Photos

For anybody who still checks this, I've finally posted all my photos online. Here's the link:

www.snapfish.com

To log in, just use my info:
Email: FenwayN8@gmail.com
Password: photos

Just don't mess with editing or any of that stuff.

Enjoy! And let me know if you have any trouble.

See ya later, Kenya.

This is it, my last post in Kenya. Really hard to believe!

I just returned last night from my 10-day farewell tour, literally covering Kenya from coast to "coast" (the second being Kisumu on the coast of Lake Victoria).

Last week I traveled back to Bodo, the village where I stayed for 10 days in February. It was a nice chance to say goodbye to my family and friends there. Basically, I sat in front of the village home with my Baba for 2 days listening to a radio and watching baby Saidi's antics in the sand. We had a couple of great swims in the Indian Ocean, a couple sweat-soaked hikes, and, true to Bodo hospitality, frequent and endless meals of fish and ugali or rice. The heat and humidity were intense, and it is rainy season there, so it rained probably 50% of the time. My baby bro Saidi loves to play in the rain, and that was fun to watch (pictures/videos to come).

I was back in Nairobi for this past weekend. Friday night James, his girlfriend Jessica, and I went to a Tony Nyadundo concert at a local club. Tony is probably the most popular musician of local Kenyan music, a Luo from Nyahera, the village where I studied for ISP. So obviously, I've had a hankerin' to see him live for a while now. The show was great, although the only words I could understand (he sings in Kijaluo) were "Nyahera" and "Obama" (he loves to sing about the Senator, the pride and joy of all Luos). It was fun to be there and I think we surprised a lot of people with how excited we were about something that's purely Kenyan.

Sunday I traveled back to the Kisumu area to bid farewell to all my friends I met during ISP. Becky and Erastus (of course the greeting with Era was a little overboard and uncomfortable) met me at the Kisumu airport and we traveled to Kiboswa where I stayed for ISP. All the kids who typically awaited me outside of our home each morning for crayons and paper were extremely excited and surprised that I returned. Becky and I hiked through Nyahera on Monday, returning pictures to families who let us photograph them during my research. I also had a great chance to return to Susan's home in Nyahera and see her family one last time before I leave. They sent me back to Nairobi with a few things for their son Noah, who is now at a technical college here. I had a serious conversation with Susan's brother Moses about someday owning some land in Nyahera. It's cheap (maybe $1500 for multiple acres), absolutely gorgeous, and the people are in need of healthcare. Something for me to think about...

Yesterday I was in Kisumu town and returned the borrowed camera to George, arguably the world's most trusting and generous man. After arriving back at the airport soaked after a boda-boda (bike) ride in the rain, I had a tough goodbye with Becky and Erastus and headed back to Nairobi. Sometimes it takes leaving people to realize that they are among your best friends (that's about as deep as I get, folks). I'll miss Becky and, well, Erastus too, way too much.

So, my last day in Kenya now, at least for a while. I came home last night to find my Nairobi Baba at home from work in Sudan! This is the first time I've met him, and he seems like an incredibly smart man. Very African and very wise. Kind of reminds me of an African version of my Uncle Steve. Today I'm meeting up with my friends Martin and Sally to say see ya later (no goodbyes), then back to Jamhuri. I'm dreading leaving my family, Jacob and co. at the kiosk, and the mama who forces me to buy maize and peanuts from her on a daily basis. I have pictures of her and her beautiful daughter Vanessa and am leaving her with my phone, which won't work back in the states. She is always asking me to return from America with a phone for her, seemingly under the impression that they rain from the sky in the states.

I wish this were easier! I guess it just means that I absolutely have to come back someday.

(Maybe) a little more from back in the states. Pictures for sure! Take care and see you all soon!

Post-ISP stuff

This is the second of two posts today...the first is down below.

After printing and binding my final paper, I hit the town with Martin Mumo, older brother to my friend John Mumo (nice little Kenyan connection at school) from Lafayette. A fun night, unfortunately, also ended in the pickpocketation (my own word) of my phone, a deep slumber, and me nearly missing the bus to Mt. Kenya, where all 26 of us plus academic directors converged for ISP Presentations. But hey, no harm no foul right? I made it to presentations on time and, since the majority of the group has already headed back to the states, my friend Mollie generously allowed me to take over her phone. Plus, a Kenyan somewhere is now happily enjoying my phone. He/she probably considered that I would be unable to use the phone back in the states before raiding my pocket.

