April 29, 2008 - SURPRISE!

SURPRISE - I am home in America! I didn't tell my parents that I was coming home and when I showed up at their front door yesterday afternoon (after travelling for 25 hours or so) they could not have been more (happily) surprised. A special, special thank you to my friend Kate for picking me up at the airport in Boston and driving me to Plymouth.

I basically came home for this visit on our tax rebate (thank you, George W. Bush...wow, never said that before) and because I have a few weeks of nothing to do in between my volunteer contract at UNICEF and my paid contract which is scheduled to start on May 19th. I think I win for best early mother's day and father's day gifts! I will spend the next 2 weeks visiting my family and friends in Boston and New York. I'm quite sorry that I won't be able to travel more and see everyone I know and love in the US, but hopefully I can at least talk to many people on a much cheaper phone call. My trip was very smooth - from Nairobi to London, a 6 hour layover in London, and then from London to Boston. On my second flight I was upgraded to Business Class which was SUCH a treat! Let's hope that happens again :) Kristoffer is also really, really busy at work so, while we will miss each other, he was extremely encouraging and supportive of this trip (he even talked me into it!).

The other amazing news I can very happily report is that yesterday I recieved a final judgement from T-Mobile regarding the phone bill for $7,000 that I have been protesting because my sim card was stolen in Nairobi. T-Mobile agreed to absorb the entire bill!!! The battle is over, thanks to many, many people in NYC who were petitioning T-Mobile on my behalf, and I have never been more relieved in my life. It was a hard lesson to learn, but believe me when I say that we are a lot more cautious in Nairobi since that happened.

Kristoffer is back in Kenya working hard and I am on a very happy vacation here. If you want me to call you, please email me your phone number because I lost all of my numbers when my sim card was stolen. You can also call me at my parents' house if you have that number, or email me and I will send it to you!

LMW

February 7, 2008 - UNICEF

Yesterday marked two months in Kenya for me and Kristoffer. I suppose it is fitting, then, that it was my first day of work; after two months of getting settled I am definitely ready to do something! Being a volunteer is very similar to being an intern, which I feel is an interesting regression for me at this point in my life. I don’t have my own desk or computer or keys to anywhere…and I have to ask a million questions! Lucky for me, everyone at UNICEF is extremely grateful for anything I can do to alleviate all of their overburdened workloads and they have all been very nice to me. The work I am doing is not extremely difficult, but it is extremely interesting. So far, I have two major tasks:

1 - I read and edit grant proposals for education projects to help the current crisis (mostly for children in displacement camps) that would require UNICEF support or money.

2 - I compile and analyze education news and data from field officers and NGOs about the status of children, schools, and any education-related programs in displacement camps around the country. My reports are alternately distributed to all UNICEF officers, related NGOs, the Ministry of Education and other UN agencies over 4 days each week.

I have learned that among the hundreds of displacement camps around the country there is a range in the quality of the camps. Some of the camps are spacious so that well-made tents aren't too crowded, people have access to proper kitchens and toilets, and the grounds are well lighted for security. In other camps, however, people basically live under thick sheets with no toilets, kitchens, or security and, in many cases, little food. It has been documented that at least 19 schools have been burned in the violence, and dozens more have been vandalized or looted. Thousands of displaced people are living in police stations right now, because of a lack of camps or transportation to camps, and there is one police station just outside of Nairobi that has 7,000 people living there, including at least 2,000 children. While schools throughout the country have opened, obviously children in these circumstances are not regularly attending any school and UNICEF cannot set up learning centers in police stations.

The most interesting statistic I have learned is in regards to Kenya's economic situation: for every tourist who cancels a trip to Kenya or decides not to book a trip at all, 7 Kenyans will lose their jobs. So the bottom line is that you have to visit us! Soon! Kenya needs you!

I am really happy to have something to do besides be an internet junky and watch TV/DVDs. I think that as I get more knowledgeable and comfortable at UNICEF my boss (the Director of the Education Sector of UNICEF for Kenya) and her colleagues will be able to benefit even more from my skills and, perhaps, will find me so indispensable that they will have no choice but to offer me a job. J

In other news, our "sim card theft" investigation is going as well as can be expected, and in fact the diplomatic police are doing more than we expected. In the last two days they have investigated colleagues and even the boss of the guy who was using the sim card. My parents received a T-Mobile bill in the mail and scanned/emailed it to us so the police can see the call log. This was very helpful but there are a few factors working against the case. First, the sim card has not been found yet; mostly likely when T-Mobile eventually suspended the account the guy tossed the sim card. If they could find the sim card, which the police have not given up on yet, it would be an open-and-close case in terms of prosecuting the guy. The second problem is that if they don't find the sim card, they would need a representative from T-Mobile to present and authenticate the call log in a court of law in order for it to be accepted as evidence. We're thinking it might be a bit tricky to get someone from T-Mobile to come over to Kenya (they don't like me too much and it is pretty far!) but if we could get a subpoena than maybe T-Mobile would just wipe away the charges to avoid the hassle. It is still a frustrating situation, but the initial shock has worn off and we are doing everything we can. We are also hoping that some legal help in NYC might make T-Mobile slightly more sympathetic to the situation than they have been so far. I’ll definitely keep you posted.

The political situation in Nairobi is very calm, while terror reigns in the Rift Valley. Ten people were killed last night, houses and churches continue to be burned, and yesterday two teachers were shot by police during a protest of the arrest of 4 local leaders who were charged with inciting violence. With two teachers killed, it could present problems for the government if they want the teacher's union (KNUT) to be an ally in the future. The police manning the protest were supposed to fire only rubber bullets and, obviously, the union is up in arms that they actually fired live rounds.

