Eldoret

Something that I’ve struggled with since being in Kenya is the blatant distinction between white and black. As has been apparent in many posts, I very much dislike having my attention drawn by someone shouting out “mzungu!” and when receiving no response, changing it to “white lady!” This past week however, I experienced many things which finally gave me an inkling of understanding about the distinction between socioeconomic class, which as an outsider, hadn’t seemed as obvious to me. After a comment made by my mom about how she expected things to be so much less expensive in Kenya, I realized how right she was. Most of the items that I’ve purchased have been from places like Nakumatt, which I previously referred to as the equivalent of Walmart. I’ve since learned however that socially, Nakumatt is perceived as many perceive Target in America, a classier, more expensive version of the same thing. Otherwhys, I buy things on the street where I’m perceived as deserving a higher price than my equal Kenyan counterpart because of my foreignness.

In reality though, things that an average Kenyan buys at an average price, are much more what my mother had expected. With some variation, a matatu (kenyan bus) is 30 ksh (30 cents), a bag of 4 fresh avocados is 80 ksh (80 cents), a coke in a glass bottle 35 ksh (35 cents), etc. -you get the picture, extraordinarily reasonable compared to American prices for comparable items.

I am not at all disputing the abject poverty that many Kenyans live in, nor am I disputing that those who are well off do not still struggle because of the economy. But what I’ve come to realize is that in America, most people make a relatively steady income, even those who don’t work, thanks to the infrastructures that we’ve set up. This thought process relates back to my experiences this past week in which I had the opportunity to shadow some street health care workers who are helping to facilitate the OSCAR research. OSCAR stands for Orphaned and Separated Children Assessment Related to their health and well-being.

Money is not something that most people like to talk about, but here I’m about to. Like most college educated students, my family and I are in a significant amount of debt because of it. Does this mean that I won’t buy a new pair of shoes or go out to dinner with the small amount of savings that I have? No. Should it? Maybe. But the point is that I’m riding on the last bit of that savings now to carry me through the rest of the semester. It took three years of working part time while in school to earn enough money to buy my plane ticket to Kenya. So when someone is following me along my entire walk home (especially prevalent during my OSCAR outreach) requesting that I fund their trip to America as if because I’m white, I inherently have that money, it gets very frustrating.

At the time, I was feeling as though I was being perceived by the community as this entitled girl who was too selfish to share the wealth instead of a hardworking girl who is just trying to learn what I can to be able to make a difference in the world someday. From my perspective, what distinguishes the west from developing countries is not so much having physical money, but rather having the opportunity to earn in. Although we struggle with unemployment in America as well, I feel that there are more opportunities to work than in Kenya. In my opinion therefore foreign aid to countries should not come in the sense of money, but rather in the sense of helping local people start their own companies, resulting in opportunities for others to become employees, etc. That is one thing that Kenya has going for them as one of the fastest growing economies-the entrepreneurship is through the roof. So many people start so many amazing businesses. Although it may be because they don’t have any other choice, many of these businesses are thriving. The variety of businesses range from selling clothes second hand on the street, to companies situated in buildings throughout the central business district of Nairobi, accessed through online marketing and spread by word of mouth.

What really motivated this post however, was when I was told that I could not walk home, and if I needed money for a taxi, well “it was only 3 dollars, so if I didn’t have it, anyone in the room could give it to me” (in a room full of very well off Americans). And I’ve realized that this is why the perception of us is as it is here in Kenya. 300 ksh is a lot to spend on a taxi for such a short distance, and money is far from expendable. For a Kenyan family, those 300 ksh could be the difference between someone being able to afford feeding their family for dinner for an entire week, or not. Yet to these Americans, it was only* three dollars. It put me in such a position where I felt embarrassed for feeling like that was a lot to go literally down the street, and I can only imagine how others feel when foreigners can appear so demeaning. It’s no wonder that people expect us to just give them money when this is the perception that many literally hand over to them. In terms of something larger than the topic of money (although that is certainly a large topic), it’s important to keep this in mind when interacting with any set of diverse peoples. Whether from the same culture or community, there is frequently a less visible difference in many other aspects of people's’ lives.

For these reasons, and for several others, one should never assume anything about another. The Americans that I associated with assumed that I would have enough money to be able to take a taxi, and Kenyans live in a constant state of assuming that I have extra money laying around to hand out. As my dad always says though, assuming only makes an ass out of you and of I, and I have to second that. Without assumptions about others, the world would be filled with less judgement and more communal understanding and societal progress.

With all of this being said however, I understand how sensitive of a subject money is and I hope that I have not approached it too obnoxiously. I am conscientious of the fact that everything I say comes with the privilege of being able to say so. By having enough money to travel, even for studies, I have more money than many Kenyans. Despite how positive my intentions in studying abroad may be, that doesn’t change the way that I appear. My perspective on this matter is obviously directly correlated to the fact that I am a white American, and regardless of how my opinion on the matter changes throughout my life, that will always be the fact. Although sometimes difficult to cope with, because I’ve always been one to find myself uncomfortable when sitting in a room full of white people, I know that in society, it doesn’t matter how I feel on the inside, rather how others from the outside perceive me. That however, is a commentary for another day. I think that for now, this is enough to soak in.

Siku njema!

