paula's adventure

2011-12-11T20:49:00.001-08:00

Clearly I need to go on traveling - enough said.

Happy Holidays!!

2007-12-27T00:02:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. just going to keep this short and sweet. Got back from Lamu on the coast of Kenya yesterday after spending Christmas there with some of the interns. It felt like we jsut skipped christmas alltogether since its a very muslim community and lacks all of the commercial holidayism we have back home. So i spent my days on the beach, boat trips snorkeling and deep sea fishing, and just relaxing with some good books. I flew back into Nairobi yesterday and am jsut hanging out at a hotel today, on the national election day, till i fly out to Ethiopia tomorrow. I'll be there until the 7th and it shoudl be incredible. there is so much history and treking to do there I'm really excited for. I'll update you all when i get back.
After that, I will be back in Kenya for 2 weeks before I head back to Cranbrook BC for debriefing and then to Toronto for the 1st of February!
Time is flying and I hope everyone had a great holiday season and that you are all saving me some snow! Happy Holidays and love you all lots!

Uganda - The Pearl of Africa...

2007-12-10T22:16:00.000-08:00

So my adventures in the last 2 weeks have been pretty exciting J to sum it up, I saw Uganda and played the adventurer in the air, on land and in the water. It started on a Wednesday afternoon, of me heading into Nairobi to catch a bus with 2 interns (Stephanie and Tamara) as well as 2 Swedish guys who are working at Kimathi on their Masters Thesis. We naively thought we would take the night bus, because that way of course we could get some sleep, right? Wrong… Have I learnt nothing about the quality of roads in Kenya???? Needless to say, the roads were absolute crap, for a lovely 14 hours, and the five of us had the back row in the bus which as we all remember from elementary school, means that when you go over a bump, you get some air… J This was on top of other bus issues we ran into, such as us being booked for the wrong bus ride, being pulled over by cops an hour outside of Nairobi because of suspected hijackers (2 people were taken for questioning and left the rest of us very apprehensive for the remaining 13 hours) As well, the last 3 hours of the trip, the bus was making horrible noises and going around 40 km for which I am glad I don’t know what those sounds mean and am slightly grateful for my ignorance with mechanics or I think I would have been even more concerned when we were driving in the middle of nowhere. Regardless, we arrived in Jinja, a little city on the edge of Lake Victoria, at the source of the Nile, safe and sound on Thursday morning.
Upon arriving in Jinja, we took some boda boda’s (moped/motor bikes) to the Nile River Explorers Campsite about 10 minutes out of town, which has the best bar in Africa overlooking the Nile and Bugagali Falls. I stayed there the whole time while in jinja in the dorms which were like 5$ a night and nice and relaxing. The first day, we just hung out, drank Nile Special Beers and ate these things called a Rolex ( a chapatti rolled around an omlette with cabbage, tomatoes and onions, and sliced avocado) which are so good and made right in front of you and did I mention delicious and like 60 cents?? While we were in Jinja, it was the World Nile Kayaking Championships there, so there were a bunch of kayakers from around the world as well as lots of tourists- which meant that the bars were rowdy at night and there were crazy competitions to watch during the day. On Friday, we went to watch the free style competition, which was really cool to see the tricks these guys do on the waves, and I also got a wicked tan J I also swam for the first time in the Nile that day ( which was nasty and dirty brown in some places, but not as bad as I had assumed it would be considering the community uses the nile to swim, bathe, wash and do laundry.
Saturday was when my extreme guts/ athleticism/craziness began J I went tandem kayaking down the Nile, which went through class 1 to class 5 rapids. It was so intense and I’m so glad I had not gone rafting before that, because the waves are really intense and I don’t know that I would have gone kayaking if I knew the waves I was getting into. So when you tandem kayak, you are in a 2 seated kayak, with you in front, hitting the waves first and an experienced guide behind you controlling the boat. My guide Henry was awesome, as opposed to Tamara’s guide, who had some issues and was not as experienced as Henry … This meant that the kayak flipped more often for here, and did not necessarily flip back :S So Henry showed me how we would roll if the kayak flipped, and we started going down the rapids. After that it was a free for all. It was so intense going into the class 5 rapids, but luckily we only flipped once in a rapid, thought the waves were so intense, and we couldn’t flip back over so I had to pull off the kayak skirt and just swim down the rapids so that I wasn’t trapped attached to the boat J Needless to say, it was awesome and I loved it. Scary as hell at some times, but so incredible how you go head first into these huge waves. At the end, we got to this one huge rapid that the kayaks can’t make it though, appropriately called The Bad Place, and hopped in one of the Rafts and went thought it that way. We flipped almost immediately, I got sucked into what’s called a Washing Machine where you get stuck underwater and don’t really know if you are moving up or down. It felt like forever that I was underwater, probably only like 10 seconds, but I remember thinking, Shit- I’m not even rafting and I’m going to drown because I fell out of this stupid raft- needless to say, I surfaced, survived, though had a lot of water in my ears for the next day or two. I even survived it without any injuries, unlike Tamara who split her lip in two by biting it when her kayak flipped. Actually, that is not entirely true as I found a mystery bruise on my leg, bright purple and about the size of a tennis ball, but I have no idea when or how I got it J But it was really awesome and loved it!
That night we partied with the competitors who are absolutely nuts. Example: lots of stupid white guys running around naked and one crazy guy taking a bite out of a dead rat… ewww. The next day, I had the world’s worst breakfast including deep fried toast but we then went to watch the Kayakers final race. Its actually really funny because after they do a 10 km kayak race They have to race back on boda bodas , go through an obstacle course of boats with their driver, and then funnel a beer. Really a good show to watch J That was also the day I decided to go bungee jumping, so we took a ride over to the tower, and I signed my life away :) You know, I’ve gone sky diving, and I felt like jumping off a ledge 44 meters up towards the Nile River was way stupider. There were 3 of us going that day, and I insisted on going first, because I figured if I didn’t do it first and had to watch someone else go first, I might chicken out. The explanation of the process was really short, which was a little unnerving, but then I sat down, they wrapped my feet in towels for padding, then tied a cord/ rope thing around it and carabineered me to a giant white latex cord… then I had to shimmy my way to the edge so that my toes were hanging over ( without tripping and falling I might add), grab hold of the bar above my head and find my balance. Now, when the jump master told me to let go of the bar, I kept telling him to just hold on a wait for a minute and to shut up and not rush me. J I was so scared that I was going to screw up, or not be able to jump at all, but when he just sait 3-2-1 bungee, I knew I had to go otherwise I would have psyced myself out and not do it at all J so when he said bungee.. I just leaned forward and just fell off this ledge.. it felt so unnatural but was so cool. I did a water touch with meant that my hands and the top of my head went in to the nile, but then I bounced back up for a while, a boat came to get me, thenI went to the bar to have a beer and deal with the adrenaline J Once again, It was awesome, though I don’t think I would do it again.
After that, it was back to the campsite, we went swimming in the nile and just hung out. One of the other days, Tamara and I went quading for 4 hours thought the countryside of Uganda which was so much fun, although I did almost manage to flip my quad… don’t ask me how, I have skill for managing stupid things J It was really fun, so dusty and we were so dirty when we got back. I thought I got a killer tan that day on my arms, but after a shower, I realized it was all dirt… too bad…
I spent a couple days in Kampala, the capital, by myself ( well not really by myself, I met some cool people staying at the hostel like this couple from Oregon, Tara and Karl, who had been at the campsite too and are kayaker. So we hung out at night at the Red Chili Hideaway ( hostel in Kampala) where I stayed in nice cheap dorms again. Kampala was a nice city, clean and friendly as opposed to Nairobi, which should be called Nairobbery. ( in fact, all the people in Uganda were really friendly, and I felt really safe the entire time I was there) Kampala also had some great Indian food which I ate for several meals. I finally managed to drab myself away from Uganda after a week and a half, longer than I had intended to stay, but Uganda will always have crazy memories for me J I also has a favorite pair of jeans that I left because I ripped them so badly, as well as a great pair of sandals that broke on my last day… tragic in fact J Anyways, after another long 16 hour bus ride back to Nairobi on a much more comfortable bus ( bit more expensive but worth it) though on the same crap roads, here I am back in Kenya for the last month and a half of my internship. Though in reality, of the next 6 weeks I’ll be here, I’m actually going to be traveling for almost 3 of those week: to the coast, to Ethiopia, and maybe to one more national park in Kenya called Hells Gate. And that’s on top op all the work and wrap up to do here in Nyeri as well as the election buzz… Its going to be an interesting couple of weeks and it will also be really strange to be away for Christmas. But you know, I’ll try to make the best of it while I am sitting on a beach in Lamu soaking up the sun …

