A Sunny Christmas

Merry Christmas to all!
My Christmas this year was very different from all my Christmases before, but a good expereince.  These last few weeks leading up to Christmas have been rather quiet.  The weekend before Christmas I set out to the Coast to experience Mombasa for a few days and have a little relaxing time.  We stayed in this cute bambo, wood and stone decorated cottage complete with an outside shared kitchen.  After taking an eight hour overnight bus we were greeted to a breakfast overlooking the beach, complete with pina coladas and Tuskers (Kenyan beer).  Well, only after I insisted we finish taking out the braids in my hair which I had been working on since the day before.  Mombasa time was spent walking up and down the white sandy beach, laying in the sand out in the water in the low tide, eating our faces off and seeing Nemo while snorkling!

After returning from Mombasa, the rest of the week has been rather quiet.  The children at the orphanage have all gone off to family and friend's places for the holidays so there wasn't much to do around there.  Later in the week the founder of the Kibera tour program I have been volunteering with arrived in Kenya from Toronto.  He is looking to move onto the next phase of the project by starting up a workshop to train members of the program in various skills to offer them a way of generating a steady income.  It is all very exciting to hear his plans for the future and to make changes to allow the program to run better.

The Christmas weekend was a quiet one as well compared to the welcomed chaos I get at home.  Christmas Eve I made my traditional meal of perogies, borscht and mushroom gravey for the volunteer house.  I think they enjoyed it...I did anyway, and my first attempt at home made perogies turned out pretty well!  The next day I woke up to Christmas morning and had my usual  breakfast of toast and instant coffee, already a difference from what Christmas at home would be like.  I then went to church with one of my host mamas, and really for the first time in Kenya I started to feel like it was the Christmas season.  I had been trying to get into the Christmas spirit earlier, but it had been difficult as it is not nearly as commercial here as it is at home.  Although, this wasn't exactly a bad thing.  As we walked up to the church you could already hear  the music from the choir and all the people singing along.  Getting into the church you could feel the energy of everyone there, and how happy they were to be at church on Christmas morning.  Song after song was sang, some familiar Christmas carols, some gospel songs.  As people sang they swayed, danced, lifted their hands in prayer and allowed themselves to just be free to worship the way they felt.  It was so different for me as I am used to such a ridged, structured and standard way of worshipping back home, but I loved it!  The service was done very much the same way; children, teens and young adults were called up at random to lead the church in prayer.  It was organized randomness, where the pastors could run the service the way that they felt was right for the moment.  Leaving the church you could feel the happy energy from everyone as they bounced out of the building, thankful for what they have and off to get Christmas lunch ready.  Walking around was different as well, the streets were much calmer and everyone you passed said a Merry Christmas with a smile.   It was also different not to mention because it was sunny and 25 C outside.

As soon as we returned to the house the host mamas got right to cooking.  Our menu consisted of chicken (kuku), mashed potatos with peas and corn (mokimo), fried cabbage, rice, beans and carrots, chipatti, salad and fruit salad.  So just like home, it was a feast!  For the rest of the day we layed in a food coma and later played Monopoly, just as I would have at home.

It was a neat experience to be in a place where the emphasis wasn't on presents, decorations, extravegant Christmas parties and so on. People don't wake up early to rush and open what Santa has brought.  While that is fun when I'm at home, I saw what the true meaning of Christmas is suppose to be.  Presents aren't an emphasis here as most families do not have additional income to spend.  Instead they focus on travelling around the country to ensure that they can get together with their families and have a great feast, which is really my favourite part about being at home too.

I missed my family terribly during the holidays especially, but I think spending a Christmas away will just help me to apppreciate my next Christmas home that much more and focus on what really matters while I'm there.  I'm looking forward to the new year as well.  I'm excited to see what 2012 will bring me.  My plan is to move out to Maasai land in the beginning of January for two weeks and spend my time teaching english and living a more simple life without water and electricity.  I will keep you updated!

Chickens for Everyone!

