This morning started with Bible study, as usual, during which the man who cares for the animals announced that the baby goat, a female, had been born the previous afternoon. Afterwards, Kate took me on a tour of the Hekima Place compound. It is surrounded on three sides by a solid wall and on the third by a fence between Hekima Place and the neighboring farm. It is really a pretty amazing operation, particularly because it’s the creation of one small 74 year old woman. There are, of course, the four residential houses for the girls, Amani building with Kate’s room and the offices, the Dominica dining hall, and the Karibu (welcome in swahili) guest house.
But the property covers several acres. A good part of it is taken up with the shamba (garden in swahili) - latest reports are that, except for potatoes, it provides all the veggies needed in the kitchen. There’s a greenhouse, the cost of which was borne by the local Rotary Club. Besides the shamba and greenhouse, there’s a simple structure for the cows (two adults, a heifer and a calf), the billy goat and the she-goat and her day-old baby. The tiny wobbly-legged kid goat was so cute, and white like her mom. The plan is to ultimately have enough goats to provide meat for the table. The cows give a substantial percentage of the milk for the girls. The whole operation is quite “green”, but more of that later.
In the evening, I again met with my little math group. This evening they brought along an old standardized test they said twenty problems of which had been assigned for homework. We slogged our way through the test until 10:30 pm. I try to get them to think their way through the problems, but it’s a struggle. The do fine when they have a formula and can plug numbers into it, but variations seems to throw them. For example, they can do calculations on right triangles in their sleep, but one of the problems gave them the length of the sides of a rectangle and asked them to calculate the length of a line drawn diagonally across the rectangle. My tutees did not seem to have a clue how to start. Perhaps they would have done better had we gotten to it earlier in the evening. I was certainly tired at that point. But I think the problem is the pedagogy at Kenyan schools where the emphasis is on rote learning, not independent thinking.
Saturday, 17 March 2012
Wednesday, Mar. 14
Try jumping rope for an hour when you haven’t done it since elementary school. I awoke at 6 am to do just that. It’s not the same as running, but it is great aerobic exercise - and will be better when I stop getting tangled up in the rope every 5 jumps or so!
During the day, Kate mentioned that the female goat of the pair of goats was pregnant and due at any time. The goat had arrived pregnant, but had aborted twice, so everyone was concerned about this pregnancy.
The big commitment of the day was to go into Nairobi to meet with a lawyer, Nancy Shikuku, about some labor issues we’re dealing with. We left here at 1pm for a 2:30 meeting expecting bad traffic but arrived at 1:45 pm. We had to wait a while, but it was a good meeting when it finally happened. Nancy was very helpful and now we know better how to proceed. Kenyan labor law is very interesting and seems to be quite favorable to the workers.
When we got back to Hekima Place, Kate fixed us a quick dinner of chicken in a nice sauce over noodles, a little relief from ugali and greens. After dinner at 7 pm I was back in the dining hall with my little group of math students. This night they had homework, so we worked through their homework together. I hope I was some help to them! They seem to have particular trouble with word problems. I suppose that’s not surprising since English is their third language after their tribal language and swahili.
During the day, Kate mentioned that the female goat of the pair of goats was pregnant and due at any time. The goat had arrived pregnant, but had aborted twice, so everyone was concerned about this pregnancy.
The big commitment of the day was to go into Nairobi to meet with a lawyer, Nancy Shikuku, about some labor issues we’re dealing with. We left here at 1pm for a 2:30 meeting expecting bad traffic but arrived at 1:45 pm. We had to wait a while, but it was a good meeting when it finally happened. Nancy was very helpful and now we know better how to proceed. Kenyan labor law is very interesting and seems to be quite favorable to the workers.
When we got back to Hekima Place, Kate fixed us a quick dinner of chicken in a nice sauce over noodles, a little relief from ugali and greens. After dinner at 7 pm I was back in the dining hall with my little group of math students. This night they had homework, so we worked through their homework together. I hope I was some help to them! They seem to have particular trouble with word problems. I suppose that’s not surprising since English is their third language after their tribal language and swahili.
