Christmas?!?

It is still 90 degrees every day, there is no crazy holiday shopping, no holiday music, no snow, no santa and no Christmas baking! Not quite the same as home... The last week I have just been catching up on everything from when I was on vacation. The organizations I'm working with are closing for the holidays and people will start to travel tomorrow, mostly to the rural areas to be with family during the holidays.

I am currently sitting in the only coffee shop in Kisumu that offers FREE wireless internet. It's so bizarre. It's really nicely decorated on the inside and almost feels like Starbucks. I'm drinking a white chocolate mocha and eating a chocolate croissant... where am I again?!? Yet, on Thursday this week I went for a pre-home visit with one of the counselors from Pandipieri. One of the boys at the center, who is 8, they are trying to place him back in his rural home. So we took public transportation for two hours to the place where the boy says he is from. It's past a town called Bondo which is west of here. So we get off the van in the absolute middle of nowhere near this tiny town and the guy I'm with starts asking people if they know the boy (he has a picture). Someone recognizes the boy and they call the man who is the supposed guardian of the boy. We get this man's phone number and tell the people we will contact him soon to discuss plans for the boy to be reintegrated. After being there for maybe 20 minutes, we turn around and get back into a van to come home... successful trip, sorta... On the way back, the door falls off the van, the lady next to me is holding a box of rotten tomatoes and the man in front of me is carrying live chickens. At that point, I REALLY wished I had the white chocolate mocha.

The football team I am supporting is doing so well! They are practicing almost daily, all the kids have quit sniffing glue and they are really focused on working hard so maybe they can go back to school sometime soon. My friend Elizabeth and I are also helping the organization (HOVIC) to start planning to set up a drop in center for street girls. It will be a temporary shelter where the can sleep at night and also be a place where they will receive vocational training. Right now, we are still working on funding and planning, but I'm really excited about the project.

So basically, I have a lot of projects going on here, but I really feel like I am contributing to all of them. I'm excited for the next two weeks of holiday celebrations and seeing my family!

Lamu

So the last part of our vacation was absolutely amazing. We left Malindi on Wednesday morning and took the worst bus ride ever up to Lamu. It was about 4 and a half hours of literally hanging onto our seats so we didn’t fall on the person next to us. We would hit bumps sometimes and come a foot off our seat. It was crazy and pretty much like off roading on a dirt road in a huge bus…pretty great. Since Lamu is an island we had to take the ferry from the mainland which was more like a small crowded motor boat. We arrived and were immediately swarmed by people trying to tell us places to stay and toursity things to do. We had an idea about a guest house from a guide book and found it and got a cheap rate (think $3.50 each per night). We just lounged the rest of the evening and checked out a local food place. Everywhere we walked we were constantly followed by local guys and not really in a bad way. Lamu is so different than the rest of Kenya because it is actually safe. You can walk around at night with lots of money and not have to worry about getting mugged or anything.

So Thursday we decided to spend the day on the beach. There are two main beaches in the island so we went to the other town on the island, Shela, and spent the day on Shela Beach. I can honestly say Lamu Island is hands down the most beautiful and amazing place I have ever been. The beach was great and no crowded at all and the water was totally warm and great for swimming. At night we would hang out with a lot of the people we met during the day. We met tons of other travelers including some couples from Canada, a British guy, American girls, and Peace Corps volunteers from Kenya and Uganda. It was so fun to meet other travelers and hear their stories.