Presentations were a blast. We stayed at a beautiful resort called Naru Moro, typically used as a base camp for people climbing Mt. Kenya. While the majority of us originally wanted to go to a slightly less posh place than this, I think our Directors Odoch and Jamal forgot about democracy for a minute and chose the place where they could play pool and darts to their hearts’ content. So that’s what we did….about 7 hours of presentations for each of 2 days with a swimming pool, billiards, darts, great meals, and even some squash, in the spare time. A good way to end our time in Kenya as a group. And now I have decided that squash will be my new athletic passion back in the states. Which, for people who know me well, means saving up to buy the best equipment. And then, of course, dominating (I kid).

Back in Nairobi after presentations, we had a final group dinner at, of all types, a Chinese Restaurant. It was delicious. The following day a few of us visited our Academic Director Odoch in the hospital, where he was undergoing one of his final rounds of chemotherapy for colon cancer. Thankfully he’s going to be fine after all the treatment. As always, he was in incredible spirits...a jovial, all-around fun guy to be around.

I’ll miss Odoch and Jamal a ton. Odoch never really seemed to have any idea what was going on, but was always easy to talk to and unbelievably helpful. Jamal, on the other hand, was Captain Organization, and while very reliable, was slightly less warm and friendly. A great pair of Academic Directors and friends to us all. Luckily, the two are coming to the states in August for an SIT conference in Vermont. They’re planning on spending some time in Boston, which will undoubtedly draw me there also. Jon, James, and I are planning on taking the dynamic duo to a Sox game. Thinking of two Kenyans (who don’t even know what baseball is) sitting in the stands, drinking beers, wearing Sox caps, and eating hot dogs makes me happy. The Sox in general make me happy, but that’s another story.

Last Saturday, the 20^th, was peace-out day for most of the students on our program. See you later, not goodbye, right?

A few of us, myself included, are staying after for a little bit of independent travel. My travels include a short stint back in Bodo and a short stint back in Kisumu. Without Kyle, with whom I would have confidently tackled any new territory, I’ve decided to keep my travels to places I know well. And to the people I’ve come to know and love (and, in Becky’s case, those who would murder me if I didn’t return before leaving the country).

I'll be back in the states on Thursday 5/31! Kinda hard to believe. And kinda overwhelming, both leaving Kenya and going back to normal life in the states. Definitely pumped to see family and friends, though.

More to come! Maybe from America, but rest assured that you’ll have at least one more look into the depths of my soul. You know how much I love reflection…

ISP? Check.

Sorry for slacking a little bit, things have been pretty crazy as this semester has come to an end! Or maybe I just haven’t wanted to feel like things are, in fact, actually coming to an end. Wow. By popular demand, and by popular demand I mean my dad, I’ve poured my sweat, blood, and tears into a few more posts.

I finished up my ISP with remarkably little procrastination, mostly because it was by far the most enjoyable paper I have ever written. It was cool and nice change of pace to be producing something for which I am responsible for all of the content. Whereas the typical research paper at school involves reading others’ books and journal articles and developing new ideas from them, this project involved me doing the research and using what I found in the field to develop some new ideas. Also, I was entirely in control of the topic and structure for my paper.

The title turned out to be “Inexcusable Infections: Malaria, Children, and Barriers to Prevention in Nyahera Village, Kisumu, Kenya”. “Inexcusable Infections: _______” because a) alliteration is sweet and b) a colon makes any title considerably more intense. Inexcusable, mind you, doesn’t put the blame of malaria in Nyahera on the people inhabiting the village, but on our world as a whole and the actions we take that allow poverty, and thus eradicable diseases such as malaria, to continue ravaging certain populations. I found some interesting things, which I’ll highlight here should you care to read on…

