ICIPE and Kisumu

Mar 29^th, 2009 – We are under a month away from being home and can hardly believe it. Time seems to be speeding up and while 2 months ago we’d thought it would be forever until our time to deport, it now seems like it is screaming up on us. I think we will all be leaving on a high note with our last experiences.

Joyce and I got back a few hours ago from our trip to Kisumu to visit Morgan and see how she is doing. Kisumu is on the north east corner of the pan-handle of Lake Victoria that extends into Kenya. It is the 4^th largest city in the country at about 280,000 residents. But it seems huge to us with many modern conveniences that we don’t have access to here in Mbita. There are grocery stores that sell cheese and take more than 2 minutes to walk through. A lot of the roads are paved. Buildings are more than 3 stories tall. You can get a latte while you surf the net. And not only do they have movie theaters, but the one we went to actually had air conditioning, at least to the second movie we went to. That’s right, 2 movies in two days. We, Joyce, Morgan and I, first went to see Will Smith in Seven Pounds but ended up seeing Adam Sandler’s Bedtime Stories as the poster advertising what was showing hadn’t been updated yet. Entertaining if you haven’t seen a movie in a long time. The next day the 3 of us were joined by Dick and Sandy, whom we were staying with, and saw Steve Martin’s Pink Panther 2. Steve was funny and the air conditioner was actually working so this one rated a thumbs up. Movies are one thing that we are missing and plan on going to a few when we return.

There are also a lot of Mazungus in Kisumu and it doesn’t feel like the Mbita Kenya we have grown use to. Parts of life are so US normal and I find myself falling back into old habits very easily and living US style. Such as having ice cream and putting it away in a freezer. But of course they is a lot of Kenya in Kisumu – run down houses, hawking selling wares off their blankets on the sidewalks, matatus and bota botas everyplace. And people asking the white people for handouts. At this point I prefer the simplicity of Mbita. But that is changing for us too.

Before I get to that, an update on Morgan. She is liking Kisumu a lot and the girls she are helping out and living with. The schedule doesn’t seem to hectic, but keeps her busy. She is getting around Kisumu like a pro and likes the conveniences that the bigger city provides.

And Nick is finding things to do in Nairobi. Just reported to us that he is playing basketball in the Kibira slums and things are picking up for the upcoming fund raiser. Derek, a volunteer at Christ’s Gift Academy is going to visit him on his way through Nairobi.

Back to Mbita – As Joyce puts it we are moving up the food chain. We started in housing on the Catholic Parish compound – It had intermittent power, no running water, a jiko for cooking and an outhouse. But still it was better than a large portion of the local population. This definitely gave us a taste of how locals live more so than our other housing arrangements and a taste of how much starch there is on the diet here. It also lead to getting to know the community itself better since we had to travel out into it on a frequent basis to pick up food and phone cards. This was our longest housing stop, being our home from mid November to mid February. This gave us a great appreciation for our luxury and abundance back home. Our next stay in Mbita was Steve and Judi’s home. They are the ones we are working with at Christ’s Gift Academy. They have a nice 4 bedroom home with a living/dining room area, a kitchen, a veranda, an inside toilet and showering area. While they only have solar power, they do have occasional running water and a rain water collection system. They live a much more westernized life style that particularly shows up in their eating habits with a nice variety of food. This is helped by the fact they have a gas oven/stove. However they have no refrigerator, but do use space in the freezers of friends. Our last 2 weeks in Mbita will have us living in a flat at ICIPE. We are staying with Joe at his 2 bedroom apartment in probably the best accommodations available in Mbita. ICIPE, being a major research facility has development much of their own infrastructure. They have treated water, which we still boil, generator backed-up power, and communication with the outside world via internet. While there is not a phone system that goes beyond the facilities fence line, we do have access to a refrigerator, hot water, running water, a bathtub with shower, one that actually projects water in streams, a flushing toilet and internet in the apartment. Joe also has satellite TV, a DVD player and a color TV. I find myself quickly succumbing to these luxury and have already given in to watching episodes of Friends of which we have access to 5 seasons of DVDs. I planned on not giving in to watching TV just because I could, but quickly gave in as soon as the devil woman Joyce enticed me with episodes of Friends. So I plan on pointing fingers at her and blaming her for my downfall. After all, who could resist such temptation which was being forced upon me?

Well I need to go – upload this blog on the convenient and relatively fast internet and take my hot shower before climbing into a comfortable bed which I have the option of having a fan blow on me all night.

Living the good life in Mbita,

Paul