Cat and Joe in Kenya!

We have arrived here in Nairobi and have had a busy first week. We are very excited and grateful for this opportunity and look forward to sharing our stories with you. The following letter is an overview of what we have been doing here in Nairobi since we arrived last week. The first part is a travel log narrated by Joe (with embellishments from Cat) – this is Joe’s first trip out of North America! The second part is from Cat, reflecting on her research so far.

Joe says: All is well, disregarding the stomach flu, which is now gone. We are in Nairobi with our buddies and enjoying the city life. We have been riding matatus – which are the local minivan taxis with screaming music and ridiculous driving. The traffic is like New York City – 24-7 – with diesel fumes and no street lights. There is no such thing as a passive driver – everyone is aggressive. The streets are also full of “hawkers” these days – people selling everything from vegetables and fruits to clothing, shoes, electronics, CDs, DVDs, and other cheap goods (most likely imported from China). The people are really nice – everyone seems very friendly. Everybody keeps calling me Jesus. I think that’s a good thing, because nobody wants to steal from Jesus.

Mjomba has been a very good host. As some of you know, he is a Kenyan friend who was a classmate of Cat’s at OU, where he got his Ph.D. in Interpersonal Communication. He lived in Athens for 8 years and lived with us at Willow Farm for awhile, where he worked on the farm. He says that his time in Rutland was his best experience in the U.S., as he got to see what “real life” is like, not the life at the university. He remembers fondly our friends, drum circles and parties, slaughtering our goat “Zeus”, and the quiet life on the farm, even though I kept him busy weeding and digging in the hot sun. Now he says it is “payback time.” We will be staying with him and his sister here in Nairobi, and then will live with his family at the rural school they started in Taita. He is excited that I will be working at his family farm, and that Cat will be working with the Vindo Multipurpose Cooperative Society, an organization that was led by his mother for many years.

Anyway, Mjomba has kept us busy here in Nairobi already. He has introduced us to many of his friends, relatives, students and colleagues. He has taken us to the City Market, where we saw crafts, a meat market, and we met an old flower farmer who seemed very interesting and had a wealth of knowledge about flowers and plants. We ate a great fruit salad bowl with watermelon, papaya, passion fruit, pineapple, banana, avocado, and topped with shredded beets.

Mjomba also took us to his classes at Daystar University, where we introduced ourselves to his students and talked about life in the U.S. They seemed shocked that we could have farms and live in the forest, and that we raise goats. They were really interested in hearing about Willow Farm and about organic farming and the food system in the U.S. Each time we spoke in his classes, we made contacts with people who knew people at OU. Small world.

Mjomba also took us all around South C, the community where we are living, and the Industrial Area. We also went to an exhibition at the Kenya Industrial Research and Development Institute, where we saw alternative energy being displayed i.e. solar, hydropower and biodiesel. We also saw bamboo crafts and furniture and classes being offered on how to grow and use bamboo. We also met metal fabricators who could shape any type of metal and make replacement parts for cars, tractors, etc. We also met some weavers who worked on a beautiful wooden loom that they use to make fabric and clothing, and we got a nice white cotton woven shirt from them. We also met herbalists, who are marketing nettle tea, Artemisia annua (a malaria remedy), soy products, and other medicinal herbs. We also met people advocating the use of Jatropha, a local plant which grows in arid areas and that can be processed for biofuels, iodine, and other products. We also met women who were making and selling beautiful arts and crafts such as baskets, handbags, jewelry, paintings, banana-leaf collages, fabrics, and other curios.

We went to the Industrial area to try to find a surge protector for Cat’s computer, where a guy tried to sell us a 35,000 shilling converter (which is about $500), but then we laughed heartily. Instead, we bought ourselves a surge protector for $40, which does the trick!

We have been enjoying eating samosas and chips (French fries). We have also eaten some good Tilapia fish from Lake Victoria and have been drinking Tusker and Citizen beers, which are the local Kenyan brews. At home, we have been cooking with Mjomba and his sister Mary and nephews, where we have made stews, ugali (corn meal porridge that we eat with our hands), sukumawiki (fried collard greens), rice, beef, and fish.

