I have arrived to Africa!


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Africa » Kenya » Western Province » Kakamega
September 12th 2009
Published: September 12th 2009
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Hello everyone!

Or as they say in Swahili, Habari!!

We have finally made it to Kenya and are staying in the town called Kakamega which is in the Western Province of Kenya. Kakamega is a smaller town close to the Kakamega Forest Reserve part of a tropical rain forest with an array of wildlife like wild flowers, birds and monkeys. It is about an hour (bumpy!) drive north of Kisumu which is Kenya’s third largest towns set on the shores of Lake Victoria. It recently became even more popular with Obama’s father’s home town being very close to Kisumu. As soon as we got into Nairobi I saw a big advertisement with Obama’s face plastered all over it and even our key chains for our place we are living in have Obama on them! I don’t mind the key chains as I am a huge fan of Obama, however, I do find it somewhat funny to see him everywhere here.

As many of you know I am traveling with my long time friend, Candace, and we are both volunteering for a not-for-profit organization called ACCES, African Canadian Continuing Education Society that has 9 Primary schools, scholarship programs for both secondary and post-secondary schooling, HIV/AIDS awareness and gender education and income generation programs in the surrounding villages of Kakamega. Their head office is in Vancouver where they have their Board of Directors and an Executive Director as their sole employee in Vancouver. The rest of the staff are Kenyans living in Kakamega and the surrounding small rural villages where their schools are located. I came into connection with ACCES a couple of years ago as they are members of Vancity Credit Union. I was helping their Executive Director at that time setup electronic funds transfer services to help them easier to collect their donations electronically directly from their donors bank accounts. Their charity work in Africa intrigued me as I was looking for an opportunity already to volunteer in Africa. About a week later after my initial meeting with ACCES at my office, I had gone to my old co-worker (and still close friend) Amber’s wedding and instead of giving thank you gifts to her guests, she gave a donation on everyone’s part to ACCES and little cards were each of our place settings with ACCES’ name and logo. I soon came to learn that Amber had also come out to Kakamega to volunteer as well with ACCES the year before. I couldn’t help but take this as a sign that I should also take the opportunity to volunteer with this amazing organization that is trying to fight poverty through education.


Getting Here…
Our journey getting here was nothing short of an adventure. After an amazing couple weeks in Europe, namely London, France and Italy, we took a flight from London to Nairobi on September 8th. What a difference to come from some of the most beautiful places of the world seeing crown jewels, works of famous art in the Louvre, incredible architecture like the Eiffel Tower and the Vatican and picturesque Italian towns like Positano and Capri to coming to a place like Africa. It feels like I’m on a completely different planet somewhere far in the universe although I am only on the other side of the world. I couldn’t stop thinking throughout my entire trip in Europe how Africa was going be so different compared to all the splendors we were seeing and the delicious food and gelato we were eating. I couldn’t help but feel guilty that I was experiencing all this and then go to see all the poverty stricken villages in Kenya. After feeling guilty I then began to feel thankful and that perhaps it’s a good thing that I am experiencing all this so that I can appreciate what I have even more and try to make even more of difference while I am in Africa as I know that the world is not equal and not fair. It is mind blowing how much poverty is still alive and how much differentiation there is in the world. The Western world can watch all the sponsoring child networks and biased CNN news and still not have a clue as to what actually exits in the same world that they live in. It’s just by pure luck that I was physically born in Canada and was given choice and a chance to live a full and healthy life where I could go to school for free, have free health care and have a government that helps those in need. And it’s just because these people were born here without choice that they don’t get a chance. There are many reasons behind why Africa is the way it is that I will not get into right now or I will probably start a book, but I as I am here for 5 weeks volunteering my time and energy, I have made it my mission to do as much as I can to give more people chances and take with me gratitude for everything that I have back at home. I will also take back my experiences to all my family and friends and local community to hope that they too can make a difference with ACCES, Kenya and the rest of Africa.