Tuesday, Mar. 13
In trying to figure out how to continue my exercise program while I’m in Kenya, I needed to find a substitute for the ParaBody gym and hand weights I use at home. And it had to be something lightweight that would fit in my luggage (the guy at Dunham’s said, “Can’t you go to the hotel fitness center?” - yeah, right). So I bought a set of resistance cables that fit into a smallish bag. They came with a jumprope and a grip exerciser. Tuesday morning was my first chance to try them out. I think the resistance cords may work as an ok substitute.
The work day starts around here with the staff gathering for Bible Study followed by a staff information session. Each of the employees, Mums and Uncles alike, take their turn leading the Bible Study. I got back from my run too late to attend on Monday and besides, my foot, ankle and hand were hurting. So Monday afternoon Kate gently chided me, blaming herself for not telling me about it. Clearly I am expected to participate. Which means I’ve got to be ready to roll by 8 am every day. And I thought that had ended when I retired!
Kate had errands to do so we drove the 40 minutes into Karen (“ideal” traffic conditions - if traffic is bad it takes much longer). Kiserian is nearby, but is a small town and there’s not much that can be accomplished there. Also, we’re in the middle of the annual audit (yes, even in Kenya!) and we had papers for which we needed signatures of two of the Kenyan trustees. One lives in Karen and the other met us there because she was there on other business. While Kate went to the bank, she sent me with the box key to the nearby post office to check the mail. The address for Hekima Place is now a PO box in Kiserian, but some mail still comes to the old box in Karen. I had dark glasses on and on the short stroll to the post office, a Kenyan man sitting under a tree said hi to me. I said hi back and kept walking. Then he asked if Mum Kate was around, so I stopped and looked, still with the dark glasses on, and said she was at the bank and started to walk on. Finally I took the dark glasses off and realized I’d been speaking to Sam, the driver who picked me up at the airport! I was so embarrassed not to have recognized him, but he was very gracious about it. Then I was so flustered, I got to the post office and couldn’t remember the box number, except that it ended in 27. I tried practically every box in the place ending in 27 until I finally hit the right one. I’m glad nobody else was in there watching what I was doing!
Kate had asked if I would tutor the 8th graders in math after dinner - apparently they’re not doing well in math at school. I got the textbook and thumbed through it - they’re studying geometry. There’s not a lot of guidance in the textbook, but at least there was enough to give me confidence that I could probably help them. So at 7 pm after dinner I met with my little group of 8th graders in the dining hall: Winnie, Alishpa, Aribeena, Marcy, and Beth. They didn’t have any math homework that night, so they picked a place in the book and we worked our way through it until 8:30.
The work day starts around here with the staff gathering for Bible Study followed by a staff information session. Each of the employees, Mums and Uncles alike, take their turn leading the Bible Study. I got back from my run too late to attend on Monday and besides, my foot, ankle and hand were hurting. So Monday afternoon Kate gently chided me, blaming herself for not telling me about it. Clearly I am expected to participate. Which means I’ve got to be ready to roll by 8 am every day. And I thought that had ended when I retired!
Kate had errands to do so we drove the 40 minutes into Karen (“ideal” traffic conditions - if traffic is bad it takes much longer). Kiserian is nearby, but is a small town and there’s not much that can be accomplished there. Also, we’re in the middle of the annual audit (yes, even in Kenya!) and we had papers for which we needed signatures of two of the Kenyan trustees. One lives in Karen and the other met us there because she was there on other business. While Kate went to the bank, she sent me with the box key to the nearby post office to check the mail. The address for Hekima Place is now a PO box in Kiserian, but some mail still comes to the old box in Karen. I had dark glasses on and on the short stroll to the post office, a Kenyan man sitting under a tree said hi to me. I said hi back and kept walking. Then he asked if Mum Kate was around, so I stopped and looked, still with the dark glasses on, and said she was at the bank and started to walk on. Finally I took the dark glasses off and realized I’d been speaking to Sam, the driver who picked me up at the airport! I was so embarrassed not to have recognized him, but he was very gracious about it. Then I was so flustered, I got to the post office and couldn’t remember the box number, except that it ended in 27. I tried practically every box in the place ending in 27 until I finally hit the right one. I’m glad nobody else was in there watching what I was doing!
