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...

A Great Way to Spend a Saturday Morning

Time is going by so quickly here. It's been another 5 or 6 weeks since I last posted anything on my blog. I can't even remember what all has happened since the beginning/middle of May, so I'll just selectively skip A LOT of things. In fact, I'm just going to skip everything except the marathon which I ran yesterday...

The last time I wrote, I was in the middle (closer to the end, actually) of training for the Safaricom Marathon. It's a very unique race, run on dirt paths through a wildlife conservancy at an elevation of over 5,000 ft, where there is less air to breathe. My friend Erin had mentioned it to me way back at the beginning of the year, and I immediately said yes. I procrastinated in registering, much as I procrastinate in a lot of things (ahem, letter-writing), but Erin kept on me and I managed to get in before the race closed at 1,000 people. I've been running all over Nanyuki since I got here, but especially the last several months as I've been upping my mileage to make sure I could complete 26.2 miles (42 kms). It was Erin's first marathon, and I promised her that I would run it with her. Unfortunately, she got injured about a month beforehand, sadly just after she had completed a long, long run that would have allowed her to make the full distance on race day. So plans changed a bit and Erin decided to run the half-marathon, without having run for a full month (amazing!), and made me promise that I'd still run the second half - the way this race is set up, it's two loops around for the full, which makes it easy to host a half and a full.

Yesterday (Saturday the 28th) was the race. We spent the last few days before that race chowing down on nyama choma, ugali, pasta, and the incredible array of treats sent in various care packages (thanks again, family & friends!), and working very, very hard on all of our Peace Corps projects, of course. We headed up to LEWA on Friday for the pre-race meeting and to pick up our numbers so we wouldn't have to worry about that on race morning. We got up around 4 am, and my usual pre-marathon routine is to take a long, hot shower which is an easy way to warm up your muscles. Unfortunately, we had no running water and no electricity, so that was out. The backup was hot bucket baths - not quite the same, but worked ok I guess. It's always difficult for me to eat the morning of a race because I'm so excited; I just want to get going. Nonetheless both of us managed to cram down something small before we took off. We stumbled outside in the darkness (literally, we couldn't see a damn thing except whatever was illuminated by my cell phone light) to the gate of the compound, and caught our ride to LEWA just as the sun was coming up.







It was pretty frigid out when we arrived, but by the time the race started at 7:15, it was already warming up. Erin and I met up with two other Peace Corps Volunteers, Matt and Alyssa, who had gotten up even earlier than we did to make the trek all the way from Meru. They are also runners and had come with a group of professional runners that they run with on the eastern side of Mt. Kenya to cheer all of us on. As we were coming in, hundreds of Kenyans that live in the area were walking in (and walking 7 km after they arrive at the gate!) just to get a glimpse of the race. The scenery is absolutely spectacular, just like the wildlife scenes you see in Africa back in the US. It's almost surreal to be standing in the middle of it. The photos here give you some idea, but they really don't do the place justice. In fact, the scenery almost makes you forget how hot and hilly it is... almost!

Besides Pikes Peak, this is definitely the hilliest marathon course I've ever run. And I think it was even a little warmer than the unusually hot day in Boston when I ran that oh so many years ago now - damn, I'm getting old! I'll let the pictures do all of the talking. You can see from the smiles on Erin's and my faces, that we were having a GREAT time during the race. It was tough, but if you are pushing yourself, all races are that way. The fact that Erin RAN almost the entire half marathon without having run for the previous month inspired me to give the second half of the race as much effort as I could. I'll re-edit this post hopefully during the week to give more details of the race itself, but I am running out of time...

This was marathon #9 for me, and I'll always remember it for running the first half with a good friend, running in a beautiful location, and as my first (but certainly not last!) marathon in Africa. Next up is the Nairobi Marathon at the end of October, and my goal is to finally go under 2:40, which means a lot of miles, hills, and speedwork before then. I'm going to try recruit a bunch of other Peace Corps Volunteers and Kenyan friends to join me and make a little party of it. So if you are reading this and interested, drop me a line... or I will soon be dropping you one! And THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU to all of you who sent well-wishes this past week, much appreciated.

Otherwise doing fine, work is busy, and I'm managing to keep myself out of trouble... for the most part, kind of. As I told a friend recently, my problems are good problems to have - if that makes any sense. Outta time for today, so more next week (hopefully).

