On the road again....

So, the rains let up and our plane arrived in Marsabit Saturday morning about 11:30 a.m. - this is Martha coming to tell us the good news.  She was involved with a wedding from her church and looked like so beautiful in her wedding finery that I couldn't resist taking a picture:

This time the plane we were travelling back to Nairobi on was quite small - 5 passengers and the pilot.  Weight was a critical issue, so the pilot had an amazing job to do.  First of all he filled the plane with fuel, then weighed all our luggage, asked us all our weight (I chose to be very honest rather than my usual cutting off a pound or two!), then began to figure out how to distribute everything so that the back end of the plane was not too heavy.  That took us until 1:00 to get sorted out!

The luggage mostly fit in that storage space beneath the plane, except for one suitcase that wouldn't fit - that belonged to the one man on the flight!  I ended up sitting in the very back of the plane.  Jenaya had my camera because I couldn't hold anything on my lap - no extra weight allowed - so these are the pictures she took - beginning with her self-portrait!  We were very, very happy to be finally on our way....

                                                   

These are a couple of shots of the Marsabit mountain - it was quite incredible to see how very green it is.  It hasn't looked like this in 10 years is what we were told.  So I am glad Jenaya felt free to use my camera to capture it!

It was, of course, quite wonderful to arrive in Nairobi and find Arthur here with Tim (who was quite glad to see us arrive with his suitcase of clean clothes!).  Today Art and I had a chance to play tourist, and gave Tim a break from being our tour guide.  The first place we went was to the elephant orphanage.  We saw 18 of the orphaned elephants - we arrived to see them get their 11:00 a.m. feeding.  These animals have all been orphaned for different reasons - sometimes their mothers have been poached for their tusks, sometimes the mothers have died of other means.  But a baby elephant needs its mothers milk for a minimum of two years - without that milk, they will very quickly die.  So this organization called the David Sheldrick wildlife trust has created a haven for these baby elephants.  I now have many, many pictures of elephants - and of Arthur!

This was bringing the elephants to get fed.

Yes - he's in Africa!

 A baby elephant needs to be fed milk for a minimum of 2 1/2 to 3 years.  Then what this organization does is try to re-introduce them into the wild.  A trainer will walk with the elephant out into the forest early in the morning and return with it around supper time.  Out in the forest this elephant will begin to interact with the other elephants who live in the wild - eventually one of the groups of elephants will accept this new elephant into their group. But this process of introducing the orphaned elephant to the a new group could take up to five years.  The trainers might be working with one particular elephant for up to 8 years - it was quite touching watching their interaction with the elephants - clearly they developed personal attachments!

The other place that we went was to the Kenyan Giraffe Centre.  Not as many interesting facts, but some great pictures!

Tomorrow afternoon we will be heading to Longido, Tanzania, to find out more about the work that Sauti Moja Tanzania does.  I have been told that although we will be staying in a very nice guest house there, that we will not have internet.  So my assumption is that it will be a few days before I can post anything again - I may be silent for a bit, but I will be back!  Today I am well aware that it is the first Sunday in Advent - I can't even begin to tell you how far away I feel from Christmas right now!  

Surprise - another day in Marsabit!

I am kind of wishing that I didn't tell anyone that this was going to be adventure - adventures have a way of turning any plans upside down!  This new adventure began when Tim discovered the airplane that was available for today didn't actually have enough seats for all 4 of us to return today, so he began to scramble to find an alternative to get home.  He actually bought a bus ticket, even though the bus trip from here could take 2 days to do what should easily be manageable in one day.  However, late yesterday he was able to make arrangements to go in a 4 wheel drive, smaller vehicle with some workers from one of the NGO's here.  He left at 6:30 this morning, thinking that he might be able to be in Nairobi early this evening.  We just got a cryptic text from him that they were having car troubles, but still expected to be in Nairobi later this evening.  MEANWHILE, back here in Marsabit, Nashapai, Jenaya (2 of the staff from Sauti Moja Tanzania who have been with us for a week) and I were feeling sorry for Tim because of his long trip, fully expecting that we would be on the plane and back in Nairobi by late afternoon today.  At 1:00 we discovered that the weather had been too bad in Nairobi so they couldn't take off after all - the plan is that they will try to get the plane again tomorrow, but there are certainly no guarantees as this is the rainy season.  MEANWHILE,  right now, as I write this, my husband is on the plane from Heathrow airport.  Yesterday when I was in touch with him, I told him - no worries - I will be at the airport to meet you.  Our internet was down all morning, so I couldn't be in touch with him again before he left England.  So, here's hoping he figures out what to do when he walks out into the terminal and there is a taxi driver there with a card with his name on it - welcome to the African reality of trying to make plans!!  At least Tim will be at the guest house in Nairobi sometime tonight so that Art won't be totally on his own for all of tomorrow.  It is a good exercise in learning to be an adult in a situation that is totally beyond our control.  We have shelter, we have food, we have water, we have internet - all will be well!  I do have a few pictures I can show you of some of the people we have spent time with.  Two days ago, we walked out to see a friend of Tim's who has had a home for children in Marsabit for many years.  These children are all orphans, meaning that their fathers are not living, and if their mother is living, she is not able to take care of them.  There are 30 children who sleep at this home, and all of them are in either primary or secondary school.  John, the director of the home, arranged for all of them to gather and pose for a picture:

