A stopover in Amsterdam, The Netherlands!

Usually, our flight stops over in Paris, but this time we were able to see another city in Europe- AMSTERDAM in The Netherlands! On the way to Amsterdam, we got some great views of other places.... We were able to see Mt. Kenya from the air on our way out of Kenya (on the left), the deserts in Egypt and then the Greek Islands. 

Amsterdam, The Netherlands..... we finally made it around 4 PM. It was an interesting city, like no other we have been to before. The architecture was amazing, and we quickly realized that it seemed lawless. An unintended walk through what we later learned to be The Red Light District, we actually saw that ladies advertised in the windows and store shops selling drugs and paraphernalia, legally, to then consume in public. Umm... interesting from a criminal justice teacher standpoint.... I guess. I guess I can use some of this in my material as comparison when my class reaches these crime points. Well, what we classify as crime at home in the U.S.A, that is...... aside from that, we enjoyed the city! 


We found an interesting cheese museum that had about every cheese you could imagine. I bought a few of the small single serving variety packs for us to try then a cheese round to try to take home. Not sure if cheese is allowed through customs or not but I figured it was well wrapped in one of those circle enclosures, so... why not?!

The cheese museum had countless shelves of cheese and I actually had no idea what to even try. The cheese museum had a lady there to help give information about the various cheeses and she helped me make my selection. Needham is not as excited about the cheese, I guess he never forgot his experience with cheese in Paris last year when we had breakfast at the Eiffel Tower. He just shook his head no when she offered him some!

As we walked through the city, we found some of those most interesting city streets where bicycles were the preferred method of transportation. Bicycle garages are what we found near train stations or bus points around the city rather than car garages. We even saw a surrey-type bike go by with about 8 guys on it peddling and drinking beer in the late afternoon, singing and laughing as they went down the street. Just about all of the streets had a canal between them where people used paddle boards and  small boats to travel about the city. The boats parked on the side of the canals are actually house boats that people live in which is really interesting. I wish we would have knocked on a door to ask to see.... but we didn't.

Since our stop was overnight, we decided to have dinner in the city. We found an interesting little cafe restaurant somewhere as we were weaving down the canals and decided to give it a try. Although pasta is nothing special, the sauce sure was.... it was some cheese sauce made from their local cheeses and it was amazing! I have never had anything like it before, YUM!

I wish we had more time here in Amsterdam to explore more of the city and its museums and historical points. We walked past the Anne Frank House but it was already closed for the evening by the time we processed out of the airport and customs. Maybe we will get lucky again on another stop over in the future in our travels and have more time here.

In the morning, we had little time to spare as we had to head right back into the airport to catch the early morning flight out of Amsterdam to the United States. And.... my cheese made it back home. Customs Agent: Do you have any fruits or vegetables with you today? Me: No, no fruits or vegetables Customs Agent: Thanks (and takes my customs ticket). But the form says any food items.... well, I answered him truthfully..... so I enjoyed my cheese from The Netherlands for breakfast all week long here at home! 

Kibera Slums... Education will make the difference!

We made our way over the railroad tracks and through some narrow and unstable pathways to get into the heart of Kibera. We have been to Kibera many times and have shared about Kibera in previous posts, but people are still struggling with access to clean water,  a place for human waste (toilet access), electricity, and most of all food. Everyday is struggle in this community that has been here since before Kenya became independent in 1963. What is it like? Most of Kibera slum residents live in extreme poverty, earning less than $1.00 per day. Unemployment rates are high. Persons living with HIV in the slum are many, as are AIDS cases. Cases of assault and rape are common. There are few schools, and most people cannot afford an education for their children so children roam the slum all day rather than go to school. IF you find older children or adults who have been educated, you might be lucky to find someone to say they have been educated past grade 4.


Clean water is scarce and therefore diseases caused by related poor hygiene are prevalent. I have seen what they call "flying toilets" where residents of this community will use a bag as a toilet, tie up the ends of it and throw it as far as they can from their area of living or toss it into the river banks that snake through Kibera (filled with water that is already unsanitary). A great majority of people living in the slum lack access to healthcare. And Trip Advisor, if you look at it, calls Kibera "an attraction" as if this is a place of vacation to come see, (and do nothing other than that) and take pictures of the people in their worst times in life and then go home and post. That struck us as really awful and shame on Trip Advisor!