More About Why I Am Here

A picture is worth a thousand words. By conventional wisdom then, these two pictures are worth double that. What if I told you that over 100,000 people depend on these two rivers (the Nanyuki River on the top/left and the Likii River on the bottom/right) to providing water for domestic use (e.g., drinking, cooking, bathing), irrigation (i.e., farming), and livestock watering? What would you say? I would ask, "HOW?!?" In a nutshell, that is the main issue I'm helping my organizations to deal with here in Kenya. This is not a localized problem either. Most of the country is classified as "arid" or "semi-arid", basically meaning there is very little rainfall. Exacerbating this problem is that there exists very little in terms of water infrastructure both locally and throughout the country. When it does rain, there are generally not systems in place to catch that water for later use, whether it is dams/reservoirs or gutters on individual roofs that drain into a tank. In addition, there's not a lot of storage capacity - by individuals/families, communities/municipalities, or larger entities. As of right now, water, especially that coming from rivers, is not shared equitably among all users (i.e., among users at the source to those all the way downstream). Those upstream take what they need and those downstream in the very dry areas get whatever is left, which may not be anything for months at a time. This invariably leads to conflict between groups of users in different geographical locations, and I've seen demonstrations in my own town and heard stories of water intakes being smashed so that water will be allowed to flow downstream.

In addition to basic human needs (drinking, cooking, sanitation), water is also the lifeblood of the local economy. I am not certain of the exact number, but I would guess that well over half of the people in my area are dependent upon horticulture (e.g., growing corn, beans, veges, flowers) for their economic livelihoods either by working at a large operation or maintaining their own shamba (farm) from which they also feed their own family. When there isn't a semi-reliable source of water, either through rainfall or irrigation water from the rivers), a very large number of people endure incredible economic hardship. I'm not talking about having to put off that vacation to Europe or not going out to eat but once a month - I am talking about the difference between eating and not eating on a given day or for several days at a time.

I took the two pictures above about a month and a half ago at the end of March, which was supposed to be the end of our dry season here on the Western slopes of Mt. Kenya. Since that time, we've had very little rainfall, with most of it falling on the mountain proper. Some of that rainfall has made it into the rivers. At one point the rivers "filled" enough that one could barely make out the maze of rocks in the riverbed, but over the last week, the rivers have been looking like the pictures above. Last night, the water in my tap at home ran dry. I should have seen it coming because I walk across both rivers on a daily basis and I saw them dwindling down to nothingness. But I still had water in my tap, so I didn't really think about it. Then all of a sudden I didn't and all of the problems from February and March came right back. During parts of those months, I was ill-prepared for water shortages and sometimes didn't know if I was going to have enough water to last me the day or where I was going to get my water once it ran out. Check that, I did know where I would get my water - a two-mile round trip to the river to scoop it out into a large jug and then haul the full, heavy jug uphill home. Each trip took well over an hour and it was exhausting. And that is coming from someone who runs marathons up mountains. Luckily this time I have about 100 liters of water stored as backup and a full 10 liters of treated drinking water. But I don't know when the water is going to come back, so I'm being very cautious. I flushed the toilet one last time, and it won't get used again until the water comes back (at four liters/flush, that is very wasteful). I skipped laundry day today and since most everything passed the sniff test, I'm probably good until the end of this week. I swept out my rooms, but didn't mop or wipe down walls, windows, or furniture. I went for a run this morning, but did not shower afterwards (eeewwwww!). Instead I poured a cup of water over my head and did a quick wipe/rinse of the worst areas. I will take a bucket bath this evening, but it will be a half-bucket max.

The water won't come back for good until the river level comes up a bit. I heard a crackle of thunder earlier, but I look outside now and it is a not-so-beautiful clear blue sky. But I am one of the lucky ones. Most of my friends don't have water storage at their houses. I know because when I was hauling all of my mtungis (20-liter plastic jugs) home from town, they asked what I needed all of those jugs for. I explained and urged them to get backup as well, but most of my friends can't even afford a single mtungi. Most of them are forced to choose between that or giving up dinner for a week (or two). It's really not a choice.

Water pollution is also a HUGE issue. There are several informal settlements (pc term for "slum") neighboring the main part of town, and I've had a chance to walk through all of these now. In most of the informal settlements, you can see people washing their clothes directly in the river, leaving lots of soap water to continue downstream. In one particular informal settlement, there is also a lot of illegal brewing of alcohol that goes on and the waste sludge is dumped directly into the river, just upstream from where women and children are fetching water for drinking and cooking. The black sludge in the following picture is one location where we noted the "chang'a" waste being dumped into the Likii River.


