Rural Homestay

January 23: Today was our last day of orientation week. Instead of a 3-hour Swahili lesson like we had been previously having, today was only about 1.5 hours and at the end we met as a group to discuss our rural homestays. After regrouping at the compound we loaded the bus to make our way northwards to Nyeri county in central Kenya, where we would be living individually with Kenyan host families for the next week. On the 5 hour drive we passed countless cows, sheep, and goats on the side of the road. The countryside was composed of beautiful green rolling hills and the silhouette of Mt. Kenya in the distance. Our final destination was a bed and breakfast type farmhouse owned by a German women who had 3 charismatic dogs of various sizes and colors. We enjoyed a relaxing evening of German cuisine and drinks as we laughed the night away.

view from the bus

our director Wairimu (right) with her sister Wasera (left)

the dining room

the living room

our porch

outside of our room

group shot

January 24: Woke up today for an early morning nature walk guided by two of the Kenyan employees. I was a few minutes early so I let the dogs walk me around the property for a few minutes. After spending several minutes staring at what I thought to be an odd cloud formation, I finally realized that I had been looking at Mt. Kenya the entire time. During nature walk we walked around the property with the guides pointing out different animals and plants. Everything is so different, beautiful and exciting. The farm property is adjacent to the Aberdare National Park and on the park side of the fence we saw some zebra and gazelle, all of us were very excited to finally see them in person. Our next stop after leaving the farm was a Green Belt Movement organization (click on the link for more information about their mission) where we enjoyed a nice lunch before getting a tour of their projects which included different farming techniques that support forest conservation and food security. Later we headed out to meet our rural homestay families. We met them at a local school, where our families were lined up. Using a photo of us, they one by one picked us out and greeted us with a warm welcome. Later my host family told me they had a hard time picking me out because we "all look the same." My host mom and sister picked me up and we took the 30 minutes drive to our home. The roads here are mainly dirt, with huge potholes so any drive is extremely bumpy and the car swerves frequently to avoid hitting the big holes. We made a quick stop in town, which consisted of a handful of small shops, including a butcher, fruit market, and several convenience stores. The convenience stores are much different than in the US, the shop is barred off and through a small window you ask the shop attendant to get the items for you. At home we enjoyed chai (tea) in the backyard with my host dad underneath the shade of a tree as we got to know each other. I immediately felt right at home with my sister Linet, who is 20 years old (only a week younger than me) and studies communication and public relations at a nearby university. Her Kikuyu name is Wago, but her Christian name is Linet. The Kikuyu is the largest cultural group in Kenya, and their native language is also called Kikuyu. Some of the neighbors came over to greet me, including my host great uncle and host uncle. Once it got dark I began to help my host mom and Linet make dinner. In the kitchen there is a gas stove, but it is used rarely. Meals are usually prepared over the fire using firewood. It was pitch black and my host mother brought me outside to watch her split wood in flip flops, steading each piece of wood with her foot. Impressive.

letting the dogs lead the way

Mt. Kenya

morning walk

zebras!

zebras!

gazelle

Mt. Kenya and an Acacia tree

outside the farmhouse

preparing the soil

planting the saplings

tour of the farm

my new backyard

Linda at the convenience store 

January 25: Woke up around 8 this morning and was immediately sent to work. The gender roles in Kenya are much different than anything I'm used to. Females are responsible for all of the cooking, and at a young age females learn their responsibilities in the family and begin to contribute to the household. On our way to feed the chickens, our father asked Linet to shine his shoes before his meeting at the church. While he was gone at the meetings, us girls were busy hand washing the laundry, feeding the cows, and making a lunch of beef stew and chips (french fries that we deep fried in a pot over the fire). During lunch my host dad asked me some questions about my religious views. Upon entering the house and seeing all of their Christian posters and decorations, I knew that they were very religious. I told them that I was raised Catholic although I don't go to church anymore. They had trouble understanding why I do not go to church anymore but I tried to be polite in my reasoning. My host father asked if I would like to address the congregation the next morning at church, which I couldn't refuse. He also told me about the different issues that are facing the youth in the community, including obeying the law, avoiding drugs, and avoiding premarital sex. He asked if I would like to speak with the youth group after church the next day to address these problems. He also said that having a Westerner speak to them about these issues could help influence some of the choices kids may make in the community. Although I had never spoke to a group about issues like this, I thought that it was a nice gesture and I agreed. Later, mom, dad and I took a walk down to the manmade fishponds that were created by the government with the hopes of providing food security for the community. Although the project has not been very successful and most of the fish are not able to survive in the murky water, my host father hopes to one day establish a picnic area for the public to use to admire the ponds and fish once the water quality improves. After our walk Linet, dad and I drove into Nyeri, the largest city in central Kenya to do some shopping and to pick up my other host sister, Linda. Linda is 22 and studies Economics at a university nearby. By chance I ran into two other SLU students who were also in the city with their host families. We quickly said hello and continued on. It's a small world when you're one of few muzungu in central Kenya. On the drive home the car broke down and it turned out that we were simply out of gas. During dinner we discussed the traditional naming process of Kikuyu families. In the beginnings of the Kikuyu community, there were 9 daughters, and their names have become the names of most female Kikuyus. Even today, these names are still used. The first born male is named after the paternal grandfather, and the first born female is named after the paternal grandmother. As more children are born, they take the names of both sides of the family, and the names end up being shared by many generations. Dinner tonight consisted of a chicken stew and ugali (corn meal that is eaten with the hands, kind of used as dough to scoop up the stew). The chicken was slaughtered by my mom in the back yard and every single part of the chicken was in the stew: head, feet, etc. Linet offered me the liver to eat, which didn't taste too bad but the texture wasn't very appetizing. 

