A woman costs around 2 cows

Things here are still very tribal despite the strong prevailence of Christianity throughout the region. Many men have multiple wives with the only the first one being recognized by the church. They are considered property of the man and if he were to die his brother inherits her and his land. These tribal traditions cause a large number of widows and orphans with no way of supporting themselves after the husband dies. Many times the remaining family chases the widow and her children away to fend on her own. They end up being supported by a church and orphanage if they're lucky. A very sad and debilitating social system exists here with Christianity and western society the only hope for having people treated as human beings not as the property of another.

Got the motorcycle and have been zipping around in it visiting different schools. It looks like I am going to be teaching computers at Malanga Secondary School. It is a developing school but luckily they already have a computer lab except I am meeting with the principal this afternoon to verify the schedule. I think thatthey have no computer teacher. I also offered to teach English and Mathematics and being computer literate will open up future job opportunities for the students. The teachers also want to learn how to use the computers.

I have been playing football with the primary school children in the afternoons and they play twice as good as me besides being half the height. Met some of the local Bwaliro youths at the football field that shared some of their concerns with me. Unemployment is high here in Kenya which causes a lot of young people to join gangs or become prostitutes. Bwaliro is a very poor region with little education. It is common for many students to not go to Secondary School due to lack of funds. Many parents face issues of choosing whither to put food on the table or paying school clothes and books for their children. Survival comes first. I hope if we build something such as a posho mill or a computer café that we can employ some of the youths to help in the construction.

I am sorry there are no pictures on my blog. It is because the internet is quite slow and can’t handle uploading pictures. I have to travel to the border town Busia which is 1.5 hours to get faster internet. My facebook has some photos up though they took half an hour to upload them.

Things in general are going great. Everyone is very welcoming and like teaching me Swahili and Lughya. Lughya is the local tribal language of the region and Swahili the lingua franca of Eastern Africa. I have been learning so much and I can’t wait to start teaching…

Arrived!

After a long flight from Singapore I arrived safely at the Nairobi airport in Kenya. For Americans it is easy to get a Visa upon arrival for US$25. If you plan on traveling here make sure you either have American dollars or Kenyan shillings. The money changers would not take my Singapore currency. One of the first things I noticed is that most people here are kindhearted and like to joke a lot. Nairobi has a reputation as Nairoborry but as long as you keep a watchful eye on your stuff, know where you're going and do not travel at night you should be alright. Right away I heard people singing gospel songs as I left the terminal. I knew I was in Africa.

I met Chris whom I will be living with for the next couple months outside the terminal and we took a rented car to the city. This was the first time he had ever been to the airport he explained to me. We said a quick prayer before we started on our journey back to Bwaliro where he lives in the country side of western Kenya. Kenya is a deeply spiritual/religious place with around 85% of the population Christian. It is a place where saying grace and thanking God for providing food really means something. We stopped at a gas station to refuel and get lunch. Chris also had another new experience that day, Pizza. We then proceeded to Nairobi.

Nairobi is a rough city that makes Inglewood look like Disney Land. The traffic lights in the city work but nobody really follows them. We stayed at the YMCA. It provides great budget accommodations with breakfast included. We were blessed to meet some people from the Church of Christ in Eldoret whom were also staying there. Hearing their stories about finding God was inspiring.

Then next morning we took a Mutatu to Eldoret. A Mutatu for those who don't know is like a small minivan that seats about 10 but somehow they can manage to fit 14+ with people hanging on to the side of the van as it barrels full speed down the streets( I'm not sure how fast it was going the speedometer on ours was broken).

After about a days travel changing Mutatus several times we managed to get close to Bwaliro. Bwaliro is pretty off the map, even for Kenya( actually its not even on google maps). The Kenyans I talked to had never heard of it. Chris knew where he was going though and how to go there. Without him I would be completely lost and probably end up in Uganda. We took two motorcycles aka piki-pikis because of the sound their horn makes to the village of Bwaliro. We arrived at dusk with all the people on the road looking at me and shouting ,"Mzungu Mzungu!" or white man.

At Chris' house his wife Velma greeted me and bade me welcome. She showed me to the living room where I met all the children that they take care of. Most of them were shy of the Mzungu but that changed when I brought out the bag of chocolates I had for them. We then ate a good meal of local Kenyan food; Ugali which is a soft cooked dough you roll into a ball with your hands and dip in sauce, Chapatli a thin bread sort of like roti prata if you know what that is, and chunks of beef in a broth. It was delicious. After dinner we had chai, the sweetest tea you'll ever have and talked. We swapped stories about each others countries and they would laugh every time I tried to pronounce a local word. I started to feel more at home and after talking curled up on my bed in my mud hut for a good nights sleep.

Today we traveled to the nearby city of Busia town to get some supplies and a motorcycle to get around.

I'll let you know how it goes soon.

Wishing you all the best and lots of Love from Kenya.