Relativitiy:
By American standards, I am poor. Here in Kenya, however, myself and the family I live with are probably squarely in the middle class. I came to this realization on Sunday, while eating (and enjoying) a lunch of rice and potatoes. Sunday lunches are notoriously starch heavy. For most households, Sunday is the only day of “rest” for women and/or househelp. They go to church and fix an easy lunch and dinner. And, if you remember from the previous post, church can be a full-time job's worth of hours on a Sunday. So, when we got home at 3PM, the girls cooked up what was easiest and most filling. Yesterday I went on house visits to a women's group in Rotian, a village about 20km away from my town. Rotian is one of the two villages I will be working closely with during my two years. This group is the pilot for the micro-finance project with my organization and OFDC. OFDC is a top donor for MWV; they provide sponsorships for many of the children, have built water wells at the safehouse and some schools, fund women's trainings like the one I attended last month, installed the electricity in the safehouse and provide uniforms and various other things for sponsored children. Their budget is small but they make it stretch! Rotian village was selected last year and, after looking through many proposals, one group was selected to receive the loan money. Yesterday, I got to see how the loan has changed their lives. Here are just a few highlights:
Out of the 6 women:
*All of them were very hospitable, making us drink chai (tea) and some sort of food before moving on to the next home :-)
*2 have never gone to school, 1 has gone through second grade, 1 through freshman year of high school, and 2 have completed 2 years of college.
*The nearest primary school is 1-2 hours away, depending on where in the village you live
*The nearest hospital is 20km away. The women told me when someone is hurt they carry them in lesos (sheets of fabric usually used as a wrap skirt) to the hospital. There is a dispensary in the village, but it is private and expensive.
*All the women must walk around 3km each day to fetch water for the household and for crops.
*Only one woman had a choo (latrine) on her land. The rest either use hers or the bush, whichever is closest.
*The average number of children is 4.6
*Half of the women are in a polygamous marriage
The number of children and multiple wives add up to a bad combination for many of these women. When there is a drought (like last year) or not enough food to go around, the girls end up being married off, usually after 8th grade. When there are multiple wives, one is usually favored and if that wife isn't you, guess who's girls get married off first?
So how has this small loan (around $300 per woman) helped them? The women told me that before the loan they had to depend on their husbands for food and school fees. Most of them farmed on their own shambas (farms) and sold what they didn't eat. When times are good, time are good. But when they are bad, if the crop gets destroyed (like a lot of wheat did last year) or the rains are late, the results can be disastrous. The loan has helped them learn basic business skills and also to buy more nutritious food for their children and pay for school fees. One woman is saving for a tin roof; her current home is made of cow dung and thatched grass. All of them are interested in how to open a bank account to save for hard times. I know micro-finance is the “sexy” word of the decade, but that's in large part because it can work. There are many micro-finance institutions (MFIs) in town but they charge high fees and interest and are targeted toward people who are already engaging in some sort of business. Some require a cow as collateral. These are women who don't own any property and 10-20% interest would eat up any profit they were able to make. The project with OFDC is targeting the very poor of the poor, women who have no other avenues of financial services. For this one group of 6 women, there were at least 30 other women that I met yesterday who wanted the same opportunity, and I'm sure tons of others who I didn't get a chance to meet. If you would like to help, send me an email!
The rest of the week has been business as usual. There is now a music teacher here to teach the girls trumpet, trombone, and drums. So, the house is somewhat of an “orchestra” until noon each day. The girl's and I had a photo shoot on Saturday, pics coming soon. Today I am going to a women's conference in town. Someone asked me about reading and, yes, I do a lot of it. Not as many as some but here's a list of what I've read so far:
*1984- one should not read this while taking Mephalquin (malaria meds that can cause hallucinations and nightmares). You've been warned.
*Their Eyes Were Watching God- I had read it back in middle school but it was better the second time around.
*The Street- Great pick by Melanie that she has been trying to get me to read since senior year of college.
*44 Scotland Street- by the same author who wrote No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. Pass.
*Three Cups of Tea- Read it! Inspiring.
I'll take any of your suggestions as well!
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
Tuesday, August 10, 2010
Sunday, August 8, 2010
Work and "work"
Things have been busy and not busy at the same time; my life has become full of contradictions like that. Last Saturday we held a training for women in a village called Ololunga. My organization holds a training every other month where they talk to women about children's rights, HIV/AIDS, family planning- and now that I'm here- business/ microcredit. I understood virtually nothing because it was all in KiSwahili but I did manage to introduce myself in KiSwahili. Afterwards, my supervisor told them that I would be working as a business advisor for the next two years and they all seemed very excited. The training was held at an elementary school and most of the women have small children so at the end the women were given mosquito nets to take home.
I titled this work and "work" because a lot of what we do as volunteers is informal and not what I would have considered a couple of years ago to be work. Here, however, it is the majority of our jobs. Peace Corps has three goals:
1) To help people of interested countries meet their needs for trained men and women.
2)To help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the people served.
