Sunday, July 31, 2011

Painting, Massai Village, and the Anglican Cathedral

Paul has been promoted from garbage man to painter and, in fact, on occasion, Paint Supervisor!

Maji Mazuri has four locations where it serves children and youth. The first facility it created, about 20 years ago, is called Maji Mazuri Children's Center. It was created to serve several different populations. First, it has about 20 orphans who live there and go to a neighborhood school. Secondly, it has a pre-school to take care of young children so that their parents can go to work. Thirdly, and most uniquely, it houses about 20 very severely mentally and physically handicapped children, some as old as teenagers. These are children who have been abandoned or whose parents are incapable of taking care of them. If it were not for Maji Mazuri, many of these children would not be living. Many cannot move on their own, need to be hand fed, changed, etc. The Maji Mazuri staff does an extraordinary job of taking care of these most difficult to care for children.

The facility is well-designed functionally. However, it is a very unattractive facility, to put it mildly. It is made out of cement blocks and is all “white”. It has not been painted in years and looks pretty run down. There are three floors that surround a cement “courtyard” similar to a prison. There are about 30 rooms on the three floors – dormitories, school rooms, a teacher's room, a physical therapy room, a food storage room, an office, etc. Some of the doors and windows have bars for security purposes – to protect offices, food, etc. Like most small NGOs, Mazi Mazuri has very limited resources and gives highest priority to providing services to children as opposed to maintaining its physical plant.

Paul decided to make the building more attractive his Maji Mazuri project. He bought 11 gallons of paint and painting supplies at a hardware store in downtown Nairobi (in itself, quite an experience) and went work. All of the 30 doors are either wood or metal and, and as of this date, most have been painted – blue on the first and third floors and orange on the second floor. It has “transformed” the outward appearance of the building.

There have been 8 students from Cambridge University volunteering at Maji Mazuri during the same period of time we have been here. They are great! In addition to the services they have provided to the children at all four Maji Mazuri operations, they painted the two largest rooms, the dormitory for the maximum care children and the largest school room. This is where Paul got his Painting Supervisor title but as a practical matter, spent most of his time following the high flying students and cleaning up. They did the rooms in two days – the dormitory is a quiet blue and the school room a dynamic orange. The entire project will be completed in the next couple weeks with the help of PY, Meredith, and Alyssa.

We have not just been painting. The other day, Wanjiku took us to a Massai village to deliver donated clothes. Basically, this village is just an open field. It happens to be located in part of Karen, which is the wealthiest town in Kenya, and is the home of most of the country's white people, descendents of the British people, who first settled here. As a result, ironically, this open field is adjacent to some very large, wealthy estates.

The Massai are a tribe which has traditionally moved throughout the country raising cows and goats, and sheep which they use for meat, milk, and clothes. Because of serious droughts which effect the grazing of the animals and because of the encroachment of civilization, many of the Massai have been forced to settle in villages. They live in VERY SMALL huts made of dried mud and dung and grasses and there is no electricity, and, therefore, no light. The entire hut is not more than 10 feet by 10 feet. They COOK, eat, and sleep in the huts. When we bent over and entered the hut, we could not see because it is so dark. As our eyes adjusted, we could see that there was a fire in the middle of the hut where they do their cooking and a couple “beds”. Usually, four to six people (for example, two parents and four children) live in a hut. It was warm and cosy but the smoke was unbearable. The huts are surrounded by animals.- the Massai count their wealth on the basis of the number of animals they have. The most significant aspect of the adventure was the warmth and grace of the the people, who welcomed us to their village and into their homes. They were genuinely happy to have us visit and were very welcoming.

We have been going to church at the Anglican Cathedral and it has been a wonderful experience. We have been going to the contemporary service – great music as only the Africans can do it. The sermons have been very contemporary and directed at the current issues confronting the country. Two weeks ago, the sermon was on the subject of corruption, which is rampant in Kenya (and has always been), especially in the highest offices of the government. The sermon was very pointed in criticizing government officials and, most likely, many members of this very wealthy congregation, were squirming in their seats.

Last week, the sermon was given by a visiting guest who was very handicapped. He was an excellent speaker and talked about how Kenyans do not do much to help the handicapped in their society. In fact, he dealt head on with the tribal belief (still held by many rural Kenyans) that people have handicaps because they have sinned. He said that the whole subject of handicapped persons has nothing to do with sin and, in fact, God loves all people, including the handicapped and that all people should love them and create an environment where they can flourish.

This may be our last report (and, then, again, it may not be) as we have a heavy schedule ahead of us. In a week, PY, Meredith, and Alyssa arrive. All three will be volunteering. Meredith is going to produce a formal video, interviewing several Maji Mazuri staff and clients to tell the Maji Mazuri “story”. It will go on the Maji Mazuri website and be used for promotional purposes. A few days after that, Terry and Barbara Davis and others arrive at Rafiki for a special celebration and we plan to join them. Then, PY and Meredith go off to climb Mt. Kenya, the highest mountain in Kenya and, possibly, the second highest in Africa (do not quote us). Then, Jamee and Michael join us and the seven of us go on a six day safari to top off the Kenyan experience. And, of course, there are still seven more doors to paint and a small class room to paint orange!

An Addendum

A couple additional comments to add to “Paul's Trip to Kasarani and Back”: While riding in a bus or matatu, one should not be surprised to see one conductor get off the vehicle, mid-trip, and disappear only to be replaced by another conductor, who has come out of nowhere. It can happen at any time in any place – no routine. One has to be alert if he has told the first conductor when he wants to get off as the odds that the information has been passed on to the second conductor is remote. On occasion, even the driver climbs out of the cab, mid-trip, and another jumps in and takes over.

Another phenomenon is the when the vehicle, fully loaded with passengers, pulls into a gas station to refuel. It can happen at any time. Speaking of gas stations, if the traffic is heavy and the bus wants to turn left at the intersection and if there is a gas station on the corner, the bus merely drives through the gas station to beat the crowd. Every bus for itself!