Last night we were invited to Martha's home for supper.  Martha is the manager of the Child Mother's program, plus she does most of the administration for Sauti Moja Marsabit.  Martha has been in many of the pictures I have taken of child mothers, and of the widows that we have been interviewing.  She has a deep compassion for the beneficiaries of Sauti Moja, and it is clear in watching the conversations that she is deeply respected in this community.  I know that when I picture Marsabit after I have left here, Martha is one of the faces of compassion that I will remember.  I wanted to find some small way to offer her some support, so I decided to "re-gift" her with the prayer shawl that I received from Selkirk United Church.  Often in the evenings while I was writing these posts, I would have the prayer shawl around my shoulders.  It feels very good to be leaving the shawl here - to offer Martha the strength of knowing that there is a community of people across the ocean who will continue to pray for her ministry here.

Another person we spent a fair bit of time with was Philip.  Philip is the project manager for the livestock program - the goats and the donkeys.  Philip came and had a visit with me this morning and talked a bit about his own life story.  When he was young his family couldn't afford to pay for him to go to Secondary School, so he was only able to go up to Class 8.  Eventually he found work as a night watchman which enabled him to begin to save some money.  Once he had saved enough to pay for the school fees, he asked a friend who was a teacher to give him some help to prepare so that he could study enough to write the final exam.  He worked hard and was able to finish Form 4 in 2007 - that is the equivalent of Grade 12 in Canada.  He has now been working on distance education and will soon have his diploma in social service and community development.  Again, I was very touched by his dedication to the work that Sauti Moja does.  He works hard to find the most vulnerable women in the surrounding villages, and treats them with great respect as he works with them to provide the livestock and instruct them in the care needed to ensure they have healthy animals.  I wanted to leave him with some small symbol that would let him know we will continue to pray for him across the ocean, and so I re-gifted him with this rock that I was given by someone from the Sunset congregation.  The rock was given to me before I left Canada, so that when I felt alone or overwhelmed, I could wrap my hand around the rock and know that I had a community of support - that I was not alone.  It felt right and good to leave this Canadian rock with a man who is clearly a rock of support for many who need to know that they are not alone.

Martha and Philip are often the contacts for all the beneficiaries of Sauti Moja who live in very isolated villages in the Marsabit district.  The only way they have of getting out to do those personal visits is on this motorcycle.  Philip usually uses it himself, but if Martha needs to go somewhere, he gives her a ride - side-saddle!  They were very gracious in posing for me, since I told them Canadians would have to see it to believe it!  So, as you get in your cars to go wherever it is you are heading this weekend, please remember these two Kenyans, who are living their faith by reaching out to those who live on the very margins of this society.  My heart has been touched, and my faith has been strengthened by the witness of these two people:

And please - pray for clear skies for Nairobi for tomorrow - I would like to actually spend time with Art for the remainder of my time in Africa!!

