Ms. Bain’s Adventures in Maai Mahiu, Kenya

Hello to the Bodwell Community!

This is Ms. Mali Bain writing from Kenya, East Africa. As most of you know, I have chosen to take this semester to volunteer in Maai Mahiu, Kenya – the same community where the amazing group of Bodwell volunteers spent most of their time. I will be volunteering with three high schools in the area: Maai Mahiu Secondary, Karima Secondary, and Longonot Secondary. Each of you, in your mentor classes, will be linked with one of the classrooms in these schools. The schools also have clubs and sports groups, which I'll be contacting soon.

In Kenya, just like at Bodwell, there are three semesters per year, with holidays three times per year. So for the past two weeks school has not been in session – and I have been settling in to life here, and learning about Maai Mahiu and Kenya.

Your Donations

School has not started yet, so I have not yet had a chance to give out the letters you wrote or the 'Rafiki' gifts many of you gave. However, I have taken suitcases full of supplies to the three Children's Homes (orphanages) in Maai Mahiu.

Giving the suitcase full of toys, books, and school supplies to 'Little Lambs' Children's home, run by Pastor Samuel.

At the Good Shepherd Children's Home, at their outdoor 'classroom'. They were especially thankful for the basketball, as they have no balls at all with which to play.

The Good Shepherd Children's Home was an extraordinary effort by Jane, the leader.

PCYI

People here are incredibly friendly, and they are especially welcoming to 'wazungus' - foreigners. I've been fortunate to connect with a group called the 'Partners for Change Youth Initiative' (PCYI), which has formed to address the needs of youth in the area. The girls returning from Kenya can tell you more about the people we've met there. Here's a recent photo from their Annual General Meeting, held on September 2nd.

In the back row: ??, Eunice, Mary, ??, Sammy, Peter, John, Lucy, Kate, Mali, Nancy, Fred Mure, Lillian, ??, ??, Mungai (Ken), ??
Seated in the front: James, Banis, Jesse, Tony Njenga, Mwaniki, Matthew, Benard, Rocky, Francis ('Oh Yes'), Simple Simon ('Fisi')

One surprising thing I’ve learned

I’ve been surprised to learn that here in Kenya, education is NOT free – even in public schools. Grades 1 to 8 (called Standard 1 to 8) are free in public schools, but grades 9 to 12 (called Form 1 to 4) are not at all free. In fact, the average tuition per year is $400 Canadian – which is more money than most families will earn in a year! What that means is that many students cannot even finish their high school education. In fact, many members of the PCYI group have not finished their grade 12 – they dropped out in grade 9 or 10 because they were unable to pay the fees, and because their families needed help. Can you imagine not ever finishing grade 12? To me its still surreal, still hard to believe.

According to some of my friends here, there at least 100 students who cannot afford to go to high school. I wish we could do something, raise enough money to pay for all those students – perhaps that’ll be my project when I come back.

My New Home

Here’s a few photos of my new home. It's in a place called Mama Chege shop - that's the name of the convenience store on the front of the building.

Most people here live in one room about 10' by 12' - a bit like Bodwell dorm rooms, except that these are for adults. Generally, at least one or two people - plus a few children - share the one tiny room. The one room functions as living room, kitchen, and bedroom! In many places, there is no electricity - at my home, I have electricity from 6pm till 8am every day. When I moved in there was no plug in the wall, so I had to get one installed in order to plug in my computer. We share three 'showers' - they're small cubicles where you take a bucket of water and wash yourself using the bucket. Our toilet is a pit toilet but I've had no problems with it so far. The neighbors are friendly and helpful; one is the principal of Karima high school. Paris, the girl in the pink, has been teaching me Kiswahili and Kikuyu.

 

 

Story: Adventure by bicycle!!

