Kilifi Coast kids improvise with a new baobob tree jungle gym, recently toppled over in the long rains. The root structure of a baobob is up top! Dutch at Pax Cottage home of International Scout Founder Lord Baden Powell Dutch May 2012

Stonetown, Zanibar Island (off the northern coast of Tanzania, just south of Mombasa, Kenya) began as a typical Swahili settlement, as early as the 12 century. I have always wanted to come here after reading in high school about the famous African explorations of Morton Stanley and Robert Livingston, joining up at one point to cross the continent. From this amazing place. Its roots are in fishing, but oral traditions of the Swahili are replete with stories of migrations of people not only from the African mainland, but also from Arabia, the Persian Gulf (large groups today include descendants from Yeman, the biblical land of Oman and Portugal) India and China. A critical commercial and plantaion economy developed with slavery and the spice trade. Even Queen Fatma ruled in the sixteenth century and her palace remains today as a museum. These peoples represent now a heterogenous society in a constant process of assimilation! The architecture alone is an amazing cultural heritage.

Arab doors are always carved and cut straight across at the top, an Indian door features the fluted dome shape at the top. The Zanzibar door was an indicator of wealth, with a variety of motifs which also were represented in the elaborately carved sterns of the Indian ocean dhows (fish, fish scales, wavy lines, rosettes and lotus flowers, chain design to indicate security) The pointed brass knobs kept the street animals from causing damage.

As a result o the dramatic social upheaval of the 1964 revolution and the nationalism of the clove economy, more than 60% of the 2000 stone houses went into the hands of the government and or low income housing, leaving behind the great historic buildings to fall into decay. Since the 80’s however, a new conservation society has been formed and Stonetown has been designated a world heritage site. Wander the intricate narrow streets and lanes bonded by the social nodes of mikahawa (Kiswahili for coffee houses and barazas, meeting points with benches) When it rains, it really rains, and the streets become rivers, part of the natural heritage. Someday the drainage system will be cleaned. Look for me at The House of Wonders near the harbor front

Park, Queen Fatmas place!

Ancient tortoises, up to 125 years old, live on Prison Island where the old slave quarters honor those who served before us. Wonderful snorkeling is nearby, clear blue no seaweed!

I loved the spice plantations, located in a wonderful hilly center part of island. Hectares of clove, cinnamon, nutmeg, vanilla, cardammon, turmeric, ginger, all fruits, coffee, pepper (white, so as not to show itself in the final meal, green, red and black corns harvested at different times from the same tree) curry, (the curry powder we buy does not have curry leaves in it, rather an amalgam of many Indian spices). More, quinine and neem tea to treat malaria, paprika and many others I did not know.

Kids in Class

Peace between S Sudan and Sudan remains elusive even after the peace agreement with Kenya. After the bush war against Khartoum, the agreement was signed in 2005 but peace never came, aggressions, rebel attacks, and economic sabotage have resulted. Future war between the two countries will cost the US billions if it were to last over 5 years, because of the dual GNP loss, and peacekeeping and humanitarian needs. Ethiopia will suffer greatly too.

-The government of S Sudan is preparing for war now, barely a year after successfully seceding, and seeing a majority of its 8 M in population newly returned from refugee camps, relying on relief aid for food.

-Juba’s government has closed the oil fields, a sign that relations are dangerously strained, oil exports aren’t going through the north, a dissolution between Kharthoum relations/government is worsening.

S is especially vulnerable to the break in economic lifeline.

Large non-Arab population prevents slows adoption of Islamic law even though Arabic is official language, Islam religion of country.

Bashir never wanted S Sudan to work, disregards President Kiir who needs to be a better diplomat.

WHY DO YOU THINK FAMINE IS STILL A PROBLEM??

Famine, the humane calamity that was prevalent throughout the world earlier in this century is fast being confined to Africa. Countries in the rest of the world seem to have managed to deal with the famine problem, but Kenya is one country not to have found the way. I only have a few observations after being here 10 months.

