Final week in Kenya

It is 6:30am here in London and although the time difference from Kenya is only 3hrs, I have been unable to sleep since 5am and Simon finally kicked me out of bed for all my tossing, turning, and singing of songs we sang with the kids in Kenya. After 15 hrs of traveling, we arrived to London yesterday afternoon and were greeted by snow and bone-chilling air. We had no jackets with us – why would we, we were in Kenya!? So our bodies were numb and in complete shock by the time we made it to a pub nearby to Simon’s friends’ house. The weather and the overwhelming Christmas dÈcor that covers the streets is unbelievable. It certainly didn’t feel like we were nearing Christmas in Kenya, so arriving and finding there is just over a week to the day has been crazy.

Ok, so we need to give you a recap about what was going on during our last week in Kenya. A tragic turn of events led to a very different end to our visit. On Friday, Dec 4, James N’juguna, the founder of the Fadhili Organization as well as Maddison House, was shot and killed. It was a car robbery gone tragically wrong. James was 31 years old, had been married just over a year and a half, and had an 8 month old daughter, Kelly.

James began Fadhili Community (the Kenyan org we were working for) in 2004, fuelled by his desire to help children. In 2007 he partnered with International Volunteer Headquarters (IVHQ) to develop the volunteer program we were on. Fadhili is now one of the most successful NGOs in Kenya, and brought in over 400 volunteers in this past year. In addition to his work with Fadhili, James was also heavily involved with his local church, Cornerstone Faith Assembly. He had been a preacher, and for over 10 yrs has been a missionary, traveling all over Kenya, introducing the local people to the bible and successfully opening over 30 churches. James was also a singer, and had recorded many wonderful gospel songs with members of the church.

So our final week was very sad and our time was mainly spent caring for and supporting those grieving – especially the children. We attended a large memorial service and the funeral, supporting the children and the Fadhili staff, and helping the orphanage continue to function as Fadhili struggles to continue without its leader.

The evening that the children were informed, was one we will never forget. It was no doubt one of the worst things I have ever seen. Our pastor/friend, Pastor John came over to tell the 34 children about the death of the man that has saved all of their lives, given them food, shelter, and love when no one else could. They were all sat on benches around a big table in the living room. He asked them to tell him all the people in their lives that cared about them. They named about 10 in total. Me, Simon, and Hilary being three of them -- which was touching. They of course also named uncle James. Pastor reminded them that all those people still loved and cared for them but one had returned to God, and it was Uncle James. You could not imagine the wails we heard at that moment, 34 pained children, screaming and crying with such force and pain. It was unbearable. I immediately burst into tears. Most of the children, even those as young as 6 and 7, had their heads on the table crying. Some of the older kids fell onto the floor, flailing their arms, screaming at the top of their lungs. This continued for over 20mins until the Pastor finally calmed them. For many of these children, this is the third 'parent' they have lost...

Since James was so loved and well-known in the community, there was a special memorial service held for him on Thursday at his church. Friends and family got up and spoke about him to an audience of over 300 people. The children performed a song, although many of them broke down halfway through. We had worked with James for about 2 months and knew about his work with Fadhili, and obvious dedication to the children. The memorial service filled us in on the rest of his life. The number of people who got up to speak about the impact James had on them was amazing. In his short life James had touched many many people. The burial the next day was in Kinale,, about 50 km from Nairobi, where James grew up, and was held at the home James had built for his mother earlier this year – a dream of his since a young age. He was buried on their land, nearby the house, a common occurrence in Kenya.

For the employees of Fadhili, James was more than just a boss, he was their friend and the visionary for the entire organization. Unfortunately, in addition to grieving for the loss of their close friend and boss, they were also left in charge of running the organization, a near impossible task for them last week. The head of IVHQ flew in from New Zealand to help out and to help deal with any volunteer issues. Unfortunately, all the bank accounts were in James’ name, so there was no immediate access to funds. Therefore, Simon and I chose to spend close to $300 of the money we raised on food shopping for Maddison House. We were able to leave the stock rooms full of potatoes, cabbage, tomatoes, onions, etc to make sure the kids will eat well over the next couple of weeks. The day before the memorial service we also lost electricity. After some investigating we discovered this was because the last bill had not been paid – in all the confusion of the past week it had got missed. Fadhili was in no position to pay this so we decided it would be a very good use of our funds to pay this debt and get the lights turned back on. Many thanks to all of you who donated and made this possible.

So, our final week was not as we expected. It was challenging and emotional but also very rewarding. We are sad to have left at a time when everything is still so uncertain for the organization and the orphanage, but we are glad we were there to help the kids deal with their loss and to keep the orphanage running.

Nearing the end

It’s been a while since we wrote about the orphanage so here’s an update on the past few weeks.

