This is Now

I’ve been living in the grand continent of Africa for 3 and half months. Life now, compared to a year ago, seems completely different. Its interesting when you actually do what you think is right or just do something for the need of doing it. I have to pinch myself and wonder sometimes, because honestly, this new life that’s rolling out before and in me, blows me away.

I’m living in Kenya; working on a brand new aid initiative that I was apart of establishing 3 months ago; in a slum; working along side local Kenyans and international volunteers; living in a house that overlooks a massive lake and surrounding hills; experiencing the incredible wildlife that just wonders the country; developing, designing and managing this new project, the KCC Slum Project.

The people you meet when traveling is inspiring. People from all places and cultures. Different points of view, perspective, cultures, religion and philosophy. I find it fascinating. People willing to take some time out of their life to travel to a developing country to volunteer. Its an unique and rewarding experience.

Thinking back over past year from leaving Wellington NZ; to try and find some meaning; a vocation or a reason for getting up in the morning. To now, where I wake up and know that each day my work involves bringing some life, love and justice to a small slum community in Kenya. I’ve wondered, questioned and refused to accept the cultural norm for success. That by this certain age you have to have all “these” boxes ticked and “these” certain things done. The life that is unfolding in front of me right now is so rewarding, satisfying and gratifying that it pulls tears daily from inside, smiles and joy from deep within and offers a relentless energy to make some things right in the world.

For belief or a Christianity perspective, appearing in sight I have more questions than answers and I know, that spiritual and church things still present more doubt than faith. But my conviction has now found a focus and I now know for certain, that there is a deep connection in humanity, that we are created in the image of God. Every sex, race, tribe and culture; and that is the starting point. In a garden; where things smelt; tasted and looked good. Things were right, things had some kind of order, creativity was ridiculous and energy was blooming. I think that this is the kind of spirituality I’m looking for. Where God is God and this living breathing planet of awe struck beauty, is the place we call home.

But from this, the reality is all is not right with the world. Things have changed and the garden needs some work. Not some judgment or protest. Not some critique or ego. It just needs some love and movement for change. Because in the garden; children need picking up; new shoes need to go on bare feet; food into stomachs; minds and intellect taught new skills and clean water given for new life.

How can there be a class system in a world where all were created in the same image? How can us vs. them exist when I have a heart, lungs and skull like my brother? How can the rich simply accumulate more and more wealth and the poor street family, still, live on the side of the highway? How can a world that is supposed to be for all, not be for all?

So this is my current state. I couldn’t be happier and more challenged by daily life. Its hard here and the reality of poverty hits me in the face everyday, but this is where I have discovered some gold and beauty. I feel like I can finally breathe and become a person who is strong, contemplative, creative and free.

Thank you for all the love you show, it means so much. Check our site out and bookmark it as we are developing incredibly fast.

http://www.kccslumproject.wordpress.com

Peace
Marcus

Mercy

went to a funeral today.
Mercy was 7.
a lifelong irritation in the throat
surgery
new growth
a lifelong irritation in the throat
why?
and why

two weeks ago
she had played in our house for one Friday night
playing
running
sitting
eating

she was 7 years
so her school friends came to her funeral
dressed in blue uniform they
sang songs
prayed
carried her coffin
lifted her down into her grave with thin rope
and then
took handfuls of soil to scatter on her coffin

then moving through the wailing crowd
they wept into the open
big tears on small faces
children weeping, from their friend dying
their little friend
had passed from here to somewhere
but they had each other
to comfort in mourning

her name was Mercy.
is mercy for when we die?
is mercy for an idealistic perfect victorious life?
is mercy for the elite, successful or rich?
or is mercy for a small amount of relief that life had come and gone,
and gone brought some small amount of grace?

she is free now
her strong spirit
is free now
her fight for life
is free now

dancing
playing
running
sitting
eating somewhere
somewhere free

free from pain and free from
a lifelong irritation in the throat

Kenyan Life

Ive been here just over a month! Living in a dusty town called Naivasha, in the Rift Valley 1 hour North-West from Nairobi. The house overlooks lake Naivasha, near Mt Longonot and the area is in the Rift Valley, near Hells Gate National Park. Temperatures go up to high 20s and its hot before 9 in the morning. The dust is immense. some of the roads are so rough they look like tracks to the beach.
Food isn’t to bad, and I have some favorites. The fruit: pineapples, mangoes, bananas, avocados – are incredible. Plus the coffee isnt to bad and there are Macadamia nuts galore! My hosts name is Catherine and she has 2 kids, Isreal 4 and half and Checo 2. Very cool little kids. The house is massive and her hospitality is brilliant. At the house we have 5 volunteers from the UK, US and Aust. where we all go to the same placements.