As many of you know, in Vancouver I enjoy cycling from home to work - I cycle about 26 kms per day, which takes about 1.5 - 2 hours. So, I decided that I'd like to try cycling here in Kenya. What a terrific idea, I thought - we'll go for a day-trip cycling. A friend from PCYI donated a mountain bike - wonderful news! The bike was missing both brakes and a front deraileur (gear-changer), I purchased brakes and was set to go.

We began with 5 people, 5 bicycles, and determination. Myself, Sammy, Eunice, Mattias, and Jesse met in the morning at ZZ in Maai Mahiu. Our destination: Longonot,  about 16 kms away, home to three restaurants, 300 people, and 200 goats. We left town about 10:00 am, ready for a 'morning ride' to Longonot and back, with plans to meet in the office after lunch. I had purchased a bike helmet - the only bicycle helmet in all of Maai Mahiu, it seems - and so we took turns wearing the unusual headpiece.

 

It was a game of Survivor, like Mr. Goobie's math class without the math and with a lot more dust. One of the bicycles made a loud 'SQUACK, SQUACK' somewhat similar to rooster with a head cold. It was a mountain bike, supposedly, except that none of the gears worked and the the back tire was bent out of shape. When it took him 1 hour to travel the first 5 kilometres, he decided to turn back. One down...

 

Most of our bikes had no gears to speak of, and we were going up hill in the mid-day sun. Two bicycles protested and voila! two flat tires. Tired but willing to walk, we pushed our bicycles through a construction zone. The dust was inches thick, reminding me of photos of the moon landing, and passing vehicles made minor duststorms which caught in our eyes and hair.

 

We arrived at Longonot safe and sound, and met the local 'fundi' - bike mechanic. Using his pump and my patches & glue, we repaired a record 3 holes in 1 tube and 1 hole in another. Tired and dust, we sat down for a 'soda' from glass bottles. Ubiquitous Coke - the drink I don't take - so I took Fanta. After a brief visit to the four-room high school I'll be volunteering at here, it was time to head back!

 

Beside the back wheel of a bicycle, dangling a bit below the rear gears, is something called the 'rear derailleur'. On a normally functioning bicycle, this allows the bicycle to change gears - so that you can go quickly downhill, and slowly uphill. If you look at any Canadian bicycle you'll see it right away, it's a basic but very useful piece of equipment.

 

Sammy's bicycle has a rear derailleur - however, it is completely nonfunctional. The bicycle cannot change gears, and in fact there are not even any gear changers, but that's typical here. As we were going down a slight hill, just out of Longonot, the rear derailleur caught slightly in the rear spokes of the bicycle. As the wheel turned, the rear deraileur twisted and wrapped 180 degrees around the wheel until the metal of derailleur hit the metal of the frame, the rear wheel locked, and the entire bicycle went down with a crash.

 

After a futile attempt to bend metal with hands, we flagged a passing car, crammed the nonfunctional machine into the back seat, and profusely thanked the kind drivers. Eunice volunteered to take the bicycle home, and left her cruiser for us to ride...

 

It took no more than a few seconds to realize that Eunice had left us with a splendidly flat tire. Already 4 hours into our adventure, we now had no water, three cyclists, and only two working bicycles. We made a strange relay for some time - two riding the working bikes, one pushing the flat tire. We tried a new strategy: myself, riding the local bike; Matthew, perched on the back rack, holding the handlebar of the broken bicycle.

 

We proceeded like this for some time - a funny threesome, balancing delicately on the uneven road as children called out out and adults just stared. Still at least 6 km from Maai Mahiu, we finally flagged a local bus - a matatu - and put the bike inside.

 

After 5 hours of adventure, 5 flat tires, and many good laughs - we arrived safely back home in Maai Mahiu.

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That's my update for now! I'll try to keep sending updates. Send me some questions to answer, please - I'd like to answer questions you have about life & such here. Send your questions to malibain at yahoo.ca.

 

Take care of yourselves!

 

Ms. Bain

 

PS I thought of Mr. Chiu and Mr. Todd when I saw this photo...