Clean Water For All

As my time in Nairobi comes to a close, I’d like to remind everyone who’s traveling abroad (and at major cities at home) to always be careful.  In three days I had two close calls here in Nairobi.  First, a few days ago, someone tried to steal my watch while I was in a car.  I was in traffic with the window rolled down, and a guy reached in and tried to yank my watch right off my wrist.  Fortunately, he didn’t get the watch, though he did break the strap.

President Kibaki's motorcade

Then today I was at a Madaraka Day (Independence Day) celebration at the Nyayo National Stadium with another volunteer and a Kenyan.  Halfway through, the Kenyan insisted that we get up and leave.  Apparently he noticed a group of six men who had gathered around us and were studying us quite intently.  Eventually, he saw one of the guys take something resembling a knife out of his bag and he gave it to the person next to us, who slipped it in his sock.  That’s when we decided it was best to get out of there.  Unfortunately, out of respect to the president, the police lock everyone inside the stadium until after the event is over.  It was like a mosh pit as we waited by the locked gate with the couple hundred other people trying to leave.  We were lucky to eventually get out of there with our cameras, wallets, and non-punctured skin.  The event was interesting, but more stressful than I needed at this point in the trip.

Is that a bazooka?

I’m getting ready to head out to Cairo and then Istanbul for a bit, but I will continue to post updates on the two water projects plus any interesting travel stories, so be sure to check back in regularly.  I’ll also continue to post various travel pictures from the rest of the trip.

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In yesterday’s post I discussed how Emmanuel, a member of the Maasai tribe, received 24 cows at two Maasai rituals.  He’s now using some of those cows to buy land, but he told me that he first used some of those cows to finish paying for high school.  Without them, he said he never would have been able to complete high school and go to college.

The reason his parents couldn’t pay the school fees is that Emmanuel is just one of 43 brothers and sisters!  His father had four wives and had around ten children with each wife.  His siblings range from just babies to 44 years old.  Emmanuel explained that there were three main reasons for the massive family size.

Emmanuel and Lilly

First, the Maasai have always been a nomadic people, moving with their herds to find grazing land.  As the herds get large, they must be split up, and people prefer to entrust their cattle to family.  Second, children are often thought of as a retirement account.  When you’re too old to work, your children will provide for you.  As many children die young, having many children ensures that some will be around to support you.  Lastly, the Maasai tribe is largely patriarchal, and the men simply enjoyed having multiple wives.

Emmanuel tells me that this custom is starting to change as education and women’s empowerment programs start to take hold.  Emmanuel, for example, has just one wife and four children.  Also, the Kenyan government has been encouraging the Maasai to settle and stop their nomadic ways, which reduces the need for a larger family.

Emmanuel's home

It’s my opinion that large family sizes contribute to many of the problems in Kenya, and family planning education is a critical component for things turning around here.  It’s not at all uncommon for people to have 6-10 children in the villages or slums.  I discussed this with a group in Kibera who basically said that when a husband and wife are both unemployed, they procreate just to have something to do.  Unfortunately, this just perpetuates the trend of having too few resources for too many people.  I have heard a lot of younger (and often educated) people tell me they’re only going to have one or two children, which I find encouraging.  I firmly believe that education is the key in Kenya.  It’s the key to improved employment, less disease, and an overall higher quality of life.

Lastly, I want to thank Emmanuel for sharing these fascinating stories with me and allowing me to share them on my blog.  Tune in tomorrow for an update on the Kibera water kiosk project.

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After a few days without internet access, I’m back in Nairobi and can resume my updates.  I’ll have a post with lots of pictures of the safari soon, but first I wanted to share a few observations around Kenyan hospitality.

When a house guest comes for a visit, hospitality can kick into overdrive in Kenya.  For virtually every meal I ate at someone’s home, not only would I be served first, but many times the children and even the other adults would refuse to serve themselves until I had at least started eating.  Often the children and workers would eat in a second sitting after us.  And trust me, the other volunteers and I tried insisting that they eat with us, but we were rarely successful.

I thought the level of adherence to hospitality customs was particularly interesting when I arrived at my latest host’s home.  As you may have seen in my last post, my former host, Joshua, had major car problems on our trip.  When we finally made it to our destination the next morning, my new host (Emmanuel) asked if Joshua could spend the day with us, but he politely explained that he needs to get his car fixed and then spend another 8 hours driving home.  Before he could get on the road, they first sat down for tea.  After tea, we all went to take a “quick” tour of Emmanuel’s school (both Joshua and Emmanuel run schools in Kenya).  After a very interesting but thorough tour, we of course had another round of tea.  That was followed by a short presentation by the students.  At that point it was lunchtime, and of course we couldn’t send Joshua off without lunch.  While we arrived that morning around 8:30 am, Joshua didn’t end up starting work on the car until early afternoon and finally hit the road around 2:30 or 3:00 pm.  What I found most interesting was that not only did Emmanuel keep politely offering things, but Joshua kept politely accepting.  I suppose it would have be considered rude for either of them to have acted any differently, even though they both knew Joshua had a long trip ahead of him.

Joshua, Emmanuel, and the headmaster

I’ve encountered this custom several times while at the villages as well.  Often after meeting with a women’s group, there was no way I was leaving without drinking at least two cups of tea and eating something.  Even once when a storm was clearly about to hit, we still stayed for almost an hour, resulting in us standing in a random barn for 30 minutes on our way home to escape the torrential downpour. Overall I think it’s a nice custom, but be forewarned that there’s no such thing as a “quick visit” in Kenya.

I’ll be continuing work on the Kibera water kiosk model over the next several days, but I’ll also post a link very soon to some of the 250 pictures I took on my safari yesterday.

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I like to take at least one weekend day to write about something non-work related.  Today, I thought I’d teach you how to respond to 80% of the questions you’ll be asked if you ever visit Kenya.  What’s more, I can do that with just one word, Mzuri.

Random Kenyan boy

You see, at some point in every Kenyan child’s life, somewhere around the age of 3 or 4, they’re apparently taught what to say if they ever see a Mzungu.  That phrase, which must be yelled with tremendous enthusiasm is, “How are you?”

After you answer with Mzuri, which means good, the next question will always be, “How are you?”   The following question will usually also be, “How are you?”   In fact, it’s pretty common for a group of children to repeatedly yell that over and over, regardless of what you answer, until you’re out of sight.  Of course, they may also decide to join you and wander a mile down the road while holding both your hands.  One kid who was maybe 5 years old saw me from a good 50-75 yards away and after shouting, “MZUNGU!”,  went into a dead sprint until he caught up with me.  At which point he asked, “How are you?”

Of course, if you really want to freak them out, you could respond back with something like, “Mzuri.  Habari asabuhi?” (Good.  How are you this morning?).  At that point, some will answer you with “Mzuri”, but others will burst out laughing and start yelling that there’s a Mzungu speaking Kiswahili.  By the way, if a Kenyan is laughing at you and you ask what they’re laughing at in Kiswahili (Unachecka nini?), they won’t answer you and will instead just laugh more.

Kenyan children

Tomorrow is Market Day in Kiminini, when there are live performances to promote products.  I’ve seen these in passing, but have never gone to check them out up close.  Weather permitting, I’ll head over tomorrow and take some pictures.  I also hope to show some of the marketing mock ups for the water filters, so make sure to come back and see them.  In the meantime, enjoy your weekend.

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