Naivasha has had next to no volunteers since the 2007 post political violence, so we have been the first in 2 years. So with that, the need is massive. Its hard, and Ive had a bunch of conflicting tensions.

Presently we are at 2 placements. Monicas Memorial and KCC Slum.
Monica’s Memorial is a school-nursery which is funded entirely by volunteers, 50 kids, they have a feeding program here which services 2 other primary schools, so up to 200 children can turn up for lunch. Its all cooked on site and the staff-volunteers are great fun. The kids come from a mix of no parent homes, grandparent headed homes. Each child is known really well and they stay at school from 7.30 till 5. We have done a bunch of things with them, teaching, playing sports, football, feeding, cooking, walking them home. Its crazy, when we arrive in the morning, they all come running up to me calling my name within seconds of stepping through the gate. The ages are from 2-14.
Two weeks ago we got a Sustainable Kitchen Garden dug in. We divided the plot into 6 plots each with 8 kids to manage. At one end we put up some netting covering 2 plots and planted out seeds. So we have Kale, Silver beat, Carrots, Leeks, Red Onions and Potatoes. The kids have taken it as their own project, so Im stocked. I did a teaching lesson in the classroom about watering, the sun, birds, weeds, what times of the day to water etc. So far so good! I have a good feeling that the seeds will germinate as they are specifically for the climate and East Africa.

The KCC Slum is a new project we have just got up and running in past 2 weeks. This week was our first feeding program in the slum which has been a massive learning experience. Precently there is no aid whatso ever in the slum and the people are regarded as the bottom of the society.

So for the feeding program we have been given an area of land on a farm. It has a packing room for french bean harvesting. The room is free for us to use and the surrounding area is about half ache which is just grass area with some shade trees and a water source, which is pumped from a nearby dirty lake. Not the best, but its something. The feeding program we’ve started consists of us cooking, over a fire, in a big drum, this basic meal called Uge. Which is basically porridge. Our aim is to feed the most needy kids, kids that don’t go to school, because they cant afford the school fees and uniform. We have a register of 68 kids. So on our first day, Monday. 200 kids showed up! It was quite some undertaking. The kids are starving here. Plus lack of clean water, its a full blown water crises. So we have to boil the water over a fire then add the Uge flour. The process can take 3-4 hours to prepare. So for that time…its a mad mad play-teaching time. When the uge is ready, the kids line up, fighting for their space in the line, with either a plastic cup, or a something that’s used as a cup. We pour the uge into their cups then they sit down to eat. This first day, as it was our first time, and the kids hadn’t had this kind of food aid, as rough. Rough because, after they had finished, or half finished, they lined up again, pushing and shoving, for a second cup, it got so intense, where the kids were pushing in on the volunteer girls serving, so much so that they just walked away, and literally kids were fighting over the remaining food in the tub. The kids are starving. The babies sit on the ground, crying, out of starvation, sickness and no mum around as she has either died of AIDS or is working in the nearby flowerfarms for a 100 KSH (1 Pound) a day.

For man power we have Catherine (our host mum), who speaks Swahili and English, and is also managing the project. We then have 4 mums from the slum helping us with cooking and keeping the kids from losing the plot. Only one speaks basic English, Agnus. We visited her home last week when we were going around talking to families in their homes. None of the kids speak Swahili and most of them who turned up, dont go to a school. So social skills, eg biting, pulling punching, fighting – happens a lot. Its so tough. But Ive immersed into it and the kids jump all over me, climbing on my back pulling my arms, hanging off my arms like monkeys…its such a crazy time, madness at other times. So my Swahili language skills…are getting better ,fast, out of complete need!

We have a volunteer teacher from UK in Newbrey. She teaches at a special needs school (Trinity) Cool girl. With her we set up a school today.Built it yesterday, opened it today. Too fast in hindsight, as it was a crazy chaotic day, but, sometimes its better that way. The school is basic. Just a shade cloth (from the flower farms), with posts and attached to the packing shed on the land we’ve been given. We have done basic resources like, making A-Z with things to match the letter, shaps, number 1-10, colours of the rainbow. Really basic. Theres a 10 yr old boy called Samuel, one of my favorite kids, he couldn’t even spell his own name. I cry about 10 times a day. So the school is there for a resisted 68 kids who are in most need. And so we have to turn people away. As we don’t have enough food for everyone. There are about 2000 kids in the slum. the whole area is about 6500. They rent these shacks, made of corrugated iron, cardboard, old plastic. Tiny rooms. And they pay rent. There are 300 landlords and if they cant afford rent, the landlord will throw them out and lock the doors. Rent ranges between 500-800 KSH per month. ( 5-10 pounds). We went into one home last week, the woman has 7 children, the husband had left in Jan this year, youngest child is 6 months. She can only work 2 days a week, for 150KSH a day. So when we arrived, she was behind 2 months in rent, the landlord was arriving that day to collect, and she had didn’t have the money for rent and she only had 1 bag of salt in the kitchen, so she hadn’t been able to feed her family for 2 days. Cold chills and just pure anguish for what this woman was facing. So through watery eyes we just handed her pure cash. She then blessed us as we left.