2007-11-24T02:10:00.000-08:00

So what have I been up to in Kenya Lately? Well I don’t feel like it has been entirely work oriented, but nonethe less it has been a lot of fun! Last weekend I was down in Nairobi planting trees with the Green Belt Movement. We went down on Friday morning and stayed at Nairobi Backpackers which is a pretty cool and cheap place to stay but the owner is kindof nuts… We went for Ethiopian food (which is becoming one of my favorite new types of foods so if anyone knows any good places in Toronto, let me know) and then Saturday was spent getting up early as hell, trudging through the rain to meet at the best and only coffee house chain in Kenya, Nairobi Java House, then going tree planting and leaving of course like 2 hours later than scheduled J what else is new. We went with a group of students and Citi Group organization. We planted them in a forest just outside of Nairobi, Ngong Forest, which apparently is nearby another forest Ngong Hills, where they often find 500 bodies having been dumped in annually… a little freaky eh? I was relly excited to do tree planting, and then when we got there it was more of just a media thing for Citi Bank for good publicity, as the holes were already dug, and the seedlings were already next to them, and someone came around to water them for you… so in the end, it was not exactly an authentic tree planting experience, but fun to get dirty.

(Little did I know that this week would be the week of getting my hands dirtyJ)

So I hung out in Nairobi until Sunday, bumped into an old friend from High School, Andy Kitay and we got together to catch up on Sunday before I left (what are the chances? I ran into here coming out of a grocery store). We also went to a club in Nairobi on Saturday night, won free T shirts and saw a lot of prostitutes hitting on the expats J kind of funny actually.

This week, most of the students at Kimathi are in the process of finishing up exams before they head home for the holidays (much longer break than I ever got in Canada at U of T), so I kept myself busy working more so in the community. On Wednesday and Thursday I went with some of the other interns to go paint a mural at Metropolitan Sanctuary for sick Children which acts as a drop in care center for families who have sick kids or kids who have sick families with a doctor and a physiotherapist on staff. It is funded by a church group in Northern Ireland and there are 3 of the Irish there right now helping out and ensuring things run smoothly. They are al really nice and we habg out with them every so often. Anyways, we painted this really cool mural in the Reception area. I, who claims that I am not artistic, drew and painted these really cute elephants right in the middle of the wall and thank god they turned out really well…. Kind of remind me of Babar. But ya, the entire mural turned out great and looks awsome! And it really brightens the room too!

Then on Friday, we went to help out at Nyaribo Dispensary, where 2 of the interns work, and helped to plant the rest of the community garden…It was a lot of fun to get really muddy, though I did get a lot of blisters on my hands from using the hoe and shovel a lot (this garden is actually pretty big… about 2 times the size of my Baba and Gigi’s old garden in Dauphin I’d say… but the effect was awesome to know that it is going to end up being a sustainable way for people to feed themselves out of the community garden. Then, I went to Muringato where I thought we were just going to be playing games and doing arts and crafts like we usually do, but no.. it ended up that they were also planting their school garden, so I spent an additional hour and a half gardening, breaking up the bisters and getting one hell of a work out for the day. I was so exhausted at the end of the day that all the interns were planning on going out for a beer, but we were all so tired that we just went home, showered and slept. It was a great Friday night of rest.

Otherwise things are good. I’m heading to Jinja, Uganda on Wednesday for just under a week, to relax, go tandem kayaking on the Nile and as long as I still have the guts, go bungee jumping into the nile as well J Its guaranteed to be a blast so I’m really looking forward to it J wish me luck that I don’t end up with a broken nose or something worse… Hope all is good in Canada. I heard that Toronto got its first snowfall J I always enjoy the snow for a bout 2 months then get sick of it, so maybe its for the best that I get home for February, then it will go away when I get sick of it J I’ll keep you all updated about my adventures! Let me know how you are all doing by leaving comments or sending me an email! Love ya lots! Only 2 more months here so I had better live it up ..

