99 days since landing…

Kenyatta won the elections, receiving 50.51% of the vote (0.51% over the amount needed to avoid a sound round run off), the opposition leader Odinga did contest the results but the Kenyan Supreme Court found the voting to have been fair and Kenyatta was declared the president. I was glad as I followed the progress that no violence occurred and the Kenyan people managed to, at large, agree on a result. After all, compared to last time this is a great achievement, and something that Kenyan people should be proud of.

As for the ICC case, Kenyatta is still deigning all the charges he is faced with. He says that he and his government are cooperating with The Hague and and that he WILL prove his innocence in July. The whole ICC case has raised many divisions in public opinion with people saying that witnesses are unreliable/bribed/pulling out because they are too scared to testify etc etc. The African Union have stated that the ICC is a western power tool that targets Africans, and it is true that 100% of people that have been on trial there were African. On the other hand, half of these cases have been referred to the ICC by their own nation. Basically, I don’t know what will happen with the Kenyatta case, and the only person who seams to be sure is Kenyatta himself, and he can certainly talk the talk: See this video from the BBC.

Since I have returned I’ve settled back to my normal life as a doctors receptionist, and largely it still feels oddly like I was never in Kenya at all. More recently though I have been completing my home action. For this, I have spoken to students at my old school and a church group about my time in Kenya and am constantly recommending ICS to people.

What I say is…

Although ICS is not always easy and certainly not a holiday. It is an amazing experience and you come back with so many stories to tell, I helped heard a cow, sat in a Kenya prison (just visiting), gave a teacher training session to 20 teachers, felt as much like a local as is possible in 2 months and met brilliant people that I really must try harder to stay in touch with. I learnt a lot about myself, that I do tend to worry a bit too much, that I am capable of being outside (way, way outside) of my comfort zone and that my immune system must be awesome! By living in a different country I have gained some insight into what people from other countries must feel when they come to live here, and it has made me oddly glad to live in a very multicultural country. I also think that this program, as a government funded project is a great opportunity to have the “Gap Year” not “gap YAH” experience. With risk of sounding a little cheesy, Kenya really hit home to me now real the developing world is and I hope that this fact stays with me and, even if in the slightest way, influences what I do later in life and the choices I make.

If you are 18-25, and have 3 months to spare sometime in the next 2 years, are keen to try your best, stay positive and have an amazing time, I say Get applying here!

This is my last blog post as my ICS journey is almost over, so thanks for being interested and seriously, give it some thought and apply!

For now, Peace!

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It’s really cold here.

The news that we would be landing shortly and that it was minus 2 in London was met with a chorus of groans. With mixed emotions we stepped off of the plane: so sad to be leaving our new friends and families, excited to be seeing our old ones, disappointed that we had had to leave early and couldn’t get as much done at our placements as we wanted and (if im totally honest) relief that things would not be totally crazy and that I would actually know what was going on.

Since being told that we were definitely going home the group had really up-ed our game, we tried really hard to get as much done in the short time that we had left, we managed to paint another of the special units, do the teacher training that i mentioned, hold some Sexual and Reproductive Health nights at local football clubs, and write full handover reports for the next team. Although, obviously we were so sad to be leaving the people who had welcomed us into their homes and the new friends we had made, as soon as we knew we were definitely going home thoughts of a reliable supply of toilet roll, not having to sit through hours of conversations where the only word you understand is “chakula”: food, not being constantly shocked at the vast differences between the Kenyan and English ways of life, and 10 minutes actually meaning 10 minutes crept into our minds and the thoughts of going home didn’t seem so bad.

Also, the thought of not being slightly scared just before a meal was pretty good too!

Now we have been back about a week its seems like at was all some weird dream that I’m not quite sure happened. I’ve heard people who have just come back from places use that cliché before and not thought anything of it, but now I know exactly what they mean. Coming back to the Midlands where there isn’t anyone who was in Kenya with me, where no one really knows exactly what I have been doing for the last 9 weeks and the fact that Melton Mowbray is exactly the same as when I left, all makes it seem like I was never really in Kenya.

