African Time

African Time
Rory Curtin

Quick Note: Due to various internet issues, travel interruptions, and a troublesome bout of stomach bacteria, it’s taken me far longer to post this than I could have possibly planned (hence the title, “African Time”). So sorry, more soon! 

As I write about Saturday’s adventure, I’m sitting on our front porch, the sun rising above the stone walls of our compound on my left, and can hear singing from a nearby church welcoming this Wednesday morning in Kenya. I’m sipping a pretty horrible cup of instant coffee that is just barely rectified by the fresh cow’s milk that is delivered in a 2 liter Fanta bottle every few days. So last Saturday we were invited to Edwin’s home to attend his father’s annual memorial service, meet his “Sweet Darling,” (as he calls his wife), and celebrate the 2nd birthday of his daughter Brittany (named after Brittany Spears). It’s sometimes overwhelming to comprehend the amount of such welcomes that we have received here and the honor it is to be a guest at such occasions, but this event was especially moving. 

After taking a public bus from the taxi stand in Mumias to Edwin’s home village, Musanda, some 20km and a very bumpy dirt road away, we arrived to find 5 tents, an entire crew of ugali and rice cookers, a choir dressed in hunter-orange robes, four ministers, and Edwin’s entire extended family dressed in everything from ball gowns to traditional Kenyan dresses. The air was filled with gospel singing and the shouts of children at they shimmied up the trunks of branchless trees. As we first reached this celebration, is wife enthusiastically greeted us wearing the grey Colorado College t-shirt we brought for her and ushered into his living room as guests of honor. Seated together along with several Ambassadors of Hope, we were treated to overflowing bowls of  deep fried donuts called “mandazi” and some sweet and milky Kenyan tea. After dunking countless mandazi, we were then brought outside for a series of sermons and speeches from various family members and the multiple ministers. And though these two hours passed with very little English translation, the banter between speakers and the audience was enough to keep us entertained. Plus, as we have found is the case in all Kenyan gatherings (meetings included), every so often the group would stand to join in a short song and dance to shake things up before sitting down again. 

The moment I loved most about all of this though came after the speeches and as the music began to play. With Edwin initially encouraging us, followed by the enthusiasm of other Ambassadors of Hope, we all joined the dancing in a congo line that wove throughout the other guests and invited them in as well. Leaning back, dropping low, being swung out of the precession and dancing with a grand-mother or our own Mama Gladys (our dear friend and adoptive mother), it felt like we were truly a part of the celebration. Rather than being mere guests of Edwin and his family, we were there to share in a home. 

One Child's Village

Just a brief note to precede today's post: we have not had internet for the past week or so due to a water-damaged internet modem. We apologize to all of our ardent readers. 

     The other day we walked into a home brimming with women, all their faces brightly smiling and plastered with excitement as they welcomed us. Together they are the chain links that make up the support group of a highly unusual and beautiful family. Each woman is the adoptive mother of children that are either living positively with HIV or have been orphaned by AIDS. The fourteen women all share the responsibility of caring for two kitchen garden plots, where they grow a variety of vegetables that we have come to recognize throughout our time here. They divide the work up into sections; each requiring about two hours of work a day until the veggies are ready to harvest in three weeks. Living here and seeing how long the average meal (or feast rather) takes to prepare, or the sheer amount of cleaning and shopping there is to do, I can imagine how difficult it is to allocate this time. Gladys Tende, our host mama of sorts, and other women belonging to the group sat down with us to talk about their struggles as guardians to these children and describe to us their daily lives. We also took advantage of this time to work in some monitoring and evaluation for the kitchen garden project. Water accessibility and pest management were, across the board, a major concern in regards to the gardens. Sarah and I are working on a private grant for WOPLAH to purchase water pumps for several kitchen gardens.

            The women are also dreaming about the opportunity to expand to larger garden plots and a poultry program. We are starting to think in terms of next year’s MOU, and we are all excited to help these women carry their ambition even further for the sake of supporting their families. An MOU, or memorandum of understanding, is an agreement between GlobeMed at Colorado College and WOPLAH about which projects we will spend the next year supporting and how many resources to earmark for each.

            Many of the women talked about how they are unable to send their children to school because they have to prioritize food and hygiene over school fees. The women also utilize a merry-go-round system, which is still one of the strongest symbols of community and unification we have seen yet. Each week every woman puts in fifty Kenyan shillings (less than 1 USD). The total sum goes to one woman each week and they usually use it to buy clothes and soap.

            With every new day, we meet these amazing and inspiring people who take the little they have and make the absolute most of it. I hope that I can take their sense of dignity and motivation with me in my life back home. Take what you have and work with it; don’t waste time crying over what you’ve lost or never gained. The people we have met here so far have proven inspiringly good at that type of resilience and perseverance.

-Alexis

Maggie interviewing members of One Child's Village to learn about the challenges and successes of their kitchen gardens 

Mama Gladys 

Getting to know and love the children of One Child's Village 

The women of One Child's Village standing proudly before their kale 

                

Goat Rearing as Income Generation

We’ve been treated to many cups of delicious Kenyan chai during our three weeks here, but the cups we sipped on Monday were extra special. We spent the day visiting beneficiaries of the goat-rearing income generation project, starting with Aemel, a woman who lives in the Lureko district and received two goats from WOPLAH. As we sat in Aemel’s living room after touring her impressive kitchen garden, poultry operation, and goat pen, she poured us steaming cups of caramel colored tea made with milk from her own goats. As we sipped the deliciously nutritious and extra-creamy chai, Aemel talked about how the goats she received from WOPLAH and GlobeMed at CC have impacted her family. Having the goats allows her to save money on milk and even provides the prospect of income generation since she will soon be able to sell the kids, raising money for additional food as well as her children’s school fees. It was exciting to see (and taste!) a project we have been talking about and fundraising for since the fall of 2012 come to fruition.

The goal of the goat project is two-fold: to provide families with a reliable source of nutrition in the form of goat milk, and to provide income generation through the sale of baby goats. Goat-rearing seems to be an example of a truly sustainable and far-reaching income generating activity. One of the stipulations of receiving a goat is that the first kid be gifted to another family, so the program can continue to grow and impact more families. In addition, the beneficiaries themselves will be in charge of managing the program- Aemel, who was one of the first beneficiaries, is now being trained to help with monitoring and expansion. 

As we walked around Lureko, visiting the people to whom the original 20 goats were distributed, we heard about the benefits that come from the nutrition provided by the milk and the income generated by the sale of goats. Another benefit of the goat program that is harder to discern but just as important as these concrete benefits is the role the goat-rearing plays in stigma reduction. When community members see HIV+ people raising and selling goats to support themselves, they realize that people living positively are still living full and successful lives.

-Sarah

Aemel showing us her kitchen garden. 

One of the beneficiaries showing us her goat and goat pen. 

A happy goat. 

Alexis learns how to milk!