First of all, I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving! I am SO incredibly thankful for all my family and friends who have supported me throughout my life and during my time in Kenya. I honestly wouldn’t be where I am today without all the care, love, inspiration and support you all provide me on a daily basis. THANK YOU!!
My thanksgiving was really fun. Of course, I missed everyone at home, but it was nice to celebrate the holiday with my Kenyan “family” (all the volunteers and friends I’ve made here). Mary had a bunch of us over for dinner at her adorable apartment in Old Town. We didn’t have a Turkey because a) they are expensive here and we don’t have that chapaa (dough) and b) No one in Kenya has an oven, unless you’re really wealthy….so none of us do. But not to worry, I had a “bird experience” the night before thanksgiving that made up for us not having a turkey at thanksgiving. On Wednesday I had to make dinner for my family because my host sister was held up in town. She had me get a whole chicken, which I had to tear apart with my own hands (breaking bones and manhandling the meat). The worst part was that the guts and the heart were still all inside (they’re usually cleaned at home). It was definitely an “interesting,” and slightly disturbing experience. But it definitely gave me a similar experience to preparing the turkey.
Instead of Turkey, the guys made steak for Thanksgiving. I made a “bomb-ass” salad with fresh lettuce, tangerines, walnuts and blue cheese (it was pretty amazing), Sasha made some really yummy candied yams, Mary made garlic mashed potatoes and Amanda brought Kenyan pancakes with bananas and chocolate sauce for desert. It was all very yummy. Kati (the woman I may work for if I come back here) came with her kids, which was really awesome. She is SO cool, and both her kids are very eloquent and outgoing even though they are only 10 and 12. Mary also invited some of her other volunteer friends, which she has met during her year here, who were also very cool. Overall, it was a great success and tons of fun!
The day after Thanksgiving, Amanda, Sasha and I went down south to Wasini Island. Wasini is just off the coast of Kenya, about 1.5 hours from Mombasa. We had a pretty intense matatu ride there, but got there safe and sound. At one point there were 27 people crammed into a 12 person van. It was VERY smelly, very crowded and there were about 4 people hanging out the door…we just all laughed at the ridiculousness of it all. The matatu was also pretty rickety and the last 30 mins (although it seemed longer) was on a dirt road. There were many points when we thought the matatu was just going to burst apart…but it didn’t ☺. We had a really nice matatu conductor that told us all about Wasini and where we should go and what we should see. As life would have it, it turned out that his cousin was the main captain for the only hotel on the island (which we were staying at). The captain, Ali, met us at the matatu stop with some of his crew and kinda took us under his wing and showed us around. We were a little hesitant at first because past experiences have showed us that when Kenyan men try to show us around they either want money or us. But we soon realized that they just wanted to be kind and helpful. There are apparently a lot of volunteers from America on Wasini who work with the coral reef and dolphins, and Ali and his crew were friends with all of them. So they were used to hanging out with people like us. Ali gave us a free ride to the island with the locals (a ride that usually costs 1,000KSH ($13.50 USD)) and gave us a tour of the island. Wasini is a coral Island (i.e. the entire island was formed by coral) so there is a coral garden—this means that there are beautiful formations of coral (almost sculpture like) in the middle of the island. During the full moon, the water from the ocean comes into the coral garden and surrounds the coral sculptures. There was also a mangrove forest, which was cool to see. There are only 2,000 people that live on Wasini. They are all Muslim and they are all related. When Ali said that the people on Wasini were all a big family, we just thought they were a really close community. But then we found out that they all marry their cousins…so they really are one big family!
After dinner we hung out with Ali and some of the other crewmembers (Babu, Mr. Cool and Finger) at the hostel. They were all chewing miraa (a local plant that most men chew, which has the same affect as coffee) and we just talked about plans for the next day and what life was like in Wasini.
In the morning we woke up at 6am and went back to Shimoni to meet the other members of the snorkeling group that Ali placed us with (to make it cheaper). The trip to the Marine Reserve was amazing!! We saw 5 dolphins that came right up to our boat and beautiful views of the coast. The snorkeling was incredible. We swam in one of the most preserved coral reefs in the world. The fish were literally surrounding us and they were all so beautiful and colorful. I saw so many fish that I never new existed. It was like swimming in the new Academy of Sciences aquarium, except WAY better because it was in the beautiful Indian Ocean. After snorkeling the other members of the group were taken to a fancy lunch at the hotel we were staying at. But the meal cost something like 900KSH and we just didn’t have the money to afford that. We told Ali about our budget the night before and he mentioned off hand that we could just have lunch at his house. We thought he was just being nice and didn’t think much of it. So we just went back to our room, packed up our bags and sat down to have some fruit and crackers. But before we could start Babu was outside our balcony asking us if we were ready to go to Ali’s for lunch. We were so surprised!! We were completely welcomed into their home and had a lovely lunch of Pilau (a traditional Swahili dish of seasoned rice with pieces of beef and tomatoes) with Babu. We were all just so taken aback by the kindness and hospitality of the people we met on Wasini. AND none of the guys made any comments about our looks and none of them asked us to marry them or to go out with them. They just wanted to be friendly. It made me feel so warm and happy inside that there are people in the world who are truly just kind, with no strings attached. The guys we met in Wasini were definitely some of the kindest people I have met in my entire life. I’m not even exaggerating here. This kind of thing would NEVER have happened in the US.
