From Kirua to Cornwall

Hello again- Jen here (nutrition team),

I have now been home for just over 48 hours and the jet lag is subsiding. I have been wanting to write something about my experience in Kenya and how it feels to come home. I am finding it hard to know what to write. My two weeks in Kenya seem the equivalent of a month of experience. Or more! I find images flashing through my mind like a slide show- gardens, children’s smiles, donkees and cattles bracing against the weight of the carts and men they pull, boiling pots of githeris, bouncing in the combi, dust, laughing with Colleen, Jennifer M (mama Jen) and the students about fermented uji. And somehow those images don’t capture what my experience was. Not even my over 2000 pictures can capture the sights sounds and smells of my two weeks in Nairobi, Meru and Kirua.
It was so hard to leave last Friday morning and leave my students behind for the summer. Travelling, living together, working together and learning together for 2 weeks and then having to leave was difficult. Tears started to come while I hugged them one last time- managed to keep from crying until I was in the combi. The last thing they needed was a howling professor! I stopped sniffling after Colleen told Steve to put on Kenyan music to cheer me up.
Soon we were rolling along looking at the beautiful scenery for the last time. After driving for 2 hours, we stopped at Karatina Central Farmers Market, the largest produce market in Eastern Africa. Colleen recommended it, and she was right: what an amazing place. (I tell myself that next time I want to spend at least ½ day there!). There is an amazing array of fresh produce- cored pineapples, paw-paws, pumpkins, greens- you name it. All are hawking their wares. I want dried maize and beans to make githeri when I return home and Colleen guides me through the organized chaos. We go to a woman’s display and pick out what we need- she seems a bit surprised to see me asking for these staple Kenyan ingredients. (Colleen told me that she always tries to buy from a woman, and one that seems to need the business the most- I plan to do the same). I gave the woman a tip and get a great picture of us together. We then spy some arrowroot at another booth and I ask permission for a picture. The woman is cranky and roars “you pay”! I am more than willing to, but she is definitely the pushiest and grouchiest person I have seen in Kenya. I found that the vast majority of Kenyans I met to be gentle, soft spoken and very hard working. We smile at each other, and move on with a woman who is telling us to “come to my shop where photos are free”. Truly amazing displays of baskets, purses, jewellery and wooden carved animals. Colleen tries to weave a part of a basket which takes the woman a week to make. I spent most of my remaining shillings and Colleen and I realize we don’t have much cash left and had promised Steve our driver we would treat him to lunch! No Interac here! Thankfully samosas and sausages are very cheap and we all get our bellies full.
We approach Nairobi and soon see cars and graduates coming out of Kenyatta University. Proud families, graduates in their regalia with tinsel around their neck- and, suddenly, the most chaotic huge traffic jam I have ever seen. Combine a graduation where the President of Kenya is speaking and massive highway construction of 9 lanes of traffic, crazy matatus (taxis) and you have an indescribable mess! There are at least 3 (sort of) lines of traffic on our side, a wide ditch area, and 2 or 3 lines of traffic going in the opposite direction. Even our driver looks very concerned. We had lots of time to get our flight (note- always add an extra 2-4 hours!), but Steve is concerned that we could sit for hours in the dust and heat. Hawkers walk between the rows of cars buses and matatus- candy, pop, toys, etc. Crazy matatu drivers cut out and drive sideways along the ditch trying to get ahead. Colleen and I hold our breath when we see a large bus (greyhound size) matatu turn and head down the side of the ditch in an effort to go in the opposite direction and get out of the traffic jam. That it didn’t roll is some sort of miracle. I did see a bunch of men pushing a large red bus back upright that obviously did start to roll. Suddenly the traffic breaks and we start to sail along. We are giddy with relief. I snap a few photos of the hundreds of people walking from graduation. We run into several other slow downs but eventually get to Henry’s office (head of Safari tours). He takes us to his Safari club where Colleen and I have a HOT shower with a WARM towel and a cold beer by the pool. Ahhhhhhh. Colleen teases me that I questioned the need to shower before going to the airport. Boy, was I wrong- we are hot and dusty. We have a great dinner at the Java restaurant (full of hip young Kenyans- what a contrast!) and head to the airport. Several traffic jams later and we are hugging Henry goodbye. I am so thankful that Farmers Helping Farmers has a partnership with this man- seeing his tall frame in the suit and shiny shoes and wide smile just makes you feel safe and well looked after. He even has a gift for us- coffee, tea and macadamia nuts. I am remembering the first night when he shepherded us through the bustling Nairobi airport and took us to our hotel. Seems like forever ago. I was sad to leave him and told him I would be back. And I will.
