Well, its been a hectic but rewarding week, hence the lack of entries. All last week I was running back and forth between Bungoma Town, Shibanze village (location of the school/farm) and Chianda village where I was helping run a fish farming seminar for local villagers. The seminar went incredibly well despite some last minute budget issues, we were able to get it off and everybody learned alot. We had two facilitators for four days lecturing on everything from digging ponds to making your own fingerlings to feed. I was very happy to see a good showing from the fish farmers from Shibanze, as these are the people I meet with every week. Everyone was very appreciative at the end, I even got an African thank you clap (or so they called it). This will be hard to explain but basically one man stands up and has his hands a just a small distance away from each other, "like this?" "NOOO!" (about 50 people) - he spreads them a little wider "like this?" "NOOO!" - a little wider "like this?" "NOOO!" - then really stretches his arms "this?" "YESSS!". Then they do three big claps three big stomps and three big claps while one of the women does a shrilling yell thing (that I definitely cannot explain). Anyway it was really nice and I couldn't stop grinning.
On Thursday I met with my youth group. Unfortunately it was raining right when the meeting started so some people didn't show up right away. Then because the group decided to have a 2shilling fine for being late, many people didn't come because they couldn't pay the fine - so I will be talking to the chairman about this rule. Anyway there were about 25 people who showed. The meeting was incredible. I prepared a discussion on women and development and gender balance. This is an issue I've been wanting to discuss with them since I arrived because it is absolutely crucial to development. Also you can see many social problems here that are caused by men not respecting women. It was mostly incredible because I felt like I was really educating these guys on issues they had not really considered before. Everyone was very thoughtful and challenged me on what I said, but I think I did pretty well. At one point we were talking about gender roles and what could be shared between men and women. People seemed to be fairly receptive, then one guy spoke up. "Ok, this sounds good and everything, but let me ask you, personally, would you cook and clean for your wife?" So I told him, I've had a girlfriend for almost 3 years and 90% of the time I cook dinner (in Sara's defence she always helps, but I didn't bring it up). They all started laughing and couldn't believe it, but I eventually convinced them. One guy told me I might cook dinner, but I wouldn't cook lunch because my friends would see me! I told him of course not, many of my male friends will cook for their wives/girlfriends. It was a great conversation and I think for them, just hearing a man say he cooks for a woman unabashedly will do a lot, I hope.
I've also been working with both the youth group and women's group on some micro-finance projects. Currently we are having Tony (who you met in a previous post) talk to both groups on business skills and practice. Soon, hopefully, we will be granting small loans for them to use. As always funding will be slim so I will post more details on this if anyone is interested in helping. These micro-loan projects have been very successful all around the developing world. They're simple, effective and most of all you are empowering people to make it on their own and not rely on handouts.
This past weekend I also visited Shianda village, which is about 20 miles away. A few weeks ago I went with Amanda (past volunteer, who has since returned to Canada) to do a presentation on making soy milk. While I was there I saw a baby who was extremely sick. He was about 2 months old, had very loose skin, very under weight and an extremely swollen head. Neither the mother nor the nurses at the clinic knew what was wrong with the child. So I took down the child's information and took a picture (which I wont post because there is already enough pictures of starving Africans and I think its time to move past that mentality in the west - although poverty and malnutrition are still big problems here there are many other problems, but also many fantastic things in Africa). I sent the information and picture to a Canadian doctor I met on the bus ride from Nairobi to Bungoma to see what advice he could give me. He got back to me with alot of information, including that there is a hospital outside of Nairobi that does fairly cheap surgeries (less than $200) for what he thought the baby had. So I went to the village to meet the mother again (who is only 18), pass on the information and get some more info from her. I really hope she will be able to get the surgery done for her baby.