So that was my Thanksgiving weekend. It was a ton of fun! I will definitely always remember the Thanksgiving I spent in Kenya. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!! I look forward to hearing all about your holiday festivities ☺
Oxoxox Anna
Monday, November 30, 2009
Sunday, November 22, 2009
“A Sack of Hope”
Although the title of this blog entry is pretty cheesy, it really does describe my kitchen/balcony garden project and what it means to the PLWHA community that my organization is working with. This past Tuesday and Friday we held our training sessions with the first group of participants. Tuesday was the “theory” part of the training. The representative from LICODEP, named Mwasina, gave a very thorough and informative talk about how to start and manage a micro-enterprise (it was all in Swahili, but I looked at my co-workers notes, which were in English, afterwards). Then we had an AMAZING representative from the Ministry of Agriculture, Tabitha, come in and do a tutorial on the logistics of kitchen and balcony gardening. It was really useful and I actually learned a lot from the talk too. She covered the technical and theoretical foundations of kitchen/balcony gardening (like what plants you can grow, why it’s sustainable, the materials you need to make a kitchen or a balcony garden and how to construct them). Apparently, there are many different names for this kind of home gardening. In Kenya there is a distinction between “Kitchen” gardening and “Balcony” gardening, which I didn’t know. So a “Kitchen garden” is like a mini farm on a plot of land right near the homestead and a source of water. I think some of us might even have something like a kitchen garden in our back/front yards back home (my grandparent’s vegetable garden in San Mateo comes to mind). But many of the participants don’t have the money to acquire that extra amount of land (which made me wonder why she even covered it…but in the long run, I think it was best that she introduced it just in case someone happened to have a little land they could spare), and so then she introduced “Balcony gardens.” These are the sack gardens I was talking about earlier (apparently, their official name is “balcony gardens”). Tabitha gave a nice explanation about why this form of gardening is a great alternative for people who don’t have any extra land and don’t have access to much water. After a quick break a representative from Equity Bank, Joseph, came and gave his talk on Equity Bank’s micro-loan programs and how they expect their members to manage their groups and payments. It was very interesting to get a short tutorial about the logistics of micro-finance. Before this training I had a basic understanding of how micro-finance programs worked, but it was really great to get a more detailed definition. Joseph also kindly typed up an outline of his talk in English for me so I could follow along, which was very helpful ☺
On Friday we met up with the participants at the Ministry of Agriculture’s district head quarters (which are apparently in the Likoni town center, right near the Hospital, and NOT in Dogokunda – which is in the middle of NOWHERE). We went across the street to pick and buy seedlings for the participants to put in their balcony gardens. Friday’s experience really reminded me how much of a city girl I really am. I thought a seedling was just a seed that had only sprouted a little bit, but apparently seedlings are pretty well grown plants that you just uproot. Some of you reading this right now must be laughing at my ignorance, but hey, I’m still learning here folks. However, I will admit that I was kind of shocked and embarrassed that I didn’t know what a seedling was (especially because I had done the research on kitchen gardens, but there were just no pictures or a description of what a seedling was exactly). Oh well, we live and we learn.
After collecting and purchasing the seedlings we went to the house of one of the participants, Mart, to do the demonstration. At the training on Tuesday, Mary had volunteered to get some soil, manure and gravel for the demonstration. I don’t know if I mentioned this in earlier blogs, but apparently in Kenya, people don’t buy soil or manure or gravel. You just kind of take it from anywhere. When I first heard this, I was totally shocked, especially because I immediately had images of people just going to a neighborhood park and digging a hole to collect soil for their gardens. I think you’d probably be fined or something for that. My co-workers could see that I was shocked and kind of confused and they were like, “Do you have to BUY soil in America?!” And I said, “Yes, of course! Where else would you get it? You can’t just go into someone else’s yard and dig up their soil to use for yourself.” They didn’t understand and just said, “but there is soil everywhere. It is a natural resource, why would you pay for that?” It was a good question because it really made me think about the fundamental differences between America and Kenya (or just the differences between developed and developing nations in general). For me, this conversation highlighted the drastic differences in the infrastructure of developing vs. developed nations. For example, America has the infrastructure in place to support a business for soil, and laws in place, which inhibit people from randomly digging up public property. But in Kenya (and I’m assuming other developing nations), that infrastructure just doesn’t exist. Also, just in general, with the exception of Mombasa city center and Nairobi, most of Kenya is just really underdeveloped as a whole (I’m speaking in terms of land here, but it’s obviously underdeveloped in many other areas as well, unfortunately). Other than main highways, the roads here are all dirt, and from what I can tell, there really isn’t any town/city planning, especially the farther away you get from Mombasa or Nairobi, which means that there are no real laws saying that communities have to “preserve” a certain area or so. Furthermore, the majority of the population here can’t even afford one meal per day, so why would they pay for soil if they could just get it from the side of the road?
Anyways, that was a long tangent, but it was definitely an interesting conversation.
SO…we went to Mary’s house and we constructed a balcony garden. As many of you know, it is one thing to read about something but it is a completely different thing to do it. Having said that, I definitely learned A LOT during the demonstration and realized some logistical adjustments I need to make to my project. So the sacks we used were MUCH bigger than the ones I had seen in the research I did. Fully packed with soil, they come up to my mid waist. Needless to say, they are REALLY heavy. In my grant proposal I said that each participant would make one bag on their own during the demonstration and then we would drive that sack to their houses. Hahahha! There is NO way anyone is picking up one of those sacks after it is made. I think a fully constructed balcony garden probably weighs twice as much as me because there is a ton of soil and a bunch of rocks in there. There is also the challenge of getting enough soil, manure and gravel for each participant to make their own balcony garden during the demonstration. Since you can’t buy soil in Kenya, there is no place where you can get a sufficient amount of soil to fill 15 huge sacks. Therefore, we’ve decided to just to a hands-on demonstration with the participants and do routine check-ins with them at their homes over the course of 6 months. What’s great is that Tabitha was already working with individuals who wanted to start balcony gardens, because promoting this kind of farming is a new initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture. So she’ll be doing most of the checking in with the participants since it’s already part of her job. Yey for community and stakeholder involvement!!
