Kochia and a new organisation!

I think after spending those days 2 weeks ago in Kochia things seemed to change in my mind. I quit working for cycle out of Poverty as I just didn’t feel like I was working in the right place, it was not satisfying me and Kisumu and the Duke of Breeze hotel were not doing my head or liver any favours.

However it did take quite a long time for me to actually pack my bags and move on!

First things first… I did finish my brochure and tourist map of Kisumu for the CooP organisation, so at least I finished what I started. I was sad to give my bike back but really I am happy to be out, I will of course miss my friend Daniel who was my work colleague and towards the end more of a friend.

It took nearly a week for me to realise that although I was avoiding doing most work for the last organisation, I at least kept my mind busy with worrying about the work I wasn’t doing! Having nothing to do in a non-touristy place is well…. Pretty boring! However I did manage to beat my friend Ali in pool, which meant that I no longer had to buy him 2 dinners. Although I did then take the challenge again, twice and lost meaning that the original 2 meals I owed I still owed! Grrrrr!

I had to go to hospital this week again as one of my infections (on my leg) will not heal. I knew it was going to be a bad visit, but fuck me it was awful! First the doctor said, “ok we need to squeeze all the puss out” I was thinking, please help me, don’t you think I have already tried that but it was too painful!? So after the doctor squeezing a lot and me screaming and swearing, he decided to get another Doctor. So Doctor number 2 asked the first one “What is coming out of the wound… blood or puss?” The reply from the first Doctor made me laugh, all he said was “Nothing just brown shit!” After this discussion they then decided to stick a needle and syringe into my open wound. This time I really did say some bad names at the doctors, lucky I’m not in England where by if you swear at hospital staff you get kicked out. I bet the whole waiting room was thinking I was having my leg amputated or something. And probably thought I was Jekyll and Hyde when I came out laughing and apologising to the staff! Having gone back a week later they now think that if it doesn’t heal they might need to x-ray my leg to see if the infection has gone into my muscle or bone!!!! I mean come on, let’s not be silly bout this!!!!

Nine of us went for dinner to Al Noor (Indian restaurant) Ali, Christina, the Finnish and myself. Ate the most amazing chicken Biryani spilt between 3 of us and we still couldn’t finish it. It was my last night in Kisumu and was really nice that we all got to go out together and at least Ali got one of his promised free meals!

I then headed to Homa Bay 3 hours south of Kisumu to meet a Dutch boy Berend that I have become close to. We stayed in a luxury tent with bed, flushing toilet and hot shower…. And did absolutely nothing but relaxed and read books and watched films. Somehow I managed to get totally sun burnt wearing factor 30 suncream, sitting in the shade on a rainy day… let’s just say my back is peeling and 2 different colours. Frustrating as it has been along long time since I got this badly burnt!

What have I been doing for this new organisation? Well I have been getting dirty building a rabbit breeding house, which has killed my fingers threading chicken wire together and getting totally covered in oil which is painted on the wood to deter termites and snakes. I have also been learning about agriculture, yes you read that right, hazel and farming. Been to an organisation where I have been learning methods of better crop production by the planting of certain plant species together that promote growth and deter insects, acting as natural pesticides. I am still working on fish leather products… although not very fast, I am also designing some greeting cards relating to African culture and Free Kenya, the organisation that I am now working with.

I have also been asked when I come back to work with an organisation that is partnered with Free Kenya called ABBA, which is a school. They want me to teach art to the children and also teach money making handicrafts for the mothers of the children so they can pay for the children’s school fees. I think this could be an interesting project on my return.

I have been further South around lake Victoria to Mbita and Rusinga Island and have even had the opportunity to drive the organisation’s car on dirt paths that were hardly wide enough to fit a car down! It was fun driving that’s for sure! On this route I saw a man cycling dragging a dead dog which was tied with rope by the neck behind him! Never a dull moment! And to top it all off I have once again had to visit the hospital as I thought I was getting bitten by fleas, but it turned into a massive rash all over my body that was extremely itchy. This meant I had to be given cream, tablets and strangely an injection in the back of my hand! I have no idea what I was allergic to, but once again my body looks a real mess!

