an awakening

thursday- our first full day in kenya! this morning we got up and had breakfast at the jesuit residence at about 7:30 (which would become our normal routine) and headed over to nyumbani first thing. of course we wanted to leave at about 8:30 and didn't get going until about 9:15 (something else that has developed into somewhat of a routine- on average we are about 45 minutes late to everything we do here- nothing is ever set in stone and things in kenya and africa more generally just operate on a sliding scale, independent of time. it's kind of like island time- things will get done when they get done)... anyways, Nyumbani ('home' in Swahili) is an organization that was started in 1992 by Fr. D'Agustino, S.J. with the mission of serving HIV positive children, who have almost all been abandoned and then orphaned as their parents have passed away. although 'fr. dag' passed away this past november, he is a legend here and his legacy is still being carried on as nyumbani is now a very stable and well respected organization in nairobi that does amazing work. Nyumbani is the name of the organization as a whole and there are three projects within the organization- the Children's Home (the primary part), Lea Toto, and the Village. The Children's Home is an orphanage that takes in and cares for abandoned HIV positive children (right now about 100 children are living there). There are children ranging from less than six months old up to 18 years old. The kids live at Nyumbani home, in cottages, and each cottage is a 'family.' Within each cottage there are kids of all ages, with the intent that the older ones will look out for the younger ones (and when the kids get to be 14 or 15 they move out of the cottages and into apartment style living, still on the same site but where they now cook for themselves, do their own laundary, etc.). Because of the success and support Nyumbani has had and has received, they have been blessed with several donors and now have amazing facilities for the children. There is a great playground, a basketball court, and a futbol field is being built. There is also a preschool and nursery and when the kids get past preschool and are ready for Standard 1, they start taking buses to school during the day...The second part of Nyumbani is Lea Toto (which means 'to raise a child' in Swahili), a community based outreach program that provides services to HIV+ children and their families in the Nairobi neighborhoods of Kangemi, Waithaka, Kawangware, Riruta, Mutuini, Ruthimitu, Kibera and Kariobangi (these neighborhoods are predomantly all 'slum' areas where extreme poverty is the daily reality for all). Started in 1998, this program was a response to the belief that the orphanage couldn't address all of the concerns surrounding HIV+ children. An arrangement was established where these children can continue living with their families (usually a grandparent or auntie or uncle, as their parents have likely passed away) communities of Nairobi, which HIV+ children could remain with their caregivers in their communities. Within each neighborhood, Lea Toto has a central office that provides several social services for the families in the area, including income generating services, couseling and psychological support, spiritual guidance, educational services, testing facilities, and food relief services (through World Food Programme and US AID). All of these services are free and available on a daily basis (they are fully funded by private donations, grants, and the support of volunteers). And in addition to these services offerred through the offices, Lea Toto workers routinely make 'house visits,' where they go visit all of the different families caring for HIV+ children in that neighborhood (and over time, they begin to develop a relationship with these families)....Finally, the third branch of Nyumbani is the Village. And the Village was developed in response to the need for an alternative way to better respond to the needs of everyone affected by HIV/AIDS, not just those who actually have the virus. Meaning that Lea Toto does an incredible job of working with the children, but often the grandparents or aunts and uncles that care for the children, as well as the other siblings, aren't given support (even though they too are struggling and living a life of extreme poverty, discrimination, and marginalization). So the idea behind the Village was to take families of HIV+ children, usually siblings and grandparents, and bring them to a village setting outside of Katui (the eastern rural, desert region of Kenya- about 3.5 hours southeast of Nairobi). And although the Village is still in its first year of having families live there, the hope is that at the end of the fifth year, the Village will be completely and fully self-sufficient! So, sorry about that long outline of Nyumbani, but it's absolutely essential to understanding anything and everything about my experiences here, because the general outline of our trip is to spend time working with each of these three branches...Anyways, on Thursday morning we went to visit the Children's Home. We spent a few hours there in the morning meeting with Sister Mary (who once was a secretary and assistant for Fr. Dag, but is now the Executive Director of Nyumbani) who spoke to us extensively about Fr. D'Agastino, his mission, and the current state of Nyumbani. Then we had a tour around the orphanage and met some of the younger children (almost everyone was gone at school). This first introduction to Nyumbani was moving and I could already tell that there was something holy about this place, but I could never have anticipated how affected I would be by some of the kids I would later meet when we returned... After the morning at the Children's Home, we visited two the slum neighborhoods that Lea Toto works in, first touring their offices (very modest, but adequate) and then walking through the neighborhoods themselves, with a few of the social workers, attempting to make a few house visits. Walking through the slums was a very uncomfortable experience. There was something that felt wrong and dehumanizing about what we were doing. Regardless of where our motives may have been, it seemed that the situation could have been portrayed in an extremely problematic manner (our group was too big to have any personal house visits and it almost seemed as if nothing more was going on than 14 affluent white people parading through slum neighborhoods to 'observe' the extreme poverty)...However, after some reflection and discussion this evening, i felt some sort of comfort and peace. I still believe that the experience wasn't ideal, but i am beginning to understand the ways in which aspects of the experience may have been meaningful- at least for us (as with anything I believe the first step is awareness, so just for some people in our group to even see this kind of poverty and begin to understand that there are people who are forced to live like this, is important and significant, in breaking down barriers)...Later we found out that the two particular neighborhoods we visited were the two poorest in all of Nairobi- the poverty we witnessed here was absolutely unlike anything i have ever experienced, including the townships in South Africa. Not only is everyone living without electricity or running water, 'houses' consist of cardboard or sheet metal built on top of dirt floors, and the 'streets' are covered with and are full of garbage...To say the least, this was a pretty overwhelming first day and by the time we got back to the Jesuit residence, we ate, had reflection (*another routine for the trip- every night after dinner, we all gather around and share about our experiences that day, what happened and how we feel at this point), and then crashed. for more on the history and mission behind Nyumbani, the work that is currently going on, or the support you can give, go to: www.nyumbani.org.

