January 2008

December slipped by faster than I expected. It was a full month and a full year of activity, adjustments, success and failures. My newest adjustment, getting used to sharing housing with the new PCV assigned to Shukrani LifeWorks, Heather, has gone well. She is bright, mature and has a good sense of humor. We have been sharing shopping, cooking and cleaning duty very well. She is a good cook. With two of us to feed, there is now more incentive to cook a wider variety of foods. Back to gaining a little weight, I guess……

We have had an extraordinarily good year at the factory - more success than disappointment. Our last 10 weeks of the year we generated about $12,000 in sales. We are going to have a booth at a big trade show in Atlanta in January and we are hoping it jump starts our orders for 2008. We have budgeted revenue at $150,000 for the year and that will get us to breakeven prior to my leaving Kenya. It has been difficult helping my NGO understand a start up has to first stabilize operations, then breakeven and then go to profitability. Our first export packages got where they were going with no hiccups and very satisfied customers. I am hoping for re-orders!

I may never adjust or be reconciled to the absolute level of poverty I sometimes see. I have been helping a woman from Mombasa who is interested in improving sanitation, nutrition and clean water for families living in the more rural areas of the Mwamba area. As a part of a tour with her to follow up on some work she had done, we had to go searching for one of the Mamas in the bush. We found her laboring away in a stone quarry with several other women. There are several quarries in that area for shale and slate. These women break apart rocks manually with whatever kind of hammer they can fashion and earn about 33 shillings a day. This equates to about 50 cents a day. It is the only way to earn cash in that area. Even prostitution is not much of an option since they get no trucker traffic. What is most disturbing is that the men folk in these small villages sit around all day while the women are mining stones. I keep wondering what would happen to Kenya if the women all suddenly vanished. I think the country would stop running……….

My holidays were spent right in little ol’ Mariakani. I had invitations to several places with other PCVs but could not see myself stuck without being able to travel for 5 – 10 days. All volunteers were on stand fast for the period of the 24th – the 29th. They extended it after violence broke out after the elections on the 27th. So, hindsight says it was a good decision to stay at site. It was very tense here, violence in many parts of the country, even some right here in Mariakani, mostly words. We did have a death – by burning – but no one has said it is directly related to the election…..it could have been some mob violence over theft. You could and still can feel the tension in the air…mothers drawing their children close, the crowds usually found in the town thinned out, even the touts for the matatu area were being unusually quiet and low key in their effort to get you to take their bus. Only a few matatus are actually running and most of the shops have been closed and boarded up for days.

I did go out to observe the polling sites in Mariakani on Election Day. It seemed strange to have armed soldiers and police officers ringing the polling sites. I made sure to introduce myself to them and why I was there. Every political party has its own observers at each polling site (and they have plenty of parties….) and international observers and monitors. I spotted couple of local friends and the guards gave me permission to have them show me the process and explain how it works. It is an entirely manual system. It takes forever to count the ballots. It was good to see the throngs of people who turned out to vote and how orderly they behaved. Not so orderly after the election. By day 3 and 4 with still no results tensions kicked up a couple more notches. PCVs kept their stand fast status and most of us stayed not just at site but in our little homes. Already there is talk of a no-confidence vote by the new parliament, possible jail time for the loser for some activity and of, course, the loser has declared the vote count rigged and has produced a witness to the vote tampering. Who knows the truth, not me? In America, if the election does not go your way, we are disappointed and sometimes angry, but we inherently know our country is stronger than any sitting President and can fumble through until their term is over. That level of confidence does not exist here. Their government is too new and untried.

On a happier note, I spent Christmas day with a local family and had a wonderful meal and time of sharing Christmas traditions. On Christmas Eve day, I took a group of 10 children and 5 adults to the beach - two sisters and a brother, and all their children. The children had lived in Mariakani all their life and had never been to the beach. It was so special to see them when we all gathered to leave for the trip to Nyalli. They had no idea what to expect so they all dressed in their finest clothing and looked picture perfect. I had to hustle to find the women something suitable to wear in the water and we just let the kids swim in their underwear. They simply could not get enough of the ocean. I packed a picnic lunch of grilled peanut butter sandwiches and popcorn. Eating lunch was the only time they came out of the water. Even the smallest baby, who is not quite 1 year old, loved it. I, of course, got a little sunburn and we all ended the day tired but happy.

I also went sightseeing with some friends a few days before Christmas to the crocodile farm in Mombasa and saw my first Albino crocs. Seems the croc eggs are very delicate and if they are not at the right depth for temperature control, the crocs are born Albino. Even worse, if the eggs are moved or turned once they are laid, the crocs are born deformed. We also visited a wonderful park with many African animals, hippos, monkeys, giraffes, etc. We saw giant tortoises, really giant…I could have hopped on for a ride they were so big.

The biggest highlight of Christmas was the work at the Mariakani Girls Rescue Center. Through the generosity of several friends in the US, we were able to provide beds, linens and mattresses for the girls to sleep on and then have enough to put together some gift boxes with school supplies, hygiene items, candy, balloons and all manner of good stuff. The girls were so well behaved and were not even going to open the boxes until I told them it was okay to look inside. After lots of picture taking, I was walking out with Heather and a few friends, when the loudest chorus of voices went up into the air. I looked back to see the girls singing and dancing with the boxes on their heads. I am sure these girls had never received any kind of gifts before. They could contain themselves no longer and finally let go and let the joy bubble out.

An added bonus is that there is enough money left to send one of the oldest girls to secondary school. She was physically and sexually abused and was rescued two years ago. She is ready to be placed back in her village but she has refused to go. She wants to go back with some pride and be able to demonstrate that no matter how bad she was treated, she still has a future. For her, that means being in school and wearing a uniform. Secondary school here is not yet free, so we were able to pay the first terms fees, buy her uniforms and other things she needs to get started. She is 17 and will enter the equivalent of 9th grade in January. Now, that is a really a cool way to bring in the New Year.

As the New Year begins, I am reminded that God is the God of my yesterdays, my today and my tomorrow. For sure, He has sustained me in some difficult times, shared my joys and carried my sorrows this past year. I know He has used many of you to help in that process with me and I am very grateful. He stands ready and able to bring me through this last leg of the journey in Kenya with joy, sorrows and probably more difficult times. That is life, whether in Kenya or not. Thanks in advance for being with in 2008. Happy New Year and God bless each of us this year and all those we love.