Habari!
Location this past month: Ndalani- a small village area about 45 minutes from Yatta and 2 hours southeast of Nairobi. The )MCF project (Mully Childrens Family) is on 150 acres of land, most of which is a farm which sustains the 800 or so children at MCF Yatta and Ndalani. The farm employs local community people to plant, water and harvest the crops here.
Farming: I am a terrible farmer. Hard to believe, I know. Especially with the incredible farmers’ tan that I have developed. MCF has newcomers work on the farm for the first little bit to acclimatize to the community and how MCF operates on a broad scale. My first job was to de-kernel cobs of dried maize (corn) which they then use to make ugali- a staple food. It’s like cream of wheat. But corn. And as dense as cake. So really, nothing like cream of wheat. Well, it tastes like it. I always want to put sugar on it and eat it with milk. But they would make fun of me. They eat it with kale and stewed tomatoes.
Anyhow, part of the process for threshing maize is the actual threshing part. You take a big stick like a baseball bat and beat mountains of cobs until you’re sure your arms will fall off. Your hands hurt from the vibration, dried kernels shoot at you like bbgun pellets, and you have to do it in time to the rhythm of the lady singing. See video and pictures. Then you use your thumbs to push off any remaining kernels that weren’t beaten off. I know you’re jealous. I didn’t know it when I started, but this is actually my favourite job because the ladies that do this on a regular basis are funny and friendly and love teaching us Kikamba (a local tribal dialect).
I’ve also spent hours and hours in the fields picking tomatoes. The women here bend over from their waists because bending your knees is seen as laziness. They think that I am very hilarious because I crouch down to pick tomatoes. I am trying to do it like them more often but it is difficult, I think, because all the blood rushes to your head and the backs of your legs are not used to the strain. Neither is your back.
I’ve helped grade the green beans for export. In the morning they pick the beans from the greenhouse or the fields, and in the afternoon they sort them. The straight, perfect ones are exported to Holland, and the imperfect ones are used to feed the kids. There’s nothing wrong with them other than size and shape. See pictures.
I’ve also helped fill small bags of soil to plant seedlings in the tree nursery.
But as I said, I am bad at all these things. Mainly because it is very solitary work. Most of the community workers speak little English. Usually they know enough to say hello, ask if I’m married, how old I am, and if I have any children. Those are 3 guaranteed questions—pretty much every day. Sometimes I am tempted to lie. It would be more exciting than 24/unmarried/no children. Although “boyfriend” doesn’t translate easily so many people think that Kevin is my husband. I told him. He doesn’t mind. Anyway, I end up going a bit mental because I spend hours just thinking about and missing home and wishing I could do anything but the thing I’m doing. I need to work with people that I can talk to. That is what I’ve learned.
Lately I’ve taken to working in the kitchen. “Kitchen” is a loose term. It’s a corrugated metal shed with three fires and three giant pots for making ugali or maize & beans- another staple food. Most of the food prep is done outside while sitting on rocks, or the ground. I spent most of this week taking the tails off of green beans. Enough for 400 kids, daily. It’s a lot of beans. But I can talk to the kitchen staff, and I like them a lot. They think Canada is the promised land, I think. They ask me a lot of questions:
“I have heard of the World Wide Web, how does it work?”
“My daughter seems to hate other children, is it a disease?”
“Are there black people in Canada?”
“Is everyone in Canada rich?”
And I ask them lots of questions about how to say things in Swahili. Conversation keeps me sane. Plus, I learn a lot about Kenya and tribe cultures and Swahili.
Food: Ugali, shredded kale, stewed tomatoes, green beans. Repeat. Alternate ugali with rice. Sometimes lentils with chapatti (round flatbread). Chapattis are awesome. I helped roll about 800 of them last week for the kids. Yesterday Elvis taught me how to make a rolling pin so I can have my own for making chapattis here and at home. See pictures. Also, if you would like Elvis to make you your very own roller, let me know.
They pulled out a toaster for us (they don’t use them here. They call toast “bread that you cook twice”). We called it our Cockroach Toaster because a cockroach lived in it and would run out every time it got hot. Eventually he realized we weren’t going to stop toasting things, so he moved out. It was special.
It took about 3 weeks to get used to the diet here. I am now a vegetarian. I decided that after the first time they served us goat. I just can’t do it. I tried chicken, but it just makes me sick. Yay kale and tomatoes!
When mangos or bananas are ripe, we get to eat them. They are truly wonderful.
I miss the gingersnaps we eat at EF. And chocolate.
Bicycles: we learned the other day that women aren’t suppose to ride bicycles because people think it ruins their chastity or something. Even people who have been to university think this. I asked them to think about male anatomy in relation to the bicycle seat, and then maybe reconsider which sex should be more concerned about riding bicycles. There was giggling.
Kids: see pictures.
Choirs: These kids can SING. Its so surreal to hear these choirs practicing in the background of my mundane mid-afternoon doing laundry or cleaning my room. We would pay money to hear this in Canada. See video.
That’s all I can think of for now. Thanks for all your emails and facebooking! I’ll try to write each of you, but forgive me if I’m not very prompt about it. I hope to be back online in about 3 weeks.
