Homestay

From February 19^th to March 9^th I will be staying with the Okello family.  On that Sunday, our compound set up a huge white tent to accompany the incoming families that would be picking us up.  Issiah our cook made finger food and chai for the 22 families that arrived between 4 and 6.  My family was one of the first families to arrive.  There is Audrey 10, Vanessa 11, Nicole 15, and the mom Joanne who is a banker and the dad Maxwell who owns his own business called Xtinguish.  The goal of this home stay excursion is to introduce us to the lifestyle of the urban area and compare it to our first rural homestay in Meru.  During these three weeks I will be traveling from my home to the UKC where I take classes, therefore I will be able to see the other students and keep up with classes.  Some students live near each other and walk to school together, others have their parents drop them off.  I am in the second category.  I live on Mombasa road in Executive Estates- a new neighborhood that has mini apartment/condo living areas.  The apartments look very modern and the inside is very nice- tiled floors, a huge dinning room table, leather couches, plasma screen tv, and two floors.  I live in my own room on the first floor that has a huge square glass table for doing my work, an armoire that covers the length of my wall, and a bunk bed that I don’t share with anyone.  The rest of the family lives upstairs and the housemaid, Katherine, lives in a separate living quarters connected to the outside of the house.  Nicole does not live at home right now because she is attending boarding school (high school) about two hours away as most rural and urban students do at this time.  Luckily, Nicole came home for a mid-semester weeklong break so I was able to meet her. 

            Every morning I wake up at 6 AM to get ready to leave for school at around 6:45.  The family only has one car so Maxwell, the dad, must drop off Vanessa and Audrey at primary school, drop me off at the UKC, drop off Joanne at her bank, and then drive himself to work.  So, its necessary that we wake up early and leave early so everyone arrives to their destination on time.  When I wake up breakfast is on the table that usually consists of bread and jam or mandazzi (fried dough pieces), and of course chai.  We all eat breakfast fast and I usually burn my tongue on the chai because I have to chug it down before I get in the car.  Before leaving Katherine usually hands me a snack- usually a mango and a banana or more mandazzi- greeeeat that’s healthy eating.  When we leave at 6:45, we normally arrive at our first stop- Vanessa and Audrey’s school at 7:30.  The school is probably about ten minutes away however with the enormous amounts of traffic it takes us a really long time to get there.  Eventually I make my way to school- depending on traffic at about 7:45 or 8 and my first class Swahili starts at 8:30.  The traffic is so bad here and the roads are terrible which makes for a pretty brutal ride in the car.  To keep myself occupied I usually read Citizen or The Nation- two of Kenya’s prominent newspapers, or I’ll fall asleep.  At school my favorite part is when I don’t have classes because I am free to roam around the city, find lunch, and go shopping.  We have found some great places to eat such as KP’s Lounge which has a bar with leopard couches or Zaytoons which has flat screen tvs and outdoor seating underneath the shade of draped tapestries. 

            This weekend I didn’t really do much to my surprise.  On Friday night I was allowed to go out and the group decided to meet up in Westlands- the hub of bars and nightclubs.  We were tipped off about this place from one of the student’s host sister.  It is such an ordeal to coordinate going out in a foreign country- we all live in different parts of the city and no one wants to travel alone for very long so I had to take two separate taxies to finally arrive at Westlands which is about 15 minutes from my house.  I live the farthest from the city, which really stinks because I have to pay a lot for a cab to take me into to where all the bars are.  On Friday from school I went right to Rachael’s house because I didn’t want to pay for a taxi to and from my house because it would have cost me $30 USD.  When I was at Rachael’s house we went to a local running park about a ten-minute walk again.  This was awesome, I was so happy to be running on trails and there is an extensive network there at the park called the Aboredom. At this park we saw tons of marathon trainers wearing matching sweat suits looking very legit.  After going to the park we returned, showered, and got ready to go out.  Once we at dinner, our cab driver went and picked up Frances who lives in a huge house equipped with a guard dressed in camo carrying and AK-47. Frances lives with the secretary of state to Kibaki, the president. Lucky. Westlands was a really fun time- we bar hopped to about six different bars, met locals, and plenty of Europeans. 