Conversations in Goro Rukesa

Today we traveled to a village about a 1/2 hour away: Goro Rukesa.  The road was eroded, the drive was slow, but I must be getting immune to it all - my mind is picturing the green fields along the way rather than focusing on the deeply rutted and rocky road we were driving along.  I am also getting used to the mode of transport here.  We travel in a vehicle that has room for a passenger in the front, and then 4 of us squeeze onto the bench seat in the back - a seat that sits 3 comfortably.  Sitting like sardines certainly cuts down the amount we bounce around - there is nowhere to go when we are squeezed that tight together!  Goro Rukesa is the first community that received livestock from Sauti Moja - that was about 2 or 3 years ago.  What Tim was interested in hearing about this time was how they survived the drought, and how are they feeding their families these days.  Martha and I interviewed two women.  The first was a woman named Kula.

Kula has 6 children to look after and feed.  Her husband left a number of years ago, and she has never heard from him again.  The drought was very difficult - her donkey died, and only 1 goat, and 1 very young goat survived.  Right now, there is lots of water in the water pans nearby, so she has more time to go to the forest to get the wood that she needs to burn charcoal.  She sells the charcoal the easiest during the rainy season because it is cool and the people in town like to burn the charcoal to keep their houses warm.  Right now the price for a bag of charcoal is about 750 - 1000 Kenyan shillings (up to about $11 Canadian).  In the dry season the price goes down to about 500 shillings (about $5).   Although burning charcoal is illegal in Kenya, primarily because of the environmental concerns of cutting down all the trees, for these women there are very few alternatives to make money.  And it is far from easy.

I asked Kula if I could take a picture because I have heard often of the charcoal but have never actually seen it.  Those pieces of wood individually are very light, but the full bag weighs about 40 kg (80 lb or thereabouts).  Since her donkey died, she carries that on her back very long distances.  I helped a tiny bit in transferring it to another bag and my hands were instantly black - heavy and dirty work.

Hopefully there are some Canadians who will go to the Sauti Moja website to look at their Christmas donation page - buying a donkey could make an incredible difference to these women.  If Kula has a donkey to help bring back water from the well during the dry season, it means she might get a day in between trips.  Without the donkey, she has to do the trip every day - leaving home at 6 a.m., walking 3 hours, standing in line, filling her 20 litre can with water, then carrying it home on her back, arriving at home at 6 p.m.  Because of the work that she has to do either hauling water or finding the wood to burn for charcoal, her two eldest children (15 and 10) do not go to school - they stay at home to do chores and to look after the younger children.  Again, it is her faith that gets her through - she told me she wouldn't be here if it weren't for the grace of God.  If God gave her these children, then God will help provide the bread she needs to feed her children.  And she said if she can encourage the younger ones to stay in school, perhaps one day they will be able to look after her and look after themselves.

The other woman we interviewed was a woman named Salo.  She lives alone with her 12 year old daughter, Buke.  Several years ago her husband abandoned her, and went to marry someone else - he has never given them any financial support.  Salo works as a cook at a nursery school, but makes very little money.  She relies on the relief food to feed herself and her daughter.   Tim was telling us today that there has been no relief food delivered to this village for quite some time - the women he was interviewing told him they had been eating leaves off the Shaqeda trees for two weeks.  One of the reasons the trucks have not been delivering food is that the big food relief agencies have not been paying the truckers money in a timely fashion, which means the truckers either get fed up with no payment, or they simply can't afford to operate the trucks - so they simply stop driving.  Salo has lived in this area all of her life, and she has never seen a drought this bad - she said it was very, very hard for all her people.  Her donkey also died, but 3 of her goats survived.  So this tiny little woman will be hauling 20 litres of water on her back once the dry season starts and the water pans near her home dry up.

Even though she is very small in stature, I told her that when I went back to Canada, I would be telling everyone about this very strong woman I met in Goro Rukesa - because clearly, only a very strong woman would have been able to survive the drought like she did.  She found it funny to be described that way, and was quick to say that it is only God who helps her to survive.  I wasn't quick enough with my camera to catch her laughing, but Martha didn't stop laughing as quickly:

As I walked along between the two houses I took a picture of this little girl - I found her very adorable.  But just after I took the picture she ran away crying very loudly.  My guess is she had not seen a white woman very often, if ever.  That has happened several times where very small children are quite frightened of us - perhaps we remind them of ghosts or something!  I didn't get a picture of them, but there were also several older girls who giggled every time I looked their way - just as giggly as I remember little girls being back in Canada!

