Our Bridge to Africa

Peter’s Last Notes from Malindi March 22, 2009

It is really hard to believe that this phase of the Bridge to Africa is drawing to a close… We have been in Kenya for almost a month and the time has flown by. It has been an amazing experience as reading the blog may have suggested!

This entry goes back a couple of days and will conclude with the wrap up gathering we had last night in Mombasa.

The presentations from the final group were excellent. They had put a lot of thought into their roadmaps and clearly grasped the concepts we had discussed during the week.

After the presentations were finished, we used the confidence line on the floor and were very pleased to see that everyone had moved up into the 80-100 range. If you haven’t used this method, it is a simple way of getting quick feedback on how people are feeling about their learning. We put a piece of masking tape across the floor and designated one end as 0 and the other as 100. On Monday we asked people to position themselves on the line and remember where they placed themselves. We re-measured mid-week and then again on Friday.

In the final group, we had one presentation made by two people. The first was an ex-teacher who now works for the Ministry of Youth Affairs. His partner was an individual who started the program with some trepidation. Having progressed steadily during the week, the individual worked extremely well with his partner covering a topic about which he had no previous knowledge. By the end of his presentation, he had decided that he was going back to school to become an accountant! He said this with enough conviction that I am sure he will follow though on it if he can access the funds… For his part, the ex-teacher said that he wished he had had this knowledge when he first started teaching!

I can’t remember if I wrote this before but at the risk of being redundant I’ll say it again. While the Mombasa team were working in a hotel, eating in the hotel cafeteria and being charged on a per capita basis, we were eating in the church with the food being served from plastic buckets that arrived by motorcycle… We had a lot of goat, ugali (a maize dish), fish heads on Thursdays and chicken on Fridays. Fresh pineapple was offered once a week as were bananas. We consumed an amazing amount of water. My only regret about that was that it was in plastic bottles… On the positive side, in each program there was an individual who collected the empty bottles. S/he said s/he would fill them with juice and sell them.

We used a lot of warm-up and ice (oh, I wish!) breaking exercises in each program. Many of them were initiated by the participants. They had an amazing number of very creative ones that left us energized and often laughing hysterically.   

The drawing exercise was well received in all programs. There are two from the final program that I will post. One was the drawing of a palm tree.  The person who drew it talked about how peaceful it was to sit in its shade on hot days. She went on to say how much she enjoyed the coconut milk and the fruit from it. She also described how she had used the trunk of palm trees to build her house… Ok, you had to be there to appreciate the feelings contained in her story!

The other story that caught me was the description of the woman desperately wanting the rain to be able to plant things to feed her family… I related this drawing to one of the stories that Ezra had told us. It was of how last year a number of people had gone to great lengths to collect food for people who were starving. They took it to the village where people expressed their appreciation for it. The villagers then went on to say how they really needed water to be able to cook the food. The nearest water was 17 km away – a very long walk… especially in 35° weather. The story ended when Ezra arranged to provide temporary relief by bringing in a water tanker.

On Thursday afternoon I heard a commotion outside the church. When I looked out through one of the slots in the wall, kids were running away from one little boy who had his back to me. I watched for a couple of minutes and finally saw his face! He had covered it with chalk and was scaring the younger kids! I love the picture so I’ll post it too.

That reminds me of another incident. As I think I may have mentioned, Mary, my wife arrived a week ago. At the graduation, one child took one look at her face and shrieked! Her mother took her out of the church and Mary went out to see if repeated exposure might make the little girl more comfortable with her. It didn’t! She shrieked again. The offset for Mary was that the 18 month old son of one of the graduates obviously felt completely comfortable with her and would back into her (Mary) and then would climb up onto her lap. Mary really liked that even though she was a little anxious as the boy wasn’t wearing anything under his pants!

The graduation ceremony was very interesting. Initially scheduled to start at 1500 hours, it finally got under way at about 1610! After a prayer from the mother of one of the participants, a senior official from local government made a speech. In addition to commenting on our program she spoke at length about some of the challenges facing local youth. These included drug abuse, teenage prostitution and child abuse. It was her final topic that I found most disturbing. She asked that people not take the law into their own hands. She said that if anyone had proof of witchcraft being practiced they should take it to the authorities who would deal with it appropriately. Apparently there had been a recent incident in which local youths suspected that someone was practicing witchcraft and had actually stoned the person to death…

The second speaker was the Provincial Youth Director from the Ministry of Youth Affairs. She had driven from Mombasa (approximately two hours) especially for the graduation and then returned immediately afterwards. Allison and I had met her in Mombasa at the British Council ceremony. She spoke of how appreciative the Ministry was of the efforts in Malindi and invited us to come back and deliver the same training in other districts.

Allison then made some brief comments acknowledging our appreciation for the opportunity and how much we had enjoyed being in Malindi. We then handed out the certificates, a copy of which I have posted.

After the certificates had been awarded we were very touched to be presented with beautiful statues of Masai warriors and their wives. Allison was given one for Harry, her fiancé. He had made a definite impression for his efforts in the community cleanup, his football prowess and his gift of a ball to the local football committee. Mary had also obviously connected with a number of the participants and she too was given a statue. We felt very honoured… I was informed later that presentations are not normally made to trainers so I felt even more honoured!