There are countless NGO's and other governmental organizations from various countries that make efforts in this community every day! While it won't change these circumstances in a day of course, individual lives have been touched and changed from the work of these various organizations in some way. Ask the Kenyan leadership or government what they are doing and you hear about how much they care and are making efforts as well (really?). They will highlight the new buildings they have been working on and building (which I have seen) and explain how they are building these government housing condos to allow people of Kibera to move into them in phases to alleviate the conditions in the streets of Kibera which consist of the ground being composed of dirt, human waste,  and trash. Dwellings are often constructed atop this unstable ground, and therefore many structures collapse whenever the slum experiences flooding, which it does regularly. This means that even well-constructed buildings are often damaged by the collapse of nearby poorly constructed ones.

The third complicating factor is the unyielding topography and cramped sprawl of the area. Just about no houses have vehicle access, and many are at the bottoms of steep inclines (which heightens the flooding risk). This means that any construction efforts are made more difficult and costly by the fact that all materials must be brought in by hand. So, back to what the Kenyan leadership is doing through their cited partnerships with others around the world..... building these high rise condos in phases. A chat with some the locals we know yielded much different information that the Kenyan leadership doesn't tell the rest of the world....... some of the locals that we work with on projects in this community have shared with us that the rent was to be $10 a month (which is a lot for these folks) as they are used to paying about $5-$10 for their dirt space or section of a metal shack. So, $10 was the top amount and quite difficult for them any way. Some have moved into these government condos but it is not only $10 as promised to the people. Locals are now being asked to pay $25-$50 a month to live in them so many of the condos, at least right now, are unoccupied and just sit there. The cycle continues......

So what was our focus while in Kibera this time? This trip to Kenya and into Kibera was for an education project. Thanks to our many friends and family who generously donated school supplies for the various community schools we visited, students (and teachers) now have paper, pencils, erasers and sharpeners for students to use in class! A note about community schools.... these are not government schools since government schools are so few in Kibera and often at distances that are not possible to walk for students. NGO's assist in building community schools where the kids can still get their formal education at fees much less (even though fees are still problematic in Kibera and unaffordable, remember many live on less than $1 a day here).

What else are we doing here in Kibera this time? I connected with a new friend Melissa, who is the founder of Acacia of Hope International. Acacia of Hope International is a registered nonprofit here in the United States that does work in East Africa and is focusing on Kibera at this time. Their goal is to build their own community school in Kibera and provide free education to the children in primary school at their own center. While they continue to raise the funds needed to build such a center, they are still making a difference in the lives of students through their "Make a Change Program" which is a sponsorship program. Through Acacia of Hope International, people can sponsor children in primary school and the school fee, daily meal (which many go without now) and clothing is provided for the child to whom they are matched. Part of my work this time was to find those children in the streets of Kibera, not currently in school due to the inability to pay school fees. So, Melissa told me to find her 20 since she had 20 sponsors already lined up with the funds for fees. So off into Kibera we went! 

It was not easy since some were slow to even think about trusting us enough to talk to us about their child I found or situation. Some thought we worked for the Kenyan government looking to arrest parents for not having their children in school (it is a law there too despite the circumstances that make it impossible for them to enroll their children). Most parents will enroll their children, get the slip, then not pay the fee because they are not able to and the child just doesn't show up. Should anyone come around asking or checking, they have this enrollment form (that never processed anyway). It is just how it works around there..... So, gaining their trust was a challenge. In order to do so, we needed a local to help us with that, someone they trusted who could help build the connection quickly enough to get this done. A friend of ours who used to live in Kibera at one point, knew a Pastor that was well liked in their community. We had a quick visit with him and he went with us and helped with this process.

