Letter By Jessica Fortin '01 from Kenya, Dec 2002

22.11.02 Jambo! I must practice my Kiswahili for when we leave Luoland - it is very frustrating to not be familiar with at least one of the local languages... So I thought I'd send out a pre-holiday greeting to everyone, with apologies if you have heard some of this already. It seems like there is enough going on here for me to talk about that I shouldn't have to repeat myself too much. I've been trying to write down as many impressions/experiences/etc as I can (thank you, Anne French, for my diary!), but it is easy to get caught up in daily life and forget how incredible and unusual everything here is, when compared to American life. Weíre coming up on the end of the short rains, which usually last through November. It still rains most days, either late afternoon or very early in the morning, and the resulting flash floods are tremendous. Ugunja is paralyzed while it rains, no one ventures out, and all the street vendors huddle on porches, wrapped in layers of clothing, until they can go back out to sell. We discovered that trash clean-up on the street in front of the Centre is a losing battle ñ no matter that we unearthed hundreds of plastic bags packed into the ground, there are hundreds more taking their place after the rain, as all the trash from town is swept along right in front of the Centre and deposited in the gullies created by the water. When I say trash, though, it is basically just plastic bags ñ anything else is reused. There are almost no cans, soda comes in glass bottles which are returned to Coke, and any plastic jugs or containers are reused as water buckets or measuring cups for grains and beans. The kids make soccer balls out of some of the plastic bags, little hard things that hurt when you kick them (but the kids still play barefoot), but there are just too many. It is very unfortunate, because sisal is a local cash crop and using the baskets woven out of the fibers supports local farmers and the economy. Many women dO use them, but whenever you buy vegetables, or just about anything, they insist on putting it in a flimsy little plastic bag. Itís like when you go to Kmart and they put each item in a separate plastic bag. It is amazing though to see the women carrying the heavy baskets of maize flour, or 5 gallon buckets of water, balanced on their heads with a cloth wrapped in a spiral used as cushioning. Water transport takes up a good deal of time for most families, other than those living in Ugunja town who can afford water from a spigot. The coordinator of the Centre, Aggrey, lives about 2 km from town and his family gets water from the borehole along the path to Ugunja, about 1.5 kms from their compound. In addition to his family (wife, 7 or so kids, and a couple orphans they take care of), his mother, his fatherís two other wives, and his half brother and sister live in the compound as well. Every day they use about 100 litres of water, all of which is carried by the teenage boys. The littlest kids help out, but only have to carry their own bath water. Weíre definitely lucky to have piped water, and having it actually piped indoors is even more of a luxury. Iíve been told that often the town borehole will run out of water in the dry season, in which case we will have to carry our own water, or more likely pay a kid to get it for us. In terms of work, things are winding down in anticipation of the holidays and the dry season. Exams are just finishing up in the schools, and then there is a month-long vacation before the new school year starts in early January. There isnít much work to be done in the Sustainable Agriculture Program ñ things are busy growing, and harvest of some crops has started, although the bulk of the maize wonít be removed from the fields until it is dry, in early December. Iíve been working on an annual report for the Centre, trying to catch each of the program chairs to get the information I need, and sort out a format for the report. Theyíve never had one before, and in order to attract potential donors, it is pretty essential. While the Centre is doing really good things in the community, and in many ways is the ideal model ñ a grassroots community-based organization ñ for how sustainable development should be encouraged in a community (vs. the more top down approach of many NGOs, both national and international), there are still challenges in the administration and organization, as all the people involved with the Centre are volunteers, dedicated for sure, but still volunteers, and there is no formal administration (board of directors, etc) to oversee finances and all that necessary business of a proper NGO. Which is what they want to be, eventually. But at this stage of the game, they are barely making it day to day with the expenses needed to transport the local volunteers to the places they need to go and to buy the newspaper for library members to read, not to mention things like rent and electricity. They hope to raise the funds next year to construct a permanent facility, where the Centreís activities can become more established (like a permanent demonstration garden, instead of the various plots we help maintain on individual farms). The big event in December (other than the elections, of course) is the arrival of 11 Australian volunteers ñ 10 girls and one guy ñ who are building a new classroom at the secondary school. They are on one of those working vacation deals, and will all be living in the house next to us for the month and a half they are here, which should make things a little more lively (most excitement comes from a little kid who lives in the house in front of us who likes to scream and run away whenever he sees us ñ apparently heís been told that white people will eat him). Weíll probably be helping out with the construction, since there wonít be much else to do, until just before Christmas, when weíre heading to Uganda for the holidays and to safely observe the elections from outside the country. It is pretty up in the air what will happen ñ the people here donít have much choice, between two men who promise the same things but canít, or wonít, deliver in the end. If the opposition does win, however, it will be a small step in the right direction, knocking out of power the party that has ruled for almost four decades. Miraculously, the president is also stepping down, as required by the Constitution, after his own two decade rule. But no matter what happens there will be some very unhappy people.

