SMARTOOOOO!

That is what one of the Zulu members, Zola, says all of the time. Its basically a fun way to shout 'smart'. In Kenya, people say you look smart instead of saying you look nice. Its so fun to say and whenever I see Zola from afar we both hell it out to each other and then crack up laughing afterwards haha. It is a phrase I will definitely miss when I am home, along with Jeffrey's "Knock yourself out" or Mama Rose's "its just for today" which she says when she is eating too much. 

On Monday, I visited the Tabitha clinic in Kibera, and there was a 9 month old baby there that only weighed 5.3 kgs, so around 12 pounds. She was being treated for sever malnutrition, but wasn't even responding to the plumpy nut food they were giving her. It was heartbreaking to see her in that condition, and even more sad to hear the doctor say that they see cases like this every day, all day. 

On Wednesday night, Daisy, Molly and I invited our whole family, Jeffrey, and Molly's host family over our house for a dinner that we cooked for them to show them our appreciation for housing us and taking care of us. It was a huge success! Kenya food can be kind of bland (yet still somehow delicious…), so they enjoyed our many flavors from all over the world. Molly made a Mexican appetizer: mango salsa, guacamole, and guacamole with mango, all with tortilla chips. Daisy made a Korean main dish: pah juhn pancakes, barbecued beef, plain and fried rice, and spinach to wrap the beef and rice in. I did dessert: a fudge brownie cooked on the stovetop along with watermelon. Everyone loved it, and they were actually pretty surprised. They had never had beef with such flavor, and were shocked that you could use fruit as part of the main meal (there was pineapple in the rice). They liked the dessert, although it was too sweet for a lot of them, so the mzungus ate most of it lol. Overall it was a great success, and we took a lot of fun family photos afterwards. 

Buying meat for our dinner at a butchers in Kibera...

 

Don't worry, we didn't eat this...

Our feast!

Our family photo. 

Our family with Molly's family.

Molly, Jeffrey, Daisy, and I fooling around haha. 

On Thursday morning, Daisy and I visited the hotel (which means restaurant) in Kibera that we usually eat lunch at. The day before they had invited us to learn how to cook chapatti with them, so we went and learned how to make the dough. It was a lot of fun, and I am basically a pro now, so Danielle and Colleen you better be ready for some good chapo :)

Today (Friday), we are doing another burn with Zulu, cooking lunch with them on our own briquettes, and then Molly and I are leading the soccer practice for the women's team we usually play with. Then, we are going over to Jeffreys for dinner and probably out dancing afterwards. I am also very excited for the Olympics to start! I bought a Netherlands football jersey yesterday for really cheap so I am ready for it! 

If anyone wants one for around $12 from all different countries let me know :)

Saturday morning, Molly and I are headed for the Masai Mara, Kenya's most famous national park, to go on a SAFARI!! We are camping in tents, and will get to go on quite a few game drives! I can't wait to see lions and the annual wildebeest migration! Expect pictures when I get back! 

Missing summer campfires and smokes...

Cutting the GIANT ugali we made with zulu. 

Some of the Zulu family!

Wazungu wa Zulu.

Say that 10 times fast! That is what Zulu has been calling Daisy and I lately, it means white people of Zulu Youth Group basically. Everytime we say it the whole group cracks up laughing haha. 

Friday was a fun day of work with the youth group! We treated the group by bringing chocolate and bananas for our Friday feasts! We put the chocolate in the bananas, wrapped them in foil, and roasted them on top of our kiln while we were making charcoal. They LOVED them, and were so confused while we were making them. It is really fun to treat them and enjoy meals with them, although I do feel kind of guilty some times…especially because Msiox stated that he could feed 5 guys lunch for the same amount of money of the chocolate bar…

After our feast and doing a burn with them, we went to a welders in Kibera who invited us to work with them in their shop for a bit. They taught us how to saw, weld, hammer, sand metal etc. It was pretty neat - although I was a little concerned for my eyes and ears. It drew lots of stares at their shop…I don't think a mzungu has ever worked at a shop in Kibera. 

At the end of the day, we went to a field outside of Kibera to watch Zulu play a football match! I wore my football jersey and warmed up with them. Unfortunatley they lost 0-1, but it was really fun to see them all play. Football is taken very seriously here!

For dinner, Edith took Daisy and I to an Ethiopian restaurant. It was okay…I definitely like Kenya food better. It was pretty spicy, and their version of a chapati was fermented so it had a sour taste. I pretty much avoided the meat, which was probably a good move, since Daisy was sick the next day. 