Beca

AMPATH Internship

Taken from Joyfulheart.com

For the past week, I’ve been settling into my new home for the month. The place is called Eldoret, and the mission is to interact with as many people and public health concepts as is humanly possible within such a short amount of time. While here, I am participating in an internship with a consortium called AMPATH. To start, I’ll give you a brief overview of what my internship is concerning. AMPATH was originally an acronym for the Academic Model for Prevention and Treatment of HIV/AIDS. It has since developed however, to stand for the Academic Model for Providing Access to Healthcare. Despite what is commonly understood, AMPATH is not an NGO, but rather a consortium of North-American schools, Moi University Medical School, and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (which was only the 2nd public hospital in Kenya), and was founded during President Daniel arap Moi’s era in Eldoret, Kenya. AMPATH serves as the overarching connection between all of these places, but has no employees as it isn’t technically it’s own entity.

In my mission to interact with as many people as possible, I’ve already succeeded in meeting with American medical students, residents, Kenyan outreach coordinators, children, parents, and two amazing people who helped found AMPATH at the very beginning. During this first week, I’ve also had the opportunity to get acquainted with my surroundings, and figure out where I will best fit in for the next three weeks. One of the places that I’ve already visited and felt an instant connection to is called the Amani Shelter (Amani means hope). This place is run by two women and originated as a women’s shelter, but has since turned into a home for children without homes as well. I went with my supervisor and a friend of hers to see how the micro-business that she helped the shelter to start was coming along. Essentially, she donated >30 healthy chickens ready to begin laying to the shelter, as well as laying beds for the chickens, and the initial food for them. The goal is to create a sustainable source of income for the shelter by having the women sell the eggs laid by the chickens. With the money they earn, they can continue to provide for the chickens, and ultimately have leftovers to help with the rest of the cost of the shelter. They also hope to have a rooster soon so that they can begin breeding more chickens, allowing them to eat the ones that are currently providing the eggs, and allowing the cycle to continue and expand.

       From plastic bag,       to plastic yarn,         to plastic purse

Being the only SLU student in Eldoret, I didn’t have much to do over the weekend, so I reached out to the Amani shelter and asked if I could return to help out with anything that they needed, volunteering as I do frequently in the U.S. This visit was one of my most memorable moments in Kenya so far because it really helped something to click for me. One of the mothers told me that they are always so so happy to have visitors, and all of a sudden I had a new perspective. Throughout the whole semester I’ve felt as though people look at me, and because of the color of my skin, assume that I’m there to help in some way, when in reality I’m simply a student. In my hours at this shelter, I was introduced and seen as a visitor, as a friend. Sure in this instance, I had gone with the intent of helping which was much different then my motive for the rest of my activities this semester (to learn), but I was welcomed as one of the family they’ve formed there. With that being said, I was able to do something tangible. The women create bags, from grocery style bags, to beach bags, to pocketbooks. These bags are made 100% from plastic grocery bags, and are crocheted into these more sustainable bags, resulting in benefits for our environment as well as another source of income for the shelter. When I got back to my home, I took all the plastic bags I had and made the yarn from them as I’d been taught at the shelter to bring to them, so that was a great way to wrap up the weekend!

In addition to that experience, at the Moi Teaching and Referral hospital itself, I’ve had many opportunities to entertain/teach some children which are either patients, siblings of patients, or children who’ve been abandoned at the hospital. It never ceases to amaze me the mannerisms of Kenyan children, which I’ve had the opportunity to witness in various settings, but more concentratedly, here. Even in the instances where there is nothing to play with/do, the children do not cry out for attention. It isn’t even necessarily that they find ways to entertain themselves, but rather just find themselves doing nothing, and being okay with that. They are extraordinarily peaceful and respectful. Of course a small part of me would like to believe that this is simply a genetic trait of Kenyans, or perhaps the climate is just conducive to this sort of behavior. But I know it has more to do with the way they’re raised and the fact that they really have no choice, which is truly a double-edged sword. Historically, the reason for having children in many Kenyan communities has been practical - to have more people to help provide for/protect the family. There is therefore, no need or time to coddle the children. The Maasai boys for example, begin herding cows by themselves as early as 6 years old!! In America, at 6 years old, children are still crying when they have to let go of their mom’s hand for school. The independence and resilience of these children inspires me beyond belief. While the fact that they are able to hold themselves in such a mature manner is something to aspire for, the circumstances leading to this result have to be considered as well. As I’ve already mentioned, some of the children that I’m interacting with have been abandoned at the hospital, others have fallen into boiling oil, burning almost their entire bodies, spending sometimes years in the hospital waiting to heal. If their independence comes from factors like these, is it really worth the cost? But then again, do all of these factors play a role in why Kenya is among the fastest growing economies in sub-saharan Africa (according to the world bank)? Because the upbringing of Kenya’s children lends to perseverance, and ultimately great success? There is no easy answer, all I know for sure is that what I gain from this experience will be far beyond the scope of what I came to AMPATH to learn.

Although from this internship, it’s certain that I will gain a better understanding of the way global and public health functions, I believe that even more importantly, I will glean something so vitally important to human nature. When you have to be brave and strong - you are. When you have to be independent - you are. When you have to be idle for hours on end - you do so without complaining. These children are the epitome of these traits, and I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to spend time with them, and to learn about their dreams and goals, and know that even though all of the odds are against them, if anyone can make it happen, it is these children. My only hope is that I will be able to inspire those that I’m working with, even an inkling of the amount that they are inspiring me.

More to come on the outreach programs that I will have an opportunity to participate in the next week!
-Beca