Friday, October 12, 2012

Raining Cats and Dogs

Raining Cats and Dogs probably does not apply well here in Kenya.  They do not really have cats and dogs as pets, but rather view them as scavengers, and creatures that you need to keep away from at all possible.  However, they do have a dog as an organic house alarm system, and a cat as an organic Terminix (to keep little creatures at bay).

Anyway back to raining Cats and Dogs, after our training yesterday we saw such a great rainbow.  But after taking a few photos, it really rained cats and dogs.  Some of us were totally and absolutely soaked.  We walked all the way to our home stays without umbrellas, raincoats, boots, or anything like that.  It was amusing to see at several spots, there are school children under some roof shelters grinning at how idiots we are for keeping walking in such a heavy storm.

We know Kenya sort of have two "rain seasons", one early in the year - like Feb - April or March - May, and a short one that is coming up, in Nov-Dec.  I am not sure if it will "rain all day long and look gloomy such as what Indiana would look like" or it would just have periods of rain in the day (like in the West).


Lets see if seeing rainbows mean RUN HARD not ADMIRE.


There are buckets, tanks, and may other plastics to capture run off water.  They use them for cleaning floors, use to flush the toilet inside (I never used it), and so forth.  Its better than going out and haul water in jugs.  No, we do not drink from it, but using PUR water filter powder tablet, we really can use this water.  More on this later


Are you my mother?  Baa Baa


Notice the water jugs under the counter.  We use that for our baths, dishes, etc.  I pour a capful of Detol in the bathing water to kill anything that loves to get inside me.


Corn cobs are tossed in the fires for the kettles.  


I feel like a school kid.  I have not wore a backpack for years, and been using a knapsack, but having to haul so much so often, its nice.  Notice the umbrella?  My mama made sure I took one with me. This route is my typical commute into Machakos.  This road (or is it more of a trail?) leads to a "semi-main" road where everyone trickles down from their local towns.  


Without any technology, I guess the distance between my home to Machakos is about 3 miles one way, and it takes me 20-30 minutes depending if we walk in silence or chatting.  When I text (using my keyboard-less cell phone, it could probably take me another 15 minutes with the damn numeric keypad).  Also you may wonder why am I wearing white pants in the mud...because I am pretty  much out of clean clothes.  I have not yet washed my clothes since I landed in Philadelphia.  I tried to budget my wardrobe by wearing pants twice and rotate with tops/shirts (unless I sweat too much).  Sunday I will learn how to wash them all.


Notice laptops?  We all always grab opportunities to email or upload home, but we were given so little break time and always been on the go.  Our trainers seem to like to finish sessions on the dot, rather than let us go if we are pretty done with the session.  Darn.

This afternoon we will visit Machakos Deaf School again, but for two more sessions (sigh, we sit in one of their classrooms on hard chairs that are not at adult size).  

Then the weekend begins.  I look forward to that cuz it breaks the training routine of sleep-eat-walk-learn-tea-learn-lunch-learn-tea-learn-walk-bathe-eat-play-sleep.  I hope to follow Baba and help with the chores such as tending to the animals and see his crop. Also I get to sleep in (yeah right).  One thing I wonder about is when they go to Church, will they expect me to accompany them or would they let me plead that I am Jewish or that I need to study (yeah right, again).  However, I did hear there is a Deaf Church near Machakos Deaf School that I would not mind attending (not for the sermons but to learn Kenya culture and meet deaf adults).  

Tidbits:
  • Pedestrian has zero right of way on any roads and even sidewalks.  when you cross, you better NOT assume drivers will slow down.  If you get hit, you will have 7 of your 9 lives left (first car hits, and then you'll get run over by second car).
  • If you think you are smelling your body odor, you can be assured its probably not yours.  I had to sniff myself so may times to make sure.  But then I respect Kenya culture -- some of them may have different hygiene or have different bath products or whatever...
Hakuna Matata


Wednesday, October 10, 2012

Transportation

This one is going to be a short and sweet one as I have both no time nor access to the Internet that simply decides to come to us or not.

This photo shows what rush hour looks like.  Everybody walks.  I mean everybody, whether they are using crutches, toddlers, elders, etc.  You can see school kids walking home.  There are wide "dirt sidewalks" on both sides, but the surface is nowhere even.  You must have a good eyesight to talk and walk at the same time otherwise you would find ourself on your face next to donkey's poop.