Saturday I went up to Njabini to visit Flying Kites - an orphanage for 26 children that my friend Colleen volunteered at in January. Besides being a much welcomed opportunity to get out of the city and enjoy rural Kenya, FK is truly an amazing place. They believe that these kids are not just orphans, they are children, and deserve the same childhood that the average American kid receives. They deserve field trips, computer lessons, and food other than ugali and sukuma every night. I could tell they receive a lot of love, because they gave love so freely. One kid, named Benson (with beautiful, giraffe-like eyelashes),  who Colleen fell in love with and sponsors now, immediately took my hand when I arrived, and gave me a tour of the whole place. They all were so willing to hold my hand, give me hugs, talk to me, even though they had never met me before. 

The muddy road that leads up to FK.

Benson and I

The volunteers were all very nice as well - and were making a brownie pudding dessert as I got there. It tasted sooo good, and made me a little homesick (Oma I can't wait for your chocolate chip cookies). That night, I just hung out with the kids and volunteers, ate dinner with them, and relaxed. They had a family meeting where all of the kids shared what they were grateful for and what made them happy and sad, and welcomed me with dance and song! 

I slept in a little cabin of sorts separate from the orphanage. It was a good thing that there were 5 thick wool blankets on the bed - because it got very cold at night since we were up in the mountains (around 8,000 ft). The stars were the best stars I have seen since being in Yellowstone last summer. The entire sky was covered with them,and it was a crystal clear night. It was such a good reminder of how indescribable God is, who made those stars and knows each of their names. It was nice to have my own room for night, be alone, and spend some solid time with God. Since there was no electricity or heat, I sort of felt like I was camping all alone.

For breakfast, the volunteers made pancakes and French toast - definitely a step above the usual bread and jam! I went to church with the kids, and as soon as I walked in they started translating from Kikuyu (a tribal language) into English. Like usual, I had to introduce myself in front of the whole church. 

When we were walking back to the house, it was really cool to just talk to the kids. The matrons went to a different church, so it was just me with 20 kids, walking together up a muddy road, holding hands, and having fun. We had lunch, and hung out until I had to leave. It was sad to leave, although good to be back home with my host family. Only 3 weeks left here in Kenya! I can tell I am going to miss it a lot! 

Jina langu ni Wanjiko. Napenda chocolate chip cookies.

(My name is Wanjiko. I love chocolate chip cookies.)

Tuesday was a good day back to work in Kibera, and after work, we went to jump rope with the kids at Kibera Primary. They were all teaching me how to do it - and I was awful. I have never felt more uncoordinated, but it was a ton of fun to get to know kids, let them teach me, and laugh with them (usually as they were laughing at me). After dinner, Daisy and I made cookies from a cookie mix - God definitely heard our prayers, because Nakumatt was stocked with Betty Crocker brownie and cookie mixes! We made them on the gas stove since the electric oven is so expensive, and they came out delicious! 

Oh and I got a new name today. I've already been named Akinyi by Luo's, but a Zulu member said if I was Kikuyu I would be named Wanjiko. Not really sure what it means, but its fun to go around and say "Jina langu ni Akinyi or Wanjiko" and see people's shocked faces. They immediately ask, your a Luo? your a Kikuyu? You know Swahili?

On Wednesday, Daisy and I helped wash cars at Zulu's car wash. All of they guys enjoyed watching us do what they do every day to make a living, and one member even told us he thought 'all mzungu girls were lazy" haha. Customers and by-standers were pretty shocked and confused, but maybe it helped them to get more business. We laughed a lot with the Zulu guys today which I think is almost more important than our project. I asked a few of them what they thought was the biggest problem in Kibera and Frederick said it was tribalism but that CFK was the best organization in Kibera trying to fix it. It was also cool to hear from Ndiso that giving out money is not what Kibera needs because it doesn't last. Teaching residents new skills so they can form jobs for themselves is more important.

We brought our cookies for the Zulu guys to have today and my mind was completely blown when every single one of them looked at the cookies confused asking what they were. They had never had them before, and kept asking us what the ingredients were and what the dark spots in them were. They enjoyed them a lot, but found it hard to say 'chocolate chip cookies'. 

Today was the coldest day I've experience so far in Nairobi - probably like 50 degrees Fahrenheit. I must be becoming Kenya because even after a warm lunch, hot tea, and lots of clothes on, I still couldn't get warm! 

"Nants ingonyama bagithi Baba" (Here comes a lion, Father)

Here is some weekend updates! It was another great one! 

