On to Ndarakwai

A Final Posting

With great enthusiasm, we gathered together in Arusha at the end of independent travel.  As we all convened in Klub Afriko, we compared notes, and continued to share experiences over a group dinner.  Adam had climbed Mt. Kenya, up to Point Lenana, and shaved his head in celebration.  Jordan Koletic had climbed Kilimanjaro with her father, and reached Gilman’s Point, on the crater rim.  Nick had joined up with his parents on an extended safari in the Serengetti and elsewhere, and Jordan DeMott and Jarrid both traveled with family members first in Zanzibar and then back on the Tanzanian mainland.  Nellie and Sarah Waddle did volunteer work in Nakuru.  Devan, Meredith, Mary, and Katrina all returned to Lamu, while Rachel, Megan, and Sarah Butters all went back to Sand Island.  Matt and Jessica headed for Watamu, on the Kenya coast, while Katie, Sica, and Kellen went to visit a researcher friend near Tanga in Tanzania.  Sarah Matesz and Althea stayed in Naivasha for a few days, then returned to Nairobi.  Allan visited friends in Nyeri, at the base of Mt. Kenya, went to Dar es Salaam to give a folk music concert sponsored by the U.S. Embassy, and then took his son David on a short safari after he successfully climbed Kilimanjaro.

Students then had to write a paper for the Health and Society course, pulling together everything we had done during the semester.  One of those, by Sica, appears in the following posting.

Jessica in front of Tents small

And after that we prepared to go camping at Ndarakwai, a privately-owned game reserve in West Kilimanjaro, about 2 hours from Arusha, where we would do a major animal behavior project.  It .was a lovely site, with Mt. Kilimanjaro hovering over one side, and Mt. Meru over another.  We watched sunrises and sunsets, built bonfires at night, and enjoyed camping in the great outdoors.

Clothesline in Camp

Moon Rising over Foothills of Kilimanjaro small

Bonfire at Night small

Willis at Work

Willis Okech, who had been with us for about 3 weeks in Kenya, headed up the wildlife project.  Drawing on his extensive experience as a guide, and on his academic training as he completes his PhD at UCLA, he was an ideal person to help the students first define their projects, then write proposals, and finally embark on collecting data and make sense of it in both a paper and an oral presentation.

We asked the students to organize themselves into groups of 2, 3, or 4 people for this effort.  And so we ended up with 7 groups studying: elephants; baboons; vervet monkeys; dung beetles, lilac-breasted rollers; acacia gall ants, and scorpions.  Each day, the groups went out, always with a ranger with a gun, to find the animals of their choice, and to gather data about what they were doing.

On a Hike

But we did other things as well.  We read and talked about Robert Sapolsky’s engaging book A Primate’s Memoir. We celebrated 3 birthdays.  Some students, particularly a group of women, went hiking every day, and climbed virtually every small mountain (or large hill) in the area.

Relaxing on Top

Sarah Matesz on Top of World

On a Mountaintop

Hikers with Ranger Jackson

Students Cooking

And we cooked (with the aid of the camp staff) a wonderful Thanksgiving dinner, which we shared with the camp staff in what turned out to be a lovely celebration.  We did all cooking – of the chickens we pretended were turkeys, the mashed potatoes, stuffing, and the pumpkin pies – over an open fire.  But the cooks knew how to use the fire to bake as well as boil, and everything turned out wonderfully well.

Thanksgiving Dinner

Simon & Agnes

Toward the end of our stay at Ndarakwai, we were joined by Simon and Agnes Turasha, Maasai friends from Kenya whom Sara and I have known for more than 20 years.  They have run homestays for us in the past in Kenya, and in subsequent years have joined us on various program components.  One evening, Simon spoke to the men in our group about growing up in Maasai culture, while Agnes spoke to the women about how girls come of age in that culture.  It was good preparation for the Maasai homestay in Loiborsoit that follows.

The students are now back in Arusha, writing up their papers and preparing presentations.  We go next for our Maasai homestay, and then will be back in Arusha for 3 days before heading home.  We’ll sign off now, for we’ll be back in our own homes before long.

Health Concerns

As they returned from independent travel, students each wrote a reflective paper integrating all they had learned about health concerns for the Health and Society course.  Sica Jensen’s essay is a good example of the kind of work everyone has been doing.

