More of my visit to Musembe

Mama Flora and plenty of children in Musembe

My visit to Musembe

Farming in Musembe

My Visit with Jenipher’s family

When it became public knowledge at work last December that I was going to live in Africa, Catherine from BCH mentioned that her children’s nanny, Jenipher, is from Kenya. It turns out that Jenipher is from the village of Musembe, near Eldoret, which is only about a three-hour journey from Kisumu. A few weeks before leaving Canada I met with Jenipher and learned a bit about Kenya and her life there. She invited me to visit her family in Musembe and this past weekend that’s what I did.

I was greeted by Jenipher’s two children: Ceaser (aged 17) and Mona (aged 16). They were on break from boarding school for the month and staying at their grandmother’s farm, Mama Flora’s (also known as Maxi; aged almost 68). Although she is in regular contact with her children, it has been over six years since Jenipher has been with them. Ceaser is a strapping young man and taller and definitely more fit than myself. He looks a bit like Will Smith and has a bit of rapper aura to him. However, rather than getting down with the “brothers and the ho’s,” he seems a bit miscast on a farm hanging with the cousins and the chickens. Also, he is probably the world’s most polite rapper. Mona gives all indications of being a keen athlete and was dressed as though a basketball game might break out at any moment. This appearance does look a bit strange when you see her weeding in the fields. She was a bit shy at first, but as time passed I could see that she was a confident and capable individual.

I was kept surprisingly busy during my time in Musembe. On Saturday, Ceaser and his friend Acka took me on a walk along the Kipkarren River. Not only was the hike long, but we also spent plenty of time visiting with people along the way. After returning to the farm, I was able to sit by the nearby Bahai church and watch a group of young girls rehearse their dance steps. I took quite a few photographs with my digital camera and nearly caused a riot when I showed them the results on the small screen on the back of my camera. Actually, this camera function was of great interest and entertainment to everyone, despite the small view monitor. Mama Flora seemed especially enamoured with it and at one point ordered Mona to grab her weeding-hoe so that I could take an action shot of the two of them working in the field.

I quite liked the landscape in this region of Kenya as the lush, green rolling hills around Musembe contrasted against the rich, red soil that was well cultivated by the many small farms. The temperature was also noticeably cooler than Kisumu (isn’t everywhere?) and that combined with a very comfortable bed in Jenipher’s room provided me two great sleeps. In addition to Mama Flora’s farm, there were adjacent farms owned by Jenipher’s brothers: Wafula, Moss, Festos and Juma. Thanks to support from Jenipher in Canada, Mama Flora’s home has some solar powered lighting and a water pump out back. Otherwise, the homes were solid, comfortable and basic. Children and chickens seemed to be everywhere and at one point sitting in the living room Ceasar explained to me that an especially active chicken was just trying to find a good place to lay an egg.

After dinner on Saturday evening all of Mama Flora’s children and grandchildren gathered at her place for a few songs and prayers and to just visit and be together. I believe that the chickens had already retired for the evening. I didn’t stay for too long as I was tired from my day plus most of the conversation was in their local language. It did occur to me that Jenipher would have loved to be there.

The plan is that later this year Ceasar and Mona will be able to go to Canada to be with their mother. I was able to spend quite a bit of time with both of them over the weekend and hopefully I was able to give them some insight into life in Canada, just like Jenipher was able to help prepare me in a small way for life in Kenya. I’m not sure if I will see them again until I return to Canada, but Mama Flora certainly made it clear to me (through translation from Swihili) that I could visit her farm when-ever I wanted and that I should consider her place my home in Kenya. I was certainly made to feel welcomed during my stay so I think a return visit by me wouldn’t be the least bit surprising.

Jenipher's children: Ceasar & Mona 

Mama Flora and grandaughter Mona weeding the field. 

Wafula ploughing at Musembe 

My house in Kisumu. It looks quite quaint from the outside and for Kenya its definitely very nice. The inside is all cement and some decorative work is required. 

