March 1, 2010 - Visiting Machakos

On Saturday we took Kirsten and Hans to visit Charles' family in Machakos. I think it was a powerful experience for them and it was nice for us to be there again. Thank you to Hans for taking some great pictures!

Kirsten is holding baby Ellsie next to Charles' niece and his mother.

Grace, Emmanuel & I check out the water tank we bought them for Christmas. This water tank holds 3,200 liters of water that they collect when it rains. Previously, Charles' wife Janet and his mother had to walk a far and difficult distance to fetch water and do the family's washing. Janet repeatedly talked about "life before the water tank" and "life after the water tank". We are so happy to know that we made her life a little easier.

This time we brought the gift of solar panels. They have no electricity and these panels will allow them to have light in the evening so that his niece and nephew can study for school, and they will be able to charge their cell phones without paying to do it at a kiosk in town. Once Charles' gets someone to help him install everything, it should really make a difference. They were pleasantly surprised with this gift, along with the two energy-saving stoves, diapers, books and clothes we brought them. Kirsten and Hans also brought some sweet gifts for the children that were greatly appreciated.

Emmanuel had never seen bubbles before and enjoyed blowing them with Grace ("bubble" is one of her favorite words to say).

This is a beautiful view from the top of the hill that Charles lives on. Unlike our last visit, Saturday was a gorgeous day and we could really admire their environment.

We took the walk that Janet used to take to fetch water (it was long! and hot!) and met some children on our way. I am sure they were shocked to see mzungus, as we are a rare species in that area! We (me and you and everyone in the developed world) take water for granted each and every day of our lives - we turn the tap and it's just there.

Could you imagine doing this carrying large and heavy jugs of water?

(that is Janet holding Kirsten's hand)

Some very little girls carrying some very heavy water. It is a hard life to be a girl in Kenya.

We arrived at the water tap (you can see other jugs to the left of people who were there collecting water too). Trust me, taking this walk and seeing what other people go through to get a little bit of water for drinking, cooking, bathing, and cleaning made me appreciate water even more.

More children by the water, checking out the strange white people!

Emmanuel (who is 4 1/2 years old) read his homework to Kristoffer. He knows his numbers 1-10 by heart (11-20 if he looks!) and does very well on the English alphabet too. He was very, very cute and proud.

Little Miss One Year Old - who was exhausted after her birthday and cried for most of the nearly-2-hour drive to Charles' home (she is still not quite used to her new car seat) - loved eating chapati for the first time and was a very good girl for our whole visit. She thought it was really fun to play with Farmor's bracelet! And, thankfully, she slept almost the whole 3 hours it took us to get home (argh, afternoon traffic).

It was a good day for all of us, despite the fact that we were a bit tired from Grace's birthday festivities (and because she has been sleeping terribly!). It is always nice to get a glimpse of "real Kenya" and Charles' family is extremely hospitable. We managed to get away without a slaughtered chicken again this time (lucky guy) but did take home some arrow root (kind of like a potato), avocados, and eggs. We may think of them as not having a lot by the standards of our every day life, but they are extremely generous nonetheless.

This week Grace will see her pediatrician for her one-year check-up (fingers crossed that she's gained some weight this past month!) and Kirsten and Hans will visit the city of Kisumu and Lake Victoria in Kenya.

LMW

November 29, 2009 - Home to Machakos part 2

Yesterday we took a drive to visit Charles and his family in their village in the district of Machakos. The general location is a little over an hour from Nairobi, but the non-paved road to Charles' specific land makes it closer to 2 hours. Kristoffer described a lot of his first visit to Machakos so I will try not to be too repetitive, but there were definitely some strong impressions and funny stories from our day. First of all, the area is SO beautiful. They have recently been blessed with lots of rain - including all day yesterday - so our drive up Charles' mountain gave us a GREEN view of successfully growing crops.