Kate had asked if I would tutor the 8th graders in math after dinner - apparently they’re not doing well in math at school. I got the textbook and thumbed through it - they’re studying geometry. There’s not a lot of guidance in the textbook, but at least there was enough to give me confidence that I could probably help them. So at 7 pm after dinner I met with my little group of 8th graders in the dining hall: Winnie, Alishpa, Aribeena, Marcy, and Beth. They didn’t have any math homework that night, so they picked a place in the book and we worked our way through it until 8:30.
Monday, Mar. 12
I had planned to try for my first run in Kenya on Monday morning. Kate suggested I might run up to the escarpment and then along the road that goes to the school because there’s not much traffic on that road. There’s not much traffic because it is a terrible road, lumpy, rutted and uneven with lots partially exposed buried as well as loose rocks. So I hit the road about 7 am - apparently the time the road is at its busiest with kids going to school and people going to work. That run convinced me I’ve got to find something else to do for aerobic exercise. I ran for 40 minutes (btw, it’s about 6500 ft altitude here and I felt every foot of it!). I fell once, once tripped and nearly fell, had my foot slip off the side of a large loose rock, sprained my ankle, sprained my wrist, and came back to Hekima Place with road rash on the palm of my hand. Kate said, “You have to watch your feet.” The trouble is, I WAS watching! Fortunately, the sprains and road rash weren’t too serious. But since I really don’t want to end up here in Kenya with a serious sprain, or, worse, a broken bone, I have decided to use the jumprope I brought along in lieu of running.
I spent the day working with Kate in the office. Lorraine’s flight home left Nairobi at 10:30 pm, so Kate and I took her out to dinner at a restaurant in Karen associated with Karen Blixen’s historic ranch (Karen Blixen of “Out of Africa” fame). Dinner was very good and I enjoyed the first wine I’ve had since I’ve been in Kenya. We sat at an outside table in the garden and enjoyed being serenaded by the tree frogs. At about 7:30 Sam showed up to take Lorraine to the airport for her flight and Kate and I got in the car to return to Hekima Place. The traffic was really heavy - but I think that was a good thing. I’m not ready to take over driving on the left side of the road and don’t know where I’m going anyway. And Kate has bad night vision and suffers from seeing large halos around every headlight. So, good thing we had to go slow!
I spent the day working with Kate in the office. Lorraine’s flight home left Nairobi at 10:30 pm, so Kate and I took her out to dinner at a restaurant in Karen associated with Karen Blixen’s historic ranch (Karen Blixen of “Out of Africa” fame). Dinner was very good and I enjoyed the first wine I’ve had since I’ve been in Kenya. We sat at an outside table in the garden and enjoyed being serenaded by the tree frogs. At about 7:30 Sam showed up to take Lorraine to the airport for her flight and Kate and I got in the car to return to Hekima Place. The traffic was really heavy - but I think that was a good thing. I’m not ready to take over driving on the left side of the road and don’t know where I’m going anyway. And Kate has bad night vision and suffers from seeing large halos around every headlight. So, good thing we had to go slow!
Friday, 16 March 2012
About Hekima Place
About Hekima Place
I am in Corner Bariti, Kenya, volunteering at Hekima Place (www.hekimaplace.org), an orphanage for girls. Hekima Place was founded in 2005 by Kate Fletcher to provide these girls a loving home-like atmosphere and an education up to the level they can achieve. Over the past 6 years, it has grown from a handful to now 65 girls ranging in age from infancy on up.