Modes of transportation here in Matakos (similar to Nairobi, except for the traffic) are basically (1) walking, (2) walking, (3) walking, (4) ride on bicycles (for hire, you sit on the back), (5) ride on pikipiki (like 125 or 250 cc motorcycles, but Peace Corps volunteers are forbidden to ride on them) (5) ride in Tuktuk (3-wheel taxi), or (6) ride in matatu (there are tiny versions and mini-van versions).  Its always fun to watch those matatus -- almost like wondering how many people can fit in a phone booth or a VW bug.  They sure do squeeze and the tiny matatus simly chug along just fine.




I have not yet seen a harley.  They all are metrics (Suzuki, Yamaha, etc.)


Poor picture, but see how crowded it is in the matatu?

Tidbids:
  • If you really want to stick out in the whole town, wear sunglasses.  Not one soul I have observed wore one, so being a heavy sunglasses wearer, I try to look cool without wearing them.
  • Do not text and walk.  You will fall and who knows what would land on your face.  There are many rocks and stuff buried in the dirt from eons of walking.
  • No need for hiking trails, just walk here.
  • Bathrooms are for... bathing.  Washrooms are our toilets. 
  • Pants are underwear.  We wear trousers or slacks.
  • Old Navy suede-like pants weigh you down with all the reddish-brown dust.  Smooth cotton trousers are better.  
  • You can have any color shoes, they all end up red or brown anyway.
  • If you wear a Chevy or Ford t-shirt, you may have people asking you waht they are.  There seem to be none around here at all.  Alot of them are Nissans, Toyotas, Isuzu, Mitisbushi, etc.  Talk about Japan trying hard to enter our economy when they seem to have the world at their fingertips.
Hakuna Matata



Tuesday, October 9, 2012

And my given Swahili name is...

Mwendwa!  It means love.

When I met my host family for the first time, it was very touching.  Both sides knew the moment was magical with me travelling over 8000 miles and for them to have an American to share their home.  After introductions and laughing together, they decided to give me my Swahili name, Mwendwa.  Aw, they must have seen something in me, grins.

Me, Alice (10), Lafline (mama), and Anthony (baba)
Lafline loves to laugh (already obvious in picture, eh?) and Anthony gestures to me the most (make up signs but we manage to get along), and then Alice, who got over her shyness quickly (maybe with my help), and loves to write to me.  She writes to me for mama and baba (baba seem not to read/write as well).  Love this family.


Alice, Ephrim, Gloria, Tabitha, Mitheu, Nthambi
 As you can see in photo above, Alice carries the paper and pen for me.  They were so thrilled when we played Hangman together (seems their first time), and laughed and rolled around when I assigned them their name signs: Alice - Beautiful, Gloria - Curious, Nthambi - Laugh, Tabitha - Quiet, Mitheu - Tall, and Ephrim - Shy. Except for Alice, all other kids are neighbors I think. The family have two older daughter and son, but they are both out to college.

Me and my baba Anthony
Tea is the thing in Kenya.  I have not had a cup of coffee since I left the States, and I guess if I want to live the Kenyan way, I eat and drink their way as well.  There IS coffee here and is sometimes available, but tea is always available.  Often they serve hot milk, and you add tea, or you can have hot water.  I like hot water, but in my home stay, they seem to always serve them with hot milk, so I grin and say Asante! 


Poor picture at night time with my iPod.  My room at one end and...


the other side of the room.  The mosquito net is a mess, but then its not yet heavy mosquito season until the rain season starting in November.  Malaria is scary as we were introduced to them in our training.  We just took our self-test for malaria.  Poor Mack, she whitened-out when she poked a pin in her finger to draw the blood for the self-test.  But all is good, all of us were tested negative....so far.


My very own doorbell light.  Its powered by, yes, a car battery.  


Our kitchen.


Home of our several milking cows, a bull, and several calves.


Whatcha looking at?  You got a problem?


My home for the training period (three months), with few days once in a while away to Liotokitok (for secondary education training).


Our very own choo.  At night, the blue walls turn black with little flies.  I seem to manage to target the hole with my poop with no problem, but I seem to miss it while peeing -- I guess I have to readjust my manhood downward some more (unlike toilets in America, where you pretty much let it aim anywhere while you sit).  Bending down is no problem when you try it like 5 seconds, but it sure is a poop-challenged when you sit, waiting, and only farted, and still feel need to poop.  Your legs will shake and you bobble around.  I usually put one hand on a wall or anything that I can grasp (a pipe or electric wire).  But one thing I miss most, I no longer can read while poop.


