I am readying to return to Kenya Thursday. I look at our blue sky here, but I can already see the vastness and beauty of the African sky. I am longing to see my sister Monica and hug her. I think of driving with Francis and of the many journeys we have shared during this 9 year adventure. He has taught me a lot and I pray I have taught him some things too.
I am going back to the Village where I began 10 years ago. Without going into too many details, one could politely call it our beta program.
It was my learning place; it was where I knew that Africa would always own a piece of my heart and I would always have to return to touch that place. It was a place of humiliation and disgrace.
So now I begin again there. I am wiser now. I am accompanied by Monica and her team. I am glad I get the chance to do it right this time.
So this begins my journal for you and the Board. I must finish packing my suitcases. Funny how 100lbs fills up so quickly. Again I shall have to choose what is more important. And again I shall cover my bounty with condoms and candy. I am going home again.
Do you remember those tests you took in High School (or even middle school) that asked you to compare and contract 2 different but similar entities? Sometimes they were truly obvious and sometimes really slippery. For me it was always about how well I could write and how much I could sling it.
Today, however, as I was reading my normal newspapers, The Washington Post and the Nation, it was so obvious that I just had to comment on it. Both have online editions, the ones I read. The Washington Post is arguably one of the best newspapers we have in the US. And in Kenya, for my money, the Nation is the best. (Not quite so many to choose from, but I digress)
What always strikes me is the difference in our news versus theirs. Our news is pretty much all about us. On the Post site if you want to know about the World you have to go to the top of the page, click that tab and then click another. And frankly if it’s not in Europe it gets scant coverage.
Not so the Nation.Right on the first page they tell you what is happening in Kenya, Africa, The World. Today they mentioned the death of Dorothy Rodham, Assange losing his appeal, without multiple clicks.
And how this translates into the people is that I have found Kenyans far more knowledgeable about our country than we are about them. So now children I invite you to Compare and Contrast
The Headline today in the Nation said that 18 men of the proscribed Mombassa Republican Council (something to do with Al Shabbab) were arrested. So, because I’m following this stuff I read on. And then I totally had to laugh. It seems there was “a renowned traditional healer” performing rites on the boys. And if he had been able to complete his job, the boys would be invisible to the police and not arrested as they went about their nefarious deeds. Yeah, I’m not kidding. And this reminds me that I’m still in Africa and that I can be scared but I can also laugh.
I really am following the yellow brick road.
I’m trying to remain calm as things keep blowing up in Kenya. We so need to get the new program off the ground and it has to be in November, since in December the schools close and then open in January when it gets launched.
The news, however, is not encouraging coming out of Kenya. And I’m wondering how you prepare for an explosion. I wrote a guy in my church who is an EMT about what kinds of things I should think of. I figure a tourniquet or two would be good and probably some powdered sulfa. Yeah, my mind is thinking that way.
All the work I have ever done in Africa has been a walk of faith, and I’m guessing this is just another one of those times where God has upped the ante. But I must admit for the first time ever, I’m scared. Probably that is a good thing.
So keep the faith y’all and watch for updates.
Every time I prepare to return to Kenya there are those who think that joining me would be great fun/education. And each time I invite the person to join me. I’m always up for company. Once they hear about the accommodations, the shots, the lack of food that they would eat and the potential for danger they find a reason that they can’t go.
Today, while reading the Nation, I see that Kenya actually could get dicey before the elections. Kenya has sent troops into Mogadishu, and the terrorists are PISSED. So now the threat is that they will bomb Nairobi. I’m not saying they will, but it does give me pause. I forget to think about those things.
I wonder, though, if 11/11/11 will mean anything to terrorists in Somalia and Southern Sudan. Cuz I’ll be in Nairobi then and I’d prefer not to dodge falling debris. Oh yes I’m still going, but it did have a weird affect on my psyche.
So I’m off to see my kids this weekend. A new granddaughter awaits. I always like to see them before I go. It’s not that I’m not planning to be home for Thanksgiving, but just in case, I will have had a chance to say I love you one more time.
And if you’d like to read the Nation Article, here’s the link.