            On Saturday we didn’t do anything really- I woke up, had breakfast, and watched NEXT, an old MTV tv show that got canceled in the US, with my host sisters.  I did some homework, took a nap, and watched more tv.  At around 8 PM we all went out to an Indian Restaurant in Westlands.  I liked the concept of this restaurant because families would come and they could cook their own dinner- like camping. Or, what we did was we made someone make is for us in a cooking area right next to our dinner table.  The food was delicious! We had curried chicken and nan and for dessert gelato.  Sunday was pretty laid back as well.  Church started at 11:30 and no one went except Nicole and I, and we arrived an hour late at 12:30.  The church service was for teens and it was held in a huge white tent equipped with a band, flat screen tvs flashing lyrics to songs, and plenty of teens dancing and singing.  What was different about this church was that I didn’t get stared at, followed, or bombarded with questions as happened in Meru. 

            Later, Maxwell’s sister and friends came over who just moved back to Kenya after living in Ireland for four years.  Her kids- Jeremy and Teddy around the age of 10 accompanied them.  My host sisters, Ted, Jeremy and I all played upstairs while watching the Tottham vs Arsenal game as the adults also watched the game while drinking mini-kegs.  The Arsenal team is very popular among Kenyans so the household was bumping with excitement and screaming.  The victory put Maxwell in a very good mood! He even invited me to go to a game on Wednesday- Kenya vs Togo, an international game held at a grand stadium close to my house. I am pumped!!!

Baobab Trees

Tanzania and the Hadza Continued

I felt very awkward taking pictures and observing the very real lifestyle of the Hadza.  I didn’t want to view their culture as a museum piece and therefore take a passive observer approach.  Instead we all asked questions, participated in their daily activities- we didn’t accept things instead we challenged them.  This way the Hadza learned a lot about us and we learned a ton from them.  The Hadza always LOVE to have tourists come see them- when there are active participants.  The St. Lawrence Program has been going to Tanzania to spend time with the Hadza since the 1980s and every semester they look forward to seeing new kids.  The Hadza are not completely cut off from society as I first imagined.  They smoke a lot of weed and tobacco so this has to come from somewhere since they don’t grow it- they are not farmers or pastoralists.  They don’t grow anything on their own.  They survive completely off the land- their source of nutrition does not change as the weather does.  In other words, their diet is completely sustainable.  When game runs out of their area, or if their water source dries up and there is no rainfall they will pack up and move to a different area.  When we arrived the Hadza has been living in the area for about eight months- a longer stay than usual.  On average the Hadza stay in one area between 4-6 months.  Since game has been plenty and they have a reliable source of water close by and an abundance of baobab trees for honey they have decided to stay. 

            After our day’s excursion of gathering and climbing baobab trees to collect honey we returned to the camp exhausted.  The sun is so strong in the valley that it really drains you.  As I said before eating has not been a problem- although we stay with the Hadza we do not eat like them.  If we did we would probably get sick and there is no way their day’s hunting can support their community and 22 kids.  They have about 20-30 members in their community and in the Yaeda valley there were about 750 total members of Hadza.

            The next day we woke up at about 5 AM, packed up our tents and all of our belongings, loaded them onto the Humvees and set off to cross the Yaeda valley.  A group of 10 Hadza men accompanied us and showed us the way across the valley.  The purpose for this journey was 1, to see the Yaeda valley, 2 meet up with another group of Hadza, and 3 accompany the Hadza men while they hunt.  The hike was completely flat but with no shade.  We carried plenty of water but the water was never cold or refreshing- it tasted like the container of gasoline it was carried in.  The hike took about 7 hours including the multiple times we stopped for water or snack breaks.  During these hours it was imperative for all of us to be as silent as we could- hunting requires silence and stealthy movement, which was obviously a challenge for our group of 22.  At one point during the trip we all stopped dead in our tracks as a huge warthog ran by.  The 4 Hadza men that accompanied us leapt into action like clockwork but the warthog was too fast and ran away.  But let me tell you, this animal was HUGE and we could tell they were disappointed that they didn’t catch it.  If they caught it there would have been a huge celebration.  The food they catch is always distributed to their other communities- they are focused around sharing and community network building.  Alas, they warthog were too quick and we moved on. Since the men didn’t have breakfast they located a big dove in one of the trees, took out their bow and arrow and shot it with no effort.  They made a fire, stripped the bird of its feathers, and cooked it. 

