Nikola and Annalisa's Kenya Adventure

Maasai Camp

2007-08-09T10:54:00.000-07:00

Every winter (Kenya's winter) a group of Maasai men from the community who are wealthy enough to afford it bring some goats or cattle and take them to a secluded place in the wilderness. They spend a month resting, slaughtering the animals, eating meat, and drinking boiled herbs. This way they build up their strength and go back to their homes rejuvenated and healthy.

When the chairman of the school district found out that we were volunteering at the Olorien Primary School he wanted to find a way to thank us. He decided to invite us to visit his Maasai camp for the day and take meat with the men there as a way to thank us for our contribution to the school. All the men in the camp agreed to let us visit and so it was arranged. We were the only foreigners to have ever visited their camp.

We set out early in the day with backpacks full of water and juice. It took us nearly four hours to hike from Alex's home to the Maasai camp. Nikki was in the midst of a nasty viral infection and wheezed a bit as we set out. Along the way we stopped at the chairman's home where his wife served us a cup of tea before we continued on our journey. After parting with the chairman's wife we met up with the headmistress from the Olorien school, Sentero (Alex's brother who teaches at the school), and a boy from class 7 who all accompanied us to the camp.

About an hour before we reached our destination Alex explained that there were two different ways we could proceed. One way was quicker but "a bit steep." The other way was longer but less steep. Assuming they were merely concerned about us foreigners we opted for the shorter steeper journey. About a half an hour later we approached the edge of a cliff, the basin of the Rift Valley. My jaw dropped, this was surely more than a bit steep. I couldn't believe that we intended to climb down the side of this incredibly steep escapement. Though I am usually quite comfortable with heights I was scared out of my mind as we began to descend. It was so steep that everyone slipped and fell on the way down. My knees were shaking as I stumbled and grabbed the closest thing, which unfortunately usually happened to be a thorny bush. At several points some of us choose to sort of climb down on our hands and knees to avoid slipping. "Let's try not to die," I kept saying to Nikki, half joking half serious.

Finally we made it to the Maasai camp. They were warned of our visit beforehand so that they could put on clothing. Several men were sitting around a fire roasting meat. One man was attending to the boiled herbs, distributing them among his comrades. We entered the natural cave area where they slept at night and relaxed during the day. The chairman greeted us enthusiastically, taking us aside to offer his special personal thanks for our time at the school. At the camp we also met and talked with the local representative from the area who serves in the government. He emphasized his commitment to improving education in Kenya and also thanked us heartily for our contribution.

Before it was time to eat meat we gathered for our special Maasai naming ceremony. They took their traditional Maasai blankets and clothed us with them before giving us our names. Nikki went first and the chairman slipped a cowhide ring on finger as he named her "Naeku" which means "early riser." I was the wrapped in a Maasai Shuka, given my cowhide ring, and named "Nashipae,"or "ever-joyful." After the naming ceremony the chairman brought out a spigget with beef that had been slaughtered the day before, the same cow from which our rings were taken. He would slice off a bite size piece, give it to a person in our group, and proceed in this way until the entire spigget of meat had been eaten. We ate the equivalent of about three of the most delicious steaks I have ever tasted.

After eating and tasting some of the herbs we said our goodbyes to the men in the camp. The chairman walked us back up to the top of the rift valley basin. This time we took the less steep way and were able to walk comfortably up to the top. We parted ways with the chairman and walked the nearly four hour journey back home, exhausted but at perfect peace with the world, having spent the most amazing day of our trip.

This is the chairman's mother-in-law who we met at the chairman's home.

This is the chairman's wife who accompanied us for a short portion of the journey.

The edge of the rift valley basin.

The headmistress, a boy from school, Alex, Nikki, and Sentero

Beginning our descent

Climbing down

A man in the camp stirs some of the fatty meats

The herbs boiling

Me in the Maasai camp

Nikki becomes Naeku

I become Nashipae

Eating meat

Leaving the camp

Heading back up

Olorien Primary School

2007-08-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

This main building houses classes 4-8.

This temporary building houses classes 1-3

This is inside some of the classrooms. In each small wooden desk, 2 students squeeze next to each other. Most of the classes contained 50 to 70 kids.