HEALTH CONCERNS
Sica Jensen

As we prepared for our semester abroad in East Africa, we were all informed that not only would we require lots of shots, but would also need 4 months worth of malarial preventative medicine.  We received warnings of the prevalence of malaria in the regions we would be visiting and were told that if we didn’t take our medication religiously we could fall victim to the malaria parasite.  And so I purchased malarone and have since taken it for close to 100 days, and I haven’t personally suffered from malaria.  However, over the course of my travels, I have lived with families who have feared for their lives when malaria symptoms appear and continually get worse.

During my first homestay in Iringa, I conducted my initial health concerns interview.  I had no idea what to expect, although looking back, malaria seems the obvious answer.  When I posed the question, “What is your family’s biggest health concern?”  without batting an eye, my sister replied, “Malaria.”

“How many people in the family have had malaria?” I asked.

“Everyone.”

Everyone in the family had suffered from malaria, including my 9-year-old host nephew who had nearly been hospitalized the year before with a severe case.  As I proceeded to conduct interviews in my Lamu and Masiro homestays, I received the same answers.  Malaria would infect someone who would get sick.  No one was off limits.

During my Lamu homestay, my 1½ year-old host brother became sick and had a high fever.  My Baba [Father] and I stopped at a pharmacy to purchase three medications for my brother, totaling 1,100 Kenya shillings.  I later found out that these medications were meant to treat my brother’s probable malaria.  He had the right symptoms for it to be malaria: including a homa [fever].  All of my families explained during their interviews that there only need to be a fever for them to assume and treat for malaria.  Medication alone is expensive and if they added the cost of a clinic visit and lab fees (assuming they attend a private clinic), to diagnose malaria, many families would find themselves incapable of paying the necessary charges.

To prevent falling victim to malaria, all of my families use mosquito nets and always emphasized to me the importance of tucking in the edges under the mattress.  Within Kenya, there are programs by the Ministry of Health to provide the mosquito nets to those who are at high risk.  Each family is provided one net which is treated and meant to last up to 5 years.  Nets are also provided to pregnant women and children under the age of 5.

As we became more accustomed to the presence of malaria, we also began to become more aware of a much more severe epidemic within East Africa, and its impact on the communities where we stayed: HIV/AIDS.  We all knew it was prevalent in East Africa, but this would be for most of us the first time to have direct contact with people suffering from the illness.

All of my families had friends or relatives they knew who were suffering from HIV/AIDS.  My host father from Masiro lost his brother many years back to HIV/AIDS.  My host sister from Iringa has an aunt currently fighting the disease.  Because of this exposure that my families experienced as well as their education during school, they understand how and why people become infected and they say they are willing to accept these people rather than turn them away.  Unfortunately, many community members remain ignorant of the numerous causes of the disease and just see people suffering as unclean, cursed, and as lesser members of the community.  The infected are ostracized from their community and typically keep their diagnosis hidden from friends and family to try to remain a part of their community.

Within cultural communities, there are numerous beliefs or behaviors that spread HIV/AIDS.  According to my Lamu host Baba, it is important to change some of these practices in order to limit the spread of the infection.  A major issue within the Muslim and Luo communities is the practice of polygamy.  A man may choose to marry his second, third, or fourth wife and if that woman is HIV positive, she will then potentially spread the infection to the husband and other wives.  Currently, the NGO my Lamu Baba runs has a program to encourage women and men to be tested before entering a polygamous marriage.  Within the Luo, there is a practice of wife inheritance.  When my Baba’s brother passed away, his widow approached my Baba about marrying her.  He knew about his brother’s illness and refused, but in many cases the inheritor of the wife has no idea about their HIV/AIDS status and after the marriage becomes infected.  My Baba’s sister-in-law ended up with two other men.  All of them have since passed away from HIV/AIDS.

Part of the reason HIV/AIDS is tricky within the Luo culture is because of their belief in witchcraft.  Rather than accepting the presence of HIV/AIDS that is spread through sex and drugs, they believe it is a curse sent from an enemy.  Because of this belief, many fail to be educated about how to properly prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS.

