educating deb-ster

I like to think of myself as a fairly knowledgable individual, particularly when it comes to inspirational people who make a difference in the world (hey Ive even got a Nelson Mandela DOLL!). It is with shame then that I must admit that I had never heard of Wangari Maathai until I got to Kenya.

I tell a lie, in fact the first time I heard of her was on the plane coming over to Kenya, sitting next to my fellow volunteer who mentioned that she had just read the biography of this amazing woman who began the Green-Belt movement in Kenya in the 70's.

It was quite bizarre then that in that first week of us being in Nairobi, during our 'in-country orientation' training, that the woman who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2004 (the first ever African woman to be) passed away, aged 71.



From the tributes I read in the newspapers and saw on tv, Professor Maathai had led an extraordinary life, faced incredible opposition and was greatly loved by the Kenyan people.

My first week of work in my new home town, the week following her death, I was to see for myself, the impact that this woman made on her fellow countrymen. One of the local schools decided that they would like to honor Professor Maathai with a tree planting day. The following Friday and some of my colleagues joined around 70 children from 3 different schools to plant 100 trees between the grounds of the schools and our main office.

I believe that I have mentioned the dustyness of my location in a previous update and this is to be reitterated along with the lack of foliage or any greenery really. The town is so close to the drought regions that are being shown on news reports across the world and food aid is often dispensed from town. But on the morning of tree planting day, as if we were receiving some sort of divine intervention, the first substantial and long-awaited rains of the season arrived!



This was of course wonderful for the tiny saplings and meant that we did not have to carry buckets of water to our freshly planted trees, but boy-oh-boy the mud made moving a busload of children to four different locations a real challenge! We got stuck several times in the thick unyielding mud and the rain barely paused for respite, but through it all the children, teachers and my colleagues laughed and joked and told each other what a blessing it was to receive such a downpour.




My role for the day was official photographer and I was glad that I had invested in some wellies/gumboots at the supermarket on my last visit. Trying to hold my umbrella under my chin to protect my camera whilst taking pictures I must have looked quite a sight and the children were amused and fascinated by my prescence, gradually geting braver as the day progressed until the afternoon when they were calling me over to take their photo.




I have to say it was a wonderful experience for my first week of work, a great day of fun and a chance to meet so many children, get to know staff and volunteers from my own organsiation as well as local teachers.



I learned so much about the Kenyan's great sense of humour and faith, was heartened to see how quickly the schools had mobilised to organise the event and impressed at how my new workplace contributed to the community.

And of course I got to learn about a new inspirational human being who proved once again that one person really CAN make a difference and I am proud to have been part of an event to carry on her legacy.




In a large group of schoolchildren it was definetely me who received the biggest education that day!

Home Sweet (and dusty) Home

I have been in my home town now for a few weeks. From my arrival I was lucky in that my local counterpart colleague KZ had secured accommodation for me in a compound of 18 flats, my home being on the top floor meaning that I seem to get a pleasant cooling breeze during the daytime and I have a nice view of vast hills in the distance which look especially pretty when the sun is setting. I have 2 bedrooms and really more space than I need.

I was keen to move in to my flat as quickly as possible so that I could begin cooking my own meals (I was over the hotel food in Nairobi and shall not even comment on the quality of fayre in my hometown hotels...the eternal struggle of the vegetarian though, so Im kind of used to it).

On my first day, KZ and I took a trip to a neighbouring town (40 minutes drive away) and went to the supermarket where I was to purchase my furniture. You can get everything in the Nakumatt, clothes, food, furniture, electrical appliances. I didnt go overboard on furnishings, a bed, bedding, plastic table and 2 chairs, crockery and a few pans, a 2 burner stovetop and a fridge.



The box that my fridge came in is now handilly being used a side table and I also bought a few stacking plastic shelves from the local store here in town. For someone who generally hates plastic I seem to have a lot of the stuff in my house.

To say that I am championing the minimalist look would be an understatement!



My home life now revolves around the eternal cycle of transferring water into large storage tanks (in case water cuts out, which happens here regularly), boiling the water, filtering the water, decanting the water and chilling the water.

Additionally I am washing clothes on a daily basis. The dust here is incredible it gets everywhere and I wear my sunglasses most of the time to try and protect my eyes and contact lenses from its continual onslaught.

My town centres around the one main street which is a through-fare highway and has a constant stream of goods-laden trucks heading north or miltary convoys (there are several military bases in the vicinity), minivans taking eager tourists to the nearby game reserves, as well as the usual throng of matatus (minibuses used as public transport), boda boda's (motorbike taxi's), carts, cows, donkeys and goats that would be familiar sights in any Kenyan town. The heavy traffic adds its own unique, black stamp to the pollution/dust problem.