This is the staff room where we prepared lessons and marked papers. Our weekly schedule is printed on the chalkboard in the back.

Here are most of the teachers standing. The older boys in front prepared traditional Maasai music and dance for us on our last day.

Here we tried to join in and even took a stab at the jumping. Although we were called "white Maasai" by some of the locals I don't think we lived up to our name here!

This is a typical scene whenever one of us took the camera out. Students would race towards us to be in the picture. We had to endlessly convince them they didn't need to be inches from the camera lens, or give the thumbs up.

Lunchtime! Food consisted of a bulgar (oats?) mush donated by the USA.

Annalisa got her hair braided by some of the students.

Annalisa is engaged teaching Social Studies (top) and reading an English passage (bottom). Nikki is busy lecturing and helping students with math homework.

Annalisa has class 8 students act out a passage from their English text.

We did a finger painting activity with class 1.

We will never forget these children. Every single day they were so happy and whenever we caught their eyes they would give us the biggest smiles. They were so appreciative and thankful of us coming to Kenya to teach them, however, they gave us much more back. We do plan on returning in a couple years to Kenya and to this school and perhaps for a much longer visit. There are still more posts to come...

Church visits

2007-07-31T10:17:00.001-07:00

Alex and Shiphra live right next door to one of the churches that they attend. Shiphra is mostly responsible for leading the congregation at this church. It is fairly small and most people walk to the church on Sunday. We attended the church twice while in Kenya. On our first visit we were welcomed warmly and our second visit was at the end of our trip so we said Kwahare (goodbye). Even though the services were conducted in Kiswahili it was so easy to feel the love that the people had for one another.

Alex is preparing his sermon that he will give.

Nikki and I outside the church.

Alex, our host father, is an elder in another nearby church, which we visisted on our second weekend in Kenya. Church services in Kenya are overall much moe lively than services here. It is not uncommon for people to go to the front of the church and dance while they sing. We received a warm welcome from the congregation and were introduced during the service.

Here we are all waiting for a matatu to take us closer to our home. We ended up waiting for about an hour.

You can see some of the missing pieces of the road and a matatu in the distance.

Traditional Maasai Village

2007-07-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

During our time in Maasai Mara we visited a traditional Maasai village. The village was composed of approximately 12 huts all belonging to members of the same family. The huts are made of cow dung and contain a room for the baby cows to sleep in and another one for the people to sleep in. The Maasai people live a very simple life and have little desire for many expensive possessions. They are herders and survive by raising cattle and sheep. The men take the cattle and sheep out to graze during the day while the women build the homes, find water, prepare food, raise the children, make clothing, and do essentially all of the hard labor. When a young man from the village wants to marry he takes a dowry of cattle to a neighboring village to purchase his wife (You can guess how I feel about this). In the past he would kill a lion to demonstrate his manliness and readiness to marry, however, due to conservation efforts that practice has since been abandoned.

The Maasai have been quite successful at maintain their cultural traditions. They still practice many traditional dances, customs, and celebrations. One such custom, female genital mutilation (fgm), still perseveres, despite the fact that it is outlawed in Kenya. Our Maasai guide in the village told us that even though he personally feels the practice should be abandoned it is still important for him to marry a woman who has gone through the Maasai initiation ceremony, in which fgm is the central tenet. This inherent contradiction is a good example of one of the barriers that prevent change.

The villagers we met were very friendly and eager to share information about their culture. They performed traditional dances for us, including the infamous jumping dance. The men were adorned in their Maasai color (red) and ornate jewelry. Some Maasai cut their ears and reshape them over a painful one month process such that there is a flap of outer skin which hangs down and is separated from the rest of the ear. Our guide told us that the process sounded too painful for him.

Nikki didn't throw up in the village so we gave her a gold star.

The Maasai men showed us how they made fire with sticks and elephant dung.

Maasai Mara Safari

2007-07-30T09:31:00.000-07:00

One weekend we did a three day trip to Maasai Mara, a game reserve in Southern Kenya. We went with a group of other volunteers in two 10 seater vans. We stayed at a campsite just outside of the game reserve where we had tents equipped with running water and toilets! There were also monkeys hanging out around the campsite munching on left over food.

