I Need Your Help- Please Comment with your advice and input

Tune in very soon to read about my four day rural retreat to a very rural part of Kenya, (to places far off of the electrical grid and without running water and what not), where I learned about agricultural and environmental issues in Kenya in a rural setting. It is taking some time to write and will be quite long I believe as it covers a four day period that was quite eventful. This will be coming within the next day.

I am writing this post because I need some help/advice from you. I recently received an email from an advertising agency www.wikimetro.org asking if I wanted to partner with them/ have them sponsor my blog. Basically they were asking if I would want to sell advertising on my blog. I received this email and have this opportunity because I have a high number of traffic on my blog thanks to all of you who read it. I thank you very much for reading my blog and feel very honoured and flattered that so many people read it. I responded with an inquiry about the details of the sponsorship and have yet to hear back. This opportunity puts me in a dilemma. While this would be an opportunity for me to make some money, it also feels like a way of making my blog less personal and in a way I would feel like i am selling myself. As a member of new media(blogs, youtube, picture posting websites), I am seeing blogs go the way of old media, and I do not exactly like the direction that it is heading. I had a class last semester called news, media, and foreign policy in which we tracked the ammount of advertising in the Washington Post for an entire week, and on average for the whole week 70-80 percent of the total amount of spaces on the pages in the newspaper were devoted to advertising and not to stories. This frustrates me to see this type of thing but it is like this across the board with advertising in both big and small papers.

I am writing this to ask for your opinion because this blog is for you the readers as much as it is for me the writer of the blogpost. I want your opinion on whether I should open this blog up to advertising, which would make me some money, or keep it closed and an ordinary blog full of my stories and lessons about Africa. Please leave comments with your opinion on the situation, you can leave it as anonymous or as your log in name (if you have one), I do not care I am just looking for advice and help on the situation/ potential option.

Thank you very much for your input and for reading this blog and I will have another post to you shortly.

Safari Sunday: Nairobi National Park

One of the leading industries in Kenya is tourism, and the most developed and popular form of tourism in the country is going on a Safari. And given the location that Kenya is blessed with, why wouldn’t it be. Kenya has some of the most spectacular scenery on Earth, and a dense wildlife population full of exotic wild species that an American normally only sees in zoos. After only two days in Kenya, I came to the conclusion that every Kenyan assumes that any mzungu (light-skinned foreigner) is here to go on a safari. On first full day here en route to Naivasha, I heard greetings of “Have a nice safari”, and my first few times walking through downtown Nairobi I would have people approaching me from tour companies for safaris. I have to say that in the beginning it was a little unnerving to me because I was not here for the sole reason of tourism; I am here to learn and work. I struggled with this for a short period of time, but came to terms with the fact that there was nothing I could do to change this. I must have done something however because I have not been approached in awhile. I guess I have lost that innocent look of slight wonderment/intrigue/bewilderment that most people have in their eyes whenever they are brand new to a city (especially in Africa). Although I did have some one approach me today about a safari when I was walking downtown by the Hilton (a complete tourist location), but today I just waved him off and said “polle-sana, nilienda safari-ni” (sorry, I already went on safari), and he left.

What I said today is true; I got to go on a safari this past Sunday. Before I came I knew I wanted to go on at least one, and made a list of possible choices. The National Park I still want to go to the most is Amboselli (with its views of Mt. Kilimanjaro as the backdrop), and the Massai-Mara (which is part of the world famous Serengeti), but the most accessible safari location for me to go was Nairobi National Park. This National Park was the first National Park in Kenya, and is also unique because it is only a few miles outside of Nairobi (so you can see and take pictures of the animals but still have the skyscrapers of Nairobi looming as the backdrop). I took the first opportunity that I could to go there, and that presented itself this past Sunday when one of my program-mates parents came to visit for the weekend and came up with the idea.

