You arrive at the border, and the driver shouts "BORDER!" Everyone then stands up, gets off the bus, and walks to the exit desk of whatever country you're coming from. They give you one of those customs cards to fill out, asking for all your information like name, date of birth, passport number, where you stayed, where you are staying, how long you're in the country, and others. I had to fill these out about 7 times from going into each country and exiting each one, and I noticed that the border guards do not look at them at all. On this last time leaving Rwanda, I figured to test out the authorities, so in the whole form (a page long), I just wrote 'Adam', and handed it to the agent with my passport. She took the form, didn't look at it, put it aside, and stamped my passport.
After getting your exit stamp, you have to walk a kilometer across no-man's land, in the middle of the dark, with only one security officer with a rifle standing in the middle. By the time you get to the other side there's another long line waiting to get their visas to the next country done. You get the requisite money ready, usually around $30 USD, fill out another form (this time I just wrote 'Hummel') and then gave them my passport. They look through it, find a page, and stamp.
At this point, you exit the building and are attacked by swarms of men wearing yellow jackets who are trying to exchange your money. Every single one of them asks you, even if they have just seen you do it with someone else. There are thousands of people just standing around at these border crossings, which is why I say that its hardly a surprise that the guy on the bus had his stuff somehow taken, and eventually making your way through these money changers, people selling water, cookies, bananas and coke, you get back onto the bus.
The bus ride was long, and I arrived in the town of Eldoret in Kenya around 2pm. I asked one of the organizers of the Youth Ambassadors for Peace, which is our organization here, to come and get me from Eldoret, not knowing that it was about a 3 hour drive from his village. He arrived nonetheless, we had lunch together, then we jumped into a packed matatu for the drive back to the village. A matatu is the most common form of transportation in Kenya, and its basically a van with the driver in the front, and three rows in the back. In Nairobi, people fit about 12 people into a matatu including the driver. In the villages however, they fit as many people as can physically fit into the vehicle, including their chickens. On the way to the village I sat with my huge pack on my lap, Kepha and Albert (organizers) on either side of me, and 20 other people behind, including 3 chickens who kept squawking everytime we made a sharp turn.
Eventually, we arrived in the village, and I was shown our office. It has a big picture of our logo on the front and says 'Youth Ambassadors for Peace' on the top.
I walked inside and found it perfectly organized, with two tables, with some flags, carved African art on the tables, and two computers sitting at the head of the table. On the walls some of the youths have painted African artwork, and there are printed photos of scenes from the football tournaments, school groups that we have created, and there is a picture of me from facebook, which is hilarious. There is also a great picture of Courtney and myself (Courtney Toretto is my friend who came with last time to help run the workshop and who is coming next week thank God!)
So, feeling very much at home I had some dinner and slept in the bed in the back of the office. That was yesterday. This morning I was taken to meet the principal of the local high school, who is a mzungu (white person) like myself, who is from Finland. Strict, keen, and serious, she welcomed me to the school and spoke about her experiences living here the last 15 years. She then offered me a guest house on the grounds of the school that I was happy to accept.
Now, last time I stayed in Kenya, I stayed on a bed that was just a mattress and a frame. The toilet was an outhouse with a pit latrine, and putting a rock over the whole in the floor, this room doubled as my shower. The shower consisted of warm-ish water in a big bucket that I would splash on myself every morning, and though it did the trick...it always sort of left you wanting more. This is what I was expecting this time around, and was all ready for it.
However, the guest house at the school is amazing. It has a room that locks with two single beds with mosquito nets hanging over. In the same building there is a living room, a kitchen, and.....wait for it.....bathrooms with toilets and showers!!!! I took a great shower this morning with warm water from outside (heated by the sun) and....well....was happy to use the toilet and not have my back and knees aching for hours afterwards...that's all I'll say.
After this glorious morning, Kepha and Ledmark took me to see the chicken project. It is a farm with about 120 chickens now, and the eggs they lay are given to a number of families in the three villages we work with who have recently been diagnosed with HIV/AIDS. It is a fantastic project started entirely by the youths here, and it was amazing to see it in action. Kepha told me that we would be meeting with some of the families who receive the eggs we donate, and that they were keen on giving their testimony about how they discovered their HIV+ status and how they are coping with this disease. Its amazing that they have done this, and seeing one of our projects in action was really touching. Had some great help from friends with fundraising for this project, especially Nikki Greenspan in Israel, and Naomi Max, who helped run a chicken fundraiser at CHAT. Seeing the success of the project, when I get home I will try get in touch with some chicken or egg farmers in Ontario and see if they'd like to sponsor or help, because it doesn't cost much and has a huge impact on some people's lives here.
Tonight we are making a plan for the rest of my stay here, and am eagerly awaiting the arrival of Courtney. Another volunteer I met in Nairobi may also be joining me which would be great as the more the merrier, and we have lots to do. Will hopefully be running another short workshop, will be meeting with many different classes of students in class, improving the chicken project, and more that I will update as we go along.
Happy to be back and thrilled at how productive the people involved in the organization have been with the money that I have sent. Really makes me optimistic about the prospects here, but there is still much that has to be done. There are 13 months until the next election, and the tension can already be felt in some places. Living in a hot spot like Matongo, the village that I'm in now, is really eye opening and just speaking to the people and hearing their thoughts about politics here and the next election is interesting. Now its just a matter of raising money and developing projects in the next year to help.
Last thing: This village is not used to seeing white people. I have met about 150 people today, and the rest who I haven't spoken to just stare at me as I walk past. The best people to meet are kids though, because they get really really excited and start shouting "MZUNGU MZUNGU!!". I usually go to them, say hi, shake their hand, and if my camera is out take a picture of them and show them. While walking with Kepha, he told me that most of the kids shout "MZUNGU" then say to each other "let's see what the mzungu's hands feel like" and then come over and shake my hand. Hilarious, and there is another thing I've experienced which is that African men don't wear shorts. Its hot here, and could not imagine walking around here in jeans or in dress pants as most people here wear. He said that a lot of people I walk past comment on the fact that I'm wearing shorts, and say that the hair on my legs is nice. What a great ego boost.
Until next time!
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