My Office Has No Walls...

...or doors or windows or ceiling, and I like it that way. Before this past Wednesday, it had been well over a month since I spent any significant time in an office, and I think I did more meaningful work during that span than the past eight months I've been in Kenya combined. That is not to say that I haven't been busy and doing work that is meaningful to someone. It's more that the activities and projects I've been involved with over the last month or so (i.e., book-ending my fabulous trip to the US to visit family and celebrate my younger sister's and her husband's wedding) have felt more important in the grand scheme of things and in a selfish way, have been more personally gratifying to be part of. Some details...

At the beginning of August, just before the Peace Corps Permaculture Workshop which was held near-abouts my awesome town, a couple volunteer friends came out a few days early to spend some quality time with me (or to explore aforementioned awesome town, but we'll go with to see me, hahaha), and the three of us (Paula, Jonathan, and I) got up early on a Saturday morning to participate in the first of what I hope are many river clean-up days. This particular one was organized by a couple of my friends and colleagues in the Nanyuki River Water Users Association (NRWUA), and we were attempting to clean up a small section of the river between the two bridges in town. When we had arrived, there was already a group of men working to rake garbage into large piles - yes, there was so much that it was easier to rake it than pick it up. Unfortunately the piles were being burned as they were formed, so the benefits of cleaning the soil and water were being lost as plumes of eye-stinging smoke. I started crying, partly because of the unintended pollution, but mostly because of the fumes from burning plastics, paint, and other nasty stuff that I probably would rather not think about were blinding me. Anyway, we snuffed out most of the fires and next time I am going to advocate a non-incineration approach. I have to admit, I used to be a total pyromaniac when I was a teenager and still love to sit around a campfire and watch the flames, but in this particular case, it wasn't much fun.

Anyway, we (a group of about 10 - 20 of us, which varied depending on when you looked) picked up a buttload of trash and the Municipal Council garbage truck came and hauled away all of our numerous piles. When we finished, the section of river that we had cleaned looked pretty smart - that is Kenyan English for "damn fine". Apart from the monster pile of chicken feathers that remained from chicken ku-chinja'ing (ie, slaughtering) that we didn't really know what to do with and somehow were not consumed by fire. Unfortunately my camera is not connecting to the computer so I can't post the pics of fire piles and the before and after pictures of the areas we cleaned, but hopefully I'll make it back to the internet at some point and post them up. So check back in 6 months... hahaha, just kidding... maybe. But I do have pictures of my incredible friends Jonathan and Paula who spent the better part of their day on that Saturday wading through muck, removing a rotting dog carcass from the river (seriously), and picking up/raking up several hundred pounds of trash. THANK YOU GUYS, you are truly awesome for helping out!!! And a HUGE thanks and kudos to the Nanyuki community volunteers and the members of my group who organized and participated in the event. This is just the beginning and we are already arranging for regular clean-up days in the future, and hope to include other groups such as schools and youth groups, among others.















Above left: Jonathan and Paula look up oh-so-briefly for a picture as they work away.
Above right: Picture of our clean-up crew with Jonathan masterfully taking the photo.

Immediately after I returned from the US, I headed off to Embu for our Peace Corps Cross-Sector Workshop, which was focused on integration of HIV/AIDS activities into our daily work activities. Besides spending time with great friends, partaking in several awesome runs with friends on the roads and trails around Embu and stuffing myself with all the free and yummy food I possibly could before going back to my site and my frugal living/eating lifestyle, the workshop turned out to be pretty good and the last full day in particular was a day that I'll remember for the rest of my life.

In the morning we walked over to an orphanage (Toto Love) that is helping young children who are living with HIV/AIDS and had a chance to play with the kids and do a little work to help out where we could - stuff like tilling their small shamba (farm), cleaning the house, and feeding the chickens. But by far the best part was learning about the kids and just spending some time with them - giving them a few hours to forget about all of their struggles and to just have some fun. The amazing ladies who run the home donate their time and money to help support these kids who are all HIV-positive and either lost their parents to HIV/AIDS or have been abandoned. It is not easy for them and you could see the sadness and strain on their faces and in their voices as they told their stories. But outweighing all of that was their conviction to keep going and to make a better life for the children; to make sure that all of the kids go to school, that they get regular meals, take their medicines so they can stay healthy, and to let the kids know there is someone who is watching out for them and loves them regardless of their condition. You can't help but be touched.



As we got ready to go, all of the kids got together and sang us a song to thank us and show us their appreciation for our visit. It's kinda ironic, I was the one that felt like singing my thanks to them... Needless to say, I did not want to leave and I will definitely be returning to visit.

When I returned to Nanyuki from the Peace Corps Cross-Sector Workshop in Embu, I arrived just in time to assist another one of the groups I'm working with (the Likii River Water Users Association) to begin the construction of sanitation facilities that are being sponsored through a generous grant from the United Nations Development Program (UNDP)/COMPACT, which just so happens to be the other organization that I am working with as part of my Peace Corps service. The purpose of constructing these sanitation facilities is to improve the overall water quality of both the Nanyuki and Likii Rivers. Thus, the sanitation facilities are being constructed in "hotspot" areas, especially in/near informal settlement areas (what Western media would refer to as "slum areas") where there are currently limited or no sanitation systems.

As a quick sidebar, I go back and forth on the appropriateness and political-correctness of the use of the term "slum" because it has a very bad connotation and can be taken as pretty derogatory and insensitive. These are people's homes, and when you visit them, they are very basic, but if there is one thing I have learned, it is that Kenyan's spend A LOT of time keeping their homes very clean and do a much better job than I do (and most Americans, for that matter) at keeping things clean. So let's just use the terms "very basic housing" and "informal settlement".

