still waiting...

Hi All, I know many are waiting for decision regarding my last post. I'm sorry to say that there has been no word since that night. Wading through the cultural differences in how westerners handle matters and how Kenyans handle matters is something that we're trying to be patient with. From what I have seen there is no such thing as "zero tolerance" policy for ANYTHING. This means that all matters are granted a lengthy discussion (seriously like 3 hour meetings or more), several interviews of the various people who may have a stake in the issue, and then a "final decision" that will be made by the individual in power. The decision, in the end, is a result of leaders opinion of the severity of the offense and his opinion on the resulting discussion(s).

Cultural Differences: A funny story from the other day as a lighter example of this problem solving process: I am on the matatu, 3 guys get in at Thika and don't pay for the ride to Pundamilia (about 45 minutes). Starting about 5 minutes into the ride when the money guy is collecting for the driver- they start to argue. As luck would have it, 1 of the drunken, pot smelling, glue bottle hooked to his teeth, but otherwise fine example of a young man :)), is sitting next to me. Really, half ON me as is the case with these cozy transport systems. In between yelling at the money taker and bantering back and forth with his friend behind him he managed to bury his nose in my arm and inhale deeply, each time a little longer until finally he has just decided to fight and yell AND lay is head on me breathing in my "coconut smell" (lotion)...simultaneously. What a multitasker...:) Anyhooo, I digress, regarding my discussion above on how everyone who may have a stake is granted a say, it isn't long before the entire matatu is shouting their opinions of the situation in Kikuyu. I understood in context that 2 were mad that the guys had hit up some old ladies for some money, 1 was telling him to get the hell off, the money taker was arguing with the driver to stop and kick them off, the driver was telling them to stop yelling, and I think there may have been a live chicken joining in as well.... The end result was to trick one of the guys out to let someone else on, pop the clutch, spin the dirt in his face, leaving him in the middle of nowhere and speed away with everyone either yelling or clapping (depending on their view). Upon reflection of this incident which seems to repeat itself in some way every day, in positive and negative ways, I decided that beyond the stressors of whatever the problem in question is, the overall sense of being ALIVE is overwhelmingly good. People talk, fight, greet, yell, bargain, snap and whoop at their cattle, tssst at each other ( a surpisingly effective way of getting immediate attention from Kenyans), blare crazy music from broken speakers, beat on drums and sing begging for money. The smell of cut pineapple selling for 10 shillings a piece, sweat, fresh chapati and cow dung all hang heavy in the air together in a very alive scene. One that I know I've been missing in my sterile, polite, and very American middle class world.
While the means, lengths, and syles of communicating and problem solving are frustrating in serious situations I have recognized that they are not personal attacks on me or my values but rather a reflection of a society that, while it does have it's problems, is in many ways more alive, awake, and invested than I have witnessed before.

New Brahma Bull: Doug, one of our long term volunteers (here for 6 months) purchased a working bull and cart in order to help us to carry the material we will need to build the huge new animal enclosures. If we did not have this option we woudl have to utilize the expensive option of paying someone to transport, paying someone with a donkey or bull to help transport, or carrying it on our backs!?!? You may laugh but this could seriously be an option. I see 4'1" 90 year olds carrying loads bigger than me on their backs and holding the machete that they used to chop whatever it is they're carrying! I carried part of a bed frame on my head down to the shamba last week (about a mile), helping one of our staff members move to a new living area. I've decided that carrying anything on top of your head or strapped to your forehead are under-rated and really quite useful! :)) The strap mark on my forhead is less attractive than I would hope however... :)))

Fresh Eggs: I have been granted the "blessing" as is believed in the Kikuyu culture of having a hen decide that my pillow is a good place for laying her eggs. As soon as I realized that she wouldn't poop on my bed I started to enjoy that I get to come home to fresh eggs each day! Last night as I crawled into bed I almost laid on an egg that was slightly under the corner of my blanket. I moved the egg, smiled and crawled into bed with my book. Good way to end the day :))

HIV/AIDS meeting: We had a record 20 people attend the HIV/AIDS training that was held on Saturday. Doug, I, and Cassandra ran the training and were pleased with the outcome. We had several attendees ask if we would come to their village to do the training with people who are too poor or too sick to make it to our site. This is a great success considering it is those people who need the education the most and are at the greatest risk of infecting people around them. One man spoke of a family in his village who has a disease that requires intraveneous medication and they are sharing the needles. About half of the family is positive and half negative. Obviously this is a great opportunity to possible change the outcome of someones life immediately if they are not already positive. Another younger guy asked if we could test him and if he could recieve free condoms. This is HUGE considering the stigma around even being tested for HIV. I was SOOO happy to hear this one guy ask me this since I had taught about 20 minutes straight just on stigmas and how they contribute to ignorance and the continued spreading of the virus.