Once again a huge thank-you to all those who contributed to the fund raising I did before I left.  Some of it has started to be spent but there is still plenty more to go around! Another volunteer and myself spent the last two days travelling all around Kenya gathering 52 (was 53 but one didn't make the transportation) chickens and delivering them to an IDP camp to the families. After visiting the IDP camp a few weeks ago we started to think about what we could do to help that would allow the family to have steady food and possibly a source of income.  We decided that chickens would be the gift that would keep on giving!  We were introduced to a man from the camp named Rooney, who was extremely helpful, as well as open to sharing his experiences after the post election violence in 2008.  He started to show us different options and after realizing that all chicken guys in the city were very expensive he took us on a journey to buy them from a market in small town Kenya.  When we first got to the town we passed by people dressed in traditional Samburu dress which was interesting as it was the first time we had seen it when it wasn't just for tourist.  We then trekked through some bush and grass to get to a Samburu tribe's village which was set in the most STUNNING area.  Along the way we met some of the men from the village dressed in traditional wear, but we were not allowed to greet them by hand as they had just been circumcised and it would be unclean.  At the village we stood around as the children and women ran around to snatch up the chickens for us to buy.  This wasn't the easiest of tasks as the chickens are used to running free.  We payed the people and left, literally carrying our chickens in our hands, 17 between the 4 of us.  We then headed down to the road where we were met by men on bicycles carrying about 10 chickens in a crate on the back.  Since they knew we were buying, men on bikes kept coming and soon we had 36 more.  After paying the men to help us get them back into town we loaded the chickens into the matatu (mini bus) trunk and drove to the larger town where we got a taxi to take the chickens the rest of the way to the camp.  Pulling up to camp we were meet by excited children who were even more excited when they saw we had chickens.  Slowly people came out of they're tents and over to us where we passed out two females and one male chicken to 17 families.  We assured them that the rest of the 42 families would be getting chickens after the holiday season.  People in Kenya typically eat chickens at Christmas time so the price goes way up and supply goes down.  I will make a trip back there in January to buy and distribute the remaining amount.  Everyone at the camp was very happy, even those who didn't receive a chicken because they knew it was a good thing for the community.  They sang and danced their "happy" dance.  One vivacious women named Lucy came over to us and blessed us by holding our hands, spitting in her shirt and then looking up at the sky and saying something in Swahili.  I was told it was a good thing.  It was an amazing experience and I am so grateful to everyone who gave to allow me to be the one to bring these people something that may make their lives a little easier.  They say thanks as well ;)

In the last few weeks I also went on safari and had the best time!  We didn't see the big five, but did see lions, cheetahs, elephants, buffalo, zebras, giraffes, wildebeests, antelope, gazelles, and tons of other types of animals.  The highlight was definitely seeing three cheetahs kills and eat a dyck dyck (small deer). Pictures will come soon!  We also got the chance to go to a Maasai village to see how they traditionally live.  It was a little played up for tourists but still interesting to see.  They live off of a diet of blood, milk and meat.  To get the blood they shoot a special arrow into a cows neck just to puncture the skin, but not do any damage.  They did this for us and then offered us a sample of the blood.  I've been told it's rude in Kenya to refuse something offered to you, so a took a taste. It was nice and warm which was welcomed on a cold evening.

Last weekend a friend and I ventured out to Mt. Longonout which is a senile volcano a couple hours outside of Nairobi. We hiked to the rim and as we got there it started to rain, thunder, lightening and hail.  But we were already wet so we did the 2.5 hour hike around the rim anyway.  It was cloudy for the first hour and we couldn't see anything.  As we made it to the summit the clouds cleared and we got the most beautiful view!  The rest of the hike was full of amazing views of the lush, green, Kenyan surroundings.  The next day we were going to visit potential chicken dealers in a near-by town so we stayed the night at a cute lake-side cabin.  Before checking out chickens the next day we went on a boat ride and saw hippos fighting outside of the water which was very neat to see.

Life in Kenya has been full of so many more interesting experiences but I would just continue to ramble if I went on.  I love the things I see, meet and hear in everyday activities.  I love being open to meeting new and interesting people and hearing what they have to say, even when sometimes it ends with "now can you give me 100ksh".  Yesterday I even got a marriage proposal from Solomon who fell in love with me instantly!  I said no, don't worry mom. 

Talk soon!