Acacia of Hope International had an intake packet that had to be completed on each child for their records and completing the packet was also a challenge. Some children had no parents or care takers at all.... orphans in the street that were just surviving. So, gaining family information for the sponsors or having the parent to be involved and sign the form.... wasn't possible. A few of these kids didn't know their family history, when their birthday was, or exactly how old they were although we took our best guess and agreed upon an about age with the Pastor, our friend of Kibera and the child with the factors before us and even came up with a date of birth that could at least begin to be consistently used at this point. We needed to have a date of birth in order to complete the intake packet and also enroll them in the community school. What was more of a challenge? Birth certificates don't even exist for some of these children since many children are born in the home without medical staff and are undocumented (but citizens of Kenya). So, what were we to do other than come up with the best guess and agree on a date that can be consistently used from this point on?  

Looking back over my time with each of the girls, some of the stories were horrific. Natasha’s right arm is nothing but one huge scar- she reports her sister tossed burning liquid over her and her arm burned off, this skin was what grew back. Some girls reported losing parents in the civil unrest and at their age, I am amazed at their strength. It is difficult to imagine being 8-12 years old and having little memory of Mom or Dad because they were killed in the unrest when they were about 2 or 3 years old…….. can we imagine?

Or being home all day by myself with little food, no electricity, no toilet and no water while my caretaker pushes water carts in the street (like mules normally do if you have one) all day long to make a dollar for the day? The one little girl, forget her name now… came on her own anyway and said she wanted help and explained where her uncle was at the moment and she signed a promise to comply rather than the guardian signing a promise of support. She is a strong little lady! A responsible one! I was the most impressed with her! The stories of life from these CHILDREN caused me tears and hurt at the day’s end. Hearing their stories and listening to the stories of some of the guardians was interesting, eye opening and something that is remaining on my mind.

Leaving Kibera that day actually felt sad to me. I really enjoyed my time there and the hospitality of the principal and teachers and…. KIDS! It was an amazing visit and I look forward to stopping to see them again in the future.

I think about all of their faces each day I walk onto my campus for work wondering what they are doing today. Wondering! Knowing I wake up with electricity, running water for a shower, food in this thing called a refrigerator that runs bc of electricity, and a clean stable home- an element of that survivors guilt creeps in. Every time I open my fridge, I worry of those girls. I think about them. Will it ever go away? But, it helps me to rest a little easier knowing that they will have a place to be each day and at least one meal to eat and their daily activities are helping them to build a better future for themselves.

Finding a school to enroll them in..... this was a challenge at first. Acacia of Hope International targeted Olympic Primary School which was a Christian based primary/community school. We made contact with them about enrolling children that would be sponsored and made sure to highlight the fees would be paid via Acacia of Hope International each month, in full and on time. They verified the organization and all seemed to be working out until an Administrator shared that they did not really want street children at their school. The reason they offered was that these street children did not have a consistent education or any at all and they would harm the performance rates at the school and require extra attention in studies. Um, did I just hear them correctly? A Christian school who promotes their helping to bring change to Kibera via education? Am I at the right place? Say again? So, the Administrator actually repeated his concern. I said thank you and walked away!

I had stopped at another community school earlier in the day, just to stop and drop supplies, but my heart went back to the Principal I met there.... Peter! I went back to Peter and he was happy to accept them right away into school- no questions asked! Damside Preparatory School is THE SCHOOL! From the outside, you might see it needs paint, it needs repair to the building, the floor is dirt, the stairwells look unsafe and some might ask how and why this exists... but most schools appear this way in Kibera and some look even worse by Western standards. Olympic looked perfect on the outside by our own Western standards, but their insides.... no thank you! The insides of Damside Preparatory felt amazing- the kids were happy and engaged, teachers were happy and seemed to love the students and I could see that the insides are what counts here and the students would not only receive education, food each day and have clothes to wear, but they would be taken care of emotionally here too. It was..... perfect! I felt this was the right place for me to bring them, they would be accepted here and grow! 