So, what am I/we (that is, my community with any assistance I may be able to offer) DOING about this?!? Well, first of all, there are a lot of people that genuinely want to do something to improve the situation (including me), and that in and of itself is a huge step. I am beginning to understand what all of the issues are, who the key players are, what the possibilities are, and where some of the roadblocks may lie. As GI Joe says, "and knowing is half the battle!". That's only half right, although not bad for an 80's cartoon character. In developing countries, you can know what to do, have a group of people committed, and even have a great plan and be fully funded, and then things will fall apart. I guess that happens in America too, so I shouldn't be so critical. Implementation is a huge issue, nonetheless. Obviously dams and reservoirs to catch and store the water that falls during the rainy seasons would be ideal. But those take a long time to build, are expensive, and a lot of hurdles have to be cleared before construction can even begin. There are plans in the works for dams, but they will not help in the short term. The main things that I am working on with my organizations are education and awareness raising (showing why it is important to conserve water and how to do it!), developing small scale storage such as community water tanks, pans, and outfitting homes and institutions with rainwater collection systems, and trying to increase efficient water use for farming (e.g., drip irrigation and conservation agriculture, where applicable), and helping to develop water rationing programs. In the African context, water ration Water rationing means specific groups (e.g., community intakes) get NO WATER, sometimes for very extended periods of time, not that there are restrictions on when can wash your car or water your lawn. As a small business volunteer, I'm also trying to help ensure that the community-based organization that I'm working with are operating efficiently and going to be financially self-sustaining long after I leave. I'm running out of time to go into details, but that's at least a general overview.

Whew! That was a lot of serious stuff! But it gives you a little more insight into some of the challenges that people face here on pretty much a daily basis, and why I'm so happy to be here doing what I'm doing. Because water is such a large issue here, and there is so much work to be done at each of my three primary organizations where I work, I haven't had much of a chance to get involved in "secondary projects". Through secondary projects, Peace Corps volunteers help address other needs/issues in the community based on the community's needs/wants (as opposed to forcing on the community what a volunteer THINKs they need or want), the volunteers skills, and available time. I've been involved in a handful of community events (the Community Forest Association Walk, for example), but otherwise, I've been integrating into the community and discovering what issues are important to people here and learning what is being done already, who is doing it, and where I might be able to fit in. Hopefully I'll find some time soon to post again and float some of these issues and ideas I have to assist.

It is nearly impossible for me to write a blog post without a little bit of humor in it, and if you've read everything up to this point, you're pretty deserving of a "treat." So hear goes. Last night I was doing some cleaning/redding up in advance of my usual Sunday morning chores, and I decided I would throw out my trash and food scraps from the week. Of course it's not quite like the US where you throw your stuff in a dumpster or take it out to the street and it magically disappears. Most people here have their own trash pit (i.e., a mini-landfill) somewhere on their property if they are fairly well-off, otherwise it just gets thrown out the window/door (literally). An out-of-sight (for now), out-of-mind approach. Most people with a dump pit burn everything in the pit once every couple weeks, and even after that, it is still a disgusting mess. It makes you think twice about buying packaged stuff. I generate just a little bag of trash (the size of a small US-size grocery bag) every two or three weeks, and I still feel bad about that. I may have mentioned before that the white geese that live on the property go absolutely nuts when they see me emerge from my rooms with a little container of food scraps and/or a bag of trash. They squack and come running like the wind - they would give Usain Bolt a run for his money over 20 meters. But there is a fence between them and the dump pit that they usually can't quite manage to get over. Last night, for some reason, the fence was being worked on and some of the horizontal slats were missing. Only one of the geese spotted me, but he came flying over in a hurry when he saw me dump a bunch of crap in the pit. It was quite a sight - he hopped over the one remaining fence slat while waddling at full speed (wings are clipped so he can't fly) and then threw himself head first into the trash pit to get at the banana peels, avocado rind, stale bread, and whatever other goodies were in there. I'm sure the banana peels were not good for him as he was swallowing them WHOLE, but when I tried to pick them up, he pecked me repeatedly, so I just let him be. Here is a picture of my friend looking up at me and warning me not to come any closer:

I have not seen this guy today anywhere, so I'm hoping he didn't gorge himself to death on banana peels. Hopefully I'll be a little more regular about posting, but for now, that's about it. Happy Mother's Day Mom and to all the other Mom's out there who may happen to read this!!!