Our first day…
We spent one night in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya, before taking an early flight on a very small plane to Kisumu. As we arrived quite late in Nairobi so we only really saw Nairobi from our hotel driver’s van at night and were told not to leave our hotel at night since it was very dangerous. I have to say, the Kenyan time is much like my native Mexican time as we were diverted to take another flight to Kisumu to another airport in Nairobi and then got transported back to the main airport where we were told that our 7:45am flight would leave at 10am. This flight then got even further delayed, until finally it was cancelled! We were luckily able to get another flight (we got the last 2 seats!) out on another carrier at 4:30pm, so we ended up spending 10 hours waiting at the airport!! This didn’t come to us as a big surprise as we were pre-warned about the delays in flights, however, I didn’t imagine it would be our first experience in Africa to get delayed for that long! So after a 45 minute plane ride we finally arrived to Kisumu where Clarah, the ACCES Office Administrator, and Julius, our driver, were graciously waiting for us for the many many hours. They were still so pleasant and very happy that we finally arrived safely. The road coming to Kakamega was a bumpy road with potholes everywhere and the drivers here I have to say drive a little crazy as they try to divert the potholes. It was also funny trying to adjust to driving on the left hand side and as the sky darkened the road got even scarier with cars sharing the unmarked and un-lit road and fighting to drive in the middle. Nevertheless, Julius got us here safely!

Where we are staying…
Where we are volunteering with ACCES, they have a duplex office they recently moved into just off the main road in Kakamega. Their office is on one side and then the apartment is on the other side. It’s a pretty large 2 level home that has two bedrooms, two bathrooms, a living room and kitchen. Definitely larger than I imagined! We sleep with mosquito nets, however, the mosquitoes are not too bad right now. (I hope it stays the same for while we are here!) I think we have only seen a few at night. But I am putting on mosquito repellant every night and taking anti-malarial pills anyways, as it only takes one bad bite to get malaria. It’s the beginning of the rainy season here in the highlands, so we have had some tropical rains that makes Vancouver’s rain seems like nothing! Although it will down pour so hard for at the most 30 minutes that you can’t go outside in the afternoon, but then it will brighten up right after. In terms of our security, we feel very secure here as there is a security guard within our gated area around the clock. One funny observation is that there are no mirrors in our place! Which is not a huge deal as we aren’t trying to look very pretty right now; we are au natural with no makeup and air drying our hair. On another note, there is definitely a different kind of smell here. Not just in our apartment that smells damp and burnt (wait, isn’t that contradictory?!). At dinner time the town seems like it’s on fire with everyone burning things and cooking outside. Overall, there is a definite unique smell here in Kakamega that smells wet and green with a different kind of humidity unlike anywhere else I’ve been in the world.

So far…
We arrived very late our first night and found out that they have been very lucky and had electricity working for the last week everyday. We were told that they are rationing out electricity, so expect the electricity to go out at anytime! So far we have had electricity everyday. I could not sleep very well our first night…with all the new sounds and smells. As it’s the rainy season here in Kakamega, so there was a thunder and lightning storm and then I heard a pack of dogs or something in a big drawn out dog fight not far away. We have running water, but we have to boil it before we can drink it. I thought that we didn’t have warm water, so I was having cold showers, but Candace found a little switch like a light switch that turns on the hot water outside the bathroom, so she had a nice hot shower today! I will definitely try that next time!

