Blog 8, Kisumu, Kenya
Blog 8
Kisumu, Kenya
September 15, 2009
Hujambo family and friends,
This will be our next to the last blog. Next weekend, we will be going to Mombasa, and after we return we will only have a couple of more days left and will write a small blog to you.
In short, we love it here in Kenya, the country, the NGO we are volunteering with, and most of all the people we work with. They are kind, friendly, welcoming, helpful, and more and more. We can’t say enough about them and we will miss them so much. We will somehow have to find a way to come back.
There have been some very interesting and good things happening here with us and our organization.
• We are nearly finished with making an audio CD performed by the girls in one of our programs. These teen and early twenties girls have had more than a tough life and this program has helped them become strong young women. They sing beautifully and they will sell the CD and earn some money for their program and themselves;
• Two volunteers from Boston University who were here for about 6 weeks wrote the life stories of these young women, and our NGO is going to publish them and possibly include the CD with the book;
• Another good idea: Many people here are very poor, and some cannot even afford to buy sanitary napkins. So they may use old newspaper or cloth. For the young girls in school it is embarrassing to say the least and so they may not go to school during their periods because they are made fun of. Our NGO is now making washable and re-useable sanitary pads – an idea they got from another NGO. They are being made by the girls in our vocational training program, so their training is not only theoretical, but very practical and useful;
• Because hand sanitizer is expensive and hard to get here, we discovered using the internet that it is easy to make – aloe vera and alcohol, so we are working with our nutrition production project and a group of HIV positive women who already make soap to make hand sanitizer. Aloe vera grows wild here, and they are learning how to extract the gel from the plant. For the alcohol, at least for the experimental part of this process, we are using a local home made brew – “changaa” – which is not legal, but we got hold of some, because it is much cheaper than buying alcohol, so if we ever bring you some, don’t drink it. I tasted it and it is pretty strong stuff;
• We made a slide show about our organization and used it as a teaching tool. They now use it to show to visitors, and it is pretty good, even if we say so ourselves. The music in it is one of the songs that will be on the CD – a very beautiful, and moving song about conquering AIDS. We put the slide show on our You Tube site,(www.youtube.com/hindapeter) and will also helped our NGO develop their own You Tube site and have loaded the video there as well.
• To make fundraising a bit easier we are going to put a PayPal link on their website so that some of you and others can easily donate to them. The PayPal link can only be put on in the US;
• A few days ago, we had a “media day” that we helped conceive and organize, where local media representatives could learn about our NGO, and also spend a day in the slums where our NGO does most of it’s work. It was a great success. Here is an excerpt from an email to us from one of the media participants. This is what our volunteering is all about. Even small steps, like helping this one person have a better understanding is a success for us:
Peter,
Thank you very much for coming all the way from America just to tell me about what is going on in my neighbourhood,you are such a wonderful man.
I have learnt alot and at one point I was touched when I came into reality how AIDS is fighting the less fortunate in our society.
I wish I had resources to assist I would have done much but still my power as a journalists I believe will bear some fruits.
We were to be in Kampala recently to attend a traditional “Introduction” – a traditional event where the two families of the bride and groom come together, the dowry is negotiated and paid, and it is basically a traditional wedding. Unfortunately, as you may know, violence broke out in Kampala on the day we were to take the bus there and we couldn’t go. The government of Uganda would not let the Kabaka – the Buganda King travel to a youth rally. Many people were killed, there were a lot of fires that burned businesses and quite a few people were injured. We were very worried about our Ugandan friends and family, but none of them were hurt, and it was to be our last visit there, so we could not say goodbye to them. We are sad, but fortunately we are safe. Sorry you could not see us in our traditional Ugandan clothing.
We are making a potluck for the people we work with and asked them to RSVP and tell us what they will bring. So, here is a cultural boo boo: There don’t seem to be such things as potlucks here, and most of the time, when you are invited to dinner, you come and eat and not bring the food. But it will be ok – our strange ways are being accepted – the Kenyans are very accepting. People are telling us they are coming and slowly we will find out what they will bring, although some are bringing something special which they want to keep a secret. I know we will have lots of fun with our friends here whom we are very fond of.
