Planing my departure from Nakuru. The kids at the orphanage have been on hoilday so things have gotten a little slow. I still go there but we just play around, a little futbol, a little dancing, and recenty a little photography. Just got a camera by mail (since the old one was stolen(Thanks Baba n Moma) and the kids love it. Their constantly saying me me me, take picture take picture. It works out. And on top of the kids being on holiday and the extra time its given me, the Hospital decided to beef up security and restrict visiting hours, even for the Mazungus (White people, who usually get royal treatment). Bah. its pretty lame considering it will cut Joe and Molly’s time there in half, and they have helped a lot of folks that they didnt even know and just met during visiting hours. Bah. and I dont know what those folks would have done without JOe and Molly’s intervention and what the a lot of the people will without it. Its a difficult situation that brings up a few questions.
So my Departure will probably be next week sometime, I am going to go with the Bails down to Nairobi on thursday, get my passport extended and checkout the slum their and some work being done. After that I think ill go take a swim in Lake Biringo, document the Kakuma refugee camp up north ( i just made a friend with one of their residents yesterday), and then Head over into Uganda where my plans are still slightly undeveloped.
It was surprising here. I dont know what I was expecting, if anything. At first it didnt quite feel like anything too new or different, which it might not be, but then the landscape started to settle into itself and the cultures started to reveal themselves and I felt some sort of change in perspective. I mean some things are still like they can be in the states where you develop routines and remember peoples names and what topics to talk about with them, but a lot is different, all the walker, herders, and the easy hellos with bright smiles and quick laughter. The sky, plants, and animals. There is the darker side too, where things seem quite primitive with heavy sexism, ignorance, and corruption. And I’m finding that these things can’t be healed by outsiders. Often i think outsiders can make it worst with their temporary band-aides and in that they often help develop a sense of dependency in the people. I think the poor are their own solution and we need to give them a little space, they do have great natural resources and people with a a desire for education. I am not saying we should ignore them but instead to engage in a more complex and involved interaction that isn’t just a piggy back ride for the privileged African. Often international aid is distorted, especially in the large and unsupervised contributions. The African politicians are some of the richest in the world, often they keep it in the family or tribe, and often they take what is suppose to be free and then sell it off cheap to friends, family, or tribe who will sell it off again. In this too they also get votes from these specific groups. And they get away with doing very little and keeping a lot because a lot of their jobs are done by international aid so they aren’t held accountable for a lack of schools or food, they just don’t need to worry about it, they just direct the people over to the soup kitchens supplied by international aid. This in turn takes away from a lot of jobs; the cloths sent over means not as many people will be making clothes here, the food means not as much food, and the money means what? And then these tribal favors and votes create rifts in the nation which end up being a lot more violent than our democrat/republician debates. Just check out what happen during the last election in Kenya. Its a difficult situation. Some of the more personally directed aid work does good but does that mean they are doing the governments job? and if they leave will the government step in? or will people perish? or will people perish then an uprising? or what? Its hard to say, but what we all seems to say is that something needs to change with Africa as it continues to be the home of the worst humanitarian crises. So lets not just continue to throw money at it, thats the cheap way out, we have to do more. My trip has been to find this out, to meet the people and document the situations, so that from over in the worldly renounced USA, i can help out over here. I see a lot of folks come here for a week or two to “help” often i think its more about them getting the experience themselves, and regretfully i sometimes think of how some of them will use it to justify how its hopeless or dumb, saying that “yeah i have been there” to concrete their statements, or how i might, but I am not trying to give up any hope that would lessen our interaction or concrete any ideas. Though i have a few ideas of my own, as you can see ,they are only followed by more questions which i am sure will change soon enough. Even with these questions i thinks its good that we still get involved and that we don’t become paralyzed by all these questions in making plans, and by acting previously we have found out what works and what doesn’t, sure we have made a few new problems but thats what we do as we work to make things a little better bit by bit.
The scary skinny guy is Stephen he was brought to the hospital by his cousin who abandoned him there, and inturn so did the hospital. Joe and Daniel found him face down on the ground in the middle of the hallway where they lifted him up and found him a bed. The hospital gave up on him and put a curtain around his bed, but we took care of him. He passed away after 2weeks their from TB and AIDS.
The little peeing boy! Sammy, Sammy is awesome, he is like red with blonde hair, crazy, no one knows why, but what i do know is that he is one of the most affectionate kids around or i should say person, every time i walk into the orphanage he comes a running with outstretched arms. He is quite smart as well.
Simon is the one with the shirt over his head with me next to him hidden by my kieffa (i think its called). He was a street kid that Joe and Molly now take care of, and during the post election conflicts he saved a woman from being hacked up by a machete and in turn he got hit on the head with it. He is okay now with only a scar, but a lot of folks didnt make it through the post-election violence.