Our first stop on this wildlife viewing Sunday was a wildlife refugee not affiliated with but on the edge of the National Park called the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust. This place is absolutely amazing in how much it cares for animals, and its devotion is to rescuing, hand-rearing, and then rereleasing baby elephants and rhinos back into the national parks around Kenya. Effectively, we went to a baby elephant and rhino orphanage. When we walked up I did not notice the baby elephants first, but the fact that the crowd was 100 percent mzungu. But that is to be expected, it is just difficult and noticeable when you’ve been in Kenya for so long to see a sight like this. It will feel different when I return to the States I suppose. But enough of the aside and back to the animals. This animal orphanage is only open to the public strictly from 11am-noon everyday because of the fact that these are orphaned animals that are being reared back for the wild. The first set of elephants that we saw were baby elephants that were six months old or less. During the viewing with the public is one of their bathing and eating times, and there are big water holes in which the elephants play around in with each other and guys shovel water and mud onto the elephants. With the very youngest elephants, because their skin is so sensitive to the sun, workers walk around with umbrellas shading the babies. (This is why if you have ever seen on the discovery channel footage of baby elephants they are usually underneath of their mothers). After about twenty minutes of watching the baby elephants being bathed and fed, they were led away and a few of the older child elephants came charging down in full force and very vocally announcing their entrance. These elephants are between 2 and 3 years old (at 3 the orphanage releases the elephants back into the national parks). These elephants are even more playful and were able to bathe themselves (rather quickly), and took more interest in the branches of leaves that was their lunch. These elephants got their fair share of time bathing and running around playing and walking over to the crowd to be petted, and then they exited and the real star of the show entered for the last ten minutes: an infant three month old baby black rhino. Let me tell you for as huge and forceful as adult rhinos look this baby looked just as vulnerable. It looks like a combination of a large dog and a baby dinosaur, with just a little nub/hole essentially for where its horn will grow. When it made its appearance coming down the hill, it made a beeline straight for us and I fell very fortunate to have gotten to pet this baby rhino. After the one hour we were able to view the babies, we were making our way to the exit, when we saw an adult rhino in a good sized cage hanging out, and the workers let me pet the large rhino as well.

The whole experience at this animal orphanage felt very scripted, but at the same time the workers do quite amazing work. The viewing time just fell into their daily routine of bath and food, and that’s why it felt staged. The workers told us that they are with the elephants constantly, living with them, sleeping with them at nite, and offering their complete devotion to the life in order to rear these animals back from their traumatic experiences of being abandoned (whether by choice of the parents or by death of parents, or by being caught in traps or watering holes).

The next stop on the tour was to what is essentially a zoo at the entrance to Nairobi National Park. This area is technically called a wildlife refuge as well, but it had much worse conditions than the elephant and rhino one we were just at. It was seriously a difference of nite and day. The one positive is that all of the animals have some sort of story of being rescued from poachers or being captured and put on the market to be sold and then being seized by Kenyan Wildlife Services, so that is a plus, but it had the feel of a regular zoo with cages too small and un-lively animals who have the faded, un-lively, broken-spirited look that comes from being institutionalized. There were a few exceptions to this observation however including as we walked in being greeted by a very spirited Benin monkey who was energetic and jumping and climbing around his cage and extremely fun to watch. His enthusiasm was matched by another monkey in a different part of the refuge who was interacting with a worker by taking his hands all over the workers head really giving him a good combing looking for dirt or bugs or whatever. He even would pull the workers shirt away from his body and stick his arms and hands down the workers shirt examining his chest. The worker seemed to enjoy this and would make sounds like the monkey would make to interact and seem like he cared about the monkey. This is in a complete contrast to other workers in the shelter. As we were walking in, we saw people being allowed to walk into the cheetah cage and pet the cheetah, so when we inquired about it the workers said that the boss doesn’t like it and that if we paid them a bribe they would let us in (bribery is huge in Kenya and will get its own post on my serious topics section of the blog once I get more material for it). We were not going to pay a bribe and when we walked away they said ok, so the other guy that went along from my program Brian and I went in and pet a cheetah! The whole situation seemed out of place though and the cheetah was dispirited, and I felt bad for being there but at the same time I am going to take advantage of opportunities to pet a cheetah when I have the chance. So we left the zoo/wildlife refuge, and it was time for our safari.