• People in Nyahera (at least the 80ish involved in my study) tend to understand that mosquitoes transmit malaria and that bushy areas and stagnant water promote mosquito breeding. Nobody except one belligerently drunk man met in passing mentioned Anopheles (the species which transmits malaria) or anything about the malaria parasite, Plasmodium. But all mosquitoes, whether carrying malaria or not, can be deterred in the same way, so there’s no real harm in thinking all mosquitoes transmit malaria.
• More detrimental to the fight against malaria are peoples’ misconceptions about why children are more affected. In reality, it’s because young children have weak immune systems in general and especially to malaria, to which the human body can build up resistance over time with periodic infections. Lots of the people I spoke with attributed children’s plights with malaria to their carelessness (i.e. playing in stagnant water). If widespread, this could be a dangerous misconception, because children and adults are equally as likely to be bitten by malarial mosquitoes, especially at night when uncovered by nets. If families (typical in this village) can’t afford a net for everyone, they may cover the adults before the children for comfort reasons, when children are much more likely to contract severe malaria. Bad news.
• Climate and lifestyles in Nyahera contribute to malaria big time. The village is filled with bushy areas where mosquitoes can breed, crop fields (Anopheles can breed in the leaf axils of some plants), garbage piles in the markets or at matatu stages, and poor quality roads with huge, water-filled ruts. People collect rainwater off their roofs for drinking (this is what I drank the 3 weeks I was studying there) and let the water stand for weeks at a time. The majority of homes look as though they were designed by mosquitoes. There’s a gap between the walls and the corrugated iron roofs through which mosquitoes are free to fly and open windows with usually only a flapping curtain for privacy.
• A low percentage of the people I interviewed use insecticide-treated nets (ITNs) to protect their children at night. I found 56% coverage for children less than 5, still shy of the goal the UN set in 2000 for 60% coverage in endemic areas (like Nyahera) by 2005. Too few, too late.
• People in Nyahera don’t use nets because they simply can’t afford them. I was expecting to see some cultural barriers to using nets. An earlier study in “deeper” Luo land (further from Kisumu) found that people were nervous about mixing up bedding items (such as nets) between adults and children who have undergone puberty during washing sessions. Such mixing, according to the Luos in a 2003 study, causes infertility. Sleeping arrangements, with children frequently on the floors of living rooms or kitchens, also made hanging, opening, and closing nets each day a nuisance for the families in that study. I found none of this, just money issues.
• The money issues I found a little bit hard to believe. Nets are available at the village hospital for just 50 Shillings (about 70 cents) for children less than 5. After age 5, parents have to buy more expensive nets from town. Why not just buy the cheap nets when the children are of age and prevent infections for years to come?
• I have a strong suspicion that the free care offered at the hospital for malaria among children less than 5, although a great and necessary policy, may actually contribute to the low net usage. Why buy nets when your kids can always get free treatment? This is dangerous, as overuse contributes to the ability of Plasmodium to develop resistance to malaria drugs, and frequent episodes undoubtedly wreak havoc on young kids’ immune capabilities. I think the hospital should create a registry of families purchasing nets for their children under 5, and then later, when the children are over 5 and ineligible for free care, offer small discounts for treatment for those families which can prove they use/used hospital nets.
• Families in Nyahera are widely receptive of spraying residual insecticides, such as controversial DDT, inside their homes. The World Health Organization banned DDT in the 1980’s after decades of overuse in agriculture created worldwide environmental problems. However, DDT was huge in eradicating malaria from North America and Europe by the 1960’s. The WHO just lifted its ban on DDT in 2006 and now encourages its use in small amounts for controlling malaria. European countries, however, are threatening to ban agro-imports from Sub-Saharan countries using DDT for malaria, and thousands involved in Kenyan healthcare fear losing the “industry of malaria” (the disease accounts for 75% of hospital bed occupancy in Kenya) if it were to be completely eradicated. A predicament for sure. Regardless, it’s good to see that the people are receptive of a control tactic that, if widespread, could effectively eradicate malaria.

So there’s my ISP, in a nutshell. It’s a 45 page monster with lots more info than I gave here, should anyone have a hankerin’ for more malaria. Let me know and I can email it to you (from faster comps back in the states) or let you borrow a hard copy. I’m pretty proud of it!

End o' ISP (the research, at least)

The last three weeks went lightning fast. Too lightning fast. Now I’m back in Nairobi with T-minus 6 days until my 40-page final paper is due next Sunday (Mother’s Day shout out to Ma).