A few days ago, I was making sun tea, where you put tea bags in container with water and put it out in the sun to steep. The woman who works in our compound came by and asked what I was doing, I explained I was making tea and when it was done I would take it in the house and put it in the fridge. She looked at me and asked if I would then heat it up to drink, so I told her no I would put ice in it and drink it. She seemed very puzzled and couldn’t quite understand why I would want to put ice in tea to drink. This is the only country we have been to where, when you order a drink, like soda or beer, you are asked if you want it warm or cold. Oh well, each to his own taste, that’s what makes life interesting.
A couple of weeks ago, our friend Jonis, who had been visiting from the USA, and I went to the our NGO’s vocational training program and got pedicures. It took about 3 hours, but the girls did a great job and our feet never felt so good. And the price, 300 Kenyan shillings, or about $4. Some things are really inexpensive but most things are higher priced here in Africa.
Our work is still going strong. There seems to not be “winding down”, and we suspect that we will work until the last possible moment – the end of the day that we leave. In particular, Peter helped put together a system for obtaining bids for the building and a review process that has worked very well, and will be used as a model for the rest of the building. With his help, contracts for the new building have been issued for the electrical, door frames, and metal grill work for the windows and doors, and soon for the doors. Most important is the process he has helped to develop for the future.
As for Hinda, she has developed and instituted a client record system and a pretty sophisticated data base and has trained the medical staff to use them. This is a big step forward for this group. The head nurse now is really computer literate, and data is being entered daily into the computer data base with information collected by the community health workers. Also, for the first time, there is a record system so that accurate record keeping can take place and a color coded system developed so that client records can be easily found.
Both we, and our organization are pleased, and we feel comfortable that we have taught something and left templates and systems for the future. This capacity building when it works really helps people and organizations do for themselves what they might have been unable to without the help of “capacity builders” like us.
You know there really is such a thing as “African time”. It just takes some getting used to. African time is what someone referred to once as: “Westerners have watches and Africans have time”. We are pretty used to it now since one of our children – guess who - runs on African time. You just get used to it, and go with the flow. And once you do, you reduce your stress. The other day, at a meeting called for 9, the person came at 10:30 and when I asked him what time it was, he said: “9 African time”.
See, that’s how it works.
Buying an airline ticket isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Like the airline tickets for our trip to Mombasa and back to Kisumu.
1. Call the travel agent and book the flight;
2. A week before departure, check the ticket;
3. Find out that on the return trip from Mombasa to Kisumu, you land in Nairobi after the flight for Kisumu has already left;
4. Call the airline and told to go to the airport and make the change;
5. The airline makes the change, but the printer is broken, so no new ticket;
6. Writes the information on the old ticket, but in the wrong place;
7. Now want to buy tickets to go to another destination;
8. Printer still does not work;
9. Can’t get change;
10. Leave without the change and hard copies of our 2 sets of tickets;
11. Hope we can get on the planes;
12. If not, come to visit us here in Kisumu
A short story about an honest American:
In planning a visit to Kampala to attend the introduction of our friend, we needed to wear nice and traditional clothing, including dress shoes which Peter didn’t have. All over Kisumu, and most of this continent, it is easy to buy used shoes made to look like new. Peter didn’t want to buy shoes just to wear one time, so I convinced the shoe seller to “rent” me the shoes, kind of an unusual idea. His name is Elvis, and he called a few times to make sure I was legit. Then I returned the rented shoes, and he was a bit surprised to get them back at all, especially in the same condition that he “rented” them to me in. I could have given him a phony number and he would never have found me, but in addition to being honest, I really wanted to show him that Americans, at least these two Americans were honest and true to our word.
So, this is quite long and we will end now. Hope you look at the slide show. We think you will like it – the photos and the music. The photos are Peter’s and the music sung by the Sisterhood for Change girls and young women.
Love and hugs to all of you,
Kijana Mdogo,("the youngest boy" – a pun on the fact that Peter is the oldest here), and Mama Hinda
Kisumu, Kenya
September 15, 2009
Hujambo family and friends,
This will be our next to the last blog. Next weekend, we will be going to Mombasa, and after we return we will only have a couple of more days left and will write a small blog to you.