On our walk home one day we took an off route, where we found a Chinese doctor. We stopped to speak with her but she was rather cold and didn’t have much to offer. (We hope to find another Chinese doctor or acupuncturist – we have seen many signs for them here.) So we moved on, and then we found a backstreet shopping area with chickens running around, and people lying around. One young man in his late teens or early twenties, high on something (probably glue), was trying to get money or sell us some pills, and he was very persistent. Mjomba made short work of him, and we moved on.

That evening, we went to a diplomat’s house, a nice Sri Lankan-American family who work with the U.S. embassy and USAID. The security in their neighborhood was like the Alamo!! There were walls everywhere, and security guards at every gate, and even in the house, the security guards made their rounds. Funny, because everything here seems so peaceful. They lived in a very wealthy, westernized home with a huge backyard with gardens and a cathedral ceiling. They had a nice art collection with Tibetan paintings, Indian and African art, and beautiful furniture. They had a spread of fine Indian food made by their servants, two local Kenyan women. We met another Fulbrighter who is a computer scientist from MIT and his girlfriend. We also met a great Jamaican-American woman from New York who is the ambassador’s assistant. We really connected with her and she invited Cat to a special meeting of women activists at the ambassador’s house (more on this later). We also met a great American guy who works at the embassy, and who seemed really down to earth and fun.

Later that week, we went to the U.S. Embassy outside of Nairobi. The embassy has been moved outside of the city, near the United Nations complex in a beautiful forested area. The security is very high since the 1998 bombings (which Cat survived in her last visit to Nairobi). We got to use their library facilities, which were very nice and they had a super-fast internet connection. We had to be escorted everywhere because they don’t recognize us as citizens yet until we go through our orientation and security briefing – which everyone keeps telling us are scare tactics. (We have since done this – it was very intimidating, actually.)

When we left the embassy, we saw a big election rally outside with people dancing and playing drums and blocking the street and traffic. We stepped to the side to avoid getting in the middle of it, and watched them pass by. Everybody seemed really happy and joyful – they were promoting a candidate for a Member of Parliament from the Westlands Constituency in Nairobi. The elections will be held on December 27, and this is a really big deal here. There are 3 major presidential candidates – Mwai Kibaki (the incumbent), Raila Odinga (a longtime MP), and Kalonzo, who is trailing in the polls. There are over 600 political parties with candidates running for Parliament. It is very exciting to witness this time before the elections, and to talk to people about our electoral system in the U.S. Kenyans are intensely political people and it has been exciting to witness a different approach to democracy.

After we left the embassy, we went and met with our new friend Catherine Mwangi, who is Mjomba’s student at Daystar University. She is the owner/manager of a very high-class apartment complex, where a lot of Americans and foreign diplomats are referred. She had a swimming pool, weight room facilities, a restaurant and bar, and it is close to the Sarit Centre mall, which is like a Westernized mall (like Easton mall in Columbus). Five stories of overpriced goods, and lots of white people walking around. As Mjomba said, “the cream of the crop of Kenya.” Catherine fed us a really great meal and talked our ear off. She is friends with our friend Wamucii’s mother – we met Wamucii at Ohio University, where she was studying Communications for her Ph.D. Catherine had attended Wamucii’s wedding in Athens and she was happy to know we were from there.

Over the weekend, we relaxed at home, which was nice after our hectic few weeks of preparations and travel. We got lots of rest, cooked food, listened to music and watched movies with Mjomba’s nephews, who are college students. It was nice to just rest and let our spirits catch up with our bodies.