Education is the key to reducing the number of cases of HIV/AIDS within East Africa.  All of my families described a need to properly teach people about HIV/AIDS and about how to prevent it.  Condoms also need to become readily available to people and they need to be encouraged to use them to provide one form of protection from the virus.  However, even with education, the path to a cure will be long and drawn out.  Infection rates will be lowered as the stigma decreases and as more NGOs, such as WAMATA [an organization we visited in Dar es Salaam], become more prevalent in communities throughout East Africa.  As was noted in the book The Invisible Cure by Helen Epstein, they are our biggest hope in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

As I look back on my experience in choosing which anti-malarial to take and think about the 3 interviews I conducted, I find myself very aware of the privileged life I live.  Unlike my families in East Africa, malaria, HIV/AIDS and other severe diseases are not part of my life.  I don’t have to worry about fees for the doctor or for medication because of my parents’ health insurance.  My situation is so much easier in the developed world than in the developing countries where I am a visitor.

Living in Luoland

Dishwashing

Luoland was our first real rural experience in East Africa.  And while it was not always easy, it proved to be valuable for us all.  Most of the homes of the families with whom we stayed had neither electricity nor running water.  Students fetched water from a spring and learned how to bathe with a small bucket of water.  We all grew used to eating dinner by the light of a kerosene lantern and carried around flashlights after dark.  We washed dishes.  We milked cows.  But in the process we gained a powerful sense of how the people in the village of Masiro Ujwang’aa lived and developed an appreciation for their values and ideas.

Sica Jensen Milking Cow

Sarah Butters Milking Cow

Jordan DeMott Helping Build House

Our main task in Luoland was to learn about the culture.  To that end, each student chose a topic that reflected his or her interest and pursued it in depth.  One student considered the process of giving birth; two studied agriculture in the area; three studied the educational system; two reflected on religion.  One studied music; two examined traditional medicine.  One apprenticed herself to a basket-maker, another to a potter.  One helped build a house.  And the list went on and on.  Everyone asked questions, interviewed family members and friends, and tried to learn as much as possible about life in this region.  Willis Okech and his family members proved invaluable.  Where an interview subject spoke little or no English, they translated, and helped the students understand what was going on.

Okech Family & Katie Laushman

Traditional Healer & His 2 Wives

But the students did more.  The first Sunday, nearly 2/3 of the group went to a church service of some sort.  In the second week, we all visited a traditional healer, and spoke to him and one of his wives about herbal medicine.  (Nick, who was suffering from a sore back at the time, got him to rub some concoction into his skin, that the rest of us thought was a distillation of cow dung.)  Many of the group played soccer with local kids, and even more of us got together in a match that was supposed to pit us against a local group but turned into a pickup match instead.

We also read books together.  One was an oral history of a Kikuyu woman trader,to give us an idea of how a local focus could help us generalize about important cultural issues.  Another was a Peace Corps memoir by Mike Tidwell called The Ponds of Kalambayi that provided a compelling description of life in rural Africa.  It was not about either Kenya or Tanzania, but still had a real resonance with the things we were all experiencing.

Fire Tragedy

In the midst of that discussion, we suddenly realized that a mud and dung hut, with a grass roof, just continuous to the Willis family compound, had caught fire.  We rushed over to find the hut in flames.  The woman to whom it belonged collapsed, and Nick Rudicle, Jordan Koletic, Megan Walsh, and others helped her recover from shock.  In the end, she was allright, and no one else (mercifully) was hurt, but the family lost everything in the blaze.

Assisting at Fire Tragedy

Katie Laushman & Pumpkin (Papaya)

For Halloween, Katie Laushman carved a papaya, but it looked mighty like a pumpkin.  We held off celebrating until we were all together a few days later.

Traditonal Musician

We had a visit from a traditional musician, which was useful for Sarah Waddle in her paper.  And we also got to here a small band of traditional musicians performing in the compound.

Sarah Waddle & Traditional Musician

Jumping at Longonot

After two weeks, it was time to leave.  And so we boarded buses to Naivasha, a lovely town along the shore of Lake Naivasha, where we stayed at the educational center of a place called Elsamere.  This was the former home of Joy Adamson, who wrote the book Born Free (later made into a movie) about raising Elsa the lion.  The students, alas, were too young to remember either book or film, but it was still a beautiful site in which to write a 15-page paper, the major piece of original work of the course on politics, culture, and society.  It was nice having electric light (and hot running water) and everyone used the time well.  We spent one morning climbing to the crater rim of nearby Mt. Longonot, celebrated Halloween together with such activities as bobbing for apples and seeking a coin in a bowl of flour, (and dressed up as one another the following day), but for the most part kept our focus on work.