The king of the hill.  There are several roosters, and two kinds of chickens -- those we eat, those we collect eggs from.  I asked my baba to let me know when its chicken time for dinner, I want to experience the life-death-life cycle (that is life-death for it, but life for me).


Those are the egg-laying kind.  It seems the family have about 200 of them in the hen house.  


Back yard toward the house.  Notice the well, and the big black tank on left and right sides (there are more of them around).  The tanks collect rain water from the gutters, and they use the water for pretty  much everything except drinking.  They drink from the well, I think.  I will drink from it when my water bottle supply ends, and start using water purification packets (Pur).  More on this in later posts.


Crop on the side of the house.


Pit used to burn trash.  They use everything first, before burning them.  For example all paper are used for kettle fire, etc.


Fresh, healthy, no chemicals.  Brown eggs.  


Baa.  The baby goat is kept in the shed during the night for its safety.


The organic house alarm system.  I have not seen the dog released or children pettting or playing with it.  In Kenyan culture, dogs (and cats) are not pets.  There are alot of stray dogs, and unlike in America, they do not bark and chase you, but rather run away out of your way at every opportunity.  They live as scavengers I guess.

Elizabeth (mama Lafline's sister)
Elizabeth lives with the family, and she has like tons of chores, and yet I always see her available to talk or laugh with.  She is very eager and wants to teach me about Kenyan life the most.

Ndunge
Ndunge lives with the family as House Technician (yeah nice respectful name than other names you could think of).  She is very shy and bashful, and very "root-Kenyan".  She takes care of pretty much everything around the house, children, and so forth.  She seems to be the first up and last down each day.

When I told my fellow PCT (peace corps trainees) that my family got a farm and being so resourceful and so forth.  Oops, my bad, it appears that pretty much all families have the same thing too.  Darn, not unique but back to common-ness.


Even a fancy hotel like where we stayed our first night, and for our training sessions during the week, they use the choo, but it has a flush.  


We visited our local Deaf school in Machakos.  It was finally a thrill for me meeting other Deaf folk, especially the children.  They are all wide-eyed when seeing us (I wonder why, maybe because we are white, ha).  The little toddlers all wanted to feel my hair.  Maybe its because its blonde?



Booster Card for the week.  Very nice.  Sorry about not rotating, but then I am in Kenya.


Its always amazing that Jesus didn't look darker in Africa.


Elizabeth milking the cow.  Ill ask to see if I actually had that in my boiling hot tea.  If so, I better make sure its pasteurized (boiled twice).

Ndunga, Alice and mama Lafline
All school kids wear uniforms.  


This guy (name?) is hired by the family to tend to the cows and goats (taking out to pasture, and bringing them back to their sheds).  Yeah he is "walking" the goats.  All animals including cows have rope tied to the front hoof.  Its funny to watch these poor animals trip.


I guess thats where "back-breaking labor" term came from.  She is able to bend all day long doing hard work.  I bend like 15 minutes then I complain my back hurts back home.


Sorry about the bad picture, blame Apple.  10 trainees in Deaf Education...

Tidbids:
  • When they ask you to bathe, its not necessarily mean you smell, but with no running hot water, they boil water, and sort of sequence us, otherwise its wasted firewood and labor. 
  • When I get home, by walking 30 minutes (each way, don't know how far it is but it seems like 3 miles maybe?), they ask me if I want to have my bath.  At first I said it was too early, I usually bathe at 9pm or  6am  Then I was hit with a realization, when it gets dark, and if there is no power (its so unreliable), I would end up bathing in the dark.  Dirt on me would win that way.  Also, they cannot simply fire up a kettle of water to get me hot water at my whim.  So, I guess I bathe at 7pm daily with the family.  When I am on my own, I guess its up to me when to bathe, depending on what is available for me.  
  • Kenyans seem not to wear sunglasses, so I start to sneak it away and tough out the sun.  I do not want to stick out as the cool guy in the crowd with my shades, being White is enough.  
  • In homes, you eat with either your hands or a tablespoon.  They do have forks, but its like "what for", it means more back bending for Ndunga. 
There is so much to say, and if only I had access to the Internet, I would make much more smaller posts or even put cool stuff on Facebook.  But the Internet Gods are not blessing me, so I hope you enjoy my posts, even when they are long.  

Hakuna Matata

Mwendwa