Blogs from Nyanza Province, Kenya, Africa - page 4

There is a lot of rain here. Almost every afternoon since we have arrived, the heavens have opened up and spilled down onto the earth for about an hour. It is a welcome reprieve for the drought the farmers have been experiencing this year. We are in the ‘heavy rains’ period, though it is much delayed this year. Irrigation systems are expensive and are not common, so the vast majority of farmers rely on the weather. Unfortunately it is not predictable, however there exists many opportunities for sustainable development. Hence our project here  Gordon and I experienced the rain fully on Sunday during our walk back from Lake Victoria. The thunder and lightning quickly assembled and played out their drama as we hastily quickened our pace to make it back home in less time. Needless ... read more

Hi This is a test run as I'm just learning to blogg and I won't actually be in Kenya until March... read more

Sweetwaters is a conservatory near Mt Kenya, at 1,800 mts. In the 80s, it used to be owned by Adnan Khasogi (for the uninitiated, he was the biggest arms dealer in the 80s), was later sold off to the current owners. The place is stunning, especially given that its a tented camp environment, my tent was right at the edge of the wild area, so was easy to see animals from there. It was effectively sleeping under the sky in a jungle environment, its a place which can get the most cluttered head some clear thinking. I needed a place like this Did one game drive, saw elephants real up close. Elephant babies are so dependent on their mothers, very similar to human behavior. Also went to a chimpanzee conservation area, out of the 4 great ... read more

A very exciting couple of days here! We have continued doing interviews with the girls and have learned a lot! On Wednesday, the 22nd, I did interviews with Marie Eaton a Fairhaven professor looking at experiences growing up as a child. She’s done other research with different groups in India and Thailand as well. Many, many themes came up throughout the interviews as well as differences between girls coming from more rural towns vs. urban settings. Many girls also expressed that without Slum Doctor Programme (SDP) they would not be able to attend secondary school. After our interviews in the morning I got to sit in on Rosemary’s, who is the head deputy or vice principal, English class. The girls did presentations on nonverbal cues, homophones, homonyms, synonyms and common pronunciation mistakes. Some girls definitely stood ... read more

7/21/09 Jambo! Or Amosi as we say here near Homa Bay. Many people in this area speak three languages- their mother tongue (in this region Luo), Kswahili and English. I’ve learned conversational Luo which the locals get a kick out of. The only problem is when they respond in sentences with words I don’t know so I just laugh and shrug my shoulders indicating that, ‘Yes I am trying to be Luo but no I only know a few words and am still just a mzungu (white person).’ It’s been very warm normally in the 80s but very bearable as we’re inside or in shade most of the time. The trip has felt like it’s been weeks but also so short. We first flew into Nairobi and stayed one day there before we flew to Kisumu ... read more