New Play Structure: 2 of our volunteers, Danny and John, purchased and helped to build a new swing set for the kids. They have been loving it and having so much fun. I'll post pictures on FB as soon as I can.

New Well: The 2nd well is finished, hopefully putting an end to daily water shortages and fights with the supplementary water guy. The pump is working well and the water clean. I haven't had worms or ameobas for 2 weeks! Now that, I consider a success. Laying on the concrete floor barfing into my laundry bucket and having nothing but a wet wipe to clean up with was seriously a lowlight to my week 2 weeks ago. :))

Volunteer story: I'll keep it brief due to the personal nature of the conversation but would like to say that I have had an opportunity to live with a person who was born, orphaned, and adopted out of Rwanda. His mother Tutsi and father Hutu, a no win situation for anyone in that area at the time. His extended family surived the genocide living in a hole built below the neighbors house for 2 months. He was adopted out to a Belgium couple, moved to Spain and has become a shining example of what all of these children, even in the worst of circumstances could be, if given the chance. He has come back to volunteer his time here and in Rwanda, saying that he needed to go back after visiting 2 years after the genocide and still seeing skeletons laying in abandon schools, churches, bushes, etc. I can't believe that I was 17 years old during the genocide and knew so little about the details until later. Until last week I was not aware that 2 years later skeletons of children and teachers still draped the desks, and people littered the bushes. I feel so blessed for this and many opportunities for growth and understanding that I've had thus far. Every day feels like I'm living half of a lifetime compared the easy days that came and went before.

Now that I have given you, yet another installment into my jumbled, chaotic brain I think I am done for today. :)) Thank you as always for your support, prayers, and good thoughts. I will keep you updated on the incident from last week. Ann

The good and the bad...

It seems by the time I sit down to write so much has happened that it's impossible to cover it all in one blog. While we had a great vacation weekend for Kai's birthday we also came home to a pretty bad situation that is yet to be resolved. In the midst of the of the good and the bad it seems a million other crazy things happen as well such as purchasing a working bull and cart today, falling a 100 ft. tree from the roots with machete's and 2 hoes, having a hen take to laying fresh eggs on our beds each morning :)), setting a new record for 32 people in our 14 maximum person matatu, and meeting a 10 year old girl missing 1/4 of a toe bleeding all over the dirt, all by herself, with no shoes and waiting for a matatu to take her to the Dr. Amongst all this I had the amazing opportunity to sit, mostly in tears by candlelight hearing the life story of one of our volunteers who was born in Rwanda and actually lived to tell about it. So, I guess I will just begin and hopefully not ramble too much.

The good: Kai's birthday! It was amazing and beautiful just as we had seen on television. We took an unguided mountain bike safari through the vast savannahs and straight "out of Africa" Fever Trees (literally and figuratively :)) We saw hippos and heard them gnashing and fighting viciously, saw giraffe, gazelle, zebra, warthog, impala, baboon, ostrich, various monkeys, bush cats and heard even more. While we will be taking an official safari soon to see the big predators we decided that hearing the sounds of fighting baboon troops, feeling the rumble of the ground as 50 spooked impalas bound across the road in front of our bikes, and smelling the dust from the skittish wart hogs as they pretended to challenge us if we got too close was by far the thrill of nature we were hoping for. Beyond that, we stayed in a beautiful spot full of avacodo trees that the monkeys preferred to raid and dined at an open air restaurant each night looking over the lake. It felt like a true "vacation" by anyone's standards.

