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Swahili Review
Khanga -- a sarape skirt
Nashukuru Mama Kwa Yako Meme Malezi -- Thank your mother for the good life
Mrembo -- beautiful
Wanawake -- women
Nguvu -- strong
Sisi ni wanawake wenye nguvu -- We are strong women
Hatari -- danger
Habari -- How are you?
Mzuri -- I am fine
Harambe -- Let’s pull up together
Dada -- Sister
Dada Zetu -- My chosen sisters
Sacco -- Savings and Loan
FEMALE GENITAL MUTILIATION
FGM includes procedures that involve partial or total removal of the external female genitalia for non-medical reasons. It is often referred to as female cirumcision and is considered a rite of passage from girlhood to womanhood in many tribes of Kenya. Although it is considered a human rights violation and the practice has diminished greatly, it is still widely practiced in some tribes in Kenya.
A girl is secluded to be educated and taught about her duties as a woman prior to the procedure being performed. FGM is performed by an older woman in the tribe -- the circumcised -- who is paid for her services. Upon completion of the FGM the procedure (or the girls’s passage into womanhood) is often celebrated in the tribe as the girl is now eligible for marriage. This process occurs in girls from ages 8-14 or so.
There are challenges in stopping this tradition that has been happening for generations of women. In addition, the attempts to stop the procedure are complicated by the fact that it essentially cuts off the income of the circumcisors.
FGM has serious medical complications including extreme pain, severe bleeding (even death), high risk of infection, later complications with urination, menstraution or childbirth. There is NO benefit to female genital mutilation.
Many communities are using alternative rites of passage. Some of the women we have met including Esther, Lucy and Mercy are involved in stopping FGM and promoting alternative rites of passage where the girls are still taught about becoming women, but not involved in the cutting. Some places will even pay the former circumcisors to participate in the education process so there is no loss of income to them.
Some of the rescues of girls at the Tumaini Center involve girls that may be subjected to this practice without their consent -- particularly in areas like Samburu where the practice is still widely practiced.
Sunrise in Samburu
The weaver bird nests hung from trees all over Kenya, but were most prevalent in the Samburu reserve. We were always looking for leopards in the trees but not in the trees with weaverbird nests as they would not tolerate a leopard in their trees.
CLASH OF CULTURES.
When Mercy Chidi’s husband died in a car crash she caught the eye of John Burke Baidoo, a human rights lawyer from Ghana who had worked on the 160 Girls Project. John received his law degree in Ghana in 2006. He served as the Ghanaian Ambassador to the Economic, Cultural and Social Council of the African Union, worked with African dignitaries such as Kenya’s Nobel Peace Laureate Wangari Maathai and was an advocate for many years for the rights of women and children in Ghana and Kenya. He is walking, along with a Kenyan, across Kenya to support those causes.
He fell in love with Mercy and her four children. Together they had an unexpected surprise named Aida who Mercy gave birth to at an age when she thought she was not going down that motherhood path again. We laughed that the social worker involved in reproductive issues in Kenya for so many years was taken by surprise by her pregnancy in her mid-40s. Adia is beautiful and John adores his new family. All six of them.
So, here’s the irony. John is a King in Ghana. There are dozens of tribes in Ghana and each of them has a chieftain or king. One would think this is perhaps a ceremonial post, but no, not exactly. Although King John is not involved in politics, the Kings of Ghana play an important role as they have an important role over traditional laws and customs and own all the land in their kingdoms.
In Ghana, the royal children inherit blood through their mother and their spirit through their father. All inheritance is through the maternal line. When a King of Ghana dies, The Kingmakers get together and decide which of the eligible male descendants through the maternal line will be anointed as the next king. No kidding. We heard a story that sounded akin to a kidnapping when John learned he was to be anointed king. He feigned he had no idea, but acknowledged he was a favorite of his uncle, the previous king and Mercy, his wife, didn’t sound surprised when he was chosen -- though I think she expected it to be many years down the road.
John is Catholic. The traditional customs are more pantheistic. The king has a harem. You heard me right. This Catholic, happily married human rights lawyer has been anointed king of an area that has pantheistic beliefs and expects him to either select women to be in his harem or pay them off so they are free to marry another. Crazy. Navigating the world of different cultures. I sense that his uncle may have urged the kingmakers to select John because of his human rights and justice inclinations. I have high hopes he will navigate his responsibilities and his authority to resolve disputes in a manner that reflects his values. It sounds like his kingdom generates enough funds for him to pay off the harem too. As I said, crazy.
Some of my favorite photos of Linda, our leader with global heart whose relationships with women in Kenya made it possible for us to visit these remarkable women and cal them our friends too.
Judy was my roommate 33 years ago when I lived in Austin, Texas. She was wondering if after 17 days together in Africa if we had our picture taken together. Here you go Judy.
MONKEY THIEF.
I know you have seen this monkey before, but an update is necessary to report his shenanigans. Carole was out enjoying the pool at the Ashnil Lodge and Resort when she spotted this little guy unzipping her bag to get in her purse. She successfully chased him off. But persistent he was and he eventually managed to sneak his way back into her bag and remove a wrapped gift she had purchased at a local store. She pleaded for its return and his response was to immediately scramble up a tree with his found trinket.
Carole, unwilling to climb the tree herself, went for help. The staff at the Ashnil is obviously experienced with these things and pressured the monkey to return the treasure. Eventually, the monkey through the gift down from the tree to the ground where it’s newspaper wrapping kept it safe from breakage.
Silly monkey. No wonder they made sure we locked the doors to our tents. These little critters would have had no problem opening our doors.
ZERO VIOLENCE CAMPAIGN
This year is a presidential election year in Kenya. There is always tension between the tribes when it comes to elections. Three of Kenya’s four presidents have come from the Kikuyu tribe which is aligned with a few other tribes in the Mt. Kenya region. There is a coalition of other tribes that have been rising up to challenge the current sitting President (son of the first President) in the upcoming election. Due to the nuances of tribal loyalties it is unknown how the election may unfold.
In 2007, Kennedy Odede (co-founder of SHOFCO discussed in a previous blog) spent some time hiding in Kibera and running under cover of darkness from shack to shack hiding from police (or possibly others - I don’t recall specifically) to avoid being shot, arrested or tortured because President Moi felt he he was a threat during the 2007 election.
Mercys Chidi Baidoo1480 Kilometers over 14 counties of Kenya from March 15 to May 15 to popularize and educate people on the 2015 Protection Against Violence Act and generally encourage peace in this 2017 election year. The goal is to pull people together to eradicate violence against women and children.
It's Going to Be a Laid Back Day
Linda Higdon, our leader. The response to this was always laughter.
In Kenya a girl is raped every 30 minutes.
1 of 3 girls in Kenya are the victims of sexual violence.
There is little to no accountability in Kenya for perpetrators of sexual violence.
Before the 160 Girls Project this was the status of things in Kenya. Mercy Chidi and her husband had already started the Tumaini Center to work its and rescue girls, but more needed to be done.
The Tumaini Center worked together with human rights lawyers from a Canadian Charity to do something about it. They meticulously documeted sexual assault cases including tracing them through the process of filing police reports, obtaining medical information and the interviewing of witnesses. There was often little police cooperation and in some cases the police would assault the girls again that came to report a sexual assault.
The Kenya Constitution provided protection for girls and in 2012, a lawsuit was filed to force the government to protect 160 girls. Having won a stunning victory in the Kenyan Supreme Court -- a ruling that reverberations around the developing world and beyond -- the real work began.
The 160 Girls Project now focuses their attention on training law enforcement as compelled by the Supreme Court’s ruling. Bit by bit, the changes are taking effect and the result is better protection for 10,000,000 Kenya girls.
THE TUMAINI CENTER
Early in our visit to Meru, we went to the Tumaini center where we met 8-10 young women between the ages of 13 and 17. All of them were victims of sexual assault, some were victims of female genital mutilation and most of them had babies. For ten years the Tumaini Center has been actively involved in rescuing girls from sexual violence and providing them a safe haven from ongoing danger.
When it is determined that a girl can remain in her home safety with support and counseling with the girl and her family that service is provided. When the girl remains in danger -- usually because the perpetrator is in her own family -- she is taken to the Tumaini Center where she receives food, clothing, shelter, counseling, medical care during pregnancy and delivery.
She and her baby remain at the home until her court case is complete and the social workers can safely return her to her community. The girls we met were amazing. Their hope and optimism was inspiring. At the time we met them, as grown adults, there was a tinge of despair on their behalf -- one that comes from thinking they are just too naive to understand the struggles that were ahead of them. Several things -- some that day and many over the next week we spent in Meru -- made me think that perhaps we, the adults, were the naive ones.
We played games with them. Judy was a fierce competitor in our raucous game of keep-away on the field. The girls ranged from shy to open when we spoke with them one on one. The girl I spoke with had a three year old daughter and wanted to be involved in music when she was done with school. She had a remarkable faith in God and said that no matter what challenges she and her daughter, Blessing, faced in life she was confident that she could face them with God’s help.
After we spent some time with them they asked if they could sing for us. Suddenly their quiet voices (we found quiet voices was a common thing among men and women throughout Kenya) found their power. I cannot adequately describe to you the amazing power and strength that oozed from these girls when they started to sing. It was like being transported by a band of angels to another place. It left most of us with tears pooled in our eyes and all of us with our hearts deeply moved and affected. These girls sang with a conviction of peace and hope that will see them through.
The second thing we learned over the next few days as we met with the director at the center, the New Start Center (the “babies” previously blogged about), the Ripples founder and the other strong women that support this program and the other programs of Ripples is that these girls have the foundation of a strong and vibrant circle of women that will lift them up and support them. These ladies model the power of community and the power of faith and every day as we met more of them we were also inspired and lifted up.
In the Kibera slum we also visited Shining Hope for Communities. We read a book prior to our trip called Find me Unafraid about a couple who founded this organization to improve live for girls in the slums whose first sexual experience is usually forced, who are significantly less likely to find employment, are more vulnerable and less safe when orphaned (there are over 100,000 orphans in Kibera), are far less likely to complete primary school.
SHOFCO has a school for the most vulnerable girls, provides clean water, a health clinic with four satellites, a women’s empowerment program to help women start businesses, social services, education on sanitation and health and community empowerment. We received a tour from Mesh who grew up in Kibera. Much like we had at Ribui and Ripples we visited the schools and were able to see young girls learning. And singing. Today was more of a tour -- unlike the other places we have been where we were able to interact with children and women -- but was very powerful.
It is hard to believe that 1 out of 8 people in the world live in similar conditions to the ones we saw today. We also saw the resilience of the human spirit and how a community can begin to come together and improve the surroundings and circumstances for all. As foreign and frightening as the circumstances are - especially to a Westerner - Mesh spoke with hopefulness as she described the vast and important improvements that have been made over the past 8 years or so. She even pointed out a stretch of road where the residents were working together to clean up some of the trash that had built up and clogged the gutters. I’m not sure where they were taking it, but Mesh indicated the community is working together to put more pressure on the government to provide more services.
I thought it ironic that the government, who ignores this community and considers them squatters, came in to the slums to visit the School for Girls run by SHOFCO to better understand their method of teaching the curriculum because they wanted to use it as a model for other schools.
Today we went to Kibera, one of the largest slums in th world. It’s an area of 9 square kilometers where an estaimated 1,000,000 people live without city services -- electricity, water, sanitation.
By comparison, the city of San Francisco (one of the more densely populated cities in the U.S.) is approximately 121 square kilometers and has 800,000 people.
These photos are from the internet as I cannot access the photos that we were permitted to take -- they are on my camera, not my phone. These photos are an accurate visual of what we saw today. What they do not depict is the stench and the feel of the uneven, dusty, rocky, narrow roads covered with garbage and animal waste.
The photo in the middle on the right is the new community Centre built by and with the community and an organization called Human Needs Project. This organization is providing much needed services including clean drinking water, meeting rooms, access to computers, literacy training, job traaining, showers (for those with jobs outside the slum), bathrooms. They worked together with the community to build the eco-friendly facility that includes a bore hole for water, decontaminated the water, provides water to the neighboring school, provides art outlets -- recording studio, dance lessons and art classes as well.
I was amazed at the hustle and bustle in Kibera. People were busy working in their small “store fronts” that were usually about 5′ square. We saw produce shops, tailors with their pedal push sewing machines, money exchange stores, cafes, even a photography studio. It’s clear as you walk through the town that there is a lot of pirated electricity.
There are a number of organizations that have dug for water wells and there are a number of safe drinking water stations where you can collect clean water. There have been some tremendous efforts in this regard as cholera is a problem in Kibera.
George. This is one our two drivers. He is from the Kiluyu Tribe and spent 17 days with us crazy women. We appreciate his family for giving him up -- especially for the ten days he was unable to come home at night. George was a gentleman and always available with a ladder to help those who needed it out of the car. He was also a great source of information on Kenya. On true game drives he would repeat himself a few times but it was worth it because he was amazing at spotting the animals. We were just sad we never found the cats. I'll tell you about Josh on another post when I get his photo. May be when I get home and can get them off my camera.
Mama Mercy’s international office. Mercy has sent more than 60 children to college. She has helped more than 7,000 children since 1991.
This woman knows how big God is, but she can see it every day. She doesn’t know how many kids she will have or where the food is coming from every day, but she knows God provides. She has seen it every day for her 62 years. This is a woman that doesn’t have faith, but FAITH.
While we were there it was discovered one of the babies was not feeling well and seemed to be having a little trouble breathing. We watched the volunteers whisk the baby off to the hospital for care. We hope to get an update on how he is doing. One of our own offered up money to pay for the hospital bill.
According to Mama Mercy when something needs to be taken care of it usually has a way of happening. I hope that is the case. I do believe that she does everything humanly possible to make things happen. I suspect there are times when needs are not met. I am glad we were there and one of our group was able to offer financial help for this baby.
Mama Mercy believes education is extremely important and the key for these children to escape poverty. She sends them to school and figures out the school fees as she goes along.
We asked her how she does it and if she gets any sleep. Four hours a night of terrific sleep. She said it like that was plenty. I was tired talking to her.
These are the older children in the kitchen cooking lunch. The girls were singing as they worked in this dark area of the home lit only by the light coming in through the rafters.
These children sleep three to a bed and eat the same kale with rice or other grain everyday. The meals are cooked in almost darkness in a kitchen with no running water, no sinks, no cupboards. They just opened up a big cloth sack of kale and dumped it out on the table. And they were far happier than I ever am when I whine about having nothing to eat. Before they were rescued they were hungry, had no place to sleep, no family that cared for them. The older kids were pressured to sniff glue as part of their initiation int a group on the street that would provide them protection. By older kids, I mean 5 years of age.