25.11.02 It is a short work week for the Americans here ñ actually only three of us: me, Mike, and Eddie, the 63-year old Peace Corps volunteer. Thanksgiving! Which no one has ever heard of, but everyone seems to understand, as all it really is is a big feast. We tried to buy anything we could find that was remotely Thanksgiving-like and it looks like our feast will be focused around mashed potatoes, with some canned peas, beans, pickles, and butterscotch pudding to supplement the potatoes and a box of red wine to wash it all down. There are turkeys around, but cooking it would be a challenge on our little kerosene stove, not to mention killing and preparing it! So weíll just go the vegetarian route, albeit without a tofu turkey or anything like that. In fact, the meat here isnít all that bad ñ although I have come face to face with my dinner clucking in a cage at the back of the restaurant. Mike says the beef is just as good as what you can get at Murphyís for $15.95 or something ridiculous, and here you pay a little over a dollar. We go out to eat in Ugunja with the other volunteers about once a week ñ the only novelty about going out is you donít have to cook. The menu is very generic ñ chapati, ugali, meat, sukuma wiki. I always finish last, wrestling with my stringy chicken until the bitter end. It is unusual to find animals penned up and feed fodder or animal feed ñ almost all livestock is left to fend for itself. Chickens seem to know where they live and come home at night (one very lost teenage chicken tried to adopt us one night as it was getting dark, persistently hopping up into Mikeís lap and returning to our porch when he tried to carry it away. Finally he brought it up to our neighbors, who were instantly able to identify whose chicken it was and it was returned home safe and sound), sometimes minus a chick or two, as it is a risky world out there for little chickens. The cattle are usually tended by young boys, who attempt to maintain some sort of control over the animals that must weigh 10 times more than they do ñ more an effort to prevent thievery than anything else. So the animals are the fat things weíre used to in the US ñ theyíre tough and sinewy, but have much less of an impact on the environment, eating up what no one else wants. somehow it is time to renew our visas - can't believe we've been here almost three months! - and hope the immigration officers don't get suspicious that we've been in Kenya all this time and have just been "hanging out" in the western part (not a whole lot of conventional tourist attractions around here). Since we are on tourist visas, we are not supposed to be doing any work, paid or unpaid, so we're just going to say we've been traveling and learning about the people, and about sustainable development, etc. No work here! ;-) Basically, they don't want foreigners taking jobs that Kenyans could have, which is perfectly reasonable considering the low employment rates and general poverty, but on the other hand, we ARE volunteers and even if someone else were doing the work we're doing, they would still be volunteers, and we're actually bringing money into the country. But I wouldn't count on that story going very far with the immigration officials, unless accompanied by a hefty bribe, and Iíd prefer not to have to perpetuate that system any more than I have to.

28.11.02 happy thanksgiving! as you can see, we had to postpone our great feast and get kisumu business done on the big day. i hope everyone is having fun with family, turkey, and veggies. take care and you are all welcome to stop in anytime youíre near ugunja. cheerio!

love jess