As many of you know, we raised a significant amount of money from friends and family back in the US and UK to help the kids at the orphanage. Originally we planned to use this to just buy some new clothes for the kids as they had so little. However, due to the overwhelming generosity we have been able to start a number of projects that will help the house. Firstly, we did go and buy a lot of new clothes for the kids, including rain coats for everyone, and over 120 pairs of underwear (!) to make sure each child has at least 7 pairs. After discussing with the house mothers and the house guardian we decided to spend the rest of the money on 3 big projects: (1) building a covered outdoor kitchen behind the house, (2) starting a chicken project to provide eggs for the house and to sell at market, and (3) building a playground. A lot of our time has been spent getting these projects going and we will post a separate entry about them soon.

The kids finished school for the long Christmas holidays just over a week ago. The school year here runs from January to December so they had to complete end-of-year exams in November in order to progress to the next grade. Three of our children ranked first in their class, and everyone did well enough to move up a year so we were all very happy. As the end of term coincided with Thanksgiving we decided to cook a special celebratory dinner that weekend. We bought three turkeys, made mashed potatos, carrots, kale and spinach, and finished off with a cupcake each. Not exactly the same as Thanksgiving back in the States (although Em and Hilary tried to make their plates just as big!) but for most of the kids this was their first taste of Turkey, and it was also the most balanced meal they have eaten since we got here, so definitely a success.

Since there is no school, the kids have been around a lot. Luckily the playground was finished just in time so when the weather is ok they have been outside a lot playing on the swings, slide and climbing frame. We also had some of the older ones help us paint them one morning. It was fun to see how serious some of them took it. There have also been two 18-year olds visiting a couple of afternoons a week to teach the kids a dance routine… they already have way more rhythm than I do so it will be great to see the final product.

We have also had a lot of problems with water and electricity recently. Similar to our first couple of weeks here the power has kept going out, but more importantly, there has been no water pumped into our tanks since before we went to Mombasa. A man with a donkey and cart has to keep bringing us barrels of water every day which we then pour into our tanks. This has meant we have been extra conservative with water usage, including putting our toilet completely out of order. So, in true Kenyan style we have been using the outhouse at the bottom of the field, which has been quite the experience! I don’t think Em and I have ever felt closer than the time she escorted me to the hole in ground and we discussed the different ways to squat and the merits of each!


Pastor John, the house guardian, invited us over to his home again, but this time, to milk the cow! After his daughter showed us the ropes, i.e. cleaning each dirty, slightly hairy udder and smearing vaseline on it for lubrication, Emily, Hilary, and I took turns getting down there, close up to the nitty-gritty and milked that cow! It was quite the experience, really. It was a little slimy and gross at first, but what startled us most was the sheer difficulty in getting the milk to come out. You have to pull down REALLY hard on it! Im glad we didn’t have to fill up the whole bucket, especially since we kept aiming wrong and squirting milk everywhere.

This past weekend we also headed back to the KCC slum in Naivasha with a group of volunteers. It was good to see the kids again and learn how the project is developing. After the slum we visited Hells Gate National Park, which is next to Naivasha Lake and is home to zebras, giraffes, buffalo and occasionally lions. The parks geology comes from an old volcano close by so is full of impressive craters, ‘corridors’ of rock, and hot springs. We rented mountain bikes, complete with non-working gears, slow punctures, dodgy brakes (this is Kenya after all), and cycled about 5km into the park before going for a long walk through the rock crevices. Apparently Tomb Raider and Indiana Jones used Hells Gate as a filming location. Inspired by this, Em did her best Lara Croft impression by climbing up a very steep rock face, without harness. Our group leader told us of all the trips he has done only one other girl has ever climbed that rock. Of course, once Em had done it, I didn’t really have a choice but to follow her up. Going up was definitely easier than coming down, and im impressed Em managed it as even with my longer legs it was a challenge. By the time we got back to our bikes it was getting late so we cycled back as the sun was setting, which was a beautiful sight, until it actually set, and got dark, and we realized we were cycling past herds of buffalo who could decide to charge us at any moment! I’ve never seen Em pedal so fast! :)



So now we are nearly at end of our stay in Kenya - we have just over a week left before we head back to the UK on December 15th. We are definitely going to be sad to leave Maddison House and we don’t even want to think about saying goodbye to the kids yet. However, we are both getting excited about returning to the ‘easier’ life we have in the West with its consistent electricity and water supply, to planning our next adventure, and of course to seeing family and friends over the holidays.

Mombasa

This past weekend, Simon, Hilary, and I took a much needed break from day-to-day life at the orphanage and went to the coast to have some fun in the sun. Our vacation consisted of an equal amount of travel and leisure, but it was well worth the trip. Mombasa is the second largest city in Kenya, lying on the Indian Ocean. It is an island that can only be reached by bridge or ferry.

