Getting settled

There is so much to tell you about Mombasa, I don't know where to begin!  

After only a week, things that initially shocked me, seem pretty normal.  Some examples:

Cows grazing in the garbage dump.  There are small dumps all over the city.  During the day, cows and goats graze in the garbage dump.  I asked Mike, the son of our homestay family and one of our supervisors, if those are the cows we eat and he said "it's not like the garbage goes to the meat part."  I think my eyes might have jumped out of my head cause he gave a look of confusion. 

At least I know the chicken we eat at home is safe...they are raised for slaughter in my backyard!  There are 3 chicken coops.  We currently have chickens that are 2 days old, 2 weeks and 5 weeks.  By 6 weeks they are sold.  I don't think I mentioned that when I arrived, there was someone sitting outside my bedroom window plucking chickens and putting them in a kiddy pool of water.  We were a little confused as we unpacked and were to shy to take a picture.  Now, it's normal to go see the baby chicks when they arrive.  

The cost of food.  When we first arrived 250ksh (shillings) seemed like a cheap meal at a restaurant (~$3.30).  Now 100ksh is expensive!!!  Our lunches are about 50-80ksh (75ksh=$1) and the amazing mango or passion juice (SOOOO GOOD!) is only 20 or 40ksh . We went to the  beach and had juice for 100ksh (just over $1) and we felt ripped off!

Having children chasing us calling out "HOW ARE YOU?" or "MUZUNGU!"  Can you imagine yelling BLACK MAN in Canada???  But that's essentially what they are yelling "WHITE MAN!"  and all they know how to say in English before they start school is "how are you?"  They don't even know what they are saying, so it doesn't matter what you respond.  They just keep saying it.  To change it up, I respond "nuzuri" (good) or "Where's the muzungu?  I want to see!"  They just look confused and keep saying "HOW ARE YOU?"

Now onto more important stuff...work.  

I'm loving it!  They've got us going at full force.  After the orientation, we had meetings to delegate some work.  Our group is amazing!  We all have different areas of interest, so there was no one fighting to do the same thing.  We are also very organized and the staff are amazed how quickly we get through meetings. 

There are 3 major projects that we are working on, but they might add more as each one wraps up.  These are:

1. Computer Classes:  There are 2 workshops, one in the morning and one in the afternoon.  We are split into groups of 3 and working with our counterpart in the other group to make a lesson plan.  By the end of the week, the participants will have seen: basic computer use, MS Word, internet research, email, and MS Excel.  I worked on the basic info and the Microsoft Word.  Angela (my partner) and I were under the impression that people had no experience on the computer, so our basic lesson (yesterday's class) was very basic.  How to turn on the computer,. how to make capitols, spacebar...stuff we dont even think about.  There were some in the class that were more advanced but others couldn't even figure out how to control the mouse.  We also had a local volunteer assisting if they needed anything explained in Kiswahili (although almost everyone here speaks English very well).  We spent half the class doing theory and the other doing practical work.  By the end of the class, I was exhausted, but then I found out that Angela was sick and the other group asked me to step in...so facilitated for almost 6 hours yesterday.  I am so happy that Angela is feeling better today (she's facilitating right now).  I felt that today's class was much better than yesterdays, because I was able to adjust my facilitation style to what I realized the group needed.  I had a better sense of how to engage the students and they seemed to be picking everything up.

After the class yesterday, I helped two of the Kwacha volunteers (Chico and Charles) write letters of motivation for a fellowship application for UNAID.  I told them about how I had to write many letters like that for co-op and how Efrem supported me through the process.  They were so appreciative of the knowledge I shared with them and in turn, I am grateful to UBC Arts Co-op and Efrem for teaching it to me. 

2. Matatu Sector:  The Matatu (public transit) drivers and conductors are notorious for being promiscuous and drug users.  We are organizing a workshop for them to talk about HIV/AIDS, substance use (I think focusing on Khat, locally called Miraa) and gender violence.  We are helping with the research and will go to the sessions, but they will be presented in Kiswahili. Mike (aka Muzungu Mike- to differentiate from Mike Kalu, the Mike mentioned above) and I are working on substance use.  We're focusing on Miraa, which is a local plant that is chewed to increases alertness.  It is similar to caffeine and it is legal, however, there are many side effects that people are not aware off, especially when used to excess.  You will not see many people smoking cigarettes in Mombasa, but you can sit on the beach and everyone around you will be chewing Miraa.

3. Career Fair: There is a large gap between employers and youth,  You can't get a job without experience, but no one will hire Mombasa youth cause people on the coast are stereotyped for being lazy.  We are putting together a forum to bridge the gap between the youth and employers.  500 youth will be invited and there will be 8 speakers on a panel to field questions about employment.  Some speakers will be from industries, others will be from the government.  At the end of the day, there will be space for the employers to set up booths so that they can be approached directly by the youth.  We are also hoping that some youth organizations will  set up booths to show employers that their initiatives.  My current responsibility is to work with Evan and Melissa on targeting the youth organizations.  They wrote the initial invitation letter yesterday while I was teaching the 2nd class.

There is a lot of work, but it's all super interesting.  They say that what we're doing is just a drop in the bucket, but every project also has some immediate results.  It's very rewarding!