November - being a tourist for free is the way to travel

2007-11-13T23:14:00.000-08:00

So Last Sunday was actually pretty cool. We went to the head teacher of Muringato Primary’s parents home in the Aberdare region about a half hour outside of Nyeri. We drove out there with the deputy teacher, into the mountainy area. It was so pretty not really at all what I’d picture as rural Africa. The people there are pretty well off because many of them own really fertile land where they are able to grow plenty for local use as well as export. We met the teacher’s mother and father on their homestead. His father was polygamous and only the one wife still survived and she is in her 70’s and still really active. His father is this tiny little man with one eye and can hardly walk- considering he is 97 I figured he is doing pretty well for himself though. We wandered through the farm plots and saw the different things they grew everything from maize (which I have realized is really tough not as good corn), to flowers they export to Holland, to cabbage, kale and fruits like guava, plums and all kinds of other stuff…We also saw tea fields .. they are really pretty and lush. It was only traditional black teas so I’d be curious to see what green tea and other kinds look like when they grow J What was cool is that they insisted that we try all the food while we were there so we had roasted maize and guavas while wandering around. We then went to see the local primary schools in the area, as well as wandered through the little town area. We met 3 of his sisters (between the 2 mothers there are 16 kids) and they made lunch for us. One of the meals that I enjoy of traditional Kikuyu food is Mokimo- whish is like mashed potatoes that have been boiled with pumpkin leaves or stinging nettle to make it turn green, then they add in onions, beans and maize… its good and you get it in something that looks like a mashed potato lump which is kind of fun J After lunch, we hung around a bit more, the family gave us some guavas, kale and a pumpkin to take back with us to town, so we walked for like an hour down the winding hills through fields and plantations and forests to get to the matatu stand. Then like 25 people crammed into a 14 seater matatu (which is just a big van), which is always fun on a hot and sweaty day where people don’t wear deodorant. J Anyways, that was my Sunday adventure... pretty fun…

The following Tuesday and Wednesday were spent having my very first working holiday J I have to admit that I really enjoyed having a paid for trip with extra cash given for food where we get to go check out a series of ecotourism sites within the region in order assess the opportunities for Kimathi’s proposed eco-sanctuary and lodge. We were told Monday night that we had to be ready for 7am on Tuesday (while It was really short notice, I’m learning not to be too surprised by things like this anymore). We met at Kimathi at 7am where around 40 other people including head administrators from Kimathi as well as other community groups and tourism. This group and trip are a result of one of the big events which were held in October, The Tourism Stakeholders Day, which broupgh together all the important people within tourism to discuss the idea of converting 350 acres of forests on Kimathi land into an eco lodge and wildlife Sancturary. So the trip was organized by Kenya Wildlife Services ( those who handle all the parks and such in Kenya), which was great because we got to visit a bunch of different places that otherwise I would have had to pay for J

We left by 9am and drove up to this location called Laikipia who are a group who help to organize and establish community based tourism ventures. So they work with a bunch of ecolodges and market for these groups and act as a starting point for a lot really nice safaris since they have an airstrip there. Then we got to go to the Ol Pegeta Conservancy which is in the center of a wildlife sanctuary, with a nice and expensive lodge called Sweet waters. This was the work part of the trip because then we go to go and pet the only black Rhino in the world who will let you pet him … yes I said PET J it was so cool. He was enormous and it was like petting a rock. The conservancy has black and white rhinos ( the difference is not in their actual color but in their mouths… blacks have pointy lower jaws and white have square ones) . Then we drove around the park a bit and I finally saw elephants!! They were so cute! We also got to go to a museum with skulls and bones and man, the elephant legs are like as big as my waist are… and their skulls are like the size of… well okay they were really big…We also go to go to their chimpanzee rescue center, which is pretty much chimp rehab for the chimps who have had a really tough life. They were adorable and played like people do. It was so funny to watch. Part of this parks success is their integration of education and community within the tourism components. They also help by giving back to the community by helping develop health centers and build roads within the community. After that, since we were running behind schedule (what else is new) we drove north, around mount Kenya, towards Isiolo. There was one stretch of the road that really made me feel like I was at home and not in Kenya. It had nothing to do with the smoothness of the roads (because they weren’t) but it was because in this little region, they grow wheat everywhere. It was so cool to see it growing, because besides the mountains in the back ground, you felt like you were in the Prairies driving (not Saskatchewan because it was way too hilly J) It was gorgeous though. So cool. We arrived at Isiolo pretty late, just checked in, had a bite to eat then crashed.

Day 2 of the free tour of the Central province started out by going to Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. First it was too wet, as it had rained the night before and so the roads were too wet for our bus to get to the information center, but eventually we got there and spoke to the community director about the projects and successes that they have had running community projects and eco-lodges in the area. They helped to mentor and establish Il Ngwesi, a beautiful eco-lodge which we visited next. So after this little info session, the roads were still wet, so we had to go an hour and a half drive out of our way to take a different route to Il Ngwesi. So driving we went.. it was fine because I had my i-pod on and just watched out the window, the scenery and the people, but about an hour and half drive in, nearly all the way there, our bus got stuck on this crap road ( well not really a road, more like a path that just went thru the savannah) . So it takes us an hour to maneuver this huge bus out of this hole (which was essentially a dry riverbed), and then not 5 minutes later, we get stuck again, and go thru the same process which only took us half an hour to get out of this time. We finally arrived at Il Ngwesi, go on a little 5 minute hike up the mountain from where the bus drops us off at, and we arrive in Paradise. Honestly, if you have 300$ per night/person to spend, this is the place to go. In fact, this is where Prince William comes. It only sleeps 17 people and has a spectacular view of the mountains, the valley, the wildlife and everything in between. It is nearly impossible to describe so I would just suggest Google-ing it to see their web site. Everything rns on solar power, it has a pool that just drops off to the valley, the bedrooms are all open air on half of it, which over liking the valley and mountains, the showers are outdoors, and the toilets are open and have the same view as the rest of it, that it really gives some incentive to take a book to the bathroom J It was seriously beautiful. And Its really cool because it is community owned, community run, and the profits all go back into helping to develop the community by providing bursaries for secondary school and university, building schools, developing health dispensaries and things like that. Its really wonderful to see a place that rich tourists are contributing to which is really helping those in the area, rather than getting cycled back to some huge corporation. Also, this place has won a number of international awards for being one of the world’s best eco-lodges, and from visiting for an hour or so, I can totally see why. So then after that, we left the lodge, traveled back to Isiolo, drove back to Nyeri, and arrived back home by midnight ( did I mention that we were supposed to be back by 5pm… and that planning is not exactly their strong point here in Kenya?)

Last Friday, myself and 3 of the other interns went to Muringato Primary school who I work with and made recycled paper with some of grade 6 and 7’s . It was really hard actually, but a lot of fun to do with the kids. We then returned on Monday to decorate the cards with those classes again J The results were really good. We are now going to sell the cards and some of you might be lucky enough to get them for Christmas ( likely not many as the # of cards made was not as high as we had thought it would be so I only got to buy like 4 cards, so we will have to see how fast they all sell J but they are really cute and even though we spent a bunch of $ getting all the supplies and decorations, it was totally worth it, as the money is going to go back to the school so that they can by desks or whatever they need J

SO those have been my adventures for the last couple of weeks. Its been a lot of fun and I’m trying not to think of how little time I have left. Every time I look at a calendar, it seems like there is next to no time left. Frightening actually J How will I accomplish all I set out to do ?? :s guess we’ll just have to see how much gets done in the next couple of week. Things are getting pretty interesting here too since the National Elections are on the 27th of December.