Ahhhh! This is such an experience, and Im learning so much. I planned this trip so much and I did the research and despite the craziness of living in an emerging country, I still want to work in international development. Despite the corrupt police, insane pricing structure, lack of leadership and the overwhelming extreme poverty.

This weekend we are heading to Nairobi to set up an website for the project, and upload photos. We are in the middle of setting up a Barkleys bank account here,so funds can be sent directly.

Thats it for now…sorry its taken a month!

Ready Set Go

This is my first trip to Kenya so I am fairly excited. Relishing in the small things, the big things too, but everything, makes a trip complete. Today I brought some soccer balls and long twisting pencils in Southhampton. They are gifts for the kids I’m going to hang out with…it’s truly the small things that have made this story, so far, a true delight.

Because not everyone has the privilege of visiting Sub-Saharan Africa, I thought It would be great to show you, my people, by photo galleria and words, some of the things Im taking, using and planning to get myself there. This kind of trip takes a bit more to pull together than most countries you visit, as the dynamics are quite different, along with the purposes and length too. There’s been a bit to consider and plan for. Travel Insurance is vital! And getting the medical stuff sorted is key to making the most of the time there. Needless to say, the exhilaration of spending seven months in East Africa…is running my blood system at moment. So here is my organisation, online, for the world to see:

Lonely Planet East Africa…where would I be without one of these books. Coolest thing about this edition is that it has just been re-published in June this year. So its fresh new pages to read for a fresh new trip…

To fight the War of The Mosiqutos, I have 50% DEET mosquito spary and this brand new micro-mini mosquito net and…

FIVE boxes of Lariam antimalarial tablets. Thats right FIVE. Thats 40 tablets for preventing the possessed Malaria mosquito! It can be fatal, especially for a skinny white guy like me…so its once a week, after dinner, with lots of water, for the next seven months…just dont read the side effects…just don’t.

the Little Yellow Book. I am now injected with vaccinations like a catalogue of products from the general store…Hep A, Hep B, Rabies, Typhim, Meningitis, Diphtheria, Tetanus, Polio and Yellow Fever…

Sparkling new medical supplies, plus 50+ Sun screen! for a tropical climate! The little red kit is so cool, it has everything you need if your nearly dying…

My new walking shoes for climbing Mt Kilimanjaro! A giant size travel towel, compass, a new slim red torch, my cool mini sleeping bag and trusty pack I got in 06 for about NZ$100 !

Ready Set Go.

One, Two, Three, Four

Its getting so close! I thought it would be cool to spill the first four projects Im working with. They are all in Kenya run by Kenyans, and are community development and conservation projects with specific goals holding unique challanges. Challenges that won’t become real to me, until I arrive.

The first project, Ive booked through International Volunters HQ (based in NZ) with a local NGO by the name of Fadhili Helpers.
Working in an orphange and surrounding projects such as schools and HIV awareness. Living with a local family emercing into their life and expereincing a true cultural exchange. This is a three month project. http://www.fadhili.org

The next three projects are all from the WWOOF Independant community. Its a global network of projects and farms that is commited to organic sustainable work and living.

I travel by bus to the Rongo district in South-West Kenya, this is near the world famous Maasai Mara National Park and close to the Tanzania border. Its a project called Sustainable Village Resources, that is working with alternative energy alongside traditional farming methods. They propagate trees and are working to replace lost fauna while teaching the local community about climate change. They are progressive and are an example of an uprising of new thinking in Kenya. http://www.sustainablevillageresources.com

Then its a trip to Lake Victoria to work with King Solomons Junior School in Homa Bay. I will working in their horticultural school farm and helping with the orphans…maybe even do some teaching…ahhh! I will staying with a teacher and his family so it should be a great exchange.

Rusinga Island is the next stop and from what Ive seen, looks like a little paradise. I am working with a project alled Ezekiels Place. They are a very productive community and their projects cover: a small farm growing subsistence crops and selling at a market, fishing, primary education, taking care of orphans, feeding programs and HIV/Aids awarness and care. http://www.friendsofrusinga.org