Apple Bobbing

Bobbing for Apples

Digging in Flour

Dressing as Others

After three nights, the students were done, and it was time to set off, individually or in groups, on 9 days of independent travel.

Meeting Mama Sarah

MEETING MAMA SARAH
Allan M. Winkler

Sarah Obama, the last wife of Barack Obama’s grandfather Hussein, is a Luo who lives not far from where we were staying for our rural homestay.  We tried to visit her as a group as we headed to Luoland, but rain slowed us down, and as we approached her village, we ran out of time.  But Willis told us that he had met her, described her as a feisty woman in her 80s, and said some of us might be able to go back and see here while we were in the area.  He said that she was happy to meet with people who came her way.

I had a particular reason for wanting to meet her.  I had written about Barack Obama and his first book Dreams from My Father in the mid-1990s, long before anyone thought he might be President some day.  And as I did so, I discovered that Gloria Hagberg, an American woman who was my wife Sara’s surrogate mother in Kenya for more than 25 years, had known Hussein Obama, our Barack’s grandfather, back in the 1950s and 1960s.  Back then, he was cook for Gloria and her husband Gordon, who was in charge of cultural affairs in the American mission just prior to independence.  Gloria and Gordon were impressed with Hussein’s son Barack, and arranged for him to be on the airlift of deserving Kenyan students who came to study in America.  He went to the University of Hawaii, met our Barack Obama’s mother, married her, and the rest, of course, is history.  Our friend Gloria died a few months ago at the age of 96, and I wanted to meet Mama Sarah as a way of closing the circle.

And so Willis took me, along with Katie, one of the students who was living in the same home, to find Mama Sara.  After about an hour’s drive, we came upon the village, but she wasn’t there.  She was at a school dedication nearby, we were told, and we could go there if we wished.  We did.  There were hundreds of Kenyan elementary students singing and dancing as part of a celebration where she was the guest of honor,, along with a delegation from the Netherlands made up of folks who had raised the money to build a new section of the school.  We watched and waited, and eventually a man came up and asked if we were there to see Mama Sarah.  I said yes, and he responded that if I let him know, I could come up and sit next to her and talk with her (in the midst of the program) for a while.  I thanked him, waited a few moments, then indicated that I would like to come up front.  Once there, I spoke with her in Swahili, told her that I was friends with the people for whom her husband Hussein had cooked more than 50 years ago.  She thought about this for a moment, then said, “Gloria Hagberg.”  The connection was there, and for me it was a moving moment.

We may never be able to get close to Barack Obama, but at least I had a chance to meet his grandmother.

Greetings

Every few weeks or so, students write a reflective paper about some issue in African life.  While in Luoland, they wrote a third Cultural Window paper, describing some episode or issue, and then reflecting on it.  Here are two good examples of that work, one by Nellie Ashmore and the other by Jordan DeMott.

GREETINGS
Nellie Ashmore

The event I am going to describe is one that happens at least once a day.  It is the time when I come across another person while walking, or when they come to my home, and I have to greet them.  Usually the person knows I don’t speak the Luo language, so they say a Kiswahili greeting which I can easily respond to.  I can handle it when someone says “Nadi” to me in Luo, and I respond “Ber,” but anything beyond that I smile and look dumbfounded.  What I have noticed about each of these meetings is that one must shake hands with the person and say some version of hello, how are you.  If the person is riding a bicycle, a verbal communication is sufficient.  Sometimes just talking is fine when you come across someone walking, but it is when you enter into a definite space, like someone’s home or social gathering like church or the rice mill, that a handshake is required.  When I go somewhere with my sister, she will say, “Let me greet everyone” when we have reached our destination.  On our way, she will have far-off conversations with people at their homes.  She will tell me, “She is saying hello to you,” and I will snap out of my routine of tuning out the language I don’t understand and quickly say hello back.

My first interpretation of these interactions was that everyone here was very friendly.  People here enjoy being social and talking to one another.  When we first arrived in Luoland, I thought everyone was so welcoming and happy to see us, because they shook our hands all the time.  But I soon realized they do this to everyone.  Underlying the friendly nature of the people here seems to be the strong bond of the Luo community.  They seem to be very adamant about building and continuing relationships.  The greeting of one another is so ingrained into the culture that a Luo probably doesn’t think twice about whether he or she should acknowledge a neighbor or even a stranger walking down the road.