A Completely Random Collection of Stories, With Pictures!

Wow, so it's been well over a month since I've posted anything here. To sum it up briefly, I've been slightly "distracted" and then was off in Nairobi for two weeks in mid-April for Peace Corps In-Service-Training. You would think I would have a lot to write about, but now that I'm sitting here, I can't think of a single thing.

I am attempting to get into marathon-running shape to run a nearby marathon at the end of June, but work is kinda killing me on that front. It's not smart to try to run in the dark (from 7 pm to 6 am) because it is absolutely pitch black outside (great for stargazing!) and I'm not the most coordinated person in the world and would probably trip and kill myself. Plus, there are others out who would probably like to relieve me of anything I might be carrying, including shoes, glasses, clothes - anything that is not physically attached to my body. So I try to run in the daylight, and with a long walk to and from work some days, it's not always easy/possible to squeeze that in. But I've started doing what I used to do in California and run home from work some days. Since I lived pretty far away from home previously (Emeryville to Lafayette was 15 miles taking back roads over the Berkeley hills), I usually didn't have the time to run the whole way home, and did about 11-12 miles and hopped on BART either in Rockridge or Orinda, for those of you who know where those stations are. Yes, I probably grossed a lot of people out by getting on the train smelling like a bed of roses (freshly fertilized with a bag of poop, that is), but the train was usually pretty empty by 7 or 8 pm and most people just wondered what the heck I was doing, but never asked.

Anyway, that was a long side-bar. What I meant to say was that I'm running home from my faraway work location higher up in the hills toward Mt. Kenya, and that it is a pretty spectacular run home. I'm going to try to post a picture here of what it looks like at the one place I work where I start this run:

This view is from my desk in one of the "offices" at which I work. I use the quotes because it's really just a room with a desk and a shelf in it, which is really all that I need. Yes, sometimes it is hard to work because all I want to do is go climb the mountain - volcano, actually. But I'll get to the top soon enough, and then probably about 4 or 5 more times before I eventually return to the US. Out of all of the beautiful locations I could have been placed in Kenya, I think I'm in the most beautiful of all. I still have some coast-envy, but looking up at the mountain every day is a pretty spectacular treat. I am smart enough to know to not to take this for granted.

Let's see, what else... I got together with the other 34 volunteers in my group (really incredible people, all of them) in Nairobi a couple weeks ago, and while I was there, I stuffed my face like I've never stuffed my face before. I think I had lost some serious weight since arriving in Kenya, and I did my best to put all of it back on over those two weeks with the free food. And I wasn't alone. One night I had just sat down to eat with my buddy Chris and we both looked over to the table next to us and saw this massive plate of food. Seriously, it was one of the biggest plates of food I have ever seen in my life. We both kinda looked at each other and mumbled "Holy Shit!", and then impatiently waited to see who was going to sit down in front of it. It was a solid three or four minutes of suspense and it turned out to be one of the thinner guys in the group. Needless to say we were both very shocked and then completely impressed when he finished every niblet of food on the plate.

This blog post has absolutely no theme or direction to it whatsoever, so I'm going to throw this bad-boy from 3rd gear into reverse and see what happens. My town... I realized I haven't posted too many pictures at all here, and most of you have no conception of what my town looks like, so I'm going to post a few pics. It's very difficult to take pictures in town, because I don't want to be seen with a camera and treated as a tourist. So I try to be very discrete. These are all from the same vantage point on the third floor (strangely called the 2nd floor by everyone, which always messes me up, the ground floor is "zero", not "one") at another one of the offices where I work, in town proper.

This is kind of a panoramic set of shots, the first is almost looking eastward toward Mt. Kenya from town, the second is looking directly into the heart of town in a southerly direction, and the third is looking mostly westward toward the US, which is waaaaaaaaaaaaay off in the distance, although the curvature of the Earth and the downtown buildings are blocking the view... but I know it's there.
Also, I think I took these very, very early in the morning one day, so there aren't very many people or vehicles on the streets. Usually the streets are a mass of humanity - people moving every which way and vehicles weaving all over beeping for the pedestrians to get out of their way. It is quite a site.
It's like being in a very busy part of a major downtown area in the US - always something going on and you could spend hours just hanging out people-watching. In the middle picture, off to the right side is the matatu stand, which is basically the public transport hub for the town. I am probably not being culturally sensitive here, but it is more-or-less an insane bus station. I only say that because, as a muzungu (foreigner), the minute you go in, you get mobbed by people asking where you are going and trying to convince you to go in their matutu (van) wherever they happen to be going. But like any other situation , you just gotta be firm (and polite when possible), keep an eye on your stuff, and it's pretty easy to navigate around. Most people are very helpful and will walk you to the place you need to be to catch a shuttle where you're going. One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the kindness that most total strangers show here. Yes, some are just after money or other material goods, but most just want to say "hello" and I really try to not have my guard up so much that I am going to offend the majority of people who have good intentions. It's a constant balancing act.