Before driving into the park we paused at on of the main gates to pop the roof up on our safari vehicle (very cool!). Once we drove into the park I had the idea that it would be more fun riding standing up through the top for the majority of the ride (so that’s what I did). It was beautiful, had shade and a nice breeze, and it gave me an opportunity to utilize my lifeguard skills and began to scan around looking for animals. (I enjoy that much better than looking for potential drowning/misbehaving kids). Almost as soon as we drove down the road we were greeted by a group of monkeys on the side of the rode who were crossing and hanging out. We paused and took pictures, and I began to think we are actually on the safari and this really just happened not even 2 minutes after entering the park. We turned a corner and as I was scanning for more wildlife almost immediately I saw it… bam!! Giraffes out by a watering hole! I was thinking oh my god these are actually wild giraffes in the wilderness and we could actually see them. Over the course of the next few hours we saw many more animals, many herds of zebras (the e is flattened in this British English that they speak here), wildebeest, buffalo, deer, caribou, impala, a few more giraffes, cattle, more monkeys, plenty of ostrich (surprising to me), vultures, and stork. It was incredible to see all of these animals in the wild and it was really unique to be able to see them with Nairobi’s sprawling city and skyscrapers so close to the park, and with planes passing overhead constantly as there is an airport very close. It reminded me of a family trip that was a lot of fun to Yellowstone National Park in Wyoming (if you have never been there I would highly recommend it). On that trip we would drive around looking for the wild animals, and it seemed like the most elusive and hardest to spot on that trip was the black bear. And then all of a sudden we saw black bears on that trip walked right next to our car.

On this safari, Nairobi National Park’s versions of Yellowstone’s black bear are the rhinos and the lions, both extremely elusive to see. Driving around all day, I was hoping to spot a lion just lurking in the tall grass or sleeping or getting ready to pounce. We were on a hunt to spot simba, (simba means lion in Kiswahili, Kenya’s national language). I was really focused on seeing one and kept saying out loud as I was standing through the top of the vehicle scanning the spectacular scenery of sprawling grasslands and rolling hills, simba eco wapi? Kifaru eco wapi (where are the lions, where are the rhinos?) (in Kiswahili). The sun was beginning to drop and we had not seen either one, until:

Brian: “Ryan, confirm for me that those are rhinos.”
Me: “Where?”

B- In the tall grass there.

Me: Yes they are… we found kifaru!

We saw two rhinos in this very tall grass, so well hidden that you could just see the tops of them and their horns protruding out of the grass. We found on of the big ones that made me very happy to see.

And then as we were rounding the next corner, we see a herd of wildebeest and I a crowd of vehicles around taking pictures. I was thinking there is no way that there is a lion there with a herd like that so close, the herd would be running away. But! there was a lion, a female lion lurking in the shrubbery. She made a brief appearance for about two minutes and then disappeared again to take a nap. We waited around for another twenty minutes for another glance, but she was fast asleep and not coming out. As we were leaving the park almost right at the exit gate, it was like we were being escorted out by a jackal (which looks like a hyena), just walking down the road in front of us. I left feeling completely satisfied at having seen everything that I thought I could possibly see. And there were animals all the way through from the immediate beginning to the very end, with being welcomed by a group of monkeys and being ushered away by a jackal. The only big animals that we did not see that are in Nairobi National Park are leopards (which I knew I would not see because they are so stealthy and blend in and hide so well, and hippos, which only come out from the water after dark when the park is closed. I also learned a lot about animals today. It seemed like every time there was a zebra herd, there was a wildebeest herd next to it. This was explained as the zebra eat the top of the grass, and when that is done they move on and the wildebeest move in and eat the bottom of the grass. It was an amazing day and I look forward to more opportunities for wildlife viewing while I am here in Kenya!!