I have spent Sunday night back in Kisumu for the one and only gay party, which as homosexuality here is illegal it was a crazy time for these people to be able to be completely open about their sexuality. Let’s say it was funny. Lots of “Queens”!

One thing that did make me laugh over the last few weeks …. Whilst at the Laughing Buddha Restaurant this annoying white man came past shouting Mzungus!!!! And then ran inside. Obviously we laughed and thought he was a bit of a dick. About 3 mins later he came back apologising and I corrected him saying it was Wazungu when plural! And he was like oh right… well u can join us if you want. “im just off inside for a hooker and a beer!” (quote of the week) we do know that he meant a water pipe, but it just aint half as funny.

Kisumu or Kochia??? Do i stay or do I go?

What an amazing day. I visited the rubbish dump of Kisumu today. At first I was very scared to get my camera out, but I had to for the work I was doing. We went down to put the organisation’s tricycle into a real life situation and needed to show how a garbage collector could utilise the design to help them increase their incomes. The first thing I remember is seeing a guy pick up a carrot from the tip, rub it on his dirty shirt and eat it. To his credit, it was a totally healthy carrot, just couldn’t help but wonder how dirty it was. However these guys are desperate and to him it was the freshest thing he had seen all day, not to mention one of his five a day??!!

So Africa is starting to show its true colours to me. A week ago two Dutch guys I know were walking to a bar and had a gun put to their heads, phone and wallets stolen. They shouldn’t have been walking around at that time of night, so kind of their own fault. The police were told and went to find them, shooting one man dead.

This weekend we were out celebrating the manager of the Duke’s birthday, John. The night was pretty hilarious, we went out to The Grills Club, which is full of locals. We were all dancing around madly and fighting off slimy Kenyan hands, but all in all I had so much fun dancing about. Then the mood changed rather quickly… the group of us were stood around outside and were guessing maybe it was because only 2 of the 3 security guards were bought a drink, but one of them just started beating one girl in our group, he beat her to the ground with his stick and then continued to beat her. So another friend stepped in to try and help her and they beat him unconscious. Then beat my Finnish friend Heidi. All of a sudden all the tuk tuk and picky picky drivers joined in and it was mayhem. Somehow I managed to stay out of the fighting, thank god but I had to get my unconscious friend to hospital where he was x-rayed and finally came round. It was a shame the night ended that way, but the police have been involved and hopefully something will be done about this one security guard.

This week I have hung my paintings up in the Passion4Juice café that has been opened, also started on my tourist map of Kisumu, however this week I have met another organisation that took me to a factory that made fish leather. It was awesome. I never knew that fish could be made into such strong leather and it is using the waste product. The local women have to take the skin off as people want the fish in fillets, so normally this skin would be thrown away. So allowing the local women to gain more cash by the buying this product, utilising more workers in the process of turning it to leather and then using it in unusual and interesting ways on bags, wallets, shoes etc… the leather itself still shows the scales. One area I could be useful in this project is designing bags and jewellery that I can then teach locals to produce and ship them back to Europe for sales and revenue that will be generated back for the local creatives.

Being in Kisumu was getting me down a little this week, so a group of Dutch invited me to their project down in the south of Kenya, Kochia. Total rural Kenya, no electric, rain collected water and what I was hoping was going to be peace and quiet. However when we arrived there was a party for Berend’s birthday and some locals had put on their traditional clothing for dancing, the head dresses were made from feathers and were totally wicked.

The next day I went to a school/orphanage run by an organisation called ABBA that was both inspiring and depressing. The classrooms were mud floors, limited seats and tables and fitting maybe 90 children and one teacher into a space no bigger than 3m x 3m. Also the borders were two to a bed and when we visited the bedrooms and some classrooms had been flooded. But the Dutch people I went with had brought an entire suitcase of clothes, toys and dolls. Giving these to the children was the inspiring part, their little faces lit up and even the boys loved playing with the dolls. Whilst there I also witnessed something unbelievable…. A dog letting a kitten suckle for milk. So cute!!!

When I got back to the lodge Berend and I played catch with the children, which was a work out in itself. Running up and down the hill, tackling each other, it was a great fun way to spend the rest of the day. After which we had to bring the goats in, for their little size they were so strong!

