The big city

So I'm in Nairobi right now and I really don't like it. There are so many people and it's so crowded and crazy and congested. The traffic is unreal at all hours of the day. I'm visiting my homestay family from when I was here last year, so I am excited about that.

The past few days in Kisumu were very promising. I went to the KYFA (Kisumu Youth Football Association) office, which is the organization I worked with last time I was here, and I gave them a huge bag full of soccer balls and another full of uniforms. They were beyond excited! So they asked me to help with a few projects they're involved in. Possibly starting a football academy and helping to promote their org within the community. Should be really interesting..

Thursday I visited an organization right in town called HOVIC. I can't remember exactly what it stands for but it's a drop-in center for street kids. So the kids, mostly boys, who live on the street come to HOVIC in the morning and they get breakfast and then they have lessons in an informal school setting for a few hours and then they are given lunch. After this, they return to the streets where they spend the rest of the day usually begging and they sleep on the streets. HOVIC does some work with repatriation of the kids and trying to find out where they're from and why they left. They offer counsellors and social workers for the kids to talk to. Almost all of the kids do drugs, usually sniffing glue, opium or marijuana. So when they come to the center they have to leave the drugs outside so they are clean while they're in the center. Remember most of these kids are between 9 and 15.....

HOVIC works with Pandipieri, the org I'm working with because they refer kids to Pandi where they are given a place to stay for a few months before attempting to reintegrate them back into their communities. So as you can imagine, it is really challenging work for the staff and volunteers there, but I think it's rewarding because street children are so marginalized in society here. So hopefully I will be able to volunteer at the center a little bit and get to know some of the kids. They are also having a sports day for street children in a few weeks and I'm helping to organize that. The boys will be able to play soccer and have a meal and just have a really good day.

I'm back in Kisumu on Monday, so I'm going to try to enjoy Nairobi for the next 2 days... :-)

The last few days have been full of lots and lots of sports... who knew right. Saturday morning I went to the sports grounds in town and watched a basketball game. It was a part of the national league... think NBA of Kenya, but it's actually more like lower level college basketball in the US. It was still really fun because they played at an outdoor asphalt court, not fun if you fall. Saturday afternoon I watched a game from the nationwide soccer league and my friend coaches one of the teams. Saturday night I got to go out and enjoy some Kenyan music and drinks. The beer of choice here being Tusker...

On Monday, there was a try-out for the program called Aspire Africa. It's a program that goes to 9 different countries trying to recruit young talent to come and train at an academy in Qatar. It is open to boys born in 1995. So there are a bunch of tryout sites in the country and then they choose a few from each site and those boys go to Nairobi for the final tryout and the best 3 are given full scholarships to live and train in the academy in Qatar. So it's a really cool program, even though not many kids will benefit from it. So I met the Spanish scout who was here choosing the players and it was a really fun day. Later in the day, there was another game I watched and it ended up pouring in the middle of the game and everyone stood in this abandoned house for like 30 mins. The rain wouldn't stop so we had to run across the "field", which was actually just mud by that point, to get to the vehicle we were taking home. I was absolutely soaked and stepping in huge mud puddles and sinking up to my ankles in mud while all these people were waiting in buildings around us and laughing and yelling "mzungu" (white person)... it was quite the sight.

I have a cold right now so I didn't do much today. Not exactly roughing it right now as I'm sitting in my living room writing this blog entry because we have a wireless modem and I just watched Oprah and now switching back and forth between MTV and E!Entertainment channel (Yes I have cable, which has a few American channels). Yet, I did take a bucket shower today, had to pour water in the toilet to flush it, and washed dishes WITHOUT running water. I love it here!

Yesterday I visited the nutrition clinic that Pandipieri puts on every Tuesday in a slum here called Obunga. There were about 15 mothers and they children ages 4 months to 4 years. All the children are severely malnourished. The workers talk to them about health and sanitation and the proper foods to feed their kids and how to have a balanced diet. They also teach them about sanitation and diapers, clean water and the importance of bathing their children. The kids are absolutely so cute, but some of them look like their arms and legs will snap any minute. They are SO skinny. Then there are others who have huge bellies, another sign of malnourishment. It's just so sad because these mothers want to help their children, but they just kept saying how they have no money to buy food. The clinic evaluates each child weekly and gives the mother some food for the week and any other needed medications. Some of the kids are 2 or 3 and they look like babies. It was really really sad....

Not much else is new. I'll post some pictures soon!