Serious Cultural Topics (Part I): Ethnic Groups in Kenya

“In order for Kenya to move forward as a country we all need to identify ourselves first as Kenyans. I do not identify myself as a Kikuyu, I call myself first a Kenyan.”
Francis, a Nairobi taxi driver semi-affiliated with AU Abroad Kenya

One of my objectives in creating this blog, along with keeping people up to date on my months living in Kenya, is to write about issues pertaining to the country and introducing people to a country that many people do not hear too much about. My aim is make Kenya relevant to people, and to dispel those jokes and misrepresentations as Kenya and Africa as a whole as an underdeveloped, wild-west setting that we all hear about growing up and that is perpetuated by current events and media. It may be more enjoyable to write about fun things that I have done on this trip, but with the dual aim of bringing you major issues within Kenya as well. After encouragement from a few people to write this blog, I am going to address the issue that I see as one of the most fascinating (and found throughout the world), as well as what I see as one of the trickiest obstacles to progression.

The other nite, I had a complete breakthrough while having dinner with some people that I just met, and over the course of dinner and conversation, I realized that for the first time I had really experienced ethnocentrism and things just felt things differently and I could literally see and feel this issue. Before continuing though I believe that it is necessary to give a brief history lesson on politics and history in Kenya:

Kenya is a country with 42 (or 49 depending upon who you ask) different separate ethnic groups with their own customs, language, culture, and lifestyle. Before the British colonized Kenya, each ethnic group essentially had their own nation; their own separate land and lived apart from most ethnic groups. Then the British colonized Kenya and brought all of the ethnic groups together under one nation: Kenya. Over the course of Kenya’s almost fifty years of independence, they have had 3 Presidents. That’s it. 3 Presidents in almost 50 years. The first President of Kenya, the father of the nation Jomo Kenyatta, a Kikuyu (the largest ethnic group in Kenya) ruled for twelve years or so and then died in office. Kenya was next ruled by a dictator, President Daniel Arap Moi, a Kalenjin (the fourth largest ethnic group) for nearly 25 years until 2002, when he was succeeded by the democratically elected current President Mwai Kibeki (also a Kikuyu). Over the course of President Moi’s dictatorship, he essentially dissolved the democratic process by making Kenya a one-party state for over fifteen years. He was oppressive and limited people’s freedoms and held and tortured political prisoners and imprisoned dissidents. He appointed many Kalenjin’s or friends/people loyal to his party into positions of power. Despite this repression, it wasn’t until the early 1990s that politicians stirred up tribal roots and exploited these for political gain, which led to violence. The most recent violence was during the heavily publicized post-election aftermath in December 2007 and January 2008. This time period was fueled by ethnocentrism between the Kikuyus (the ethnic group of President Kibeki), and the Luos (the ethnic group of current Prime Minister Ralia Odingo).

Up until the other nite, my exposure to different ethnic groups had been limited. My assistant program director is Luo (the ethnic group that Obama’s father/President Obama belongs to), as were all of my cultural assistants who helped break me into Kenya the first week and still hang out with us. There are a lot of Kikuyu in Nairobi as well and I have had many conversations with Francis the taxi driver about ethnicity in Kenya. I am currently taking a class called Politics and Culture in Kenya: which up to now has been heavily Kikuyu influenced and from that point of view: I read an anthropological study and history of the Kikuyu written by Kenya’s first President Jomo Kenyatta, and I just finished a fantastic memoir written by Wangari Maathai (also Kikuyu). In 2004, she became the first African woman and first environmentalist to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and she undertook many causes fighting for Kenyan’s rights during the Moi era. (It is entirely thanks to her that I have learned about this time period in Kenya.) Now that I have addressed a very small, brief background history on Kenyan politics, let’s move back and talk about my dinner the other nite.

