Day 5 & 6: Jambo Projects

On Monday I was able to visit the Kimuka Preschool School yet again, this time to observe the class all morning and assist the teachers.  They have asked me to plan some lessons to do with the students over the next few weeks.  I got a chance to get acquainted with many of the 35 students and have them get used to me.  They are fascinated by new people- especially white people, and want to touch all of the volunteers and hang on them.  Communication is very difficult as most of these children come to the school only speaking Maasai.  Learning English is part of the curriculum.  When they move on to primary school, they study Swahili and English, so many students know 3 languages (including that of their tribe) fairly well if they attend all the years of school.  I spent the morning there, observing the students practice naming the parts of the body, singing songs, writing some a few letters and reading vowels sounds. The teachers do a wonderful job of keeping a warm safe learning community for the children and are very positive with all of them.  Building up self-confidence and placing a high value on education are a large part of the curriculum.

Since everyone knows I am on the lookout for cool animals- while I was walking home I saw a very small, but very bright blue snake.

On Tuesdays Jambo holds their weekly directors’ meeting where everyone reviews what is on the agenda for the week, budgeting, account management, planning and discussion of future projects.  Currently there is a man named Alejandro living in the volunteer house who is working on his thesis, which in part will focus on the Maasai and their land. To assist Jambo, he has been training several employees about how to write proposals and grant applications and now he is going to assist in helping to set up a more formal framework for how this will happen in the future. At this meeting, we established that I will go to one of the two preschools each day. Many of the students at the Kimuka school have sponsors in Spain through AIF, so now we are going to begin work to get sponsors for some students at the – school, where the teachers say the students are actually much needier. So in the afternoons, I will work this week to create student profiles for each student at that school to try and help find some sponsorship.  Please e-mail me if this might be something you are interested in. By the end of next week, I plan to put together some workshops Luis has requested for the teachers at both schools. I am also going to help Luis begin the formal proposals for the children’s home.  Now that word is getting around that Jambo plans to open a children’s home, Luis is already getting calls about orphans in need.  Trying to keep up with Luisito and Samoreah also fills much of my afternoons.  They are fun to watch, they run around and play like crazy.

Three tired kids.

BUT, before I even went to the meeting I saw a bunch of baboons running alongside the road- lots of mamas with the babies on their backs.  Great way to start the day!

Day 4: Giraffes!

I woke up this morning and giraffes were wandering in the fields just beyond Luis’s fence.  I went out beyond the fence and tried to get as close as possible. 

I spent most of the day walking around the yards and the area around the house, so I want to highlight all that Jambo Volunteers has to offer to volunteers who travel here. Luis has built a 4-bedroom house here for volunteers and each room sleeps 2-3.  It has a nice living room with Internet access, a kitchen with a gas stove and 2 toilets and showers. They use water sparingly and recycle all of the water they use.

Most of the water is used for the plants- there are many varieties of trees he has planted and also a fairly large field of corn, carrots, onions, potatoes and a spinach-like vegetable.  Everything is being grown 100% organically using mulch, compost and this water to keep it growing. They also have 2 large chicken coops and the chickens roam the yard each day.  They get enough eggs from here to both eat and sell. There is a rabbit cage, which started as a fun experiment and now has over 20 rabbits.  All vegetable table scraps go to the rabbits and all meat scraps go to the dogs. On the grounds there is a small house for the groundskeeper/security guard that has a eco-toilet next to it.

These three living spaces use solar and wind power for electricity.  When there is not enough sun or wind to power the houses through the night, sometimes they use a generator.  The new system that has just been installed and is not yet operational is called a biogas system.  It uses cow dung, as well as any other biodegradable materials to produce methane gas in a large bag sealed inside of a portable greenhouse.  This methane gas can be used to run the stoves inside of both houses and can power the generator using only 20% of the diesel it currently uses.  The system also produces a pure fertilizer very rapidly. Luis is very excited about this prospect and hopes his system will be running later this week.  I was lucky enough to go this evening to the home of this system’s inventor, a man named Dominic, and he showed me many of the projects he is working on in Kenya and East Africa and explained to me how some of this technology works and what the potential is, especially here in Kenya where so many of the poor people are dependent on firewood and charcoal for cooking.  If you are interested in learning more about these systems and his work, please visit http://www.biogas.co.ke/.

As for security, there is a locked gate with fencing surrounding the property. Luis has 7 guard dogs- a bit excessive for my tastes, if you know how I feel about dogs J On the weekends, he has a special security guard come at night when the groundskeeper is away. He has not had any incidents here, but he is very careful to always ensure that the area is a safe as possible for his family and the volunteers staying here.

It is a very pleasant place surrounded by gorgeous scenery and is located very close to most of the projects Jambo is currently involved with. 

