Saturday, July 2, 2011

So Here's The Latest....


Tuesday our group spilt up and visited a local 9-12 girls boarding school and the United States International University. Through heavy and death defying traffic, we had an amazing meeting with university officials on a college campus that was global in the truest sense. This university attracts a student population that, year in and year out, has changing demographics. One year, the numerical majority is East African and the next it's Asian.   
This university was almost an urban anomaly. It was clean, energetic, with modern facilities, spacious and attractive. 

Later that afternoon, we all reconnected for our trip out to Olerai Farm. This is a massive piece of land that sits adjacent to the Masai Mara where we will later do our game drive. It's at this point that we connected with our game drive support who will not only drive us but also prepare our meals and build our tent camp. Peter, the driver, told us we would be at the farm in 3-4 hours. Half way through the drive we came upon the Great Rift Valley. It was a sight of majesty that I had never seen before. I think it was because of it's size. The thing runs from Israel to Mozambique. We stood a couple of thousand feet able to valley below and took in the history of the Great Rift Valley as well as pin-pointed where we were headed.

We trekked through village after village waving at tribe after tribe as they sold their wares, herded their livestock, slept under bushes, toted goods on their heads and looked at us. You can't help but wonder what they think of Westerners (or others) who traipse into their land to observe them! I admit, I feel somewhat awkward as not only an outsider but also as a gawker.

It's hard to explain the details of what you see when you're out in the rural communities of Kenya. More than that, it's hard not to use Western descriptors or non-Kenyan value statements. I don't want to be disrespectful to the native people by any means but when there is no other frame by which to capture or process the vision and thought, it's terribly hard. So, as I write on, know that I have made every attempt to suspend judgment and explain things through more of a lens of helping the reader to visualize for themselves.

We arrived at our farm with sore backsides and dusty everything else! It was 5 hours in a safari Range Rover that seated 8...uncomfortably! Once at the farm, it was another 20 minutes to get to our site which is beautifully called "House in the Wild." House in the Wild is an amazingly intimate set of 4 Masai hut structures that are each decorated like a collision between Architectural Digest, Pottery Barn and National Geographic. I slept in a one bedroom, one bath private hut that sat 10 feet from the banks of the Mara river. Not only could I hear the flowing river below, I could also hear the hippos moving around in the water. If the hut itself wasn't enough, the bathroom in the hut had no permanent wall and the carved concrete tub/shower was completely exposed to the hippos in the river. Words could not do the place justice but just know that I found it to be serene, romantic and exactly what you would envision from a movie-esque night spent on the banks of a river in Africa. 

And Yet Another Take....


Kenya Observations....The next items are a few thoughts that aren't bloggable but worth passing on. 

* It' s wild to see Kenyans selling coal by the bucket
* You don't know irony until you go 5 hours into the Masai Mara to immerse yourself into a Masai village where the warriors are in full tribal gear from head to their Nike covered feet
* There are three times more Kenyans than its infrastructure can support
* Everybody in Kenya has a way to survive -- from driving unauthorized taxis to selling grilled corn on the side of the road
* Kenyans in the slums (and ghettos) of Kibera have no government services but they do have access to mobile banking
* Kenyan labor is so cheap (and non-unionized) that they are trenching fiberoptic internet cable from Kenya to Uganda...BY HAND 
* The expanse of Kenya is such that most schools are boarding because children have to travel so far to get from home to school
* Security is everywhere, from uniformed government to private firms
* It's true, animals in the wild do look different than animals in the zoo 
* Sleeping in bug nets is not romantic


While at the farm, we visited two schools. One was an elementary school and one high school. Both were supported by the Olerai Farm founders. We toured the schools and at each one, we were greeted by children genuinely happy to see us. When arriving at the first, we had no idea what to expect. The schools were less than modest by Western standards but the buildings were newly constructed with functional outdoor toilets. The highlight was a Masai song and dance done by the students. It was absolutely soul stirring.

When arriving at the second, there were about a hundred kids playing soccer who began to drop their game and run alongside our car singing WELCOME, WELCOME, WELOME! They surrounded the car once we stopped and drenched us with smiles, handshakes and the traditional leaning forward of their head so that we could touch or pat them on top. They loved it! They loved being greeted and visited and we loved being there as well. They as well sent us forward with a song and dance but this time it was with the students in full Masai gear. 

Mount Leyloni

And Another Take....


Monday we made our way into Nairobi to meet with the executive director of a school and foundation started in Nairobi's infamous Kibera slum. Of course, traffic in Kenya is similar to other international cosmopolitan cities...HELLISH and scary. I counted at least 12 times that we almost ran into something in the 45 minute drive to Kibera. For those of you doing the math, that's one evert 3.5 seconds.

Kibera is a large swatch of land unrecognized by the Kenyan government. It was inhabited by squatters many years ago who refused to leave and subsequently have created their own city within a city. There is high crime and a dense population. What's fascinating about the Kibera slum is the hierarchical structure amongst people who reside in the same abject poverty. There is a hill in Kibera that is designated the ghetto while the base of the hill is called the slum. The ghetto is diffferentiated because of their official access to electricity. Kibera also has the distinctive structure where your family's status is equated with how many people share a household toilet. In Kibera slum, they actually charge people outside of the family for use of the toilet.

We went on to tour the school and the Children of Kibera foundation during that morning and then in the afternoon made our way to St. George's School for Girls. This is a school with a very British history and ethos. It's a prestigious boarding school with over 900 girls. They were very formal but remarkably pleased to host us. We visited classes and spent time talking shop with the school administration.

The day was capped off by dinner in Nairobi. We were joined by a school alum who is doing Peace Corp work in a small village north of Kenya. We  had a rowdy and lengthy dinner where we passed around platters of grilled goat (the cut of goat chosen by our group) local spinach, corn meal paste and marinated chicken all eaten by hand and finished with the local beverage.


Another Take....


As the first full day progressed, we made our way to the Katangala Glass Factory. It's a collection of local artisans all huddled into an village. Of course, the only way to get to the glass factory is to traverse a metal suspension bridge that hangs hundreds of feet over a gorge. I gotta tell ya', it was suh-weet. In either direction, you could see for miles with a mountain range on your right and the carved out earth on your left. 

As we got into the factory, we were shown around by a local artist who specialized in metals. He was a great host and extremely insightful about the artists' experience in the area. We proceeded to "shop" around bead huts, painter's huts. Our favorite spot however was the glass blowing. The glass blowers were amazing. All self-taught and extremely talented. To watch the ease of their craftsmanship and the pedestrian glass blowing tools that they used was jaw dropping.

The tour was cut short because of rain. The entire trip has been overcast with periodic hits of warm equatorial sun. We made our way back to the lodge through parts of the preserve and came upon a pack of monkeys and a small herd of antelope. We of course stopped and starred like school children at the zoo, but we all realized the awesomeness of seeing these animals in the wild, unencumbered by the human presence.

Our return to the lodge came with continued curriculum work along with dinner.  Dinner continued to be exotic yet safe for experimentation.