My views on how things are here may be slightly off as I learn more about the life here. Plus I'm usually a bit off in my impresssions. First thing I have to say is the people in the Village of Kanyawegi (actually it's a sub location with many little villages which are 4 or 5 huts but I'll just say the village not sub location) are really friendly despite the hardship and poverty they are enduring. They've very resourceful in making a couple of Shillings. I can't say the people on the West Coast are as shown when we had a couple day power outage last winter. People were totally lost! When I go for a walk I feel there are a 20 eyes watching me as they like to stare which is quite unnerving for Westerns. So I say Hi, hello, Jumbo (Kiswalhili), Oyawore (good morning in the village dialect) , Oimore (good evening in the village dialect) . I can't remember the word for hello or goodbye. Unfortunately I say the wrong word when I talk to them. But hey u have to give me credit for trying to communciate. However most people speak English so it's not as if I can talk to them. But it's nice for the people when a foreigners makes an attempt and says a few words. Jessica has bought a Kiswalhilli book to learn the language. While I've bought a Spanish dictionary as I want to learn it for my trip to Central & South America or is that Central and Southern California? Ok so where was I? Yeah the people are super friendly, however at night the Jekyll's & bats come out. Not to alarm anyone about our safety. But I've been told that there are a bunch of young people who will break into homes near town and rob people. I guess that's why we have Peter who hangs outside part of the night! Plus the locked castiron doors. But we still have to go out during the night to the john! Heck it's probably not much different in parts of certain cities in North America so it's whatever a person gets used to.
The 4 of us are here to help with KASOW (Kanyawegi Support for Orphans and Widows). John (Kenyan living in Vancouver who arranged all of this) has asked a few members of the village community (who are working successfully in businesses) to participate in the executive committee. There is Tobias (a real nice guy who's very sharp who lives in Nairobi and works for a development bank) who is the Chairman. Then Michael (who works in the city of Kisumu for a NGO as a sort of evaluator) who is the Treasurer. Lucas (who lives in the village) is the secretary. John's brother Boacz is the coordinator who handles the day to day activities. Then there are 2 female teachers who are also on the committee - Loyce and Jennifer. Jennifer and her husband own the house that we are staying in but since they teach in Kisumu the don't live in the house so we rent it from them in a way. They also sponsored John in getting to Vancouver and UBC to work on his Masters and now Phd. They are all very easy to get along with. So there is a committee to work with and discuss what we are planning. Since I'm a person of a thousand questions and check every thing it may be unusual.
We had our first Committee meeting to discuss our objectives and what we'd like to accomplish.
One of the first things to ask is do you want us to contribute with the Western ideas or do they want things done the African way. Most are forward thinking and want our ideas and suggests so we'll see if this will work in reality (as I'll explain later)
We've come to conclusion that the priorities are: 1. setup a committee (everything works by committee here so individualists like myself are maybe a rarity) to purchase 2 oxens and a plow for the farmers to clear present and future farm land (shamba's). Then we'd have to setup a group to feed, care and manage the renting out of the assets for a nominal fee. This is very important as we don't want to give out anything free. Then once this is in place we will consider purchasing other sets. 2. There is a primary school that is being replaced. I wasn't planning to get too involved in this projects. However it seems maybe my way of asking hard questions may be needed here. (more later on this). 3. The Goat Preject which is insuring that the goat pen is completed so the goat that has been bought can be brought to father the females for the future and to get milk. My understanding is that the government won't allow people to keep goats or cows for milking unless certain standard are met. (*** I say things at this time which I understand but may later find a bit different. as sometimes you may get 3 answers depending on who you ask). 4. The Computer Projects which I plan to work on as there are 6 CPU's and now 2 monitors. The plan is to set them up in the secondary school when we get the permission. I have started to check out if the computers work and what type of operating system and software they have on them. I already have a young guy who wants me to teach him how to use it. I don't think it will take a person with a Masters in Computer Science to teach the basic use of them. Obviously I won't take them into the world of computer programming or how bits and bytes are stored. A person doesn't need to know that to use a computer. We won't have connection to the internet but I may take a couple people into town here to show them how to access it. What my goal is to win over the School Principal and a teacher by showing them. In some of these countries it's a thing that the higher ups don't want to lose face by not knowing as much as the students. (I think in North America prinicipals and teachers have given up knowing more than the students when it comes to computer usage). In business the managers who don't know much somehow always surive by manipulating their subordinates (that's a different subject). I also want to document a User Manual (as you can tell I can be very verbose when required) for them to use once we've left. There are a couple others initiatives we'll look into: the girls want to participate in teaching a couple classes (not my gig), Angus wants to help teach some disabled kids (I've coached disabled skiers but that's my limit I think), I want to check out more about the Community bank and see if there is a way to increase participation. Apparently one farmer deposited 1000 shillings (about 67 shillings to a USD/CAD dollar now so that's about $17) which is a lot for these farmers. I think they said his wife got sick and need hospital care and his saving in the bank helped him out. This is a good example of its advantage so I want to see if I can find out who this dude is. Then maybe put him on tv for an info merrical on all the village channels and newspapers. Well maybe we won't flood the media because they don't have that. But it would be nice to have him as a spokes person for how it works.