We left Nairobi on a Friday morning and it took us about 5 hours to drive to our campsite. The road was unbelievably bumpy. At one point Nikki got so sick that we had to pull the car over. Fortunately we pulled over right next to a group of Maasai children who watched her intently as she emptied her stomach. One of the other volunteers from New Zealand congratulated her on giving something back to the continent. After that episode the group moved Nikki up to the front seat, thus preventing any further incidents.

In the park we saw most of the major Kenyan animals including: zebras, gazelles, giraffes, elephants, cape buffalo, hyenas, lions, cheetahs, elephants, hippos, crocodiles, impalas, topis, and warthogs. The only big 5 animal that we missed was the rhino. The animals are so used to the vehicles that they barely pay any attention to them. At one point we were so close to a lioness that you could nearly reach out the window and touch her. One day we stopped in the park to have a picnic and got out of the vehicles less than a mile away from where we saw cheetahs. Luckily we managed to avoid getting mauled by any wild beasts.

Ostrich

Africa at sunrise

Lioness with young males

lioness

Giraffe
Hippos
Cheetahs

Here is where we stopped to picnic for lunch.

Our roommate M and us at a stop.

Hyena
Here you can see the type of vehicle we used in the park. It was a 10 seater van with an extendable top for game viewing.

Gazelle
Zebra
This is a tree in the game reserve right before sundown.

Here is the Great Rift Valley that we passed through on our way to Maasai Mara.

Pictures from Around the House

2007-07-28T12:10:00.001-07:00

Here is a collection of some pictures of our host family and our home area.

Here is our host mother, Shiphra, and host father, Alex. Though Alex may look like a Mzungu (white person) he is actually an African with albinoism. His story about growing up in a traditional Maasai community with white skin and a disability is amazing. He actually told his story in the British Journal of Special Education and there was a big article in a Kenyan newspaper about him. Alex is incredibly inspiring. Because of his own problems with his disability he has a passion for helping the disabled. He works in the Ministry of Education training teachers how to deal with special needs issues and also leads support groups for Albinos in Kenya and Kenyans with disabilities.

Here I am trying to get some laundry done before the sun goes down. Everything was done by hand, even chasing away the chickens from our water.

Johny and I are cashed out on the couch after a long day.

This is Beth, Alex's neice, who is cleaning up some dishes as they are preparing dinner.

Nikki is in the yard with Johny, Cialo, and Kariss (Alex's nephew who stays with the family).

This is our host sister, Michelle (aka Cialo), doing her homework inside the house. She would do hours of homework every night, which is typical for a private school.

Here I am with our family's punda on our compound. You can see the baby cows in the background.

The gateway into our home.

The bathroom at our home, which consisted of a hole. We would see many of our large eight legged friends here every night after sundown.

Nikki out in front of Alex's home on one of the warmer days that we had.

This is the home that we stayed in. My host brother Johny is on the left and his cousin, William is on the right.

Here Nikki and I are walking back with our host brother, William, from the place where we boarded a matatu. You can see the Ngong hills in the background.

We're Home

2007-07-27T18:38:00.001-07:00

That's right we're writing to you from good old Ann Arbor. We sincerely apologize for updating the blog so infrequently. It was very difficult to get to a computer from where we were in the rural area. Now that we are back we will be posting many pictures and stories from our trip for those of you who won't see us in person for a while. We are still busy getting Nikki ready to leave for California tomorrow at 7 am. The updates will come very shortly though! For now sufficive to say that we both feel that we left a huge part of hearts in Kenya!

Our Future Home

2007-07-12T05:47:00.000-07:00

Sorry we left you all abruptly last week- Our pause though was a success since Nikki recovered her bag from the airport. I guess this is normal with British airways, so when you travel to Kenya, don't use them!

At School the kids are warming up to us more and more. They are getting bold and asking us many questions about the US and our family. Some want to come back with us. We have been encouraging them to work hard in school and go on to secondary and the university so that they can come visit us one day. The teachers have noticed that their motivation to learn (especially English) has improved. They are eager to sing us songs and dance. Last Friday Annalisa had class 3 jumping up and down singing traditional maasai songs. Singing and dancing with a group of 60 African children has to be one of the most amazing experiences you could imagine.

