatus there and walked through a very poor neighborhood to get to the school. The school is made up of buildings made of sticks and clay and tin roofs. We met with the director, Mr. Morris, who is very friendly and showed us around. He then placed us with the youngest class (3-5 year olds). Usually the class is split into two, KG1 and KG2 but Patricia, the teacher, told us the other teacher is not working at the moment. Unlike in the US, this kindergarten doesn't have a drama area or an activity center with squiggly scissors. It has two wooden tables, benches with placks attached for desks and a couple mats for the younger kids to sit on. The teacher has one chalkboard to teach from so there is a lot of repeating words and singing songs. Patricia asked me to help teach but I wasn't it expecting to at all so I wasn't really prepared. I ended up singing "head shoulders knees and toes" and "I like to eat eat eat apples and bananas"--which alex and hannah will rememeber we sang in Cassie's class. Couldn't think of any other simple songs to teach so if anyone has any suggestions feel free to comment on this or email me: emacrakis@yahoo.com

Hope everyone is having a wonderful fall so far :)

Mambo

Habari zenu Cambridge? (literally: what news of Cambridge?)

I have learned a lot of kiswahili this week from my lessons with Lydia. The story goes that kiswahili was created by children of Bantu women and Arabic men who were in Kenya as traders. Because of this, everyday words such as kula (to eat), kunywa (to drink), kupika (to cook), and kupenda (to like/love) are from Bantu origin and words associated with an absent father such as kusafiri (to travel), kusahau (to forget), kusameke (to forgive), and kurudi (to return) are from Arabic origin.

I have been going to Calvary Zion, the orphanage, after lunch at home. It is about 15 minutes by foot and you have to walk on the street while trying to avoid all of the matatus (the local form of transport). At Calvary, the other volunteers and I play with the younger kids who entertain themselves with a few dolls and some little cars. We also help take care of the two babies who were both abandoned at a hospital and who are suffer from malnutrition. Jane, the woman who runs Calvary, picked them up from the hospital this past week and within a month they should be back to normal. Kaleb is around 2 months, very small and only likes to be held if you are walking around. Destiny is probably around 7-9 months and sits very quietly while looking around at everyone. The older kids are leaving for boarding school on Sunday but will be back in November. Today I helped cut up a huge tub of kale for the children's dinner (think big like laundry basket big).

Starting next week I will be working at Calvary on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays and at Mwokoeini, a school in a nearby slum, on Tuesdays and Thursdays.

People here are very friendly and laid back and are pleasantly surprised when you respond to their "jambo" with a real greeting. Unlike in Cambridge, it is starting to get hotter here as their "winter" is ending right about now.

P.S.
If you are trying to send anything my mail, the address is:

Njeri Wathika
PO Box 82056
Mombasa - Code 80100

Don't put my name on the envelope as it will be lost more easily.

mombasa!

Here I am!
I can't write a very long post today because I have to get back home but I have been getting to know the area as well as the family I am staying with. I am staying with Njeri and her two sons, Kelyn (11) and Timmy or Timo (4). They are very lively and a lot of fun to be around. Tomorrow I start my Swahili class which I am very excited about. I have already picked up a few words from being around the kids and from my handy Swahili phrase book.
the first list of random words I know:
Somaki- fish
Chupa- bottle
matatu- local public transportation in the form of vans
kuku - chicken
maridadi - beautiful (for an object)
maji - water
chakula - food
funga macho - close eyes: figured this out while playing a game with Timo :)
a more detailed post will follow in the next few days.

Leaving

Well here it is. I'm leaving at 5 o'clock. I've got everything packed, but still haven't fully wrapped my head around my trip. I will miss my family and friends a ton, but I know that once I get to Mombasa, things will fall into place. Next post will be Kenyan :)

Real Address

Ok so turns out I was given two different addresses. This is the correct one:


Moi Avenue
Room 18, Kabundu House
PO Box 82056
Mombasa - Code 80100

Host family assignment!

Hey everyone!

I just received my host family assignment, I will be staying with the Kenya organizer and her two sons. I also found out that I will be working at a Children's Centre and a Children's home--very exciting. My mother posted the wrong address so here it is:

Ms Njeri Bancy Wathika
P.O. Box 82066
Code 80100
Mombasa
Kenya

You can probably c/o her name and put my name on it somewhere. I will be writing letters so if you send me one I will write you back :)

Travel Dates

We have bought plane tickets!
I will be leaving Boston on September 4th, arriving in Mombasa, Kenya on the 5th.