Friday was the best day. We had heard that the thing to do in Lamu is to do a day trip on a dhow, which is the traditional wooden sailboats made there. So we left around 10 with 3 other American we had met while there. We sailed over to a beach on Manda Island which is right next to Lamu. The three other Americans stayed and snorkeled there while Cara, Elizabeth and I went deep sea fishing with the crew. It was AWESOME! They caught a ton of fish and they would let us reel them in because we weren’t so lucky with catching out own fish. We used fishing line wrapped around a block of wood with a weight and hook on the end. All we did was let the line out and pull it back in by wrapping it around the block. They caught fish like red snapper and leatherjackets. After the fishing we sailed back to the island to meet the others. While we swam and lounged the crew made lunch. They cooked the fish we had just caught, coconut rice, a vegetable mix and also cut up fresh fruit like passion fruit, mango, oranges and bananas. It was the best mean EVER. In the afternoon we sailed back to Lamu and went home to clean up for our evening event which was a beach party also on Manda Island. So we went with a few other people we had met, some Candians and British people. We got to the beach and got to see the sunset from the boat and from the island. It was unreal. We set up a mat on the beach and the local guys we were with made a fire for us and made food. A similar meal to lunch: chapati (like flatbread), fresh fish and coconut vegetables and fruit. After dinner the locals started some drumming and singing, mostly reggae style stuff. We all sat around and drank coconut wine, which sounds delicious but was easily the worst concoction I have ever tasted. The stars were so bright and easy to see, the air was warm and the company was phenomenal. It was such a great night and we even got to sail back to Lamu at night which was quite an experience.

Since we had so much fun, we decided to stay an extra day. Saturday we spent more time on the beach and eating delicious seafood (like crabcakes yummmm). Overall Lamu was absolutely amazing. The people are wonderful, the landscape is beautiful and the island is so rich in history. The bus ride back to MOmbasa was horrible, the train to Nairobi was ok and the night bus back to Kisumu was fine. The 45 hour travel back to Kisumu was not fun, but the whole trip was so worth it.

It’s nice to be back here now and kinda get back into the swing of things…

Yesterday, Cara and I visited HOVIC and brought some American music. We taught all the kids how to do some American dances. We looked so ridiculous, but it was SO MUCH fun. The soccer team from HOVIC that I'm helping out with also go second place in a tournament last weekend, so everyone there is pretty excited.

the coast

So I am currently traveling with my two friends on the coast. We left Nairobi on Friday night and took the overnight train to Mombasa. It was supposed to take 14 hours but ended up taking 20. Oh well, we still got there and found a guest house to stay in right in town. We showered, in cold water of course and chilled for the evening. That night we went out for dinner and drinks and enjoyed a bit of the coastal city night life... very fun. Sunday morning we shopped around it town and bought some cloths called kangas which are brighly colored wraps that Kenyan women wear. Then we headed toward the ferry (because the city of Mombasa is on an island) and crossed the channel. From there we took a matatu, a 14 passenger van t othe town of Ukunda and from there to Diani Beach. We found a place to stay (using the Lonely Planet guidebook which we have been living by!). It was a cottage about 100 yards from the beach and it had a restaurant attached, very very cool. We spent the afternoon on the beach and swam. The water was wartmer than any shower I have take here the entire time....

Monday morning we woke up very early and took a matatu to Bodo, the little village we did our rural homestay in when I was a student here. It's in the absolute middle of nowhere and its beautiful. It was cool for Cara and Elizabeth to see it and meet my family and everything. We drank water from fresh coconuts, walked around the village, saw the beach, ate coconut rice, and relaxed. It was wonderful! Later we somehow got a free ride back to our place, which was nice. We ate at restaurant last night right on the water with our feet in the sand. Diani Beach is pretty touristy but there are some beautiful places.

This morning we headed back into Mombasa and took the ferry to town where we boarded a matatu to Malindi. We got to Malindi, put out stuff in a guest House (thanks Lonely Planet) and headed to the beach where we spent the last 4 hours. It was not quite as nice of a beach but still pretty sweet. Were leaving here tomorrow morning to go to Lamu, an island 4 hours north of here up towards the Somali border. It's supposed to be beautiful, very traditional and awesome. I'm hyped....

The trip has been great so far. We have really enjoyed it and it's been nice to get away from the every day routine. I've seen more white people in the last 2 days than in the last 3 months combined.. haha but still not many Americans.

I hope everyone is enjoying the wonderful December weather in the US. It is 90 and sunny and beautiful and hot here EVERY DAY. I'll soak up some rays for you all....

just a day in my life...