As long ago as 1991, Joachim Von Braun wrote in his report from the Food Policy Research Institute, stating that the food crisis in the continent is a result of the interaction between environmental and socio-economic factors in the short and long terms. It’s still a failure of policy to deal with, and we seem not to have made much progress. While agriculture can be under increased stress from drought and production failure, even for years, this does not produce famine unless other socio-economic conditions are present. Here ya go:

-deficiencies in public policy impair growth of households, poverty persists

-lack of seeds, affordable fertilizers, training to compost, manage water

- lack of technologies to improve alternative production methods,

(PC teaches and maintains many independent projects)

- lack of transportation, marketing for farm goods

-limit in non farming income opportunities due to poor education system,

-no training in savings for rainy day (PC is also involved in rural village

banking with women)

-poor health conditions, lack of country investment health infrastructure

-no macroeconomic infrastructure (exchange rates, export laws)

While mobile money is a booming business here, a tool helping to teach banking for the first time through MPesa, the cart is a bit before the horse. This system is not used for world business purposes. Resource capital is what’s needed to point to an impactful future –development of natural resources - minerals, fisheries, forestry, and gas – all waiting to be managed.

There is enough water, land, air and sunshine to manage these complexities, we need another 20years probably!

(a “cloud” blurb to add) “Everyone born in Kenya and throughout East Africa at least, has a tribal name and a Christian name. Both are used, normally the tribal name most used at home”.

(January)I enjoyed at real break from the job and heat during the holidays, traveling to JoBerg SA to visit friends. The complexity of the South African history and heritage is unavoidable. Human evolution began here. Yet it is ironic that humanity suffered in the place of it genesis and the scar of a crashing mederoite (Tswang Crater) is not clearly as etched on the soil as the cruelty of apartheid. Africans began here – with the Busotho, Tswana and Bapedi tribes, much replaced by the arrival of early explorers – but their stories were retold, and I was reminded why we are able to hear these stories again. The many monuments, for instance the women’s prison,

the Old Fort, and the Hector Peterson statue, the tribute to the slain youth of Soweto, are testimony to the bravery of many heros.

Then there was the renaissance “50’s, giving a place in the world to artists and musicians who grew to be international legends like Marian Makeba. None however is more famous than Nelson Rosihlahla Mandela, perhaps the most recognized statesman of this century. Now he has returned to his village on the western cape, high in spirit I hear, (his middle name stand for the word “branch,” growing in a different direction) to live out his nineties in peace.

Jo Berg is a major political and economic force on both sides of the African continent. Its also known as Gautang..the “city and province of gold” where the founders mined and stayed - planting so many trees that its almost known for the

being the city in the forest more than it’s gold deposits. Since the signing of the freedom charter, the treason trial in Rivonia (Mandela, Sobuko and nine others,

Mandela’s law partner Oliver Tembo already exiled to England) and the 1976 school massacre (Hector), Jo- Berg has evolved into a multifaceted treasure with many future growth possibilities. It pulsates with global advancement, music, public art and design, film festivals, sport mecca and fashion center. And no place in the world could be as culturally complex with the British, Dutch and 12 national tribes all intertwined. Jacob Zuma, the president, is known to be very engaging but corrupt to the core.

I particularly enjoyed my visit to the Constitutional Court, nestled dramatically into the Old Fort and Men’s Prison campus (where Mandela and MH Ghandi both were imprisoned at one time, years before Mandela’s 27 years at Robbin Island)…a poignant, daily, reminder of just how freedom came about for South Africa. I never could learn who the architect was. Somebody look on line for me. The Aparteid Museum, is staggering but uplifting in a way I know that progress is possible.

I also visited Winnie and Nelson Mandela’a early home in Soweto where their children were raised along with his two sons by his first marriage. Mandela returned to live there after his release from Robbin Island. And after a museum was established, Winnie still lives close by when she’s not in Capetown serving as a regional representative.

Mombasa and even Nairobi are real Kenyan communities and the change in environment for me after 8 months in Kenya was startling. I savoured the food, the washing machine and wonderful running water!

11 Judges Preside

SA Constitutional Court in Jo berg Mens prison, also on site of Old Fort

MOYO Restaurant, Jo berg

Nelson Mandelas Cell

Supreme Court Main door of Constitutional Court where Freedom came for SA in 1996. There are more guarantees for individual rights in SA than any other constitution in the world.

Cool Jo Berg Restaurant MOYO

Sheldrake Baby Elephant and Rhino Sanctuary. Rescued infants are on view.

In silence one hour daily so they can be released when healthy into the wild again! Soya milk only, fed no animal products, blanketed at night to ward off pneumonia since ekes can't cough.

Kipange House, Nairobi; Many Kenyans registered for papers at the turn of the century.