Saturday = FOOD. The day started with Daisy and I walking to her old professors house right down the street from us (he is working on another project in Nairobi until October, when he will go back to teach at MIT). Apparently he is famous for his homemade pancakes, and since we have not had much American food besides froyo, we were looking forward to trying them all week. The pancakes were amazing (although no chocolate chips?!?) and it was nice to have a nice American meal. But it actually felt weird to have a breakfast with 7 other mzungus and only one Kenyan (who had never had pancakes before and did not seem too impressed). 

After that, Daisy and I went to Yaya shopping center because we had seen a delicious looking cafe there a while back and decided it was time to splurge and enjoy more American food. We had been planning this lunch even before we planned to have pancakes, so it was just an American food filled day. We sat in one cafe for a few hours to use their internet, and I got an amazing banana-mango-strawberry smoothie (although it wasn't cold - Kenyans don't like cold things…my host mom microwaves pineapple and watermelon before she eats it lol). Once we were hungry enough, we went to the cafe, where we got to sit outside on a balcony. I felt like we were in Paris, and have never enjoyed a toasted ham and cheese sandwich with mango juice more. The best part was the chocolate ganache for dessert. Lack of sweets here has definitely made my tolerance for desserts decrease…it was even hard for me to finish that cake (sorry dad, I am ashamed at myself too, we can go to DQ when I am back for a big blizzard!)

As if we hadn't eaten enough for the day, we then met up with Jeffrey, Molly, and David at Jeffrey's apartment in Kibera for our second weekly Saturday night feasts. Since we did chicken last weekend, we decided on fish for this weekend. They sell pre-fried/dried tilapia everywhere on the streets in Kibera, so we bought four, along with some veggies, and omenu (really small fish, like sand-eels). Jeffrey and David actually bought the food on the street while us 3 mzungus hid so they didnt get over charged haha. We wanted to make s'mores over a jiko (the little charcoal stove they have in their houses), but Nakumatt was out of marshmallows, so we brought popcorn to make instead. The sukuma and ugali was good as usual, and I really liked the tilapia, but the omenu was a little hard to eat. I ate all parts of the fish - even the head and eye ball! The Luo tribe says they are smart because they eat the head of the fish, so maybe I am smarter now. For dessert we made popcorn and then mixed some chocolate with it to make it sweet and salty. 

After dinner, Jeffrey took us out 'clubbing', because most Kenyans go dancing every night, so we had to at least once during our time in Kenya. The clubs are completely free, so you can basically just walk in and dance and leave whenever you want. It was so much fun, and we all just danced and acted like fools in our little group. Plenty of people wanted to dance with us but Jeffrey did a good job of stepping in the way haha. The club was very diverse - quite a bit of mzungus, Indians, Kenyans, even some Asians. We got home around 3 am…the latest I have been up since being in Kenya.

Sunday morning Daisy and I met Molly bright and early, headed into town on a bus, and boarded a matatu to Nakuru, a town about 2 hours north-west of Nairobi. When we got there, we haggled a good price for a taxi, and went to Nakuru National Park. We drove around the entire park and saw zebras, water buffalos, flamingoes, reed-bucks, rhinos, hippos, lots of other birds, baboons and more! It was absolutely beautiful, and the whole time we were singing Lion King songs. 

Afterwards we boarded a matatu to Naivasha town center, and then another one to Fisherman's Camp, the 'hotel' we were staying at for the night. The hotel was more like a little cabin - even equipped with big spiders. We had dinner there (BBQ chicken, chapatti, and steamed vegetables - more American food since there were only mzungus at the hotel). With only four hours of sleep the night before, I slept like a rock in the African wilderness :)

Monday we woke up early (to Molly singing the opening song of the Lion King), packed up our room, tried to get breakfast at the hotel but they had locked the key to the kitchen in the kitchen, rented bikes, and headed to Hell's Gate National Park. We stopped at a little cafe for some food - hard boiled eggs and mandazi, and took along some bread and eggs for lunch. After a 5 km ride, we arrived at the park, and entered a completely different world. It felt like we were the only ones in a huge area of African savannah, and were biking past zebras and gazelles. We went rock climbing at Fisher's Rock in the park and it was probably my favorite experience of the whole weekend. I did the beginners trail first, then a harder trail to the very top, and then the instructor, James, let us do the hardest trail for free. Sitting on top of the rock was amazing - I felt like I was sitting atop Africa, looking out onto the savannah with mountains in the distance, and giraffes and zebras below us. While we were up there, James said he needed to meet someone at the gate, so he left us up at the top of the rock, took my bike, and was gone for 20ish minutes. I was fine with it because it meant more time at the top, but it was pretty funny that it was perfectly acceptable for him to just leave us up there. His only instruction was to not touch the clips that latched us to a rock at the top, and left. He was a pretty amazing guy - his wife and son lived 220 km away, but he stayed at Naivasha to take tourists climbing to provide for his family. He was also very good at climbing - he climbed up the rock without any rope or harness and belayed us from the top. I definitely would have died without that rope haha. 

