Blog 6, Kenya and Uganda
Blog 6
Kenya and Uganda
August 18, 2009
Jambo - Gybale Everyone! (just showing off our linguistic skills – Swahili and Luganda)
This blog will be a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and some of the photos are as well as you have seen. There are several photos of older people. We took these at a Medical Camp that we volunteered at. A medical camp is where volunteer doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and others provide nearly free medical diagnoses and free drugs to people in a particular village, however no one is turned away. Sometimes as many as 550 people attend. Our NGO provided Family Planning workshops there, and we helped out here and there. Hinda gave out sweet rolls to the kids.
There are lots of stereotypes around about many things, including those that maybe even some of you have about Africa, e.g. “The Dark Continent”, etc., and we try to dispel these notions when we see and hear them. Part of our responsibility is to try and present factual information which we always try to do.
However, there are also lots of stereotypes about the USA also that we have seen and heard here in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa and around the world, and we want to share a few of these with you. You may find a few of them amusing, and like many stereotypes, there may be a grain of truth to some of them. We think that some of what follows must come from TV or the movies, or who knows where. As we heard them from different people, it gave us the opportunity to provide a more accurate description of our country and then also talk about African culture and how things are done or not done, so a learning experience for all.
• “A Mercedes Benz car is a poor man’s car”
• “Many people in the USA want to go to jail because there is good food and accommodations, and you can earn a good salary” - African jails are notoriously bad, and perhaps an African who was unfortunate to go to an American jail reported on the conditions there as compared to an African jail.
• “The government gives everyone in America money” - This gave us the chance to talk about poverty, hunger, homelessness, the 47,000,000 in our country who lack health care, etc.
• “In America, the people only wear clothes one time and then throw them away” – As you may know, many of the clothes that people wear here are used from the USA and from Europe, so we were able to talk about merchandising, “throw away society”, fashions from year to year and more, and also explain that with the faltering economy there may in fact be less clothes coming here and elsewhere – even many Americans are keeping clothes longer and even shopping in thrift stores themselves.
• “Everyone wants to go to America because it is an easy life there” – The reality we said is not so easy, especially for new immigrants, and the kinds of jobs available – service jobs, or domestic help does not make life easy. On the other hand, there is opportunity in the USA. President Obama is of course a great example.
So, over the past couple of months we have had a lot of interesting discussions with a variety of people. We know that we have learned a lot, and we think that those that we talk to have also.
One of the things we have heard over and over is that many people here live on less than $1 a day, and this is not a stereotype, but unfortunately true. Perhaps more true in some African countries, or in parts of countries, but certainly true here in those communities of Kisumu that we work in with our organization. And that is precisely why we are here to work with our NGO to raise that less than $1/day to something considerably more, and make life better for as many as possible. And you know what: they are doing it pole pole – slowly slowly, with training, education, microfinance programs and more, and it is our good fortune to be able to help them a bit. We are doing a lot of empowerment work and capacity building, and they are doing a lot of the same, especially with teenage girls and women.
A couple of interesting expressions that we hear here:
• When a “mzungu” (white) encouraged a domestic worker to leave her job and work for him, she was “snatched”
• When we asked the woman who runs our compound to have one of the workers help us with something, she told us she would “detain” him
• In English, there are a lot of letters in a word that are silent, while in some of the local languages, all of the letters are pronounced, so for example: “clothes” is pronounced “cloth es”, and Wednesday is pronounced “Wed nes day”
One of the best places to eat here in Kisumu is the Mamba Hotel where they serve the best “Kuku Choma” (Grilled Chicken), so whenever you want kuku, you know where to come.
We spent the last weekend in Kampala, Uganda where we have volunteered twice and have very close friends and African “family”. We went to attend the wedding of one of our friends.
We went on the Akamba Royal bus – a 6 ½ - 7 hour bus ride. Well there is nothing “royal” at all about that bus. The air conditioning didn’t work, and the seats were broken, so we had to sit in nearly a reclining position, which didn’t make the woman behind us with a sick infant very comfortable, and the seat in front of us, also broken, so neither were we comfortable. And then about 15 or 20 miles about of Kampala, the bumper to bumper “jam” began. So we arrived late, but we also started late.
Another stereotype is “African Time”. Well, we know it is only a stereotype, since many things are on schedule, but there are also lots of things that start late, or even not at all. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but “se la vie”. In fact the wedding was late, and everyone got there late, so in fact it started on time.
This wedding was a Catholic wedding in the largest Catholic cathedral in Kampala. Rita – our friend, was the 6th wedding of the day there , and we think there was going to be another one following. Our happy bride was dressed in a white gown and like all brides looked beautiful. We were proud to have been able to be with Rita on this important day.