Hearing the two women today strongly reinforced the incredible gift it is to have a donkey - no wonder they are called a beast of burden - they are fully capable of carrying these very heavy loads that the women have had to carry on their own backs for so many years.  As I look at this donkey, I give thanks for the ways it will help to ease the work-load of whoever it is that owns it.  Before coming here, I would not have necessarily named these animals so clearly as a gift from God.

A relaxed day in Marsabit

We are only going to be in Marsabit for two more full days.  That means Tim has many things to do with his staff and others in the community since he likely won't be back to Marsabit until April or so.  While he was busy today, I took a few pictures to show you where I have been staying.  The first picture is of the Food for the Hungry guest house.  There are several bedrooms, plus a communal kitchen where we can make our own meals, and a bathroom which has a flush toilet and showers - living in the lap of luxury! 

My bedroom is that first one you see on the left as you look towards the building.  Behind those trees, there is a lovely courtyard area with some flowers, and a table and chairs.  Here is a view of the courtyard through the door of my bedroom:

Tim has been coming to Marsabit for 13 years, working in a wide variety of projects.  He has come to know many of the people here quite well.   We have been in Marsabit close to 3 weeks, and each week there have been more and more people popping by to visit him.  Often we sit out there at that table and have conversations about family and friends, about the drought, about the rains, about the horrendous roads - it has been a place where I have certainly learned many things about daily life here in Marsabit.  I have also listened to the dreams of several people who long to see an improved quality of life for the people of the Marsabit district.  As you look from the guest house towards the road, you will see the rather large generator. Electricity seems to go off often in the Town of Marsabit, and the generator has been MUCH appreciated.  Beside it is the little shelter for the guards - there is a guard present all the time.  The most they have been called on to do while I have been here is to kill a snake in the bathroom one evening - he just took his stick in and quickly cut off the head - it was very fast.  I don't think it was a poisonous snake, but I was glad he was here to deal with it!

When you walk through the gate beside the guard's shelter, you cross the road, walk over a little grassy patch, and you will arrive at the Sauti Moja Office.

Sauti Moja is hoping to buy a vehicle in the next few months - it would be a HUGE help in the work that they do to have their own transportation.  At the moment all that they have is this motorcyle - here they call it a "piki" - not sure of that spelling!  When I first arrived here Tim said if I was going to be hurt here it would be because I had been hit by a piki.  There are many young men who drive their piki's much, much too fast through these narrow little streets.  They honk their horns, but don't slow down much, and you are expected to jump out of the way.  This piki that is owned by Sauti Moja is driven by Phillip.  Phillip is the project manager of the livestock program for Sauti Moja Marsabit.  If Martha (the project manager for the Child Mother program) needs to go anywhere, she gets a ride from Phillip on this piki.  Martha, like most women here, always wears a long skirt, which means she rides on this side-saddle.  That is not bad when it is around town. But if she needs to go somewhere out in the country, on these very bumpy roads, I imagine it would be a very uncomfortable ride.  What she really would like to have some day is a scooter type vehicle that she would easily drive herself even while wearing a skirt - it would make her job much easier if she had the freedom to drive herself to wherever it is that she needs to go.  One of those scooters would cost about $1600.00.  If anyone feels so inclined, donations would always be most gratefully received towards the purchase of a scooter for Martha!

Just outside the gate of our compound, and before you walk across to Sauti Moja, is the road towards town. This is the road we walk down every day on our way through the market to get our lunch.  When the rains were here, this road was a mess of mud and was quite slippery.  Now that it hasn't rained for a few days, it is quite dry and easy to walk on.  Just at the end of that road, you would take a right turn and head towards the business section of Marsabit.

Everywhere we walk in Marsabit, we are kind of obvious - definitely foreigners.  Little kids from all directions will call out "How are you?  How are you?"  It is often the only English phrase that some of these kids know, and they never seem to tire of calling it out to us as we go by.  Yesterday Tim and I went for a walk and along the way stopped in to see Phillip (project manager) and his wife Rosemary.  They have a lovely little home, and it was very good to sit and visit with them for awhile.  

The other picture I took along the way yesterday was of these two girls.  The older girl was braiding the younger girl's hair.  It was a great image and I couldn't resist taking their picture:

I can't believe my time in Marsabit is almost over.  It has been an incredible three weeks - I feel very blessed to be here, and I am glad to give you a little glimpse of the place where I have been staying.  Tomorrow we are heading out to another village that I have not yet visited, so I would imagine I will have a few more stories to share!

