Projects in Kenya

The group I go to Kenya with is called YouthLINC - you should check it out. This is an organization that I feel makes huge differences, both in the lives of the receivers and the givers. Participating in a youthlinc experience marks you forever. I lead a team of about 25 students and 10 mentors. The students volunteer in their local community for a minimum of 100 hours. I get a list of the needs of the community in Kenya, the students select a committee to work on, and as a committee, they work throughout the entire school year to plan and prepare the projects that are based on the needs of the village. This includes fundraising for the projects or collecting any items they need. They are responsible for making sure the project happens once we are in Kenya. Once everything is planned and prepared, the team then spends two of the hardest working weeks of their lives in a secluded village in Kenya. This year we worked in Kiamuri. Here are the projects we did...

Construction

We had TWO classrooms to build. The foundation had been completely laid for one and partially laid for the other. This was incredibly demanding labor. The work progresses slow with crude tools and the lack of modern conveniences. Water had to be manually hauled in, cement mixed by hand. Even the scaffolding had to be cut down from the forest! We were a bit skeptical of it actually holding us... but we all survived. We were able to get both classrooms to the point for the roofs to go on. The community will continue the classrooms until completion.

The Library Project

Because of MANY incredibly generous people we were able to provide much needed materials and create 5 school libraries. In addition to the books we collected in the U.S., a former youthlinc student was able to get a grant so that we could purchase text books in Kenya. We hauled over as many books as we could possibly take (loads of students packed books in their own luggage to get them over). We did many activities with the students there to get them excited about having and using a library (I even read Skippy John Jones and even the kids in Kenya sang along... take a look at the video at the bottom!). I'm going to mention a few of the people that really contributed to making this project happen- Friends from Escalante Elementary School and the Salt Lake Center for Science Education- Leslie, Cathy, Elaine and Nikki... your generous contributions MADE this project happen. I cannot convey to you how desperately excited the teachers and the students were for these books... Books are truly gold in Kenya.

Shoe Distribution

Another project we did was a shoe distribution project. Thank you Murray 22nd Ward Young Women for all of your efforts in this! We had so many shoes to pack we ended up having to send some to our Peru site. We were able to give shoes to the cute nuns that took such good care of us, shoes to the high school students and shoes to village women. I have to tell you my favorite part of this project though... everyday as we would walk to the different project sites, we would always be greeted along the way by the dirtiest, cutest kids you can imagine. They weren't in school (I don't know why), they lived in dark little huts, they wore swollen, hungry bellies... yet they were always there with a smile. Near the end of our trip I talked to the group about doing the most random shoe distribution yet... we'd take the shoes, walk down the dirt roads and round up the poorest of the poor. As we'd walk the roads I would listen for sounds of kids in huts. If I heard them, I'd duck in and do the very best miming I could muster to try to get them to come with me for shoes. It was magical!

Health Education

YouthLINC has a great focus on health education. We do all kinds of lessons. We teach about various topics to a wide variety of audiences. Our students work on their lessons throughout the year and we work to get the topics of need from the village. This year we taught about HIV/AIDS, maturation, hand washing, dental hygiene, and cycle beads. We also bring hygiene and first aid supplies for women that come to health lessons. We provide hygiene and dental supplies to kids we teach. We also work to stock local clinics with much needed supplies. Thanks to McDonough Orthodontics and Jim and LaNette Powell for the dental goods. We were able to provide dental hygiene lessons and items to all 5 schools. Thank you so much to the Paradise Ward- you were incredibly generous with your donations of hygiene and first aid supplies. Students even packed some of your donations in their personal luggage in order to get it over to people who needed it most!

Microenterprise

A component of Youthlinc that I really love is the microenterprise program. We worked with 4 women's group, each with 5 women on learning about business and creating their own business plan. We raised enough money to give them each a beginning loan of $100.00 This may not sound like much, but over there, that is life changing. One woman we loaned to in the past created a "donut" business. Her business has been incredibly successful- she sells out of her donuts a few times a day. Micro loans really give these women a chance to break the poverty cycle they get caught in.

Vocational Training

We also provide vocational training while we are there. We were able to donate a few computers (they are working on getting permanent electricity at one school using solar panels). For now, they can charge the laptops at a nearby medical clinic. Some of the teachers we trained had never seen a computer. By the end of our time, many were using them to create lesson plans. We also provided 2 ovens for the community and taught women's groups how to bake some various recipes so that they could then sell their baked goods. I have to say that the papaya cookies were my fave! The students in this committee work very hard to gather/create recipes that the women will be able to acquire all of the ingredients for. We will continue training in both of these areas when a new group returns next summer.

Education

While we are in the village we also teach loads of lessons in classrooms of all ages. This is tons of fun for both their students and ours. We play games with them, sing songs with them and by the end of the trip, I have to check my team member's bags to be sure they haven't packed any kids away. This year we were able to create and take over 200 school kits to students. We were also able to leave the different schools with school supplies.


This was an amazing adventure. I wanted to give you all a taste of what we do while we are there. There were many other generous donations which were greatly appreciated (Jill A and Laura- you guys are wonderful!). The kids I take on these trips work like crazy and I believe they make some beautiful differences in this world.

Back to Kenya...Opening Ceremonies

Opening ceremonies in Africa is one of those indescribable experiences that you can only truly comprehend by being there. It is completely vivid and it awakens all of your senses. The sounds and the rhythms are raw… the voices are brown sugar and butter... the sacred earth under your feet takes life. It’s nothing short of a spiritual moment.