How did things in Nyahera end up, you ask?

I finished up my home to home interviews late last week, throwing down a solid 70-ish home visits in total. Once I felt like I had done enough straight-up interviews I switched to more in-depth studies of bomas (a compound featuring several small houses—usually polygamous wives and a few of the sons). In addition to asking my usual questions about malaria and water-borne diseases, I looked at factors around the boma that might contribute to the sicknesses. Things like sources of stagnant water (people often dig out trees and then leave the huge holes in the ground to fill up with rainwater), bushy areas, styles of housing and roofing (most homes were the traditional Luo style of tree poles and mud, corrugated iron roofs with mosquito-friendly space between the roofs and the walls), and bore-holes people may use for their drinking water. Now I have a whole lot of raw data and NOT a whole lot of ideas for how to interpret and analyze it. Got a week to figure it out…

Unfortunately, I left behind more than interesting research in Nyahera. 3 weeks in a village is a good way to make friends, in case anyone is struggling in that department. Although his excitement at having me as his visitor was at times a bit overwhelming (approaching uncomfortable), I’ll miss Erastus very much. He never quite got the picture that I wanted to REALLY experience what life in the village is like (i.e. do my own laundry, help with cooking, even milk the cows). On several occasions, I alterted Erastus to my intentions to wake up early and do my own laundry, only to wake up early and find that Erastus had woken up EARLIER and my laundry was already on the drying line. It was frustrating sometimes and made me feel like I was burdening him, but I’ve come to understand that everything Erastus did was out of genuine hospitality. Hospitality is a significantly bigger deal in Luo culture than anything I’ve ever experienced.

In an awesome coincidence, Nyahera turned out to be the home place of Susan, the house-girl/daughter in my Nairobi family. I spent a great few nights with her family there, meeting and speaking with her parents, brothers, and young nieces and nephews. My favorite was Toto, a tiny 3-year-old girl who, despite knowing not a word of English, laughed hysterically and loudly at everything I said. The family was busy preparing for a funeral this past weekend for a relative who had moved to Nairobi. You don’t even KNOW about Luo funerals…

As there are no public cemeteries, Luos who have passed are returned to their homes for burial. And returning does not mean a gloomy hearse driving slowly with the coffin inside. It means strapping the coffin to the top of a matatu, driving as fast as possible down major roads and village roads, filling the matatu with screaming relatives and friends, and honking the horn nonstop. It’s absolutely hysterical. Luos, I think, are big believers that the deceased person would want them to celebrate his or her passing, not stand around and cry about it. For this particular funeral, Susan’s brother Moses estimated that the family would slaughter THREE bulls to feed all of the mourners (or better yet…celebrators). I was invited, but couldn’t make it because I was planning to head back to Nairobi this weekend. Kinda kicking myself for that…it would have been a really cool experience. But regardless, it was great to meet Susan’s family and lots of fun to show her the pictures last night.

It was tough to leave behind the three families living within mine and Erastus’s compound and all the little kids I grew to love. There was grandma, who takes care of a little boy named Festus Okoth (my favorite of the wee ones). There were Ayub and Beatrice, who take care of the grounds and the shamba, and their little ones Kadogo, Isaac, and baby Lois. There were Samson and Rose and their little boys Titus and Emmanuel. And then there were hordes more children that seemingly appeared out of nowhere each day, possibly coming from miles away to chill with the mzungu. Each morning when I opened the door there would be a lineup of little kids patiently awaiting crayons and paper (sucked when I ran out of both of these), and each afternoon when I came back from research there would be a lineup of little kids not-so-patiently awaiting 10 seconds of me grabbing their arms and spinning them around violently. I get dizzy thinking about it again.

Toughest to leave behind was Becky, who became a great friend in our 3 weeks of research together. I was really nervous finding an interpreter, because I felt like the person would inevitably become tired of asking the same questions over and over and have zero fun. That was no problem with Becky—she loved talking to families just as much as I did. There was an equal amount of making fun of me in Kijaluo with the interviewees, which I couldn’t understand, and joking about them in English, which they couldn’t understand. On the long walks between homes in Nyahera I had a good time teaching Becky corrupted English (popular among young Kenyans is Sheng—corrupted Kiswahili). She is now a frequent user (abuser?) of English exclamations such as “SICK!”, “ILL!”, “PHAT!” (for older readers, these have come to mean their exact opposite, cool, when spoken with a certain enthusiasm and tone), “lame”, “weak”, and “sucks”.

