I woke at 5am today and was walking through Jam City Slum before 6 to meet Mwololo on the main road for our trip into Kibera. We have three teacher interviews scheduled for Jatahidi Preschool. We are beginning to support the efforts of the school in a more formal way, repairing the roof, purchasing desks and blackboards, beginning a school feeding program. The place is interesting, small and dilapidated, like most of Kibera slum. So we traveled to town, got tea, then on to Kibera. We checked on the work of the builders who removed the leaking iron-sheet roof and are replacing the trusses and other wood and installing new iron sheets. The whole process will take about three to four days. They are also building three small bridges so that students can get across the sewage without falling in, as they sometimes do. The interviews went fine and we will continue with more next Wednesday. We need two more teachers. We also met with the school’s education committee to go over our responsibilities and theirs. That meeting went well also. So we are all set. Here are some pics of the Kibera School.

Tomorrow we head to the 2 acre shamba, check on the maize and meet with the widows group. Their chicken cooperative needs support and instruction and we will also decide if we need to pump water to the farm for irrigation. There was so much water last week; we thought it was too much. There is water surrounding the fields but our section is beginning to show need of water.

Fred, my Masai friend, marries on Saturday. Yesterday we went to the grocery store and bought a new shirt, tie, socks and shoes for the wedding. He will look very smart and I am sure I will have some photos. We also both went to get our hair shaved. Another 50 cents!

Kibera sewage runs by the school - NEED THREE BRIDGES

Kibera, when I first came to Kenya, was intimidating and often scary. It still is a bit overwhelming but I grew to feel more comfortable with each visit. It has been for me, the symbol of the poverty and corruption that touches so many Kenyans. But for every glaring pair of eyes and hard faces, there are also welcoming voices, mostly children, inviting you to come into Kibera, to touch their hands, to speak English to them. But . . . when it rains, it is crap, literally. Today we slid through the alleyways, me trying to keep my balance as we traveled up and down slimy paths past dripping iron sheets on the roofs, past smelly kiosks and make-shift latrines. We went to the school we are hoping to work with and take some measurements for repairs. The roof needs to be replaced and there needs to be a new cement floor to replace the mud. There also needs to be three small foot bridged installed which lead to three classroom doors. We went with a fundi (builder) we have worked with before. I could see the price going up with every muddy climb, every slippery step. We will need to purchase iron sheets and timber, have them trucked to a certain point and then carried by hand to the site. The alleys are narrow, steep and slippery. The same will need to be done with the desks we will have built – carried through the back alleys by parents – hopefully. I am home now, in need of a shower and a bucket to soak my jeans and shoes!

As you may know, al Shabaab, an arm of Al-Qaeda terrorists, have threatened Nairobi with attacks in punishment for the Kenya military fighting al Shabaab in Somalia. The US Embassy has warned citizens to be vigilant and stay away from high profile gathering spots like malls and restaurants. Some sympathizers have thrown grenades in crowded areas but have since been found and arrested (and sentenced to life in prison).

I have stayed close to home and avoided the City Center except for the last two days. I had to go to Nairobi to mail some packages I wanted to ship boxes for a pre-Christmas beadwork sales. The little Post Office here in Athi River, as well as the one in nearby Mlonlongo declined to accept the boxes, due to the threat. They said they didn’t have a scanner at these small offices and I needed to take them to the main PO in Nairobi. So on Tuesday, Fred and I lugged 2 boxes to Nairobi. At the PO entrance, we were “wanded” and our bags searched. Although our bodies “beeped” and we carried boxes filled with wire animals, we were sent through – no problem. After waiting close to an hour to get help to ship the boxes, we were told quietly that the main PO does not have scanners either. Don’t tell the bad guys.

Benson and I took a third box to the same Post Office on Wednesday and we were sent through the security point without a look. We went to the Nairobi Tuskys store (like Krogers) and were searched and sent through metal detectors as well. There are definitely more soldiers in town and more checkpoints. My biggest worry was sitting in a bus at Railways, a boarding stage for matatus and buses (and trains) always jammed with people. You sit in the bus or matatu until it fills and then it goes.

Al Shabaab spokesmen called for bigger explosions in Kenya, telling “those trained by Osama” to stop throwing grenades at buses and do something bigger. And so we wait and see.