There are some reasons I see the community being so close here.  I was wondering why I sensed community here unlike anywhere I’ve been before.  I think it stems from the fact that everyone shares many things in common.  They can relate to one another in many aspects of their life, such as farming, kids, and the struggle from money.  I also believe that the simple way of life strengthens the community.  There are no technological distractions or cars to drive in that would bypass any form of a handshake or greeting.  In the beginning, I was honestly annoyed by the never-ending handshakes I had to give, but now I have become used to them and see the foundation for doing them, and it makes me happy to participate.

I talked to my 25-year-old sister about saying hello to everyone.  Her first response was, “Of course you greet everyone, otherwise you are being rude and people will think something is wrong with you.  For example, if a person is having trouble and you don’t stop to ask how he or she is, then that person may not get the help they need.  Likewise, if a person is not social, then no one will help them.  We are so used to greeting one another.  It is also a matter of respect.  If I don’t greet my mother or father-in-law in the morning, I am being disrespectful.  Even if someone comes to your home and you give them food to eat without greeting them first, he or she will not eat the food you have prepared. Greetings are very important.”  While listening to my sister and mother talk to be about this, it seemed to me that one of the major reasons people are in communication so often is that they rely on one another.  The theme seemed to evolve into “If you are not friendly towards others, then good things will not happen to you.”  This is not the sole reason people greet, but it makes sense considering how generous people are here.  Many times I have been told that if you are in need, you will not be turned away.  Overarching all of this are the strong ties of a community based on a shared set of values.

Nowhere we have been so far in Tanzania or Kenya have I sensed this type of community or shaken so many hands.  In Tanzania, I got by with just the “Shikamoo” greeting, but here I hug my mother every time I return home.  Of course in America we do not acknowledge everyone we pass and ignore people purposely.  I came to Africa with the shy, I-don’t-say-hello-to-everyone baggage, but this quickly was altered, especially once I got to Luoland.  I truly had the assumption that “I don’t know you, so I don’t have to say hello.”  But now I see how a simple hello can be the gateway for a community which depends on each other’s support, and as a way to ensure people are cared for. Communities like this are rare to come by in America, and it saddens me a little to know that if I was to shake the hand of everyone I crossed paths with, I would be viewed as strange.  Actually, I don’t think America is even to the point of a handshake; we are at the beginner’s step of saying hello.

The Local Brew

These Cultural Window papers can sometimes be painful to write.  The following piece by Jordan DeMott relates and reflects on a difficult, alcohol-related incident that turned into a good, if painful, learning experience for us all.

THE LOCAL BREW
Jordan DeMott

On Wednesday, my older brother Phillip came in after morning tea and told me he wanted to show me around some of the other centers.  I agreed and also suggested that we bring Jarrid along.  He excitedly agreed and we were off.  We stopped at a relative’s house along the way, so Phillip could show me how doors are made and to play with some puppies, which I enjoyed thoroughly.  We soon found ourselves at the center and went to a shop so Phillip could pick up some gum and cigarettes.  Meanwhile, an old man was showing us East African coins from the 1930s.  After Phillip can over and explained the coins, he asked Jarrid if he had ever tried the local brew.  He hadn’t and Phillip suggested he have a “taste.”

It turns out the word “taste” means different things to different people.  We headed over to a house where a woman filled a half liter bottle.  We sat and discussed politics, girls, and other things.  At about 2/3 of the way through the bottle, Jarrid and I were giving each other looks and gesturing that the stuff was nasty, especially just straight, and that we had had our fill.  It was about noon, and Jarrid told Phillip he had to be home for lunch, that he didn’t want more, he was OK, and that we should be going.  I agreed and went to the restroom.

Then I got back and our glasses were filled along with the bottle.  Jarrid gestured that he didn’t know how to convince Phillip we should go.  So we finished the glasses, got up to go, and told Phillip we should go eat, as he proceeded to fill our glasses again and to tell us to sit.

We finished that painful bottle and convinced Phillip we should go.  I went to use the restroom, only to come back and find out another man had insisted on buying us shots.  Exasperated, we took them, thanked him, and left.