On a lighter note, I went out this weekend with some friends of mine. One guy in particular, Malik. He's 20 and probably my best friend here of my age. He lives in Shibanze village and volunteers at the school WEPOGA runs. He's a really bright kid, unfortunately he doesnt have enough money for university right now, so he works at the school, everyday starting at 7:30, completely unpaid! Anyway he doesn't get out much so I decided to take him out for some drinks with some other friends, it was his first time in a bar. I think he enjoyed the night although he seemed pretty pre-occupied with watching girls and the silent TV at the bar.
Overall time is flying by here and there's still so much more to be done . . .
On Thursday I met with my youth group. Unfortunately it was raining right when the meeting started so some people didn't show up right away. Then because the group decided to have a 2shilling fine for being late, many people didn't come because they couldn't pay the fine - so I will be talking to the chairman about this rule. Anyway there were about 25 people who showed. The meeting was incredible. I prepared a discussion on women and development and gender balance. This is an issue I've been wanting to discuss with them since I arrived because it is absolutely crucial to development. Also you can see many social problems here that are caused by men not respecting women. It was mostly incredible because I felt like I was really educating these guys on issues they had not really considered before. Everyone was very thoughtful and challenged me on what I said, but I think I did pretty well. At one point we were talking about gender roles and what could be shared between men and women. People seemed to be fairly receptive, then one guy spoke up. "Ok, this sounds good and everything, but let me ask you, personally, would you cook and clean for your wife?" So I told him, I've had a girlfriend for almost 3 years and 90% of the time I cook dinner (in Sara's defence she always helps, but I didn't bring it up). They all started laughing and couldn't believe it, but I eventually convinced them. One guy told me I might cook dinner, but I wouldn't cook lunch because my friends would see me! I told him of course not, many of my male friends will cook for their wives/girlfriends. It was a great conversation and I think for them, just hearing a man say he cooks for a woman unabashedly will do a lot, I hope.
I've also been working with both the youth group and women's group on some micro-finance projects. Currently we are having Tony (who you met in a previous post) talk to both groups on business skills and practice. Soon, hopefully, we will be granting small loans for them to use. As always funding will be slim so I will post more details on this if anyone is interested in helping. These micro-loan projects have been very successful all around the developing world. They're simple, effective and most of all you are empowering people to make it on their own and not rely on handouts.
This past weekend I also visited Shianda village, which is about 20 miles away. A few weeks ago I went with Amanda (past volunteer, who has since returned to Canada) to do a presentation on making soy milk. While I was there I saw a baby who was extremely sick. He was about 2 months old, had very loose skin, very under weight and an extremely swollen head. Neither the mother nor the nurses at the clinic knew what was wrong with the child. So I took down the child's information and took a picture (which I wont post because there is already enough pictures of starving Africans and I think its time to move past that mentality in the west - although poverty and malnutrition are still big problems here there are many other problems, but also many fantastic things in Africa). I sent the information and picture to a Canadian doctor I met on the bus ride from Nairobi to Bungoma to see what advice he could give me. He got back to me with alot of information, including that there is a hospital outside of Nairobi that does fairly cheap surgeries (less than $200) for what he thought the baby had. So I went to the village to meet the mother again (who is only 18), pass on the information and get some more info from her. I really hope she will be able to get the surgery done for her baby.
On a lighter note, I went out this weekend with some friends of mine. One guy in particular, Malik. He's 20 and probably my best friend here of my age. He lives in Shibanze village and volunteers at the school WEPOGA runs. He's a really bright kid, unfortunately he doesnt have enough money for university right now, so he works at the school, everyday starting at 7:30, completely unpaid! Anyway he doesn't get out much so I decided to take him out for some drinks with some other friends, it was his first time in a bar. I think he enjoyed the night although he seemed pretty pre-occupied with watching girls and the silent TV at the bar.
Overall time is flying by here and there's still so much more to be done . . .
Some of the men from Shibanze at the seminar with the speakers.
My friend Malik in a snazzy Hawiian for his big night out.
Friends at Sharriffs Center, the place is pretty modern, maybe even nicer than some of the bars I go to back home, I prefer the village joints and more African type bars, but the beer is always cold here, which is nice.
Chill spot at home (why living in the city is overrated)
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