Kristoffer continues to like his job and this week has learned how important it is that each person at WFP does their job well. If anyone makes a mistake it means that hundreds or thousands of children might actually not receive any food, which lowers school attendance and is obviously not good for their health (this happened this week, but it was not Kristoffer’s mistake). It is critical that the WFP gets food to the children for the school feeding program, in addition to the fact that they are now also providing food to people in displacement camps (there is a lot of collaboration between UNICEF and WFP in regards to the current crisis).

We look forward to a short Friday work day tomorrow (in Africa Friday is always a short day!) and a relaxing weekend.

LMW

February 5, 2008 - Lisa gets a job and really hates T-Mobile!

There is a lot of good news to report today. Violence in Kenya seems to be calming down since the rough weekend we had. Between yesterday and today we haven't heard any reports of political or ethnic violence. I think that the situation is still very volatile in the Rift Valley but certainly around Nairobi people are of the opinion that the situation is on the mend, although there is a lot of work that the mediators have left to do. I neglected to mention in my last blog that when Ban Ki Moon, the UN Secretary General, visited Kenya last week, Kristoffer stood two feet away from him when he was greeting people before addressing UN staff. I don't know that Ki Moon's visit had a direct effect on the situation here or if it is the combination of his appearance as well as the other mediation efforts between the opposing sides. Whatever it is - keep it coming!

I also start to work tomorrow! My back is doing well enough that I turned in all of my paperwork today and they were begging for me to start right away. UNICEF has a lot of work to do, charged with protecting and educating all of the displaced children in the country. I look forward to becoming involved in the organization and hopefully helping the healing process.

The bad news is that I have been the victim of a crime. My American sim card was stolen out of my cell phone almost a month ago and, naively, I did not know this happened until yesterday. It is a long story which, if I wrote it all out, indicates that I am guilty of being too trusting. It is something that over here, especially, I have to work on. The bottom line is that we paid a guy to repair my cell phone and in the process he stole my sim card.

I didn't know my cell phone was stolen and so did not report it to T-Mobile, so T-Mobile is holding me responsible for thousands...I repeat thousands...of dollars in phone charges in the last month. You see, T-Mobile's roaming charges in Kenya are $5 a minute. Riiight...so when someone steals your sim card and doesn't know this...and he or she talks for over 13 hours...it leaves you with a pretty hefty bill. The real kicker is that T-Mobile didn't even contact me to tell me that they finally suspended my account after several thousand dollars or that there was suspicious activity on my account. I accidentally found this information when I called T-Mobile to get their fax number for sending proof of our address in Kenya so that we could finally cancel our contracts without penalty. If I hadn't called, I would still not know!

What I am going to do about this, you ask? Today Kristoffer and I visited the Diplomatic Police Office here in Nairobi. We explained our situation which, of course, sounds ludicrous at first. Until the police heard the dollar amount, I know they thought we were crazy for complaining about a stolen sim card. They did take us seriously though and mobilized to action right away. I went with two diplomatic police officers to the place where the man worked on my phone. After his co-worker caused some delay and tried to alert him to the police's presence, he did show up and confess to "accidentally" keeping my sim card. He made one attempt to contact me, by calling my parents in the middle of the night, but the situation was very unclear at the time and I did not end up getting the message that he had my card. So he kept it and used it for a few days, and then supposedly "lost it”. The police and I took him back to the police office for further questioning and scrutiny of his cell phone. They seem to think that he probably sold the card to someone else after he used it, but he had not confessed to that when Kristoffer and I finally left.

While they are collecting evidence on their end, the police asked us to get a call list from T-Mobile because the serial number of the handset used to make a call is attached to each phone number it calls. This would help them determine if the guy is lying or if they can identify other users. Sadly, T-Mobile refuses to cooperate. They will not release my call list because my account is suspended and because it is not the end of my billing cycle. Even when it is the end of my billing cycle, they will no longer allow me to access my account online because of the outstanding charges, so I will have to wait for my parents to receive the bill at their home and then send it to us here (which takes at least one month). It is so frustrating! T-Mobile will basically not help me in any way, except to keep reminding me that I am responsible for paying the bill because I did not report the sim card lost or stolen. I have spoken with 4 different representatives at T-Mobile, at various levels of their hierarchy, and they have the worst customer service I have ever experienced, without a doubt.

Their best advice was to give me the legal department's address if I wish to take legal action for T-Mobile to credit my account for the thousands of dollars that I owe, but they refuse to give me a phone number or fax number: snail mail only. Too bad that snail mail from Kenya to the States can take weeks or months! There is no way that my actual level of frustration can be conveyed in words, but if there is one message I hope you will get loud and clear it is that T-Mobile does not care about its customers at all and I do not recommend that you use the company as your cell phone service provider.

I will say this: the Diplomatic Police really impressed us! There is so much crime in Nairobi and very rarely are the perpetrators ever caught, especially those stealing something as insignificant as a sim card. They didn't seem to have any other diplomatic crime to be taking care of and we have their two best agents on the case, which is both a relief and a surprise to us. The problem we face now is that even if the guy is guilty or the police find others involved, none of them will have the amount of money that I owe because the amount is more than they probably make in several years! I can't sue them for money they don't have, can I? AH!

Ok...enough of that story. Share it with your friends...down with T-Mobile!

And I will happily go to work tomorrow and try to forget about it, until we speak to the Diplomatic Police again. When my instincts are to be an open-minded and fair person, it is a very expensive lesson to learn that I have to assume people here are trying to rip me off before I allow them to prove otherwise.

LMW