One thing that struck me about the roads (which apart from the main road are largely unsealed) was that they appeared to be literally paved with the soles of a thousand shoes! I quickly came to understand this phenomenon when the first rains fell and in a matter of minutes the dusty roads turned to mudpits.

I am now quite familiar with different types of mud:
- Theres the ultra sticky stuff that clumps to your feet which get heavier and heavier until it feels like youre wearing 5 pairs of shoes (this is the mud that eventually finishes off those flipflops and tired old shoes)
- Theres 'soily' mud where you tend to sink down deeper with every step
- The compacted mud that develops a super slippy layer on top which is literally like walking on ice
- And finally the rather dubious mud of a slightly different colour which you know must be mixed with animal dung and is to be avoided at all costs.



Unfortunately for me, the road leading to my home is probably one of the worst in town when it rains and so I am becoming ever more adept in my ability to leap from stepping stone to stone.

But there is a lot to like about my new home! I love being in a 'smaller' town and being able to walk to most of the places I want to get to. There's also a mixture of people here from many different Kenyan tribes as well as neighbouring countries giving the place a real sense of vibrancy. The streets are bustling and the market has an abundance of vegetables. I have already made some good friends, particularly in KZ and T (who is another volunteer here but with a different organisation) and I have a great home which is secure and relatively quiet.

So I am settling into the swing of things and feel confident that I can quite happilly live here for the coming year.

Home Sweet Dusty (and occassionally muddy) Home!

parting is such sweet sorrow - Australia to Nairobi...

The last week or so in Australia was a veritable blur to be honest. To try and detract from the stresses that come with packing and repacking my case, wondering when my passport would arrive (with my visa stamped in) and really taking time to consider what I was about to embark on, J and I spent the last weekend on a 2 day/2night dive trip out to Moreton Bay Marine Park to do one of the things we love most, being under the sea .




It was the perfect way to celebrate my final weekend in Oz.



Highlights were definetely seeing so many colourful, different nudibranchs (sea slugs) and a wonderfully close encounter with a fat 3meter grey nurse shark (J's face was priceless as he looked up from taking a photograph to see it idly swimming a couple of meters from him).




Back home and everything still managed to get done, the bag got packed, the passport arrived and all of those last minute 'bits' were purchased and I was 2 days less stressed then I would have been.




Departure day wasn't quite the traumatic event I had imagined. In fact there was surprisingly few tears (helped by the fact that I met up with one of my fellow volunteers at the airport along with her family). However it felt strange to be leaving for such a great adventure without J.

The first flight of 14 hours passed relatively quickly and in Dubai all four of the volunteers being placed were reunited for the final flight from Dubai to Nairobi. I was rather surprised to discover that I was the only one among us who had remotely adhered to the official baggage allowance limits and even more surprised that the award for most baggage went to the only male among us!

Formalities at Nairobi airport went smoothly and we exited as one large cluster of luggage to be greeted by our regional representative and a nice minibus to whisk us through the busy streets of Nairobi to our hotel where we were to spend the next week 'in country training'.




What followed was days of fairly intense information overload from security experts, medical advisors, Swahili lessons, meeting volunteers and various people in positions of authority. It was good to have such a packed program, but that first Tusker beer at the end of a long day was always savoured.



Wednesday was most definetly our reward day, with a visit to Nairboi National Park in the morning. The park is quite bizarre in that it is so close to the town that you find yourself taking photographs of wild animals going about their daily business but with skyscrapers as a backdrop!



The animals did not seem to be the least bit disturbed by their urban surroundings and we were treated to lion, zebra, rhino, giraffe, ostrich and all manner of horned beast (which I will eventually learn to distinguish).




Apparently the park is partly fenced (the City side), but open at the 'other' side to allow the migrating animals freedom to move as they please.





After our mini-safari we were taken into town to embark on an 'Amazing Race' style scavenger hunt, each of us being teamed up with a volunteer from the Nairobi branch office. It was a wonderful way to see parts of the City and also get to know a local volunteer




Everyone had lots of fun and we were able to end the fantastic day with a visit to a wonderful Ethiopian retaurant to share trays of delicious food served on injera (a spongy flatbread).




By the time Friday came around I was excited to be leaving our 'hotel bubble' and get to my new home town. In the morning a driver came to collect myself and my regional representative who was accompanying me and we left for the four and a half hour drive to my new home.