This is the main building of Charles' homestead; it has a sitting room and two small rooms for his mother and sister. There is also a small kitchen building, and a building with a room for Charles and his wife. Then there is a building for his uncle close by, a latrine down the mountain, and their new building.

When we arrived, Grace met Emmanuel and Elsie for the first time.

They had made signs to welcome us.

Charles' wife Janet is possibly the sweetest women I've met in Kenya. They are not extremely poor by Kenyan standards, but live very simply compared to our lifestyle (no electricity, no plumbing) and were still extremely generous and hospitable to us. They bought 2 liters of Coca Cola and also of bottled water for us, which is a luxury they don't normally spend on. When Janet was giving me a tour of their land (4 small buildings) she showed me their 11 chickens ("kuku" in Swahili) and among them she showed me "your kuku" - the one Charles' mother had picked out just for ME. She asked if we wanted to take it home alive or if they should slaughter it for us first. I went with Plan B because what do I know about slaughtering a chicken?! This is a great honor that they would sacrifice one of their chickens for me - their chickens give them eggs and they eat them every now and again. By the time we were leaving 3 hours later, though, the chicken hadn't been slaughtered yet so Kristoffer said they could wait until next time we go back. I was secretly so relieved because I had a scary vision of trying to de-feather the chicken in our kitchen at home. Yikes! We did manage to come home with 2 dozen fresh eggs. They were so generous.

Another funny moment with Janet when the two of us were sitting alone with Grace and their baby Elsie (I thought her name was Hezrah before because of the way they speak that is what it sounds like...but it turns out to definitely be Elsie, which is a very cute name). She told me that she liked my hair and had never seen anything like it, and asked if she could touch it. I said yes and she spent the next few minutes just holding and rubbing and touching my hair! Then she said, "and there is so much WHITE!" Gee, thanks...I really needed a reminder that my hair is turning white! She also said, "it is funny how it goes like this (and made a swirling motion with her fingers to indicate my curls)". I told her they are called "curls" and she kept saying "coils". It was so funny and sweet. We discovered that Janet is just 4 months older than me.

Charles' son Emmanuel is 4 years old. We brought him some coloring and alphabet books with colored pencils and crayons and they said he was very happy, but he wouldn't say anything or crack a smile. Finally a little while before we were leaving I started to play "hide and seek" and "tag" with him and I ended up getting him to laugh and smile and play with me. He then took my hand and walked around with me and even let me hug him. When it was time for us to go he was crying loudly as we walked down the mountain to the car. So sweet. Janet said that he and I are now friends for life.

Me and my friend Emmanuel.

Janet and Grace.

The baby Elsie is just 4 months old. I have to say that I am a little worried about her. Kenyans don't really know how to breastfeed properly, so Elsie only nurses 2 or 3 times a day and isn't eating anything else. By comparison, Grace was still nursing every 2-3 hours until she was over 5 months old, and even know she still nurses about 5 times a day in addition to eating 3 meals and some snacks. Elsie doesn't look underweight, but she still sleeps almost the whole day (about 20 hours) and they said she isn't in the best of health. We gave Charles the morning off of work on Monday to take her to the hospital to be checked by a proper doctor.

Trying to get the babies to socialize.

The beautiful thing about children (babies) is that they don't see color or care about race. That is something that is taught to them. They just know kindness and friendship.

I also met Charles' mother (called "Mama Mze", and she is feeling better we were told), his uncle and his nephew who will be a senior in high school next year and is a really nice young man. We learned that Charles' family is very religious - they prayed when we arrived and before we ate. Grace ate ugali for the first time and definitely liked it!

Grace liked Charles' mother!

Before we came back to Nairobi we went into the town with Charles and gave him an early Christmas gift: a 3,200 liter water tank which he can use to collect rain for irrigation and other purposes. It was almost $200 but is a very good gift, especially for his wife and mother who usually walk up and down the mountain to collect water. We hope this will make their life a bit easier, especially when Charles is in Nairobi with us. If only we could have stayed to see them haul this enormous tank up the mountain to Charles' land!