The Kenyan elections were held on Monday but the results are still yet to be announced. From what I can gather from various news websites, the voting turn out was very high, the highest ever in Kenya, the Kenyan people turned out in their millions and queued for hours in the heat to submit their votes. On the day of the election there was very little violence, only 11 people were killed and that was related to the separatist group Mombasa Republican Council. (I know 11 people killed is a lot, and in England there would be outcry, but when there are people killed every month in both the Tana River County and the Rift Valley during ethic clashes to Kenyans, 11 people at such a delicate time is not so bad). Since election day, there has been a few delays, the electronic counting system has failed so the votes are being counted by hand. Also the complicated voting system has resulted in many spoiled ballots: 6% of the votes, higher than the number of votes for the 3rd place candidate. How to deal with these votes is yet to be decided.

So far Kenyatta (the son of the first Kenyan president and the one on trial at the ICC) is in the lead with about 53% of the vote. From this BBC article perhaps I can understand why VSO thought we as western foreigners (particularly British people) might have been more at risk staying. VSO have now pulled out ALL their volunteers in Kenya.

Kenya elections: Kenyatta accuses UK over rejected votes

I really hope that they are just airing on the side of caution, and that the peace that was witnessed on election day will be continued once the results have been announced, however in 2007-8 it was only after the results that the violence came. So I hope so much that there will not be a repeat, and most Kenyans that I spoke to truly believed that Kenya had learnt from 2007 and that there will not be the same atrocities this time round.

Teacher training and coming home…

This is an article about one of the things that me and another volunteer did in Kilifi last week. “Teacher training?!” I know I am probably not qualified for this, but hey, Hakuna Matata!!

Education: Teacher training on alternative behavior management

In Kenya the law states that all corporal punishment, both in schools and at home is illegal and should be prosecuted. However this not what we as ICS volunteers have witnessed during our time here, on a few different occasions we have seen children being physically punished with the cane. Although shocking to the UK volunteers the Kenyans were not surprised and told us that it is a regular occurrence, as it was in the UK 40 years ago. There has been many studies that have linked corporal punishment to domestic violence and violent crime. This is why we feel passionately that corporal punishment is not the best way to manage the behavior of children.

We were invited to a teacher training week at EARC in Kilifi for the special unit and deputy head teachers. We saw this as an opportunity to discuss the issue with the teachers and facilitate them in developing new methods of behavior management. We persuaded the trainer in charge to allow us one hour to deliver this training.

We began by stating the law and asking why the teachers think that it is not being followed, they talked about how Kenyan history and culture points to the use of corporal punishment, and is thought of as a way of a instantly changing a child’s behavior.   We then spilt them into groups and asked each group to write either the negatives or positives of CP and present them to the rest of the group. As we hoped, there were 10 reasons against and only 5 for. We then facilitated a discussion on how CP can affect children and society, despite some strong opinions from the teachers we hope that they took our views on board.

We then asked each teacher to think of a different way of managing behavior they included: star charts, rewards for good behavior, extra chores, relative punishments ie waiting 10 mins behind for being 10 minutes late, class tokens ie having marbles in jar that are added for good behavior and removed for bad behavior, removal of privileges and many more. The session ended with everyone sharing stories of the use of CP and experiences of alternative behavior management. We then finished with a final persuasion that teachers are not only role models to their students but also society as a whole, and people will follow their example: if they stop using CP other teachers will, parents will and there will be a reduction in child rights abuse.

Feedback from the session was that the information was clear and concise and the alternative behavior management techniques would be tried by the teachers to reduce CP. We hope that this is true and that all the teachers will reduce their need to punish children physically, however if only one changes it is still a step in the right direction.