The bad: While it would be easy and comforting to talk only about the amazing children(which they are), the beautiful scenery, and the loads of amazing development projects we are hoping will make an impact on this impoverished area it would be a disservice to those who really want to help and learn about this experience. Devin and I had arrived home mid afternoon from our trip when we heard screaming coming from the girls dorm area. Devin walked in to find one of our female workers beating--not spanking--beating the SHIT out of one of our girls with a large, heavy stick. He stopped the beating and got into an argument with a female staff member who said that she was allowed to "cane" the girls and was not going to stop. To give perspective, but not that the reason REMOTELY matters, the girl had placed her school uniform sweater in her backpack rather than carrying it home in her arms as instructed. We called our boss in Nairobi and informed him since only he has the power to fire staff and he said he would come this morning and "take care of it once and for all" since this was not the first time we had reported but the first time we had witnessed it ourselves. We had scheduled an all staff/volunteer meeting for that night at 8:30 p.m. to discuss this issue as well as other logistics when we heard another girl screaming from the dorm. This time the female staff was beating a different girl. I walked straight in to an older girl who I knew would tell me the truth and asked what happened. She said that "autie dona was beating her". This was confirmed again to me by a second girl. When the femal staff was confronted she yelled in Kikuyu at the 2 girls who had told me the truth and made them come to the door. Knowing that I didn't know what she had said to the girls she smirked and smiled and made flippent comments in Kikuyu as both girls retracted their stories to me. As they talked, they both looked at me with desperate, sad eyes knowing that I knew they were lying to me. What they didn't know is that I understood and my heart was actually breaking for them because they were threatened to stand there and lie to me out of fear or risk being beaten themselves later. I stopped them short of their retraction, put my hands on them, gave a wink that the female staff member couldn't see and told them I would keep them safe, it would be ok, and that they could trust me. This last sentence, the promise I made to them, has tortured me all night and day. If I am not supported by our executive director in this matter then we are left with the decision of staying in a reactive state of response stopping beatings as we hear the screaming?!? We talked today of threatening to remove our leadership from the orphanage if the staff member is not fired as we cannot stay and support a practice that further diminishes the small bit of dignitiy that these girls have left. But really what does this accomplish? In principle, a lot, but in reality here in this small corner of nowhere...not much. What it would do for sure is leave these girls alone with no one to hear them scream and no one to make it stop. Is that a success? A success because a decision is made on principle? Is it a failure if we stay and can't stop it? These are all questions I have been asking myself since last night and throughout today. As it would happen (TIA), the morning meeting with our director to "solve the problem" has still not happened and it is 7:00p.m. so I have no idea how this will be resolved. My concern, simplified, is that I have 15 girls (our 9 boys and male staff are terrific), depending on my word, and if I dont' have my word what do I have left? How can I look at Damaris, who only survived the Rift Valley massacre because, in her words.."God wanted her to" as whe watched her entire family be slain, beheaded, and disrepected-moving their heads to wrong gendered bodies and "tricking her" into thinking it was her family-live one more second where she is beaten and disrespected? As I mentioned in the beginning I have a lot to write but feel pretty worn out now and am going to have to wait until later to write the rest. Love to all.

Happy 4th of July???