The students are so happy to have us around. One girl gave us gifts, shirts and a bracelet. Others have brought milk and sweet potatoes. We brought in pictures to show them from home and everyone crowded around to see. They were unable to believe everything they saw in the pictures. The students were begging to keep the pictures so that they could go home and show their parents. We plan on leaving the pictures with the school when we go and sending more once we return to the US. Everyone also loves when we take pictures of them. We'll post some of our pictures when we get back to the states.

Everyone is so incredibly grateful for what we are doing here. Most of the people from the community know we are here and stop us on the road to say hello. Some of the parents came to school one day and told us how happy they are that we are here. Sentero, Alex's brother who works at the school where we teach, keeps telling us how great it is that we've come. We are the first volunteers in the area and it is making such a big impact. Normally when white people come they only stay in Nairobi or go on expensive safari's. They never really go to the rural areas and interact with the people. So they are so honored that we have come to live with them and help out at the school. Some of the people in the area have been calling us "White Maasai" because they say we are living just like Maasai, only we are white. We can't even really describe how welcoming the community has been. We just know that this is the start of a lifelong connection to this community. We both agreed that we would like to return and live in Kenya for some years in the future. Everyone encourages us to return and bring others. So if you are interested we can hook you up with the friendliest people you will ever meet.

We've been to two different churches, both Presbyterian. The first was a small church near our home. Last Sunday we went to a larger church. Because all of the matatus were filling up we ended up in the carriage of a van packed in with about 15 children. We sort of felt like immigrants crossing the border, but as we are frequently reminded...this is Africa.

The matatus are quite an experience. They are 15 seater vans that they pack 25 people into. Today on our way to Kiserian we had so many people in but then the driver saw a police checkpoint ahead so he veered off into an alleyway before we reached the city and had to walk the rest of the way...just a regular day in Kenya. The roads are really bad everywhere. You can't call them potholes so much as missing pieces of the road. There isn't even a real road to Alex's home, just uneven ground that was formed by cattle. To see the road you wouldn't believe a car could even travel on it...but apparently it can.

We are leaving tomorrow for a Safari to Masai Mara the game reserve. We are very excited to see some more scenery and animals. Next Friday someone from school has planned to take us to a Maasai camp where the men go and slaughter cows and take a sort of retreat. So that should be quite an experience. We also plan to hike the Ngong hills and see a children's church singing competition that weekend.

As for the language mostly everyone speaks Kiswahili to eachother but then each tribe has a mother tonge that they use at home like Maasai or Kikuyu. They teach everything in English and use that for business etc.

We could go on further about everything but we need to go buy socks for our Safari. We did a load of wash (hand wash) back at home but we didn't get the socks so clean so Kariz ended up redoing them when we were at school and so they weren't dry yet.

Till later...I bless the rains down in Africa...

2007-07-07T00:31:00.000-07:00

We miss you all.

It's hard to believe that we have been in Kenya for over a week now. In some ways it feels like we have been here longer. It seems as though we have thoroughly adjusted to rural living in Kenya.

Here is a typical day for us in Kenya. We wake up in the morning around 5:30 to the sound of the rooster crowing. Then we use our flashlight to begin getting ready for school. We hear the voice of our host mother, "Nikola, water is ready for you." We go in one at a time to the bathing room where we spash warm water on ourselves to clean. It is freezing outside before the sun comes up and we wake up completely after our shower. Then we sit together in the living room and take our breakfast. We drink chai, cow's milk and tea leaves and eat a cooked egg and about 3 butter and jam sandwiches. All of the food portions are absolutely enormous. We walk out into the yard of our compound to brush our teeth and fill our water bottle before we leave for school.

Around 7 we start off on our long journey for school. On Monday night it rained very heavily so for Tuesday and the days after it took a longer time because we were hiking through thick mud that made our shoes weigh about 5 pounds more. We walk along the road for about 10 minutes and then veer off onto a foot path that winds up and down 3 enormous hills between our home and the school. We look around the hills of Kenya and can see for miles. The grass and trees dot the hills and there are only a few small homes dotting the landscape. As we approach the school there are children who begin to walk with us. They smile shyly at first and then more boldly. Some move closer to touch our hand.