Zanzibar- should be called Zanzibeautiful

2007-11-03T05:21:00.000-07:00

Okay blog time.

I’ve been back from Tanzania for less than a week and it is taking quite a bit of effort to get back into work-mode. I guess that is inevitable to happen when you go to a beautiful place for a holiday for a week and then come back into a situation where you are making your own schedule. But so in order to avoid doing work, let me tell you about how nice of a holiday it was…

My roommate Laura came with me down to Tanzania. We left Friday morning to Nairobi where we would catch a 15 hour bus to the capital city, Dar Es Salaam. We spent the afternoon in Nairobi, running around a bit, getting some small things for the bus ride, and then went to this really good Ethiopian place for dinner. (for all of you who have never tried Ethiopian food, you need to try it. It looks a bit strange and you eat with your hands… so I’m sure you can see why I like it… besides the fast that the food is awesome). So we had to catch our bus at 7am which made for a early morning. The busses are just like a roughed up greyhound bus back home. The roads leaving Kenya were pretty bad, potholes everywhere, which made sleeping, reading and pretty much everything a bit difficult. Lukily it was only about 3 hours of the trip till we got to the border. Really simple border process of walking thru and clearing Kenya, then buying a 50$ visa for Tanzania… was about a one hour process to get the whole buss through which was painless. The rest of the ride was long, but the roads in Tanzania were wonderful and so well maintained they rivaled Canadian highways. Also the landscape was beautiful. It went from dry savannah in the Serengeti (where I saw a few dust cyclones) merging into more watered down areas with green vegetation, then hitting mountains and lush green crops towards the coast and central area. We passed by Mt. Kilmanjaro from a distance, drove thru 2 of their northern cities, Arusha and Moshi, and then made our way down towards the central costal area. The ride was great until we were about an hour away from the city, when this guy at the back of the bus shat his pants abd stripped down naked…needless to say, all of us on the bus weren’t sure if he was ill or just crazy. So by that point, we were impatient to get there already and arriving at 10 pm was a bit of a drag as the city didn’t have too much of a night life in the area where we were. We stayed in a really cheap YWCA hostel, and splurged on dinner at the Movenpick Royal Palm Hotel’s Kibo Bar. In part because it was the only place open, and in part because we wanted a little civility after sitting in a bus for an hour smelling like crap (literally). So in the morning, we had been planning on staying in Dar for the day, but it was Sunday, and like most places in East Africa, with our experience, they all shut down and you are lucky if anything opens up by 2pm. So we checked out, wandered down towards the harbor, wandered around for a while then just descided to hop on the ferry for Zanzibar. We were a bit disappointed to find that the ferry was very organized with enclosed assigned seating areas and A/C and TVs, so instead we asked one of the crew if we could sit outside, so they let the two of us sit on the front deck of the boat in front of the cabin. It was awesome because we got the best view leaving Dar, of the boats in the surrounding harbor, even saw a few dolphins in the water. Only thing that we didn’t think about was the sunburns that we got because we were nicely in the breeze the whole time and weren’t always covered up… o well part of the experience.

So we arrived in Zanzibar Town on a beautiful Sunday afternoon in like 30 degree weather J there were so many Papasi (street touts) who hassle you for everything from money to tours to just wanting to be your “friend” … especially when you first arrive and are wandering around with your backpack and clearly a newly arrived tourist…. But we managed to wander around to find a cute little hotel in the middle of Stone Town (which is the historic little area in Zanzibar Town) which was actually quite a challenge as the streets are impossible to maneuver for the first little while as they are a series of little walkways that were build in no organized fashion over 100 years ago. The place is filled with such a lush history as the Sultan of the Oman empire relocated there in the mid 1800’s and so there are an enormous amount of buildings, details and quirks that remain from this period, the Islamic history and it’s presence as the major port for the “spice island”. Anyways, we stayed at Jambo Guest House, which reminded me so much of staying at a little hotel in Athens with a central location and shared bathrooms J The first few days were spent there just getting lost in the market streets, seeing what was unfolding anywhere you walked, enjoying the great food, drinks on the beach with our feet in the sand, picturesque sunsets, blazing hot sunny days and quite a large amount of European tourists. Some of the highlights were visiting the Palace Museum (which was a bit like Casa Loma but more run down), amazing gelato with a great view at Amore Mio, Killer sunsets from anywhere and Forodhani Gardens, where a grassy little park comes alive with street vendors selling tourist souvenirs, painting and jewelry, and local foods like banana pancakes (yum) Zanzibar omplettes (double yum) skewers of any king of meat and fish imaginable as well as lobster, octopus, crab, etc, and local drinks like sugar cane juice. Have to admit it was my favorite place to eat because of the atmostphere as well it was super cheap J A couple days in, Jessica and Dorthy, friends from Nyeri, came to meet us and we went snorkeling one day (really fun, regardless of a bit of sunburn) as well as chilled out at the hotel pool they stayed at (there is not really any ocean to swim in right in stone town so you have to go at least an hour out. We also went on a Spice Tour which was cool. Zanzibar is the world’s largest clove exporter and they produce tons of other things, like cinnamon, lemongrass, ginger, cardamom, vanilla, nutmeg, cocoa… so you get to go on the plantation tour and see where they grow which was really interesting… then they cook you a meal with lots of spices which was really yummy. I had henna done at lunch as well and then you get to go to a beautiful beach (Mangwapani) which is virtually deserted of people, to swim for an hour. Then on the way back, you stop at a slave cave on the cost where hundreds of slaves were kept by the sultan after slavery was made illegal… it was pretty eerie… Such a cool little tour though.

So after all that, we headed up to Kendwa, at the northern coast or the island, about an hour and a half north of Stone Town. There, we stayed at a little resort place along the ocean and basked in the sun for 2 and a half days. This was where the do nothing sit in the sun holiday part happened.. it reminded me of being in the dominion and was such a good relax time J One of the days we were there, they had a party at one of the hotels next door that had acrobats and some cultural dances which was interesting.. the rest of the time we just basked in the sun, walked along the beach, ate good food went to the bar at night and chilled out. Unfortunately, we had to leave on Sunday afternoon, and flew out of Zanzibar town on Monday morning… Arriving in Nairobi was a bit depressing as there was no beach and was definitely cooler… MY matatu ride back up to nyeri was stalled when we got a flat tire, and I felt like the heavens were just telling me not to go back to work…. Maybe it was just my imagination…. Either way, here I am back in Nyeri for another 2 and a half months trudging along. I’m thinking of going up to Uganda at the end of this month and then to the coast over Christmas… at least over Christmas ill be able to work on my tan again. Otherwise t was a great trip, a wonderful holiday and I would recommend Zanzibar to anyone.. though go when you have a bit more $ as it is quite touristy and costs a bit more to do most things…. But it was wonderful none the less.

