Back to school

While I think that the picture montage brings closure to the summer, I would l also like to bring it myself. I am waiting at the airport waiting to go back to Duke, so I just wanted to say that the work I did and the people I met in Kenya have taught me so much about not only their culture, and about just how relative our perceptions of our lives are. Having this point of reference in the future is going to be invaluable.

I do not think I will have anything else to add about Kenya, in one year I’ll definitely come back and read everything again and see what I can remember then.

Cheers,

Guillaume.

post trip

So I am not sure if anyone is still keeping up, but I am back it is really nice. While I was in Kenya, I compiled a video picture montage, which is here:

9 weeks gone, three days of traveling left.

It’s hard to believe that 9 weeks has passed. I was packing everything last night (at one in the morning: prime packing time), and it brought back memories of the day I moved in and took everything out of my bag. Except that time I was thinking OK, so this is where I’m going to live for 8 weeks, and this time it was Wow, this was my home for eight weeks. So after 9 weeks, one chicken bought, one chicken dead, a case of malaria, 30 matatu rides, giraffes, zebras, hippos and gazelles, it’s time to go back.

Yesterday I was out in the field doing a presentation on micro-finance in the community where I did most of my research. Ninety people showed up, which greatly surpassed my expectations. I had not made nearly enough copies of the handout I was using, so some people had to share, which was a bit of a bummer, but at the same time I think that some people who got it could not really understand it.

At home we had a delicious meal. with guacamole and some salsa-ish concoction that we put with chicken in the chapati to make some burrito-like product. After this we had ice-cream floats, which caused some weird looks int the family, but I think that everybody enjoyed them. Finally, Mama Kelly and I stayed up for another couple of hours and talked about life and my stay here, which was outstanding and a great conclusion to my stay here. This then brings us to me packing, which was much easier than the packing I did on the way here.

I am going to grab lunch with the three people in the office soon, and then later today the whole duke engage crew is meeting at a guest house at seven, and then tomorrow morning we take off very early.

It’s weird that I’m not feeling too much about leaving here and going back home, but at the same time it is the people that I am really thinking of. While I am very happy and excited to see my friends again, at the same time it is a little sad to leave people that have been family for the last two months.

A sunset in Kakamega. Very appropriate for a reminiscent mood.

Yesterday was rather uneventful, I typed up some presentation notes and handouts while at the office and then went home to type up another report. In the mean time, I tried to fix my family’s really old computer, which has some sort of system boot problem (that’s what it kept telling me). While I failed, I still had a lot of fun because it was already not working so my mother didn’t care what I was doing because there was no way I could make it worse. I opened the computer and tried to install a new disk drive and everything, but to no avail.

In other news I had a couple of typical Guillaume moments this morning. When I first stood up from bed it took me a few seconds to figure out how to maintain my balance. Then, I sheepishly walked to the door, opened it half way and started to walk out. As I was doing so, I decided I should open it further so I swung it open. I had still not moved my right foot however, so the door bounced squarely off my plastic flip flop and hit me in the face. Luckily, no one was watching.

In Kenyan news, a girl was sentenced to two years in jail for faking her kidnapping. I know because I saw it on the news three times yesterday. First in the afternoon, then on the 7 oclock news in kiswahili, and then on the 9 oclock news in English. Other than that, the news is the same every day: impending energy/ water crisis, planning on writing a new constitution, Kofi Annan and his envelope containing the perpetrators of last year’s violence, and the under-packing of flower. The funny thing is, none of these make progress but they all get reported every day.
I actually managed to convince my mother that sports news is the best news during my stay here. My logic: it is the only segment that consistently has good news.

Four more days left

I typed up the last of my exit evaluation stuff last night, and it is kind of crazy to be counting down the days until I’m back on US soil. It turns out that my plane lands in New York at 8 in the morning on Saturday, and then the flight from NYC to Cincinnati doesn’t leave until three in the afternoon the next day. What is that all about?

I am currently working on a micro-finance presentation that I will give to a couple of groups on thursday. I am glad that I am going to be busy right until I leave, at least it will keep my mind focused on something. I can’t remember if I shared this already, but on thursday night I will make tortillas and ice cream floats with the family, so it will be a delicious way to say good bye. Since we all leave very early on saturday, the whole group will sleep together at a guest house on friday, which I am sure will be crazy considering the fact that everyone will be so anxious to start traveling.

There are so many things that don’t surprise me anymore. For example: going into the bathroom to find a dead spider in the water I am supposed to take a bucket shower with: not even a big deal. Also, hearing bugs crawl around my stuff on the ground when I am trying to go to sleep; doesn’t keep me awake. I wonder if I am going to be able to sleep without a mosquito net over my head.

Sorry for the lack of pictures recently, I have tried and failed to upload some for the past few days.

Weekend in review:
On saturday I went to Kisumu with my host mother, which was a very nice trip even though matatus are still not that comfortable. I had a cheeseburger for lunch, which was excellent. On the way back, we randomly found two other interns and our program coordinator at the matatu station, so we rode back with them.
Yesterday, I slept in late and then went to hang out by the pool at golf hotel with another couple of interns for a little bit. After that, we went to visit the house that my host family are building. While the house they live in now is very big, they are renting it and could at any time be kicked out. So two years ago they began construction, and it looks pretty close to being finished. However, construction is currently on break because they do not have the money to pay for the construction. So, it will finish when there is money to pay for it.