Ok, time to wrap this up for now. If I get to town tomorrow, I'll try to post again.

Education Project Kickoff!

Hello, hello! I haven't been able to get to a computer for close to two weeks now, but I'm happy to finally be updating again here. A month or two ago, I posted a blog update about a education project that my good friend Chris and I were in the process of setting up. With the help of our good friends Bradley and Dominic at the Kenya Education Fund, we are now at the point of making this project a reality. Chris did an awesome job writing up a letter giving a little more background, explaining how the donation process will work, and most importantly, expressing our thanks and appreciation. So I am just going to paste it verbatim below. I'll also be sending out an email later (probably this weekend) to those of you who expressed interest in helping out with this very worthwhile cause.

In the meantime, I thought I would post a few pictures of the Kamau's that Chris and I took just before we left our training site in January:


The first picture is Chris with the entire Kamau Family just outside their house. Joyce is on the far left, followed by Mama, Baba, and Chris, and James and John are both kneeling attempting to get two of the family's newborn puppies to stay still for the photo - didn't quite work out, but it was a solid effort nonetheless.



In this next picture, I am chillin' on the couch with the Kamau's. As you can probably tell from the smiles in the picture, we *always* had a good when we were over there. Definitely a home away from home.






In the picture to the right, I have convinced Chris that he should give Joyce a set of bunny ears - hence the devious look on Chris' face. Sorry, buddy, I had to post this one! Unfortunately, John snapped the picture a split second early or we would have added our distinctly American touch to this photo.



Ok, enough goofing around for now, here is our letter:

Dear Family and Friends,

We are pleased and excited to inform everyone that we are now going to officially establish a fund in the name of the Kamau family children. As most of you know, this family has taken a special place in our hearts. They welcomed us into their home and treated us like their sons and their brothers. Their help in our transition to Kenya can never be repaid, but this is one way for us to show our gratitude. The opportunity for a College or University education will provide the Kamau children a chance at a better life and a chance to escape poverty. This is a chance that they deserve.

Our goal for the Kamau family is to raise enough money to cover tuition, books, and accommodations for each John, James, and Joyce. Although no final decisions have been made with regards to who will attend which schools, acceptance letters from schools are being sent out or have already been sent out. As the siblings begin to make final decision about enrollment, some of the funding must have already been collected and then used during the enrollment process. At the advice of the Kenya Education Fund, we are looking to begin this process immediately. As you may have seen in a previous email, two acceptance letters have already been received from Interglobal College. The cost breakdown for attending this institution would be as follows:

Tuition, library and Admission Fees: Ksh 57,000
2 years accommodation: Ksh 120,000
Books and other materials: Ksh ????
Total: in neighborhood of Ksh 185,000 (depending on books)

At an average exchange rate of ksh 75 to the $, we're looking at each student's education costing a total of $2,467 over two years.

Using this cost breakdown as a rough guideline, we are looking at a total fundraising goal of around $7,500 (assuming all three attended a similar institution). This is a large sum of money, but a total that we believe is attainable. This money does not have to be raised at one time, but we just want to get the process started.

As has been mentioned, we have partnered with the Kenya Education Fund (KEF) to achieve this goal. The KEF was founded by a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer named Brad Broder. We had the pleasure of meeting Brad on one of his frequent return trips to Kenya. The KEF normally funds the education of high school students, but are making a special exception to help us out. We have attached a PDF file containing the KEF brochure for more information about the organization. As Brad has become a friend of ours, we would greatly appreciate you passing along that PDF to anyone whom you believe may be interested in the KEF cause. You can also visit their website at www.kenyaeducationfund.org or email them at info.kenyaeducationfund.org.