Running the session

Rachel Harvey and Hannah King

Also, for those of you that don’t already know, we are unfortunately being pulled out of Kenya early due to potential risk of election violence. With the poles showing a dead heat between Kenyatta and Odinga apparently the risk of violence has increased so lucky for everyone in the UK you might be seeing my face around from the 3rd of March.

Community Action Day

Today was the first of our CADs, the day was really successful and we were all suitably tired and hungry by the end. We traveled to a local primary school that two of our team are working at. The aim of the day was to white wash the special unit classroom so that the volunteers could paint educational designs on the walls with the children during their weekly visits. As well as the painting we wanted to use the opportunity to promote integration between the special unit and mainstream children so we arranged activities that involved everyone. There were some sketchy improvisations of games and a lot of translation needed. A local NGO called Moving the Goalposts was also present and spoke to the children’s parents to try to recruit more girls for their program that works to empower the girls through football. So we used the opportunity to discuss with the parents a few issues such as child rights, family planning etc, well that’s what I think they were talking about as it was all in Swahili and then translated into the local mother tongue as well, I had no hope. 

Anyway… here are some photos.

Before

After, the difference was slightly more in real life.

Face Paint (ish)

1, 2, get in a circle, 3, 4, a big big circle.

Engaging the parents.

xxx

 

Update

Firstly, sorry for my shoddy blogging…

The last few weeks I have strayed away from APHIA plus and have been helping out at a different placement: Mnarani Primary School in the special needs unit. As to be expected the children there have basically no knowledge of English and my Swahili is not so hot so you can imagine the ridiculously exaggerated hand movements and facial expressions that are happening on my part. We have been applying for funding from VSO to set up a kitchen garden and an arts club. Believe me, I now wish I had paid more attention to Dad’s vegetable patch at home! And my total lack of art ability may become a problem but I’ll cross that bridge when I get to it.

We are also in the process of writing to a local grain company who want to donate grain to schools for a feeding program. Currently, the schools can’t feed the children and because of the distances that some will travel it is impossible to go home for lunch and come back in the afternoon. This means that the special unit only runs for half days, if we are able to get food donated it will mean that the children can have the full school days they need and also a reliable meal every day, this is especially important as many will not get 3 meals a day.

Mnarani Primary Special Unit Class Room

On Tuesday we were at a meeting discussing disability advocacy and child rights, the meeting was really interesting and got us all ready to teach the special unit children about their rights. While we were slightly off topic the issue of marital rape and whether it is ever prosecuted in Kenya was brought up by one of the UK volunteers, the idea was quickly laughed down by many of the Kenyan adults present, both male and female. This is just one of the examples of things I have witnessed here that suggests that women are less able to stand up for them selves and the gender roles are very different from what I am used to. I often think that maybe people here don’t really recognise that gender equality is not present as it is so ingrained in both men and women. Obviously these are massive generalisations and I have also met many men who listen and value women as equals and many women who are outspoken and empowered.

Almost a month in…

This Friday is one month from when we left England. We were told that the first month would be hard and we would want to leave, the second month would be good and by the time that the third month is over we will not want to go home, but for the most part I have really enjoyed the last few weeks, I think I am just about getting used to everything now. I can happily eat ugali and and despite getting a little burnt at the weekend I am sort of used to the heat. My eyebrows have turned really blonde. The placement has been pretty slow to get off the ground as due to “Africa Time” the 2013 budget is still being approved. Africa Time is the unwritten rule that everything will take longer, be slower or later than anyone has the heart to tell you. It is a massive contrast from the hustle and bustle of England, people even walk slower. Generally the Kenyans that I have met are a lot more relaxed about everything, they worry and talk less and the phrases “ahhh it’s OK”, “don’t worry” and “No problem” are dotted throughout most conversations they have with people from the UK. Also, people are still saying Happy New Year… its the 29th of January, its impossible to get away from Africa Time!

Nice Commute huh?

A Brilliant Afternoon

One Friday we helped take the children from Mwangaza Orphanage to the beach.