            For our lunch break we met up with a group of Hadza that lived at the bottom of the valley.  From the bottom of the valley we looked up about a couple kilometers and saw a huge rock- the summit, or highest point of the valley wall, and looked at our campsite.  It was awesome to think that as I was climbing, I was climbing a valley wall, the site of tribal exchange for tens of thousands of years.  As we climbed, some women from this particular Hadza community came with us.  Once at the top we ran up the side of rock and got an amazing view of the entire Yaeda Valley.  We could see gazelles running around looking like little specks at the bottom of the valley. 

           

            After the long hike we all decided to go to bed early, we were all really tired from the hike.  The next day were finally allowed to sleep in- until 7 which to me was not sleeping in at all but the past couple days our wake up call came at 5 or 6 AM.  In the morning we set out to conquer climbing a baobab tree.  This one didn’t have any honey in it or any bees to worry about.  Mochi, one of the Hadza that accompanied us across the valley cut us wooden pegs and hammered them into the tree for us.  Afterwards the other Hadza men climbed the tree with ease to the very top and sat there and chilled out while they watched us struggle to climb. The men climbed with easy and swung from the branches, they didn’t even need to use the pegs to climb the tree; they were so natural about it.  We all took turns to climb and sit in the tree.  When we were finished we were allotted time to sit together and plan our presentations for Friday- yes we had homework and my assignment was to research-using our Tanzania package, the development of the Hadza and outsider’s perspective on the Hadza.  

            Later in the evening, the Hadza collected these special thin tree branches that are used to make bows.  To make the bows: step 1 heat them up by holding them over the fire step 2 when the thin bark was hot, peel it off- it comes off pretty easily, step 3 sharpen the end, step 4 heat the bow up and straighten it out by using your teeth (hold the bow between your teeth and pull on either end of the bow, the bow is pretty flexible and bendable). After our bow was completed they aided us in making designs on our bows and attaching feathers at the end.  In the time it took me to make one bow, they would crank out 5- this skill is so first nature to them.

            The next day was a hunting day so we set our alarm for 5 AM, which was a struggle. The previous night we slept on top of the huge rock and star gazed. The sky is so clear and the constellations were crystal clear, even the Milky Way.  I also saw a couple shooting stars.  On top of the rock it was very cool and windy which was a nice change from the hot tent.  The night’s sleep was so comfortable and the rock was very flat on top to accommodate many people sleeping.  The only time I woke up was at about 1 AM because the moon finally appeared and it was huge and shinning so bright.  In a few hours I awoke, got breakfast and brought it up to the rock to watch the first rays of sun come up beyond the valley. Next we were paired up with two Hadza for each group of 4 and spent the entire morning hunting.  From 5-12:30 we hiked across the valley in search of giraffes, warthogs, gazelles, birds, bush babies etc to hunt.  After about two hours of walking quietly in the hot sun we found a little rabbit like critter.  One Hadza man shot it straight on with an arrow.  He tied a rope around its neck made from bark and gave it to Tyler, a member of my group, to carry for the next couple hours. Lucky him… not. It was dripping blood everywhere.  To get better views of the area and the animals running around we could climb various mountains not more than 100 yds high.  We would scramble up rocks, sit on top, and look out over the valley for animals.  We did this each time we found a mountain.  Sometimes we would just go up and chill out for a half hour to rest, other times we’d frantically search the ground for any signs of movement.  The Hadza didn’t want to eat the critter just yet, when we returned to the camp they would skin in and eat it.  When we were on top of a mountain we noticed that this rabbit like creature looked rather fat.  One of the men cut it open and noticed it had a baby inside!!! L He pulled out this wet naked mole rat with its eyes closed. How terrible but to them they were very lucky because they were going to eat it.  Poor baby. 