Anyways, on to how we constructed the balcony garden: First we placed the bag in an area outside the house that received some good sunlight. Then we took and empty paint can (the ones you buy when you want to paint a room), with the bottom punched out, and placed it in the center of the bag. We filled the paint can with stones and started packing in soil around the can. We kept adding more soil until it came level with the paint can and then we pulled the paint can up (the rocks stay in place because they are now held there by the soil) and place it on the top of the first layer of rocks and then fill it with some more rocks, pack the soil around and repeated that until we reached the top of the bag. The column of rocks acts as a natural filtration system. Then we cut evenly spaced holes (about the length of a hand apart) into the sides of the sack. Next, we put the seedlings into the holes (roots first of course) and in the soil at the top of the sack. Finally, we just poured water onto the top of the column of rocks in the middle of the sack to water the balcony garden. It was SO satisfying to make it and see the final product. All the participants were really excited about learning how to make these gardens, having access to a sustainable source of nutrition and the potential of some extra income. It was just a really rewarding experience overall.
We’re sensitizing a new group of PLWHAs, who are taking ARVs, on nutrition and ARV adherence next week, so we’ll probably have another training the week after next. I can’t wait!!
Sorry for the novel. I hope everyone is doing well at home! I love you all!!
P.S. There are pictures from the training at the bottom of this blog
Best,
Anna
On Friday we met up with the participants at the Ministry of Agriculture’s district head quarters (which are apparently in the Likoni town center, right near the Hospital, and NOT in Dogokunda – which is in the middle of NOWHERE). We went across the street to pick and buy seedlings for the participants to put in their balcony gardens. Friday’s experience really reminded me how much of a city girl I really am. I thought a seedling was just a seed that had only sprouted a little bit, but apparently seedlings are pretty well grown plants that you just uproot. Some of you reading this right now must be laughing at my ignorance, but hey, I’m still learning here folks. However, I will admit that I was kind of shocked and embarrassed that I didn’t know what a seedling was (especially because I had done the research on kitchen gardens, but there were just no pictures or a description of what a seedling was exactly). Oh well, we live and we learn.
After collecting and purchasing the seedlings we went to the house of one of the participants, Mart, to do the demonstration. At the training on Tuesday, Mary had volunteered to get some soil, manure and gravel for the demonstration. I don’t know if I mentioned this in earlier blogs, but apparently in Kenya, people don’t buy soil or manure or gravel. You just kind of take it from anywhere. When I first heard this, I was totally shocked, especially because I immediately had images of people just going to a neighborhood park and digging a hole to collect soil for their gardens. I think you’d probably be fined or something for that. My co-workers could see that I was shocked and kind of confused and they were like, “Do you have to BUY soil in America?!” And I said, “Yes, of course! Where else would you get it? You can’t just go into someone else’s yard and dig up their soil to use for yourself.” They didn’t understand and just said, “but there is soil everywhere. It is a natural resource, why would you pay for that?” It was a good question because it really made me think about the fundamental differences between America and Kenya (or just the differences between developed and developing nations in general). For me, this conversation highlighted the drastic differences in the infrastructure of developing vs. developed nations. For example, America has the infrastructure in place to support a business for soil, and laws in place, which inhibit people from randomly digging up public property. But in Kenya (and I’m assuming other developing nations), that infrastructure just doesn’t exist. Also, just in general, with the exception of Mombasa city center and Nairobi, most of Kenya is just really underdeveloped as a whole (I’m speaking in terms of land here, but it’s obviously underdeveloped in many other areas as well, unfortunately). Other than main highways, the roads here are all dirt, and from what I can tell, there really isn’t any town/city planning, especially the farther away you get from Mombasa or Nairobi, which means that there are no real laws saying that communities have to “preserve” a certain area or so. Furthermore, the majority of the population here can’t even afford one meal per day, so why would they pay for soil if they could just get it from the side of the road?
Anyways, that was a long tangent, but it was definitely an interesting conversation.
SO…we went to Mary’s house and we constructed a balcony garden. As many of you know, it is one thing to read about something but it is a completely different thing to do it. Having said that, I definitely learned A LOT during the demonstration and realized some logistical adjustments I need to make to my project. So the sacks we used were MUCH bigger than the ones I had seen in the research I did. Fully packed with soil, they come up to my mid waist. Needless to say, they are REALLY heavy. In my grant proposal I said that each participant would make one bag on their own during the demonstration and then we would drive that sack to their houses. Hahahha! There is NO way anyone is picking up one of those sacks after it is made. I think a fully constructed balcony garden probably weighs twice as much as me because there is a ton of soil and a bunch of rocks in there. There is also the challenge of getting enough soil, manure and gravel for each participant to make their own balcony garden during the demonstration. Since you can’t buy soil in Kenya, there is no place where you can get a sufficient amount of soil to fill 15 huge sacks. Therefore, we’ve decided to just to a hands-on demonstration with the participants and do routine check-ins with them at their homes over the course of 6 months. What’s great is that Tabitha was already working with individuals who wanted to start balcony gardens, because promoting this kind of farming is a new initiative of the Ministry of Agriculture. So she’ll be doing most of the checking in with the participants since it’s already part of her job. Yey for community and stakeholder involvement!!
