First week of volunteering

Yesterday, we finished our first week in Kenya. The majority of our time was spent learning the everyday life of the Kipepeo (“butterfly” in Kiswahili) staff and the people of Kima or volunteering at the various Kipepeo projects. Our largest responsibility was teachig two computer classes per day to disadvantaged members of the community.

This is Clinton and Julius, our roommates. Julius is one of the main members of Kipepeo.

Many people in Kenya, and even more so in the small town of Kima, have never used a computer so we had to start with the absolute basics (monitor, tower, keyboard, mouse, etc.). We will work our way through the Microsoft Office packages and include Internet with email. At first, this seemed like a daunting task to us since we only have 3.5 weeks to do it, but the first week went well, with everyone (who came to class) completing their typed CVs in MS Word. We start MS Publisher and the Internet tomorrow.

The students are great and it shows that many of them are motivated to better themselves. We have some who just graduated primary school and others who have been working for 20+ years and never used a computer, including the head of the local health clinic.

There are two major challenges (among many others) for the classes to overcome. The first, which some people here call “African time,” is the mindset and culture that time is not nearly as important as in the US where we have the common phrase “time is money.” This may stem from the poor reliability of their infrastructure. This is related to the second major challenge which is the loss of electricity on a daily basis, especially when it rains. Obviously, it is difficult to teach a computer class when the power goes out and can remain out for as little as 5 minutes or as long as the entire day.

The street boys of Luanda.

On Friday, we spent the afternoon in Luanda (larger than Kima) where there are around 30 boys living on the street, appropriately nicknamed “street boys.” They are orphaned with no guardians and spend most of their lives struggling on the street. They range in age from 5 to 27. Kipepeo reaches out to them each Friday by setting up a soccer game for them then feeding them a meal at a nearby hotel. The thought of being completely responsible for yourself at that age is so foreign to us. We will be going back next Friday and hopefully can partake in the game once my leg is healed a bit.

On Saturday, we spent the afternoon with some of the orphans of Kima. They have guardians to take care of them but little else. Many have lost their parents to AIDS. We read books, introduced them to computers, took their pictures, gave them stickers (big hit), and did English flash cards. Kipepeo also fed them and then picked some vegetables they grow out back for them to take home for a meal or two. They loved playing with the muzungus (one word for Americans) and we are excited to see them all back next Saturday.

Patricia, one of our neighbors, sporting some cool shades with Erin.

Our first week here in Kima, Kenya has been amazing and the people have been extremely welcoming. We can only hope this week of computer classes goes as well as last week. Erin will be spending some time at the local health clinic where she will dispense prescriptions and hopefully counsel HIV and AIDS patients. We have a growing list of things we would like to do here and it seems we may not be able to get to them all, but two other volunteers from Japan arrived late last week so hopefully they can help in these endeavors.

(Written November 11th)