The girls live in one of four houses in the Hekima Place compound: Baraka, Neema, Maisha, and Kazuri. Girls in each house live like a family with a resident Mum who loves, teaches, mentors and disciplines them. Up to 8th grade, the girls attend a local school, Good Hope Academy. Beyond this point, the girls attend several different secondary boarding schools, coming back to Hekima Place during school holidays. Older scholars are now being supported in college or trade school, depending on their academic achievements and interests.
Though the girls are orphans, most do have extended families who come to see them at Hekima on visiting days and whom the girls visit during their school holidays.
Originally, Kate rented land and buildings for the orphanage in Karen, Kenya, just outside Nairobi, but in 2010, land was purchased in Corner Bariti in the Ngong Hills near Kiserian, buildings were built and the group moved here from Karen in December of 2010.
I am in Corner Bariti, Kenya, volunteering at Hekima Place (www.hekimaplace.org), an orphanage for girls. Hekima Place was founded in 2005 by Kate Fletcher to provide these girls a loving home-like atmosphere and an education up to the level they can achieve. Over the past 6 years, it has grown from a handful to now 65 girls ranging in age from infancy on up.
The girls live in one of four houses in the Hekima Place compound: Baraka, Neema, Maisha, and Kazuri. Girls in each house live like a family with a resident Mum who loves, teaches, mentors and disciplines them. Up to 8th grade, the girls attend a local school, Good Hope Academy. Beyond this point, the girls attend several different secondary boarding schools, coming back to Hekima Place during school holidays. Older scholars are now being supported in college or trade school, depending on their academic achievements and interests.
Though the girls are orphans, most do have extended families who come to see them at Hekima on visiting days and whom the girls visit during their school holidays.
Originally, Kate rented land and buildings for the orphanage in Karen, Kenya, just outside Nairobi, but in 2010, land was purchased in Corner Bariti in the Ngong Hills near Kiserian, buildings were built and the group moved here from Karen in December of 2010.
Friday and Saturday, Mar. 9 and 10
Well, I made it to Nairobi, touching down on Friday, Mar. 9, about 2:30 am Kenya time. I’d been traveling since about 8 pm EST Wednesday, Mar. 7. My route was Pittsburgh to London to Istanbul to Nairobi. And all of the connections were tight, especially since I had to go through security at each flight change! I ran or speed walked through every airport - and none of the arrival and departure gates were at all close to each other! Kate’s driver Sam met me at the airport - I have seldom been so happy to see anyone! After an hour drive from the airport (one advantage of arriving in the wee hours of the morning is no traffic) Sam dropped me at Hekima Place by 4:30 am where I was met by a very groggy Kate and her puppies, Zwadi and Rafiki.
I arrived, however my luggage did not. So for Friday and Saturday all I had here was two outfits and limited toiletries. Fortunately, they delivered my luggage to Hekima Place Saturday afternoon. I was relieved to find that all my packed belongings seem to have made it. Haven't done an inventory of the suitcase full of things for the girls, but it looked ok on cursory examination. I slept for a few hours after I arrived and then got up about 9:30 AM. After I had readied myself for the day, Kate showed up and took me around to meet the Mums. Then we took off to run some errands and go to the lunch meeting with the Kenyan Board of Trustees. The meeting was excellent with the Board strongly expressing their support for Kate and their eagerness to step in help with any current and future personnel issues. I am really glad I was able to start off my stay here by meeting with the Kenyan Board - they are truly a capable group of people.
Rick emailed me Saturday night to ask me to call him. His 86 year old mom had a bad fall in a parking lot - no broken bones, but many stitches in her hands, bruises, a hematoma bump on her head and black eyes. So he was headed down to Texas on Sunday to try to get things squared away for her. I hope she'll let him hire someone to come in to cook and clean for a while.