the kitchen

the kitchen

feeding the calf

peeling potatoes in the living room (with a knife, not a peeler!)

hand washing the laundry with my host mom

Linet cooking lunch

my host parents at the fish ponds

town

Painter's long lost Kenyan twin

so many different types of beans

Linet bargaining at the fruit market in Nyeri

January 26: Woke up at 6:30am to get ready for church. For breakfast we ate sandwiches made of untoasted white bread with margarine in between and chai. Chai is made with fresh milk from our 2 cows, water, and Kenyan tea leaves. We drink chai at least 4 times a day: breakfast, mid-morning, mid-afternoon, and after dinner. We then took the 15 minute very hilly walk to church. The service started at 7:30am and went until 9:15. Most of the service was in Kikuyu, with the exception of 5 or so ransom phrases that were in English. The service has lots of singing and dancing, with a keyboard, drum and tambourine. About 20 young children led the procession, dancing the whole way down the isle, looking back at me over their shoulders and returning my smiles. Near the end of the service my dad stood at the front to give the announcements, and then invited me up to the front to speak. Linda came up with me and I stood in front and introduced myself in Swahili. Everyone was very welcoming and appeared excited to have a visitor, grinning at me the entire time. I switched to English once I ran out of the few things I was able to say in Swahili, and Linda translated for me. After leaving church, most of the small children waited outside to shake my hand (everyone shakes hands here!). Then my sisters and I met with the youth group, about 20 church members, where I quickly discussed the points that my father had asked me to talk about. My sisters said that I would be understood since all of the children learn English in school, but their blank faces didn't reveal whether anything of my points got through to them at all. It was definitely a little awkward, not because I don't like public speaking, I do, but because I had never 'preached' to a group before about anything at all, nevertheless topics that are difficult to address. We returned home to start preparing lunch of rice, potatoes and vegetables. Everything is done manually here, and we spent what seemed like hours picking rocks out of the rice and getting peas out of the pea pods. In the afternoon my sisters and I watched TV, some very strange Mexican soap opera that is dubbed in English. It was comedic for the first episode, but it got very old very fast. Later I asked my sisters if we could go on a walk just to explore the area for a little bit. For dinner I learned how to make chapati, made with flour kind of like a tortilla, but using a lot more butter. We ate the chapati with a beef stew. The food here is very salty and lots of oil is used when cooking. The food is very tasty, but the portions are so large that I have been getting full quickly. During my last few days of the homestay I finally had the guts to ask for smaller portions. There is always fresh fruit around, with countless banana trees in the backyard and even passionfruit. Our shamba (farm) has bananas, passionfruit, kale, green peppers, corn, beans, and coffee. There are huge Hibiscus trees in our yard that remind me of Aunt Cat.

beef stew (lots of bones!)

with my sisters outside of the church

inside the church

outside of the church (Catholic)

Linet and I on a walk

my adorable sisters!