Recently, I had dinner with an American friend of mine and a family that he is friends with. My friend used to work in Kenya and is very much connected with one of the regions away from Nairobi. That area is very Kalenjin, and the family that I had dinner with was Kalenjin. I figured that out from listening to my friend talk about the area that they were from and from a certain moment in the conversation. After telling them what I was doing here and how I liked it here and whatnot, they asked about what I was learning in my Kenyan history class, and I responded that we just covered the Moi area (as brought to me through the eyes of Wangari Maathai). I said that it was an interesting time period in Kenyans history, and there response was that it had its ups and downs. I was feeling out the situation and was about to elaborate about my thoughts of Moi as a terrible leader (I had not figured out that they were Kalenjin at this point), and then the moment of realization hit me and I had this breakthrough in which I had been exposed to another point of view and another ethnic group in Kenya. It occurred to me that even if in a sense Moi practiced harsh rule and was perceived in an unfavourable light as a ruler, I could not say that because this family still has a sense of kinship with the former leader.

I find the different ethnic groups in Kenya absolutely fascinating, and incredibly difficult to comprehend at the same time. It is practically impossible for me to relate to personally, because in the United States we do not have anything close to compare with. We all come from different places and have our heritage to be proud of, but at the same time that is something in past history and we celebrate with a certain level of detachment. We personally did not grow up in this other place so we can not fully have the same level of pride and homogenous feelings towards it. It made me think of the nation of Burma, with its somewhere between 45-60 different ethnic groups and languages that all function under the same repressive rule of the tyrannical military junta. (But Burma is another issue completely and one for a different blog than An American Abroad even).

It’s amazing to me to see the level of integration that the ethnic groups have in this country. After participating in the Hospital Project a few weeks ago (see earlier blogpost), I had some of the entertainers ask me about United States Government. When I was first here, once they figured out I was Illinois, I faced many questions about our governor and what was happening with the whole scandal with the senate seat (of which embarrassingly I had no clue what exactly was going on because it was ongoing and I couldn’t follow as closely as I would have liked to from here.) But I was asked by these entertainers who were more powerful a Senator or the Governor. I had to explain that they operated in different forms of government. And then I was asked if we have mayors, etc. and one entertainer asked if we had chiefs. I was surprised by this and had to say we don’t have chiefs in government. It was amazing to be asked that however, because coming from where I have I would never think that as a possibility.

“During the Violence after the election, if I were to go anywhere near Kibera I could have been seriously hurt or killed.”
-Francis
I have had many conversations with our pseudo-resident cabdriver Francis, a Kikuyu, about the issue of ethnic groups and conflict here in Kenya. It was this quote, however that really gripped me. I knew that the post-election violence was ethnically-charged between the Luos and the Kikuyus, and that in the heavily concentrated Luo-area Kibera (see earlier post on Kibera) the worst violence took place in the whole of Nairobi. While walking around Kibera I could still see broken windows and charred and leveled shacks that have not been repaired, what I could not do as of then (and still can not do) is tell an ethnic group by appearance. (If I saw a name, however, I could venture a pretty accurate guess- Luos last name typically begins with O or an M before a consonant, Kikuyu last names begin with K and they have a whole range of Kikuyu first names and a traditional naming system I have been exposed to as well), I could not tell physical appearance however. I asked Francis how it was possible to do and he said by accent or dialect, and certain facial characteristics that I don’t remember/can not identify with.

A couple of weeks ago Kenya had this open forum called Vision Kenya in which Kenyans could be free to kick around ideas about what they want Kenya to be, but unfortunately it ultimately turned into an ethnocentric conversation for each one. Francis and I talked about this as well and he shares my opinion that in order for Kenya to really progress and move forward, the people first need to identify themselves as Kenyan, and secondly as their ethnic group. This may be difficult to do and reflects a very common question that as a development student I have studied and that the development world faces in the question of preserving culture vs. developing. Unfortunately there are no clear cut answers and every case is different. Stay tuned for what I have a feeling will be more on this issue as I become more integrated into the society.

Feeding Miss Daisy: A Nairobi Valentine’s Date

While most people spend their Valentine’s Day with their spouse, lover, partner, or other loved ones: going out on dates, doing cute things etc (visions of rose petals and flowers and candies and feeding grapes to a loved one and all of those other force-fed romantic images that have been created come to mind). I can say I actually did have a lunch date on Valentine’s Day as well…with a very cute seventeen year old female named Daisy… a giant Rothschild giraffe.