Looking for Water to Pump

Here at home in Athi, we have been worrying about rain. We planted the two acres with maize and beans and were waiting for more rain. You can see little sprouts and if the rains didn’t come we needed to irrigate. And so Mwololo went to the pipe factories yesterday and purchased the irrigation pipes and we planned to work today but (just as if you had washed your car) it rained. We will see if it was enough or if we need to pipe water the 300 yards from a watering hole in the dry river up to our shamba. Peace.

Well, a lot has happened in the last week. Kenya has gone after al Shabaab, invading (sort of) Somalia to flush out this al quaeda affiliate. It is a big chunk to bite off, knowing that these shabaab guys are into revenge, kidnapping, retaliation and blowing things up. They did that in Uganda during the World Cup, punishing the country for involving itself in Somalia by blowing up a bar of soccer fans. Very quickly, the US Embassy in Kenya issued a warning for US citizens in Kenya.

“This is to inform U.S. citizens residing in or visiting Kenya that the U.S. Embassy in Kenya has received credible information of an imminent threat of terrorist attacks directed at prominent Kenyan facilities and areas where foreigners are known to congregate, such as malls and night clubs.”

Mwololo discourages me from heading into town to do the work we planned so I went to Kiserian with Fred for beadwork but did not go into Nairobi as the usual route. Last night there was a grenade lobbed into a poor bar near the railway station where I catch a bus home but it has not been confirmed to be from Al Shabaab. Needless to say, people working in town are a little jittery and there are sweeps of Somali areas looking for sympathizers. That creates problems since the police are ruthless and have problems with Somalis in the first place. Many of these Somalis came here to escape al Shabaab.

Tomorrow Mwololo and I meet with the principal of St. Timothy Academy. That is right down the street and no problem. The following days, it gets a little more difficult to avoid Nairobi. We will see what happens. There are police and soldiers everywhere and a number of roadblocks and checkpoints on the main roads. My friend Benson is on a college trip to Kisii for a few days, traveling in a bus with UNITED STATES INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY written on the side. That kind of advertising is a bit scary.

I have not been very faithful to the blog, although there have been many things going on here; some good, some tragic. I will try to recap.

Last Weekend
We have been trying to get the services of a tractor for our 2 acre shamba in Ngelani.  Mwololo got all the materials delivered to the shamba site for the building of a small house/room for the worker there. A tractor will come (it did) and plowed the acres and the land is not fenced and the house completed. He land will continue to be worked until the rains arrive and we plant maize for our projects (schools and widows group).

There was some sad news of the drowning of two young boys near me. There is a construction site that had a large pit which filled with water. The boys could not resist and jumped in. As I walked by, they were draining the water from the pit to remove the boys. There was too much emotion there for me to stay. When people are upset they can often single out the white guy to express their rage.

Also disturbing is the amount of land grabbing in this area. Even next door to where I stay, little shacks have sprouted up designating the purchase of the land. The terrible thing is that these people bought fake title deeds from an unscrupulous realtor. He takes their money, gives them a fake title and then leaves town. Then the craziness begins with fighting and shouting and violence that accompanies the possession of the land. Yesterday (Thursday) truckloads of angry buyers came to the area shouting, blowing whistles etc. They threaten the Masai and others on the land and terrorize all, including the young and women. We will see how this plays out. The soldiers came but very late. A few nights ago a group of Samburu on the land were beaten by thugs trying to scare them off the land so that they could grab it.

Mwololo and I headed to Athi River school to do one of our periodic audits of the teachers to make sure they were getting paid what we were told on the scale. We also travel to Kaweithe to count the students in the classrooms to make sure that the Foundation isn’t being cheated into over-paying. We also monitor the food use in our feeding programs.

All of the materials were delivered for the construction of the classroom in Bisil. We wanted the supplies to be at the school (on the hill!) before the heavy rain, when it would be impossible to get to the site.

And lastly, I traveled to Kibera to visit the school we try to assist.  Rain, mud and a mess!  The roof leaks on one of the two rooms so all 80 students were in one small room.  More to follow.

One of the trees the St. Henry students planted in June at Bisil

Today was another long travel day. I walked twenty-five minutes from my place, through the slums to meet Mwololo on Mombasa Road. That was at 6:15am. After four more vehicle changes we made it to Keweithe School to do an audit of the students. We count heads and then multiply by 150 shillings or $1.50 (the tuition the non-orphaned students should have paid that month). We then subtract that total from the salaries needing to be paid (teachers, watchman, cook) plus any additional expenses they incurred like materials, tea for the teachers, etc. The Foundation pays the difference between that figure and what comes in from tuition payments. It is important that they pay something and also that they begin to pay more and more of the total cost if the school is ever to become sustainable.