It hadn’t rained in Kampala for a month, so of course it rained the whole time we were in the church – a couple of hours. The ceremony – mass was pretty traditional Catholic, but there was a lot of very nice African music. As the 4 previous just married couples filed out before our wedding started, they were given a send off by their guests with a lot of ululating – in Swahili, it called sagalagala, and in Luganda it is akayuyuu. We love it!
So we went to the reception which was held in a garden outside. Everything was soaked including the table cloths so everyone got a little wet, especially when it started to drizzle some more, but not for too long.
We were very honored to be recognized as “honored guests”, and we were asked to address the bride and groom which we did. We taught the audience to say in Hebrew “Mazal Tov” (Congratulations) and we led the 600 guests in the traditional Hebrew toast “L’chaim” (To life).
When we arrived in Kampala two nights before the wedding we went to a “kasiki” kind of a party for the bride to be and her friends and we were welcomed so exuberantly by our friends and “family” that we nearly fell over a couple of times. We love them all dearly.
One more funny word we learned at the wedding. A “flukie” is someone who crashes the party to get free food. But we were told that an anti flukie machine was installed. Flukie is Ugandan and not Kenyan and comes from the word fluke – not intended, so it makes sense, just sounds funny to us.
Local travel here in Kisumu is by tuk tuk, boda boda, and matatu. A tuk tuk is a springless 3 wheeled cart that sound like tuktuktuk;, a boda boda is a bicycle taxi where the passenger sits on the back; and a matatu is a 12 passenger van that never has less than 20 – 25 stuffed inside. If you don’t have back problems now, you will after riding a tuk tuk on Kisumu’s rough dirt roads – guaranteed.
This is getting far too long, so we will end here by telling you that are work is going so well and we and our NGO are extremely pleased. It really couldn’t be better. It is a great place to work with very friendly and talented people. And friendly is a good adjective for most Kenyans and Ugandans.
And finally, each day we have lunch that is prepared and served by the girls in one of our training programs. We usually pay between 50 and 60 Kenyan Shillings about 65 - 75 cents. Today we had “green grams and chapatti and fresh passion juice. Green grams are lentils.
OK dear friends and family, so long for now.
Love,
Mzee Peter and Mama Hinda
Kenya and Uganda
August 18, 2009
Jambo - Gybale Everyone! (just showing off our linguistic skills – Swahili and Luganda)
This blog will be a little bit of this and a little bit of that, and some of the photos are as well as you have seen. There are several photos of older people. We took these at a Medical Camp that we volunteered at. A medical camp is where volunteer doctors, nurses, pharmacists, and others provide nearly free medical diagnoses and free drugs to people in a particular village, however no one is turned away. Sometimes as many as 550 people attend. Our NGO provided Family Planning workshops there, and we helped out here and there. Hinda gave out sweet rolls to the kids.
There are lots of stereotypes around about many things, including those that maybe even some of you have about Africa, e.g. “The Dark Continent”, etc., and we try to dispel these notions when we see and hear them. Part of our responsibility is to try and present factual information which we always try to do.
However, there are also lots of stereotypes about the USA also that we have seen and heard here in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa and around the world, and we want to share a few of these with you. You may find a few of them amusing, and like many stereotypes, there may be a grain of truth to some of them. We think that some of what follows must come from TV or the movies, or who knows where. As we heard them from different people, it gave us the opportunity to provide a more accurate description of our country and then also talk about African culture and how things are done or not done, so a learning experience for all.
• “A Mercedes Benz car is a poor man’s car”
• “Many people in the USA want to go to jail because there is good food and accommodations, and you can earn a good salary” - African jails are notoriously bad, and perhaps an African who was unfortunate to go to an American jail reported on the conditions there as compared to an African jail.
• “The government gives everyone in America money” - This gave us the chance to talk about poverty, hunger, homelessness, the 47,000,000 in our country who lack health care, etc.
• “In America, the people only wear clothes one time and then throw them away” – As you may know, many of the clothes that people wear here are used from the USA and from Europe, so we were able to talk about merchandising, “throw away society”, fashions from year to year and more, and also explain that with the faltering economy there may in fact be less clothes coming here and elsewhere – even many Americans are keeping clothes longer and even shopping in thrift stores themselves.
• “Everyone wants to go to America because it is an easy life there” – The reality we said is not so easy, especially for new immigrants, and the kinds of jobs available – service jobs, or domestic help does not make life easy. On the other hand, there is opportunity in the USA. President Obama is of course a great example.
So, over the past couple of months we have had a lot of interesting discussions with a variety of people. We know that we have learned a lot, and we think that those that we talk to have also.