Just imagine being rushed by hundreds of excited children. They are all grabbing your hands and have the biggest grins in the world, like they’ve just won the grandest prize. They swarm you with intense love. They are strangers… and then, just like that, they are family. I’ve posted some pics and I have some great video to post but I can’t get enough bandwidth here… so when I do, I’ll post that!





Because I was the team leader I got dragged up to dance- I'm pretty much the least coordinated dancer EVER!

Getting there was half the battle...

In Kenya we stayed at a Catholic hospital in a quaint section with delightful nuns. We didn't have electricity all of the time, but they did have a good enough rainy season that we were able to have running water while we were there. We clearly did not have internet access, thus I will be bouncing back and forth between Kenya adventures of the past few weeks and current adventures I am having in Vietnam.

Getting to Kenya is quite the journey. Of all the places I’ve been, Kenya seems the most taxing… also the most worthwhile. From Salt Lake City we flew to Denver, from Denver to DC, from DC to Ethiopia (16 hours on the plane). We had an overnight in Ethiopia where I had to argue with the front desk over water for my team for about an hour. Then we flew from Ethiopia to Kenya the next morning. Not including the overnight we spend about 24 hours in the air, plus layovers so it takes close to two days to get to the capital of Kenya. From there we drive… and drive. In Kenyan standard time it takes about 3 ½ hours to get to a place to overnight at. In U.S. time that means a little over 7 hours. Most of the drive is on roads that people would be leery 4 wheeling on. We had a bit of car trouble along the way.

We were taking two buses, one car and one van to accommodate the entire team and the luggage. It was dark by the time we got to a small town to overnight in. Our bus made a wrong turn and was backing up, the suddenly WHAM! The entire bus tilted sideways. We didn’t turn over but I did have to have everyone on the bus hop out the driver’s door. The bus was completely stuck and at a vary precarious angle. Finally, using the other bus and about 20 Kenyan men, they managed to get the bus out of the ditch it had fallen into. However, when they pulled it out, it came out a bit harder than anticipated and smacked into the other bus. I asked where the other two vehicles were (people needed their bags) and the driver told me that they had both been in accidents as well but no one was hurt. It was definitely a crazy beginning to the adventure.

The traveling adventure was far from over. Ever heard of Kenya Nascar? Me either! But somehow, my vehicle got stuck in the middle of one. I had sent the two buses and car ahead of the van. I took the van with several students to go and pick up necessary items. We all had another 2 hour ride to the village. After our quick shopping trip the van was exploding with people, groceries, and various whatevers and we started heading down a road. We’re driving along and all of a sudden our driver, Peter, roars the van into a ditch and up a little hill. It took a minute for us to realize what had happened… We were driving down a race track- no lie- still a broken, crazy road, that was now a make shift race track and the cars that were cruising down were FLYING!! The race cars only came one at a time and were released every couple of minutes. Our driver started easing his way onto the road, back the way we had come so we could get out of there. He would then suddenly pull off, into a ditch and a speeding race car would leave us in a cloud of dust. Finally the driver and I decided it would be best if another mentor and I hopped out, ran ahead, checked for the all clear and waved him to safety. So two of us did and the second we were out of the car onto the road we could hear another car coming. So we dove into the nearest ditch. Then we began our jog up the road, being cheered on by a bunch of Nascar Kenyans… it was quite hilarious if I hadn’t been so freaked. This plan worked for a while until we looked at Peter and he was sweating bullets. He finally decided we’d have to pull off and wait for the race to be over. Then we got a call from a local who said there was exactly two minutes between racecars and we were so close that if we left after the next car, we could easily make the turnoff. So Peter thought about it (for about 1 ½ minutes of our 2 minutes!!!!) then something clicked and he decided to give it a woo. We made it. It was crazy. And at this moment in time, I was thankful none of the students had access to internet- I could just imagine the parent response from participating in Kenya car races!!!
At last, we are safe and sound at our destination and new moments await.

Return to Kenya

The red earth rises up to greet me as a fine dust. Driving across it, a simple serenity comes over me and I feel as though I have returned to an old friend. The first time I traveled to Kenya (about ten years ago), she captured a part of me. I have always been drawn back to this place. Whenever I return, that piece quietly returns and a refreshing sense of ‘alive’ resides within. There is a peaceful familiarity in the burnt dust… beneath the brilliant stars… within living in the simplicity that this world breathes.

There is a vibrant rawness that attracts me. Everything here is completely vivid… the cloth the women adorn in their head pieces, skirts and the kangas- fastening beautiful Kenyan babies to their mother’s backs… the bewitching cadence of the untouched tribal chants… the enchanting acacia trees painted across the horizon… the open sky that stretches its cloudy hands into infinity…

But the most magical part of it all is the people. The people with their rich chocolate skin… burning coal eyes… weathered hands, weathered feet, weathered souls… They are the most poor when it comes to the tangible enticements the world values. But they have a secret. They keep their riches out of the eyes of the world. Though they live in mud huts and dance in bare feet, they are rich beyond imagining. They have stored away endless vaults of happiness. They are giving. They are kind. Their culture continues to pulse through their veins.

Yes, as I drive across the red earth, breathing in her bone dry dust, I am almost home.

Out For a Bit...

So, I do have more Vietnam updates, but I ran out of time to get them posted and I am headed to Kenya tomorrow. We are staying in a place with very little access to electricity and no running water, so internet is definitely out. But, tune back in around July 15th for some great Kenya and Vietnam updates. Thanks for reading!!