I spent my Saturday afternoon at the Giraffe Center, which is located in an area about an hour outside of Nairobi near Nairobi National Park where many different wildlife refuge and research centers are. The one that we went to was for the research and preservation of Giraffes, (warthogs and antelopes or impalas I’m not sure which also call the area home). When I first walked through the gate into the Giraffe Center, I was first saw a fenced off area and some warthogs running around inside. After saying hello to Pumba, my eyes followed the round fence around to a giant wooden platform and then saw a gigantic giraffe. My first thoughts were “Jesus, is that thing real, its huge!!). There is something about seeing giraffes that just puts a smile to your face. They are very cute, funny to watch as they move, have a certain regal air to them, and are just all and all really really cool. Being able to stand essentially right underneath of a giraffe makes you realize how big they actually are (I believe they are the tallest animal in the world). The Giraffe center has a platform that you can climb up, and walking up the steps there are workers with buckets of pellets who give you a handful to feed the giraffes. There were many little kids around who were feeding the giraffes and jumping up and down in excitement with smiles on their face and voices of laughter. When it was my turn to feed Daisy (the grandmother and oldest of the giraffes at the center), I held these large pellets (that reminded me of a much larger version of the food that my old pet rabbit Ferris used to eat) in my fingertips, and Daisy moved her head out and just licked it out of my hand with her very long tongue. She opened her mouth for more food and I could just throw pellets in for her.

From the viewing platform, you could see many Giraffes roaming around in this wildlife refuge. I believe that there were around ten or so there. At one point three different giraffes made their way to the viewing/feeding platform, including one smaller child giraffe. The Giraffe Center has Rothschild giraffes of all different ages and sizes, as well as warthogs roaming around. It was one of the first times while being in Africa that I truly felt like I had interaction with wildlife and felt like I was in the Lion King (which takes place in Kenya). My interaction or viewing of African wildlife has limited as of now, but that will change. On our drive to Naivasha the first week, we saw a herd of zebras running along the plains of the Rift Valley, and driving back from one of our exchanges we saw a group of small monkeys crawling around, but other than that I have not had too much contact with animals; just the agricultural herds of cattle or goats. Going to the Giraffe Center made me motivated to go see more of the wildlife in Kenya; I am planning on taking a Safari over the Easter break weekend when I have a few days off from classes, and there are other wildlife sanctuaries around Nairobi and Nairobi National Park to see as well. Stay tuned for more animal sightings in the future.

Art and Cultural Social Circles in Nairobi

For a city of an estimated four million people, Nairobi has the feel of a city substantially smaller-particularly in certain social circles. I feel as if I am beginning to emerge into one of these social circles, and feel a real sense of belonging- and that is among the art and entertainment circle. Nairobi has an ever-developing arts and cultural scene; that is sponsored by organizations such as the British Council with WAPI, and events at Alliance Francais and the Goethe-Institut (the German Cultural Institute). The latter two often hold joint events or it seems like always have things going on, and last nite I went to the opening of an art exhibit (and a techno dj set for the opening), at the Goethe-Institut.

This new exhibit called (It’s A Pity That We Only Exist in the Future) has the aim to highlight and perpetuate the city’s newfound embrace of Nairobi’s emerging art scene. Throughout the course of the night in talking with people, I felt the sense of belonging and extremely comfortable in a sort of “these are my people” effect. In the aftermath of the post election violence in Kenya in December 2007 and January 2008, art emerged as a major force of deterrence from this violence, as it has the ability to reach a large mass of people very quickly. I have started to figure out that a few major players in this peace movement are all interconnected, and even share a connection to me. This realization hit me full force last nite at Goethe. A few figures who had major influence during and after the violence are the absolutely phenomenal Kenyan musician Eric Wainaina, who has quickly become one of my favourite musicians (Kenyan or otherwise), whose music company and peace organization Rainmaker shares the same building as our AU Abroad office, my internship Sarakasi Trust for reaching out to the youth especially during the violence and giving them an progressive, productive outlet, and the artist Solo 7.

