The internet connection seems to have improved over the past week, so hopefully, I can cover some ground here and catch everyone up to speed.
I arrived in Nairobi two weeks ago with my friend Katrina, a day ahead of the rest of the group. We spent that night with a friend of Katrina's mom, a National Geographic filmmaker named Kire, who was an incredible person and host. We are hoping to screen one of her films here at the compound; keep your fingers crossed. She showed us around the area, a suburb of Nairobi called Karen (named after the author of Out of Africa, Karen Blixen, who was the first white person to settle this area) before dropping us off at the St. Lawrence compound. The next five days were spent adjusting to the high altitude/recovering from jetlag/and becoming acquainted with the surroundings. Our compound is a five-acre plot, with dorms, a kitchen, a classroom/computer lab, and several faculty/staff houses. It is a walled-in area, protected 24 hours a day, seven days a weeks by professional guards (every house in the area has a similar set up), which took a little getting used to. During these five days, we also took Swahili, and went on short trips to different parts of Nairobi and Karen.
After the orientation period, we embarked on our Rural Homestay component. First, we drove to Kericho, the largest town in the Western Rift Valley Province, where the majority of Kenya's (East Africa's also?) tea is grown. We toured the James Finlay tea estate to get an idea of how large-scale tea farming works. IT was pretty impressive: 14,000 workers, 4 enormous factories, and 15,000 hectares of tea fields. We spent that first night at the Kericho Tea Hotel, where we learned about Kipsigis culture and prepared for the next week of immersion.
The following morning each student was dropped off at their respective homes in the area. My family lived in a area about 20 minutes away from Kericho. My homestay fathers name was Joseph Talam. He used to be a primary school teacher, but now is retired. My homestay mothers name was Emily, and my brothers name was Peter. My given name was Kipkoech, meaning "born in the morning." Upon my arrival, I was greeted by a small crowd. I soon learned that Kipsigis social networks are tightly interwoven, so, while I was staying with a family of only three people, I often felt like I was part of a family of about fifty people.
During this week, I ate. A lot. Meals seemed to be one of the most celebrated times of the day. Typically I ate about five meals each day: breakfast around 8, porridge around 10, lunch around 2, tea and "bitings" around 5 and dinner around 8. Lunch and dinner were usually comprised of stewed meat, stewed vegetables such as kale, spinach, or similar indigenous plants, chapati (sort of like Indian naan), rice, and the staple of each meal, Ugali, a mixture of corn flour, dark wheat flour, and water. I can honestly say that over the course of the week, I was never hungry.
While my family insisted that I could help them as much as I wanted to in their farm work or tea-plucking, the majority of each day was usually spent taking me to relatives. I met four uncles, five village elders, two aunts, and innumerable cousins and friends of the family. Everyone was very friendly, and extremely curious about my life. Popular questions were, "how does this climate compare to yours?" "What is your country's cash crop?" "How many cows do you have?" and my favorite "Will you tell Mr. Obama that I say hi?" Most people spoke a bit of English, and I got by with the little Kipsigis that I learned, so I actually didn't feel too hampered by the language barrier. Still, it is nice to be back among peers, preparing for classes this week.
Here are some pictures of the last few days.
Hannah with a chameleon at Kembu Campsite in Njoro. We spent one night here after our rural homestay. This area is famous for chameleons and drunk British people. A very cool place.
My homestay family, along with assorted cousins. My brother is kneeling on the lower far left, my mother is standing on the upper far left, my father is on the upper far right.
My homestay father at the entrance to his home.
The river, two minutes by foot from my house. The Unilever tea estate can be seen on the right side of the river. Women are washing their clothes on the river plain beside the river.
My brother, in the foreground, plucks tea and listens to music (note the radio placed on the gunny sack next to him). My father plucks tea in the background.