The donation process is very simple, but there are a few details that you need to be aware of. The donations can be made in one of two ways. Option one involves simply sending a check to:

Kenya Education Fund, Ltd.
360 East 72nd Street, Suite 3405
New York, NY 10021

Option two is to simply visit the KEF website and donate online. For either option, please note the following:

"For Tax deduction purposes: If you are writing a check you must write "referred by PCV Chris McKeown or Gavin Hoch" on the check. If you donate online you can indicate this in the designation portion. You must NOT write the name of a particular student on your check or in the designation section. If you decide to choose which student you want, you forego your tax deduction as per IRS guidelines (it is like not being able to claim a tax deduction on paying your own child's university tuition in the US. Universities are nonprofits, but parents can't claim a deduction because they are "choosing" the child they are paying for)."

We cannot express in words how grateful we are for your donations. Based on all of the enthusiasm we have received over the last two months, our fundraising goal seems well within reach. In such difficult economic times, we have been floored by all of your continued questioning and inquiries into the donation process. It has been very encouraging. Finally, we want this to be a very personal process for everyone involved. Aside from the email updates, we are planning on using Gavin’s blog to post pictures and updates about John, James, and Joyce. Some of these updates will be from us, but we are also going to post updates given directly from the siblings themselves. Gavin’s blog can be accessed at www.gavinhoch.blogspot.com.

Once more, thank you. We miss you all, love you all, and know that you are changing the lives of three very deserving individuals.

Sincerely,
Chris and Gavin

The Purchase Power of Sweaty Five Dollar Bills

Sometime early this week or last week, I can’t remember, I sent a really good friend a facebook message that I had recently seen full-size cans of Pringles in the supermarket that I visit most every day to buy food. This is a pretty major find here in Nanyuki. I would compare the emotion I felt to finding a crumpled up five dollar bill on the street. Even though I am a 31-year old adult with (previously) a very-well paying job, I would still be geeked if I found a 5-spot on the street. Two years ago after a 10K race in Lafayette, CA, I found the nastiest, sweat-soaked five dollar bill that had clearly fallen out of someones sock, and after I was unable to locate the owner, I proudly carried that guy home. That got turned into a book and frozen yogurt with cookie chunks consumed on a warm fall afternoon while people-watching by the big fountain in Walnut Creek - a damn fine way to spend five bucks. When I was little, my younger brother Kurt and I would go *everywhere* with my Mom and Dad when they ran errands just so we could "scrounge" for money. And we were pretty good at it too. Between that and the "junk sales" we conducted where we completely ripped off my younger sister Emily (and then repossessed the goods indian-giving-style), we had fairly substantial incomes for an 8-yr old and 6-yr old.

Ok, back to the Pringles in the supermarket... sometimes just seeing something simple (and delicious!) and familiar in an unfamiliar place is comforting. But the wind went out of my sails when I saw they were 285 shillings a can. That is about $3.50 US. And I have not found a sweaty five-dollar bill here... yet. I stood in the same spot for about 20 minutes pondering the worth of the Pringles and looking at the can from all angles trying to decide whether it was worth it. During that time, I learned that they were manufactured in Belgium, which means the cost breakdown is something like 205 shillings for the jet fuel and diesel to transport it from Europe to Africa, and about 80 shillings for the chips. The more relevant fact here is that 285 shillings is nearly 75% of my daily earnings nowadays. It would be like me buying a food item worth several hundred dollars back in the US. I told my friend in that fb message that, at that price, the can was going to stay on the shelf.

But I am a weak human being. It took less than three days for me to cave to their salty, processed goodness. I inhaled the whole thing in one sitting. The last several days, I’ve been opening up the can at night and taking a big sniff, but the smell is starting to fade as well. Soon the only thing left to do will be do tear the can open and lick the insides to get all of the last remaining bits of chips that are stuck in the seams. I have no shame – that is long gone. I try to keep less than 285 shillings with me when I visit the grocery store so that I’m not even tempted to buy them. Unfortunately, my grocery store has started stocking all sorts of goodies such as Kit Kat bars, Twix, chocolate bars, and even peanut M&Ms. I pretend they are not there. Not sure how long that strategy is going to work...