In short, we love it here in Kenya, the country, the NGO we are volunteering with, and most of all the people we work with. They are kind, friendly, welcoming, helpful, and more and more. We can’t say enough about them and we will miss them so much. We will somehow have to find a way to come back.
There have been some very interesting and good things happening here with us and our organization.
• We are nearly finished with making an audio CD performed by the girls in one of our programs. These teen and early twenties girls have had more than a tough life and this program has helped them become strong young women. They sing beautifully and they will sell the CD and earn some money for their program and themselves;
• Two volunteers from Boston University who were here for about 6 weeks wrote the life stories of these young women, and our NGO is going to publish them and possibly include the CD with the book;
• Another good idea: Many people here are very poor, and some cannot even afford to buy sanitary napkins. So they may use old newspaper or cloth. For the young girls in school it is embarrassing to say the least and so they may not go to school during their periods because they are made fun of. Our NGO is now making washable and re-useable sanitary pads – an idea they got from another NGO. They are being made by the girls in our vocational training program, so their training is not only theoretical, but very practical and useful;
• Because hand sanitizer is expensive and hard to get here, we discovered using the internet that it is easy to make – aloe vera and alcohol, so we are working with our nutrition production project and a group of HIV positive women who already make soap to make hand sanitizer. Aloe vera grows wild here, and they are learning how to extract the gel from the plant. For the alcohol, at least for the experimental part of this process, we are using a local home made brew – “changaa” – which is not legal, but we got hold of some, because it is much cheaper than buying alcohol, so if we ever bring you some, don’t drink it. I tasted it and it is pretty strong stuff;
• We made a slide show about our organization and used it as a teaching tool. They now use it to show to visitors, and it is pretty good, even if we say so ourselves. The music in it is one of the songs that will be on the CD – a very beautiful, and moving song about conquering AIDS. We put the slide show on our You Tube site,(www.youtube.com/hindapeter) and will also helped our NGO develop their own You Tube site and have loaded the video there as well.
• To make fundraising a bit easier we are going to put a PayPal link on their website so that some of you and others can easily donate to them. The PayPal link can only be put on in the US;
• A few days ago, we had a “media day” that we helped conceive and organize, where local media representatives could learn about our NGO, and also spend a day in the slums where our NGO does most of it’s work. It was a great success. Here is an excerpt from an email to us from one of the media participants. This is what our volunteering is all about. Even small steps, like helping this one person have a better understanding is a success for us:
Peter,
Thank you very much for coming all the way from America just to tell me about what is going on in my neighbourhood,you are such a wonderful man.
I have learnt alot and at one point I was touched when I came into reality how AIDS is fighting the less fortunate in our society.
I wish I had resources to assist I would have done much but still my power as a journalists I believe will bear some fruits.
We were to be in Kampala recently to attend a traditional “Introduction” – a traditional event where the two families of the bride and groom come together, the dowry is negotiated and paid, and it is basically a traditional wedding. Unfortunately, as you may know, violence broke out in Kampala on the day we were to take the bus there and we couldn’t go. The government of Uganda would not let the Kabaka – the Buganda King travel to a youth rally. Many people were killed, there were a lot of fires that burned businesses and quite a few people were injured. We were very worried about our Ugandan friends and family, but none of them were hurt, and it was to be our last visit there, so we could not say goodbye to them. We are sad, but fortunately we are safe. Sorry you could not see us in our traditional Ugandan clothing.
We are making a potluck for the people we work with and asked them to RSVP and tell us what they will bring. So, here is a cultural boo boo: There don’t seem to be such things as potlucks here, and most of the time, when you are invited to dinner, you come and eat and not bring the food. But it will be ok – our strange ways are being accepted – the Kenyans are very accepting. People are telling us they are coming and slowly we will find out what they will bring, although some are bringing something special which they want to keep a secret. I know we will have lots of fun with our friends here whom we are very fond of.