Anyways, on to how we constructed the balcony garden: First we placed the bag in an area outside the house that received some good sunlight. Then we took and empty paint can (the ones you buy when you want to paint a room), with the bottom punched out, and placed it in the center of the bag. We filled the paint can with stones and started packing in soil around the can. We kept adding more soil until it came level with the paint can and then we pulled the paint can up (the rocks stay in place because they are now held there by the soil) and place it on the top of the first layer of rocks and then fill it with some more rocks, pack the soil around and repeated that until we reached the top of the bag. The column of rocks acts as a natural filtration system. Then we cut evenly spaced holes (about the length of a hand apart) into the sides of the sack. Next, we put the seedlings into the holes (roots first of course) and in the soil at the top of the sack. Finally, we just poured water onto the top of the column of rocks in the middle of the sack to water the balcony garden. It was SO satisfying to make it and see the final product. All the participants were really excited about learning how to make these gardens, having access to a sustainable source of nutrition and the potential of some extra income. It was just a really rewarding experience overall.
We’re sensitizing a new group of PLWHAs, who are taking ARVs, on nutrition and ARV adherence next week, so we’ll probably have another training the week after next. I can’t wait!!
Sorry for the novel. I hope everyone is doing well at home! I love you all!!
P.S. There are pictures from the training at the bottom of this blog
Best,
Anna
Monday, November 16, 2009
Nzuri Sana
Last week was very interesting and exciting. It started with a trip to the Ashton Apparel Factory on Monday. As I mentioned earlier in this blog, Wal-Mart is a big funder of Hope Worldwide. When I first saw this I was VERY skeptical. But I have learned, in my time here, that Wal-Mart’s involvement with Hope Worldwide is in response to the bad publicity they got a few years back for treating their employees horribly. Hope Worldwide has an HIV/AIDS prevention and awareness program with the people who work in Ashton Apparel Factory- a factory that supplies clothing for Wal-Mart (and Jones of New York). HWW also provides vocational training (computer classes and dress making classes) for the factory workers and their dependents. I went with one of my co-workers, Kameri, to drop off some forms from one of the computer classes, at the factory. I met the manager of the factory and was given a full tour. It was really intense. The security was really high, we had to tell the guard why we were there, who we were there to see and then he had to confirm it with that person before he could let us in. We were led through the main factory floor (which was packed with tons of people and machines) and walked up some stairs to the manager’s office, overlooking the entire factory. It was like something out of a movie. The manager was Indian and was very welcoming to me, but all I could think about was how corrupt he was. The workers are treated VERY poorly at Ashton (even though the conditions have improved over the past few years). The factory workers are paid on an individual and group “target” basis. If they don’t meet their target number of garments in a day then they won’t be paid their full wages (which aren’t even enough to support them…most workers have other jobs on the side to just get by). This means that they have to work non-stop until their break or the end of their shift (apparently shifts are a new thing- until about a year ago, Ashton employees worked all day). I have never been in a factory before and it was a very eye-opening experience. There were so many people (1,800) working in the building, with only inches of workspace. Everything was just so crowded, hot and cramped. I have always been relatively aware of where my clothes come from, but this took it to a whole other level. I think it was really good for me to see. The sad thing is that Ashton may be one of the better factories because they were happy to give me a tour. I’m sure other factories would not be so happy to show me around…which is a scary thought because what I saw was already pretty distressing.
The rest of my week was pretty normal, but Friday was awesome. I went to work, as usual, did some small things and then went into town so I could run a few errands. I was going to meet Amanda in town around 3pm so we could go to the Kangaweya market on the North Coast. I had some time to kill so I went to Dorman’s coffee shop and had a nice cold drink and started reading my book. Then I noticed that Dr. Catherine Maternowska (aka. Kati) was passing my table, so I said hi and we began talking. A little background on who Kati is: When I was working at UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, my boss put me in touch with Kati because she was doing work in Mombasa. Those of you who read the New York Times magazine about women’s rights work in the developing world may recognize her name because she wrote an article about female sex workers who work with truckers in Zambia. So, I shot her an email, not expecting much because she’s a pretty big deal, but to my surprise she responded within a day. We realized that we were connected in another way: Mary, one of the FSD site team members, also works with her. So anyways, long story short, we have been meaning to meet up and talk about the work she does here. We got that chance on Friday and spoke for about an hour. It was SO interesting. Apparently her mentor was Paul Farmer (!!!) and she lived and worked in Haiti for something like 7 years. She’s currently doing work on sexual and gender-based violence. I learned a lot from speaking with her and was greatly inspired.
Moments after she left, Mary (from FSD) walked by and we started chatting. She told me that my project (which I submitted the grant proposal for) received full funding from FSD!! This made me SO happy especially because a) My project was the only project from the Mombasa interns to be funded and b) I was competing with all the other FSD interns around the world for the prize money. It made me really happy to hear the news and really encouraged me. We are holding the training session tomorrow, and I will write soon to let you all know how it goes.
This weekend I went on safari with Amanda and Graham. It was a lot of fun. We saw a ton of elephants, a lion and a lioness, water buffalo, zebras and many other animals. I was kinda disappointed because we only saw 2 giraffes (and they were really far away). But Graham and I are going to Haller Park in a few weeks and apparently there are a lot of giraffes there.
Anyways, that’s what I’ve been up to. I best get to bed though to rest up for the busy day ahead. Hope everyone is doing well!!