Everything was at least an hour late leaving on the way home, but we make it. We hug our families and head home. I am driving my little van again but feeling like I have a bad hangover.
Now that I am home with my family I have a strange mix of emotions. I can’t get over the hot water running from my kitchen tap, the many plugs and fast-er internet. We ate very well there, and I got to cook the final week at the sisters, so the only big difference is a larger oven and my dear red Kitchen Aid mixer. My cats are incredibly soft, clean and fluffy... and overfed. Pets were virtually non-existent where I was: most animals were working and working hard. I even saw a few skinny camels. But I am growing impatient with my boys. I made my “Who hash” ( from Dr Seuss of course) with new potatoes, carrots and Farmer’s market sausages. When one son whines a bit that it isn’t their favourite, I start ranting about kids with only one meal a day and gobbling up porridge without complaint. I catch my older (teen) son imitating me to his friend later on, and I chew his ear off. It is hard to go from seeing Kenyan women who work tirelessly without complaint growing food, carrying wood, water and babies, children smiling at me in spite of swollen bellies from protein deficiency, children in school uniforms walking on dusty roads to school at 645 a.m. some of whom get only one meal a day, and then see my children with IPODS, cell phones, fancy clothes and soft beds. But I have luxuries too. And I enjoyed my luxuries while in Kenya- Sweetwater game park, Henry’s Safari club and more. I am realizing that the best thing I can do is try and educate and sensitize my kids, and support my nutrition students Kaylynne and Christina who are still there. They are still over there, working hard. And they will be able to do nutrient analysis of school meals and make recommendations to make the porridge healthier (whole grain rather than polished maize, adding milk and drought resistant crops like finger millet) and make the githeri more nutritious (soaking maize and beans, adding pumpkin and other drought resistant crops). They will be working directly with leaders in the Muchui and Ruuju women’s groups to improve family nutrition and infant feeding. They will work with the children’s orphanage to improve the nutritional quality of the uji and ugali fed to the tiny infants. If anyone can do it, those girls can. I told my Department Chair Kathy Gottschall Pass and our Dietetic Internship Coordinator Linda Smith yesterday how proud I am of our students. By the end of the summer, they will have already made a difference and will have so much to share with us when they return. And I have promised them a celebration!
I already feel very attached to Kenya and see so much opportunity to improve the health of mothers and their children. It is all about women, water and food....I want to raise funds to support more cookhouses and feeding programs for schools, since so many children are affected. Head masters told us that children are more likely to attend school and do well when they have a healthy meal there. The story about the Village Feast fundraiser in the Guardian this week has so much meaning for me now- I have seen the cookhouses and dining halls supported by this initiative and I wonder if the people who organize and attend that event know how profound and lasting their impact is. Wish I had been here to attend- maybe next year. I am also wondering how I can get Colleen Walton to come with me every time (a wealth of knowledge and support for me this trip). Thanks for convincing me to come (“oh persuasive one”) and putting up with me as a roomie and chatterbox, Colleen. And thanks to you, Theresa Ken Winston and all the Farmers Helping Farmers members for all the groundwork they have laid which made it possible for us to do nutrition work. It is quite amazing to be in a developing country and see that PEI is such a major player in improving the lives of Kenyans. And thanks to Kim and Kevin for the support and laughs...shall we meet again in Kenya?

This has been a long blog- I guess I did have something I needed to write! For now, kwaheri ya kuonana, Kenya (good-bye, we will see each other again).