OPENING THE CHILDRENS ACTIVITY CENTRE!!!

With only a week and a half left in Makindu, I was absolutely thrilled to culminate my Peace Corps service with an opening ceremony for the Children’s Educational Activity Centre! On Saturday 11th December, there was a very informal, children-focused event to officially open the playground and to publicly launch the centre onto the community’s radar. The week leading up to the opening, a few of my fellow PCVs Paula Dorney and Carly Brown helped me and a few local community members paint the equipment.



With money raised from friends and family in the US, we were able to build three sets of swings, three slides, three see-saws, and two sets of monkey bars, as well as purchase some jump ropes, skateboards, basketballs, and a basketball hoop.





The informal opening ceremony lasted from 10am to about 2pm, with children playing on the equipment throughout, a brief gift-giving ceremony to show appreciation for those involved in the centre’s development to-date, an official unveiling of the opening commemoration sign, and a birthday celebration for a few of the children.





There really could not have been a better way for me to wrap up my time in Makindu and to know that the community will be left with a valuable addition! My greatest appreciation to those who donated money to the Peace Corps Partnership Program project for construction of the play equipment: Mike and Janet Tyburski (Dad and Mom), RPCV Tina Storck, Jeff Gibb, Wendy Mitchell, Karen Hannum, Leslie Breaux, RPCVs of Madison WI, and the UPS Foundation. And further gratitude it due to all those who have been supportive in non-financial ways of this project and my last two years of PC service in Makindu. None of this would have been possible without you!!!

Progress Report 5: Fence Construction and Upcoming Playground Opening

A perimeter fence is being constructed and the opening ceremony for the playground, considered phase one of a much more expansive project, is scheduled for Saturday 11th December! Wooden posts have been cemented in the ground and barbed wire strung along the entirety of the plot’s perimeter, as well as around the front section that will serve as the playground.



Chain link fence is being fastened to the barbed wire and posts this week, as well. Construction on the toilets is moving forward, with the placement of proper infrastructure in the collection area.



The playground equipment is scheduled to be moved to the site on Wednesday and final purchase of smaller-ticket equipment (balls, jumpropes, etc) will be completed by the end of this week. Thank you again to all my friends, family, and well-wishers who contributed to my PCPP funding project and make the construction of the playground possible!! I will post pictures of the equipment once it has been installed at the centre.

Progress Report 4: Water in the Well and Seedlings Planted

We finally hit water in the well! Now the hole has been covered over to prevent any accidents and we’ll use the water when the rains pass to continue the growth of the trees. Seedlings were purchased and planted in the spots where the initial round of trees didn’t take hold and grow. The ground has been prepared for construction of the toilets and we are just awaiting the arrival of materials to begin construction. The play structures have been almost finished, save a trampoline or two, and will be ready in time for the opening ceremony on December 11th! This will be an excellent culmination to my involvement with the project, taking place just a little over a week before I depart Makindu for the close of my Peace Corps service. I’ll be sure to continue posting updates on the progress of the centre as we prepare for the opening celebration!

Progress Report 3: Thirty-six Feet and Counting!

I visited the site of the children’s activity center this past weekend and things are moving forward with the well-digging, as well as initiation of other construction tasks. A fuel-efficient firewood stove was constructed by a local carpenter who had been trained by a Makindu-based NGO that promotes efficient energy use. The ‘rocket stove’ is intended to burn clean fuel (firewood instead of paraffin or kerosene) and more efficiently, so as to temper the devastating effects of excessive deforestation. The stove is being used by the day-laborers to cook their mid-day repast, and will be used in the future by the askari (security guard) and centre employees.

The well has reached 36 feet! As I glanced down into the nausea-inducingly-deep hole, through the thick layer of rock the workers have chipped away, there is supposedly hope lurking…the hope of hitting water at 40 feet. * fingers crossed *

The hole for the pit latrines has also been dug; now the task of financing and building the necessarily-expensive and sturdy platform comes into view. Water should be hooked up from a main line running through the middle of the plot, which will allow construction of the fence posts to begin in the upcoming days.