greetings...

first off, greetings from nairobi! i hope all is well with everyone back home, and i can assure you that things here are amazing...although i haven't even begun to really process what it means that i have graduated and am done with bc, this blog will focus primarily on my time in Kenya and the ways in which i am trying to be deeply present to this experience...

the plane trip over was long and lonely at times, especially when my mind wandered and i began to think about the reality of the past few days, but before i knew it i had eaten dinner in montreal, breakfast in zurich, and was sitting down to dinner watching the sunset over nairobi...i got in a few hours before the group (i linked up with a group of 10 students and three faculty members that fr. charles is leading from le moyne college in syracuse new york), so i used some really nice random guy's cell phone to call fr. charles. after great misunderstanding and confusion, and the general lack of disorganization that fr. charles operates under, i spent four hours in the hotel restaurant. however, during that time i ate some deelish spring chicken and chips (aka fries) and had a wonderful kenyan brewski known as tusker (*the brother of the guy who started the company/brewry was killed by an elephant and so the founder decided to name the company tusker after the tusks of an elephant). the people in the restaurant, like the random cell phone man, were very friendly and welcoming (something i have quickly found to be the standard among kenyan people). in fact, the most overwhlemingly constant part of the trip is the way in which i have continuely been welcomed. sure there have been a few times so far, where i haven't been so welcomed, and there have been situations where i believe our group has overstepped its welcome, on the whole kenyans have a lot to teach westerners about hospitality (*as you all know in some cultures people greet each other with a firm handshake, others a hug and kiss on the cheek, some two kisses...here the universal greeting is a very soft, very gentle handshake, sometimes with both hands. and if you're greeting a child the appropriate greeting is "saa sa," meaning hey or how's it going in kiswahili; if you're meeting an adult or an elder, it's more appropriate to say "habari," which means how are you, and the response to this is "mezuri," meaning fine...sorry if this aside is long and doesn't seem like there's really a point to it, but the point is that this greeting is a very gentle, very beautiful expression of hospitality)....

so, after i finshed my spring chicken i eventually met up with fr. charles and the group (ten students, fr. charles, beth- a campus minister, and fr. lou- the director of campus ministry) and we headed to the jesuit residence in karen (a district in nairobi named after the danish author karen blixen who lived in nairobi from 1917-1931; her most famous work is "out of africa"....today karen is probably the second or third wealthiest district in nairobi). although we are taking a few trips within this big trip, the base location of this group service-learning trip is at the jesuit residence, called the pedro arrupe house (named in honor of the former superior general of the jesuits)...

after we arrived to the pedro arrupe house on wednesday night, most people were exhausted and ready to sleep. so we got settled, moved into our rooms (which are really nice by the by...the jesuits have/are doing some amazing work throughout east africa, but are living pretty nice here in karen...i have a single room with my own bathroom, a luxuy most of the kenyan people do not have)...after all of the le moyne students and the campus ministers crashed, fr. charles and i were greeted by this wonderful woman named "deborah" (in kenyan English pronounced "dee- bor- ah," not "deb-rah"). and after much persuasion, deborah insisted that we sit down and she prepared us a delicious kenyan meal. not just a snack, an entire meal. and this was at midnight, after i had already eaten several times that day, including the most recent spring chicken...however, this is a big part of kenyan hospitality, and it would of been extremely rude for me not to eat. so i ate. and it was delarsh! we had some rice, beef, and green vegetables that i can't remember the name of, but they are pretty common in the diet here...after great food and great conversation i finally went to bed myself and got a wopping six hours of sleep, before waking up at 7:15 on thursday morning...