World AIDS Day

Tomorrow is World AIDS Day. It is no day of celebration for me. I remember my best friend dying of it 7 years ago, and my heart still aches. I see the children with eyes yellowed by the disease, a headmaster shriveling away under my gaze and I pray that some people will remember that AIDS is not over. So many here in the U.S don't think about it, don't see it. People are living longer, getting better medications, but folks still don't want to talk about it too much.
The headmaster at the rural school in Kenya reeked of AIDS 5 years ago:I knew just by
looking at him. No one wanted to talk about it, no one would let me talk to him. I would have supported his medication...but no, no one not even the headmaster himself would allow the help. That to me is the greatest part of the heartbreak with AIDS. Just like here in the 80's and 90's we couldn't talk about it. In Africa to go get a test means infidelity, which of course is real and happens "in the best of families". But it seems that folks would rather die than talk about the consequences.

So this World AIDS Day, talk about it. To my African friends, speak out, speak up. I'm looking forward to the day we don't have to have World AIDS Day!

Sometimes the News is Good

Here in the U.S people are recovering from Black Friday. I read that one woman missed Thanksgiving entirely so she could be first in line at a Best Buy; however her family did bring her turkey and pie while waiting in line. Here in D.C the town is abuzz about the couple who sneaked into the White House State Dinner, seems in their climb to notoriety has revealed their rather shady past. Ah, small news day today.

However, the Daily Nation did have a great story about kids in Kogelo part of the area we work in. They have fired off their first email to President Obama asking him to do something about global warming. I'm delighted to see that progress, though, it is a school supported by the Obamas. In any event I give you today's good news from Kenya.

News
Kogelo learners send first email to Obama

Pupils and students at the Senator Obama schools in western Kenya on Friday sent their first emails using solar energy to United States President Barack Obama. Photos/DAN OBIERO

Pupils and students at the Senator Obama schools in western Kenya on Friday sent their first emails using solar energy to United States President Barack Obama. Photos/DAN OBIERO
Posted Friday, November 27 2009 at 16:32

Pupils and students at the Senator Obama schools in western Kenya on Friday sent their first emails using solar energy to United States President Barack Obama.


The messages appealed to the president to champion renewable energy at the Copenhagen climate summit in 10 days.

“Please President Obama do some­thing. We just want to ask you to help other children all the over the world to access solar power. Teacher Ann sees a connection of climate change and the drought in Kogelo village and said that solar power is a solution to climate change. Help protect the climate, this is our future,” read the message from the excited pupils.

Simple request

They told him that had it not been for solar power, they would not have afforded to reach him.
In a separate email, secondary school students had a simple request. They asked Mr Obama to use his “great office to encourage the utilisation of renewable energies such as solar power.”
“We want other students in communities similar to ours to enjoy their education like we do here in Kogelo,” they said.
Solar power at the schools, Senator Obama Nyangoma Primary and Secondary in Kogelo, was installed in August 2009. The schools are a stone’s throw from President Obama’s grandmother Mama Sarah’s house. She also has a solar panel and charges the mobile phones of her young neighbours. (Agencies)

Peacekeepers 2009

Many of you know about the Peacekeepers. Some of you don't and if you don't know them it is entirely your loss. I write about them from time to time. They grace my home and this world. Their generosity of spirit and conviction that the world should be a better place helps me know that I'm heading in the right direction. We have been gathering for about 7 years now to do Thanksgiving Baskets. At first it was for another agency, but we found that we had enough folks in our group who had dedicated their lives to helping in some of the roughest parts of our city and knew many families who would benefit from the largesse. We made 3 baskets our first year and did 20 this year. Everyone gets into the spirit.

I have been rather busy this past month. There is a group of Peacekeepers who have been writing grants to help change health care in Kenya. Sometimes I look at these people and wonder how did I get so lucky to find them and that they want to work with me. Their drive, inovation and enthusiasm, to say nothing of their vast knowledge is going to change this world, it already has. And aren't I lucky that they want to help One Village. So with the grant and the visit to Philadelphia to meet Monica from KMET, as well as the running of home and practice I wasn't sure I was up to the baskets.

Ha ha, how can I ever not respond to the call of the PK's themselves asking "Are we going to do it this year??", and of course we do. They sign up quickly as the emails go around, they gather their offerings, the peacelings come with them and once again we know that we are joined together in grace and love.Maybe next year you'll join us to.

Thank you Peacekeepers, and here's the video. See You Soon.