Cat says: On Monday, I went to a meeting and reception at the U.S. Ambassador’s residence outside of Nairobi to celebrate the International Day for Elimination of Violence Against Women. This is a United Nations initiative with 16 days of activism around the world, to raise awareness about women’s rights and equality. I attended a roundtable discussion with women activists from all over Kenya. I met educators, lawyers, judges, Members of Parliament, doctors, counselors, diplomats, and other activists and leaders. This was an important event for my research and a great networking opportunity as I met with the movers and the shakers of the Kenyan women’s movement. I was very inspired and energized by listening to their stories and their ideas about future directions for women’s activism. Many talked about the importance of education, both formal and informal, to raise awareness about gender equity and the protection of women and girls from gender-based and sexual violence. I learned about some of the problems facing Kenyan women, including rape, sexual assault, domestic violence, early marriage, and female genital mutilation (circumcision). I learned that some of the female candidates running for Members of Parliament have been assaulted and harassed recently. In response, the Kenyan Police Commissioner recently declared that the police will provide protection for all women candidates running for office. This is a major victory for Kenyan women seeking political office.

I also met Njoki Ndungu, a famous female Member of Parliament who has been one of the leading activists for women in Kenya. She talked about the challenges of working within Parliament to pass legislation for women’s rights, including the Sexual Offenses Act, the Affirmative Action Act, the Children’s Act, and others. She said one of the major barriers has been the attitudes of men in Parliament, an “old boys network” who have an old-school mentality that women are inferior and who believe that issues of sexual violence or domestic abuse are better left to the home. However, an older woman who was an MP in the 1970s said that the passage of the Sexual Offenses Act was like a “Miracle” – she could never have done this in the 70s, and she believes that things have really changed for women in Kenya. The U.S. ambassador and many of the women there talked about how women have been at the forefront of political, social and economic change here in Kenya, and that things are continuing to change for the better.

This experience really makes me realize that I am on the right track with my research about informal education and leadership development among Kenyan women’s organizations. Indeed, the Kenyan women’s movement is growing and is influencing every sector of society in Kenya. Gender issues are the subject of many personal conversations and media outlets, including TV, radio, and newspapers. Although there is still a lot of work to do for gender equity in Kenya, I am encouraged by the energy and dedication of the women’s movement here.

I made many contacts at this meeting, and came home with a stack of business cards and many new numbers in my cell phone. I am hoping to visit some of these women in their offices for preliminary interviews before I go to start my fieldwork in Taita, in order to get a better sense of the breadth and depth of the women’s movement in Kenya.

One exciting outcome of the meeting was that I was invited to visit the Nairobi Muslim Academy by the Principal of the school, a Somali woman named Fatima. This school is actually in our neighborhood here in South C and is connected to the mosque here, which I have been hoping to visit but didn’t know how to approach them. It turns out that 15 students of their school are being sponsored by the U.S. embassy, and they recited an incredible poem and song at the reception. I talked to some of the girls from that school and another high school, and I was impressed by their poise and confidence.

I was also invited to attend an alternative rites of passage program in a Maasai community in Southern Kenya next week, which is a program being organized by a women’s group called “Cherish Others.” This program hopes to develop an alternative to female circumsion (or female genital mutilation), which is widely practiced by the Maasai community. They will have a three day initiation period for girls. I might try to go to the celebration on the last day. This will be an important experience for me as I attended a Maasai girls’ circumcision ceremony back in 1994 during my first trip to Kenya. It will be interesting to see how women in the local community are now organizing to develop an alternative education program that does not include cutting. While they recognize the importance of initiation to help girls make the transition to womanhood, they also recognize the damaging effects of circumcision on girls and women.

I also met an incredible young woman who is the head of a group for leadership development among young women and girls in Kenya. She is advocating for self-defense workshops and is outspoken about the need for empowerment of girls as well as gender sensitivity training for young men and boys. She also invited me to come visit her at her office and to attend the self-defense workshops!

So, as you can see, we have been busy already, and life is good. God keeps putting us where we need to be to make connections and to have a good time. We are blessed and happy to be here. We hope that you all are doing well, that you had a happy Thanksgiving, and that you will keep in touch. Send us messages to let us know what is up in your lives!! Although we are glad to be here, we also miss you. There’s no place like home……

Peace and Love,

Joe and Cat