The view from atop of Fisher's Rock.

Our lifeline as James left us to just hang out at the top.

Next we biked another 7 kms to a gorge, which we got to walk through. It was beautiful, and there were hot springs that we got to touch (and yes, they were very hot). We didn't get to see them all though because we wanted to get back to Nairobi before dark, so we sped back 13 kms to our camp, dropped off our bikes, and headed back to Nairobi. 

Molly and I

We got home safely and took a much awaited shower (dirt was literally caked on my entire body, I almost looked African). My body was exhausted after all of that biking and rock climbing, but it felt good. And I didn't get malaria (yay bug spray and mosquito nets) even though Jeffrey got malaria a few weeks ago at Naivasha :)

"Talent is universal, opportunity is not."

Sorry the number of posts I do each week has greatly decreased! Our work weeks have been a lot busier now that we are really established in Kibera and know what we are doing. 

This week Daisy and I were with the Zulu Youth Group pretty much every day from 10 am to around 2 pm. It has been so good to get to know them better - to laugh with them, solve problems with them, and let them do burns on their own. They enjoy making the charcoal, are excited about the promises of it, and are so helpful in everything. The people in Kibera are truly amazing - they are so strong, so tough, so innovative. When they need something, they can make whatever they need out of the trash around them…when we needed a hammer, they used a rock; when they had a hole in their bucket, they used an old plastic milk bag to cover it; chairs? just use buckets that people throw away; a knife? use a piece of glass from the trash. 

This week we focused on making charcoal from different binders (something sticky to pack charcoal dust together into a briquette). We went to the market dump pile and got lots of old bananas, avocados, and mangoes, crushed them, and made briquettes with them. They all seemed to work pretty well, although testing next week will show if they truly are good. We also got plenty of stares as people wondered why two mzungus were digging through trash haha. 

Our charcoal made from banana and paper pulp (they even smell like bananas). 

On Thursday, we needed to boil water to make a binder we are interested in using out of cassava. We started joking about how we should make some ugali once we were done since Daisy and I didn't know how to make it. We ended up going to the market and buying some ugali, salad (cooking oil), sukuma wiki (kale), tomatoes, onions, and avocados, which was enough to feed more than 7 people and cost about $2. We all cooked it together right there at their dump site on a jiko they borrowed from someone. They also borrowed two small plates and a mixing spoon for the lunch, because in Kibera when you don't have something, borrowing from your neighbor is perfectly acceptable. The lunch was delicious, and sharing a meal really helps to bring people together. It was a joy to provide lunch for them because most of them usually don't have lunch. They also really enjoyed watching us try to cook the ugali. It is funny how all of them knew how to cook because they have to just to survive (most of my friends and I can't cook more than mac and cheese and cereal…). For dinner that night we ended up having ugali and sukuma again, which I kind of enjoyed, because most people have ugali and sukuma for every single meal (breakfast, lunch (if they can afford it), and dinner), with a little porridge and tea sometimes. 

Struggling to make ugali (maize flour and water), as Karanja coached/laughed at me.

Daisy and Frederick preparing the veggies for the sukuma. It is funny how sukuma (kale) is one of the cheapest foods you can buy because it is pretty nutritious - a step above the processed cheap food in America!

Our 'feast' and the proper way to eat it. In Kenya, they rarely use utensils (even in my middle-class home stay). You simply make a spoon with the ugali and scoop up the sukuma. Luckily hand washing is really important in Kenya (at least washing your right hand because that is what you eat with), although I am sure lunch in a dump with no utensils would not pass most regulations in America. 

During our lunch, one of the members, David, told us how Kibera residents are just surviving, not living. They all dream of getting out one day, but rent elsewhere is very expensive. So everyday they just survive, the money they make today will be spent for their dinner that night ('hand to mouth' kind of jobs). 

Pablo and I, a 26 year old guy who has lived in Kibera all his life, and now lives alone, surviving off of what he makes from the Zulu car wash and trash collection services. 