The playground equipment’s construction is temporarily on hold as we source for cheaper materials and secure the location for their on-site placement. I’ll certainly continue to post updates as development advances, coinciding with my last few months of Peace Corps service! Thank you again to everyone who had supported me during my time in Kenya, with this project in particular, as well as throughout the entirety of the challenging but rewarding two years.

Progress Report 2: Well-digging Commenced

It's been too long since I've written an update, but travels have kept me away from Makindu the majority of the past couple of months. I'm now back for a week and have visited the children's educational activity center. Truck-loads of lava rocks are being delivered, which will be constructed into fence pillars.



As for water, well-digging has commences and * fingers crossed * we hit water before too long. The well is being dug by hand, going through multiple layers of dirt, sand, and rock. As of two days ago, they were through the first major layer of dirt and preliminary hard layer was being chiseled away by hand with a pick and hammer.



The play structures have been started too - with one slide completed and a set of swings ready to be assembled. We are switching to a metal works shop (called a 'fundi') in our town rather than the neighboring town to reduce the costs of middlemen and transport. I'll be visiting the fundi this week to check on progress, and talking to the engineer that designed the equipment to discuss the rising metal prices and come up with a plan to maximize the funds for construction of the most play equipment. I'll keep the updates coming! Thanks again for supporting this project and following its development.

Progress Report 1: Land Cleared

Here is the beginning of the progress chronicles for children’s educational activity center. I went down to the plot today and it has been cleared – and it looks massive and ready for development!



You can see the before picture with all the brush from May 25th and a shot from almost the same spot except with the overgrowth cleared away from June 8th.



I’ll be checking on the progress of the play structure tomorrow, as the engineer overseeing the construction is in Nairobi for the day.

Here’s some honesty for you, George…

I haven’t written a reflective post in a while because I don’t feel like I can muster up – and I certainly don’t want to fake – the idealism and optimism that I attempted to characterize my prior posts with. Over the last year and a half, I feel like I’ve become pessimistic and cynical. Or perhaps just realistic and fatalistic. Either way – the way I view the world has changed, and I often smirk at myself thinking of the rose-tinted lens through which I used to view life. Despite this shift, which I would not reverse for the world, I hope – I think – I’m still able to take life as it comes with a sense of humor, humility and passion. This is how I aspire to live.

“Shooting video from behind the window of a tourist van is not how you get to know a place, or how you come to love a country that is not your own. It’s when you learn the language, can walk through the cities and rural villages alone, crave the local food, and feel personally pained when a local tragedy occurs. It’s when you realize you prefer shopping at a local market over getting food from a grocery store. And when you realize that local and national legislation have individual pertinence and personal application. For me, it’s when wearing a wrap skirt is more natural and comfortable to me than jeans. It’s when I act on the urge to wander off by myself into the largest market in East Africa, wanting the chance to practice bargaining in Kiswahili, and prove to myself that I in fact can be fine on my own.” I wrote that sometime in early 2009, probably just over a year ago, as a reflection upon observing tourists in a safari van video tapping the passing scenery. I still feel a lot of that way, but like I said earlier – with a more realistic tinge. I haven’t worn a skirt in months, preferring my countlessly-patched jeans; a minor tangible display of my shifted conduct with the world.

I no longer find the hoards of school children running alongside me cute. I want to dig myself a hole and crawl into it after I curl into a ball from the constant attention. I am so thoroughly disappointed and disgusted with an overbearing chunk of organized religion that I have trouble even considering the positive implications of its existence. I relish the chance to occasionally wear make-up, go to a gym, bake with an oven, dress like I did in the States, and drink an iced latte with soy milk – all while remaining anonymous and unobserved. My patience with being objectified as a source of money, a potential wife, a novel acquaintance wears thin quicker than it used to. I no longer feel like I must please everyone, be everyone’s friend, constantly fear offending someone, or always putting my thoughts and feelings last. I speak up more often, and I don’t pretend to be ok with something or someone when I’m not. And while I remain respectful while doing so, I also feel better – healthier – about the way I conduct myself with the people around me. It’s a more honest existence.