A few days ago, I was making sun tea, where you put tea bags in container with water and put it out in the sun to steep. The woman who works in our compound came by and asked what I was doing, I explained I was making tea and when it was done I would take it in the house and put it in the fridge. She looked at me and asked if I would then heat it up to drink, so I told her no I would put ice in it and drink it. She seemed very puzzled and couldn’t quite understand why I would want to put ice in tea to drink. This is the only country we have been to where, when you order a drink, like soda or beer, you are asked if you want it warm or cold. Oh well, each to his own taste, that’s what makes life interesting.
A couple of weeks ago, our friend Jonis, who had been visiting from the USA, and I went to the our NGO’s vocational training program and got pedicures. It took about 3 hours, but the girls did a great job and our feet never felt so good. And the price, 300 Kenyan shillings, or about $4. Some things are really inexpensive but most things are higher priced here in Africa.
Our work is still going strong. There seems to not be “winding down”, and we suspect that we will work until the last possible moment – the end of the day that we leave. In particular, Peter helped put together a system for obtaining bids for the building and a review process that has worked very well, and will be used as a model for the rest of the building. With his help, contracts for the new building have been issued for the electrical, door frames, and metal grill work for the windows and doors, and soon for the doors. Most important is the process he has helped to develop for the future.
As for Hinda, she has developed and instituted a client record system and a pretty sophisticated data base and has trained the medical staff to use them. This is a big step forward for this group. The head nurse now is really computer literate, and data is being entered daily into the computer data base with information collected by the community health workers. Also, for the first time, there is a record system so that accurate record keeping can take place and a color coded system developed so that client records can be easily found.
Both we, and our organization are pleased, and we feel comfortable that we have taught something and left templates and systems for the future. This capacity building when it works really helps people and organizations do for themselves what they might have been unable to without the help of “capacity builders” like us.
You know there really is such a thing as “African time”. It just takes some getting used to. African time is what someone referred to once as: “Westerners have watches and Africans have time”. We are pretty used to it now since one of our children – guess who - runs on African time. You just get used to it, and go with the flow. And once you do, you reduce your stress. The other day, at a meeting called for 9, the person came at 10:30 and when I asked him what time it was, he said: “9 African time”.
See, that’s how it works.
Buying an airline ticket isn’t always as easy as it sounds. Like the airline tickets for our trip to Mombasa and back to Kisumu.
1. Call the travel agent and book the flight;
2. A week before departure, check the ticket;
3. Find out that on the return trip from Mombasa to Kisumu, you land in Nairobi after the flight for Kisumu has already left;
4. Call the airline and told to go to the airport and make the change;
5. The airline makes the change, but the printer is broken, so no new ticket;
6. Writes the information on the old ticket, but in the wrong place;
7. Now want to buy tickets to go to another destination;
8. Printer still does not work;
9. Can’t get change;
10. Leave without the change and hard copies of our 2 sets of tickets;
11. Hope we can get on the planes;
12. If not, come to visit us here in Kisumu
A short story about an honest American:
In planning a visit to Kampala to attend the introduction of our friend, we needed to wear nice and traditional clothing, including dress shoes which Peter didn’t have. All over Kisumu, and most of this continent, it is easy to buy used shoes made to look like new. Peter didn’t want to buy shoes just to wear one time, so I convinced the shoe seller to “rent” me the shoes, kind of an unusual idea. His name is Elvis, and he called a few times to make sure I was legit. Then I returned the rented shoes, and he was a bit surprised to get them back at all, especially in the same condition that he “rented” them to me in. I could have given him a phony number and he would never have found me, but in addition to being honest, I really wanted to show him that Americans, at least these two Americans were honest and true to our word.
So, this is quite long and we will end now. Hope you look at the slide show. We think you will like it – the photos and the music. The photos are Peter’s and the music sung by the Sisterhood for Change girls and young women.
Love and hugs to all of you,
Kijana Mdogo,("the youngest boy" – a pun on the fact that Peter is the oldest here), and Mama Hinda
posted by Peter and Hinda Schnurman at 7:39 AM
1 Comments:
You've done amazing work - always true to your mission of helping others to help themselves. You have changed many lives - I am quite in awe. I miss you both and can't wait to have you back. Gut Yontef and we'll see you soon.
Love,
Carlito
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