Witnessed a funeral the other day, where everyone follows the coffin down the path wailing and screaming at full volume, then they stay there all night, maybe even days until everyone can get there to pay their respects. They are not allowed to sleep due to fear of ghosts and to protect the dead, so they play music all night long, keeping everyone awake and inviting anyone to join them. It’s a very strange and loud affair!

Also got roped into seeing an old ladies house, which had only a part of a corrugated iron roof left, and she had to sleep there whether raining or wind. The people I was with gave her money, but I’m not sure this was the right thing to do as her son’s breath blatantly smelt of alcohol and I’m sure that night he would have taken the money from his mother and used it for drink.

My final experience this week that I have to talk about is the toilet in Kochia, as I opened the lid I think all the mosquitoes in Africa started flying out, I ended up hovering over the toilet seat wafting my ass, I’m sure I was bitten!!!! But an experience all the same! J

Good times with good friends!

Stories of late….

Security guards trying to arrest me in the park. I was cycling along quite happily taking my bike to the exhibition stand that I was working on, when out of nowhere two guards tried to pull me off my bike. “Come with us, we are arresting you! You are not allowed to cycle in the park.” My response, “hahahaha, errrrrrrrrrrr no?!” They blatantly wanted a bribe, but after my rather direct shun they gave up pretty quickly. The exhibition was not that successful, however I did meet the Kenyan Prime Minister’s sister very briefly which was not expected, she works for an NGO here and somehow my organisation is connected to her, giving bikes or something.

This week I finally feel I have grown my Afrikan balls and started to fight back against the fuckers that challenge me to the game of chicken on my way to work. One man saw me coming a mile off and started shouting and waving his arms in the middle of the road. I wasn’t in the best mood, so I shouted back, “ You don’t want to play this game cos I’m going to keep cycling straight at you. I’d move…. I’D FUCKING MOVE!” At the last minute he dived out of the way, cursing me. A lady at the side of the road was laughing so hard. 1-0 Mzungu V’s African.

I am currently having a little dance party in the rooftop bar, its 5.27pm Thursday and after 7 days of not sleeping…. LAST NIGHT I SLEPT, 7 hours straight…it’s a record. I feel so good; its amazing what sleep can do for you, and 2 Coronas.

I have made a lovely friend Ali, he loves to play pool so twice now I have challenged him and twice I have lost…. I now owe him two dinners, lucky for me he doesn’t drink! (im just going to keep playing double or quits until I win!)

Also hope to play squash this week, with what sounds like some very serious players, finally I might get my ass kicked and start improving my game again. First I need to find myself a pair of shorts cos I am sure it’s going to be SUPER hot playing squash here.

On Friday night I was meant to take it easy as I had a 5.30am start on Saturday, however that did not quite go to plan as the resident DJ at the rooftop bar started playing music loud. One too many drinks later I was definitely drunk and dancing a lot! Needless to say I was the last to leave the bar and only got to my room at around 2am!

The 5.30am start was not that bad actually, I woke up about 2mins before my alarm, had a shower, picked up my breakfast and headed for the matatu. At 6.15am I started consuming the coroner and red bull that I had planned for breakfast, I was the happiest person in the vehicle and although later on in the day I was a little tired, the killer hangover I had expected never came! I went to Kakamega forest with the Finnish girls I had made friends with in the hotel and also a couple of German boys. The forest itself was quite disappointing but then maybe I have been spoilt by the recent visit to the Amazon. We did see at least 4 different kinds of monkey, some kind of deer and lots of fungus. But actually we entertained ourselves by being stupid, playing with seeds and twigs we found on the ground.

Saturday night we all went to the German boys house and had a gathering before heading out to a house party for Halloween. It was full of USA PeaceCorps, it was both ok and kinda weird. To get there I got on a picky picky (motorbike taxi) and headed for the slums, at one point the driver got totally lost so we had to turn round and head back up the hill. Naturally the bike couldn’t carry all 3 of us, so Kiki (my friend) had to get off and we tried to head back up, the bike sliding around on the dirt road, at one point my legs went straight out as I thought that was it and I was coming off, thankfully I made it to the party in one piece.