We enter the school area and the entire school (about 500 students) are gathered outside for an assembly. We see so many eyes glued to us and warm smiles eager to catch a glimpse of "The visitors." We enter into the teacher's room at the end of the compound. We begin to plan our lessons and mark some of the student books that are scattered on our table. When it is time for class to begin a student rings a bell outside. We go to our separate classes with a lesson plan in our hand and a piece of dusty chalk in our pocket. I walk into the room and the class of 50 stands to greet me. "Good morning Class," I tell them loudly. "Good morning teacher," they reply eagerly." "How are you today class?" "Fine thank you teacher!" "You can sit." I proceed with my lesson talking slowly and loudly in a slightly altered accent so that they can understand. I ask a question and immidiately 10 hands shoot into the air, "Teacher...Teacher...Teacher," they shout out trying to catch my attention so that I will call on them. The students are crowded in their desks and they sit with their arms around their friends, boys and girls. When the bell rings and it is time for me to leave they beg me to stay. "Please we have free time next keep teaching us more."

On our breaks we have tea with the headmistress in her office. They prepare us a lunch at the school. The children eat a mush like substance made from oats donated by the US. They live too far away to go home and otherwise they would go hungry.

On our way home from school we walk with several students who hold our hands. They sing us songs and teach us words in Kiswahili, while we pant for breath hiking up the hills...

We have just been informed that we must now go to the airport to try to recover Nikki's bag, which is still lost. Hopefully sometime soon we will have a chance to finish the description of our day and also post more information. We have so much to say, that there isn't possibly time to say it all.

We miss you all!

Rural living

2007-06-30T04:27:00.000-07:00

Hello-
When we last left you we were leaving Nairobi to meet our host family. About 30 to 40 minutes away from the city we arrived at our family's home. Our family is amazing. They are very friendly. Alex, the father is helpful in getting us aquainted. He works in the district education department and trains special education teachers. Our host mother, Sephira, does not speak english as well but is a gracious host. They have three children. William is the oldest, 14, and attends a boarding high school. He is only home for this weekend because he is on a break. Michelle, 12, is so friendly, and tells us many stories. John, 6, is adorable and loves to jump and play all the time. Both John and Michelle attend a private school. Alex also hosts his niece, Beth, 15, who attends the school where we teach at.

It is a moderate home and we have a comfortable bedroom to stay in. It has definitely been difficult to get used to life without running water. There is an enclosed area outside for the toilet. It consists of a hole. We wash in the morning in a room inside the house with a bucket of warm water. The kitchen is in a separate enclosed area outside. All the food that is prepared either comes from their garden, animals, or the market. Milk for tea comes straight from the cow to the boiler to us. We eat a lot of rice, cabbage, potatoes, and we drink a lot of kenyan tea (chai). So far we have only experienced minor stomach problems adjusting to the food.

We had our first day of school yesterday. It is almost an hour hike up and down hills each way. The teachers are friendly and so grateful to have us work with them. The head of the school is a woman which is very progressive for a rural school. The children were extremely excited to see us. Many of them have never seen a foreigner before. Mostly the first day was introductions. They would leave us alone separately with a class so we would get to know the students. We are teaching 4th-8th grade different subjects such as English, Math, Social Studies, PE, and Religion (Christianity). The children were very curious touching our hair and asking us questions about our family and where we came from. Sometimes they were a bit shy at first but then they would crowd around us in a large group. Some of the classes contain 60 or more children, so the teachers are overwhelmed. They have never had a volunteer at the school before or anywhere in the immediate area. The area is so rural that some of the children walk 2 hours to school. It seems like we will be able to impact the community of children even though we are only here for a relatively short time.

The entire area of Olorien Kajiado is Christian and most take their faith very seriously. There are many Christian radio stations. Our host father tells us that most Kenyans are Christian and that there are very few people who only practice traditional beliefs. Even the people who do keep up with some old traditions are Christian.