3) To promote a better understanding of other people on the part of the American people.
As you can see, cultural exchange is 2/3 of my job here. Here are some examples of that "work"
Black Americans?
As a black American, I usually cause some head scratching among Kenyans. First is the understanding that I'm actually an American- that I was born there and my family has lived there for generations. Sometimes they will grant me the fact that I am an American citizen but will insist I'm not a real American. If they can grasp the concept that I'm American they are still confused as to why I can't speak KiSwahili. This one I don't really understand the confusion because it's only in East Africa that people speak KiSwahili so the idea that someone is the same skin color as you but speaks something different shouldn't be all that difficult. Usually it is easier to get this idea through to them if I am with other (white) PCVs. However, while I was waiting for my furniture to be finished the other day, one of the carpenters started down the, "You are American?" line of questioning. He also told me that it is hard for people to get along in Kenya because there are 42 different tribes. (sidenote: I have also frequently gotten the question, "How many tribes are there in America?") I started to explain to him that there are many different types of people in America and we all get along (relatively) peacefully.
So in America...
This is how many conversations begin once someone finds out I am American. The popular mindset is that Americans are all rich, drive everywhere, and have machines to do everything. And that we all live in metropolises. To a certain extent, and definitely if you are looking at things in a relative context, this may be true but we do have our fair share of poor Americans and America doesn't just look like one big version of Manhattan (though it would be nice if it did!). So I share with people that we do have farms and some people also can't afford to pay their electric bill, etc...
9-5
Just as an example of how work here can hide in strange places, I was called upon to go to church today. Now, I had attended church last week and thought that I would just go once in the name of cultural exchange. I didn't really have a choice this time though so at 9am I left the house with 11 girls to walk to church. Two hours later we arrived. Then I sat through 3 1/2 hours of singing (which I enjoy for the first hour) and preaching (which I never understand because it's in KiSwahili and Maasai). When we left "early" as we were heading into the fourth hour of service, we then had to go to someone's house for lunch because they didn't want to send us back all that way without food. So at 5PM, we finally arrived back at home. Initially, I was not pleased that my Sunday had been hijacked against my will but it ended up being a good opportunity to speak with the girls more closely and for them to get to know me better. Also, the pastor at the church we attended was interested in getting a business training together. So, in the end, it was an unexpected workday but a good one nonetheless.
I titled this work and "work" because a lot of what we do as volunteers is informal and not what I would have considered a couple of years ago to be work. Here, however, it is the majority of our jobs. Peace Corps has three goals:
1) To help people of interested countries meet their needs for trained men and women.
2)To help promote a better understanding of the American people on the part of the people served.
3) To promote a better understanding of other people on the part of the American people.
As you can see, cultural exchange is 2/3 of my job here. Here are some examples of that "work"
Black Americans?
As a black American, I usually cause some head scratching among Kenyans. First is the understanding that I'm actually an American- that I was born there and my family has lived there for generations. Sometimes they will grant me the fact that I am an American citizen but will insist I'm not a real American. If they can grasp the concept that I'm American they are still confused as to why I can't speak KiSwahili. This one I don't really understand the confusion because it's only in East Africa that people speak KiSwahili so the idea that someone is the same skin color as you but speaks something different shouldn't be all that difficult. Usually it is easier to get this idea through to them if I am with other (white) PCVs. However, while I was waiting for my furniture to be finished the other day, one of the carpenters started down the, "You are American?" line of questioning. He also told me that it is hard for people to get along in Kenya because there are 42 different tribes. (sidenote: I have also frequently gotten the question, "How many tribes are there in America?") I started to explain to him that there are many different types of people in America and we all get along (relatively) peacefully.
So in America...
This is how many conversations begin once someone finds out I am American. The popular mindset is that Americans are all rich, drive everywhere, and have machines to do everything. And that we all live in metropolises. To a certain extent, and definitely if you are looking at things in a relative context, this may be true but we do have our fair share of poor Americans and America doesn't just look like one big version of Manhattan (though it would be nice if it did!). So I share with people that we do have farms and some people also can't afford to pay their electric bill, etc...
9-5
Just as an example of how work here can hide in strange places, I was called upon to go to church today. Now, I had attended church last week and thought that I would just go once in the name of cultural exchange. I didn't really have a choice this time though so at 9am I left the house with 11 girls to walk to church. Two hours later we arrived. Then I sat through 3 1/2 hours of singing (which I enjoy for the first hour) and preaching (which I never understand because it's in KiSwahili and Maasai). When we left "early" as we were heading into the fourth hour of service, we then had to go to someone's house for lunch because they didn't want to send us back all that way without food. So at 5PM, we finally arrived back at home. Initially, I was not pleased that my Sunday had been hijacked against my will but it ended up being a good opportunity to speak with the girls more closely and for them to get to know me better. Also, the pastor at the church we attended was interested in getting a business training together. So, in the end, it was an unexpected workday but a good one nonetheless.
Monday, August 2, 2010
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