Day 2 and 3: Kimuka School and Maasai Wedding

On my second day in Kenya I got to go to the Kimuka Primary School Jambo has built.  The school currently has 35 needy Maasai boys and girls between the ages of 3-5.  The students then go to the public schools a little ways down the road. Many of the students are sponsored by a partner NGO, AIF.

The school is a 1-room school house, with a separate office, kitchen and eco toilet.  They feed the children twice a day.  I got to meet the two teachers there- Isaiah and Danny.  They explained to me that many of the parents bring the children there to attend school because of the meals provided and other health and social services available to them through the school.  Then, as they see how much their children are learning, they begin to place a higher value on education and emphasize their children continuing to go to school.  In Kenya, public education is provided for children ages 6-14, but many do not attend in rural areas due to lack of transportation, food, or needing to help on family farms and with herding. Danny and Isaiah are doing wonderful things with the children and they are all working on learning all of their letters, numbers, counting and playing many songs and games.  I was able to bring about half of the school supplies and clothes I brought to Kenya.  See below if you donated items to me if you can see the children enjoying them! We distributed 1 clothing item to each child, all of whom were very excited. I also brought many hardcover children’s books and got to read them one of my favorites. I am excited to get to work with them more in the weeks to come. They are currently adding 2 more classrooms- the foundation was finished the day before, so that they can continue admitting students because more parents are coming everyday asking if they have space available for their children.

That afternoon, we drove south to Narok along the Great Rift Valley.  It was an absolutely breathtaking drive. Luis had agreed to help a neighbor who was getting married transport some Maasai family members to a pre-wedding feast there at the home of the bride.  The next morning, we were to bring back the guests for the actual wedding at the church and home of the groom.  It was an interesting experience- my first Maasai cultural immersion and my first taste of goat.  The party was very segregated- women in the bedrooms and men in the living room.  Since we were bringing many Maasai women back the next day, we “camped” out in Luis’ van for the night and left early the next morning. The next day the wedding feast was incredible, with a beautiful mix of traditional Maasai clothing and jewelry and western suits and dresses.  The bride wore a white wedding dress with Maasai jewelry. The reception was held on the groom’s family property under several huge tents.  There were about 300 people.  

Everyone can’t believe I haven’t seen any giraffes yet! They were telling me they spotted a few lions last week less than a mile from the house, so maybe I’ll run into one of those!

Day 1: Supa!

I arrived in Nairobi on time at 2:30 am.  My cousin Luis and a man he works with picked me up.  We had a long, crazy ride back to Kimuka Hills in the rift valley where his compound is located.

He currently has a boy of about 6 years old named Samareh (John) living with him whose mother died a few months ago from AIDS.  A little after 6, we woke him up and prepared a light breakfast for him so that we could take him to a local hospital branch that treats AIDS patients with antiretroviral medicines. Luis took him in about three weeks ago.  At 6 years old, he weighs only 13 kilos. Over these past weeks, they have been working to clear up all of his infections and help him to eat regularly and gain weight.  He is beginning to come out of his shell and become more animated and he was perfectly happy to chat away with me in Maasai all day even though he knew I couldn’t understand him. He also thought my camera was hilarious. He is a big part of the inspiration for the children’s home we are try to break ground for here soon, which will house over 30 Maasai orphans.

We waited at the hospital for over 2 hours to pick up more medicines for him and then we were on our way. We made a few pit stops and ran a few errands in the small town nearby (and when I say nearby its about a 45 minute VERY bumpy ride along rocky, sometimes muddy, dirt rods) and then came back to the house to get a tour and then sleep like the dead. Luis’ home and the volunteer house- The Terry House- are wonderful.  The volunteer house is named for my uncle Terence Powers who passed away 3 years ago and so much about this place and Luis’ projects remind me of him and the things he was passionate about that I think it is wonderful he was able to honor him in this way. The grounds are beautiful- with a huge shamba (field) for growing many vegetables and tons of young trees they have planted all around the house.  In a few years, it will look like a jungle…

He is also in the process of installing a biodiesel system that will be running net week.  Hopefully, full power will also be restored by then as well.  Tonight we enjoyed he use of the generator but it is a huge fuel waster.

About 6 I woke up and Luis' wife Mercy announced she would cook a special dinner in my honor- chapati- So I watched and helped her (helped as in got to try one) make a naan-like bread and a stew of meatballs, potatoes and vegetables.  It was a delicious first dinner in Kenya that I got to enjoy with another volunteer and Luis' beautiful son and wife.

Now I go back to sleep exhausted and hoping that tomorrow I’ll wake up feeling acclimated to the time and full of energy! Hope I get to see my first giraffe tomorrow!

This summer, I am excited to have the opportunity to travel to Maasailand, Kenya and work side by side with my cousin Luis for the charity organization he has founded. Plane tickets have been purchased, vaccines injected and visa application completed! Please follow my journey!

To learn more about the projects of Jambo Volunteers in Kenya, please check out their website and these short videos other visiting volunteers have created!

Jambo Volunteers