Mt Elgon x 2

I'm back in civilisation... Back with electricity, back at the radio station computer, back with late nights. I had been getting amazing amounts of sleep up at the campus in Mt. Elgon where I stayed. Most of the time I was alone (there was an askari/guard outside who, along with the double- bolted doors and barred windows, kept me feeling quite safe) so I went to bed at absurdly early times for me- 9 or 10pm. Doing everything by candle or lamplight makes you to really appreciate using the daylight hours to their fullest. I woke up around 7am and went out to get my milk from the freshly- milked cow... warm milk... wowee. A treat. I wonder what my colleagues at the Canadian Food Inspection Agency think of that... Anyways, I never ever got sick in any way, though I think I have shed a few pounds after walking 10+km each day up and down countless steep hills and valleys spreading the good news about how to not get infected with HIV in primary and secondary schools and at community organisations. Who knew this would be one of my niche markets? Thank goodness I had learned a lot about it because of being involved in the African AIDS Angels group in Victoria & doing presentations with that. Also thank goodness Canadians aren't quite as nervous talking about the number one way people get AIDS as Kenyans in this area are. More on this later.
Today is just a short post to say hi- I'm mentally exhausted from spending a whole day with one of my colleagues and his wife travelling to Mt. Elgon national park on the other side of Mt Elgon district from where I was working. This man is an expert Sabaot conversationalist- that is, he is an expert at talking all around a subject, in many circles... never completely reaching his goal or making a point- which leads me to ask painfully obvious questions just to prompt him to come up with some conclusion in his thoughts before the cows start coming home (litterally...). I'm also exhausted physically because we walked quite a bit to get to the park, then walked all around inside it (with the aid of two heavily armed Kenya Wildlife Service guards in case a rogue buffalo made himself too obvious) until we providentially met up with a group of Americans who had a vehicle- yippee!!! We spent the rest of the time standing in the back of their truck... we even got a ride back to Kitale with them, which meant I missed out on an opportunity to sleep in a homestead... but at this stage I don't mind too much.
More tomorrow? I hope? And photos if I can manage.

Some people's stories...

One day I was talking to a man I’ll call Markus. He's about my age. Somehow we got on the topic of families, and I asked how many siblings he had. It turns out he is one of 29 children. His father is 81 years old, has three wives, and children ranging in age from 64 down to 1 ½. His youngest wife is 43 years old. Of the 29 children, only six have managed to complete secondary school (of course there are several that have not reached that stage yet…)- four men and two women. This is definitely a skewed ratio because 20 of the 29 children are female.

Another man, who I’ll call Jamie, is one of 35 children. His father is 74 years old, and must have minimum three wives as well. I’m not too sure how many he has. The youngest child is still breastfeeding but Jamie figures he’ll have more siblings on their way in a little while. Yikes! Although boys are generally regarded as more desireable than girls, that family has a big problem because... how in the world can that father divide his land between his 27 sons???

So many children here have wonderful names like Victory, Patience, Mercy, Grace… Names that sound like they have a meaning probably do… so I always ask for the stories… Victory is the name of the first son in a family. His parents had three girls first, then felt victorious that they managed to get a son after all. Patience is just older than Victory… I guess the parents were practicing patience waiting for a boy?

Everyone has a second name which also has a meaning. Chebet/ Kibet means a girl/boy born in the day time, Cheruto means a girl born while visitors are around. Other names are for when it is raining, if the child is born when the cows are coming home (sunset), in the middle of the night, early morning… I have even been given a name. It is Chebeni- meaning born later than expected J I am told I was born 15 days late… I now answer just as easily to Chebeni as to Allison in Mt. Elgon J

(**the following is not for children’s eyes**) Mercy’s parents have the most terrifying story. Her mother was just 15 when she married. Although she was extremely intelligent and gregarious, she couldn’t continue education after grade 8 because her family lacked school fees to continue. So, she looked around her and found the only thing to do was to get married. She knew her husband, who is about 8 years older than her, for about three months before they got hitched. Within a year, like all women in the area, she was pregnant. While in her 8th or 9th month, raiders came in the night intent on stealing their cattle. Before taking the cattle away, they stripped her and her husband, along with her mother in law and two sisters, tied them up, and dumped them in the middle of the forest. They stayed in that cold damp forest all night… eventually got untied, walked back to their farm, and shortly after gave birth to their first child, named Mercy. They felt their lives had been spared because of God’s mercy. Wow. Mercy's mom is only 2 years older than me... Don't worry, this happened far from here... and besides, all we have at the campus is one lonely milk cow. We are protected by an astute watchman and are bolted into our building at night.