Last night I made mango milkshakes for my family, using mango ice cream, milk, and fresh mangos. It was really good, and very sweet.

This morning I had my exit interview, and it was crazy to realize that I have been here for eight weeks. While I will really miss the people that I have been living with all this time, I am still so excited to find running water (again there has been none for the last week) and showers. Also, I don’t think I will miss the mosquitoes too much.

Last weekend

So it’s really wild that we’ve been here for eight weeks now. That is such a long time. We are really starting the countdown to departure, my internship exit interview is on Monday at 11. We also had a workshop about the leaving process this morning, and it was really nice to see everybody and also it was crazy to talk about leaving.

Yesterday my host mother came home from a presentation pretty late, so I sat and had some juice while she had dinner and we talked about life after Kenya. They want to plan a special dinner for me, and a couple of nights ago my brother asked me if I wanted to know what my surprise was. So apparently there’s also a surprise.

This afternoon I think some people are planning on playing some soccer or maybe even rugby, so I hope to join in and get a little exercise. I am going to be even more out of shape than I usually am when I get back.

In other news, the internet today is kind of down, it takes an average of three tries to load a web page and apparently even the people who went to the internet cafe gave up because it was so bad.

So when I got to work this morning the power was out, so it was very hard to do any work because everybody here works on computers. The internet also gets knocked out with the power, so the office is basically on stand-still until the people in charge of the power turn it back on. Instead of sitting around, i decided to go into town and run a few errands. It turns out that the whole town had no power, so my plan to print pictures failed. However, I did get a chance to visit certain banks to ask a few questions that would apply to my research.
I thought this was interesting: one type of account had a minimum starting balance of 400 shillings. That’s less than $6. Then, just about every account had no minimum operating balance, so I could have an account with $0 in it. The only rule they had to keep it operational was that there must be one transaction every 3-6 months depending on the bank. This really showed the level of money people have to operate with in the area, and I think it also shows the impact of micro-finance operations have on banks, since these major corporations now were willing to offer options to people with so little money.

Anyway, just thought that was interesting. Other than that, we had rice pilau at home yesterday, which from what I understand is rice with some masala, peppers, and then beef. I thought it was really good. I also lost a bet to my host brother, so I now have to teach him some French before I leave.

So I think the picture I’ve been trying to upload has some serious issues, because it still refuses to be uploaded. I am going to try a few other ones instead.

The canyon in Hell's Gate

The Mesai performing a ritual dance

The sunset view from my room

A view in the rain forest

animals

Living really close to certain animals and my two trips have helped me form new opinions about what they all bring to the table.

Animals in the house (not domestic)
Mosquitoes: completely worthless, and do absolutely nothing positive. One of them once gave me malaria.
Cockroaches: They are mostly ignored here, and are all over the house. They mostly break out at night, but when they come out when we can see them I am usually the only one who freaks out. Everybody else just lets them be unless there is a shoe to smash them with within reach. Overall, they are gross and still scare me, but really do not hurt anyone.
Spiders: Disgusting and scary, and do nothing good. I once spent half of my insecticide bottle trying to kill a spider that probably could have eaten me. My little brother was laughing at me the whole time.
Moths: Scare the guts out of me when they land on my computer at night.
Wasps: Kind of sucks that they build nests right outside my room, but again they are ignored, and I don’t think anyone has been stung since I got here.
Lizards: By far my favorite, they are not ugly and eat mosquitoes.

Domestic Animals
Cows: Unintelligent and lazy, they would probably be extinct if they did not produce delicious meat and milk. It is quite an investment to make cows grow into healthy animals. Everyday, the herd boy has to harvest and cut up 30 kilos of grass for the 3 cows we have.
Sheep: We have them, but not quite sure why, I don’t think we use wool.
Chickens: Dumbest animal ever. They do lay eggs, but they are so stupid that they are the one animal I am not afraid to kick. This post was actually inspired by some hen that has decided to love my room, and tries to come in all the time. Every time I smack it with my shoe, and it’s back within five minutes. After I close my door, I can hear it trying to jump through it until it goes to sleep.
Dogs: Good for protection, they only come out at night.
-An interesting cultural point is that people here do not feel bad about leaving food on the plate. It is not considered waste, since they just give it to the animals.

Animals we saw in the wild
Monkeys: Awesome, they are the coolest thing to watch jump around.
Giraffes: Pretty much exactly the way I pictured them, they are very graceful. Turns out they kill a lot of trees because they like scratching bark.
Zebras: A horse with stripes.
Warthogs: Another stupid animal, I think they are dangerous when they charge you. Their Kiswahili name is Pumba, which apparently means stupid.
Buffalo: I am not too sure what these guys do, but they are pretty unattractive.
Hippos: Ugly, they are really boring when they are in the water.
Antelopes/ gazelles: Again not too sure about these, although being the dominant male is awesome because you watch over the herd, while the other males just hang out on the outside of the circle. We saw two of them fight, and it was awesome.

-Still no luck on the picture