First week of volunteering

So overall this past week was pretty good. I started volunteering on Monday. This week I helped with the informal education program. There are two classes, called phase 1 and phase 2. Phase one is mostly kids who would normally be in first through third grade. Phase 2 is kids who would be in fourth through six grade or so. This makes the teaching difficult because within one class, many of the kids are at different levels. I spent most of my time with the Phase 1 class. The teacher asked me to teach an English lesson on Tuesday morning so I taught body parts and we played Simon Says. It was fun, but hard because a lot of the kids don't understand English well, especially the really little ones. Tuesday afternoon I went with the kids to play soccer, but I didn't actually play because I didn't know what was the plan so I was wearing sandals and a dress... hardly soccer clothes. They thought I should just play barefoot, but honestly the "field" they were playing was a little different than what I'm used to. I would have had a hard time WALKING across is barefoot, let alone playing soccer. Wednesday and Thursday I did more observing than teaching. I mostly have to speak to the kids in my broken Swahili because speaking English is not happening.

Overall, I am excited about working with Pandipieri. The only issues I have are the lack of communication and the seemingly disorganized ways. Things are just different here. Efficiency and speed are NOT part of the work environment. The pace and structure of American ways is nonexistent here and that is hard for me to adjust to. Two different times this week the teachers told me that we were taking the kids fishing in the afternoon. I was obviously excited about this and couldn't wait to go. Both times I would come back to the center after lunch and somehow the plans had changed and no one had thought to inform me... Just a bit frustrating. Oh well.... Next week I will be spending each day with a different health program so I'm really looking forward to that, even though it will be challenging to see people in the conditions they will be in... malnourished children, teenage mothers, HIV positive people who can't afford the ARV drugs, etc.

Still pretty hot every day but luckily it has been raining in the evening and cooling down at night. I wear SPF 50 sunscreen every day and I reapply like crazy and I still got burnt the other day. To get around, I pretty much try to take boda-bodas (bicycle taxis) as much as possible. I love them and it's definitely the cheapest means of transport. Not too much else to report... I was proposed to the other day which is always fun. Today is a national holiday so I'm excited for the three day weekend... yay!

October already?!?!

Today was my first day of volunteering. I will be working with an organization called Panidpieri, which is actually the name of one of the slums in Kisumu. Their website is www.pandipieri.org. They are a pretty well known organization here and are highly regarded. They have three programs: a street children rehabilitation program, health services program and an education program. I will mostly be working with the street kids, but for the next few weeks I will actually be able to experience all of their projects. Next week I will be helping with a different health project each day. Some of the projects include educating mothers on balanced diets for their babies, home visits for HIV positive patients and terminally ill patients, VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) for HIV, and health education programs for youth involving theater. I am really excited to experience the variety of services Pandipieri offers. This week I am involved in the education program. As a part of the rehabilitation and reintegration of the street children, they have an informal school that children attend during the day that will help them get back on track for school when they are reintegrated. Basically what the organization does it find kids, mostly boys age 8-15, who are living on the streets and they bring them in to the center. During a 3 to 4 month process they try to find out where the child is from, why they left home, and make contact with their family and attempt to reintegrate the child back into their family and community. If this is not possible, they have vocational training for kids and also they send some kids to boarding schools to continue their education depending on heir age. There are about 30 boys and 10 girls at the center who live and go to school there. They have a soccer team which participates in the league in town. So I mostly just observed in the classroom today. Tomorrow, they asked if I would teach the English lesson, the drawing lesson and anything else that I wanted haha. So we'll see how that goes. Like I said it's an informal school so it's much more relaxed than the public primary schools. So that is what I will be doing with my time here. This won't be a full time thing because I would like to help out at KYFA, the youth soccer association I worked with last time I was here.

Otherwise, my accommodations are good. No running water, but bucket showers work well. I even washed the dishes the other day which took me an hour and with running water would have taken maybe 15 minutes. I bought a fridge and a microwave... so I'm not exactly roughing it. I even went running yesterday morning. It was quite amusing because not only am I white, but I'm a girl and I was running, which is pretty unusual here so I got even more looks than usual. I also have cable where I'm staying, which means we have 12 channels instead of 3... but one of them in FOX Sports so I'm able to watch American sports wahooooo. I watched the UNC Women's soccer team play on Friday and I watched NFL football last night... pretty sweet. The food is good. Lots of rice and french fries and good fruit. Needless to say, I have not had chocolate in 2 weeks!

I am asked about Obama probably 6-7 times a day because everyone here thinks he is their brother because his father was a Luo man from this area. Every store sells t-shirts with his face on it and you can buy DVD's of his speeches and photo montages of him set to music.... they are obsessed.

Keep me updated on all American news. I wish I had the patience to keep up to date more from the internet, but not having instant high-speed internet is unbelievably frustrating. More to come soon!!!