A Land Flowing with Milk and Honey

Yesterday I walked about 40km…. We think… we really have no way of knowing… no sign posts around here, or maps for that matter… Two other people from ICM and I explored deep into the forest of Mt. Elgon and saw so many amazing things… two caves (we could only reach the inside of one)- with salt deposits in them that herdsmen bring their cattle to so that they can get the ‘medicinal’ qualities of the salt. Apparently salt has anti-parasitic qualities… cool- herbal medicine for animals! We also saw a LOT of bamboo- did anyone else besides me think that bamboo was the last plant I would find in Africa? I thought it was just in Asia! There was a little forest fire where we were too- just a ground fire- and in some places it was still burning. The people I was with were of mixed opinions, but it was decided it was set by humans- ‘crazy people’. After about an hour walking through bamboo we came across more deciduous trees. The most valuable one, Elgon teak (Olea spp), has been taken out for carpentry work, but there are many other amazing ones left behind.

I was just floored to look around me and be in the midst of such a thick, vibrant forest… so easily cleared to make way for shambas as far as the eye can see (which is quite far on some of the peaks!). It reminds me of what it is like to walk through the lush beautiful Canadian west coast forest and think that is what once covered most of Vancouver Island! The crystal clear streams looked so idyllic compared to the muddied, reddish streams people washed their clothes at, bathed in, and drank from in the cleared, agricultural land.



The coolest experience in the forest was finding a group of people who are living in the middle of the forest. I’m not sure if they are squatters or were there legally… in any case, they are from this area, were removed years ago and have since moved back. They were extremely welcoming, though I was surprised to find out I knew more kiswahili than they did. In fact, the only way to communicate was with the four words I have learned in their mother tongue (Sabaot)- which are ‘how are you’, ‘I am fine’, ‘good’ and ‘thank you’. I love seeing people faces when I greet them in their mother tongue! I also love seeing peoples faces when I start rattling off entire sentences in kiswahili. These people have a diet of milk, ugali (stiff maize porridge- the staple food here), wild honey, bamboo shoots, and ???. They looked well fed to me and happy to be so far away from any other sort of civilization. Because there is absolutely no road access, the closest schools and medical clinics are far. Maybe a two hour walk. The houses they built were similar to the ones I saw out of the forest- mud, stick, and thatched roofs. They simply cleared out a patch of land and built their compounds. The land of course continues to get cleared in a slowly growing radius because of the never-ending need for firewood. These compounds included a corral of sorts for their cattle- it looked like each family had at least a dozen from the size of the corrals.


At each of three houses we were given milk to drink, served out of gourds that were coated inside with the ash of some sort of crushed, burned stick. The resulting milk looked like a melted oreo blizzard- all kinds of black flecks floating at the top. I was assured that this is the proper way to drink milk. This particular plant has medicinal qualities and makes the milk safe to drink. Hmmm… Well, I had to just trust my companions, and two days later I still feel fine. :)


After we had left the small gathering of houses and were setting across a field, we heard som men calling us. We turned around, and saw them hurrying toward us with a big plastic bowl. The bowl was full of... honey! Freshly harvested from an underground bee hive!!! I'd never heard of honey bees living underground, so I had to see it for myself... not too far away, in the forested area, was a small clay looking tube sticking out of the forest floor, at the base of a tree (this must have been the bee's entrance). The men had dug immediately in front of the tube, and found a huge cavity filled with maybe 4-5 litres of honey! They put the slurry of very liquid honey, bits of dirt, sticks, and dead bees, through a strainer, and gave us a full litre of beautiful amber honey to take home and share. What a huge present.

Mt. Elgon- it's a District, not a Mountain!

When I looked up Mt. Elgon in my guide book, it said something about ‘the second tallest mountain in Kenya, vast rainforest, and salt-licking elephants’. So, I imagined a peaked mountain rising out of the plains, absolutely covered in greenness. Instead, I found rolling hills, completely covered in a patchwork of brown farms, with no significant trees to speak of. Holy smokes. When we got to our destination I was thoroughly confused- until I realized that when everyone was talking about ‘going up/to the mountain’, they meant (up) to Mt. Elgon District, not the actual mountain, which is still quite far- 2-3 days walking.

People say this is the last area in Kenya to chop down their trees... and will also be the last place to re-plant them. There is a very marked difference between other districts and this one in terms of greenness. The reasons I have discovered so far are these: First, people are not sure how long they will be able to keep the land they are presently on. Even if they own it, the governemtn has a history of moving people around, away from their land, with little notice as part of their resettlement schemes. In the early 90’s 1000s of people were forcefully moved away from the land they thought they owned (they did own??). The people moved, but not before they stripped their properties of every single tree of value- they gave up the land alright, but that’s all they gave up. A second reason is just ignorance or laziness. People simply don’t know of, or don’t think of the value of planting trees. There is so little development up here (because of lack of roads), people are not exposed to many other ways of doing farming. This is where ICM’s community health program comes in.