The exchange rate is so good for me right now, though not good for Kenya. For example, if I take out of the bank 40,000 Kenya shillings, a year or so ago that would mean that about $515 was subtracted from my bank account. Today if I remove that same 40,000 Kenya shillings, my account is only debited $380 See what I mean? US dollars go a long way here.

Anyway, back to the journey. We did our audit, argued over the figures and headed back home. We passed one motorbike crash and two truck crashes (one a roll-over). Roads are bad, drivers are worse. Back at my room I was pleased to find out the water was on for the time being and my tank, which feeds the little drips of a shower, was being filled. There was an airlock in the shower line so I have to take an old plastic coke bottle, put the threaded drinking end over the pipe, cut a hole in the bottom of the plastic bottle and suck. My mouth can’t reach the shower “head’. The siphoning gets the air out and a little water now flows. Genious. One can’t drink that borehole water but can use it to wash clothes and bodies.

Tomorrow I go see the widows group. We are hoping to start a farming project in that area and I’ll check on the chickens and the new coop! Dinner tonight was an omelet with onions and tomatoes, bread and butter. Not exactly Kenyan.

Interesting how easy it has become to travel back and forth between worlds. When in the US, I am comfortable, realize how we do things, etc. When I return to Kenya, it is a smooth transition in that I realize “how we do things”. The two worlds are really far apart in tradition, culture, amenities and lack thereof. But it didn’t take me long to fall back into the Kenyan ways – struggling for water, transportation, finding food I can eat, a lack of personal security. In many ways, I never left. I feel the same ease when I am in the US.

Ben and Godzilla

After the struggles to finally fly into Nairobi, I have settled in nicely. The plane from London to NRB was delayed many times and eventually left 5 hours late, putting me at the airport at 3:30am. You don’t venture out during those hours so I sat in an uncomfortable metal chair with a bunch of drunks around me at a little bar/coffee shop/seating area, my large bags making a barricade around me. Benson came to meet me at about 7:30am and we traveled to my room in Athi River. We cleared an inch of dust, some deceased crawly things, and unboxed some of my old things (sheets, towels) I had stored in the room.

There is no water, no tank, no bucket – so we had to figure that out. My friend Mwololo took care of most things, getting me some cooking gas, buying a 210-liter tank for storing water – if it ever came. I took a motorbike to the store and bought things needed for a few meals. So I am all set. Mwololo and I met on Monday to discuss the projects and money (of course). Today, he and I traveled to Bisil to visit one of our preschools. I am so out of shape and huffed and puffed while walking up the hill (mountain) to the school. All is well and we will add another classroom there soon. Tomorrow – Kawethei, another long journey to check in and solve issues. I am back and smiling all the time.

I fly back to Kenya on Monday morning. It is a long journey through NYC to London and then on to Nairobi. Because I fly standby to London, I give myself a day or two in London in case I get stuck in NY and can’t make my British Airways flight to Kenya. I buy a real ticket from London to Nairobi. I know London very well and it is a great break for me, especially on the way home. Last trip I had to bypass and overnight in London because there were no hotel rooms (that I could afford) because of the Wimbledon Tournament. 8 hours to London, 8 hours to Nairobi. I’ll arrive around 9:30pm in Kenya. Benson will pick me up at the airport because I am too afraid to travel by myself at night!

My own clothes and stuff fit into a small backpack but the donations of clothes, crayons and pencils and other school materials etc are packed into two other large suitcases. I get to drag them through London. One small box shipped (flat rate box) to Nairobi is about $60 so it is much cheaper to load the stuff in my luggage, just a pain dragging them around on and off the trains etc.

The guys I work with are looking for new shirts or pants, a used IPOD shuffle. I always bring some new socks and underwear for the gang. A little Christmas in September. It is fun.

