Getting into February

Rebecca and I with the morning computer class
Kwacha Afrika's drama on HIV/AIDS stima
The Chief's Office
Mike getting a lift from Melissa to Kwacha Afrika

We finished the computer classes on Saturday with great improvement on everyone's part. It was interesting to teach the Internet session, since the computer we had for our theory class did not have access. In order to educate our students on what web pages and search bars were, we had to take them to the nearest Internet Cafe and crowd 18 people around 1 computer in a small and stuffy room while Melissa explained how to make an email account.

We only had one day off, so we went to the beach and relaxed with Charles, a member of Kwacha Afrika. He explained to me that beautiful women's thighs are called Thailand, which I found hysterical. The best part was he was dead serious. Also we attended a Swahili drama put on by Kwacha Afrika about HIV/AIDS stigma. Although we could not understand what was being said, the acting was terrific, much better than most performances (even professional performances) I've seen in recent years. Good job Kwacha!

This week we have been holding many meetings in preparation for the Career Fair, gender equity and leadership workshop next week, as well as the matatu workshop we began conducting today. The topics covered, as mentioned in the previous blog, are gender issues, HIV/AIDS stigma, and drug use. Matatu drivers are a marginalized group in society and are at high risk of contracting HIV/AIDS and using drugs, which is why we are conducting this 3 day workshop with them. Also yesterday Melissa, Rebecca, and I met the tribal chief of the area in a meeting aimed to mobilize 300 youth for the career fair, one could tell he had a lot of power and responsibilty by the large amount of paperwork and the confidence he carried himself with. All he did was make 2 phone calls and afterwards said it would be done. Wow.

Some people have been asking me to describe my living conditions. I live in a medium standard neighbourhood known as Mtopanga along with Rebecca, Melissa, and Mike (who had to join us since his last house had bedbugs). The Somalian family living next to mine has a goat that gets very annoying, but is also very cute so we deal with it. The family we live with, the Kalu's, are extremely nice and accomodating, Mr. Kalu and I have already had many deep conversations comparing Canada and Kenya. Mrs. Kalu is obsessed with a CD of a Swahili artist that she listens to 1 or 2 times each night. The tempo in all the songs is the same, so it sounds like 40 minutes of the same song. Josephat (their nephew) joins us after his electrician college each evening, he is quiet but very funny whenever speaks. Michael, the son of the family and also a peer educator at Kwacha, joins us each evening for dinner; he invites us over to his house every so often to watch movies like Superbad, Pineapple Express, and the Hangover, he has a great sense of humour. I look forward each night to being in their company.

The water at the house has not been running for the last 2 years due to the 2-year drought the northern part of Kenya has been experiencing (Africa, although it contributes the least to pollution on a global scale (2%), feels the worst effects of climate change). Although it has been inconvenient here, I can't imagine how bad it must be where the drought is actually occuring. Daily, I believe I use approximately 30-40L of water for bathing, drinking, brushing my teeth, and flushing the toilet. In contrast, the average Canadian uses approximately 540-560L of water every day for the same tasks. In order to get water in the bathroom one has to carry water from the trickling tap in the front of the house to buckets kept inside. To flush the toilet we have to lift the top of the toilet where the water is usually held, and pour water in there until it is the certain height required to flush it. I'll take a picture and put it on the next blog to show everyone more accurately what the washroom looks like, it's hard to describe. My house is surrounded by a wall/fence, I'm using this description because the fence has pieces of tin attached to it to create some sort of privacy barrier between us and the neighbours. My living room and dining room is the same room, most of the chairs have cushions but one couch does not. The TV has 3 or 4 channels, but only one is in English. My bedroom, which I share with Michael, only has one place to hang clothes and no shelves, so any belongings we have are stored at the bottom of the "wardrobe," tucked underneath the bed or scattered/piled on the floor or in corners. Much like my room at home really. We have one fan for the night but it makes a cracking noise when it revolves so Mike and I take turns having the fan for the night. The girls room is next to ours and I believe they have a bit more storage space than us. There actually is no glass in the windows, to have limited access to air would be suicidal in this heat (literally, I mean you would die from the heat).

My meals at home are fairly simple and routine. For breakfast it is always 2 pieces of white bread with margarine and plum jam, one egg (which was a recent installment), tea, multivitamin pills and malaria pills. For dinner we have either rice or noodles with beef stew (stay away from the beef), or beans and chapati. Always there is fresh mango and bananas. For lunch I buy spiced rice and passionfruit juice. Simple simple simple.

Take care everyone!