I’ll post a picture of Allison, Ezra and I – the Malindi team! We worked together so well. Ezra was the perfect host. He has also become a dear friend and we will keep in touch through whatever means we can. In addition to his organizing efforts and inspirational comments to each class, he attended the final program as a participant and graduated with flying colours! He is one of the four participants, two men from Malindi and two women from Mombasa that we would like to bring to the Conference in October. It would be amazing to have the four of them talk about the program and the impact it has had on their various communities. We will welcome any ideas or donations to help make their visit a reality… their presence would illustrate so clearly the significance of what the CSTD Bridge to Africa  initiative has meant to youth in Kenya. In the photo Allison is holding the Masai statues.

Yesterday, Saturday, March 21, we had a farewell dinner in Mombasa. Ezra travelled with Allison, Mary and me from Malindi. In addition to Mary Lou and Leigh, we were joined by Kasena, the YCI staffer who had worked with me over the past year and Emmy, another YCI person from Vancouver who works with Kasena. We had a nice dinner in a local Indian restaurant. After dinner we presented them each with a certificate from CSTD in recognition of their efforts.

This morning, Sunday, the team split up. Allison and Leigh flew to Nairobi on their way home via Heathrow. Mary Lou has gone to Zambia to work on another project. Mary and I are going to explore more of Kenya before meeting Mary Lou in London on March 30 for our flight to Toronto.

One of final things I did today was to send Stephen Lewis a ‘mission accomplished’ message. Thanks to everyone who contributed their time, efforts and money, we have delivered on our commitment to help rebuild human capacity in Africa. And, for anyone interested in working with passionate people who crave knowledge and are eager learners, there is a lot more to do here!

Asante sana everyone!

Finally, I want to leave you with a list of the graduates of the three programs in Malindi. They all worked very diligently to learn and then practice their skills. Several have already indicated how they have used their new found knowledge. Ezra has planned the first follow up meeting for the entire group. I know they will be very supportive of each other as they use their new found confidence to build their communities.

·   March 2-6

Edward K. Mbugua

Alice Bahati Karisa

Fadhila Said Salim

Khalid Swaleh Salim Bazmaleh

Omar Alwy Mohamed

Athman Ali Said

Bernard M. Ngirigacha

Reuben Mrimi Kithi

Lucy Nganzo Abel

Elvina Nyevu Kadengev

Hinzano Allan Karisa

Judy Wayua Muthusi

·   March 9-13

Mwarumba Jilani Sanga

Mary Kimanthi

Millicent Anita Taura

Athman Marzuq Serenge

Annastacia Akoth

Charles Toya

Hadijah Ali

Brenda Samba Mwarigha

Irene Zawadi Hinzano

Benson Kahindi Karisa

Anna Aoko

Mercy Mulongo Tsuma

·   March 16-20

David N. Gachathi

John Muriuki

Martha Mwanguo Mele

Victor Andrew Mboya

Abdallah Amin Fadhil

Mwanaasha Mohamed Shokowa

Ezra Bidii Kombe

Elizabeth M. Mwaganda

Geoffrey Gona Kadhengi

Nelius Kalu

Mathew N. Mwangi

Nickson M. Kiti

The Palm Tree

Please Let it Rain…

The Scary Child!

The Certificate of Completion

The Malindi Team

Malindi – March 17, 2009

Wow! The time is going extremely fast. We have just finished the second day of our third and final session… We have another interesting mix of people including three teachers, a professional photographer, an actor, a business owner, and a government employee. Ezra, our local organizer, has also joined us as a participant. One of our participants has a brother who lives in Hamilton, ON! I will post a picture of the group.

On Monday morning as we arrived at the church, we experienced our first heavy rain since we arrived in Kenya. The sound on the tin roof was almost deafening… Lucky for us as facilitators, it ended before the 0900 hours session start time.  The rain was welcomed by the community as it has been hot and dry and people are looking forward to the rainy season which will hopefully begin later this month. The rain that fell yesterday created a large puddle outside the back door of the church. It was gone in about 10 minutes. The ground is incredibly dry.

I will also post a picture of the land we drove through on Sunday on our way back from Watamu. It looks so bleak and hopeless. I would find it difficult to retain any optimism if I were to see it every day…

I’ll also post a photo of the village we go through and our way to work. In spite of the apparent poverty, people seem very friendly as we pass through.

Another interesting and very touching thing happened today. In this program we have the husband of one of the people who attended the first session. They are expecting a child in about five months. The husband told me that they had been discussing names and that if the baby was a girl it would be called Allison and if a boy, Peter. That was the highest of compliments…

We were also fortunate today to have Charles come back from the second program to share his experience and plans.

Once again we used the drawing exercise and once again we had some fascinating output. I’ll post a couple of them tomorrow.

The Third Group in Malindi

Nickson, David, Mboya, Ezra, Peter, Nelius, Martha, Allison, Elizabeth, Charles (from Group 2), Abdallah, John. In front, Jeff.

Tough Country…

The Village on the Way to Work in Malindi