Especially because I rarely get out of Nairobi and see the "real Kenya" I think it was an important trip for us to make. There was a lot of talk of his house project (almost finished, see below) and their crops and the weather. It was also interesting because there was a big funeral in the village yesterday for a very important man in the village; Charles said there had never been so many cars on the "road" going up to his land. We will go back to visit them again in February with Kristoffer's mom and Hans. It is really nice to feel positively connected to Kenyans; Janet says we are family now.

This is the new building which will have a sitting room, a visitor's room and a new room for Charles and his wife. Charles' nephew will move into the room Charles has now. You can see from the last pictures I posted that they have made progress on this building and it just needs concrete on the inside now. It was definitely bigger than I expected to be.

It was a great day for all of us!

LMW

October 14, 2009 - Home to Machakos

Machakos is a big town and a district about one hour drive from Nairobi. Our driver Charles was born there and his family still lives there. He has invited me there several times and the Saturday morning after Lisa & Grace left Kenya we went there together. It was a pleasant drive and Machakos turned out to be much hillier than I had envisioned.

Charles was overly excited and told me that of all the white people he had worked for I was the first to come to his house.

Charles had told me that he was building a small stone house for his family and the construction had been going on for quite some time, interrupted by lack of funds for cement. So when we got to Machakos town I told him I would buy him 5 bags of cement (I thought more would ruin the car’s suspension). After that purchase he was so grateful and we went to the supermarket, as his wife had given him a list of things to buy in town (see, wives are the same all over the world!). In the supermarket, he had to make a tough decision as he had promised his son a soccer ball but the good ones turned out to be very expensive. I told him to get the good one and some extra food and baby stuff and then I would pay for it. We proceeded from town into a more rural area and up the mountain as our route took us on a small dirt road. Charles drove slower and slower and started greeting almost everybody on our way. He told me that now that he had been seen driving a car with a white person he would never have a problem borrowing money from those people or paying them late as they now would assume he had money. He also told me that white people were seen as being closer to God, maybe because Jesus was white or because of the missionaries.

He eventually stopped the car and I learned that his house/plot of land was on a beautiful steep hillside right off the road. We parked the car on the road since it wouldn’t disturb any traffic; only about 15 cars would pass there every day. Now Charles was the boss! A few boys on the street were told to carry up the heavy cement bags to the house and Charles could walk up the hill with me without carrying much. We were greeted by his uncle, sister, niece, nephew, wife, son + baby girl, and his mother. They all seemed very excited to meet me, almost like they couldn’t believe it. But they were so relaxed and we joked, played some football and Charles showed me the small house he was building. He was very proud. I walked down and saw from where they fetched water, we talked about the rains, the drought, the baby, the teaching course his wife wants to take, the son, the local fruits I tasted, the price of maize, one day having enough money to buy a car, the church, water pumps and education. Then we drove around the area in my car, Charles driving with his son on his lap and his uncle and niece in the back seat. They greeted everybody who we met and I saw their church, the little local marked, amazing views and the niece’s high school. I tried to talk about gender and how unfair I thought it was that only women fetch/carry water. That didn’t help the mood so I changed to a lower gear again (baby steps).

Earlier this year an American woman visited us in Nairobi for a few nights, she was the cousin of the one who hurt her shoulder. Anyway, she accidentally left a pair of shoes, which I donated to Charles’ niece who is in the last year of high school. She got very excited. We went back to the house and just enjoyed the day together and ate some ugali and spinach. I brought my camera and took a lot of family photos, which I can print for them later.

There was no tv or radio running so we were just chatting and enjoying the time together. I was joking and trying to speak Kiswahili to everybody’s amusement. I was looking at the 3 month-old baby who was wrapped in several thick blankets on a hot day. The sweat was running from her forehead, but that is how they do it in Kenya.

After about 7 hours I drove back to Nairobi after a great day. Surely I’ll take Lisa and Grace there when they come back to Kenya.

KW