What happened to October?

2007-10-17T07:25:00.000-07:00

Okay, sorry if i repeat myself a bit from the last blog. I forgot what i had written before so I am just starting from scratch... can you tell my brain is a bit or a jumble right now?

I can hardly believe that its already mid October. I feel like time is going by so fast here that I am going to only accomplish like 2 things off of my giant list of things to do while in Kenya. It has been an incredible experience so far, and I hope time does not fly by too fast so that I can fully enjoy, appreciate and continue learning while I am here. 6 months is such a short period of time to come overseas. You really only feel like you have touched the tip of the iceberg after this amount of time, let alone have a chance to implement projects and programs within the community. I feel like I am finally just getting a sense of what I can do that will be a benefit here, and its really tough to work to create tangible results that will remain when I leave.

So what have I been up to? Well October so far has been full of chaos and bosses to put it simply, though it is slowly winding down. It began in a whirlwind of my boss from Canada coming here to Kenya, which required me to arrange for a number of meetings and visits to local organizations, since I am working at the institution that the College of the Rockies has a partnership with. So, on top of trying to sort out workshops and day to day meetings and schedules of my own, I had to deal with my bosses schedule… which was interesting. I learnt a lot that week about delegation and what it really means to be the low man on the totem pole. I was the essence of the College of the Rockies gopher that week. But like I said, it is a learing experience.

Then, beginning on the 4^th of October, we had 3 major events at Kimathi where I work. Thursday the 4^th was a Tourism Stake holder Day which required us to make sure logistics and things were in place to ensure the day ran smoothly. Then the 6^th was a bigger day for us interns because it was the Kimathi Community Day. So myself and Kettie were responsible for organizing for organizations and NGOs to come and set up booths (trade show style) as well as invite local community groups to attend. This was kindof chaotic, especially on the day of, becase things were not necessarily planned and organized ahead of time. For example, the 20 tables that we needed for the NGOs were nowhere to be found, and when we finally arranged for them and got them to where they needed to be, the administration realized that they did not have their tables either, so they just took all of ours and we were left scrambling to find other tables for the NGOs as they arrived… interesting none the less. J But everything worked out in the end. Thought it did start pouring rain in the middle of the day when the major guest was making his speech J did I mention that the entire event was held outside? Haha at least it held off most of the day though. The last event (and need I mention that we were tired of events and organizing people and logistics at this point?) on the 10^th, we put together a big Kimathi Health Day for the students and the community. This was one event I was really proud of because it was taken on almost entirely by us interns. We had all the interns hosting information booths about health issues like women’s health, children’s health, HIV and AIDS (which was the main focus of the day), health related games, Condom demonstrations with male and female condoms, etc. We got sponsors to donate some goods for prizes as well as a local theater group performing skits in Swahili. We also arranged to have the general hospital there to do VCT (Voluntary Counseling and Testing) for HIV. It was really cool and to encourage the students and show solidarity, most of the interns, myself included, got tested. (By the way, I’m HIV negative J) We got really good responses from the faculty, students as well as community members who attended so it was great… but by the end of that day, I was so happy to just be done with events and planning and organizing things, thought it went really well.

The next day I went with 2 of the other interns to Nyaribo Dispensary where they work, which is a health clinic in the rural community. So that day I helped to dispense drugs as well as helped Tamara plant her community garden. I really enjoyed gardening so to be honest I am going to try to plant a little garden at my new place n Toronto in the spring… Wish me luck and maybe if you come visit me we can eat some tomatoes or something if all goes well. Also , please send me some tips (baba that means you J you will also have to come visit me to see how the progress goes over the summer)

Last weekend I was in Nairobi to get my big city fix. I stayed in the Nairobi Backpackers Hostel which was great and cheap, though the owner is absolutely crazy and was up yelling at the dog, guard, fire and himself until almost 3 am. Got a chance to meet some cool people traveling around Africa as well, and hear their stories. I went to see a bead factory that employs single mothers with more than 6 children as well as young mothers (under 15). The beads were gorgeous and they export most of them overseas and do quite well. I also went to the giraffe center and got to see baby giraffes as well as fed them… and holly crap do giraffes ever have long tongues! They are so cute too! We were supposed to visit the elephant orphanage as well but Kenya Wildlife Services that week just raised prices requiring you to pay 40$ US to enter the park, then pay the entrance fee which is only like 5 dollars.. So that was a little too pricey so we skipped it and I am still on the hunt for elephants in Kenya ( I have yet to see one up close!) I also went to the Toy Market, which does not sell toys, but actually is a giant used clothing market that I got some jeans and 4 shirts for like 25$. That weekend I also bought an Ipod to use as an external hard drive so I don’t loose everything if I get a virus. We also went for great Lebanese food. I also found Tortillas and Nacho Chips in Nairobi which was an incredible feat!

So this week was just back at work by myself. (Kettie my Kimathi partner in crime is in Uganda… where I am very tempted to go in a months time). I am heading back to Nairobi on Friday and then taking the bus down on Saturday to Dar Es Salaam in Tanzania, hang out there for a day or so then over to Zanzibar to relax and snorkel, see some animals and go on some spice tours. Looking really forward to it, then to come back in November and get a whole bunch of work done.

I’ve been thinking about how much time I have left... November is going to be a busy month though I just found out that many of the students are starting exams on November 12^th and then go home by the 24^th. So my work with Kimathi will be wrapping up in the next few weeks as it is :S then pretty much community work is where I am left, though it should be good. Just busy. Time is flying and I’ll just have to keep working hard to get through things… before I know it I’ll be back in Canada. Hope all is well with everyone! Love you all lots and keep me updated with what you guys are all up to!

Paula

Building Capacity..

2007-10-06T06:12:00.000-07:00

sorry, i know it has been a while since i have updated this thing :) i noticed that the more emails i was getting about how interesting it was... so i figured time to let you all know what i'm up to.

