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.

"Good job, team."

Working on the letter in a conference room.

Sunday, the group got together to work on the letter we will be using for our fundraising campaign. It was only a matter of time until we started to come together, but while editing the letter, I think we all got more of a sense of our roles in the group.

The letter was a bit of a challenge. Asking for money is no easy task, and the wording was especially difficult because we were all so concerned about how we wanted to sound.

The most difficult part of the letter was deciding what we wanted to ask for. Of course, we are all looking for monetary donations, but what about things that aren't material. Thoughts, encouragements and prayer are sometimes more important to people than figuring out how much more money they need to fly overseas. We had to eventually decide who the letter was going to be sent to and made our decision based on that.

Even though fundraising is a big concern for us right now, it is really the smallest part of this trip. We have so much to learn this next semester and we haven't even begun to think about what May is going to bring.


How exciting!

First things first....

Hello readers, whoever you may be, 
My name is Beth Ryan. I am a freshman mass communications major at Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota, and I have exciting news...I am going to Africa.

Well, not just me. A group from this college is making the trip to Chogoria, Kenya in May of 2012. I have been given the job of the journalist for this group. Starting today, December 2nd, I will be telling the story of our trip and bringing everyone out there reading along for the ride.

 I will be posting pictures, writing update, making videos and sharing stories of our Journey to Chogoria. 

After Christmas break, I and my fellow travelers will be starting a night class to help us prepare for the trip. 
That class will teach us a lot about where we are going, what we are doing, what could happen and who we could meet.  
Our guide and main leader is Chris Hoke. Chris has already been to Africa, so he knows his way around the place and makes us all feel a little bit more comfortable about starting this journey. We will also be accompanied by Cindy Ault, a science professor here at Jamestown College. 

On this journey we will grow closer to one another, learn a lot about ourselves and each other, experience other cultures and learn more about the world around us.

Next week, the other girls and I will be meeting to put together a letter to send out. This letter will be sent out to our families and friends as part of our fundraising to pay for the trip.

Hopefully soon I will be able to post a picture of the group and tell you a little more about the people I will be traveling with.


Have a happy weekend!