Back home in Cincy, things are good. We have dinner with the kids and mom on Sunday. Then early Monday morning I drop Chris’s truck at airport parking and begin the wait to see if I get on a flight to NYC. Overnight in Brooklyn with a good friend, then fly out the next day to London….hopefully. I can’t wait and look forward to getting back to the routine in Athi River. My room is intact, and not been broken into. Only a thick layer of dust on everything. Mwololo will get my cooker filled with gas and I will be set up to make those scrumptious meals of rice and something. He writes that there is still no water at my place! No shower, no toilet flushing – it is a pain but could be worse.

Our projects each have issues (good and bad) to deal with. Kawethei has had tragedy after tragedy. A huge bus crash took the lives of many villagers. A recent slum explosion in Sinai killed another 17 villagers and relatives from Kawethei. Esarunoto Masai School is struggling without our support and is asking us to return and take over the operation. Bisil School is thriving. There have been two recent births of calves! Two cows were purchased with donations and each one gave birth! St. Henry high School in Erlanger gave us yet another donation for the construction of a new 2nd grade classroom. Construction begins soon!

I can’t wait to get back!

This flower, this light, this moment, this silence:
Dominus est. Eternity.
(God) passes. (God) remains.
We pass. In and out. (God ) passes. We remain.
We are nothing. We are everything.
(God) is in us. (God) is gone from us.
(God) is not here. We are here in God.
The flower is itself. The light is itself. The silence is itself.
I am myself.

Merton – Conjectures of a Guilty Bystander

Ed in Kibera School

Always bittersweet to leave Kenya; excited for the trip home to see friends and family but am always so sad to say goodbye here. Nothing is promised and who knows when I can return. I hope that I can fly back in a couple of months but who really knows.

Fred (Masai friend) gets married in December. I would want to be back here for my young friend. Benson has another semester after this and then – who knows where he will go – hopefully off to a great career. Nothing is for certain and that is good enough for me these days.

Ed and Pascal in Kibera School

I came to Kenya looking to become more spiritual and am finding that I am not very spiritual at all. I found myself in a monk-like situation. I got up at dawn, could create a timetable for prayer, work, reading . . . . all good stuff on a journey to get more spiritual. I am not. But I do feel more alive, more human. This place – Kenya and Athi River – is loaded with death and danger, brutality and poverty but each morning I am greeted by Life, so big, so real and so human. I am more myself here than anywhere.

“…In order to become myself I must cease to be what I always thought I wanted to be, and in order to find myself I must go out of myself, and in order to live I have to die.
The reason for this is that I was born in selfishness and therefore my natural efforts to make myself more real and more myself, make me less real and less myself, because they revolve around a lie.
People who know nothing of God and whose lives are centred on themselves, imagine that they can only find themselves by asserting their own desires and ambitions and appetites in a struggle with the rest of the world [and others]. They try to become real by imposing themselves on other people, by appropriating for themselves some share of the limited supply of created goods and thus emphasising the difference between themselves and other [people] who have less than them, or nothing at all.
They can only conceive one way of becoming real: cutting themselves off from other people and building a barrier of contrast and distinction between themselves and other [people]…”

Merton – Seeds and New Seeds of Contemplation

Mutinda's House and Burial Site

Mwololo and I rode the motorcycle to Ngelani to pay our respects to Mutinda’s family. We were under the impression that the funeral would be Tuesday in Machakos. But to our surprise, there was a crowd at the home in Ngelani and preparations were being made for a Saturday funeral. All the grandmothers and widows were there, seated on the ground. About a dozen men had been working since 8am digging the grave. That was 7 hours ago. The ground was mainly rock and they used a pickaxe to break it up. Mwololo took his turn down in the hole, trying to go deeper. Graves dug at the home sites are always a shock to me. It is so much a part of “life”. We talked to Mutinda’s mother, left some food and a contribution for the funeral arrangements. There was a preacher there who lead us all, the gravediggers, the grandmothers and children in some prayers. Then we left. It was incredible me to travel the route they took Mutinda in the wheelbarrow, the night he died on the way to the hospital. The distance was so far! As we passed the site where he died, the thing that I hadn’t thought of was that they also needed to carry Mutinda back home after they realized he died – miles from his house. They kept him at the house until daybreak when they could call a vehicle to retrieve his body.

I am waiting for the 6 from Kentucky to arrive! They get into Nairobi at midnight so I hope to be able to great them Sunday morning at a church-related hostel. We have lots of activities planned for them and we hope it is a good week for them! I am sure I will update the blog and facebook with pictures as the week goes on.