Saturday was quite an interesting day. In the morning, the team I am sponsoring from HOVIC had a friendly soccer match in town. It was a great match because the kids have these new uniforms that were donated to them and new cleats so they really look like a legitimate team. They kept telling me "People won't even know we are street kids when we play." A very proud moment for them... And they won the game 5-4 so I think we are off to a good start for the season.

In the afternoon, my friend and I went to Kakamega, which is a town about an hour north of Kisumu, for a soccer match. A few of my friends play for a team there called Western Stima who competes in the Premier League, which is the top league in Kenya. It was their last game of the season and they had to win in order to stay in the league and not be kicked out. The ride up there was in a matatu which are vans and the main for of transportation here. At one point I think there were 22 people in the car, which is made to seat 14. Later in the trip a woman got on who was carrying a live chicken... pretty typical in Kenya.

We got to the stadium in Kakamega and there were tons of people there to support the team, me being the only white person of thousands, obviously. During the second half we went and sat right behind the team bench and the one camera man from the local TV station came and filmed me for like 5 minutes. Everyone was staring at me the entire game. A mzungu (white person) at a football match in Western Kenya... apparently that was news worthy. Luckily, Western Stima scored in the first half and won the game 1-0. People went crazy at the end of the game and rushed the field. Everyone was chanting and cheering and dancing... slighlty different than celebrations in the US. Also during the game, people were yelling things at the ref like "You obvisouly didn't eat your ugali today," (ugali being a staple food in the Kenyan diet that is thought to give people strength, yet it is made from ONLY flour and water) and others were saying "You must have gone to see a witch doctor recently." These are pretty typical criticisms here that I don't think would be very effective in the US....

After the game, since we knew players on the team, we got to ride on the team bus through town. All the players were singing and clapping and waving signs that said Western Stima from the bus and we drove SLOWLY all through town. Now remember, they didn't win the league... they didn't even finish in the top 10 (out of 16). They finished third from last and just missed being relegated. Basically they were the winner of the losers and this was the celebration. Kinda funny.... We went to a restaurant and they had a team meeting and then a bunch of them and us rode on the bus back to Kisumu. During the hour and 15 minute ride back, the bus overheated twice, so the trip ended up taking almost 2 hours.

Needless to say it was a totally fun day and just really emphasized the fact that I am soooooo far away from home haha. I guess sometimes it's easy to forget when I'm here in Kisumu because i is much more of a city and there are some things I am used to, but once you leave the city it is a whole different world.... and I totally love it!

So recently the thing that I have missed most about home is the FOOD, or should I say the variety of food. I love the food here, don't get me wrong, but there just isn't as much stuff as home. I went into town yesterday to do only one thing... go to the supermarket and buy cheese!!! I came home and made a cheese and vegetable sandwich and was in absolute heaven. It's the little things in life....

Work is going well. I've basically been doing a lot of planning recently for an academy that is going to be started by KYFA. It will basically be a mobile clinic that will move around Kisumu and do mini-camps on the weekends for kids. I've also been planning the budget for the HOVIC soccer team that will play in the league for the first time this season. The kids are so excited to be part of a team and be playing and thankfully a lot of people from home have been really great and generous with contributions to help fund them.

Not much other news here. Serena Williams was in Kenya last week opening a secondary school that has been named in her honor. I watched a news story last night about recent violence in a prison here. An inmate (who somehow had a camera phone in prison?!!?) had filmed the guards making many prisoners strip and then beating them until they were unconscious and even killing one man. Most likely no one will be arrested in this case... just a different world here.

All else is well. Just looking forward to my trip to the coast next week. Touristy vacation, here I come!

I arrived at Pandipieri this morning because today I'm supposed to work with their rehabilitation project and of course, no one is here because they all went to a meeting and no one told me. Awesome... this is the type of stuff that is frustrating here, but at least they have internet here so I get to write in my blog haha.