My new buzz word since being here is Building Capacity... its the new cool word for development and it is beign thrown around all over. in the first 2 months that i was here, i would ask people what they are doing or what the relationship between 2 groups is, and the answer was always building capacity... i finally got an explination as to what it is, and therefore an explination as to what i am doing here. I am helping groups develop and learn how to do things on their own. Like teching a group about business (liek the workshops i have been delivering to womens groups) it is helping them help themselves, unlike the oldschool development which would jsut come in and do things for them. Instead, we are building capacity here by providing people and groups with knowlege of how to do it themselves and how to teach others to do the same... so its pretty cool :)

work has been crazy, picked up like mad in the last little while. I have been working with the only student groups at Kimathi College trying to organize themselves better on campus. there are tons of students and so little student involvemnt so i am trying to work with the existing groups and encourage the new ones to come forward so that they actually push some activities on campus. so i held a workshop 2 weeks ago for student leaders and talked to them about soem basic things like settign goal, action plans, calendars of events, recruitment and the most important one i think here in kenya.... how to hold an effective meeting! ( honestly meetings here run over by like an hour and i feel like rarely there is action taken from them) but it has been really good and i'm continuing to work with them to help them plan their activities and actions.
We also have a bunch of big events on campus which have included the community. Thursday there was a big tourism stakeholders day and today was a big community day. Both events went well but thank god they are over! The kenyan style of organizing an event is by doing it like the day before, even if it involves like 300 people ( such as today's event). So it has been a bit frustrating and a bit difficult to work with sometiems, but regardless i am learing alot of patience.
We have also continued to work with Muringato Primary school here which has been so much fun. we go evey other week and play with the kids in the afternoon for an hour and try to visit every week to jsut hang out with them as well. Once again, please check out the website at Give meaning. com if you have not already! they are a great group of kids who live such challenging lives and this school is really doing phenomenal things for them by having clean drinking water and one meal a day. any additional support is incredible so please check out the site.
Otherwise, things are so-so. My computer got a really bad virus and i had to reformat it. almost lost my pictures but thank god i didn't... almost lost all my work and research, but thank god it is all backed up on a flash disk. whcih unfortunatly is infected with a virus... dun dun dun... o well. one step at a time.. at least i still have a computer. I talked to my mum when i was really stressed out about it and she reminded me that I',m lucky that that is all that is wrong over here with me. i was sick for a while and went and was tested for malaria but thankfully i think it was jsut food poisining or the flu :) I have never been so happy to have the flu :) one of the other interns here has gotten malaria twice and has dropped almost 20 pounds... talk about crash diet... i don't recommend it :)
I can hardly belive i have only 3 and a half months left... then back to canadian winter :) I am planning on going to tanzania and zanzibar in 2 weeks or so i'll keep you all updated as to my journey :) Keep me updated as to what you are all up to okay?!
love ya lots and cheers!
Paula

Other things i wont take for granted

2007-09-26T08:46:00.000-07:00

1. Nachos
2. Brie/any kind of good cheese
3. people who can help me deal with computer viruses
4. family
5. friends
6. music on my computer

Things I will not take for granted when I am back in Canada...

2007-09-10T02:27:00.000-07:00

This is going to be an ongoing list of things that I will not take for granted when i am back in Canada. If you catch me complaining about any of these upon my return, remind me of this list...
1. Access to Health Care
2. Paved and Upkept Roads
3. WASHING MACHINES!
4. no mosquitoes.. well unless you are in manitoba :)
5. Environmental regulations on cars and their emmisions
6. Wireless and High Speed Internet
7. Side Walks
8. Gargabe Pickup

These are just a few... i know the list will keep going up as time goes on...

Masai Mara Safari

2007-09-02T22:36:00.000-07:00

Ok ok... so everyone be prewarned that this is going to be like a novel... i tried to cut it down but then figured that those who want to read it will, and those who do not want to sit down for this wont. :)

I am trying to think of where to pick up but I think I’ll just highlight the good parts, like the incredible trip to the Masai Mara (which is essentially the Kenyan part of the Serengeti which stretches within Tanzania). This place deserves to be one of the wonders of the world as it is absolutely breathtaking.

We left Nyeri on Saturday morning to all meet up in Nairobi where the tour leaves from on Sunday morning. By all of us I mean all 10 Canadian Interns from College of the Rockies. Most of us (8) are based in Nyeri, one in Nairobi and the last guy, Graham was based around Kisumu for the first couple months so we hadn’t seen him since arriving in Kenya. So we all got a chance to hang out on Saturday night, have some drinks and just relax out of any work environment which was awesome. Then bright and early Sunday morning, we jumped into our 2 Safari Vans and embarked on an 8 hour drive to the masai mara on some of the worst roads I have ever driven on J think camping and dirt roads with huge gaping holes and ruts because of the rains… that’s what the majority of Kenya’s roads are. Apparently only something like 12% of their roads are paved… most of that 12% would be better off not paved because the road maintenance has been so minimal that the potholes are gynormous and they are worse than the non-paved roads. Needless to say, I will no longer complain about road quality in Canada or the maintenance done to keep them in good shape. We have wonderful roads in Canada so everyone be thankful J Needless to say, the drive was beautiful. The landscape changes so much as you drive. We first passed lovely lush green forested areas, went into the Great Rift Valley, and drove thru semi arid land, mud, clay, you name it. We also saw tons of animals like cattle and goat herds belonging to the masai people, baboons, zebras, all kinds of stuff. In that way it reminds me of Canada that they have such varied landscapes. Finally at around 5pm, we arrived at our camp which was actually more luxury than any of us anticipated. It had semi-permanent tented lodges with cots, mattresses, nets, running hot water, flush toilets, electricity and a bar J We all settled in and went out then on our first game drive…

Driving into the masai mara park is like driving into any other national park in Canada or Kenya. But as soon as we entered, you realized you were in Kenya. So the reason that we went to the Mara at the end of August is because we wanted to catch the wilda beast migration. The wildabeast migrate from Tanzania to Kenya across the Mara river and back each year for water and food. At this point they anticipate that there are around 2 million in the park and I don’t doubt it. THEY WERE EVERYWHERE! As far as you could see, there were tiny little black dots on the hills the valleys everywhere…actually after a while you get a bit sick of seeing them because you see so many. Some of the other cool animals we saw were a cheetah, zebras, giraffes, a cape buffalo, a couple lionesses on the prowl… and this was within 3 hours on the first night of being in the park! We then went back to our camp, hung out, slept and were up and out for our big safari day by 8am.

Day 2 was a beautiful day too! This day started with more wildebeest, zebras, ostriches and many groups of vultures feeding on the leftovers from the lions the night before, mainly of wildebeest… Gross. We also saw a bunch of little deer like animals… wapiti maybe? And some antelopes and that kind of thing. The scenery was incredible thought. I took so many pictures of landscapes and the trees and the sky. It was a bright blue sky all day as a beautiful background. We also saw this adorable baby cheetah with his mum! The baby cheetah was so fuzzy he looked like he had an aura around him but it was just the baby fuzz. I felt really bad for them though because there were so many vans surrounding them to try to get pictures that they must have felt really threatened and scared so as soon as we all got a picture we just left them alone. We crossed the Mara river where there were a bunch of dead, rank wildebeest bloated as hell in the river. While we were there, a vulture was pecking away at one of the corpses and a crocodile chowing down on another. Seriously nasty but really the circle of life.