Oxoxo Anna
The rest of my week was pretty normal, but Friday was awesome. I went to work, as usual, did some small things and then went into town so I could run a few errands. I was going to meet Amanda in town around 3pm so we could go to the Kangaweya market on the North Coast. I had some time to kill so I went to Dorman’s coffee shop and had a nice cold drink and started reading my book. Then I noticed that Dr. Catherine Maternowska (aka. Kati) was passing my table, so I said hi and we began talking. A little background on who Kati is: When I was working at UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention Studies, my boss put me in touch with Kati because she was doing work in Mombasa. Those of you who read the New York Times magazine about women’s rights work in the developing world may recognize her name because she wrote an article about female sex workers who work with truckers in Zambia. So, I shot her an email, not expecting much because she’s a pretty big deal, but to my surprise she responded within a day. We realized that we were connected in another way: Mary, one of the FSD site team members, also works with her. So anyways, long story short, we have been meaning to meet up and talk about the work she does here. We got that chance on Friday and spoke for about an hour. It was SO interesting. Apparently her mentor was Paul Farmer (!!!) and she lived and worked in Haiti for something like 7 years. She’s currently doing work on sexual and gender-based violence. I learned a lot from speaking with her and was greatly inspired.
Moments after she left, Mary (from FSD) walked by and we started chatting. She told me that my project (which I submitted the grant proposal for) received full funding from FSD!! This made me SO happy especially because a) My project was the only project from the Mombasa interns to be funded and b) I was competing with all the other FSD interns around the world for the prize money. It made me really happy to hear the news and really encouraged me. We are holding the training session tomorrow, and I will write soon to let you all know how it goes.
This weekend I went on safari with Amanda and Graham. It was a lot of fun. We saw a ton of elephants, a lion and a lioness, water buffalo, zebras and many other animals. I was kinda disappointed because we only saw 2 giraffes (and they were really far away). But Graham and I are going to Haller Park in a few weeks and apparently there are a lot of giraffes there.
Anyways, that’s what I’ve been up to. I best get to bed though to rest up for the busy day ahead. Hope everyone is doing well!!
Oxoxo Anna
Monday, November 9, 2009
Sea Shells and Kitchen Gardens….
I just returned from a lovely weekend at Diani beach (south coast of Mombasa). I went with all the other interns and one of the members of the site team, Mary. Mary is AWESOME. She is from Michigan and is a former FSD intern. She actually works with a researcher I met through one of my colleagues at the UCSF Center for AIDS Prevention. She is just really tight and it was great to have her with us.
This weekend was essentially our “mid-term retreat.” I can’t believe I’m already half way through my time here! While there have been some challenges, on the whole I really do love it here and I’m beginning to realize how much I’ll miss it. I’m just trying not to think about that though and really see my limited time as a motivation to do all that I wanted to do while I was here…this includes stuff with my work, but also some touristy things.
The beach was literally THE MOST beautiful beach I’ve been to in my life (even more so than the one I said was the most beautiful beach in my first blog). The sand was SO soft and so white. The water was really clear, warm and actually turquoise. This morning, Amanda, Sasha and I swam and walked up the coast for a while. It was really fun (we also saw, and petted, some camels). The only downside about these beaches is that there are SO many “beach boys” around. They come up to any white person and ask if they can take them out for a ride on their boat, sell them some stuff or, with white women, if they can “talk to you” and “kiss you.” It’s really actually pretty annoying. But I’m getting really good at showing no interest and getting annoying men to stop bothering me (I’ve had a lot of practice here).
But other than that, which wasn’t even that big of a deal, the weekend was AMAZING. We stayed in a beautiful cottage and were able to cook our own food, which as incredible and very needed. I never thought I’d be so excited about things like cereal, deli meat sandwiches and pasta. Pretty crazy. But it was nice to have something from home. Another really fun thing was that Amanda, Sasha and I all got hour-long massages on the beach for only 500 Ksh (+/- $6.50). Our site team manager recommended the woman and she was really great.
So all in all, I had a very relaxing and fun weekend. I have to say I really think we all deserved it. What with the new challenges we face each day, adjusting to a new culture and way of life and working. Last week was particularly busy/ mildly stressful because I was working on my Grant Proposal, which I submitted on Friday. It was a wonderful experience to work on it. I really learned a lot and I am VERY excited about my project.
I am working with the PLWHA (people living with HIV/AIDS) population in Likoni (a town just south of Mombasa). The Ministry of Health in Likoni approached Hope Worldwide to see if we could help address the problem of PLWHAs not adhering to their drug regimens (Anti-retroviral therapy- ART). Kenya has offered free ARVs (anti-retrovirals) since 2005. So these people have access to the medication, but there are major disparities that exist, which inhibit PLWHAs from adhering to their medications. It is very important that PLWHAs adhere to their ART because not only does it suppress the virus and make them healthier, if they take it irregularly or stop and start again, it can create resistant viral strains and give them limited treatment options in the future. So through a needs assessment, held in mid-October, with the Ministry of Likoni, Hope Worldwide and members of the PLWHA community in Likoni some barriers in adhering to the treatment were identified. The most common reason for not adhering to ART was poverty, specifically the inability to afford enough food. Most of the PLWHAs in Likoni are unemployed and because of this they don’t have the income to support a nutritious diet of three meals a day. Oftentimes, these people eat one meal a day consisting of only ugali (the carb substance eaten here).
It is important for PLWHAs on ARVs to have a nutritious and substantial diet because if they don’t eat enough, not only will their bodies not have enough energy to support their immune system, which is already failing, they feel really sick whenever they take their meds. If someone can’t afford food, but are taking their ARVs, the only way to stop feeling incredibly sick all the time is to just stop taking their meds.