While I'm on the subject of supermarkets, I will also mention the foreigner-with-the-supermarket-black-plastic-bag phenomenon that I’ve recently noticed recently. It goes something like this: If you are a mzungu (foreigner) and are carrying a black plastic bag, kids are going to assume that plastic bag is filled with bisquits (cookies) and crisps (potato chips), and you will be politely encouraged to hand over your goodies (i.e., "Give me bisquits!!!"). There is no way to convince them that you are not hiding delectable treats somewhere, even if you show them the contents of the bag. In my highly scientific study, I have found that if I stick that plastic bag inside my green fabric Whole Foods Market bag, I am politely encouraged almost 90% less than if I just go on my way toting the black bag in my hand for all to see. It's actually fairly ironic that I’m even carrying around this green fabric Whole Foods bag in the middle of Africa given the type of store it is. For those of you who don’t know what Whole Foods is, it’s an upscale (i.e., hoity-toity) grocery store coop/chain in the Western US, mostly located in well-to-do areas that sell “all-natural” and "fair-trade" products for mostly outrageous prices. Whenever I go in there I always think of the South Park episode where Kyle’s family moves to San Francisco and everyone there is bending over to smell their own farts. It just has this smug sort of feeling when you stand in line to buy your granola, chicken breasts from freerange hand-fed birds, and yogurt from cows that only eat grass that was grown by poor farmers in Chile. I'm just joking - please don't send me nasty emails - I like their granola and yogurt too. Anyway, it’s funny that I’m carrying this bag around because if people here knew what kind of store Whole Foods was, I would be completely mobbed and they would be absolutely certain I was carrying bisquits and crisps and all sorts of other yummy things.

Ok, I don't think I've really said anything of substance today, but what else is new. I'll try a little harder next time.

Walking in Others Shoes and in Mine Too

Sorry to all of you who have checked in here the last couple weekends and left completely empty handed. Not that you don't leave empty-handed anyway, but most of the time you at least have something or someone (i.e., me) to laugh at... or wince at while reading about the kinds of uncomfortable situations I find/put myself in. But I digress already...

I've been really busy, and kind of uninspired on the electronic end of things the last couple of weeks. Every time I sit down to write a blog, nothing interesting seems to come out and after reading through, they sounded way too "complainy", so I deleted my failures instead of posting them. In retrospect, I probably just should have posted and let you guys be the judge.

So, what has happened... I will start off with today since that is very fresh in my mind. I was up shortly after 5 am (that would be "saa kumi na moja" Kiswahili time, which by the way, is offset by six hours because Kenya is on the equator and the sun never rises or sets more than 30 minutes earlier/later in the morning/evening - hence "hour 1" is the first hour after sunrise as opposed to the random way we think about it (i.e., as one hour after some random point in the middle of the night) - sorry, I still think that is really cool that there is a completely different system of time.) Ok, navigating back on course... Up at five and I took my phone and camera outside to charge on the socket at the back of the house across the way because my socket is broken inside and the sockets are a little different here and I haven't figured out a way to turn off the power. I'm kinda afraid I'm going to electrocute myself if I go cutting wires and then making connections while the power is still on - and I'm too cheap to hire an electrician, so outside I go. Back inside to eat breakfast, which consists of an avocado sandwich - just like it sounds, two pieces of bread, and I spooned some avocado out and added a pinch of salt to bring out the flavor - and a few bisquits (i.e., shortbread cookies), and a couple cups of hot Kenyan tea that I brewed fresh. Even though it's summer here, I am at over 6500 ft elevation near the mtn, so the nights and early mornings are quite chilly. I never really liked consuming hot fluids before, but the hot tea has really grown on me since I arrived here.

I putzed around a bit, then washed up my dishes, packed my bag, and headed out the door just after 6 am for my 40-minute walk to the far end of town. I was meeting a few people at the Water Resources Management Office where we were to travel to the start of a community walk to raise money for a local forest association that is trying to protect the nearby Mt. Kenya forest. Of course, I get there around 6:45 and the only one there is the guard, so I chatted with him a bit in Kiswahili, and eventually others arrived shortly after 7 am. I was actually supposed to be there at 6:30, but I was pretty sure 6:30 was "Africa" time (they use the sun to judge time in many cases), so there is quite a bit of slop in such numbers. Anyway, shortly after a few others arrived, we hopped in a vehicle, drove around to pick a few others up and then headed at least 10 km south of town to the start point of the walk. I quickly noticed that I was the only white guy there - not uncommon at all whenever I go somewhere - and that tons of people were staring at me, so I just starting talking to some of them in Kiswahili. I've realized that most people are very friendly and they are just shocked to see a white person at a community event and they don't quite know how to react, and they don't speak much English and think that I don't know any Kiswahili, so there's usually an uncomfortable silence until someone breaks the ice. I hate uncomfortable silences, so I usually say something, even if it doesn't make any sense or results in me getting laughed at. Oh well.

