Writing Something Worthwhile

As a part of our class we have been assigned a journal to write in as we go through the class and this experience. We handed our journals in during the last class period and frankly, I know mine has fallen short.

You can barely see Darla's hand journaling, but everyone must be in deep thought about the trip and the journey they will take. :)

 I used to journal all of the time, but lately I can always find something more important to do during that time. My goal for the day/week is to write more in my journal about my fears, apprehensions, excitements and goals for my trip to Africa.

I also have trouble simply writing down ideas for my media portion of the trip in my journal. Writing down goals for that is a good thing to do, but I need to put more in my journal about how I can relate that to my life and this journey to Chogoria we are all on.

We will see how my goal goes! I hope to start today and continue journaling about this experience as we go. I am also making a goal to journal more generally more often. This goal might start with a new blog I am toying with creating.

Look forward to a post about some of the music I am learning and will  be teaching to the rest of the class. Should be lots of fun!

So, what is Kenya really like?

Last week we got a chance to visit with the group that went to Kenya last year. This was my personal favorite class so far because it was very informative as to what we would actually be doing.

Though, the group said they had a lot to share about the trip up Mount Kenya, which we have actually chosen not to experience. (We chose to spend more time working with the Faraja Project that weekend instead. This puts us in direct contact with people we can help AND it saves money. It was an almost unanimous decision. Abby wasn't quite sure. ;) )

Even though they didnt get a chance to talk about their trip up the mountain, they did have lots to say about other things.

What most of them had to say was that we should get used to being stared at. Here, in the United States, most of us are used to seeing different types of people in different places. There, they only see caucasions when they pass through on mission trips like this. They (apparently) will point at us and say "Muzungo" or white person. (correction may be added, I can't remember if this is the actual word) They also might touch us, especially if we give them permission to touch our skin and hair. Murika Bauer went and worked in the schools mostly.She talked about how you could tell how much the kids wanted to touch her, and as soon as she gave them permission they touched her skin and hair. One girl asked her if she went to America if her hair would turn long and blonde like Murika's.

Each of them gave us some insight into what we may be doing with our respected jobs. Working in the office in groups called "merry-go-rounds" ( I hope to get Morgan or Jaycie, who will be working with Village Hopecore, to write more about this.)

Others will be in the schools. Murika talked about her experience with the teachers just leaving her in the classroom as soon as she arrived. They didn't have any time to ask about how things ran in that school or see where the kids were in their books. The girls in the school were given a classroom and put in charge of that classroom all day. She also joked about how well behaved the kids are compared to American classrooms.

We've heard the story many times in class about a morning assembly at the primary school. All of the students stood in straight lines in their uniforms, perfectly quiet, looking up at their administrator. He told all of the students how important it was to be disciplined when the teachers from America were there because, "In America, the students are very disciplined." Can you imagine putting American elementary students in straight lines outside and expecting them to be quiet?

On a journalism tract, the students told me I would have lots of fun, but they asked me to make sure I told others stories as well. Good point! Remember to tell everyone's stories. Got it.

This was such a fun hour of class. Hearing about experiences that we will be very close too experiencing was so helpful.

Thanks for coming Chogoria class of 2011!

Chogoria

Chogoria, Kenya is our destination this May and this evening I have spent some time learning about this place on Wikipedia and the interweb.

(I stole this photo from Ronnie, the journalism student before me.  Check out her blog: 

http://triptokenya.posterous.com/)

Chogira is actually HUGE! Chogoria has over 28,000 people in it. That is much more than I was expecting.

Chogoria is 140 miles away from Nairobi. Chris informed us that this relatively short journey will actually take up to three hours. Something about giant speed bumps?

Chogoria was created around the Clive Irvine Hospital. Some of our fellow travelers will be working in that hospital, including Cindy Ault who is very excited to check out some diseases.

Chogoria is an education hub. It houses public primary boarding schools, girls schools and secondary schools as well as private establishments. The town also has the Clive Irvine Nursing College.

Isn't all of that stuff neat? Chogoria is going to be a very neat place to visit and I can't wait to have that experience. :)

Look forward to a post about our last class where we sampled Kenyan foods and heard from Dr. Coyle who was very informed on Kenyan wildlife. All this time, I had never thought of Kenyan wildlife. How could I forget!

Update!!

On campus here in Jamestown, we are all hurrying to prepare for the many midterms and projects due before Spring Break. This means that we are now only a semester from leaving for Kenya, which means, this blog is about to get a lot more regular.

The goal right now is two posts a week, a reflection from the Wednesday before and pictures from that week's class. Since last week, I didn't take any pictures, we will have this informational post and then a guest reflection from Jacie Fabro, one of the students who is also going to Kenya.

If there are any questions you wish to have answered on the blog, feel free to ask them in the comments.

ALSO: look forward to

• video blogs
• a post about Villiage Hopecore International
• AND a slideshow to show you all of what we have done

Thanks for following this blog and experiencing this journey with us.
I know I speak for the whole class when I say that it is nice to know there are people who are following us as we prepare.