It's been a while since our last post but we have been busy as ever! Our solar power is working well enough to give all the volunteers lights at night. We also can use some of the power to help charge our computer and camera. The boys dorm also has plenty of light now and we have added security lights so it's not so dark at night.
Kai and I were in desperate need of haircuts...if the pictures posted you can see my hair was "long"! We ventured in to pundamillia, the small village only ten minutes away. We found the one barber in town, and with broken attachments and shaky clippers we both got haircuts. Definitely not up to Bond Street Barber Shop standards, but we do have shaved heads and feel better! We did bring clippers, but they don't seem to work once plugged into the power inverter...again Kenya!
Ann and I received our first package, the winner for the first package is Nancy "nana"! Although receiving a package is very difficult in Kenya. First Geoffrey and Edith bring us the postal slip and tell us we have a package. They could have picked it up for us since it had Geoffrey's name, but they usually don't do that as the postal office will charge the person picking up the package a percentage of what they think the package is worth!?!? Well Ann and I ventured into Nairobi with the kids on Wednesday to pick up the package....After a long day of matotu rides and long walks in a gigantic city where no vehicles follow traffic laws or signs we made it to the post office only to be told we couldn't pick up our package because we didn't have our passports. Ann calls people "bus meat" due to the fact crossing the street is worse than playing the expert level on frogger! Cranky and upset we went all the way back to WWB without anything! Then on Friday Ann and I went back with just us, a lot easier to navaigate in a huge city with a lot of walking without the kids. We got to the post office...yes. Then we give a lady the slip, she retreives the package, opens it up, writes a list of everything in it, then gives me the slip to go to "room 113" while Ann is told to repackage everything. I get to room 113 and the customs guy tells me to pay a little for my package. He reads the list and says I should pay 200 KSH (shillings) I tell him I am volunteering at an orphanage and this stuff is for the kids. He again tries to get me to pay...I have vowed to not pay a bribe the whole time I am here so I tell him in a pissed off voice "fine you can keep it" and turn around and walk out of the office. HE calls me back in and says ok volunteer, and then stamps the slip and tells me to go back to the lobby. I bring my stamped slip to the lobby, where I find Ann. She no longer has the package as they have taken it back behind the counter. I go to another lady who gets me a duplicate of my slip, stamps it a third time, and then tells us to go retreive our package. Anyways, from now on we will have Geoffrey and Edith pick up our packages and just pay them for it.
We did take some pictures of Nairobi and tried to post one of this blog. While in Nairobi we did check out the "java house" a western style coffee house/restaurant that is always reccomended by long-term volunteers who know nairobi. It was great as we enjoyed milkshakes and a turkey, bacon, and cheese sandwiches....MMMMM Yum!
Then on Saturday all of the sponsor children came to WWB to receive their monthly supplies and write letters to their sponsors. There are about 50 of these children, and they live in the surrounding villages with other families. Ann and most of the volunteers worked on this day. It was a lot of work, but it was great to see how happy all of children were. We also tried to post a pictue on this blog of all the children sitting in the hall writing their letters. Ann put a lot of work into this day, and it was so nice the children enjoyed it. Naya and Kai had tons of fun playing with the "new kids" who showed up and were just as amazed to see two "mazungu" children living at the orphanage.
Naya and Kai are doing awesome. It's hard to believe we have already been here for a month. The time is flying by. Everyday Naya and Kai help feed the animals, play with the other kids, and learn new Kikuyu words. They can say the kikuyu greetings for children and adults, respond to the appropriate greeting, and say thank you and your welcome.
Our water situation is about to greatly improve as our second well is almost complete. Myself and some of the other volunteers dug a large ditch from the well to the kitchen for the electricity and piping. It should be done soon! Our communtiy water which comes twice a week, did not show up as expected yesterday because of a broken water pipe...the main water pipe! So the two elders, Simon and Samuel, who run the project came to WWB looking for help. They speak littl english, but explained we were not getting our water because of a broken pipe. Thye told me they had a worker trying to fix it but they needed help. Since everyone was doing the sponsorship day, I went to help by myself. After a 15 minute walk we found a large puddle of water. I noticed there was no worker. I began digging up the pipe myself, while Simon and Samuel went to get more help. After digging a 30 foot long, two foot deep trench we cut out the pipe and put in a new one. Luckily two other workers showed up and helped out! Water flows again!
Another African thing is the difference in medical views. In the West we like to vaccinate our kids and be proactive instead of reactive. When we talk about vaccinations here the locals say it costs too much money. We try to explain that it's cheaper in the long run than taking two or three kids a day to the clinic, but so far no luck. Then last night Julius, one of our sweet little boys had a very high fever of 104.1. The local staff want to bundle him up and give him hot liquids. We wanted to give hime children's ibuprofen, put his feet in a bucket of cold water, put a cold wash cloth on his head and give him ice cubes. Due to the differences in culture and "medical" expertise we had to sneak our medicine and cold water to Julius. Ann tried to get ice cubes but the social worker (lady who cares for the kids) and our cook kept ann out of the kitchen. Needless to say it was frustrating given their lack of medical knowledge and our experience with treating sick kids. By the end of the night though we gave Julius medicine, got a cold washcloth on his head, give him cold juice and kept his feet in cold water for about an hour. When he did fall asleep his temperature was all the way down to 101.1. Today he is doing much better. Ann and I hope we can show them Naya and Kai as healthy examples of what western medicines and vaccinations can do for developing children.
Still life here is great. We have more projects going, more volunteers coming, and plans to add more kids to the orphanage in the next few months! Thanks to everyone for your prayers, good thoughts, and support! Love, Devin, Ann, Naya and Kai