After a little fanfare, a few speeches, and a traditional dance (that I dare not partake in... yet), the walk was off. Much to my chagrin, I was not part of it. I was with the organizers and so I hopped in a vehicle to follow along. Luckily we stopped at the first checkpoint just up the road and I got out and immediately asked if I could walk with the rest of the community. Turns out that's all I had to do. So, even though I knew no one at all, I just started walking along with them. It really helps if your current president has roots in the country you are in, as is my situation, so there's always an ice-breaker, and usually the Kenyans bring it up when I tell them where I'm from... "Ohhhhhh! Obama! You know Obama?!?" Me: "Yes, Obama is a close friend - hold on, I'm texting him to let him know I'm with you." Seriously though, I had no problem making some new friends, and one dude, Michael, walked with me the entire way. I've finally managed how to put in pics, so just below is a pic near the end of the walk of the walk.




The walk was 26-km through the beautiful Mt. Kenya forest and I have to admit, I was quite pooped when I finished. Not so tired that I'm not still going to try to squeeze in a run when I get home though. I met my friends with the Water Association I was working with near the end at their station where they had set up info displays about trees and water conservation. We took some pics, which I would post here, but the usb is not working. Maybe tomorrow... It is now tomorrow, and the pics load slooooowwwwwly, so I'm just putting up the one. At the end of the walk, I got to the big field where everyone was hanging out waiting for the speeches from the local officials, so I decided to hang out with the crowd. And I soon found myself in a very uncomfortable situation. Most people in Kenya are very poor - and when I say poor, I mean that they eat maybe one meal a day, have no job (unemployment here is something like 40%!), and just scrape by. Many people showed up for the walk hoping there would be food and drink at the end. And after they had walked 26 km (about 15 or 16 miles) and there was nothing, they weren't happy. And there frustrations and anger were taken out on me. But I also very much sympethize with them, and as uncomfortable as it was, I have a much better understanding for what the average person faces and what their motivations are for attending these events (sometimes). Granted, this was not everyone, and it may have been only a small subset of people, but it definitely was not an insignificant number as I looked around. So, I talked about it with my friends at my organization and I'm going to talk with some of the organizers. I'm not sure that anything will come out of it - especially because the association itself is run on a shoestring, but I think it's good for all involved to know the reality of the situation.

Afterwards, there were speeches by all of the government and local officials and organizers, and they introduced me to the community (well, those that had not met me during the walk or just after), and then I was asked to say a little bit, in Kiswahili (Swahili) in front of several hundred people. I totally botched one part of my little talk - somehow I lost all thought for a few seconds, and it got very quiet. I didn't know what to do, so I just starting laughing, and everyone else just laughed with/at me. I recovered and finished up and got a nice round of applause, which felt good. I file that in my memory bank that if things go south, just start laughing. I think because a lot of people knew me by that point, I was given the benefit of the doubt, too. Several years ago I probably would have been terrified to speak in front of a crowd of 400 people, in another language, and being the only white-guy there. But for some reason, it didn't phase me in the slightest - except for that couple seconds. Not that I'm a "new person" (whatever that means), but I'm definitely growing a tiny bit. It's nice to have those small victories.

Afterwards, I congratulated and thanked the organizers for letting me partake, then smushed into a friends vehicle for the ride back to town. And now I'm here typing about it. Alright, that was a long desrcription of just today, so I'll summarize the last few weeks in one really, really long-ass sentence. Here goes:

A few weeks ago, I was attacked by the four geese that live at the place where I also reside (ooooowwww, I hate those geese!!! and I hope the people I live with that own those lovely geese aren't reading this), then I ran out of water... for six days and had to journey a mile to the river and haul a huge jerry can full of water back, uphill, which was quite rough but again good for me because that's how most people here get their water, and then I didn't do laundry for two weeks because the water was out and I wore and rewore and rewore really dirty, disgusting clothes (including boxers and socks!) and didn't flush the toilet (yes, I even have a flush toilet!) for several days, which was a horrible, horrible idea (don't ever, ever do that), and then I was supposed to travel to Mukureweini to do a language intensive training and take a test for the last four days (no the test is not four days, just the training), but there were demonstrations throughout the country which made travel unsafe, so that got bagged, allowing me to do the walk today. There you go, all caught up. :) I'll try to write more and load some pictures tomorrow. Off to see all my lady-friends (i.e., my "stalkers" - again, hope they aren't reading this) on my long walk home. Goodnight!