HAPPY LEAP YEAR!!

--Beth

Women in Kenya--Jacie

Over the past few weeks of learning in our Kenya course we have focused primarily on the lives on women in the culture.  Women in Kenya make up the backbone of society doing both the manual labor in the field as well as raising their families.  The culture overall however is still a patriarchy and women have little no rights at all. 

            In class this past week we viewed an emotionally heavy film on FGM (female genital mutilation) and early marriage in Kenya.  Although both were made illegal in 2001, these rituals/traditions are still practiced in the rural/bush areas of the country.  I am sitting here trying to find the right words to express to you how emotionally charged this film was… but I’m not sure I can find the words to do justice to how terrible of a practice these two traditions are.

            The film featured several interviews with young women who had been victims of both FGM and early marriage. One girl in particular had her story followed from the day she realized she was being given away in marriage to her ultimate rescue. The girls (most of the time they are younger than 14) who are given away in an exchange for—get this, cows—are not told that they are being given away until the day of.  The FGM and marriage rituals begin with the elderly women shaving the young girl’s hair completely off… this is how the girls know that their father has sold them to another, always much older, man. In the film, the man that this young girl had been promised to was old enough to be her grandfather. Watching the young girl walk down the “aisle” absolutely sobbing while her family simply looked on was overwhelming. I wanted to scream at the family, all the while wondering how someone could do that to their child.

            I realize that the above paragraphs are a little jumbled and do not flow very well, but something that needs to be realized is how hard it is to put these emotions into words. It’s very hard for me to express the heartbreak I felt while watching this film and hearing the words from these young girls.

            There is hope though! Thankfully, education has created a change of mind in the younger generations. Families are beginning to understand the value of education for both their sons and daughters.  Girls are staying in school rather than getting married off at such a young age, they are beginning to value their own education… My prayer is that the older generations in Kenya will also begin to realize the importance of education.  It has given freedom to the women in Kenya and even with the young men. Perhaps, if education is stressed even more prominently, the boys who grow up to be men in the Kenya society will also begin to value the women by whom they are surrounded.    

--Jacie

Wardance

In my hear, I am more than a child of war. I am talented. I am a musician. I am Acholi. I am the future of our tribe. --Dominic

Our last class was Thursday, February 2nd.
It was movie night, and after handing in our journals we watched "Wardance."

This documentary follows three children living in a displacement camp in northern Uganda compete in their country's national music and dance festival.

This documentary was an incredibly moving hour and a half. We were able to see the way children live in their culture in Africa. Of course, the movie took place in Uganda and we will be in Kenya, but society is very similar.
We will see families that interact like the ones in this documentary when we travel to Chogoria, but we won't see families in the same situations.

In the documentary, people are afraid of being killed and abducted. They are protected by men with guns and must live close together because there is danger in the areas around them. Chris assured us that where we will be in Chogoria is much safer and people there have not gone through as much loss because of war and unrest.

"Wardance" showed the three children triumphing over their circumstances. It showed them working hard to do well nationally with their music. It made us laugh, cry and think about our own lives and what you we working towards. What are our goals? What are we willing to work to achieve and overcome?

Listening to the discussion during and after the movie, I think the biggest thing the class took away from the movie was the immense strength the children had. They came from fragmented families, poverty and extremely sad and challenging backgrounds and yet they were able to find happiness and success. Do we have that kind of strength? Could we find that emotion and perseverance inside of ourselves? We will never know, but understanding how those circumstances change a person and change the culture is important for us to know before we travel there.

Next class, we will have speakers who lived in Africa for several year.

The Journey continues and we continue to learn things about Africa and things about ourselves.

Check out the video! I highly recommend this video to any one looking for a good watch.

I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think - Socrates

  Last Thursday,  January 26,  I attended my first Window to Kenya class. I actually missed the first evening of real class so I was about a week behind in discussion. Don't worry about me though, I read everything and I think I am caught up.
 Reading, you ask?  Why yes, we have to read in this class.

The first book we are reading is this guide to Kenya from Lonely Planet. It's a pretty standard guide with maps and descriptions inside. Inside this book, I learned that Chogoria has a hair salon called LA Hair Salon. Pretty neat, huh?!

The second book we are reading is Imperial Reckoning. This book is a detailed account of the British conflicts and conquests in Kenya. It's pretty graphic, but it opens ones eyes to the injustice suffered in Kenya. This book has, so far, really opened all of our minds to the reality of what these people have gone through. We discuss this book quite a bit in class.

The third book we are reading is "I Laugh So I Won't Cry." This book is so good. Personal accounts and interviews with Kenya women. Already we have gotten into some heavy discussion about the women and their roles in society.

Last Wednesday we did an activity where we split the group in two and one side was the elder group and the other side was the youth.
We answered questions about women and their place in the family and society as well as whether education was a good thing or not.
Elders think education is a good thing, but that it brings trouble into the communities. Many of the ideas the elders have about modern technology and values are contradicting.