            When we got back from hunting we noticed that no other group got any food except for our group! You see that hunting can be hit or miss but since our group caught something they will share it with all.  The Hadza community shares and values the community well being.  They didn’t eat a lot today so tomorrow they will hunt for a longer amount of time in order to eat their full.  I asked if they ever go hungry since every day can be hit or miss.  They said no because they smoke a lot of tobacco and only eat when they are starving so they are used to feeling hunger.  This group is doing a lot better than any other traditional tribe like the Masai. We were allowed to pose questions to the Hadza that were translated by Maggie or K-Dog.  We asked various questions about their culture and traditions and I was most blown away about their responses.  It was truly amazing to hear their responses.  We asked them if they ever thought about developing- try agriculture, go to school, interact more with urban society, since their land is being encroached on by a variety of different parties.  Their culture and identity relies on land and if it is being taken up they will no longer have their tribe.  They said no they will never change; they are never tempted to modernize or try and develop their so called ‘primitive’ lifestyle that many Tanzanians view it as.  They are so confident and proud of their culture, they are proud to have visitors come that they never want to change.  People call them primitive, the government does nothing to stop other groups from encroaching on their land, and the president once called them a disgrace to the nation.  Yet this tribe has tremendous pride. They laugh it off and joke with each other and will not take any of the negativity to heart.  They will no fight back and they will not fight for their land because they are non-confrontational and only live in the present.  They are not worried about their future despite the threatening availability of land.  Their attitude was truly amazing and admirable.  After the trip I was blown away by their ability to live a symbiotic life with nature and with other tribes.  Their whole lifestyle is completely sustainable and their joy for their own heritage was powerful- they don’t want or need much to survive and they love the life they lead.   

            Nighttime was so much fun and it got pretty crazy! The Hadza all came, lit a huge fire and taught us dances.  We would dance around the fire while singing their songs.  At some points we’d all pair up and do a certain combination of steps.  They would teach us one of their dances and then we would teach them something.  We taught them the Macarena, the hokey-pokey, “When The Saints Go Marching In,” (For ST. Lawrence) and many other popular 90s pop songs.  It was an awesome experience to teach them some of our culture as they taught us some of theirs.  The campfire dancing was a medium of cultural exchange and it was so much fun.  We would imitate them when they would grunt and chant as they did with us as they tried to mimic our words  to “Jump On It.” One Hadza would play this home made instrument of a gourd with strings on it and he would play it with a bow made of giraffe tails.  After we’d alternate with Matt playing the guitar he brought.  It was such a fun night.  The little girls that joined us for the night loved the step dance I learned from Marissa and Destiny and my crumbing skills.  It was such a fun night and I have so many unforgettable memories.  This was by far the best part of the trip!

