From Beyonce to Sasha Fierce (or A Kenyan Thanksgiving)

Hi All,

Ok, so it’s been about a month since I last wrote.  As we would say here, ‘Pole sana!’ (very sorry!). When people told me how intense the pace of work can be I had no idea just how serious they were, but I think I am in a better place now and can actually practice what I preach about a healthy work/life balance.

The woman who made it all happen!

Today was an amazing day.  We had our belated Thanksgiving dinner, thanks to my colleague, Rebecca, who loves the autumn and Thanksgiving so much that not celebrating was just not an option….and then it became a sort of go big or go home situation.  Pastor Chacha, our good friend and colleague, raised 2 turkeys for us (he had to go searching for them, and oddly enough they were well behaved until last Thursday (actual Thanksgiving Day) when for a completely unknown reason they ran away and went into hiding.  Since we didn’t eat them until today (Thursday) and no one celebrates Thanksgiving here, we’re wondering if they received psychic messages from their cousins in the States to be afraid…very afraid on the fourth Thursday of November.  Pastor and his wife searched for them with flashlights for over two hours in the rain and couldn’t find them, but eventually they returned home on Friday.  Little did they know it would be their last full day on Earth and out of our bellies.  Pole sana, turkeys.

Headlamps needed to skewer two turkeys
(just killed this morning) on the spit.

Janine, my next door neighbor, and I made hand-print turkeys and autumn leaves to decorate.  And the menu, goodness…where to begin.  Well, obviously the two poor turkeys, and then we had mashed potatoes, gravy (both turkey gravy and giblet gravy), sweet potato casserole with marshmallow topping, green bean casserole with homemade fried onions, sweet and sour cooked onions, creamed corn, stuffing/dressing, cranberry sauce, and butter flake dinner rolls.  I shouldn’t forget to mention the orange cranberry bread we had for breakfast, the pumpkin bread, the massive and perfect pumpkin pie and some delicious mulled wine.

Amazing Thanksgiving dinner in Kenya

Now in our stuffed stupor we are enjoying Charlie Brown Thanksgiving and being thankful for such an amazing team and lovely time here in Kenya. It’s hard to think of all the things that have happened since I last wrote, so I will just tell you about two that stand out in my mind:

1)      I went to a town called Kisii last Tuesday, about a two hour bus ride from our hometown in Isibania.  At the first major town we stopped in on the way, Migori, not only did I see one Asian girl (the same one I saw in that town a few weeks before!), but two wazungu (white people) boarded and sat across from Vicky (the Kenyan Program Leader on my team) and I.  I was next to the window and the two of them were chatting so I kept talking to Vicky.  She stopped me a few minutes later and said, ‘I am surprised at you.’

‘Why?’ I asked.

‘When I see a member of my tribe, it is polite to greet them.’

Gorgeous and delicious pumpkin pie

‘My tribe?’…. ‘Oh, you mean them?  I don’t know if they are from my tribe.’

‘Of course they are.  Didn’t you see them?’

‘They could be from anywhere.’ I said.

‘I don’t think they are from here.’

‘If all white people who are not from rural Kenya are part of the same tribe…well, that’s a really big tribe!  We all speak different languages and come from different continents!’

She thought about this for a moment. ‘You should still greet them.’

I thought about this for a moment.  Then I leaned forward and looked across the aisle, ‘Hi, do you live in Migori or are you just visiting?’

Thus began my new friendship with Joe, the adorable, young, energetic med school student here to bring quality health care to the outskirts of Kenya. 

One of my favorite parts of the conversation was when he asked Vicky how long we had been on the bus and she said ‘For 57 kilometers.’ He was so surprised by the speed and preciseness of this response her burst out laughing.  That’s Vicky.  Full of surprises that show the breadth of her intellect.

2)     I saw monkeys in the front yard!  I hear them often from my window, but was never sure how close they were.  The same day we went to Kisii, we arrived back to our area late.  I ran into a neighbor, Boke, who helped me carry heavy bags to the compound.  As soon as we turned onto the road toward home, (we were just a few meters away) I saw a mom and baby monkey grabbing corn from our neighbors yard and then running across the road toward the field.  They were beautiful.  My hands were full so I couldn’t reach my camera in time, but I dropped the bags right in the road in the attempt.  Boke was surprised that I’d never seen them before.  He said they are in the yard each evening, stealing corn.  They love it.

So now, the plan is, much like we try to attract Santa with cookies and milk, I will lure the monkeys back with bananas and corn, and we will first, have an amazing photo shoot and then, as I stated on Facebook, we will become lifelong friends, preferably without having to share rabies or anything else of the sort in the process.  However, I have tried diligently to adhere to the Nuru rule of ‘absolutely no handouts!’, and I don’t know if that extends to monkeys, but I’m guessing the answer is yes.

I should also tell you about a development that I have very much loved here.  I can’t remember a day in recent history (and my co-workers and the piki drivers can attest to this), when I walked through town or rode a piki home, without at least three or four different children waving, giving chase, and calling out either ‘Jeska!’ or ‘Matinde!’.  This is who I have become here.  Akin to the transformations of Garth Brooks into Chris Gaines, Beyonce into Sasha Fierce, or even Prince into whatever odd, androgynous symbol he became (but we all know he will just always be Prince, right?), I have been dubbed Jeska Matinde.  Having the children know my name and especially to see them light up at the sight of me, it is more than I dared hope for.  That lighting up tells me that maybe my smiles and terrible attempts at communicating have worked to some degree.  Maybe they can see how much I care for them, the future that I hold in my mind and hopes for them. 

Matinde (my Kurian name in the language of the local tribe), as I understand it is the time of the tilling of the soil in preparation for the planting of the new harvest.  This didn’t sound that exciting to me initially, especially as the first local who named me gave me the name Rusia (which in Luo means the one who brings calm and peace, but means nothing in the local tribe).  But the more I have thought on it, the more I love my name.  I love the idea of being here at the initial stage, to ready the earth for a new time of growth and fruitfulness.  It is exactly what I hope to do for my team.

Before I go now to watch the film (we are currently on A Muppet’s Christmas Carol, but I am holding out for The Family Stone before the night is done), I also want to say I got four care packages in one day yesterday.  Despite a few minor bursts, breaks, and spills, I got an incredible array of goodies.  Thank you to Jennifer Micker, James Hansen, and Aaron Hanson for 1) amazing additions to our Thanksgiving meal today, 2) for useful and/or fun tools for the education program, and 3) for so many awesome things to eat, read, watch, and do with my team and friends!  At a time when I have thought about all the things I am so grateful for (my new perfect baby niece, the fact that my mother has recovered from her stroke, the fact that my cousin survived when so many of his friends died in that terrible plane crash almost exactly ten years ago, that life and the team here in Kenya are incredible), I can’t tell you how much I appreciate the time, effort, and (at the risk of sounding cheesy) the love that went into each package.  In such a limited space sent at such a high cost, every item was perfect and so well thought of.  I appreciate you more than I can say.

Alright, the Learning Resource Center, a part of the Education Program I have not yet seen or experienced, will open on Monday and not only are we trying to implement a new record-keeping system, but we are also launching a new version of it called the Mobile Learning Resource Center.  I am hoping we will have a successful go at it and impact hundreds of children!  Wish us luck.  Lots of love and apologies for being off the grid for the last month!

Love and gratitude,

Jes

Happy Thanksgiving from FT7!