A place called Ugunja

Osoware (good afternoon)

Ugunja is very interesting – and complex. It is a town that is so different from anything I have ever seen that it is hard to explain, and still hard for me to fully understand. The main highway runs through the town, but by highway, I mean a narrow road that is somewhat paved. Green grass and trees surround the town, but the town itself is pretty much all red dirt. Garbage lines the narrow roads and streets, because there is no garbage or recycling system. The stores are tiny little concrete blocks that are gated with rusty looking gates. Everyone lines the streets trying to sell their products, which disappointingly isn’t very much jewelry or clothes. A lot of home grown fruits and vegetables and grain. The road to the compound I am staying at is also atrocious. Pot holes everywhere, rocks jutting out…I am amazed when the driver who took my luggage there made it to the compound.
The compound itself is fairly small. 4 mud huts, each varying in size, 2 outhouses and 1 kitchen type shack (made of tin). The compound has 3 roosters, which are SO annoying, 4 dogs, which are really skinny, and 2 chickens, which will probably soon be dead. There are a whopping 14 children living on the compound, about 10 girls and 4 boys, in addition to me and my hut-mate Wren (from McGill) and the director (Aggrey) and his wife (Mary). It is a huge amount of people, who range in age from about 4 to 18 or 19. Some of them are Aggrey’s children, and some of them are orphans he has taken under his wing. This man is amazing, I have profound respect for him every day.
It gets dark around 7pm and we eat between 830 and 9pm, so we get a chance to talk a lot with the children/teens. They are really interested in us, which is nice.
We eat Ugali, kale and some meat or eggs for dinner. It is not the tastiest thing, but when you are hungry is tastes really good, and it is filling.
For breakfast we have white bread and tea, which has at least 4 tablespoons of sugar in it. It is very sweet – but it keeps us hydrated for the morning.
Life here is very different – it is a stark contrast from life in Canada. The people here are so amazing though. I have met so many people who are just so generous, kind, patient, ambitious and accepting. I am learning to be more like them.
It is still hard to adjust from everyone staring at me though, and sitting in a room full of people talking and not knowing what anyone is saying. Both a little frustrating, but something I will overcome with time.
Did I mention there is no electricity on the compound or at the health centre? I am getting used to it though, we have a nice blue lantern that we carry around at night.
I am excited to learn more about the health centre, which I feel pretty useless at right now not knowing the language. But the staff are very helpful, so I am sure they will put me to good use.
Today I am helping a team from Global Youth Network build a hut nearby. They are mostly Canadian so it is nice to talk with people who can kind of understand – though they are living in better conditions than Wren and I. Wren has been so helpful to me these past few days which I appreciate so much, she has been here 2 weeks earlier than me. Anyways I am off soon, probably to get a great sunburn, haha. The plan for this weekend is to play some soccer with the kids and maybe to go to Kisumu to travel around a bit. Kisumu is very green and hilly, and Lake Victoria is right there, so I am anxious to spend more time there, and maybe buy some things.
I hope all is well in Canada! I miss it dearly, but am glad I am getting to experience life here.

Oriti (goodbye)

Amazed

So tomorrow I leave Nairobi to go to Ugunja. Though I am very excited to meet all the people I will be working with, who I am sure will become like a second family to me, I am also very sad to leave Nairobi. The city is so amazing and I love it. I see so much love and generosity here, and so much potential. There are so many things that are frustrating, especially the roads and the unemployment. I can't count the number of people I saw just sleeping at the side of the road, or sitting on the hills beside the highway. Granted today is Sunday so they might not be working, but Michelle's uncle tells me it is a common occurrence. The people are not bored or lazy, they just don't have work. They aren't educated, or there isn't a demand, so they just sit at the side of the road or sleep from lack of food. It is frustrating. I guess homeless people do that in Canada too - it just seems to be more prevalent here.

Today we got to see a sliver of the great Rift Valley. It was breathtaking. It stretches all the way from Malawi to Ethiopia and Eri Trea. Pretty amazing.
I got some jewelery today from a nice Kenyan women named Juliet. I bought a necklace for 800 shillings and she gave me a free bracelet and necklace (800 shillings is about 8 Canadian dollars). So it was a fairly good deal. Yesterday I bought a cell phone, cell credit card, bed net and rope for $75 Canadian dollars. Sweet deal I would say!

Right now I am sitting at a desk at one of the AlJezeera offices here in Kenya. Michelle's uncle is a camera man for them. They have really good news - kind of like the BBC. I will put up a picture of the office whenever I find the cable that connects my camera to my laptop...it is in my luggage somewhere!

Anyways I am off for now, tomorrow at this time I will have settled in to my Ugunja home that I will be at for the next three months! Hard to imagine. But I can say right now that I am pretty sure I am falling in love with Kenya, and am pretty sure I will find a way back here very soon (Sorry mom and dad).

Kwaheri (Goodbye)

A different land

This day has been jam packed! I am pretty exhausted but have a few key things to share.

Michelle and I went to a baby elephant orphange. These elephants have been rescued from the wild for various reasons, the main one being their mother has died. The elephants were so cute! We saw little baby ones, then slightly older ones. I love their mannarisms - so friendly! 

Immediately after we went to a giraffe park where we could feed the giraffes from our very own hands! Their tounges are slimy and gross, but they are absolutely beautiful creatures. At the park we met some other Canadians who are here volunteering with African Impact. We chatted for a bit which was nice.

