Pics of my house and the view

Picture 1 is the view accross the street from my apartment, Picture 2 is a the apartment we are in. There are 2 buildings with 4 apartments each. 3 of us are staying on the top floor of the one on the left. There are lots of kids in all the apartments so its kindof fun to get to play soccer and stuff with them. Our Filipino neighbors had us over for pizza last week and have been really helpful. :)

I am going to take advantage of the ability to upload pics so hopefully it all works!

Week 3...not what I expected after 2 car accidents :)

This first Pic is of Downtown Nyeri and the second is of Kimathi University-- the newest attatchement to Kimathi Institute where I am based out of.

So this week was not as productive as I would have liked, or rather it really focused on a lot of things that I did not think I would be doing. Monday was filled with Muringato, as was part of Wednesday, because we went to see them begin to tear down the current school so that they could move it and reconstruct it on the new location, near Kimathi Institute and on the main road to make it more accessible to everyone. On Tuesday, we went to Kimathi to use the internet and do some research, but after getting there, the internet was not working, our boss did not have time to meet with us and so we spent the morning there, trying to do as much work as we could but decided that we needed computers so eventually went back to town.
On Thursday, we went for a Swahili lesson organized by one of the groups, KEEF, and then on Friday, we went to Kiambu, a community outside of Nairobi with the KEEF group. The purpose of this was that KEEF (a micro credit lending group) have just opened up a branch for women called WEEP-not that focuses on developing micro-enterprises with women’s groups. So we all teamed up with a KEEF employee and went around the market to talk to women about the group and its opportunities. It was cool to see the process of how they spread the word and work to bring in women, but really, I don’t speak Swahili or Kikuyu and so it was frustrating because I was really just standing around there. But apparently our just standing there was a really strong presence because it lends credibility to the group. So I ended up just playing with the kids most of the time which was fun.
We were supposed to go back to Nyeri that afternoon, but things ran late, as they always seem to, so we stayed in Nairobi that night. We figured while we were there we would enjoy ourselves. So we went for some drinks, and out for a great Italian mean that night J Nairobi is really funny, because you can honestly forget that you are in Africa. With Kenya having a 6.3 annual growth rate, it is doing really well for itself and has really modernized. We ended up running around town to pick some things up during the day and were planning on heading out of the city around 2. When we got to the matatu station (15 seater vans that run as the public transit routes within and between the cities) to go back to Nyeri, we found out that there was a huge traffic jam coming into the city, and there were no matatus there and like 500 people waiting. A matatu to come back to Nyeri is around 300 Ksh (like 5$). There was no way we were getting out of the city by matatu so we had to find another way home. The only other option was to hire a taxi. That would cost the 4 of us combined 6000 Ksh (100$) But we figured it would be worth it because otherwise we would have to stay in a hotel again for the night, have dinner there and such which would cost us combined 5000 Ksh… so it would be worth it for us to just pay for the taxi. We all wanted to be home anyways as we were supposed to be back in town the night before. So we meet this taxi driver and start our way home. We are about halfway back to Nyeri and the taxi is following the car in front too close, and the car in front slows down because there was a police check stop. So the unfortunate happens and our cab goes off the road and we are going into the ditch and finally stop. I honestly thought we were going to flip and was really freaked out. But finally it stops and the police (did I mention they have big guns?) Come over and order us out of the car. We were all fine, really shaken up, the car was not coming out of the ditch and its like 5pm. Were all surrounded by these police who are concerned about us, but also yelling at the driver, and at this point we just want to get home. We were concerned a little because the cops are known to try to extort $ from people so we didn’t want to say that we had all 6000 Ksh on us, but they ended up being alright, more concerned I think that we might sue them if we were hurt and they let us go. After waiting on the side of the road for about an hour, we finally got another cab to come pick us up and take us the remainder of the way. So finally we go home safe last night… exhausted. J I also forgot to mention that our car was hit by someone trying to pass us on Wednesday when we were getting a ride home from a co-worker. Again, no damage to anyone but the car, but I’m starting to feel like I’m jinxed and I really have no intention to get in a car for the next few days. On the plus side, when we were in Nairobi, I picked up the first season of How I Met Your Mother for like 10$. Its nice to be able to watch some TV from back home on your downtime.

But really, I’m doing ok. It has been a crazy week and I‘m sure its going to get much crazier but we’ll see what happens. But really, 2 accidents in 1 week… this is not going at a good rate. I’m feeling mixed about what is happening here most days. Its good but not great you know? We are still sorting out housing issues, so I guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens. I am really feeling some days like I’m not too sure what I’m doing here. I feel that I work to establish some goals, but then there are always people and circumstances that totally come in the way of meeting those objectives. I think this week I’m really going to work to strongly develop some of those ties, set up some meeting and such. It will just take some time I guess J

Thinking of you all! Hope Canada is doing well without me. Enjoy the nice weather because it has rained almost every day and does not get much higher than 15 degrees and is damp. Love you all!

Muringato School

Muringato School

Okay, so this week was not necessarily unproductive nor was it really productive.

Monday was really cool. Kettie and I went to visit Muringato School which is a primary school tucked within the Kimathi coffee fields. This school has so little. Many of the kids have to walk like an hour and a half each way to get to school, through heavily wooded areas into the valley. Some of the kids in the past have been attacked and raped on their way to school. They have no running water at the school so anytime they need water; they have to go down this treacherously steep hill to the stream. It is not just a little hill either, I was wearing my hikers and at points thought I was going to fall down the hill and knock my head on the rocks jutting out along the way. The only way to pull yourself up was by grabbing the rocks and exposed tree roots. I can’t even imagine how these little kids do this in flip flops (if they even have shoes) with a bucket of water. They have fields to supplement the food provided by the World Food Program, but the monkeys always steal the maize before they can harvest it. The school structures were built in 1956 and have had little to no upkeep. They are just are buildings with random pieces of wood on the sides to shelter the wind, chicken wire on the windows to attempt to prevent break-ins a and desks that are falling apart before your eyes. I’m not even going to mention how disgusting the washrooms are… picture the worst outhouse you have ever used… now multiply it by 100 and you might be close. For all of these reasons, Muringato is currently trying to relocate to closer towards the road, on land which was donated by Kimathi, where they will work to build permanent structures, fully functioning washrooms, farmland, space for their few goats and one cow. They are in the process of moving all the old structures up to the new location, so that they can still hold classes while they are working on raising the funds to build the new school, and fully construct it.
The cost to relocate the school is somewhere around $ 5000, and they have raised just over half of it. They still need like $2500 this month in order to complete the building before the kids get back in September for the next school term. Once this is complete they have to start raising money for the new buildings, which will cost them around $60000. I, the other interns, as well as past interns will be working to help raise that money while we are here. You will be hearing a lot about the progress and our goals on this blog, as well I’m sure that you will get some emails from me about it too so be forewarned. The past interns set up a great website on Give Meaning. Com which issues tax receipts for all donations towards Muringato which are directly put towards the costs. It also has some great pictures and other info on the page so check it out!
www.givemeaning.com/projects/partnersinlearning