We were stumbling back, not conversing much, and smoking a cigarette when, about a quarter of a kilometer from our house, Phillip insisted on stopping to talk with some women, who, in turn, poured us another shot.

I “accidentally” spilled most of mine and we left.  Already feeling queasy, I was, along with Jarrid, hoping a lunch of tons of ugali would sober us up.  We got back at about 2:50 PM, ate as fast and as much as we could, and left by 3:10 PM.  We got to the meeting and all I could do was listen and stare at the ground to avoid the spins.  After vomiting, and then seeing the fire that broke out nearby, I figured you [Allan] knew what was going on, so I figured I was just best to be honest.

I went home and fell asleep, mortified.  Phillip got calls from several angry mothers and John, Willis’s brother, that night.  Jarrid’s Mama got news of it surprisingly quickly and gave him a curfew if he was going to be with me.  The rest of our group probably thought I was a moron and now in this small town word was getting around that I was a drunk.

Then I had that terrifying meeting with you.  After all of this, not only was I hungover, but was horribly embarrassed too.  I could  have been more assertive with Phillip, but I liked him and wanted to keep him in good spirits. After reading A Primate’s Memoir [another course assignment], the story of Pius, guy who kept giving Robert cokes seemed to resonate pretty well.

When I talked to the people playing soccer the other day, they didn’t think it was a huge deal or going to affect much, because who wants to be vomiting anyway, let along having the embarrassment of being in front of peers plus locals plus teachers.  It just isn’t a good party setting or fun at all if you are the only one who has drunk and you need and want to discuss things intelligently to help you cope with living immersed in an alien culture.  Especially if people in that culture get word of your activities and don’t like you for it and make it harder for you to spend time with friends.  It is definitely understandable for you to worry about people finding it to be a joke and doing it themselves, but I don’t think anyone will.  I felt bad for messing up a bathroom of a family I hardly knew, too.  After I told people what happened, I think they were assured it was a pretty lousy time.  Not to mention I’ve also seen less of “good ol’ boy” brothers and my older sister has been watching over me since then, and I suspect that it may have had to do with this episode.

From Lamu to Luoland

For independent travel, everyone remained in Lamu.  The white sand beach in Shella was inviting.  Some people stayed with host families; others found accommodations in town with other members of the group.  Everyone relaxed for a few days and enjoyed the free time.

Collecting Starfish at Sand Island

Then, after 3 days, we reconvened in Mombasa for a group dinner, and after one night in town, went across the Likoni Ferry to Sand Island, a collection of small cottages right on the Indian Ocean.  The students loved the proximity to the water, and we all spent endless hours snorkeling, playing in the waves at high tide, or wandering among the tide pools when the tide went out.  We did an exercise with ghost crabs, tiny creatures that came out at dusk every day, visited a starfish colony, had a discussion about a Kenyan novel, and checked in with Allan for 15-20 minutes each to make sure that everyone was doing all right.  Many folks would have been happy to stay at Sand Island for another week or two, but other things beckoned.

Surf

Makau - Our Kenyan Coordinator

Most important was Nairobi.  After our two weeks in sleepy Lamu, and our interlude at Sand Island, we headed for the big city. Allan and Sara lived there for a year in 1995-1996, when Allan taught at the University of Nairobi, and they love city, and wanted to share their sense of it.  On arriving there, we worked closely with James Makau of Wilderness Zones, who provided transportation and support for this part of the trip.  With that help, we were able to do an amazing number of things in 5 days.  First, we went for a briefing at the United States Embassy that turned out to be first rate.  We spoke with the Cultural Affairs Officer about American policy toward Kenya, terrorism in Africa, and possible careers in the Foreign Service.  She had also brought several of her colleagues with her, and altogether it was an illuminating experience.  That afternoon, we listened to a lecture by Professor Godfrey Muriuki of the University of

Mary Mwiandi

Nairobi about Kenyan history that was superb.  Godfrey has taught at Truman State and Stanford Universities, and has been a consultant or visiting lecturer all over Africa.  His good-humored insights provided an excellent introduction to another side of Kenya.  Then that evening, we went to Professor Mary Mwiandi’s home.  Mary, who had been Allan and Sara’s neighbor in Nairobi 15 years ago, was featured in Allan’s book Uncertain Safari: Kenyan Encounters and African Dreams, and remains a firm friend.  She spent 8 years at Michigan State University getting her PhD  and now teaches History as Godfrey’s colleague at the University of Nairobi.  Mary pitched a tent in her backyard and cooked a wonderful dinner for us that was a marvelous end to a full and satisfying day.