Thursday eve, we set off to Nairobi to catch a bus leaving at 10pm and scheduled to arrive in Mombasa around 6am. We splurged ($15) on a more expensive bus that had reclining seats and air conditioning (Kenyans think 30 degrees celsius is cool, so the 28 degree AC did little good for us). And once we saw the other bus choices, we were SO glad we did! The bus ride went off without much of a hitch until 10 miles outside of Mombasa. We ran out of gas – awesome. And of course there is no announcement from the driver or member of staff. We just sit, and sit, and sit on the bus as people come on and off. We finally found out that the driver had gone looking for gas, however when he arrived, the bus still did not start until all the men (including Simon!) got off the bus and pushed it about 50 feet!


Since Mombasa is an island, and we were staying in Diani Beach, about 30km south of Mombasa, we had to take a ferry to get to the matatu. It was pretty amazing. It goes back and forth across a small river every 5 minutes. It is free for foot passengers and hundreds of people and a couple cars and bikes pile on. Apparently since there is no one regulating weight, the ferry has begun to sink on many occasions.

We finally arrived to our little piece of self-service heaven around 7:30am. We were staying past all the big 5-star resorts in this beautiful, enormous 2-bedroom cottage looking over the Indian Ocean. From our veranda, we had a view of a lovely, grassy lawn covered in trees and just past it was the idyllic pearly white sand and the crystal clear green/blue sea. The trees were each home to 1 or 2 energetic monkeys, one of whom made its way into our cottage, found our stash of cookies and stole the entire box – which we later found, empty and gnawed, under the tree!

Aside from the VERY persistent beach boys trying to sell us anything under the sun, we enjoyed 2 very relaxing days on the beach, going for long walks, and swimming in the warm Indian Ocean. We stayed in and cooked the first eve, and then went out for a fancy shmancy dinner and drinks at a beach-front restaurant our second night. The only negative part about the cottage was the salt water that flowed from the kitchen and bathroom taps, as well as the shower...
Our final day, Sunday, was a little rough as we had to be out of the cottages by 9:30am and head into Mombasa to buy our evening bus tickets home. It was so incredibly hot and humid, I think we all feared dying of heat stroke. However, we did visit Fort Jesus, which was built by the Portugese in the late 1500s to serve as protection for Mombasa Island and walked around the Old City. Mombasa is heavily populated by Muslims, so most of the women we saw were in burquas and there were temples everywhere. We filled the rest of the day by falling asleep laying on benches by the sea, and then going to dinner in a local shopping complex, where we played cards for 2 hours!

Our bus left at 9pm. We got into Nairobi at 4:30am. We were dropped by a matatu in the nearby town of Kikuyu, and since it was still pitch black out and relatively unsafe to be wandering around, we had to pay a matatu driver about 8 times the normal price to get us closer to home. We completed our journey at 630am after our 30 minute walk home, just in time to see the kids leaving for school. It may have been a long journey, but it was well worth it for a couple of days break in such an idyllic location.

Kibera: Africa's largest slum

On Friday we took a trip into Nairobi to visit Kibera, the largest slum in Africa, home to over 1 million people. Another volunteer had given us the contact of Raphael, a Kenyan who lives in Kibera with his family, and he agreed to show us around the slum.

First, some facts for you about Kibera:

* Kibera accounts for less than 1% of Nairobi's total area (encompassing 2.5 sq km / 1.5 sq miles), yet it holds more than a quarter of its population.

* The average size of each shack is 12ft x 12ft built with mud walls, screened with concrete, a corrugated tin roof, dirt or concrete floor. The cost is about Ksh 700 per Month (£6/$10). These shacks often house up to 8 or more, many sleeping on the floor.

* Only about 20% of Kibera has electricity

* There is an unemployment rate of 50%

* Until recently Kibera had no water and it had to be collected from the Nairobi dam. The dam water is not clean and causes typhoid and cholera. Now there are two mains water pipes into Kibera, one from the municipal council and one from the World Bank. Residents collect water at Ksh 3 per 20 litres.

* There are very few toilet facilities. One latrine (hole in the ground) is shared by up to 50 shacks. Once full, young boys are employed to empty – they take the sludge to the river. UNICEF recently built some more facilities.

* There are no government medical clinics or hospitals.

* At any one time about 50% of 16 to 25 yr old girls in Kibera are pregnant. Most of these pregnancies are unwanted, resulting in many cases of abortion – illegally performed in dirty and unsterile environments.