School Days

Each day of our school week are essentially the same: wake up at 7 go to Swahili at 8, from there travel to Nairobi for a full day of classes, return home by 5:30.  The schedule gets pretty monotonous but luckily, in total out of the entire four months we are here classes are crammed into seven weeks.  These school weeks are spread out in the semester between field components.  The benefit of this is that we only have 7 weeks of classes, however in those weeks we have a lot to accomplish.  The Swahili class is located in Karen, about a fifteen minute drive from our compound and this class is from 8-10.  At around 9ish all classes take a chai break and sit on our wooden benches in the shade of indigenous trees.  We lounge around for about a half an hour before we make our way back to class for our final half hour of Swahili.  I love having chai breaks because it makes the class go by so much faster.  The teachers all love their chai- they usually have about 2 cups in our half our break, and take one back into class with them.  Another option if one does like chai is uji or porridge.  Chai is always accompanied by pure sugar cane to put in our tea which tastes delicious. After Swahili we travel to the UKC (United Kenya Club) for our regular classes.  I don't exactly know what the UKC is- it is a apartment complex, outdoor/indoor dining, banquet hall, and mini gymnasium all located under the heading United Kenya Club. Our classes are held in an apartment building in the UKC.  We have our own kitchen, bathroom, and lounge area and each class is held there at different times.  Classes are not regular and are at random times throughout the week.  I am taking biodiversity and conservation and critical issues in socio-economic Kenya that focuses on the post-2007 election violence.  What I look forward to the most is our hour and a half lunch break where we are free to roam around Nairobi and look for places to eat or markets to browse through.
       For lunch we all like to break into little groups so were not a huge heard of white people, and it is also easier to cross the congested streets when there are less people.  Getting lunch in Nairobi is quite a process. Crossing the street is almost impossible because there are no road signs or street lights- we cross at our own discretion.  We usually cross when we see a native crossing and we tuck in behind them quickly scampering.  Our favorite places to go are the Java House, Nick's Grill, and Zaytoons.  These places offer a mix of westernized foods and African foods which is nice to alternate.  On average I spend about 2 USD or 150 kshs on food a day and the portion sizes are perfect for lunch.  Each week we are allotted a food stipend of 1500 kshs which is more than enough to spend on food.  The extra money I saved from my stipend went to buying traditional African fabric (kanga) to tailor into a skirt.  Another problem with the process of getting food is the language barrier.  Although English is included in Kenya's national languages- not everyone has the need for English unless conversing with a mzungu (European).  (By the way, I have not heard that term in a while which shows that the people around Nairobi are getting used to our presence.) Anyway, I ordered a egg sandwich one day and he didn't understand what egg sandwich was even though it was written on the menu. 
        Going to local markets in Nairobi can be very tiresome.  Upon entering into the market we are swarmed by owners heckling us to venture into their shop.  They see that we are white and immediately assume that we are rich and have come to buy many things at ridiculously high prices.  However, after being here a month we know that despite any "student discount" or "special American tourist sales" we are getting ripped off.  It is impossible to slowly meander through shops at my own pace because people will grab my arm and insist that their shop is the best of them all.  All of the shops essentially have the same items in them yet they all claim to be the artist, or jewelry maker, or weaver and that I should support their business.  It is draining because I am constantly saying no thank you, I'm just looking- people will NOT leave you alone until you buy something.  I tried to buy some post cards of African paintings but the man tried to charge me 400 kshs or $4.50ish. Hell no.  Once I spoke to him in Kiswahili he immediately lowered his price.
        Returning to the compound by our bus can be very frustrating.  The traffic in Nairobi during the rush hour 4:30-6 is impossible to get through and we move at the pace of molasses.  An 8ish mile drive from Nairobi back to Karen that should usually take 15 minutes take us an hour or more because of the traffic.  What's worse is that the bus is very hot and there is obviously no air conditioning.  Once arriving back on the compound I am usually too exhausted to even think about running but I force myself every day to run 4-5 miles with my usually running crew.  I mostly run to avoid sickness, and to air my body out after being in the congested city.  Also, it wouldn't be normal for me not to run- I don't remember when the last time I took a day off.  This upcoming week I will not have the opportunity to run at all for the group is going on a week-long visit to Tanzania.  Tomorrow we will travel 8 hours by our driver Njau and stay with the Hadza/ Maasi people.
       These indigenous groups are one of the few that still practice traditional practices of hunter-gathering.  Similar to the rural families in Meru we visited, the Hadza people have specific gender roles that require females to gather and men to hunt.  However, what is different about this group is that the community depends largely on the gathering contributed by women which gives rise to women empowerment.  We have a tentative schedule for this trip where we will largely stay with a Hadza community for a couple of nights- set up for us by Dorobo tourist company, and a couple days on a safari. 
        I am relieved that this week is over- I had a paper on the history of conservation in Kenya and had to decide three choices from my independent study that I will do at the end of the semester for one month. I was constantly busy doing work, exploring Nairobi, and researching what I wanted to do with my study.  As of right now I am thinking of working with an organization called Soft Power Education Project located in Jinja Uganda.  Jinja is situated right next to the Nile River so on my free time apart from working with school children and refurbishing infrastructure I will be able to swim and kayak.  Other ideas include Heifer Project International, Kenya Marine Fisheries Research Institute, Africa Yoga Project, Study on Decline of Kenya Tourism Gede Ruins, Malindi Coral Reef Study, Kigio Wildlife Conservancy, and Ocean Road Cancer Institute.  These options all vary and do not have any common theme but I choose these options because I want to visit another beautiful part of Africa that hold a lot of cultural significance and something what will be life changing. I do NOT want to work behind a desk. These options may not have any of my academic interests, but I can always turn it to cater my strengths.  Now I have to narrow them down... I don't know where to begin.
I will post more on my trip to Tanzania when I return next Saturday. In the mean time Happy Valentines Day lots of love.
       