The most amazing part of my day took about an hour and a half of patience… We arrived at this spot overlooking the Mara river where the wildebeest all gather to cross. There were probably about 30 safari vans there waiting as well. So we hung out there, at our lunch and watched thousands of wildebeest gather onto this little peninsula type area. You could see them coming from every corner on the other side of the river and collecting in this little area. Some of the brave ones would scope out the slope that goes down to the river but they would go back up and reconvene with the rest of the group. Our guide Howard anticipated that there were over 100 thousand wildebeest there at the time and that in his 16 years as a guide this was the largest group he has seen attempt to cross. So we started getting really impatient as an hour and a half rolled around and decided we would wait for 10 more minutes… 5 minutes later it began. Thousands of wildebeest started to pour down towards the river, swimming across from it and emerging on our side. As soon as this crossing began all of the safari vans are allowed to come close up to the bed of the river to get pictures. So there was this mad dash of all the vans to get the best spot. Park officials were there to make sure we did not get in the way of the wildebeest as they came up on the the other side. The pictures are the only way that I can show how incredible this was because words do it no justice. For at least a half hour, probably more, these thousands of wildebeest poured down one side of the gorge, swam across and tried to make it up the other side. We saw a lot of them unable to get up the other side as a result of falling, broken legs and such… those ones were often picked off by the hippo and crocodile which were waiting for the weak ones. A lot of the time they would take the ones already hurt but every once in a while , the hippo would disappear under the water and then you would notice one of the guys swimming across being dragged under, fighting like hell, but eventually end up floating downstream for dinner later. The croc did the same thing. It was an incredible thing to see, something that I will never forget in my life. Its unbelievable that these animals make this journey every year and then they turn around and head back to Tanzania…Needless to say, after this I had more respect for the wildebeest I saw during the rest of the trip. On our way out of the park, we stopped at the stone that separates Tanzania and Kenya… so I guess I can now technically say that I have been to Tanzania J

The next day was short as we only had a morning tour and then had to embark on the 8 hour drive from hell again J The morning started off well as within the first half hour, we stumbled across a HUGE lion! He crossed by our van within like maybe 7 feet of us…He looked so mean and definetly like the king of the land. Up until then we had seen several lionesses which were beautiful and sleek, but this guy was raw strength… he looked severe… It was so cool to just see him wandering around. I’m sure he had a great night’s dinner and was heading to bed when we ran into him. We also saw some timon and pumbas… for those who are unfamiliar with the lion king, warthogs and ?meercat?. (we were actually referring to most of the animals based on their lion king names because it was entertaining). The last animals we saw were elephants from a huge distance. I didn’t see any close up while I was there because they made themselves pretty scarce so that is actually my goal in the next 5 months.

The drive back was bumpy as hell and just as dirty. We were following the other van and there hadn’t been any rain in the area, so it was incredibly dusty. We were coated in dirt… it was actually disgusting by the end…all of us looked either more tanned or just plain dirty…I think I posted some of the dirty pics of Team Filth (that’s us) on face book.. white shirts were brown in the end… nasty…and memorable. Overall it was an incredible trip and I think we all had a great time. I know this entry became an epic and I hope it was worthwhile for you to read. I look forward to showing you all my pics when I get back, but until then, most of the good ones are on facebook if you get a chance to take a look at them! Hope everyone is going to enjoy their long weekend… I’ll be thinking of you all when I am at work on Monday!

Cheers!

Paula

Week 4: how am i already down to 5 months?

2007-08-18T04:18:00.000-07:00

So I really wish I had more to update on this week but it has just sort of been a work and organizational week. No car crashes though J I have started taking Swahili lessons which is proving to be interesting. Many people speak English so I am not learning as fast as I would be if I was stuck in the middle of nowhere. We are taking classes twice a week and I am hoping that by the end I will be moderately fluent in Kiswahilli or at least conversational.

I have been trying to do a lot of research of Women’s groups in Kenya as well as get more information about some of the issues here such as domestic violence, gender roles, leadership skills and communication workshops but with the internet being so slow it proves to be more of a pain in the ass than anything. It is also a bit difficult to be productive without an office or somewhere you can go to get work done. So hopefully we will have some office space to work at Kimathi next week. Right now we are just sort of bouncing between places and not being overly productive. I am trying to find the right balance between diving into these projects and learning about what is going on around me with regards to gender issues. I was given a copy of a cd that the previous interns had put together with a bunch of the information that they had done while they were here.

Not knowing exactly what I am going to be doing here + 6 months worth of work that 2 people had done = overwhelming… I had a couple moments of self doubt and crisis and then had to take a step back and remember that this is what they did in 6 month and that I’m only just beginning. I still have a lot of questions that I want to ask some of the coordinator on this end because I have heard from many that they want me to work on their projects as well as sustain my own goals, so it will be really interesting to see what is actually achievable. That is becoming my new issue… I’m trying to set goals for what I want to accomplish here, (in my remaining 5 months :s) and it seems like there is not going to be nearly enough time to get everything I want and they want done. I am trying not to be too ambitious but also I want to make a different and make a lot for progress. Its funny, you can tell I’m feeling like my life is disorganized because I have lists written everywhere on every topic. Trying to sort out your life when you don’t know what you are doing is an interesting process… but not entirely productive…My goals right now are to set up meetings and meet groups of people but I really feel like after 1 month of being here I should be doing more with my time…. Maybe next week? Part of the issues is that the students of the college as well as all the primary schools are out right now on their summer break and some of the programs that I want to do with them are not able to be done.

In my spare time, I have been volunteering at a couple of orphanages in the area. One is called New Life and is actually really fun. It has 14 kids under the age of 2 and you just get to go there and play with the kids and help with feeding them. A couple of them are HIV + or have underdevelopment issues which is always sad to see. For example, they have 5 babies under 9 months… 4 are 3 months old and regularly developed but there is one little boy who is 4 months old and looks like he is maybe 1 month. Its really sad to see... he is so tinny and sick looking… It’s sad to thing that so many kids don’t even get a chance in life. I have also gone to Belhops Orphanage and there are like 25 girls from 3 to 18. The picture above is of some of the girls there. They are really cool and when I was there I was just hanging out with them and getting them to teach me some Swahili. I’m going back tomorrow with a couple of the other interns and we’re going to bring them a soccer ball and some things we can play with them. It’s really rewarding to just so you can see them smile. They get so excited when visitors come and it’s nice to be able to contribute back to the community.