A little bit of culture shock…
I remember when I arrived to China and Thailand for my first time being very culture shocked, however, this time arriving to Kenya was a little different. Perhaps all the pictures, videos and stories of friends who had already been here, had given me some warning of what to expect. Nevertheless, it’s not until you see it yourself that you really feel and experience it. First thing I noticed that was different other than the obvious unpaved, dirt roads was the large number of people walking on the sides of all the roads. I felt like everyone was on a walking pilgrimage as there are just swarms of people walking in the town. Even in Nairobi as we had to get transported to the other airport, everyone was walking on the streets in the morning to get to work or there were children in their uniforms walking to school. There were even the woman carrying water and baskets on their heads without holding them! It’s incredible to see this. I don’t even think I will attempt this! Their other main way of transportation is called a Boda-Boda, which is a bicycle with a seat on the back that you sit on while the boys peddle away. Another way of getting around is via Matatus, which is a mini-van/bus that carries many people for greater distances. People also drive cars, however, there are not as many as not many people can afford them. Today was our first time going on a boda-boda! It was an interesting experience! And I wish I took a picture of Candace and me for you to see us. I felt weird getting carried on this bike and felt like I should have been pedaling. Candace and I had our first visit to the main town all on our own. Last time Clarah took us in to show us around and go to the supermarket and open-air market to get food for cooking. Yes…yes…Candace and I are actually cooking ourselves. Well, we are attempting to anyways. Last night I even attempted to make fried rice (which turned out quite good!) and then we even had home-made popcorn on the stove as we don’t have a microwave. Candace was a little skeptical of my popcorn making abilities, but we ended up with great tasting popcorn to eat while we watched a movie on my laptop as there isn’t much more to do at night other than read and write! In regards to the food here, there isn’t too much selection of food here. No such thing as your flaxseed 12 grain whole wheat bread, whole grain cereals and health nuts etc…it’s either white or brown bread or corn flakes or rice crisps. And we couldn’t find fresh chicken, only red meat at a butcher with flys on it so we ended up getting frozen chicken thighs that look like little chicken wings! Their vegetable and fruit selection is very limited too. They have lots of mangos, oranges, bananas, tomatoes, onions, carrots, but no signs of strawberries, good lettuce, grapes, etc. Their lettuce has a different kind of texture, which I’m sure we will get used to. So no need to worry about Candace and I eating as there is definitely food here, but just not at all what we are used to back home. Mom, I can’t wait to come home to your home cooked meals!! I’ll let you know how our chicken tastes tonight!

Volunteering with ACCES…
For our first two days on the job, we oriented ourselves with the office staff (next door) and discussed what our roles would be for the next 5 weeks here and what we all hope to achieve at the end. All the staff here are so incredibly friendly and overly welcoming. They kept on saying ‘karibishi’ which means ‘welcome’. They all expressed how happy they are to have us here and are looking forward to working with us. We also expressed our joys to coming to help them with the amazing work they are already doing here and we hope to learn a lot from them during our short visit and do as much to help and support them.
During our time here, I will be working closely with ACCES’ accountant David to help understand what he does on a daily basis and help create and implement a more efficient way to document all the expenses in particularly for the CIDA funds they obtain for some of their projects. So yes, Vancity friends, I will be working on Excel for the most part. Wayne would love what I’m doing right now and how my spreadsheet looks so far! Candace will be working more closely with Lucy, the Programs Director, who looks like she is about to give birth to newborn any minute now! Candace will be working on helping update the job descriptions and working on creating a new structure of how the office staff are reporting on the updates of each of the programs.

On Monday, we will be making our first visit one of the schools in a nearby village about 15 minutes away from here. I am very excited to see the schools and meet the teachers and little children that have already touched my heart. I can’t wait to tell you more!

I hope you are all doing well there and I miss you lots! Please send me any exciting or even unexciting news to keep me updated all the way out here.

Tutaonana! (Goodbye!)

Karen


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14th September 2009

Exciting!
Thanks for sharing the first part of your adventure with us! Post pictures!
16th September 2009

Thanks
Thanks karen for the wonderful job you are doing. I only wanted to ask if you also support university students who come from kakamega
19th September 2009

Thank you. Yes, ACCES supports post secondary education scholarships to students from Kakamega area who go to university in Kenya. Let me know if you have any other questions.
23rd September 2009

So coolll!!!
Amber was over and she mentioned this email so she was reading it while we hung out with Anthony and Emma. I am reading it now while doing homework and watching Dancing With The Stars! lol Multitasker! Sounds like u r having a wonderful and life changing experience! Im so happy for u! I will look forward to seeing your photos and hearing more about your adventures! PS Im off to Vegas with Hamish on Friday for the weekend so Ill tell u all about that when i see u! :) Leane
25th September 2009

wow !!
kAREN, THAT IS JUST WONDERFUL. gEORGE

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