After a good day of work and our lunch, the Zulu guys took us on a little tour inside Kibera. What I walk past every day is tough to see, but it is only on the edge of Kibera. I have gone inside a few times, visiting the Tabitha Clinic and the orphanage for instance, but it is still so hard to believe how difficult peoples' lives are and how hidden it is even from the main road. They walked us past rivers of sewage and waste, mud houses, and to the rail road tracks, where we could see the mass of tin roofs. A few years back, an artist put pictures of eyes on some of the roofs of Kibera, and most of the residents kept them because they helped keep the rain out (http://www.ted.com/talks/lang/en/jr_s_ted_prize_wish_use_art_to_turn_the_world_inside_out.html, go to minute 14:50) and we could see them from the tracks. I think it really reminded me of all of the individual lives in Kibera, which is so easy to forget when you just see the sea of tin roofs, trash, and sewage.  

The typical 'rivers' running through Kibera. 

Rent in Kibera costs about $15 a month - usually paid to wealthy landlords who never even step foot in the slum and who have owned the land for years. 

Can you see the eyes?

A few days ago, I started reading the book It Happened on the Way to War by Rye Barcott, the co-founder of Carolina for Kibera (cfk.unc.edu), the community partner that we have been working with. In the book Barcott tells about his experience in creating CFK while he was a senior at UNC. His descriptions of Kibera are so accurate, and its been pretty cool to see how CFK started and the changes that have come about in Kibera since its existence. Its a pretty well-known organization, completely run by locals (mainly Kibera residents) that has made a big difference in decreasing ethnic/tribal violence through its soccer program, and provides free healthcare at its clinic. It has been such a blessing to work at the CFK office everyday when we are not with the youth group - all of the employees are so kind and helpful, and this book, which I would encourage you to read if you'd like to understand my journey here in Kenya better, is making me more aware of how amazing CFK truly is.

One of the really cool things about the creation of CFK and Rye Barcott is that he was a 'doer'. Despite being a senior at UNC, with a thesis to do, and commitments to ROTC, Barcott went to Kibera and started a non-profit that forever changed Kibera. A lot of afternoons here Daisy and I really don't have any work to do, so we sit in the office to use the internet and catch up on emails, but this book has really been challenging me to do something with my free time here. I don't know what yet, but I just want to do something. So yesterday, when I had a free hour, I visited another orphanage near CFK and talked to the owner for a long while. She is an amazing woman, who takes in kids whenever she can, feeds them, and hires a teacher to educate them during the days. She showed me one of the kids, Emmanuel's, medical file, and pictures of him when she rescued him last March. He was brutally beaten by his mother, but he looked pretty strong and healthy now. I want to help the orphanage somehow - even if its just giving them some soccer balls and packets of flour, although I would love to do something more sustainable and long term. 

The beds in the orphanage - 10 kids sleep in here.

The children's only 'choo' aka toilet. 

Some of the kids after finishing up their lunch of plain white rice. The kid in the brown shirt, second from the right, is Emmanuel. 

On top of housing 12 kids, the owner also feeds any children who come for meals every day.

CFK was initially started to create a soccer program for youths to bring different tribes together. This week, I got to go to a few of the soccer practices after work of a women's team, the Carolina Queens. Though I haven't really played soccer since I was ten, it felt so good to run for the first time since being here! The practice was very different than an American practice for a few reasons: it started 30-45 minutes late, the field was very bumpy, uneven, and mainly dirt, the goal posts didn't have nets, there were many kids running around and through the field, the women didn't have cleats although CFK lends them some (yet one girl still played in flats/dressy shoes), they play rough yet don't get injured, they never run to the line when doing sprints, and never chase after the ball when it goes out of bounds because they know some kid will get it for them. So in some respects it seemed way more relaxed, but the women were much tougher - they didn't even pay attention to where they were stepping, even though I felt like I was going to roll my ankle at any moment. 

The women finally getting cleats (used one's probably from American donation centers) - no more playing in socks! 

There was also a jump rope program for kids going on at the same time as the practice, and they were amazing! I joined in a bit, although I couldn't do much than jumping up and down in double dutch. 

Kibera Primary School - the largest field in Kibera where soccer teams play, and the jump rope program is held. 

This week it really hit me that I only have 4 weeks left here, and that I want to be using every minute of my time in a way that will glorify God, teach me new things, deepen relationships, and help the people in Kibera. I am not really sure what that looks like beyond making charcoal, but I do know I can do more (ideas welcome!). Pray for me to not be lazy, and to be open to how God wants to use me. 

The people of Kibera showed me this week that talent truly is universal - they wow me every day with their skills, work ethic, dreams, and ability to survive. But no matter how hard they work, the opportunities usually just are not there. That is what breaks my heart, makes me ever more grateful for the opportunities I have in America, and gives me a longing to somehow provide more opportunities.