To address this problem, my supervisor and I spoke with the PLWHA population about the different options they had to overcome this barrier (income generating activities, farming etc.). What we came up with was holding training sessions with PLWHAs to endow them with the skills, tools and knowledge of how to grow a kitchen garden and eventually start a small business selling them in the market.
Kitchen gardens are a relatively new idea. It is probably one of the most sustainable ways to grow plants. It allows people who don’t have access to land or much water to grow up to 20-50 plants. Kitchen gardens are made from sacks, which can be found locally at very little cost. Holes are first punched about 2 cm in diameter and at a spacing of 0.25 m-3.0 m starting about 0.15 m from the bottom. The bag is filled with soil and a watering shaft is created in the soil by placing three posts at the centre of the bag, then packing the space in between with gravel and straw. Vegetable seedlings such as kales, tomato and, spinach are planted through the holes as well as at the top of the bag. To water the plants, you can just use wastewater from the kitchen.
While the PLWHAs and their families will not rely on the vegetables alone to feed themselves, it will offer them a reliable and important addition to their food rations and starches.
I am very optimistic about this project and I’m excited to see how it will turn out. But as for right now, I must sign off because I’ve already written a novel and I need to go to bed soon.
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the first weeks of November.
Much Love,
Anna
This weekend was essentially our “mid-term retreat.” I can’t believe I’m already half way through my time here! While there have been some challenges, on the whole I really do love it here and I’m beginning to realize how much I’ll miss it. I’m just trying not to think about that though and really see my limited time as a motivation to do all that I wanted to do while I was here…this includes stuff with my work, but also some touristy things.
The beach was literally THE MOST beautiful beach I’ve been to in my life (even more so than the one I said was the most beautiful beach in my first blog). The sand was SO soft and so white. The water was really clear, warm and actually turquoise. This morning, Amanda, Sasha and I swam and walked up the coast for a while. It was really fun (we also saw, and petted, some camels). The only downside about these beaches is that there are SO many “beach boys” around. They come up to any white person and ask if they can take them out for a ride on their boat, sell them some stuff or, with white women, if they can “talk to you” and “kiss you.” It’s really actually pretty annoying. But I’m getting really good at showing no interest and getting annoying men to stop bothering me (I’ve had a lot of practice here).
But other than that, which wasn’t even that big of a deal, the weekend was AMAZING. We stayed in a beautiful cottage and were able to cook our own food, which as incredible and very needed. I never thought I’d be so excited about things like cereal, deli meat sandwiches and pasta. Pretty crazy. But it was nice to have something from home. Another really fun thing was that Amanda, Sasha and I all got hour-long massages on the beach for only 500 Ksh (+/- $6.50). Our site team manager recommended the woman and she was really great.
So all in all, I had a very relaxing and fun weekend. I have to say I really think we all deserved it. What with the new challenges we face each day, adjusting to a new culture and way of life and working. Last week was particularly busy/ mildly stressful because I was working on my Grant Proposal, which I submitted on Friday. It was a wonderful experience to work on it. I really learned a lot and I am VERY excited about my project.
I am working with the PLWHA (people living with HIV/AIDS) population in Likoni (a town just south of Mombasa). The Ministry of Health in Likoni approached Hope Worldwide to see if we could help address the problem of PLWHAs not adhering to their drug regimens (Anti-retroviral therapy- ART). Kenya has offered free ARVs (anti-retrovirals) since 2005. So these people have access to the medication, but there are major disparities that exist, which inhibit PLWHAs from adhering to their medications. It is very important that PLWHAs adhere to their ART because not only does it suppress the virus and make them healthier, if they take it irregularly or stop and start again, it can create resistant viral strains and give them limited treatment options in the future. So through a needs assessment, held in mid-October, with the Ministry of Likoni, Hope Worldwide and members of the PLWHA community in Likoni some barriers in adhering to the treatment were identified. The most common reason for not adhering to ART was poverty, specifically the inability to afford enough food. Most of the PLWHAs in Likoni are unemployed and because of this they don’t have the income to support a nutritious diet of three meals a day. Oftentimes, these people eat one meal a day consisting of only ugali (the carb substance eaten here).
It is important for PLWHAs on ARVs to have a nutritious and substantial diet because if they don’t eat enough, not only will their bodies not have enough energy to support their immune system, which is already failing, they feel really sick whenever they take their meds. If someone can’t afford food, but are taking their ARVs, the only way to stop feeling incredibly sick all the time is to just stop taking their meds.
To address this problem, my supervisor and I spoke with the PLWHA population about the different options they had to overcome this barrier (income generating activities, farming etc.). What we came up with was holding training sessions with PLWHAs to endow them with the skills, tools and knowledge of how to grow a kitchen garden and eventually start a small business selling them in the market.
Kitchen gardens are a relatively new idea. It is probably one of the most sustainable ways to grow plants. It allows people who don’t have access to land or much water to grow up to 20-50 plants. Kitchen gardens are made from sacks, which can be found locally at very little cost. Holes are first punched about 2 cm in diameter and at a spacing of 0.25 m-3.0 m starting about 0.15 m from the bottom. The bag is filled with soil and a watering shaft is created in the soil by placing three posts at the centre of the bag, then packing the space in between with gravel and straw. Vegetable seedlings such as kales, tomato and, spinach are planted through the holes as well as at the top of the bag. To water the plants, you can just use wastewater from the kitchen.
While the PLWHAs and their families will not rely on the vegetables alone to feed themselves, it will offer them a reliable and important addition to their food rations and starches.
I am very optimistic about this project and I’m excited to see how it will turn out. But as for right now, I must sign off because I’ve already written a novel and I need to go to bed soon.
I hope everyone is doing well and enjoying the first weeks of November.
