My apologies for not posting sooner. We have been in Kenya for over two weeks and here at the Heartbeat compound for 12 days. It has been busy and we have had some internet connection issues but really there is no real excuse. Chelsey has faithfully kept her blog updated and I will try to follow her example from here on. ( Incidentally Chelsey's blog can be found at adayinthelifeofchelsey.blogspot.com )
The scenery here is nothing short of spectacular. The village of Bura, here in the Taita/ Tavaeta district of Kenya is surrounded by hills that could more aptly be described as small mountains. We seem to be in the nest of a horseshoe-like formation of hills so that when you stand in an open area and look around there are rocky mountainsides for about 180 degrees.
We are living in a spacious ranch house with a red clay tile roof on a 6.8 acre fruit farm. The fruit trees consist mainly of mangos ( around 140 - 150 trees ) although there are avocadoes, cashew and citrus trees as well. The Orange trees are currently in bloom and their sweet perfume fills the air for 20 feet around them. There seems to be a very large bee ( it looks like a bumble bee on steroids ) that appreciates the fragrant blooms even more than we do.
The house I said was spacious but I don't want you to think luxurious. Spacious meaning the rooms are plenty big, the ceilings are high, however the funishings are spartan at best. The floors are all red sealed concrete, except the kitchen which is tiled, but only about 6' x 10' with a small attached pantry/tool storage room. The kitchen might be called galley style as it also serves as the hallway to the back door as well. It has a sink that drains outside into an open drain, a small combination gas/electric stove and about 6 feet of counter space. It also has a large fireplace containing a charcoal fueled "stove" (sort of an hibachi ) which is preferred by the African women over the gas stove. We do have a small refrigerator but due to the small kitchen it is located in the living-room. So far the kitchen also usually contains three to four local women cooking, cleaning or having tea. ( Tea here is called Chai which is more like a tea latte, which they love to sweeten and is a required part of Kenyan life)
Directly behind the house, about 20 feet away, is a 8 foot high thorny hedge and immediately on the other side of the hedge is the high school and childrens home. So, for 16 hours a day you are serenaded by the daily routines of ~280 young men and women. It begins somewhere after 530 am for most of the children although some are up earlier ( to beat the rush I assume ). The windows of the house are a sort of louvered pane which is wonderful for ventilation but offers no sound barrier whatsoever. The result is that we hear every whisper from the children and I am politely in formed, so do they. lol
We have been very busy since we arrived and so have the children. I am constantly amazed at their industry and organization. Today, for example, was Saturday; The children arose at 6 and did their chores. They then had two hours of classroom instruction. Karen and I took a walk into the village of Bura to buy a few things from the local vendors market. When we returned after lunch we found the entire compound busy with activity. It was like stepping inside of a large grandfather clock and watching each cog and wheel turn with precision. The clotheslines and over 100 yards of hedge were covered with laundry. In the center of the compound under the shade of a large mango tree the teenage girls along with all the small children were washing still more laundry. Beyond them about a half dozen teen boys were busy chopping a large pile of wood for the cooking fire. At the front gate a truck had dumped a large pile of granite, which was being carried across the compound down the path and through the gate to the farm house where another group of boys were mixing cement and preparing a foundation for a new water tank which has just been donated. Another group of boys were diligently pouring the floor to a new six hole pit toilet. ( which is used in the dry season when there is not enough water to flush toilets.) I almost forgot the final group, who were ferrying 20 litre containers of water back and forth from several kms away to be used for the cement and the livestock, in order to preserve the scant water supply presently on the Heartbeat compound.
Any queen ant would have been proud of these young people as they worked so hard and with such organization, it was a marvel. Remember, most of these young people have very little. They keep their entire life's possessions in a box a little larger than a carry on suitcase. They work very hard both in and out of school, in the hope of a brighter future, thankful daily for the little they have. They eat a lot of rice with either lentils or beans, local greens and very little meat except on special occasions. If they survive their battle with sickness and disease, malnutrition and drought, and finish their education, then they can take their place in the world and change the future for others like them.
Presently we are experiencing a severe drought in Kenya. I drink more water every day then I use to bath in. It's time to step up people, these young Kenyans aren't sitting back and doing nothing about their predicament, they don't complain, they just cheerfully push onward.
Kenya like so many other African nations has lost an entire generation due to aids. There are ~40 million people in Kenya and over 30 million of them are under 18 years old. Ten million of those are between 15 and 18. These young people may be the future of Kenya or even Africa, but no matter how hard that they work, they can't do it alone.
We all have a decision to make, do we sit up, take notice and help....... or do we just change the channel?
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