My House

Adapting to a totally new culture can be a great challenge. Therefore, Cindi finally came to the conclusion that she didn’t need the additional challenge of adapting to my culture as well. So a few days ago she was able to move into her own place. We are both very happy with these new circumstances and no dishes were broken during the transition stage. At least this time I got to keep the house.

Now that I can do as I please and decorate and pick-up additional items without having to call a referendum. So far my only new acquisition has been an electric fan. People assured me when I arrived in Kisumu that the temperatures would get cooler and I would adapt to the heat. Well, it might be a bit cooler than it was in February but I’m still too hot at night. If I could get wheels for it I would make it so that my fan would follow me around like a hospital patient with an IV.

My place has quite a few walls and the only things currently hanging from them are the two decorative items that I brought with me: and Ironman Canada poster and a Montreal Canadiens jersey. There isn’t an overwhelming supply of interesting souvenirs to be had in Kenya compared to other stops in my travels but I should be able to pick up a few masks and batiks to add some life to my place. If not, there is no shortage of team jerseys available, as mentioned in one of my prior postings.

My place has its share of surprises to. Just when I thought that I was winning the battle against the cockroaches I had a new surprise last night. A bat flew into my room and just wouldn’t leave. From where it came I do not know or probably want to know. Anyways, through the strategic closing and opening of a few doors and feeble attempts of swinging my book (I knew I should have brought a hockey stick) I managed to lure it outside.

Reading Material

Living in Kenya I now have plenty of time for recreational reading. One of the challenges is finding interesting reading material. Fortunately, living in a larger centre I have access to a fair amount of material, but the selection isn’t what one would hope.

My two sources have been the Kisumu Public Library the college (TICH) library. Both are larger and have more material than I would have guessed. There is plenty of technical reading and I’ve even come across finance and economics textbooks from my university days. There is a mixed bag of novels and an assortment of the obscure and trivial. I’ve seen a 1998 Nairobi phone book, a 1970s era Statistics Canada report, and a tourist guide to U.S. guest houses and bed & breakfasts (five copies, in fact). The libraries are so desperate for material that they will stack everything and anything. You can’t blame them, but you do have to wonder what people were thinking when they sent some of this material to Africa.

So far I’ve been reading mostly biographies. I started on a mammoth one on Lord Beaverbrook and have also read books on Cecil Rhodes and Ring Landner. I’m presently working my way through the 1970s Jeremy Thorpe murder trial. An interesting aspect relating to the Rhodes book was noting the check-out history from the Kisumu library. The book has been taken out 12 times beginning on September 22,1971, and I was the first person to do so since 1988.

Picking tea in Kericho. 

Sports jerseys for sale at a roadside stand in Kisumu.  

Two Month Pulse Check

April 11th marked my two-month anniversary of having left Canada. Therefore, not a bad time to take a pulse check as to how I’m doing:

The good:
• People here are really nice. While walking to work people often say hello and are always pleasant to talk to. I have a strong sense of feeling welcomed and have yet to have had any unpleasant/uncomfortable experiences.
• It is sunny and warm almost every day and this puts people into a happy and relaxed frame of mind. Not worrying so much about what tomorrow may bring may not be the most productive way to be, but I think people here are a lot happier.
• Over the past two months I’ve probably had two years worth of new experiences.
• Minimal stress at work – the financial record keeping is currently in a bit of a mess, but I believe it can be fixed fairly easily with a bit of effort. In the meantime no one seems at all worried about it. The status quo seems fine to everyone but me.
• A short commute – it takes me under 20 minutes to walk either to work or to the town centre. It’s really nice not having to battle traffic everyday.
• My colleagues at work are well-educated and pleasant to deal with. Communication does not seem to be a major problem.
• Forget weight watchers – it’s too hot to eat a lot plus I’m a lazy cook. Therefore, I’ve been able to get back to a more normal weight without having to do all the training. I’m running about three times a week for 45-60 minutes and feel like my legs have their jump.
• The food is okay. It may not be anything to phone-out for, but its fairly healthy and I haven’t had any stomach issues yet. The vegetables aren’t very exciting (are they ever?), but there is lots of fruit to be had. I’ve had to adopt some new favourite foods and this past weekend I found myself yearning for goat meat.
• My residence is quite comfortable by local standards. We have electricity, running water and a western toilet. Not having hot water has not been an issue. Its also feels safe and secure behind a gated entrance.
• Day-to-day life is quite inexpensive and I haven’t had to supplement my lifestyle much out of savings (yet).
• I have loads of free time. I work 8:00-5:00 and without a major commute, triathlon training sessions or other life complications I have more spare time than I’ve known in years.
• The beer is cheap and usually served cold. Tusker is the most popular brand.
• There is no hockey to miss.