All that being said, I’m still in love with living here in Kenya; I love the adventure, the challenge, the constant sense of growth and learning. As my months of Peace Corps service are dwindling, thoughts about future endeavors plague many sleepless nights and render me an insomniac. The more I look for answers, the further away they seem. As Richard Leakey wrote in Origins Reconsidered, “Absolute truth is like a mirage: it tends to disappear when you approach it. One of the most important lessons for me during these years is my learning that, passionately through I may seek certain answers, some will remain, like the mirage, forever beyond my reach.” It is such reflections I hope will foster humility, and allow me satisfaction with discovering even shards of answers to so many unanswerable questions.

In the mean time, as I figure out what 2011 will bring to my life’s table and my ever-evolving views of the world and people in it morph, I foresee myself following in Leakey’s footsteps and taking “…a wild gamble, the kind you take when the arrogance of youth blinds you to the likelihood that you will almost certainly lose.” Considering I’m attempting to quell such ‘arrogance’ with humility and illuminate ‘youthful blindness’ through experience, I suppose ought to take my gamble before such lessons in maturity catch up to me, what do you reckon?

A Million 'Asante's

The Children’s Educational Activity Center Peace Corps Partnership Program project has been fully funded!!! THANK YOU / ASANTE to everyone who contributed to the financial and moral support of the project to date! We will hopefully begin construction on the play structures by the end of this month or beginning of next month.

Of course, there is still much to be done at the center – clearing the land, building a fence and wall, constructing offices and a conference hall, designing a locally-compatible swimming pool, etc. – but all that will come with time. This is the start to a wonderful project that will benefit the children of the local community and we’re excited to kick it off so soon. Another volunteer in my community and I plan to paint a world map - as big as the biggest wall we can build will allow - at the center as well. Furthermore, I have visited the Kenya National Museum in Nairobi twice now and am contacting the National Heritage Department to arrange procurement of information and visual displays for a mini-museum we would like to house at the center.

I will chart the progress with updates and pictures on my blog and email updates to family and friends. Again – a million ‘asante’s (‘thank you’s) to everyone who is making this all possible!!!

Support a Children's Educational Activity Center!

As I dive headfirst into my second year of service, I realize that the months are flying by and my time left here is growing distressingly shorter with still so much to be done. Since there is obviously a lack of all resources time and money, I’ve narrowed my focus down to a project I think will be most worthwhile…a children’s educational activity center. My supervisor has dreamed of building a children’s educational activity center in Makindu for years – and this dream is inching closer and closer to becoming a reality. Now is the part where YOU have the opportunity to help us make this a reality in the next year!

The two acre educational activity center is envisioned as such…

• Three sets of playground equipment for various age groups, including swings, slides, merry-go-rounds, see-saws, money bars and trampolines.

• Educational materials posted throughout the center, including a world map wall mural, wildlife and cultural diversity placards, HIV prevention messages.

• A forest of indigenous trees, many of which have been eradicated from the region due to deforestation for income generation and fuel.

We have already mustered up the funds to dig a trench for the wall’s foundation and have planted trees, which I have watched grow from seedlings in plastic bags to now foot-high saplings. I am beginning to take pictures every few weeks to chart the progress of the center – which we hope will rapidly pick up speed in the upcoming months.



So now, for my humble request… Please help us fund the construction of the playground equipment for children ages five to fourteen. The equipment will not only provide a healthy outlet for exercise and socialization, but the pillars and equipment supports will have educational messages painted on for HIV awareness/prevention as well as to convey local knowledge of wildlife and culture.

Even if you’re only able to donate a few dollars, anything will make this vision a bit closer to realization and will be greatly appreciated! Please visit this site to learn more and make a tax-deductible donation if you are able…

https://www.peacecorps.gov/index.cfm?shell=resources.donors.contribute.projDetail&projdesc=615-175&

I would be most grateful if you pass this information along to any friends, family or people that would be interested in learning more or contributing.

I have two friends from the University of Oregon coming in April to work with my organization WACAL for three weeks to a month, and we are hoping to have the playground fully funded so as to start construction at that time! A million thanks to all of you for reading this and my deepest appreciation for any assistance you are able to offer.

Feel free to contact me with any questions. I have included a picture of the plot at this point in time and will continue posting updates as things progress!