However, the differences between here and Canada are astounding. Cows walk along the side of the road with their herdsmen, goats also walk close to the road, furniture is sold outside all along the side of the road....so pretty much everything happens at the side of the road! And the road is dangerous. There are no police patrolling the areas, there are no speed limits, there are hardly any stop signs and the road itself is so narrow. I was afraid while driving today, we saw so many potential accidents and very scary driving, like a bus trying to get ahead by going into the oncoming traffic line while going up a hill. It's just not smart.

We have kept pretty much to ourselves, we haven't really talked to many of the locals...but I know Ugunja will be much different. I will not be as sheltered as I am here in Nairobi. I will certainly not be able to use the internet as often that is for sure.

Anyways we are eating dinner soon, and this internet is using up some precious Safaricom time (the way they pay for wireless connections). It is currently 6:10pm and the sun is almost set, and it looks like it will rain soon. Bye for now!

Finally in Kenya!

Hello...or should I say...Jambo!

Michelle and I arrived in Kenya about an hour and a half ago...and man, what I long journey that was. The flight from Pearson to Heathrow was the most uncomfortable time I have ever spent. There was no leg room and very little personal space, so I only managed to get a half hour sleep.

We arrived at Heathrow at 7am (2am Hamilton time) and chilled there before our next flight. It was pretty funny - there was a running message that said " Baggage left unattended will be removed and destroyed". Michelle and I kept repeating this as a joke between ourselves, which obviously wasn't that funny to anyone else.

The flight to Nairobi was really neat - we passed over the Sahara desert! It was so vast and flat, with bright orange sand and the blazing sun. It was quite a sight from the plane.

I have had a nice shower and am going to sleep now to prepare for an exciting weekend. We are going to a giraffe feeding park, and a baby elephant orphanage! Plus I need to get my cell phone and bed net - essentials for Ugunja.

Good night, or should I say, good afternoon to all of you in Canada! 

22 hours

So, in 22 hours I leave for Kenya.

Wow.

I cannot decide whether I want to try and knock myself out so I can sleep, or just continue to stay awake soaking in the last moments of night time here in my house.
It would probably be wise to sleep in my pillow-top bed, considering it will be the nicest thing I will ever sleep on for the next 3 and a half months. But I am too excited, and nervous.

So many people have asked me, "so are you ready? are you prepared? are you excited?". And honestly, I am not ready or prepared, and only slightly excited. I don't think anything I could have done would prepare me, or has prepared me, for this. And like any huge life event, my fear of the unknown and unfamiliar is hindering me from bursting with excitement.

This morning I woke up thinking, "Today is my last full day in Canada for over 3 and a half months....what the heck am I thinking? Am I going insane?". I am going to miss Hamilton and Canada so much. I am going to miss my family so much. I am going to miss my friends so much. Maybe I am being too emotional like I usually am, but it is just a really big deal, and something I haven't confronted yet because it hasn't been in my face.

But I don't want to leave Canada on a negative note. I know that this is what I am supposed to be doing, and it is something that I have been thinking of and dreaming about for close to 3 years. Of course I am beyond happy. I am a very blessed young woman to be able to do this, and I am very thankful for the opportunity to do this. Life will certainly be different, but that is what I have wanted for so long - the chance to life live completely differently, so that I can understand what it is like to live in a world that is so unlike what I have been used to for 21 years. I am looking forward to every experience - both good and bad - that will shape me into the kind of person who can do even greater things.

So...farewell family, friends and my beloved Canada. I will write again as soon as I can. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers as I embark on this wonderful journey.

Culture and Communication

Amongst the numerous resources given to me by the Friends of Ugunja before I left was a booklet produced by the Centre for Intercultural Learning. It is called "Below the Surface: Navigating Cultural Waters". I skimmed through it a while back but there is a story from it that has stuck in my mind, and one that I hope to think of and reflect upon while in Kenya.

It goes like this...

Everyone who lives in Bongobongo wears yellow sunglasses. Quite naturally, everything they see - the sky, the trees, the people, the food - has a sunny tint. It has always been like that and the citizens of B0ngobongo live quite contentedly in their yellow universe.

Into this world, comes a visitor, a citizen of Adanac. As you may have heard, all Adanacians wear blue sunglasses. When they wake up each day they kis their beautiful blue children, and they look out into the blue feilds, forests and farms, all of course, under a perfect blue sky.

Being a culturally sensitive visitor, the Adanacian feels it is only right that he tries to understand the Bongobongo perspective of the world. So he aquires a pair of yellow sunglasses. Then he puts them on over his blue ones. "Ah!" he says with some satisfaction, "Now I get it, Everything here in Bongobongo is green!"


It might be a cheesy little story, but the message is very clear. One may be culturally sensitive but may miss the most important part of the culture altogether if they keep viewing the world from the way they have always viewed it. I think it is a very good lesson for everyone who travels to spend time in a different culture, and one that I hope to think of often.

Sooner

Today my mom and I traveled to Pearson airport to drop off my brother Kyle. He is working in Seattle over the summer at Amazon.com. Walking around Pearson, seeing the planes, packing the luggage, made my trip seem more real than it has so far. I have tried not to think of it that much because it freaks me out, but in 12 days time I will be back there for a flight of my own.
That's what I was thinking of today, and how flights can be scary, especially if you are flying alone for the first time like I will be.
It certainly is coming soon...