Today was our first trip on the Matatus-small busses for public transport. We walked from Alex's home about 25 minutes to the bus stop. We took one matatu to Kiserian, a small town with some shopping. Then we took another matatu to Ngong, the closest place with the internet. We will only be able to update the blog on weekends. We are not sure yet if we can post pictures. We will try next time.

With our volunteer program we already planned a safari in a few weeks to the Masai Mara animal reserve. We will camp with a group for three days. There we will be able to see all the major animals in Kenya. In the area where we are staying in there used to be many zebras, giraffes,antelopes, and other game animals. Now it is rare to see them because there are so many big fences and new farms in the area.

The area is very beautiful. There are many large hills. It is a savannah like geography. It is winter here now so the first few days it was in the upper 60s/lower 70s and everyone was complaining about how cold they were, wearing multiple layers of sweaters and jackets. They think we are crazy for enjoying the weather. Today it was hotter, probably 80s.

We are enjoying our trip very much so far. We did get homesick last night when we encountered an ant infestation on the floor and a gigantic spider on the bathroom door. When we return in a month we will appreciate running water and our bathroom like never before! More to come next weekend :)

In Nairobi

2007-06-28T03:58:00.000-07:00

Hello from Nairobi.

We arrived safely last night minus one bag, which will hopefully show up sometime soon. We spent a night at a hotel where we took some very cold showers and settled into our mosquito net protected beds. At breakfast there were some Masai dressed in traditional clothing who did a song and dance. As we were leaving they were showing some of their travel companions how to jump very high in the air. The jump was exactly as Aunt Christa had predicted to our utter surprise. After breakfast we were taken to the Cosmic Volunteer headquarters where we got some introduction to Kenya. We did some shopping and bought a cell phone (number to come) in case of emergency.

We will be leaving for Kajiado this afternoon, shortly after we finish typing this blog. We have learned that the family we will stay with is Kikuyu in origin though the area is primarily Masai. There will be no electricity or running water (so we've stocked up on bottled water). Most of the villagers live in Masai huts and tend cattle. We are told that women in the village are not valued at all according to Masai culture. The men value the cattle first then the children and then the women. So we are preparing for a very different way of life. The school where we will be teaching has many many students and too few teachers. Some of our classes might have 80 students! We are also responsible for correcting their schoolwork. It looks like we will have our work cut out for us.

All in all it has been quite shocking to be here but so far we aren't seriously second guessing our decision to come. It will be difficult at first but we are open to the challenge. We can already see how much different our perspective of the world will be when we return.

More to come soon...hopefully.

We're leaving tomorrow?!?

2007-06-25T20:38:00.000-07:00

Yes, that's right, tomorrow is the big day. The last few days have been pretty stressful doing last minute errands and packing our bags. Nikki almost couldn't get her bag shut. Now we are sitting here contemplating what we have gotten ourselves into and what lies ahead...

Recently we have received additional information on our accommodations in Kenya. Kajiado, home to the Masai tribe, is extremely rural. There is no electricity and the nearest Internet source is 20 minutes away by bus. Our host family has three children, ages 9, 12, and 14 who will help us get accustomed to the area. We will be arriving in Kajiado on Thursday evening and we expect to begin teaching on Friday. We will then have the weekend to get settled into our new home. We hope to update the blog as often as possible, however, this may happen only once a week when we venture to the next town.

Some family and friends have already posed some interesting questions that they would like to have answered: What's the food like? How do you say bad words in Swahili? Does the Masai tribe really drink cows blood and milk? What is the religion like in the area? What's with the jumping? If you have other questions let us know and we'll try to get them answered for you. On to Africa!!!

Welcome

2007-06-20T09:12:00.000-07:00

Hey all! Welcome to our blog on our Kenya adventure. We'll try to keep you updated on our trip to Kenya as we travel. For those of you who don't know we are spending one month in Kajiado Kenya, a small rural village in the Southern Rift Valley. There we will be living with a host family and teaching English at a primary school. We also plan on filling our weekends with orphanage work and safari trips.

It is less than a week away until we leave, and the excitement and nervousness has definitely set in. We are currently in Petoskey, MI until Sunday when we return to Ann Arbor. We leave the US on Tuesday June 26th. Wish us luck!