A community conversation in Logologo

One of the main purposes for our trip to Logologo was to take part in one of the community conversations.  Even though the wedding meant that it didn't happen on the Saturday afternoon, eventually people trickled in and the conversation began on the Sunday morning - only about an hour after when we expected it might start!  Let me begin by giving you a little background about these community conversations.  Sauti Moja has developed this innovative approach to both prevent and to strategize ways to care for those living with HIV/AIDS.  It begins with a year long process of monthly meetings with a core group of leaders who have been identified by their communities.  Over the year they develop a relationship with each other, and begin to identify what the issues might be in terms of the disease and the impact on their communities.  Once they have worked on educating themselves and each other about the issues involved, then they can begin to develop some action plans for prevention, testing, treatment and care.  It is very important that this phase not be rushed so that they can get to the core of what the issues are and not just come up with "band-aid" type solutions - the hope is that they will initiate plans that lead to social change - plans that will have a long-lasting effect for the health of their communities, and the families living in those communities.  So, this group in Logologo has just been meeting for a few months now - they are very much in the beginning phase.  Here is a picture of part of the group who were were there:

Part of the challenge of these conversations is to create an environment where all who are there feel free to speak their minds.  For those of us from the Western world, it is easy to take for granted the freedom of speech that we enjoy.  For these cultures here in Kenya, it is sometimes difficult for women to have the courage to speak their minds - especially women from the more traditional communities where perhaps they haven't had the opportunity for education.  This group appeared to have a pretty good cross-section of representatives among the women.  Here is one of the women who appeared to be a little more vocal than some of the others:

The whole conversation was done in Swahili - translated into Rendille for a couple of the people there who didn't speak any Swahili.  Tim told them there was no need to translate into English since this was their process and really wasn't about us at all.  What that meant was there was much opportunity to observe the patterns of who was speaking the most.  When I was studying for ministry, we used to draw maps of the patterns of conversation - you can generally track who has the most power and the most influence in the group by who is doing the most speaking, and watching who it is they are directing most of their conversation to.  So, part way through the time, Tim stood to say that even though he couldn't understand what they were saying, he had noticed that every man in the circle had spoken at least once, but that some of the women had not spoken at all.  He said that he wanted to make sure that it was an equal conversation, and that the women knew that their opinions were very important - he encouraged the women to speak up a little more.  It was soon after that that we noticed this group of women beginning to speak a little bit more:

One of the things that was encouraging was that some of the younger women were actually being very honest in the conversation, even in the presence of two of the older men in the group.  Traditionally, older men do not show any interest in whatever it is that a younger woman has to say.  But these men appeared to genuinely consider what it was that was being said by the women in the group.  

There were times the conversation was very animated - particularly when the women started to speak their minds.  The conversation was focused around polygamy, which is generally an accepted practice in this culture.  However, it is clearly one of the ways that HIV/AIDS can be spread.  And so they were debating the pros and cons of such a practice.  I will leave it to you to consider who would be speaking up in favour of polygamy!  This particular conversation lasted for about an hour and a half.  The group was made up of 2 or 3 representatives from the various sub-villages around Logologo - some of them had walked 10 km in order to be there for the meeting!  After we left, 6 of them would be staying for some facilitator training.  Nashipai is a Massai woman from Tanzania, and is on staff with Sauti Moja.  She has been involved with the community conversations in Tanzania for about 5 years.  So she stayed in Logologo to do the training for 3 days - giving them training in facilitating 12 sessions for these community conversations.  They will continue to be part of the larger group in the initial picture I showed you.  However, with the extra training they have received, they may be able to eventually initiate these community conversations in their own villages. After a year of these conversations, once all 12 sessions have happened, they will begin to identify some of the micro projects that they could start in their own communities.  Some examples of these micro-projects might be to support a counselling centre for women about the disease, its treatment, and care for those infected; or perhaps some trained male youth might begin an education program about condom use and behaviour change; or perhaps there might be some education provided around migrant workers - for those young watchmen who work in Nairobi for long periods, encouraging them to adopt sexual practices that will avoid infecting those who live at home.  It is up to the group to come up with their own projects, and Sauti Moja will provide the financial and technical support for developing these micro-projects.  This community-based cycle never ends, as they continue to identify emerging issues and reflect on any achievements they have made.  Here is a picture of Nashipai standing beside the dining facility at the women's centre:

Nashapai will return to Marsabit on Thursday so that she can fly back to Nairobi with us on Friday.  It will be very interesting to hear from her how the training sessions went.  It is an encouraging sign to see these communities involved and engaged in the work of building safe and healthy living situations for their own people.