To learn more about Acacia of Hope International, visit http://acaciaofhope.org/  

Drought stricken

As usual, we visited with our Maasai host family. We missed them so much over the last few months and regular communication while at home in America is always so difficult although we do manage to get word out to them that we are coming! We love spending time here with them. We enjoyed playing games like Jenga and Connect 4 and had no idea that Connect 4 would turn into an all night competition, literally. At about 3 AM, and long after we went to bed, our host brothers could be heard in the next hut beside us playfully giving one another a hard time over cheating when one finally lost the game. All night, we heard the chips being dropped into the game and released at the bottom each time with lots of laughter and commotion. Connect 4 was VERY popular! Even Needham and Josephat decided to have a round of it together! Everyone had a chance to learn how to play the game and we might just have to bring another Connect 4 with us next time since it is a very large family. We also taught everyone how to play Jenga. Jenga was fun but Connect 4 seemed to be more popular after we saw how the game was moved from hut to hut. As Needham and I were up early the next morning, taking a walk over to the cows to check on them, we heard the same commotion and laughter from earlier in the night/evening.... they were at it again with Connect 4, finishing the game they fell asleep on!

 

 The cows..... each year, this region survives a drought, the drought is never welcomed, but it is expected for a certain amount of time each year. Each year it does become a challenge with the same fear of losing cattle which is their only source of food and income. Working throughout the year to minimize the impact of the yearly drought is key, but this year... the drought was so much longer than anyone had ever seen before. It has been so much longer that news outlets had reported on it, including major world wide outlets such as the BBC. Before we left for Kenya, our friends and family there did warn us that conditions would be very different this time and they are suffering one of the worst droughts they have ever seen as well. We knew that they had been losing cattle as a result and had very few left at that point. They lost all their chickens several weeks back so no eggs for their own food or chickens to eat either. No grass for the cows, no ability to buy hay to supplement nor grain, very little water, and it was just.... really bad. We decided to share this situation with a few friends and family and try to raise some funds to buy a truck load of hay and grain for the cows so they could at least keep the ones they had left and not lose them all. We already had it planned to buy some staple foods for the family to help bridge the gap until the cows became healthy again to milk and even sell or breed (which is what they normally do). To help better understand how bad this drought was.... cows on the market would get $10 at most- seriously! Cows were skin and bone, most dying on their way to the market to even try to be sold. Even as we stood among the families cows, you could see them shaking from lack of nutrition, their eyes appeared delirious, and they would just fall over on their own. It brought me so many tears. It was THAT bad!

We also made some efforts to raise funds to buy some crates of chickens, chicken feed, and to buy supplies to build a chicken coop for the family too. From previous visits, we saw that they were keeping their chickens in the huts with them at night so the wildlife wouldn't eat them or get them because they did not have a coop for them. By building this coop, it would help with some sanitation matters from the chickens residing in the home as well. Thanks to our many friends and church small group, and Wayne Wallace State Farm Agency, we were able to buy a truck load of hay- about 55 bales, 1200 pounds of protein grain, a 50 pound sack of chicken feed, chicken antibiotics, a water dispenser for the chickens, and..... because a dear friend handed us a check and said this is unrestricted money, use it as you see fit where there may be a need.... we were able to add to the supplies for the coop we built (making it a little bigger) and buy antibiotics and vitamin injections for every cow to help boost them to get healthy and stable again. As a result.... no more cows were lost!!! (the remainder of the unrestricted was used to buy staple foods for various families along the way - THANK YOU) As for buying chickens, we bought from other Maasai families who had chickens to sell, that couldn't keep them well anyway. The purchase from them helped them in some way with allowing them to get supplies they need (water or food) and it brought chickens back to our family that already lost all of what they had. So it worked out very well for several!

 We always enjoy attending Maasai church with our family! The music, the dancing, and the culture is truly amazing! This is something we look forward to doing every time we come visit and we are always sure to schedule our visit that includes a Sunday so we can continue to experience this!

Needham is here with Josephat and Josephat on our long walk back home from church!

 

Our 4th trip to Kenya! It keeps getting better!

So, off to Kenya for the 4th time! We are already checked into Washington Dulles International, we decided to snap a quick "selfie" before we boarded heading to Nairobi which is basically now home! We are very excited to get through these next 18 hours in the air! See you very soon Kenya! Here we come!