last blog in kenya

Hello all,

I am back safely (after another beautiful but supremely uncomfortable ride across Kenya) in Ongata Rongai at the house of Mary and Peter. I leave in just 2 days which is really hard to believe. I'm excited to go home but I really did get a bit stuck on the life in bucolic Nyeri. There are other volunteers here who spent the whole semester throwing keg parties to earn $13,000 to give to the center and school- really amazing. I haven't quite recovered from my trip yesterday so I was pretty useless today but it is lovely to see old friends (Tabitha, Maureen, John, Mary, Peter, Meshack etc...). I am also glad I managed to see Alex and family again (despite the trip). The girls were less shy, I got to stay at their house and I got to see Ridah again. Ridah (the elderly woman I was so enamored with in another blog) had SO many questions this time about the U.S. compared to Kenya (funerals, dowries, poor people, crime etc...)
I will miss Kenya.
See most of you very soon,

Lied

3/8/07: running, corruption and the sale of mt. kenya

I wrote this blog on March 8th but was unable to send it at the time.

The other day I went running in Nyeri. I have seen people run (usually men) running here and around Nairobi but I figured I'd probably be a spectacle, particularly since I'm already a spectacle in this rural area. But I braved a run in the early evening. Although I've been walking A LOT since getting to Kenya I haven't run at all (except for w/in that soccer game over a month ago). So I was worried about being a little out of shape. Nevertheless I was confident I could do 2 1/2 miles before it got dark (in 1/2 hr). Wangui didn't believe me and was very worried. After some negotiation I took off. About 1/8 mile along I met one of our neighbors and greeted her. Immediately after I passed her she evidently went straight to the house and asked them what on earth I was doing. Wangui tried to explain but said the neighbor left very confused. The run was actually beautiful and I thought that it was nice to start training for the NYC marathon in Kenya. After my run (I did make it back before dark) I teased Wangui that so many famous marathoners are from Kenya and yet it's weird to run here.

Corruption- The Red Cross in Nyeri had been accused of selling donated items. The rumor was very vague and my boss, Rose, as the Red Cross was upset about it because she felt there was no way to combat those rumors without knowing what instance, what people (volunteers, employees?) were being implicated. I noticed that people were reacting to these rumors when a private school donated items and we (RC) went with them to distribute the items. The school was late in getting to the office and it was about to rain so Rose asked them if they would like us to distribute the items later. The head teacher bristled at the idea so I and some other volunteers went with them (this put me home way after dark and worried the heck out of my family here). Before we distributed we counted the items so when later only 8 tubs (instead of 10) of 20 liters of cooking fat were found we were a bit frantic. I had been about to distribute the cooking fat so I reported it to the head teacher. She was alarmed and said (rather accusingly, I thought) that she had told us 10. I agreed with her, showed her my list and explained that that was precisely why I was reporting it to her. After some detective work, the 2 missing tubs were found in the chief's office. The chiefs of a village/area are responsible for counting the internally displaced people. Once the tubs were found the chief basically hid in his office. There was another American there with the private school and she and I were both very angry and wondering what they were going to do to the chief. The head teacher said we were to do nothing. I had spoken at length with people at RC that morning about corruption (the fact that it exists in the U.S. but that the general population doesn't experience it as a rule). It was really frustrating to see that happen (good that the head teacher saw where the corruption was- the RC has had several problems with chiefs and elders trying to skim some off the top- wanting to do the distribution themselves). When I got home, Aneta suggested we put it in the newspaper. When I brought up that suggestion to Rose she (and others) said that the problem is that the newspapers here are so sensationalist that they would be worried that because the RC was there somehow they'd end up as the problem. Argh.

I've spoken little of politics lately. A power-sharing coalition has been agreed upon. Things seem peaceful. None of the things that really set the violence off have been resolved. People feel safe for the time being but are very aware it could happen again. And most people think that the next time it happens the Kikuyus (who have been largely, but in no way the only, victims) will have reached their limit and they will fight back really hard and it will be a bigger mess. But for now....

Aneta told me she had heard that Raila Odinga had sold Mount Kenya and that Kibaki didn't know it. When Wangui confirmed that that's what Aneta had said I couldn't help but laugh. I pressed Wangui about it- trying to get her to see that she really ought to evaluate statements- who would buy it from him? Who would be silly enough to? It was just such funny propaganda... when I told the RC people they also couldn't stop laughing.

my name is Wanjiku and I don't keep pigs

So, a while back in Ongata Rongai, Mary told me that my Kikuyu name was Wanjiku (a common Kikuyu name) because I reminded her of her daughter Wanjiku. She called me that once in a while as a bit of a joke. When I got to Nyeri I had told Aneta that she could call me Lied or Wanjiku and she chose the latter. The eldest girl calls me Lied but everyone else in that household calls me 'Shiko' (short for Wanjiku). At first I didn't answer to it all that well but now I'm used to it and I like it.

Re: the pigs. "I don't keep pigs personally". This was in response to the question "Do you keep pigs there where you live?". Because agriculture is such a vital part of most people's lives people ask me a lot of questions about the farms in the U.S. I try to explain that there are relatively few farmers and even the people who have gardens buy most of their food at stores.

I'm looking forward to coming home and am excited that it's less than 2 weeks away now. I've really enjoyed my time here but it will be so RELAXING to not be an anamoly. In general, I feel I'm pretty good-natured about answering questions and people are by in large very friendly but gosh it can get tiring being this different-looking, foreign person. I am reminded that I would not care to be famous. I also have a glimpse of how terrible it must be to be part of a stigmatized population whose 'difference' (such as skin color, physical, or even mental disability) is easily spotted. The attention I get walking down the street, in a car, in a store is positive but it's easy to be tired and frustrated by it. I can only imagine what it must feel like to get that kind of negative attention. But I have to admit that just when I feel as if I can not meet yet another new person and answer the same questions, I find myself in conversation with an interesting person who has a really different perspective on what's happening here in Kenya or who asks me some unusual questions that bear thinking about.

Today at the Red Cross we went to deliver a body of a boy who had died at a camp in Nakuru to his family's home here in Nyeri. The boy died of spinal tuberculosis in the camp. His immediate family was also at the camp and today all of them returned home with the body to bury it on extended family land. He was 17. It was very sad. True to Kenyan tradition though, before 12! Red Cross staff were allowed to leave after delivering the body and staying for a short speech and prayer we were served tea and lunch. The lunch was an enormous plate of field corn, beans (githeri) and potatoes AND THEN (just when we thought we were done) rice and carrots. Those who didn't take rice and carrots were yelled at by the shosho (grandmother).

Have I mentioned how beautiful it is here and how much I will miss these wonderful people?

Oh- one more story. My aunt (who lived in Kenya 30 years ago) told me a story some years ago about how she came in to the hospital to teach a class and was late and started to rush off to the class only to be reprimanded for not shaking everyone's hand. It's happened to me too-- now matter if there are 17 people in a room, it is expected that you greet each one with a handshake and a "How are you?". Relationships are way more important than being on time.