The world is changing

December 1, 2011

It’s amazing how easily a couple of paper planes can win the hearts of five year old boys.

But let us begin elsewhere.

After being picked up at the Y(more like 8:20 than 8, but who’s counting?), we were driven to the epicenter of matatu chaos. Fortunately Teresia’s assistant Elizabeth was there to greet us and go with us to Nanyuki, otherwise I’m sure we would have been lost. There were hundreds of matatus going everywhere in the country and probably 20 just going to Nanyuki. Elizabeth had found a really nice one though and soon after we were off. I wish I had the guts to pull out my camera and document the fascinating “terminal”, but I was too afraid of it being pulled off of me in all the commotion.

Going back to Nanyuki was eventless and we arrived at around noon, found Teresia and had lunch while we waited for our “mum” to get her lunch break. When we were done eating, she was locking up the book store next door where she works. Our huge bags went with Teresia and we with Margaret to her home in one of the nicer neighborhoods on the outskirts of the town.

A large and beautiful garden surrounds the house and three dogs roam the grounds(and they will bark at anything, apparently, at night). The house is lovely - fairly minimalistic decorated furniture-wise but with a lot of little things, pieces of nic-nac, placed everywhere. It could really use a little care though. Ceiling plates are dangling and there are severe cracks in the walls. But it still stands and it feels like a home. (Pictures are yet to be taken, so they will be introduced in a later entry)

After dropping us off, Margaret left with Teresia and Elizabeth, and left us to ourselves. Well, not completely though. The gardener, laundry-lady and a woman who seems to be a nearly fulltime housekeeper were around for the rest of the afternoon. We opted to sit on the porch and read and nap. I’ll spare you the book reviews, but will however recommend To kill a mockingbird to anyone who hasn’t read it.

Around 8pm, Margaret came home after getting her kids from her sister’s. She has three kids: George, age 16, Ivan, age 5 and Elve, age 2. Ivan’s friend Colin was along for the ride, so the house was quite lively. Everyone was of course a little apprehensive at the first meeting, but the kids are adorable and curious, so we’ll get along just fine.

George - picture by Colin

Ivan - paying attention to Charlotte teaching him how to make a paper star

Elve - sorry for the blurry, I will take a better picture later

Thursday morning we waded through the mud into town where Teresia picked us up and took us to Naro Maru where the Action Aid office is. We had a good talk with Francis, who heads that division, were taken on a tour of the grounds and then given things to read while he went out for a bit.

As first days go, this one started out pretty much as first days do. We look like idiots while trying to fit into their routines, ask a lot of questions and sit around awkwardly. Francis is the only one who works there full time as the office is to be closed down next year. There’s a secretary, Cecilia, who comes in a couple of times a week and other people who come around. The office manages a variety of projects from irrigation, HIV/AIDS awareness and acceptance, building schools and empowering women. Having heard about the work that ActionAid does, we both agreed that we’ve become true believers in their philosophy. They believe in non-emergency humanitarian aid as being assistance to a community that needs help. The community must identify what its challenges are and maybe even come up with a solution itself and then AA will help with management and funding – but the project has to be the project of the community otherwise it will never work. If the community does not participate, it’s a waste of funds. And it seems that ActionAid has really found the balance between aid and development and the organization understands that relief distribution can easily create dependence and hamper a community’s ability to develop itself.

There’s a very long discussion about the effects of humanitarian aid that I will not get into right now, but one of the interesting points that I will let you think about, is the fact that the drought didn’t start yesterday. People have fought drought for centuries and managed, so what has changed?

Speaking of drought – I’m starting to think it’s all a big scam. Like the conspiracy theory saying no one has ever actually been to the moon, or like the war they stage in “Wag the Dog”, it seems that drought must be a cover-up of something or just a way to channel funds into the very deep pockets of corrupt politicians.

I’m kidding of course(I’m not that cynical), but I kid you, however, not when I say that it has rained quite a lot on the two weeks that we’ve been here. Just now while I’m writing this, it has rained heavily for more than two hours(man, the roads are going to be muddy rivers tomorrow. We’re definitely buying boots). Nairobi was cloudy every day as well. The days start out fairly nice, but then clouds gather and rain comes in the afternoon. Lonely Planet warned of rainy season in November and December, but all locals say that this is unusual and that they don’t really have rainy season anyway. So, it really has rained quite a lot and the earth has a hard time absorbing it, so the surfaces become slippery and muddy like you wouldn’t believe. There’s talk of climate change and abnormalities and I’m starting to believe it.

Rain moving across the plains in the late afternoon

So anyway, our first day ended with a trip to almost-nearby Nyeri where Francis had to drop off some papers. We saw a couple of AA projects on the way and mostly just took in the beautiful landscape as we drove to and from Nyeri which is situated on top of a mountain. The slopes are green and fertile and vegetables are grown everywhere. Also, we passed quite a few coffee plantations on the way and will soon start enquiring to the prices of coffee plantations around here.

Francis was kind enough to drive us all the way home through the mud and the darkness. Most of the night was spent playing around with the kids. The boys speak a little English and Elvie will understand most, but will typically respond to you in Kiswahili.
They were entertained for hours with a couple of paper planes, two headlights and a balloon.