A Much-Needed Breakthrough

Over one year and countless capacity building activities into my service, I couldn’t help but breathe a deep sigh of validation today when I felt like the farmers we are training had a breakthrough. One of the most challenging aspects of being a Peace Corps volunteer (or, I would guess, working in any sort of grassroots development) is the lack of tangible and noticeable positive results and changes. For the past year, I have been involved in a chicken project working with rural resource-poor farmers to develop indigenous chicken rearing as a business, and to improve the farmers’ involvement and realized benefits along the value chain.

The project started by equipping service providers with technical information to train farmer groups on raising chicken (vaccination/disease control, proper housing, feeding methods, etc). From there, we have trained the service providers on collective marketing so they can encourage groups to come together to sell their chicken, increasing bargaining power and market access. Currently, we are training group-selected traders on business and negotiation skills so they can better represent the farmer groups at the market – gather accurate market information, ensure quality control, arrange transport logistics, keep proper production and financial records, and source viable markets.

This morning marked the beginning of the second day of the 3 day training and I opened with a workshop on Identifying Markets and Gathering Information. The traders were given a hypothetical scenario, using real coastal towns but fabricating prices and transportation information to the markets. Given four potential markets at which to resale the chickens, the traders had small-group discussions to determine the most viable market. Upon calling up the first person to present what was discussed, I was pleasantly surprised and extremely relieved when the recap of the discussions went far above and beyond my expectations. Not only was the financial viability of the various markets calculated and discussed, but the advantages and disadvantages of each viable market were fleshed out… All without much prompting on the part of the workshop facilitators.

From there, we changed the workshop up a bit, fast-forwarding through issues that are apparently already well understood to the traders. This is the first time in my year on this project that I felt a strong sense of confidence in the proactive attitude of the training participants – and it instilled a hope in me that this project will not only find a sustainable footing in the next year, but also make a positive difference in the lives of those involved.

While it may seem hopeless or pessimistic that this is the first major breakthrough in my work over the past year and that something so simple can spark such confidence in me, I do not discount the weight of today’s events. As anyone who has worked in development can understand, it’s the little victories that mean the most because only they can add up to the larger successes. As one Kenyan so aptly put it, “Development is not a mass movement.” I am hopeful that this training reflects a small shift for the developmental aims of the project and individuals involved.

Mount Kenya

Two days ago saw the completion the most challenging adventure of my relatively-short life – climbing Mount Kenya. While Mt. Kenya’s main peak is the second highest in Africa (next to Mount Kilimanjaro), our group reached the third-highest peak of Mt. Kenya, Point Lenana which does not require technical gear or experience. Our six day trek took us up the Sirimon Route and down Chogoria, reaching the 16,335 foot (4,985 meter) summit of Point Lenana just in time for the sunrise on January 5th. Below are my transcribed notes, taken on a piece of scrap paper I was using as a bookmark…

Day 1: Miserable would be an understatement. Soaked to the skin on the bottom half. Serious considerations of saying fuck this and turning back. To Old Moses camp.

Day 2: Could not have had better luck. Perfect hiking weather. Afternoon showers started immediately after we had arrived at camp and all tents were pitched. Hope all other days are like this. To Likii Valley camp.



Day 3: To Shipton’s camp at 13,800 feet. Long day, 9 km – but great hiking. Finally got water proof pants – made a world of a difference. Extremely enjoyable day and beautiful valley hike.

Day 4: Summit day; 4,985 meters. Woke at 1:45am, reached Lenana Point by 6:30am for an icy sunrise over the clouds. Arguably the most physically challenging experience of my life. Great day at Mintos camp – power nap, hike to the Temple cliff, rock skipping at the tarn. “Everything is going to be so boring and ugly after this week.” (fellow PCV and climber Nik)



Day 5: 17 km downhill. Stayed in bandas at Chogoria gate. Dreading going back to reality. Relieved to find there was no service when I turned on my cell phone – immediately turned it off again.

Day 6: These words, spoken by another PCV and climber Dan, sum up my emotions about the experience perfectly… “I feel like more of a person than I did last week.”