I’m slightly torn at the minute about the work I am doing, I have completed two paintings shown here and I am happy that I am now about to create Kisumu’s first tourist map, which is pretty cool really, better make it good. However after showing several people my website, I feel that I maybe being poached to other organisations. I am off to an Art School on Thursday to check it out and may go to an organisation out of Kisumu where all sorts of arts are being created to help women earn a living, I feel this maybe a place that can utilise my skills more. So watch this space. (Daniel please don’t be mad at me) :o

Crazy Kisumu!

I am feeling very happy here, in the Duke of Breeze Hotel. I somehow have managed to become part of the “duke” family. The owner and I had a date at the hospital on Friday where we both got checked for parasites; naturally I got myself an amoeba! Which meant the weekend was a write off and actually I think the antibiotic drugs they gave me were more evil than the amoeba itself. I have also begun to realise how painless a blood test is in England compared to here, either the width of the needle they used is definitely larger, or (like the American guy had told me) was more blunt… I almost let out a squeal.

I have started to realise that cycling to work everyday is pretty much a death wish, especially as I have to go up the main road where all the matatus (little minibuses) pull over and out without warning. You think being a cyclist going up Oxford Road and fighting the ridiculous amount of buses in Manchester is bad! What makes it worse is at least twice a journey, random people think it’s funny to jump out at me and try make me fall off my bike. I have looked for a helmet to buy, but of course no one knows the meaning of a helmet.

So coming back to my last blog of health and safety in the workshop… yesterday I witnessed a rather amazing scene, where by the welder left his welding machine and angle grinder (still plugged in) and went to get a drink down the track. Along came a toddler, who had watched the welder and decided he too wanted to try use the equipment. I didn’t know whether I should run over and stop this child who first picked up the angle grinder and then moved on to the arc welder. Strange thing was when the welder came back he didn’t seem the least bit concerned about the events that were taking place. Start them young hey? Another thing that made a little sad was that the toddler then watched the technician weld. Now this kid lives next door and daily must watch the technician weld and everyone knows you shouldn’t stare directly at the light when welding or you will eventually burn your eyes and go blind. So likelihood is that this kid will grow up to be the best welder ever but will have no sight.

Another occurrence which shocked me today was a man walking down the street, goading to his mates about what he was carrying. This was a dead cat with one of its legs tied to a bit of string. As he walked he swung this lifeless cat around for all to see and was shouting what I can only have translated into “it’s for cooking”. I wonder where the cat came from, how it died and whether he was going to eat it. And in England we all went crazy about the cat that got put in a wheelie bin….

I have also noticed there is some kind of bird of prey that sits on the corner of my hotel everyday, it’s huge, lucky it can fly away from the carnivorous Kenyans! It is so very beautiful and graceful and is here everyday like clockwork just before the sun is sets over Lake Victoria. It is like my sunset timer!

I am officially in a Country that is now at war with Al Shabaab Militants from Somalia. I thought Kenya would be one of the more peaceful African countries to start my journey! The threat of terrorist attacks on Kenya is now a very real one, as Al Shabaab have promised terrorist attacks in retaliation. The Chief of the military here has spent 35 yrs working in the military and never had to deal with a war, let’s hope he knows what he is doing! My only (slight) peace of mind is that I am only in the 3^rd biggest city in Kenya. If anything does happen I am thinking Nairobi and Mombasa will be targeted first, and I do not intend to head East in that direction. If things get bad I know I can get a bus to the Ugandan border within about 3 hours and the newspaper is one of the first things I read everyday to make sure I am still safe here.

I fell over off the pavement this week… I don’t know how it happened, one minute I was talking to Cliff my friend and the next thing I am on the floor… with all the locals laughing and shouting, “Hahahah Muzungu!!!” I had to laugh at myself as I picked myself up off the floor with nasty fishguts and god knows all over my feet. The trousers that I had so kindly been given by Marco (from my trip in Central America) actually saved me knees; however my foot was another story. I hope after washing it very well that it won’t get infected.

This afternoon I have been painting a picture for the café that will hang my work on its walls. I haven’t painted in maybe nearly a year and I am on top of the world. I really get a thrill from painting, I love it! But as 4.30pm approached the skies got very, very dark, and I could no longer see. Then the heavens opened. I decided to brave it to the roof top bar, which was a complete wash out. I thought the other day the rain was bad, but no, today was immense!

Happy times! :)