Solo 7 is an artist who is known to paint slogans of peace (such as Keep Peace, Wanted Peace alive, etc.) around Nairobi and especially in Kibera (where the worst and majority of the post-election violence took place more than a year ago). Walking around Kibera you can see his peace slogans all over fence posts, walls, doors, rocks, and other structures. I first came in contact with his work the first time I went to our AU Abroad office, where on an outside wall of the house is a huge mural with big letters that say “Keep Peace Alive”. At the exhibit last nite, he had custom t-shirts that he designed and painted hanging from the ceiling, and I saw one that I wanted to buy that said “No Ugali, No Peace”, so I asked a Goethe Institut employee if the shirts were for sale or if it was part of the exhibit? The next thing I know I was introduced to Solo 7, and we ended up talking for 45 minutes or so about art and the post-election violence and a number of other things. It was absolutely amazing to meet this artist who utilizes his art for a positive movement during a time it was much needed in Kenya. I walked away from that conversation having bought one of his shirts (a custom shirt that said “Keep Peace alive”- The same slogan as on the wall of our AU Abroad Office, so it has an extra meaning for me.) I also ended up with his phone number and a promise to go to his studio in Kibera sometime, as well a promise from him that he would take me around Kibera and show me all his different art on the walls and buildings there.

I felt extremely connected to the people at this art exhibit last nite, and dropping one of two names (either that I worked for Sarakasi Trust, or the name Kaje (the former AU Abroad Kenya director who is now in Nigeria developing an AU Abroad program there and was extremely connected in the Nairobi art world) gave me instant conversation points with anyone there. I ended up talking to this guy for an hour (who looks like a twin to the Chicago hip-hop star Common) and he told me that they have a African drum circle at the Nairobi National Museum every Sunday and invited me to go sometime. In talking to him, I mentioned that I worked for Sarakasi Trust, and he said that he was part of Sarakasi when it was first starting out before it had money in the late 1990s. He was a drummer and performer, and now he teaches African drumming to kids (he is not affiliated with Sarakasi anymore but he knows the director and her husband the chairman well). I left Goethe last nite having had an amazing nite that was a complete change of pace, and a new sense of belonging in this city.

Kintengala

While the scenery in Kenya is absolutely stunning, there has been one glaring negative issue that I have noticed everywhere that I have been in Kenya: waste disposal. It seems like everywhere there are plastic bags on the side of the road, or empty bottles. There are mountains of trash just outside of the city that look like a scene out of the movie Wall-E. This saddens me, because it is a black mark on an extraordinarily beautiful country. Today we went to a place that does wonderful things to clean up the trash problem in Kenya.

Kintengala glass factory is on the outskirts of town near Nairobi National Park, and the scenery driving towards it quite unique. The area around Nairobi National Park looks like any picture you would see of a Kenyan National Park: the rolling grasslands with the big trees spread throughout, although this national park is different because you can see the skyscrapers from Nairobi looming off in the distance. As we walked up the path to Kintengala, it was a rock path with pieces of coloured glass lined periodically throughout, with glass and modern-looking sculptures around reminiscent of the sculpture garden of the National Gallery of Art in Washington DC. Kintengala is amazing because it takes recycled glass (from soda or beer bottles, from broken windows, from any discarded glass materials), and melts them down and blows them to make glasses for drinking, vases, pitchers, and other artwork out of this glass work. It was very interesting to see the workers taking this glass and heating it up in a furnace, and then spinning it around when it was semi-liquefied and moldable to form the shapes they wanted to make. Walking around the gallery there were many different glasswares to buy, and since each piece is uniquely made from recycled glass, no two glasses or works were exactly alike. Walking around the paths to the different galleries (stained glass sculptures, beadworks, even a guy hammering down aluminum to make belts and hats and other art with), there were glass wind chimes and mosaics and art everywhere outdoors. I think that it is great that a company exists that takes a problem in Kenya, and turns it into artwork and uses recycling for these practical purposes. Apparently, from what I have heard, Kintengala glass is very famous worldwide and is found at all he high-end housing stores in Europe and even the United States. The place is absolutely amazing and created a Willy Wonka like atmosphere.