This week has been pretty low-key so far. Monday I helped out in the school here and red some books with the kids while they teach me Swahili and I try to teach them English. Tuesday I went with one of the case workers here to follow up on a case that has gone to court involving the rape of a ten year old girl. They deal with A LOT of cases like that here and it is really hard for me to br around sometimes. The way things are dealth with here is so different than home. It is such a slow process that in my opinion does not do nearly enough to protect the child or apprehend the criminals. So to hear the adults involved speak about the case so non-chalantly is quite upsetting to me. I just have to bite my tongue and deal with it, which is really draining and hard for me.

As far as my work with the soccer association goes, I am helping them get ready for their upcoming season which will start in the middle of Decemeber. This involved developing a lot of documents with rules, regulations, expectations, consent forms and things like that. I am also helping them to plan and hopefully implement an academy of sorts under the umbrella of KYFA. It will essentially be a travelling camp that will train local kids and coaches. Hopefully some of my sports admin training will pay off...

Everything else is going well. In two weeks an American girl I met here, myself and my friend from UNC who is coming to visit are all going for a touristy vacation on the coast. I am so excited for that!

Obama

So the last few days have been quite eventful. Tuesday night I stayed up pretty late watching election stuff and then I woke up at 4:30 am my time which was 8:30 eastern time. It was so exciting to watch everything. One of the main TV stations here was showing the CNN broadcast so I watched that along with BBC News, Al Jazeera, and Sky News. So it was definitely interesting to see the different broadcasts. When they announced the Obama win I was yelling and screaming and SO excited. The speeches were very emotional and everything here was crazy. They kept showing Kogelo, the birthplace of Obama’s dad, on TV. That is about 2 hours from where I’m living. So later in the day when I finally left the house, EVERYONE on the streets was yelling to me things like “Obama’s sister” and “Yes we can.” People were playing music really loud in the streets and everyone was dancing and singing. There are a lot of songs here by local musicians about Obama so I heard those songs all day long. I could not stop smiling all day and it was really a cool experience to be here when he won. That afternoon the president here, Kibaki, declared Thursday a public holiday, Obama Day haha. So Thursday was a national holiday and it was nice to just relax and celebrate.

Yesterday I spent the whole day with kids. In the morning I visited HOVIC, the drop-in center for street kids. I hung out with them while the listened to music and some of them showed me their sweet dance moves. Later in the day we went to play soccer in town. Some visitors from the UK had brought the kids some donated cleats and uniforms so the kids got to look like real teams when they played. They were sooooo excited and they kept saying “Kelsey look, we don’t even look like street children now!” So it was a good day for them. In the afternoon, all the kids and staff from Pandipieri came into town and we played a soccer match with the staff vs. the kids. I played for the staff and was of course the only girl playing. After the first time or two that I sprinted I thought my lungs were going to collapse haha. Those kids can run forever, but it was so fun to play with them. Of course, I have no idea what any of them are saying ever because everyone speaks in their mother tongue, Dholuo, so I kinda just stand there and smile. I played much better than I thought I would and the kids were pretty impressed, I think mostly because I’m a girl but I guess also because I’m white. Needless to say, after about two hours of playing I had to stop because I thought my legs would give out haha. It was a great day to be able to spend a lot of time with the kids. I really feel like I am starting to connect with some of them which is cool because there is still a major language barrier. Now when I’m walking around town a lot of the street kids recognize me and come and talk to me.

So I’m working with HOVIC to try and help develop their soccer program. They are entering three teams, under 12, under 14 and under 16, in the local KYFA league here this season. They are looking for funding to transport the kids to a field every day and so feed the kids during the season and pay a few fees to be in the league. Hopefully I will be able to use my resources and connections to help them, but we are also trying to develop a plan to make their organization sustainable and maybe start involving the kids in some income generating activities so they can be self-sustainable. We’ll see how it goes…

This morning I had a pedicure here in the house. This girl I met, a friend of a friend, works at a salon in town and she offered to come to the house to give me a pedicure. It was hands down the most thorough pedicure I have ever had, although some of it was a little painful (maybe African women are tougher than me…). I had to do some deep breathing to get past my intense disgust with feet and realize that my feet definitely needed this. The whole thing cost $5… I love Kenya.