Local business teaching dressmaking

"The Light Side of Matatu Travel"

(Certainly every VW bus you ever saw in America is now in use in Kenya!)

A matatu is like a traveling melting pot of smells.

From the drivers cheap cigarette to the "conductor" who looks and effuses an air of

being up all night, to the occasional weird fellow who wants to let his feet breathe, all made worse by the cologne wafting through from the smartly dressed guy in the corner seat. Yet Kenyans must travel with all the windows broken shut, irrespective of how hot or "close" the matatu is.

It’s no wonder that nowadays some of the driers who have had enough of this torture employ an oversized sticker, usually in bright red, announcing "tafadhali, usitoe viatu ndani ya gari" (keep you shoes on). Not all stickers are eco friendly though. Some are calculated to frighten the life out of you! (The driver is insane! Don't bring stress here!) They are not joking because they carry enough crude weapons to mount a credible assault on the Al Shabaab militia.

At 60mph with every sharp bend he leans hard on you. With every pothole the vehicle hits, he generally smears you with some of the perspiration. But until you hire a private driver one has to put up with the very public nature of the matatu. These include the endless chatterboxes who try to interest you in stories you care nothing about --like Mr. Preacherman on how the devil personally invented computers to spread his influence on earth. Why can't they just listen to the blaring radio and let me look out with every lurch or jolt - in peace.

Speaking of radios -and let’s not get into the fact that you could be perched on the top of a refrigerator sized speaker and each thunderous decibel scatters your innards -- you can be minding your own business, or next to an elderly person, when the FM radio launches into a raunchy bedroom story, told by a female caller in shrieking voice, "I'm cheating on my husband because he's useless! He finishes in three minutes she shamelessly rants to the radio hosts raucous laughter/ You can't laugh and squirm at the same time.

Every ones praying the darn thing shuts off. The mobile phone is another thing altogether in close proximity. Ironically, its those who hold the loud conversations in matatus, quoting astronomical figures, say, I'm selling the plot next to the petrol station for ks9 million!, are usually the shabbiest and smell of old banana skins. Then there are the femmes fatales who plot office coups on the phone. But then you realize the gossip was an angel when you have on the other side a passenger who chats loudly for a mind boggling 45 minutes in their mother tongue!

What of the wide loaded passenger consuming 80%of the seat and leave me to perch on an eighth of my cheek on the remaining space -- considering we're both paying the same fare! Others are known to travel with their entire family yet they only want to pay for two seats, because the kids and luggage pieces are too small to be charged.

Woe is me if I end up there. And not a good plan for long journeys.

A few kilometres down the road one of the children will start wailing endlessly, waking up another toddler. Without consultation I am asked to take the baby dumped in my lap for me to rock gently. A few minutes later the child may go thankfully quiet and reward me with a warm liquid trickling down.

But what can we say about the farmer Joe, the hardworking small scale shamba guy from out of town? He will have a dirty raffia bag in his lap caked with red earth at the bottom.

Mindful of every available space, there will be several jerry cans of fresh mild, easily discernible by the rich scent, packed protectively around his feet. To complete the diet, an assortment of vegetables will be spread liberally around him, not to mention the squealing piglet propped up between his legs.

If the condition of the road or the excessive swerving of the driver makes him lean a bit, his gumboots will re-dye your shoes or hem as the sap seeping slowly from the bananas in his sack stains whatever you're wearing.

But at least you will have learned that he hails from Kitale, has six acres of maize ready for harvest and his brothers’ eldest daughter, who is a single mother of three, is about to wed a church elder is a widower whose wife died "just like that."

Next time, the big bus ride with nine goats to Kaoleni!

With breezes blowing, Ihad just resurfaced from the coral, angel and zebra fish off Mombasa Reef!

this is my one room apt/ Nyumbani, flooded with the recent short rain season

There was a picture posted of the long limbed greeters I found on arrival at the office. There are always the playful monkeys too, but that day was a surprise. I was worried about being too far away from the animals down here on the coast, but the birds and marine, caribbean style fish are beautiful too. I do enjoy somewhat experiencing my native Miami home again. Limestone cottages, breezes, birds, and nice winter weather. In March I will hate it.

As you know, I'm assigned to EcoEthics, a maritime conservation NGO started in 2000. Am involved in reworking the ECO Club curriculum in 52 schools, redesigning the latest membership cultivation piece, and working through some administrative issues with the board. