VSO - ICS: My time in Kenya

  www.vso-ics.org.uk

ICS is a once-in-a-lifetime volunteering opportunity open to all 18 to 25-year-olds, backed by the UK department for international development.  It gives you the chance to work side-by-side with local volunteers in developing countries, to make a meaningful contribution to fighting poverty, and to gain valuable skills that will stay with you long after the 12-week placement is complete. ICS is demanding but hugely rewarding – both in its own right and as a stepping stone to future job opportunities and to help you play a part in making your world a better place.

 
Much of the material used to put together this blog about my time in Kenya has been taken directly from the emails that I wrote home to my family and friends whilst I was there. The tense has been changed as I am now writing it having completed the programme but it does embody many of the thoughts and feelings at the time of writing. Some paragraphs may therefore seem erratic as they recall my ramblings from different times on the programme but, I hope, give a representation of my overall experience and time in Kenya.

Family

Mama was a nurse and Baba was a livestock manager; she was extremely welcoming, he was a little more challenging – often asking why my cheeks weren’t fuller or my hair blonder like some of the other UK volunteers and telling me that I was still very upset about the death of princess Diana(?!). When I first arrived in the house there were just four of us; mama, baba, my Kenyan counterpart Fatma and I. Over the next few weeks though, more and more people came to stay with us; I never quite understood exactly how they were related to the family but everyone was welcomed like another brother or sister and stayed in the room next door to ours. There must have been up to 8 people staying in that one room at times.

Our house was made of concrete but fairly basic inside. The toilet was a basin in the floor and the shower often came out as only a trickle, if it worked at all. I eventually worked out that it was much more efficient to wash from a bucket, but it took me a long time to accept this. When I first arrived I was shocked to see that the family had a three-piece settee and even a television. There was only cold running water to wash and wash up with. FYI: even when its hot outside its not particularly pleasant to wash with cold water.

Life seemed much simpler there, they placed high importance on family, community, respecting your elders, faith and religion. Water and power cuts were frequent and you never knew quite how long they would last; sometimes only a few hours but other times up to a week. We brushed our teeth outside: nice view of the stars but danger from falling coconuts. Many of the Kenyans didn’t seem to be able to spit out toothpaste without choking on it though. I used to go to sleep with the sound of cats fighting and wake up to the sound of a cockerel and also of the call to mosque. Everyone seemed to go to sleep almost straight after dinner; we were in bed by 9 - 9.30 and woke up early; around 6.Many children woke up at 5 - 5.30 in order to get to school.

Team Kilifi

Many of the volunteers from Nairobi (Susan, Daphine, Innocent, Biko and Peter) came from Kibira which I’m pretty sure is the biggest slum in Kenya, it was very interesting talking to them about growing up with their brothers and sisters in a single room, walking to get water or to the toilet etc. The overriding feeling that you got from them though was that they absolutely loved living there; to them it was their favourite place on earth. It is strange to think that we came from such different backgrounds and yet bonded so well together.

We had one to two days off per week and usually spent these at the beach if the weather was nice. We would sometimes go for a soda in the evening after finishing our placements. Friday nights were either a charity quiz night, “Bango” dancing, a meal together or the backpackers lodge where there was phosphorescent plankton on the beach nearby. We had several socials as a group including a boat ride, a goat party, a bonfire on the beach, a “fuddle” at one of the volunteers host homes and a trip to Malindi to visit the other VSO-ICS team there.

We went to Watamu for our mid-phase review (MPR), stayed in an eco-conservation lodge and had mashed potato for the first time in a long time. It was nice to spend the night together as a group as opposed to in our separate host homes. MPR was the first time I remember starting to get to know “girlband” - a group of four girls from the UK and, I hope, some friends for life. After the MPR we all felt refreshed and motivated about what we wanted to achieve during the remaining weeks of our placements.

Rain, rain, rain…

When we first arrived in Mombassa it was so hot I woke up covered in sweat (nice) every morning, it must have got cooler though as I never really remember feeling like that when we got to Kilifi. For the first few weeks it rained heavily almost every day (it was the season of the long rains) and although we were told to bring walking boots or wellingtons with us we usually just wore flip flops like the locals. It made it impossible to dry your clothes after you had spent hours (literally) hand washing them. (In fact I was so bad at this my family used to stand and laugh at me whilst I attempted to wash my clothes, and it wasn’t through lack of trying – I would scrub and scrub until my knuckles bled!) The rain resulted in frequent power cuts in the town and we wouldn’t know when the power was going to come back on again. Rain also seemed to provide a legitimate excuse for people not to come into work – sort of like snow in the UK I guess… The rains did eventually become less and less frequent and even gave way to some sunny spells and hotter temperatures, particularly during the last few weeks.

Placements

When I applied to be on the programme I never imagined that I would have the opportunity to use or build on my professional skills as a qualified dietitian. Kilifi District Hospital was just like the hospitals in Africa you might see on the television. Pretty tough. I worked with the dietitians on the wards and in their clinics; observing, learning, exchanging ideas and thinking about different ways of working. Most of the work was in maternal and child health and also with those diagnosed with HIV/AIDS.

I also worked for the National Drought Management Authority (NDMA) with my Kenyan counterpart Peter, with the aim of improving food security and monitoring malnutrition in under 5's. A typical day in this organisation involved travelling around Kilifi county; I started to understand why they needed a drought management authority despite all the rain we were having – Kilifi town by the sea had its own little microclimate; the rains that happened there did not occur further inland.

The villages we visited were extremely remote and felt like we were in the middle of nowhere in a very arid landscape. We collected information on levels of rainfall, crop growth, livestock, sources of income and what impact all of this had on food security and on the health and nutritional status of children under 5. We would ask about 'coping mechanisms' when there wasn’t enough food, answers included; parents skipping meals or going whole days without eating, serving themselves smaller portions and sending adult family members away to ensure that the children had enough to eat. NDMA then made recommendations and put into place programmes on the basis of the information collected. Strategies and programmes included emergency food aid distribution, replenishment of livestock, supplementary feeding, relief seed distribution, building of water pans etc. Many of these projects were put in place by implementing partners such as World Vision, Red Cross and Plan International.

My third placement was within the “Special unit” in Matsangoni Primary School (where children with “disabilities” are grouped together in one class regardless of age). In Kenya, disability is seen as something to be ashamed of or a curse from God. It wasn’t uncommon for a child with a disability to be kept away from the public eye due to the stigma associated with them. The term “disability” was used to describe anything from dyslexia or mild learning difficulties to epilepsy, cerebral palsy and birth defects. We felt that many of these children did not need to be in the special unit and were more than capable of being integrated into the main school. It was difficult to see them all being taught as one class when their age (3 -13 yrs) and range of disabilities varied so enormously. Clearly the more able children were not able to work to their full potential in this environment.

As opposed to teaching them (which is what most people assume you have done when you say you did voluntary work abroad) we attempted to advocate for these children and put into place sustainable projects that involved parents, teachers, the school and children themselves to help improve their prospects for the future. We encouraged the setting up of community based organisations to get parents more involved in their children’s education. We highlighted the importance of including pre-vocational lessons in the timetable to give the children practical skills so that when they leave school they might be able to support themselves. We also tried to showcase these skills to the parents so that they might see the ability and potential in their children. We arranged for the children to be assessed by the Education and Resource Centre (EARC) to ensure any specific educational needs could be catered for, providing specialist learning aids where necessary and also start a cycle of regular monitoring and re-evaluation regarding promotion of integration into the main school where possible. We established a link between the local health centre and the special unit who promised to assess each child regularly and refer them to physio or other specialists where required.

A major issue that I was working on was the lack of a feeding programme in the special units across Kilifi; even though the teachers were given a whole day's pay the children went home at lunchtime. We met with the District Education Officer, the County Commissioner and head teachers to come up with a way of sourcing food for a feeding programme in these schools.

Other counterpart pairs within our team were placed in other special units in different primary schools around the area, in orphanges, in the prison - helping to give the prisoners skills for when they are released. Other pairs were based in one of the many Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs), working with peer educators on topics such as drugs and sexual reproductive health. Youth employment is high in Kenya and drug abuse was a problem in Kilifi. Many of the touts for the matatus (buses) were drug users and did that job to get quick cash. Other issues in the area included early marriages and child labour; negatively impacting on education and livelihoods. We were encouraged wherever we could to set up and work towards long term, sustainable changes; trying to change attitudes, systems and processes; talking to local government ministries and NGOs and encouraging advocacy wherever possible.

As well as working in three different placement organisations, I was also kept busy with report writing and involvement in a particular committee. I was on the Community Action Day committee and helped to implement an integration day at Mnarani Primary School, a community clean up to help reintegrate recovering intravenous drug users and a disability and sexual health awareness day in Kibarani. Each counterpart pair also ran a Global Citizenship day where we facilitated learning about a particular topic; my working counterpart Peter and I chose to do ours on food security.

Food

Mealtimes are seen as an extremely important social occasion in Kenya; it is expected that in the evening the whole family will eat together and discuss their day. The kitchen was fairly basic; food preparation and cooking was done on the floor and we ate off plastic plates with our fingers - which I really wasn’t great at. In fact I was terrible, food all over the floor etc.

I was given bread and Blueband for breakfast, and we usually had beans and chapati for lunch as it was cheap (30p). Chai was very popular and many of the UK volunteers including myself drank this regularly. Kenyans don’t drink coffee; all the coffee grown in Kenya is exported. Ugali is the favourite food of every Kenyan I met. Made by dissolving maize flower into boiling water and heating until it becomes a solid, it is usually served with a green spinach type vegetable called sukumawiki or mchicha and either chicken, beef stew or fish. In my host home it invariably came with a fish-head. A meal was absolutely not a meal without ugali according to the Kenyans. Even when we cooked one family a Cottage pie to demonstrate UK style food, they all had a serving of ugali afterwards. Chips were viewed as snack or as food for girls. It was mango season whilst we were out there so I used to eat one every day for about 15p.

Many of the UK volunteers got sick within the first couple of weeks after arriving in Kilifi but I managed to stay well right until three days before we were due to come home. It was a fish-head that did it.

A few volunteers living in more Western style houses had an oven in their homes but my family cooked on a jiko – a small, round coal fired cooking device, about the size of a large saucepan and kept on the floor in the kitchen area. Girlband attempted to make a cake in the jiko one time; took three hours to cook but turned out pretty good in the end! The blueband butter cream was definitely a mistake though.

I think (I hope) that I’m less fussy about food now. Meals consisted mainly of carbohydrate (ugali, chapatti or rice) and vegetable sources of protein (beans or lentils) so when we did get a bit of chicken or fish I would eat every last scrap; picking off every last bit of flesh from the fish bones and eating the gristle etc.

Getting around

Only the main highways were made of tarmac, all other roads were sand or mud and took potholes to a whole new level. There are very few cars in Kilifi town; we usually walked or got a tuk tuk (basically a motorbike with a little carriage attached on the back - meant for three people but we managed to squeeze in up to 7 or 8!). If you needed to travel further you would normally take a matatu; a 14 seater mini-van with a very low ceiling, usually carrying up to 22 people – literally like a can of sardines with the mellow tones of Celine Dion blaring into your ears.

Wildlife

The first night in my host home I spotted a long, thick, slimy slug like creature in the shower room, which I later discovered to be a millipede. I didn’t come across any poisonous centipedes though, unlike Amina (she lived in the middle of the outback).

We all got bitten by mosquitos to varying degrees but I think Marley took the crown after getting bitten 73 times in one night whilst hanging out of his mosquito net. My worst experiences were probably with the ants; much bigger than in the UK and they bite. One day I woke up to them having their babies in my raincoat and when I was packing to come home I found they had set up home in my shoes. Quite a shock to put your hand in and pull it out covered in large black ants.

I think the most exotic wild animal we saw was a chameleon crossing the road – Ben and I escorted it so it didn’t get squashed. There are also “blue-balled” monkeys, goats, chickens and cats running around pretty much everywhere.

Some random facts about Kenya:

Even when it is boiling hot, Kenyans are very worried about getting a chill; so if there is a slight breeze they all put a jumper on whilst the UK volunteers were still sweating.

The same principle applies to newborn babies - they dress them in woolly hats and multiple blankets despite the heat.

The pace of life is much slower. Walk slowly. Then reduce your pace by ten times. You’ll be somewhere near their average walking speed.

Woman are treated as secopnd class citizens.

Education is highly valued, students are very proud to tell you that they attend school or university.

There are very few bins, people tend to dump rubbish in piles on the street. Eventually the rubbish piles get burnt.

Many of the families in the village where I stayed live in single room “mud huts”. They would cook, eat, live and sleep in one room together.

Many Kenyan volunteers have never had any reason to learn to swim, so we tried to teach some of the volunteers on our days off.

Beating children for bad behaviour is common, there is no stigma attached to doing it in public. The cane is widely used in schools despite this now being illegal.

Attitudes to white people and the idea that they have influence and money seems to be instilled into children very early on.

Despite the media portraying only the poverty that exists in Kenya, there are a number of Kenyan families living in large, Western style houses.

One memory

For me, the one memory that stands out the most was when one evening, my home counterpart Fatma and I were walking through our village towards our host home after a meeting with a local NGO about our upcoming CAD. Two girls, Bahati and Massi, from the Special Unit at the local Primary School Fatma was working in came running over to us and invited us into their home to meet their mother. We found ourselves in a small room lit by candlelight. A small portion was separated off from the rest of the room by two bed sheets hanging from the ceiling at right angles to each other; the area was big enough only for a small table and four stools. Bahati sat on the floor and would not take my seat. The rest of the small room was used to both cook and sleep. One of the girls ran outside and came back with a litre bottle of Fanta. She poured it into plastic cups for Fatma and I and we drank. Neither the girls nor their mother took any. When we had finished they refilled our cups despite our protests and still refused to take any of it for themselves. When we were getting ready to leave their mother presented for us a meal of ugali and cabbage on the table. We ate, laughed and later the girls sang and recited poems for us.

I will never forget that litre bottle of Fanta – because to me it seemed that these girls and their mother had absolutely nothing – and yet they went out and bought a drink especially for us and insisted that we had it all, they insisted that we sat on stools and insisted that we shared their food with them. I will remember that evening more than any other I had in Kenya.

What have I learnt? - Taken from my personal development report

It feels impossible to put into words how much I have learnt from this experience; not only about myself but also about development work, Kenya, community and society, to mention just a few. I arrived off the plane in Mombassa having got to know some of my UK counterparts on the journey and previously during training in the UK and felt that there was no way that we would ever know the Kenyan volunteers as well as we already knew each other. Now, four weeks after returning home, I feel so privileged to be able to call each and every member of the team my friend. We have had three amazing months together; with ups and downs, frustrations and successes, but working with them has taught me more in three months than the previous 24 years of my life put together. I have been inspired by their motivation and relentless enthusiasm to make a change; even when change seems impossible because of hurdles and challenges encountered along the way.

It hasn’t always been a smooth ride… working cross culturally can be very challenging - purely because we have been brought up so differently and in such different environments. I think I learnt early on this in this programme to withhold judgement.. even when you find someone’s behaviour or attitude challenging to work with, because if you persevere with them you usually find out the reasons behind it and suddenly everything makes sense – and it is so worth getting to that point with someone when you can think back and say I can’t believe I ever thought negatively of you because you are actually this amazing, good humoured person that I almost didn’t get to know because I was judging you against standards from my own background which just doesn’t work here.

Every part of this experience; living in a host home and working with a Kenyan counterpart; being able to experience life in a Kenyan primary school, hospital and government ministry; networking and negotiating with NGO’s, government and community chiefs to make a change; visiting the interior of Kilifi where drought and food security remain a major issue, organising and taking part in Community Action days, Global Citizenship days being part of a committee and having fun with my team have taught me more than I could ever have hoped for or imagined.

If you would like to know more about the ICS programme or apply to take part, then please visit www.vso-ics.org.uk to find out more.