On Saturday, Mar. 10, Kate, Lorraine (a volunteer who is the only other person sharing Karibu guest house with me) and I took one of the girls to the dentist for a severely infected tooth, then back to her boarding school in Nairobi. Along the way we managed to do some shopping for provisions (mainly breakfast) here at Hekima Place. This was a lot more of an expedition than it sounds from the brief telling just because navigating the roads of Kenya is an adventure in itself. Tanks could disappear in the many potholes. At dinner I sat next to a girl named Esther and enjoyed telling her the entire Biblical story of Esther (that I know so well from our Koinonia study!). I didn't realize it but the whole table ended up listening to the story.
Saturday dinner entailed a birthday party for one of the girls, Anne. She sat at the head table with her biological sister (all of the girls here are considered ‘sisters’) and two friends. Lots of speeches were made by the girls and Mums extolling Anne’s virtues, some of the girls sang, and then there were gifts. A candle lit cake was brought in with the lights out and everyone sang a Swahili birthday song. However, the cake with ice cream was a treat just for Anne’s house. There are 4 residential houses for the girls here in the compound. Each house operates like a family unit with a Mum ‘round the clock, and all ages of girls in each house.
Well, I made it to Nairobi, touching down on Friday, Mar. 9, about 2:30 am Kenya time. I’d been traveling since about 8 pm EST Wednesday, Mar. 7. My route was Pittsburgh to London to Istanbul to Nairobi. And all of the connections were tight, especially since I had to go through security at each flight change! I ran or speed walked through every airport - and none of the arrival and departure gates were at all close to each other! Kate’s driver Sam met me at the airport - I have seldom been so happy to see anyone! After an hour drive from the airport (one advantage of arriving in the wee hours of the morning is no traffic) Sam dropped me at Hekima Place by 4:30 am where I was met by a very groggy Kate and her puppies, Zwadi and Rafiki.
I arrived, however my luggage did not. So for Friday and Saturday all I had here was two outfits and limited toiletries. Fortunately, they delivered my luggage to Hekima Place Saturday afternoon. I was relieved to find that all my packed belongings seem to have made it. Haven't done an inventory of the suitcase full of things for the girls, but it looked ok on cursory examination. I slept for a few hours after I arrived and then got up about 9:30 AM. After I had readied myself for the day, Kate showed up and took me around to meet the Mums. Then we took off to run some errands and go to the lunch meeting with the Kenyan Board of Trustees. The meeting was excellent with the Board strongly expressing their support for Kate and their eagerness to step in help with any current and future personnel issues. I am really glad I was able to start off my stay here by meeting with the Kenyan Board - they are truly a capable group of people.
Rick emailed me Saturday night to ask me to call him. His 86 year old mom had a bad fall in a parking lot - no broken bones, but many stitches in her hands, bruises, a hematoma bump on her head and black eyes. So he was headed down to Texas on Sunday to try to get things squared away for her. I hope she'll let him hire someone to come in to cook and clean for a while.
On Saturday, Mar. 10, Kate, Lorraine (a volunteer who is the only other person sharing Karibu guest house with me) and I took one of the girls to the dentist for a severely infected tooth, then back to her boarding school in Nairobi. Along the way we managed to do some shopping for provisions (mainly breakfast) here at Hekima Place. This was a lot more of an expedition than it sounds from the brief telling just because navigating the roads of Kenya is an adventure in itself. Tanks could disappear in the many potholes. At dinner I sat next to a girl named Esther and enjoyed telling her the entire Biblical story of Esther (that I know so well from our Koinonia study!). I didn't realize it but the whole table ended up listening to the story.
Saturday dinner entailed a birthday party for one of the girls, Anne. She sat at the head table with her biological sister (all of the girls here are considered ‘sisters’) and two friends. Lots of speeches were made by the girls and Mums extolling Anne’s virtues, some of the girls sang, and then there were gifts. A candle lit cake was brought in with the lights out and everyone sang a Swahili birthday song. However, the cake with ice cream was a treat just for Anne’s house. There are 4 residential houses for the girls here in the compound. Each house operates like a family unit with a Mum ‘round the clock, and all ages of girls in each house.
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