Justus

The following day, we went to the home of Justus Ndugu, another good friend of Allan and Sara.  Justus is a taxi driver and now a maker of herbal remedies.  He invited the entire group to his home in Kawangware, a vibrant but less-privileged part of Nairobi, to cook dinner for an entire afternoon and evening.  There, with members of his family, we slaughtered 4 chickens, peeled potatoes and vegetables, cleaned and cooked rice, and made mandazis and chapattis.  It was a lively experience (especially killing the chickens) and made for a delicious dinner when it was finally ready about 5 hours after we had begun.

Hard at work cooking

Our chicken killers

Jordan doing the deed

Allan, accompanied by Sara and Katrina

The next day, we all went out to Catholic University, where Allan had been invited to give a folk music concert.  He sang two songs – “Turn, Turn, Turn” and “Oh, Mary, Don’t You Weep” at a Mass which had about 500 people present, then after lunch gave a concert to about 150 students and faculty members that featured the music of Pete Seeger (about whom Allan had written a biography), Woody Guthrie, and a host of other artists from the 1960s and 1970s.  Sara Waddle and Katrina Cohoe sang beautifully on a couple of songs, and Devan Monette accompanied Allan ably on his ukulele on two others.

Allan, doing a duet with devan

A free day followed, with the only required task going to the National Museum.  But that turned out to be a treat, since it is the best museum complex in all of East Africa, far better than the museums we had visited in Arusha and Dar es Salaam.

Group at the Rift Valley Lookout

Then came 4 incredible days at Masai Mara, arguably the best game park in the world.  It is part of the same ecosystem as the Serengetti in Tanzania, though the Serengetti is 12 times larger.  But we have always found the Mara more accessible, and it certainly proved to be a wonderful place to view wild animals.  We first looked out at the great Rift Valley, which runs from north to south through Kenya, from the top of the escarpment, where we took a group photo, then drove through the valley itself.  We stayed at Mara West, with simple but comfortable accommodations, just outside one of the park gates, and went on game drives pretty much every day.  In the end, we

In a Land Cruiser

accomplished what every tourist hopes to do: we saw the Big 5 – elephant, buffalo, lion, rhino, and leopard.  Many people never do see a rhino, and we saw a couple of them.  And we came upon the elusive leopard on the last part of the last afternoon of our last day, and had a superb view of this gorgeous animal eating for as long as we chose to stay.

Willis

And then it was on to Luoland.  This is a region that is home to one of Kenya’s large tribes (including the village of Barack Obama’s father).  En route, we crossed the equator, and stopped to take the requisite pictures.  And finally we arrived at Willis Okech’s home village.  Willis was a guide for 20 years before coming to do an undergraduate degree at Miami (which he completed with Honors), and is now close to finishing a PhD at UCLA.  A good friend of Allan’s, he will be heading up a number of program components.  In Luoland, we were north of Kisumu, Kenya’s 3rd largest city, where we stopped for lunch, in a region called Siaya.  Within that county-like unit, we were in a region called Ugunja, and within that framework, we were in a community called Masiro, in a village known as Ujwang’aa.  We spent the first night at Willis’s mother’s home, piled into a couple of rooms.  And then the next afternoon, all the students departed for homestays, this time for 2 weeks.  This region is very rural.  Willis’s home has neither running water nor electricity, and many of the homes hosting students were much the same.  But the families were welcoming, and this was a marvelous way to get a first-hand look at rural life, and the way millions of people around the world still live.

During this 2-week period, we’ll have several book discussions, visit a traditional healer, and play soccer against a local group.  But a main task for each student will be an independent project that will culminate in a 12-15 page paper when we leave here.  And so our first few days have been devoted to talking about possible things to do.  A couple of people are studying traditional medicine.  A few are going to write about farming, going out in the fields to work as well as talking with people about what they do.  One is going to work with a basket-maker; another will work with a potter.  We had a couple of meetings to get everyone started, and Allan and Willis did their best to find people with whom the students could work.  The projects are just getting underway, and we’ll update you about the progress made in the next installment in a couple of weeks.