January 27: When I woke up this morning Linet had been preparing me an omelette. When she asked what vegetables I wanted inside, she walked out to the garden to pick fresh ones to put in my breakfast. Linda and I sat outside to prepare corn and beans for lunch and discussed politics. We both shared our opinions about our own governments and what we agree/disagree with. On our afternoon walk we were able to see Mt. Kenya in the distance. It is over 17,000 feet high and is the 2nd highest mountain in Africa behind Kilimanjaro. It has snow and ice at the top year-round and these can be seen even from miles and miles away. Today we mopped the living room and kitchen by hand using rags, then swept the driveway to get rid of the leaves, which seemed a little pointless. We also picked some leafy plants from the shamba to feed to the goats. Around lunchtime I milked the cow! This was my first time and although it wasn't too difficult to get the milk out of the udders, the most difficult part was aiming the milk into the bucket below. In the afternoon when the girls napped I set up my hammock in the shade and read some of Wangari Mathai's memoir, Unbowed.  After resting, the girls and I walked into town so that Linet could catch a mutatu (a small bus) back to her university for the rest of the week. We ran into Beau's host parents, who showed us around their home although Beau was not there. On the way home, we stopped by the neighbor's to visit with the young kits. All the kids are happy to pose in pictures and to shake my hand. They are even more excited to see the picture on my camera afterwards.

picking leaves for the goats

neighborhood kids

baby Caro and me

Linda, Caro and me

Joy and me

picking passion fruit in the back yard

passion fruit

January 28: First thing this morning Linda and I made mandazi, a traditional breakfast that is basically fried dough. My family describes everything as 'sweet'. Even if it is the saltiest foods are described as 'sweet,' so I assume they just mean it as delicious. After breakfast Linda, dad and I went to the shamba to harvest beans. At one point I walked through a prickly plant, Blackjack, and had to spend almost 30 minutes pulling the seeds from my skirt. For lunch we made a stew that had potatoes, unripe bananas (which taste like potatoes) and other vegetables. My host father asked me today about what kind of activities would be nice to have in the village to promote tourism. I suggested different activities like fishing, swimming and nature walks that could have information about the local ecology and places like Mt. Kenya, which can be seen from multiple viewpoints in the village. For dinner my family asked if there was anything American that I could cook for dinner. My resources were limited, but I was able to make spaghetti with homemade meat sauce and garlic bread (toasted over the fire).

cow tail (traditionally used during tribal meetings to indicate authority, but currently used for dusting/killing bugs)

TV

living room

Linda cooking mandazi

drying out the beans that we harvested

January 29: We had a relaxing morning today where we just did some dishes and laundry before making a lunch of pilau (rice with meat and vegetables). In the afternoon Linda and I took the 20 minute walk across the valley and up a hill to the primary school that my host mother teaches at. My arrival caused quite the commotion as the children lined up at the windows to wave at me and whisper "muzungu" (white person) to each other. When I greeted the classrooms, "Good afternoon!" they responded in unison, "Good afternoon visitor!" At hearing my name, they all giggled. My host mother said that her students had unlimited questions about me after I left, including, "What does she do to get her skin to be that color?" and "What does she eat?" My camera is currently out of commission so I wasn't able to take any photos for the rest of my homestay. After leaving the school Linda gave me a tour of the local government owned coffee processing factory. Locals can bring their coffee to the outdoor factory where it is processed for 21 days before it is sent out to be roasted and distributed. There were huge cleaning vats and chutes where the coffee would move to different stations. We spoke to some of the workers who were picking out the bad beans, the final step before roasting. It began sprinkling just as we were about to leave and suddenly it began to downpour. Linda and I ran for about a half mile to her aunt's home, where we visited and were served bananas. I was pretty full but it is rude not to eat everything that you are given, so I ate several bananas. After the rained stopped we met our host mother at another relative's house. At this point I had lost track of how everyone was related to my host family, especially since close friends are often referred to as relative, even if they aren't blood related. I was told that the farm we stopped at for chai was the ancestral and of my host father's family. We arrived there just after the birth of twin goats, and watched them stumble around while they took their first steps. We stayed at this house for a while, and the 4 year old girl, Cecelia, was very intrigued by my presence and admired my jewelry.  Her father took me on a tour of their farm, he used to be a tour guide so he did a great job teaching me about the different parts of the area. After we returned home to cook dinner. We ended up just eating the leftovers of all the dishes we had made the last few days and I told my host mother how my Dad at home calls that "round-up." She really loved the term, and kept saying "We are rounding up!" with a big smile on her face. 

January 30: Today was my last day with my host family. Linda and I made Kenyan pancakes for breakfast. The pancakes we made are similar to those we make at home, but far more oil is used. They didn't have anything to put on top like maple syrup or honey, so I topped mine with mangos and bananas...delicious! My last day was very nice, Linda and I just relaxed around the house until our parents got home from work. Upon their arrival, we dug out two holes in their yard in order to plant two saplings that I brought from the Green Belt Movement organization. One was a avocado tree, and another was an indigenous species that I can't remember. I hope that I can return one day to catch up with my Kenyan family and to see how much the trees have grown and maybe someday even eat one of the avocados. 

feeding the cows was one of my favorite things to do...I couldn't help but laugh at their eating technique

my host mom pulling down a banana tree to harvest the fruit