The program I am working with now is ICM’s Community Health Holistic Ministry. Basically, I am going around talking to schools, CBO’s (community based organizations), and churches about the importance of planting trees, agroforestry concepts, and basic health. I feel comfortable talking about trees/ agroforestry because of my two weeks at the VI project earlier in January. That unexpected extended stay in Kitale worked out quite well! I am talking about very basic AF concepts, encouraging people to continue with the work they have started, and challenging them to think bigger and more purposefully. The people up here really need more in depth education, which I am helping them organize through VI. I went back to the VI center in Kitale today to gather information about more specific tree species that are already known in Mt. Elgon. I was welcomed back to that place with open arms. People here are SO friendly! I can’t get over it!

The other topic I talk about in Mt. Elgon is Afya (Health). Although I am not a nurse, and have not even taken a basic first aid course (it’s still on my to-do list…), I somehow am qualified enough to teach this subject. So, on the morning of Feb. 8, my birthday, I did my first captivating & thrilling presentation on the importance of washing your hands after visiting the toilet, of boiling/ treating your water before you drink it (because you just got it out of a multi-purpose stream at the base of steeply sloping hills), and why/ how to keep fluids and nutrients up when having diarrhea (typhoid and cholera are too common here because people drink untreated water).

Although the subjects I will be talking on are very basic, it feels very worthwhile, because the information I am sharing is totally new to many people. It is also information that can save lives. This is what really excites me about working up there, so I am totally looking forward to my next few weeks!

Last day in Kitale

Emily, one of the DJs at Imani Radio, the station on campus.  The two evening presenters are the only other people here my age and we get on quite well- I spend my evenings with them, which is convenient because there is internet access at the station (where I am now!).  I've really enjoyed having people around like this to chat with. The station is quite rudimentary- still using some cassette tapes and cueing by hand!

�So long, farewell, auf wiedersehen, adieu�� the Sound of Music von Trapp children could also add �kwaheri�- or better, �tutaonana� to their tune.  It looks like this is my last night at ICM in Kitale for a while.  I thought last night would be my last� and even wrote a blog post to that effect, but the computer cut before I could send it.  This was weirdly prophetic, because this morning, just before our car was to leave to go up to Mount Elgon, I was informed that there had been clashes exactly at our destination.  This particular branch of the police are not exactly the nicest sort� they had been burning down people�s houses and generally harassing some communities yesterday so after reading about it in the morning paper we decided we�d better postpone our trip.  There were local MP�s involved in the clashes too� something to do with the government expelling some squatters in the forest and the MP�s (from the opposition party) going there to give them food & aid� When we heard of the chaos, we really felt God had protected us- it would have been really bad if we had arrived in the midst of a police �operation�.  As a foreigner I probably would have been physically safe, but they could have demanded from me money, or harassed the people I was with.

 

As it turns out, the latest thing we have heard now is that the action is happening somewhere far away, not close by as we had previously thought.  So, the coast is clear  (the mountain is clear�).  I am still not 100% sure what I will be doing up there, but I will have a meeting as soon as I arrive to sort out their expectations & mine.  There is no electricity up there, which is the reason I have not heard from the people I will be working with directly.  I�m not even sure there is running water�! (yikes!!)  I�ll be working with women�s groups, other community groups, schools� talking about�. ????  Hopefully I will be able to incorporate some of the agroforestry things I have been learning these last two weeks!  I hear the mountain is getting quite bare�

 

I went shopping yesterday for some things to bring with me- like food- I�ll be self-catering- as opposed to here, where lunch and supper were provided for the students so I just ate with them.  Also I bought from a market stall a couple long dresses with sleeves and a pair of �smart� shoes.  A Canadian woman�s typical clothes- shorts, trousers, sleeveless tops- would not go over well in this Sabaot community.  I�ve already been wearing skirts every day but I can get away with sleeveless tops in town.  I also bought a whole selection of exercise books, pencil crayons, colouring books, story books, candies etc. for kids of families I may visit.  I can hardly wait to start giving them out!

I will likely be in that community until the end of February, with one or two quick trips down to replenish supplies and get a breath of civilization.  I�ll continue posting as I can, but don�t expect much!  There is no public transportation there� you travel to & fro by hitching a ride on lorries (supply trucks) or if you are lucky, a private vehicle (I�ll get driven by private vehicle tomorrow- yay!!).

Mmmm... chapatis for 100+ people... cooked on jiko stoves powered by charcoal.  In the ICM 'cafeteria' kitchen!