Our visit to Kibera was certainly eye opening. The first stop on our tour was in a church nearby to Raphael’s home. Raphael, who was living in the slum during the 2007 post-election violence, took note of the many children abandoned and orphaned, and sought shelter and educational opportunities for them. He used the church as a temporary shelter, and has now also begun a pre-primary school for 50 of the neediest children whose families cannot afford the schooling. From there, we walked around two of the nineteen ‘villages’ that make up Kibera. The roads were, well, unbelieveable. They were covered in trash, dirt, grime, feces, and urine. We often had to watch our step as we walked through the alleyways they call roads. The houses were tightly packed together, with huge families squashed tightly into the small one-room shacks. No one but the very ‘wealthiest’ residents have their own latrines, therefore, we witnessed urination and defection in the streets. The smell was unbearable at times, not only from the streets, but also the residents themselves. Bathing is a luxury in a place like this. The little water that each family is able to buy must be used for drinking, cooking, cleaning dishes, cleaning clothes, and bathing – and we are talking about the average family with over 8 children.

When Raphael told us we were heading towards to ‘river’ that runs through Kibera, it piqued our curiosity, but it certainly didn’t impress us, and looked like no river we had ever seen. This trickle of water that flowed under a somewhat sturdy bridge, acts as the dumping ground for all garbage/rubbish that people bother taking beyond their front door.

There’s really not much more to say. Walking around the streets of Kibera, seeing the mountains of trash strewn everywhere, we had the impression we were at a landfill site, only this was home to over 1 million people.

KCC slum

Last Friday, Simon, Hilary and I took time off from our normal workday to join a group of volunteers working in a slum in the town of Naivasha, about 1 hour North West of here. The KCC slum was established in 1972 as a short term solution to a housing crisis for nearby flower farmers. There are now over 6000 people living in the small, overcrowded area. Many of the houses are just about the size of your bedroom at home (unless you live in NYC!) and house anywhere from 5-10 people. There is no electricity or running water. Most families wash, bathe, drink, and cook with the filthy water from the nearby river.

A group of volunteers were first introduced to the KCC slum just a month or so ago – they were so taken aback by the dire living conditions that they chose to begin a feeding program for the neediest children. A short half mile from the houses, the volunteers were generously given a small piece of land from a local farm owner and have successfully built 3 structures that can be used for classrooms, dining, and kitchen. Most of the work was completed by residents of KCC, as a means to make a small income. The only other work opportunities for these people is working in the nearby farms, which pays only 100shs ($1.30) per day. As the majority of the families cannot afford the school fees, or uniforms for education, most children have received no education. Therefore, the plan for the program is to one day have a functioning and sustainable school, feeding program, and to provide daily clean drinking water. For now, a successful day is one where 70 children can visit, play, and receive free food. The meal takes 2-3 hours to prepare since the water (dirty brown from the river) needs to first be boiled, and then food prepared. The ‘tasty’ concoction is called Uge. It is basically porridge – for those of you in the Dirty Dirty, it looks a bit like mashed grits that somehow turned brown…For most of the children, this one meal is all they will eat for the whole day.

We were invited to the slum, in part, to donate some of our money to the program, but also to visit and play with the children. As soon as we arrived, 70 children came running at us, excitedly shaking our hands and asking the only thing they knew how to say in English, “how arree yoouuuu!?!?” It ended up being quite the fun day. I, of course, was in heaven since I was handed a baby within minutes of arriving and did not put him down until his little brother came to fetch him at the end of the day. There were 5 babies (~ 6 months), all of whom came on the backs of their older sibling (~8 yrs old) because their mothers were either no longer alive or were working the fields. These babies…oh the babies…not one of them had a diaper on. Most did not even have underwear. By the end of the day, ‘my’ baby peed on me twice, and I just considered myself lucky that nothing else happened! It was so sad to see.


Simon spent most of his time with little Simon (about 1 yrs), – in part because he was a cutie and in part because he loved that they both had name tags on that said Simon! LOL. Near the end of the day, little Simon squirmed out of big Simon’s arms, and in tears, hobbled over to one of the buildings and sat down. When Simon went to check on him, he found that he had pooped in his over-sized shorts. No underwear. An hour later, he was retrieved by his big brother to be taken home, still in tears, smelling of poop. None of the kids were in good condition – in comparison to the children here at Maddison they looked malnourished, dirty and overall unhealthy. It was apparent that most of their bellies were filled with worms and fungal infections had caused dry flaky skin all over their faces.

At mealtime, the children are each handed an enormous cup (for their little size) which is then filled to the brim with Uge. Little Simon, had already mastered the use of a big boy cup. For my little one, only a couple months old, I fed him with the same cup. Each time I tipped it towards him, his whole face got lost behind it. But he finished it all. I have never seen a baby eat so much in one sitting. But I’ve also never seen a baby so hungry and malnourished.


All in all, the day was wonderful. It touched our hearts in a different way than the children do here. I can only hope that some of those children will find their way to a home like Maddison, where they will be taken care of, well fed, and educated.