Pictures (in order): look out point, map of where we were, crater wall, the trail, mamma monkey & baby, Lake Naivasha, waterbuck, and a hippo

Mt. Longonot & Hell's Gate

           Over the weekend the our group of 22 went to two of Kenya’s most renowned national parks located outside of Nairobi.  After driving for about two hours we stopped at a touristy lookout area that gave us an awesome view of the Great Rift Valley.  At the lookout point we could see rolling hills for miles, rocky terrain, and exotic flowers covering the landscape.  Then after 30 minutes ride onward, we reached our destination of Longonot.  This place is the home of Kenya’s oldest volcano that looks like a giant crater.  I mentioned in my first post that while I was flying over Kenya about to land, I remembered seeing a huge crater- now I know it is real and I wasn’t just overly tired imagining things.  The group hiked up the side of the crater which was at a steep 60 degree angle that took about 50 minutes then hiked around the entire rim of the crater, which took about 2ish hours.  The ascent to the top of the crater was really tough.  The trail was covered in sand, ash, and pumas rock (spongy rock that you use for scrubbing feet).   Therefore, with every step we would slip and stumble on the very fine sand.  The landscape was absolutely gorgeous on the way up. We had a beautiful view of the terrain that had many rifts and open grasslands where we could see zebras in the distance.  Once we reached the rim we stopped a little to get our breath- even though we only hiked for 50 minutes we were higher than Mt. Washington.   

              The hike to the rim was about 6km and around the rim was another 8km- we had a long hike ahead of us.  The rim was very mountainous and to get all the way around we have to summit many mini peaks and travel through rocky caves and dodge fire.  Because it was so hot out the grassy/dry area on the sides of the crater would often catch on fire! The flames would be bigger than 20 feet so we would have to wait until the wind blew down the crater so the fire would travel and we could safely cross the terrain.  Fortunately the fire never lit the path because it was made of sand.  The hike around the rim was actually very scary- the path was about 3 feet wide and on either side it went straight down.  The crater went for a couple miles downward so falling would be deathly.  We all stayed as a group and helped each other through steep uphill climbs and sharp downhills.  The total hike was 20km and by the end of it we were all covered in dirt and sweat.  The altitude was really difficult to deal with but it was a lot of fun to travel around the crater. 

            After the hike, a group of 11 wanted to stay and explore the other park- Hell’s Gate.  Njau, our driver drove another hour and we found a campsite called the Fisherman’s camp where we rented two large tents.  The campsite was beautiful- it have flowers that were overflowing on trees, and a huge lake that is the home of hippos! The owner Moses, offered the whole group a ride on motorboats so we could see the hippos.  We took him up on this offer and proceeded to ride around Lake Naivasha for an hour and a half looking at hippos and we saw 20 of them! Their eyes would be peering from above the tops of the water and they’d occasionally twirl their ears around.  We even got to see some hippos lounging on land- they’re huge!! We also got a great view of the crater from far away as well as other mountains and valleys.  As we were heading back the boat driver noticed some giraffes in the distance. There were about 4 of them with their heads in the trees about 30 feet away! Then ten feet away from the giraffes were water buffalo wading in the water. Thennn on top of that a huge waterbuck appeared! We saw so many wild animals, I couldn’t believe that what I was seeing was real and not just something I saw in a zoo or on tv.  Back at the camp baby baboons attached to their mothers would run around looking for loose food campers would leave behind.  This place was filled with animals! 

          In the morning we set off for Hell’s Gate where we rode around on bicycles, on a self-guided safari.  After about biking for 20 minutes we spotted a huge group of zebras crowded around a watering hole.  As we kept riding zebras would cross the path- they were everywhere and there were so many of them.  We got about 20 feet from them! Other animals we saw included gazelles, and baby warthogs.  The park had a lot of open grassland dotted with indigenous trees and stone pillars.  We also came across a gorge that inspired the makings of the Lion King.  At the top of the gorge is Pride Rock and a view of all of Hell’s Gate- a view that additionally inspired the Lion King.  It was a long day at Hell’s Gate, we biked for about 5 hours and spent most of our time exploring the caves and gorges.  After living off of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for about 3 meals, we were ready to call it a day and return back to the compound exhausted.  In all, it was a great weekend that only cost us $20 USD for a boat ride, admission to Longonot and Hell’s Gate, bike rentals, and tent rentals.  We were all amazed at how inexpensive the weekend would and if we were to do this in the US it would have cost is three times more!