Much Love,
Anna
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Reflection on the values and beliefs of different cultures
Last week illuminated some very interesting and shocking values and beliefs that exist in Kenya. There was a huge scandal in the national news (and throughout the country) because two Kenyan men were married in the UK. I have never experienced such incredible homophobia. I was immediately reminded of what a bubble I’ve been living in, in the bay area. People were going crazy because of these men. What was the most shocking was that even people who I have become close to expressed some very disrespectful and hateful views about homosexuals. My supervisor at work (which is a faith-based NGO - mainly Christian, with some Muslims) actually sent an email to everyone at work entitled “REPENT” and went on to say, “REPENT! The world is coming to an end. This is bad. Jesus needs to come back NOW!” Attached were photos from the marriage between the two Kenyan men in the UK. I was absolutely shocked and incredibly offended. It was especially surprising that it came from my supervisor, because I’m close to him and he’s an authority figure, but most of all because Hope Worldwide Kenya says it does work with the MSM (men who have sex with men) population. I haven’t seen them making an effort to get in touch with the homosexual population…and now I understand why.
After reading the email, I immediately deleted it while exclaiming (aloud), “I don’t agree with this.” When asked why by my friends, I began to explain why I believed in homosexual rights…especially the right to wed. They were shocked that homosexuals were able to marry in some states. But what really caught me was that when I was trying to explain the way I thought about these issues I found myself constantly explaining that my views were not very representative of America as a whole. That was a very humbling experience, and it really inspired me to continue my research on stigmatization of the homosexual community in the US. It is very different to read about people in the US (or around the world) who strongly disagree with homosexuals and think they should be “punished,” but it is an entirely different thing to have friends that say that. It makes it WAY more personal, and I think this experience really made me realize that those people, who are incredibly homophobic, really do exist—they aren’t just random people who are in the news, documentaries and movies. I know it sounds really nieve to say…I do understand that homophobia exists (that’s why I did my honors thesis on it), but I guess I didn’t really understand to what extent. One of my friend’s host sister even said that if her son was homosexual she would kill him…she was completely serious. Wow.
So that was definitely an eye-opening experience for me. On a similar note, the past few weeks have been the first time, in my life, that I’ve really had a full conversation with very devout Christians about their beliefs(homosexuals obviously made it into those discussions). One of the more interesting conversations actually grew out of that homophobic email my boss sent me. I asked my friend if people really thought the world was coming to an end because people from the same sex were falling in love, having sex and getting married. She said “Yes!” like I was crazy to be even asking such a question…like she was asking “you don’t?!” When I asked why her explanation was as follows: “Because the bible prophesizes that when people start behaving badly and ‘against god’s will’ and when there are devastating diseases such as HIV/AIDS the world will come to an end.” When I asked her why the world didn’t stop earlier she said: “There were never homosexuals when my grandma was alive. Women obeyed their husbands and there was no diseases like HIV/AIDS.” I was SHOCKED when I heard that but tried not to give my thoughts away so I just smiled. She noticed my change in behavior and asked why I was smiling. I pointed out that homosexuals were probably around when her grandma was growing up because there were homosexuals in America at that time…heck, there is evidence that there were homosexuals in ancient Rome (they’re even mentioned in the bible!!). I also pointed out that there have been devastating diseases before HIV/AIDS…black plague. She had never heard of it. She was also very disbelieving that homosexuals existed before her grandma’s time. I told her they probably hid it because they knew they would be discriminated against (actually probably killed). I had some anger when I heard her say these things (not towards her, but towards the beliefs that she was representing). I am trying really hard to be understanding and accepting of different cultures and religions, but it is SO hard when they compromise the rights of other human beings. People here always talk about women’s rights; that they are human beings, just like men, so they should be treated equally. But then there is this huge double standard because it doesn’t apply to homosexuals. News flash: THEY ARE HUMANS TOO!!!! It really makes me so frustrated. It is hard to distinguish where the line is drawn between respectfully informing people about my beliefs and being culturally sensitive. I try to do the former, but I’m afraid that by doing so, I’m risking being culturally insensitive and rude. It’s definitely good experience. I’m learning how to tread lightly but still express my beliefs.
On a completely different note: work is going well. I’m in the midst of writing my grant for the project I want to do with PLWHAs (people living with HIV/AIDS). It is due by the end of this week, so I’ll be VERY busy. I’m really excited about it though. We are going to do a training with PLWHAs about how to start “kitchen gardens” in their homes. With these skills, PLWHAs can grow vegetables in their kitchen just using a sack with soil in it. Not only will this provide them with sustainable access to vegetables, when they start growing enough, they can sell them in the market and earn money to buy more food. This afternoon my advisor and I are meeting with Unity Bank to see if they can come and speak at our training session with PLWHAs about microfinance. Tomorrow we are meeting with the ministry of health, Likodep (a community development/ microfinance NGO) and the ministry of agriculture. I’m very excited for these meetings and getting my project up and running.
This past weekend was wonderful. It stopped raining on Thursday and has been hot and sunny for the past five days (knock on wood!). On Friday, Amanda and I went to this really amazing restaurant called Tamarind and had some good seafood. On Saturday, I went to town with my host sister and we had lunch with her good friend Superior (great name ☺. It was really nice to meet her and we had a good time. Then I met Amanda at Fort Jesus and walked around there with a tour guide. It was VERY interesting and I took lots of pictures. Fort Jesus was built by the Portuguese, when they first came to East Africa, as a military fort. A couple of years later, the Arabs took over and converted it to a place to keep slaves during the slave trade. Then the British army took it over and it was a government prison until independence. It was so interesting to see the artifacts and hear the history of the place (those of you who know me well know how I love visiting historic sites).