A walk in Logologo

This past weekend we traveled once more to Logologo - the Rendille village that we visited with Karen and Lourne (Tim's relatives) 2 weeks ago.  You may remember the pictures of the road and the immense difficulty of mud and pot-holes.  We have had more sun than rain in the last few days, so the road has dried out and is quite passable now - no vehicles were stuck along the way.  However, the severe erosion and the pot-holes continue to make the trip extremely bumpy and slow - we likely averaged 30 km/hr instead of the 15 km/hour of 2 weeks ago!  Perhaps because I wasn't looking down at the mud so much this time, I was able to watch the scenery a lot more.  It was much more obvious to me this time that we were driving around the Marsabit mountain, and down onto the lowlands, which is where Logologo is.  It was also clear to me how dazed I was at everything I was seeing 2 weeks ago.  It felt good this time to feel like my head was not up in the clouds somewhere.   At a few points along the way to Logologo, we saw large groups of baboons on the road.  Being the Canadian that I am, I was thinking it would be great to get pictures, but the driver never did slow down - here they are just rather large pests and not seen as photo ops!  Once again we stayed at the Isogargaro women's centre.  This organization hosts many of the NGO's who come to Logologo, and is quite a comfortable place to stay.  Logologo is very rural - the residence we stay in is a traditional Rendille home.  It is very much liking camping - just up off the ground.  The bathroom is the one where you are in an outhouse, but just squatting over a hole - rather rustic!  One of the services they offer is a school for those who have to shepherd their animals all day long, but who come back at night so that they are able to take some classes.  Here is their classroom:

We arrived in Logologo thinking that we were going to have a meeting with some of the people from the community. However, most of those people were involved in a local wedding.  The pastor who was officiating at the wedding was at least 2 hours late - that is quite often the norm for events here in Africa!  Hour long sermons, and 2 hours late for weddings - I hope I can remember the Canadian way when I return to work in January!  However, for we Westerners it was a little bit frustrating.  Basically we sat and played cards most of that afternoon as the wedding ended up going into the supper hour and our meeting never did happen that day.  However, we did go for a little walk, and came across this group of women in traditional dress heading towards the wedding.  I tried to be discreet in taking a picture - I don't do discreet very well - but hopefully it will give you a sense of how very colorful they were:

For me, one of the highlights was going for a walk through the field that evening as we went to meet one of the child mothers who has been recommended to Sauti Moja for sponsoring.  As we walked along, the sun was just beginning to set, and the animals were being brought back to the village for the night.  Because of all the rain lately, the field was covered in small flowers and lots of greenery for the animals to graze on along the way.

This is the group of us who were visiting.  Two of the staff from Sauti Moja Tanzania are here to do some work.  The male Kenyan who is walking with us is our driver for this trip.

 The sun was just going down - it was quite a peaceful time to be out walking - and a relief to feel a bit cooler after the extreme heat of the day.

 This was such a lovely picture of Africa - watching this woman walk across the field towards her home in the setting sun...

 All around us the animal herds were heading towards their homes for the night.  The sound of bells on the necks of the goats was all around us. In the distance we could hear some people singing.  Occasionally there was the braying of a donkey.  It was while we were walking through these fields that I got this almost surreal feeling - Holy Hannah - I'm in Africa!  Somehow I just couldn't stop grinning at it all.  It was most definitely a walk that will stay with me when I am back in the deep freeze of Saskatchewan and wondering just what this trip was all about - it will be one of the places I return to in my mind when I need to re-connect with Africa.

 I will leave you with this picture of this child mother with Tim.  She was dressed in her finery from attending the wedding in the village that afternoon.  She and Tim had a good visit - it was an upbeat way to end our day of sitting and waiting.  In Africa, very little is done in a hurry - it's both good and somewhat frustrating to let go of our time-driven agenda, and to learn to just sit and wait - all will be well - even if it is not in a hurry!