The bad:
• It’s a bit too hot. I’m getting tired of perspiring myself to sleep and have my eye on investing in an electric fan. Despite this I'm still getting more sleep than I was at home.
• I hate hand washing my own laundry.
• My social network is still very limited (not so different from home).
• I haven’t really accomplished anything at work yet. I’ve identified lots of opportunities for improvement, but as an advisor I’m not empowered to make them happen. I’m very much looking forward to stating my case in a few weeks before the Board Finance sub-committee.
• There are certainly days when I wonder why I’m here and wonder if some of the other placement opportunities I had been offered would have been more interesting.
• Resources at work are limited. Printing documents is a bit of an ordeal (typically, we use the backside of recycled paper), forget using sticky notes, and don’t even think about trying to access information from the internet. The accounting group shares two computers and the whole organization has only five phones.
• There isn’t a whole lot to do in the evenings. I could buy a television, but I’ve been without it so are and feel like I didn’t come all this way to watch bad TV. So far, I’ve been able to find enough to read and the music from my IPOD has been a lifesaver.
• Too many Mosquitoes – its not really bad, but there are enough of them in the evenings to be annoying and I find that rather than swat at them I end-up reading on my bed under the mosquito net. The cockroaches are also starting to make their presence known.
• Limited access to sports and recreation.
• I know everyone back home is busy living their lives, but my email traffic has been a bit lighter than anticipated.
• There aren’t a lot of nearby destinations of interest that are just a day-trip or weekend jaunt away. However, given a few extra days there are a lot of great places to get to in this part of Africa.

Well, this turned into quite a list. I think its safe to say that the good far outweighs the bad. Of course, this can change by hour which is part of makes living and working in Kenya so interesting.

hello 

Easter weekend at Lake Naivasha mountain biking with Frank at Hells Gate. The following day we would hike up Mount Longonot, seen in the background. 

This is from a few weeks ago when I joined a group of TICH Partnership workers on a trip to a school in Siaya 

Saturday Night in Kericho

So here I was sitting in an outdoor beer gardens with a live band playing in lively tunes in the background. Jack, one of the locals I had met, was explaining to me that he was not, in fact, a “player.” Jack’s girlfriend in Nairobi wasn’t able to visit him that weekend so he was patiently waiting for a different woman to arrive. A universal rule of thumb is that if someone denies that he’s a player then he likely is.

This past Saturday I ventured up to the hillside town of Kericho, about a 1 ½ matatu ride from Kisumu. Passing through on previous journeys I had been attracted to the bright green tea fields that carpet the countryside. The idea of getting out of Kisumu and going to an unknown destination also had an appeal, as this is part of what being a traveller is all about. You never know what you what may happen and that was certainly the case in Kericho.

After exploring the town and finding a place to stay, I figured that I would have a quiet drink in the Lodge’s garden area, read my book while it remained light and then listen to the band for a while. Before I even had a chance to sit down I was greeted by a group of fellows having a “night on the town” and welcomed to join them. They were aged somewhere in their late twenties and/or early thirties and made for excellent company.
My quiet evening turned into staying up until 1:30 am.

I still can’t get over how welcomed this group made me feel. It occurred to me that if it had been a similar but reversed situation in the west it is highly improbable that a group of white guys would be as hospitable to a black person. Later on in the evening Patrick insisted that I should stay at his home instead of the Lodge and meet his family. I managed to politely decline with the promise that I would come back to Kericho to visit another time. I had such a nice time that evening hopefully I will.