It may sound like we're going to be busy but we'll be as busy as we want to be I guess. I know we'll have a lot of down time to read or talk to the locals.
Yesterday we attended the School rebuilding sod turning along with all the dignitaries like the mayors, MP's, Prime ministers, ambassators, etc. Well would u believe work men? There were 2 guys with an ax and hoe working to remove a tree stump that is in the way of progress- like where the wall of a future wall will be built. They have the markers up for the rooms. So to save money, the 4 of us and 2 guys from the KASOW committee worked a few hours to tear down the existing 4 classrooms. Hell we're so strong we didn't need bulldozers or special equipment. The classrooms were made of mud and cow dung stuck to poles and sticks. The roof was corragated aluminum sheet metal which they wanted to reuse. Tearing down the dirt walls was dead easy as there were more holes than Bush's reason for going into Iraq! Then we removed the roof which was a little more work as there were nailed all together and to the poles. However after a lot of banging and sweating we got the place torn down. It's funny how much respect the school kids have for their teachers (like in North America - NOT). When we were finished the teacher told the kids to pick up the wood. It was like a herd of worker bees working for the Queen Bee. They took all the poles and cut them with machettes if they were long and towed them all away. Most of the kids were bare foot so being a responsible adult I told the teacher tell them to be careful of the nails protruding as they're rusty. She says they have more important things to worry about like going home to find no Mother or Father, etc. Also a few weeks back a 6 year old girl was walking home and got bit by a snake and dies within 2 hrs. Some people tried to get a couple people in cars to drive her to the hospital but to no avail! So I guess a couple of rusty nails are for Wosses! I want to make sure that the villagers get the most bang for their buck so to speak. So I asked how was this contracter awarded the contract? Did they put out tenders and get at least bids to decide? I was told they are using the same contractor who built one of the other classrooms because he did a good job and the people were happy with it. but I said they weren't able to complete the wall because they ran out of money. This is all good and possible but I said maybe they should try and get a couple more bids. I said you only need 3 walls as the classrooms are being built next to each other. The old classrooms leaked when it rained and kids couldn't attend classess. It may sound strange but I said let's leave the installing of floors for now and concentrate on the walls and roofs. In this way at least the kids will have a classroom when it rains. The roof will keep the ground inside dry as most schools have dirt floors. But don't get me wrong that we are adding a luxury feature. The prinicipal also would like to have new desks but I said lets just use the old homemade row desks to save money for now. The next phase can correct these things. The most important thing is get to the walls and roof up. I also made up a contractor work schedule in the prinicipal;s office to track when the contractor works and a minor comment on what's being done. They are being paid by the entire work not by time and material but it's good to track the progress. This project may be the most politcal so being a politician I may follow up on things. I've already asked if a new contract was given and I've been told the same contractor is doing the 2nd phase. This is not what I wanted to hear as I figure it should go out to tender. Again it depends on who you ask what answer I get. They said if they used the same contractor the new classrooms will be built the same with the same color, etc. I said that they could write it in the contract the price and that the new classrooms look exactly like the current ones. This may be a new concept but old habits die hard so I've go a feeling the contractor won't change. I haven't had a lot of support from cohorts as they don't want to hock the boat. The committee listen but I don't think they want to make changes so what can I do bang my head against the wall - as this is Kenya. It depends on the person I ask but I've been told the foundation will be built the same contractor but the actual construction will be put out to bids. But I'm not holding my breath as I think my chances of seeing that is the same as getting wireless internet in the village.
I've done a bunch of walking about myself and it's quite intereresting. There is a Widow (I think all the women are widows in the village so anyone back home hungry to get married, have I got a match for you and you don't have to use a website to do it) near our house who has an old manual sewing maching. She told me she sews things or repairs clothes for income. I've been watching our next door neigbor (another widow) gather wood, stack it, then pile branches and dirt on it. Then they light it and let it burn (smolder) for 2 days. At this time the wood becomes charcoal pieces. Then the women picks the charcoal out of the dirt and branches. They bag them and then sell them in the market. This charcoal is very valuable for people to cook and boil water. A bag of charcoal sells for about 500 shillings about $7. The government doesn't want the people to cut down the trees to make this charcoal but I think that this may be hard for them to control. They could use the cow dung but the cows can only do so much. Plus its need to build huts. Another entrepeniural work for the widows (and the rare man) and orphans is to break rocks to get small rocks. These are then sold to people for the foundation of houses along with a bit of cement to smooth out the flooor. I may see other grass root work as I venture out.
This morning I woke up early and went for a run to the junction of 2 highways probably about 4 miles or 7 km. The weather was nice and I wanted to see the places that I can't see from a bus.
Like I said I feel like 20 eyes are watching me. I also feel like old Lizzie of Englnd as I wave at them when I go by. Christ a guy's arm could get sore doing that for a living.
Anyway my fingers are getting tired so I'm going to finally end. Thanks for putting up with so much of nothing. I still haven't tried to ad pics but I will but not many I think
So c u the next time hopefully with more interesting things to say.
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