I have commented several times on the corruption of the Kenyan Government. Perhaps you’re not aware of the trials going on in the Hague, but since they involve the Vice President, Treasurer, and Uhuru Kenyatta (whose after was first president) you should want to know. They are being tried for crimes against humanity. And they are scalawags and devils one and all. Check it out.
Among the places Amercans will never go are the slums of Muthare and and Kibera on the outskirts of Nairobi. They are places of savage poverty, filth, and a vulnerability we cannot comprehend. They have no running water or electricity and are generally what I call God’s throwaways, because they are the poorest of the poor.
As a child growing up in the privileged suburbs of Chicago, my father, a DA at the time, often took me to court. I went to my first rape trial when I was 9. And rape trials back in the 50’s were rare indeed. However it surely raised my understanding of the awful things that could befall a woman. Woman the world round are aware of the possibility of rape everywhere they go. And rape is not a sexual thing, it is a domination of man over women or, in this case, over whole families.
I have been following the trials of the Ocampo 6. They include the Vice President of Kenya and several other high ranking Government officials. And they are all thugs. As I have read of the horrors of the killings, and have lived the results of both the killings and the burnings, I felt the horror. I knew the horror. But today as I read the Nation a whole new outrage rolled over me, taking me a minute to actually catch my breath.
It seems that hordes of gangs were hired to go into the Kibera and Muthare and rape the women in front of their families. The purpose was both intimidation of the tribes and ultimate humiliation. No man wants to see his wife raped, and it is even worse in tribal Africa because a tribe’s domination over another can be achieved through this very act. Always it is the women who are sacrificed to achieve the goal. And it is women who pay the price. In this case thousands of husbands walked away from their wives because the woman had been raped. And who can say how many women were left infected by HIV? That wasn’t even part of the article.
As I sit listening to the fountain gentle trickle water over the rocks, plentiful food in my fridge and a toilet ten feet away from me, I keep wondering why. I am a woman of God, and I have espoused always that God has a plan. But today I just have to ask Him Why?
For the full article: http://www.nation.co.ke/News/politics/The+horror+of+rapes+in+post+election+slum+life+laid+bare/-/1064/1241926/-/mym333z/-/index.html
There are many who bemoan the high cost of gasoline (what we call it here in the US), however we don’t risk our lives for it. That is not so in Africa. Today my sadness continues as I learned that more were killed in a fire in Busia. This one is really close to home, since I stay in Busia when I am in Kenya.
I see those long lines of trucks lined up on the main road. I can literally walk across the border into Uganda from my hotel. Not that that would be a smart move for this muzungu.
Poverty makes people do crazy thing. Children are sold, and people overwhelmed by the need to eat will run up to a truck engulfed in flames to siphon off a little of the precious fuel that is not yet burning. And yes many will catch on fire, many will burn to death.
Often I am asked about whether I am worried about getting sick over there. I don’t think about it much. Whatever I get I figure can be taken care of when I get back home. But burns and automobile accidents are different. They can’t wait and the hospital and medical help in Kenya as well as all over Africa is so incredibly lacking that coffin makers are always just outside the hospitals. Hospitals are a place you go to die.
So I tell you this so you can know a little more about a life and a place you probably will never see. If you go to Africa you will probably go on Safari. You will never see the problem of Petrol
Today I ache and feel drenched in both sorrow and gratitude. Most of you cannot imagine the slums of Nairobi, nor probably of any 3rd world country. The slums are festering holes of people and garbage and infection and unfortunately no protection. Yesterday fire broke out in/
As has happened in the past, petrol was leaking from a pipe. The poor huddled around to gather their own fuel from the pipe since it was “free”. And then a spark and then the fire.
And because it was so crowded and there was no easy way to even get to the fire 100 people died.
From the Nation today:
“According to eye witness accounts, the slum dwellers called each other to join the party and scoop the ‘manna’ of super petrol. They stood knee-deep in raw sewage, scooping the fuel that was leaking from a broken pipe at the Kenya Pipeline depot in Industrial Area.
As they gathered to enjoy the scooping in the hope of making a living –as they normally did when Kenya Pipeline cleaned its depot and released diesel into the river—there was an explosion and they all got burnt. Up to 160 are admitted in hospitals.
The rescue efforts were hampered by the poor access roads to the slums and disorganised rescue efforts as there was no command centre. At the scene, all the emergency services plus some volunteers looked lost as they stared at the uncovered bodies for hours on end.
