JosephineAnderson.ca

(To see hundreds of photos taken by me in Kenya, please see my Flickr album here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/josephineanderson/sets/)

August 3, 2010

I am flying over Cairo as I write this. I’m leaving Kenya after a brief month that I am so, so grateful for. Let me get started on my Official List of Fantastic Things:

THE CHILDREN.

Children are the heart of Africa. Being white, the kids in Asembo Bay, Kenya, were fascinated by us, excited by us and sometimes scared of us. Often they’d run and follow us on our way back to Bertha’s from the Computer Centre, in a throng of 5 or 10 kids, yelling “Muzungu how are you I’m fine!” as if this were a perfectly congruent, correct sentence. They’d run up to shake out hands (which was sweet and heartwarming) and we’d follow up with a squeeze of hand sanitizer (which for better or worse proved I may be a part of the world’s most clean-freak neurotic generation yet to have grazed the earth). Luckily there was plenty of sanitizer to go around, so we shook dozens of tiny hands, and guided dozens of slightly larger hands holding computer mice as they learned how to left click and imagined all the ways they might have a leg up in the Kenyan job market ten years down the road if they hold onto these mice for long enough to really get it.

I won’t deny that towards the end of the trip it was nothing short of maddening that a quarter of the kids yelling “How are you I’m fine!” said it in a Miss Piggy voice (imagine your voice with 10 times the nasal factor) because they really think we sound like that. But this didn’t change the fact that these children (who probably outnumber the adults in Asembo Bay) are what make the community what it is. They are beautiful. And if there’s one thing I hope my poor memory will hold onto, it’s the smiling faces of these beautiful children.

THE LANDSCAPE.

In minutes you can walk down to the second largest lake in the world (dirty, murky Lake Victoria), which gave me the same feeling of infinite freedom that the Pacific Ocean gives me back home. Or you can “hike” (it’s really more of a gradual walk) up to the town “mountain” (hill) that is scattered with huge age-old boulders the size of cars, surrounded by lush greenery, and inhabited by heaps and heaps of goats, cows, and hens with chicks in tow, left out to graze by the villagers who live on the hill. It literally looks like a scene straight from The Flinstones.

You can also do what Hilary and I started doing toward the end of our trip, which is wake up at 6AM to run in the Kenyan countryside on dirt roads or highway shared with bicyclists heading to work 40km away. The beauty of a Kenyan sunrise is matched only by the beauty of a Kenyan sunset. This is the way running should always be: feet on earth surrounded by nature, human determination of body and mind cradled by the purity of the great outdoors.

THE WOMEN.

We were hosted as volunteers by The Asembo Bay Women for Development. This is an umbrella group with a core committee of 7, and an extended membership of 70, comprised of mothers and widows. These women came together because they wanted to strengthen their community, and through income-generating projects give local orphans a fighting chance at good health and good education. They came together because over 40% of Asembo Bay’s residents have AIDS or HIV. They realized that as women they are the backbone of the community and if they didn’t do something, no one would.

I have never considered myself a feminist, but I am inspired and encouraged by the strength and determination of these ladies. I learned through conversation that the Luo Tribe’s traditional culture is centered around sex. and in these traditional practices, the men have all the power. If the man says he wants sex, the wife has to give it or she can be beaten, or lose financial support, or have her reputation wrecked. Conversely, if the woman wants to get down and dirty and husband doesn’t want to, she will just have to go to sleep unsatisfied. Plus there are tons of sex rules. At the first day of harvest, they have to have sex. The day after a woman gives birth, they have to have sex. Etc. Also, it is considered acceptable for men in Asembo Bay to sleep around and have mistresses and girlfriends outside of their marriage. The wife usually finds out from someone else, or by seeing dirty text messages on his phone, and even if she’s hurt and angry she’ll usually keep quiet and do nothing. If she causes a fuss over it, he’ll lie about it and the community starting with their family members will blame everything on the woman and spread rumours about her, and he could stop supporting her and their children. If SHE cheats on him she’ll also be outcasted. And it’s common for men to jump ship as soon as they get a girlfriend pregnant. Some men are faithful, but when I asked the 2 women I was speaking with if they could think of any, they couldn’t come up with any names. They said they live with an ongoing sense of fear.

And so, it is inspiring and encouraging that the Asembo Bay Women for Development are banding together, not to subjugate men, but to prove that women are strong and capable, and to work towards a more equal society while supporting development in their community. I have never been as proud of women as I am now, nor as grateful to be with a man who respects and values me, is proud of my abilities, and is committed to just me, flaws and all, not me and 5 other callously devalued women. The women in Asembo Bay truly are working to improve the lives of generations to come, and this is an amazing thing to witness.

NOW.

Now I’m on my way home to Vancouver. The first thing I want to do is put my feet in the ocean. When my Gran passed away last summer, Matt led me down to the ocean to stand in it together, and start a new beginning. I feel like Kenya has been one big refresh button, a chance to clear the mind and see the world with fresh eyes. Now it’s time to put my feet in the ocean again, and get what I’ve got coming.