Later that night Amanda and I went to a house party to celebrate Halloween. It was at the house of a peace corps volunteer we know through FSD. It was SO much fun. Amanda went as a zebra and I, a cheetah. We had to get really creative with costumes, and I think we definitely succeeded. We used a headband and attached drawings of cheetah and zebra ears. It was pretty great considering the limited resources we had.
But yeah, things are good and I’m getting ready to write my grant this week. Wish me luck!
oxoxo Anna
After reading the email, I immediately deleted it while exclaiming (aloud), “I don’t agree with this.” When asked why by my friends, I began to explain why I believed in homosexual rights…especially the right to wed. They were shocked that homosexuals were able to marry in some states. But what really caught me was that when I was trying to explain the way I thought about these issues I found myself constantly explaining that my views were not very representative of America as a whole. That was a very humbling experience, and it really inspired me to continue my research on stigmatization of the homosexual community in the US. It is very different to read about people in the US (or around the world) who strongly disagree with homosexuals and think they should be “punished,” but it is an entirely different thing to have friends that say that. It makes it WAY more personal, and I think this experience really made me realize that those people, who are incredibly homophobic, really do exist—they aren’t just random people who are in the news, documentaries and movies. I know it sounds really nieve to say…I do understand that homophobia exists (that’s why I did my honors thesis on it), but I guess I didn’t really understand to what extent. One of my friend’s host sister even said that if her son was homosexual she would kill him…she was completely serious. Wow.
So that was definitely an eye-opening experience for me. On a similar note, the past few weeks have been the first time, in my life, that I’ve really had a full conversation with very devout Christians about their beliefs(homosexuals obviously made it into those discussions). One of the more interesting conversations actually grew out of that homophobic email my boss sent me. I asked my friend if people really thought the world was coming to an end because people from the same sex were falling in love, having sex and getting married. She said “Yes!” like I was crazy to be even asking such a question…like she was asking “you don’t?!” When I asked why her explanation was as follows: “Because the bible prophesizes that when people start behaving badly and ‘against god’s will’ and when there are devastating diseases such as HIV/AIDS the world will come to an end.” When I asked her why the world didn’t stop earlier she said: “There were never homosexuals when my grandma was alive. Women obeyed their husbands and there was no diseases like HIV/AIDS.” I was SHOCKED when I heard that but tried not to give my thoughts away so I just smiled. She noticed my change in behavior and asked why I was smiling. I pointed out that homosexuals were probably around when her grandma was growing up because there were homosexuals in America at that time…heck, there is evidence that there were homosexuals in ancient Rome (they’re even mentioned in the bible!!). I also pointed out that there have been devastating diseases before HIV/AIDS…black plague. She had never heard of it. She was also very disbelieving that homosexuals existed before her grandma’s time. I told her they probably hid it because they knew they would be discriminated against (actually probably killed). I had some anger when I heard her say these things (not towards her, but towards the beliefs that she was representing). I am trying really hard to be understanding and accepting of different cultures and religions, but it is SO hard when they compromise the rights of other human beings. People here always talk about women’s rights; that they are human beings, just like men, so they should be treated equally. But then there is this huge double standard because it doesn’t apply to homosexuals. News flash: THEY ARE HUMANS TOO!!!! It really makes me so frustrated. It is hard to distinguish where the line is drawn between respectfully informing people about my beliefs and being culturally sensitive. I try to do the former, but I’m afraid that by doing so, I’m risking being culturally insensitive and rude. It’s definitely good experience. I’m learning how to tread lightly but still express my beliefs.
On a completely different note: work is going well. I’m in the midst of writing my grant for the project I want to do with PLWHAs (people living with HIV/AIDS). It is due by the end of this week, so I’ll be VERY busy. I’m really excited about it though. We are going to do a training with PLWHAs about how to start “kitchen gardens” in their homes. With these skills, PLWHAs can grow vegetables in their kitchen just using a sack with soil in it. Not only will this provide them with sustainable access to vegetables, when they start growing enough, they can sell them in the market and earn money to buy more food. This afternoon my advisor and I are meeting with Unity Bank to see if they can come and speak at our training session with PLWHAs about microfinance. Tomorrow we are meeting with the ministry of health, Likodep (a community development/ microfinance NGO) and the ministry of agriculture. I’m very excited for these meetings and getting my project up and running.
This past weekend was wonderful. It stopped raining on Thursday and has been hot and sunny for the past five days (knock on wood!). On Friday, Amanda and I went to this really amazing restaurant called Tamarind and had some good seafood. On Saturday, I went to town with my host sister and we had lunch with her good friend Superior (great name ☺. It was really nice to meet her and we had a good time. Then I met Amanda at Fort Jesus and walked around there with a tour guide. It was VERY interesting and I took lots of pictures. Fort Jesus was built by the Portuguese, when they first came to East Africa, as a military fort. A couple of years later, the Arabs took over and converted it to a place to keep slaves during the slave trade. Then the British army took it over and it was a government prison until independence. It was so interesting to see the artifacts and hear the history of the place (those of you who know me well know how I love visiting historic sites).
Later that night Amanda and I went to a house party to celebrate Halloween. It was at the house of a peace corps volunteer we know through FSD. It was SO much fun. Amanda went as a zebra and I, a cheetah. We had to get really creative with costumes, and I think we definitely succeeded. We used a headband and attached drawings of cheetah and zebra ears. It was pretty great considering the limited resources we had.
But yeah, things are good and I’m getting ready to write my grant this week. Wish me luck!
oxoxo Anna
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