Back to the issue at hand... the first of the sanitation facilities to be constructed was going to be a wash stand and soak pit in the village of Kangaita, which is situated along the Likii River near Nanyuki town. The aim of the wash stands was to allow washing of clothes to be done out of the river and away from the river banks, thus reducing (and eventually eliminating) the large quantity of washing soap that is put into the river, impacting water quality downstream. The wastewater from the wash stands would drain into a lined soak pit (i.e., a simplified septic system) which would allow the water to slowly soak back into the ground where it would be naturally filtered before returning to the water table. The day we began construction (and every day after that), I personally observed at least 15 - 20 women (and some men, but in Kenyan culture, and especially in rural areas, women still do most of the clothes-washing) washing their clothes on the river banks or right in the river.


I was trying to take a picture discreetly of these women washing near the river, but you can tell they are discussing my awful attempt at stealth picture-taking. Nonetheless, this gives you an idea of the behavior we are trying to change.

Obviously, we can build these wonderful facilities and systems, but if no one uses them, it doesn't address the underlying problem. Thus, as part of the construction effort, we encouraged visitors to come check out what we were doing and I personally made a point of talking with anyone who would listen about what we were up to and why as I worked and during my walks through the village when I arrived in the morning, at lunch time, when I left in the evening. This is not really all that difficult when you are a mzungu (i.e., white person) in a very rural village where mzungus normally never venture. The residents of the village were naturally curious why I was there and what the heck I was doing. In fact they were outright shocked to see me hauling heavy bricks, jumping in the pit to hack away at the walls and shovel out dirt, mix and scoop concrete, haul sand and stones, cut rebar, and generally get very dirty and bloody - yes, my hands got torn up like nobody's business, but I was almost happy for it because it earned me an extra level of respect with the guys I was working with and the people in the village. As the silly Equity Bank signs say, "Mimi ni mjitoleaji, na mimi ni Member!" Basically Equity Bank has these goofy signs all over the place showing all these various people from all walks of life that are members of their bank. At one point, someone made a joking reference to those signs and called me a member of Kangaita Village. We all chuckled a bit, but deep down I was pretty proud.

I developed quite a following among the kids too. The normal greeting from a kid to a mzungu is, "How are you!?" usually said very excitedly and with a huge smile. The first week of construction they were all still on their August break, so they hung around the construction site all day. And I put them to work. Actually, I didn't - they WANTED to help with everything, and were kinda a sad when I didn't let them. Obviously I had to be careful because it is a construction site and there a million ways to hurt yourself without even trying, so I was always trying to keep a watchful eye. I have pictures of the children hauling bricks that are almost as big as they are, mixing concrete, and helping in just about every way possible. Unfortunately, my camera is still not working so I'll just post a few of the other children pics that I have and hopefully get some of the action shots up later on.




The top pic is of a wheelbarrow full of helpers. The lower picture was taken during the second week when most of the kids were back at school. This particular group had just arrived back in the village on their lunch break and came to check out what was going on... and to say hi to me, of course! That same day, I walked back through the village for lunch and had about 30 or 40 children tagging along with me and so I decided that it would be fun for all of us to run up the big hill (part of my secret plan to encourage more people to get into running, which isn't as popular in my town as you might think, despite being a perfect place to train because of the cooler weather and high altitude). I think I yelled something to the effect of, "Let's race up the hill!" and immediately the kids all started yelling and I was about 50 feet behind the leaders before I realized what was going on. I think I caught all except a couple of the quickest ones - and then slowed down to let everyone catch up so we could continue on at a moderate pace at the top. All of the grown-ups came out to the main road to see what the commotion was and there was lots of laughing, with us, I think...

Anyway, we are now mostly done with the wash stands and soak pit in Kangaita. We first dug six foot deep and seven foot long/wide hole for the soak pit, put a concrete foundation around the perimeter, and then started lining it with bricks cemented together with concrete. During various stages of drying, we alternated work on that with work on the actual wash stand itself. That consisted of three two foot-deep and four foot-long holes where we poured a concrete foundation, then stacked bricks for support. After that we built a wood frame, constructed the rebar skeleton, and poured a thick concrete slab on top complete with drains and a lip edge to hold the water. We also built a nice frame and rebar skeleton and poured a concrete in to construct the soak pit cover. All that's left is the finishing for the wash stand slab (i.e., sloping the basins to the drain pipes), digging the trench from the wash stand to the soak pit, and laying and connecting up the piping. Oh, and putting up the drying lines as an incentive for people to use the facilities, along with planting some trees around the stands to help shade the washing area. Hopefully by this coming weekend or the weekend after, we'll be having some sort of official ribbon-cutting or opening ceremony and I can drag a load of clothes up there to demonstrate how to use it and how much fun it is.







The top picture is of the wash stand with the wood framing for the top slab. After we constructed and laid the rebar reinforcing skeleton, we poured the slab. The second picture is the slab being poured and smoothed out. The third picture is of the not-quite completed soak pit. Again, hopefully I'll post more pictures of the finished facilities soon! And then we begin construction of additional sanitation facilities in Likii Village, another much larger informal settlement area near Nanyuki town. Because of the various activities that go on in that area, we are planning to build several wash stands, full septic systems to help process wash wastewater as well as waste from the chang'a brewing (a very stinky, black molasses leftover from the brewing process), and long-drop toilets. I better go rest up because it is going to be a lot of work!

Other than that I am good, busy as always, having the usual ups and downs that are part of life (but especially part of Peace Corps life!), horrible at staying in touch (as usual), and for the most part enjoying life in Kenya. And of course missing family and friends back in the US. Hope you are all well and more soon...