This was only half of the fun of my day, however as we had to cross a very narrow suspension bridge across the gorge that surrounds the Kintengala and the Massai Lodge that we parked out. This suspension bridge was way up and relatively long, and only a couple people could cross at once because it swayed a whole lot with every stop. That was an adventure in itself, but after that we had to walk down and around different parts of the gorge and cliffs, hiking up and down and across a river. In order to get around certain parts we had to cling up close to the rocks and grab ahold of the buttresses of this natural rock area. It was a lot of fun and I look forward to doing more nature hiking while I am here in Kenya.

Patch Adams in Nairobi: The Sarakasi Hospital Project

“I think maybe if you have fun with what you do it becomes easier to pick up your work and really grow with it.”

-Yussef, a Sarakasi Hospital Project performer

The more that I work at and become involved with Sarakasi Trust, the more I find out what an amazing organization it is in all its different aspects. One of these programs is the Hospital Project. I have become involved with the hospital project on many levels [I redesigned the logo, and I am going to write a grant for it (more on that to come later in this post,)] but I had not seen it in action until today. This program goes to the different hospitals around Nairobi and entertains the children through clown and slapstick comedy skits, playing guitar with sing-along, and drawing and painting, and initiates the concept that laughter is the best medicine (just like the message in the Robin Williams movie Patch Adams), which this project reminds me of. The children in the hospital are either sick or injured, or their mothers are admitted are just staying in the hospital with their families.

Walking into the hospital today I did not know really what to expect, other than that this would be a fun and eye-opening experience. To be perfectly honest I do not believe I had been in a hospital in ten years, so I just being in a hospital was different for me. When I opened the door to the children’s play room, I was instantly mobbed by ten or so small children ages 4-7 or so. They seemed so happy and curious to see a mwazungu (white person) and I was being pulled in every different direction by the kids and everyone wanted to shake my hand. It instantly put a smile on my face with all the fun happiness in the room. I helped set up/hang the curtains that served as the stage for the puppet shows and the changing room for the clowns, and then sat back and watched as one of the workers began strumming a guitar and leading the kids in a funny kids song in Swahili. I made my way into the group of kids to sit down, and immediately I had two kids sitting in my lap and another two pulling my arms over and around them. They seemed so excited to have a visitor and it was quite the experience. It really is amazing the power that little kids seem to have to lighten the atmosphere, even in a serious setting like a hospital. The performers helped out with this as they were dressed in ridiculous clown costumes and did slapstick skits that had every kid and their parents who watched from outside laughing hysterically. The puppet shows continued the fun and laughing, and the kids got to have some creative fun as paint and coloured pencils and paper were dispersed for their drawings.

While the scene in the children’s play room was certainly touching, I had a more profound impact on what Sarakasi does as I went around with one of the Hospital Project performers to the different wards in the children’s wing to interact with the children who are not well enough to make it to the play room. We brought papers and clipboards and crayons to people in these wards, where they could draw and we made jokes and danced around, and did what we could to brighten their moods.
It is amazing what a simple joke or warm engagement and paper and colours can do, and it really showed. Some of these kids have major potential with their artistic abilities as well.

The Sarakasi Hospital Project is one of the amazing different parts of Sarakasi Trust, and I am going to try my best to help them expand. One of the biggest parts of my AU Abroad Program grade is that I have to write a grant proposal for the organization that I work for. After seeing this program in action and talking with the hospital project director, I have decided that my grant proposal is going to go towards attempting to get the project a minibus so that they can take their entertaining and performing for the sick and hurt kids beyond Nairobi and out into other hospitals in the area. I definitely plan to return and be more of a part in the Hospital Project, and next time they said that I could even be apart of one of the clown skits. Stay tuned to see how that goes.