Watch this if you dare…and then join us on Boston Common on Saturday at BGood and buy a burger/ save a child
As I watch the tv and the endless programming on the famine in Somalia and Kenya, my heart sinks. It feels like they are re-runs of news cast 10 years ago. And Americans who are freaking out about the stock market and the economy want to watch it but just barely. See it’s hard to watch especially when you’re feeling poor. And as the Executive Director of One Village, all I’m thinking about is where are we going to get the money to feed the extra kids we will be taking in?
Why does starvation continue in certain parts of Africa? Today’s Nation had an excellent article on the 12 reasons famine continues in Kenya and I am just compelled to share it with you here. A couple things he points out were especially cogent including the fact that Kenyans don’t make food production a priority and that they are still mostly growing food for export instead of for themselves. While economically some might argue that they need the exports, however the vast tracts of land that are used for tea and coffee rest in the hands of very few people and mostly white folks who reap the benefits.
So here is the article.
Twelve reasons for the hunger that stalks Kenya, and why it’s persistent
By KOIGI wa WAMWERE
Posted Wednesday, August 10 2011 at 17:40
When death by starvation stares four million Kenyans in the face, we must ask why. In my view, there are 12 reasons for our hunger.
The first reason for this and other hungers is that Kenyans don’tconsider food the number one national need or hunger the number one national enemy.Without food, no country can have life or security. As long as leaders and the rich have their imported food, nourishment for the common people does not matter.
The second reason is that Kenyan leaders have no soul that urges them to feed the poor.Unlike Jesus, our leaders and industrialists don’t feed the multitudes that attend their public meetings or workers who toil for them.
The third reason is that Kenyans don’t engage in modern agriculture.As former Cuban leader Fidel Castro argued, if Jesus employed a miracle to feed the people, leaders and governments should use the miracles of modern farming to feed the people.Today, our people starve because our agriculture is not modern enough to produce enough food for all.
The fourth reason is that Kenyans still pursue colonial agriculture that produces flowers, pyrethrum, coffee and tea for European societies and industries, instead of keeping poultry and cattle and growing maize, beans, potatoes, wheat and other foods for their consumption. Agriculture for raw materials and profit cannot eradicate hunger.
The fifth reason is failure to observe faithfully the Biblical Joseph’s philosophy of saving food in good seasons to feed people in seasons of drought.If only leaders could save food surpluses in good times, drought would never lead to hunger and death.Nor should people in drought-stricken areas starve when food is rotting in other areas for lack of market.
The sixth reason is bad leadership. As the proverb says, when the leader limps, the herd does not reach the pasture.Hunger in Kenya is neither from God nor from Satan. It is from our limping leaders who should vacate power to end starvation.
The seventh reason is President Kibaki’s refusal to sign the Essential Commodities’ Price Control Bill. At a time when a long drought has killed animals and rendered millions too poor to buy food, a caring government would have reduced the prices of food and kept them low.
Others shed crocodile tears when they decry hunger, but oppose controls for food commodities.
The eighth reason is corruption. Strategic maize reserves have been secretly exported and relief food stolen.
On July 8, it was reported that Sh362 million meant for drought had been stolen.On July 30, the minister for Water was challenged to explain the disappearance of Sh21 billion meant for irrigation.Then Sh1.9 billion for drought relief was consequently withdrawn by the World Bank and European Union.
When the government steals its own money meant to alleviate drought conditions, then goes begging for aid to fight hunger, it is like the boy who killed his parents, and then asked people to assist him because he was an orphan.
The ninth reason is our misuse of food. In our country, there are people who throw away more food than they eat.
There are people who have billions of shillings in their bank accounts when others cannot afford Sh150 to buy maize-flour.Those who throw away food cannot be depended upon to end hunger.
The tenth reason is that in the midst of starvation, millions of acres are hoarded by some people, while millions of people have nowhere to grow food or build shelter. Leaders who hoard land are friends of hunger.
The eleventh reason is people’s poverty. Poor people cannot import food, buy it from stores or buy implements for modern farming.
Thefinal reason is the destruction of forests leading to loss of the rain we need for sustainable agriculture.
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