One of the things we have heard over and over is that many people here live on less than $1 a day, and this is not a stereotype, but unfortunately true. Perhaps more true in some African countries, or in parts of countries, but certainly true here in those communities of Kisumu that we work in with our organization. And that is precisely why we are here to work with our NGO to raise that less than $1/day to something considerably more, and make life better for as many as possible. And you know what: they are doing it pole pole – slowly slowly, with training, education, microfinance programs and more, and it is our good fortune to be able to help them a bit. We are doing a lot of empowerment work and capacity building, and they are doing a lot of the same, especially with teenage girls and women.
A couple of interesting expressions that we hear here:
• When a “mzungu” (white) encouraged a domestic worker to leave her job and work for him, she was “snatched”
• When we asked the woman who runs our compound to have one of the workers help us with something, she told us she would “detain” him
• In English, there are a lot of letters in a word that are silent, while in some of the local languages, all of the letters are pronounced, so for example: “clothes” is pronounced “cloth es”, and Wednesday is pronounced “Wed nes day”
One of the best places to eat here in Kisumu is the Mamba Hotel where they serve the best “Kuku Choma” (Grilled Chicken), so whenever you want kuku, you know where to come.
We spent the last weekend in Kampala, Uganda where we have volunteered twice and have very close friends and African “family”. We went to attend the wedding of one of our friends.
We went on the Akamba Royal bus – a 6 ½ - 7 hour bus ride. Well there is nothing “royal” at all about that bus. The air conditioning didn’t work, and the seats were broken, so we had to sit in nearly a reclining position, which didn’t make the woman behind us with a sick infant very comfortable, and the seat in front of us, also broken, so neither were we comfortable. And then about 15 or 20 miles about of Kampala, the bumper to bumper “jam” began. So we arrived late, but we also started late.
Another stereotype is “African Time”. Well, we know it is only a stereotype, since many things are on schedule, but there are also lots of things that start late, or even not at all. Sometimes it can be frustrating, but “se la vie”. In fact the wedding was late, and everyone got there late, so in fact it started on time.
This wedding was a Catholic wedding in the largest Catholic cathedral in Kampala. Rita – our friend, was the 6th wedding of the day there , and we think there was going to be another one following. Our happy bride was dressed in a white gown and like all brides looked beautiful. We were proud to have been able to be with Rita on this important day.
It hadn’t rained in Kampala for a month, so of course it rained the whole time we were in the church – a couple of hours. The ceremony – mass was pretty traditional Catholic, but there was a lot of very nice African music. As the 4 previous just married couples filed out before our wedding started, they were given a send off by their guests with a lot of ululating – in Swahili, it called sagalagala, and in Luganda it is akayuyuu. We love it!
So we went to the reception which was held in a garden outside. Everything was soaked including the table cloths so everyone got a little wet, especially when it started to drizzle some more, but not for too long.
We were very honored to be recognized as “honored guests”, and we were asked to address the bride and groom which we did. We taught the audience to say in Hebrew “Mazal Tov” (Congratulations) and we led the 600 guests in the traditional Hebrew toast “L’chaim” (To life).
When we arrived in Kampala two nights before the wedding we went to a “kasiki” kind of a party for the bride to be and her friends and we were welcomed so exuberantly by our friends and “family” that we nearly fell over a couple of times. We love them all dearly.
One more funny word we learned at the wedding. A “flukie” is someone who crashes the party to get free food. But we were told that an anti flukie machine was installed. Flukie is Ugandan and not Kenyan and comes from the word fluke – not intended, so it makes sense, just sounds funny to us.
Local travel here in Kisumu is by tuk tuk, boda boda, and matatu. A tuk tuk is a springless 3 wheeled cart that sound like tuktuktuk;, a boda boda is a bicycle taxi where the passenger sits on the back; and a matatu is a 12 passenger van that never has less than 20 – 25 stuffed inside. If you don’t have back problems now, you will after riding a tuk tuk on Kisumu’s rough dirt roads – guaranteed.
This is getting far too long, so we will end here by telling you that are work is going so well and we and our NGO are extremely pleased. It really couldn’t be better. It is a great place to work with very friendly and talented people. And friendly is a good adjective for most Kenyans and Ugandans.
And finally, each day we have lunch that is prepared and served by the girls in one of our training programs. We usually pay between 50 and 60 Kenyan Shillings about 65 - 75 cents. Today we had “green grams and chapatti and fresh passion juice. Green grams are lentils.
OK dear friends and family, so long for now.
Love,
Mzee Peter and Mama Hinda
posted by Peter and Hinda Schnurman at 8:19 AM
1 Comments:
Hello Peter and Hinda,
Your experiences get more fascinating with each posting. We can hardly wait to see you at then end of September. Life here is much less exotic, but it is good to be back at work and I will be getting a new student soon. My student Mariyama passed her test at the end of July. So far, I'm batting 1000!
David is coming to visting for a bout a week this Thursday. We can't wait to see him.
We send our love and look forward to more pictures and stories.
Carlito
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