Otherwise the rest of the week I’ve just been trying to establish contacts and find out how things are done. Like how microcredit loans are distributed and stuff. It was informative for sure but now I’m feeling like I need to crunch down and start organizing workshops or something. I think in my spare time right now, I’m just going to try to set as much ground work as I can and put together workshops and presentations on an topics I can think of right now. Technology is still driving me crazy. Safaricom the cell phone company doesn’t seem to have any idea what is going on with my phone because I can’t receive any Canadian text messages… if anyone wants to try please feel free to my # is +254 710332974

Hibiscus

2007-08-13T04:37:00.001-07:00

Hey mum. this is for you :) there are hibiscus trees all over here! thought I'd show you! Its nice to see them as it reminds me of home.... sorry the tree is on its side... it took forever to upload and I forgot to rotate it before i did... it was not worth re-uploading it :)

Kenyan Wedding...not as traditional as you would think

2007-08-13T04:06:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures from the Deputy Principal of Kimathi, Rosemary, at her wedding (more so like a remarriage celebration as they have been together for like 18 years) The first picture is her with her maid of honor coming down the aisle.. much like at a North American wedding. The second was with her and her husband after the families had given them garlands which were from what I understood like blessings. The third is of older women, family members and such who after the ceremony had ended, they sang songs and kindof marched around the couple. It was a very big wedding. I believe theywere having itbecuase althoughthey havebeen married for several years, they were finally in the position to host a big celebration to include the community. Much like at home, there was tons of really good food :)

Pics of my house and the view

2007-08-12T03:38:00.001-07:00

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 :)

2007-08-12T03:27:00.000-07:00

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

2007-08-12T03:17:00.000-07:00

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

Pictures!

2007-08-09T01:07:00.000-07:00

Hey guys I know everyone really wants to see some pictures but i am having huge issues uploading them! As soon as I manage to upload them anywhere i will let you know!
Paula

Hospitals, minimal work...and a wedding

2007-08-05T08:03:00.000-07:00

So week 2 in Nyeri and I finally have a home! I'm living with 2 of the other interns in a nice 3 bedroom apartment that sometimes has hot water and still has no cooker but has 2 balconies and a great view :) My last week was some what uneventful as it involved staying at the Aga Kahn Hospital for 3 days in Nairobi with my friend and coworker Kettie (filling in the blanks: kettie was hit by a land rover while crossing the street though miraculously had no broken bones or lasting damage) So Thursday we came back to Nyeri (which is 2 hours north of the capital near Mount Kenya) and I was finally able to settle in to my apartment . It was nice to be able to unpack and feel like you aren't living out of a suitcase. Friday, we finally had a meeting with my boss Sarisar (who is Masai- and has invited us to come to his community at some point which will be incredible- the Masai are still very traditional and we might get to dress up traditionally... if you aren't excited for me, Google the Masai and check out the jewelry and stuff so you understand why i am so excited :) Our meeting was actually really productive, we brainstormed about what projects we want to work on and were able to establish some concrete topics that I want to work on while here. It includes stuff like gender equality working with micro finance groups, working to encourage non-traditional work roles, Women's health, as well as doing some work helping to develop sustainable tourism projects. This is on top of the projects already established by the previous interns like raising 25 000$ for a primary school called murangato (don't worry you will hear tons more from me about this project as I'm hoping many of you may want to help in some way :) .. please? ) So that was my friday, in addition to meeting so many new people at the Kimathi Institute Campus, where I am working out of. that night a couple of us went to the outspan (which is a really nice hotel, but has a cool outdoor bar with a dance floor where people go to drink at night) It was nice to hang out and have a couple drinks and just relax after the exhausting week.

Saturday was really cool because we were invited by my other boss Rosemary to come to her huge wedding (really it was a remarriage ceremony). It was really cool, a long process but interesting. Alot of the ceremony and such were similar to north American weddings, like she had the white dress (though some guests and her maid of honor were dressed traditionally), and the vows were the same, there was cake cutting and she walked down the aisle the same way. There was a huge sermon in the middle of the like 3 hour ceremony which was kindof odd to me as it talked about how the wife is weaker and negative and requires a man to keep her in check, so I had to bite my tongue a bit , but it was also interesting to see the cultural gender roles in place... it kind of makes me understand why I'm here as a gender equality officer and I know now what views I am going to be coming up against. But after the ceremony there was the food :) SO MUCH FOOD!! rice, chapatis, this potato veggie thing, beef stew, chicken... lots of stuff! Some of the food I'm not loving but this stuff was really good!

Sunday was the first day in a while that I had a chance to sleep in.. and I did.. till 10 am... So today was just a bunch or running errands and picking up stuff for the house and all that fun organizational stuff. I'm really excited for work and what I am going to be able to do here. its nice to finally get up off the ground and start going with projects :) for a while i was getting really bored doing nothing, so hopefully and likely things will pick up and I'll feel like I don't have enough time to complete it all :) please keep me updated as to what you guys are doing as it makes me feel less disconnected from the world !

PS... there is so much red mud here! its all mud... they are just finishing their winter season and it is raining pretty much every day a little. so good thing i brought my crocs and hiking boots.. although I am still covered in red mud from my calf down... I'm also washing all my own clothes by hand.... man i miss maytag :( and concrete sidewalks...
Cheers and

First Week ...

2007-08-01T00:28:00.000-07:00

Hey so please bear with me as this is my first blog... I'm still trying to figure it out myself.
The first week was wonderful. We flew from Cranbrook to Calgary to Healthrow and arrived in Nairobi monday morning. We quickly went from there to Nyeri where I will be staying for the most of the 6 months working with Kimathi Institute of Technology. We stayed at the Banana Leaf Hotel for most of the first week then finally found a couple places to rent. we had many tours of the town as well as the college over the last week and so far everything was good. I know i am rushing thru much of the details but i will post those soon as well. This weekend we came to nairobi. Sunday we went to the Nairobi national park where we saw giraffes, a black rhino, wildabeast and all kinds of fun stuff (no lions or elephants though). On monday we went to the Canadian High Commision to register and on our way out, my coworker was hit by a land rover. So to the hospital it was, alot of time sorting out insurance and stuff. She is alright, no broken bones, just alot of bruising! Lucky girl! so i have been staying with her in the hospital for 2 nights and we are waiting for the doctor to tell her she can go home! But while at the hospital i did see some monkeys running over a roof so that was kinda cool :) I know i rushed through this quickly but I'll add more details when i get a chance. Right now i'm using the hospital computer and should go see how she is doing! more info and pics soon to come!
paula