The 10 days I’m spending (sans Kyle, which is weak sauce, United Airlines) in Kenya after my program ends are still relatively unplanned. Lucky for me, the world’s nicest man owns a camera shop in downtown Kisumu, and when I took my broken camera there to get it fixed, he discouraged me from trying to fix it in Kenya and is straight-up lending me his personal camera until the end of May. I could not believe this man’s generosity. He spends some time in America at a camera shop in Maryland, and as he will be there in summer ’08 and this is the stomping ground of two of the lovely ladies in my life (Abby, Katie), I promised George that I would take him to a baseball game that summer. He would accept nothing besides my word (no deposit, no payment, no nothing) for lending me his camera.

So anyway, this forces at least a day-trip back to Kisumu to return George’s camera. I think this development may also save my life, as Becky was plotting murder should I have been unable to return to Kisumu before returning to the states. So now I’ve got Bodo on the coast and Kisumu in the west as at least two of my destinations in those 10 days. It’ll be nonstop traveling, especially if I try to fit something else in there (…Zanzibar?...). We shall see.

Once I turn in my final ISP next Sunday, we head out as a group (it's gonna be strange to be with all 25 students again!) to a lake in Nakuru for a vacation-y wind-down period where we also present our research papers. That's for 5 or 6 days, then the program is over! I can't believe things have gone so fast. Most of the students in my group fly back on the 19th, but I'm here doing whatever the heck I want til the 30th.

Now that I’ve updated I don’t really have any excuses for not writing this paper. 40-pages vs. Nate, round 1…

But one more thing…Clemens for ½ season will NOT be enough for the Yanks to overcome the Sox. 20-10 baby! #1 in the ESPN power rankings. In case you forgot, I have ESPN and thus Sportscenter here in my Nairobi home.

Take care everybody.

Pictures

Kadogo! Her name means "small", and that she is. She lives next door to me in Kiboswa. She comes over every morning and colors with crayons that I brought.

Erastus in one of his strange picture poses.

Me with a cool goat--mohawk and long bead--and some Nyahera girls during field interviews.

Sarah Hussein Anyango Obama

One major plus to my Independent Study research is its proximity to Alego, a small village in the region Siaya, home to Barack Obama’s grandmother, Sarah Hussein Anyango Obama. Just this last weekend, two students studying in Kisumu town, my buddy Jon (studying Luo politics in Nairobi), and I were lucky enough to spend 3 days in Siaya and visit this lovely lady.

On Saturday, we arrived in Alego via car from Simenya, the tiny village where we stayed with Samm, our homestay coordinator in Nairobi, at his rural home. As we pulled up the driveway, heading completely unannounced to the home of the grandmother of one of the states’ most prominent politicians (I’m thinking you probably couldn’t do this for any grandmother of a US politician living within our borders), Sarah (age 85) was hard at work in her shamba, where the family plants beans and corn. She dropped her hoe and headed over to her small, humble home, barefoot and sweating, to welcome the four of us wazungu students.

We spoke with Barack Obama’s grandmother for 2 hours. She talked about the Senator’s visits back to his homeland, where he has helped to bury his mother and even build himself a small hut, his quest to discover more about his Luo father, Hussein Obama, and his prospects of becoming president of the US. Sarah was a little “hush-hush” about political issues, as she’s apparently been misquoted by some prominent American sources in the past. I laughed aloud when I thought about the idea of this 85-year-old Kenyan woman, who has spent her entire life working hard in rural Kenya, strolling through the White House while visiting her (maybe) President grandson. Crazy to think about. It was nice to hear that Barack is true to his roots, recognizing that Kenya is his real home, and it’s nice to think that, should he succeed in winning the Presidency, help will maybe proceed to this country in dire need. Can’t say I’ve made up my mind who I will vote for come Primaries or November ’08, but I also don’t think I’ll be able to say I’ve spoken with Hillary’s or Edwards’ grandmothers. A cool connection, for sure.