In Case You Didn't Know

We traveled a long time for our 2 hour meeting. And we weren't in Africa. I was greatly heartened that so many of my board and one of our research team was willing to journey to Philadelphia, by train and plane, to meet for 2 hours with Monica Oguttu my counterpart in Kenya. Mama KMET, as she is called, is an impressive woman overflowing with ideas and ways to help the disenfranchised women of Kenya. She also spends a good deal of time in the Sudan.
It was good to see my Dada (sister) again and we laughed when we were alone. We laughed for the joy of seeing each other, and for the knowing that Americans know next to nothing about what happens in the place she and I call our heart home. Just going to the bathroom is an experience which we take for granted. Everything here is automatic, the flusher, the amount of soap, the amount of water, the towels.Our obsession with cleanliness is no better showcased than in our public toilets. In Kenya there are no public toilets, there's rarely soap or towels, and frequently the flushing of the toilet is accomplished by pouring water into the back of the john, if there is even a receptacle other than a hole.
The gathering was quite successful and I believe we have a better understanding of where we want to go next. How we shall fund it is still in God's hands.
So this morning I was reading the Nation and saw this article, and I wondered if anyone knew about this. 10 years ago it was quite chic to care about Darfur and the Sudan, now they are just part of the abyss of suffering and drought that is called Africa. However, in my eternal desire to keep at least my readers up to date, read on McDuff.
The Nation
By WALTER MENYAPosted Monday, November 16 2009 at 12:44

In Summary


The government of Sudan has now opened voter registration centres in three Sub-Saharan countries previously left out by the National Elections Commission.

Sudanese nationals in Diaspora will now be able to register and participate in the 2010 elections from South Africa, Kenya and Uganda. Another centre has also opened in Malaysia bringing the countries identified by NEC for the exercise to 14.

And on Monday, hundreds of Sudanese nationals living in Kenya thronged the country’s embassy in Nairobi to beat the November 30 deadline set by the National Elections Commission.

Speaking after launching the exercise, Sudan ambassador Mr Majok Guandong denied the opening of the centres was a response to the pressure from the South.

“The Sudanese in Diaspora have a right to take part in the elections which the government and NEC recognise,” said Mr Guandong.

The Government of Southern Sudan had two weeks ago threatened to boycott elections if certain conditions were not met.

One of the conditions according to the head of mission of the Southern government in Nairobi John Duku was opening registration centres in Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda, Congo-Brazaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo where Mr Duku stressed hosts many South Sudanese refugees.

Mr Duku had said the South was unimpressed with the way the North was conducting the voter registration exercise that started November 1 to run for 30 days.

The list of eligible countries initially distributed to Missions abroad included Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, Egypt, Qatar, Sultanate of Oman, Bahrain, the UK, Belgium (for all Western Europe) and USA.

Sometimes the Newspaper is Enough

Often I am asked to describe conditions in the part of Kenya where I work. I'm not saying that Nairobi doesn't have some swanky hotels (which this E.D can't afford), but once you get out to Kisumu anything that can go wrong will. It's a total inevitability.
As a longtime lover of trains, I thought taking a train through the Rift would be delightful. Of course all my Kenyan friends thought I was nuts. Hmmm, I'm beginning to get the picture.
As you all know I feel compelled to read the Nation every day, even while visiting the new grandchild. Sometimes the Nation brings me to despair, but today it was just so funny I had to publish it whole. The words in bold are my comments, otherwise it's right from the Nation.
"The Lunatic Express"

By PAUL JUMAPosted Wednesday, November 4 2009 at 22:00
In Summary
• How a promotional train ride to western Kenya turned out to be a scary trip
So, when the train finally set off in the wee hours of Monday, it was a relief, especially for the “wananchi”. Those that had slept on the floor got up took up their seats.
But the relief would be short-lived. Around 8am (Monday), the train ground to a halt after Fort Ternan station, at a section where the railway line lies at the bottom of a valley, with a forest escarpment on either side.
Passengers tried making phone calls but the area did not have any mobile network coverage. (and this happens all the time folks i keep trying to explain this to people back home who want me to keep in touch)
After hours of hopelessness in the middle of the forest, an official on aboard informed the Nairobi station that the train had stalled; and another engine was sent to the rescue from Fort Ternan.
But the rescue did not come that fast. When it finally arrived, it was attached at the rear end and started pulling the train back to where we had come from!(yeah directionality is not a strong point over there_
Passengers were told that the replacement engine could not haul the train all the way to Nairobi and could only tow it back to Fort Ternan where another engine would be fixed.
And the journey took reverse gear. At Fort Ternan, the engine that had returned us was removed, another one fixed and the forward gear was engaged.
Misfortune struck (Oh yes this is Africa)
On reaching Molo, another misfortune struck. The replacement engine had “poured out all the water” and it had overheated. The remedy initially meant simply waiting while the engine cooled off. Later, it was decided to despatch another engine from Nakuru station.
That was around 3pm, and another round of waiting. Some passengers who were transporting sacks of fresh farm produce decided enough was enough.
They alighted and intercepted Nairobi-bound matatus from the nearby road, loaded their wares and jumped in.
When the new engine from Nakuru arrived and got fixed to the train, it was around 5pm. The new leg of the journey form Molo started.
It was around midnight when the tired passengers reached Nakuru, and another six hours before the weary souls woke up at the Nairobi Railway Station around 6am, Tuesday. That was 25 hours after departure from Kisumu, not counting the initial eight-hour delay.

That's why I tell people never to worry about being late, because if you get to my place within a day or so, it's just fine.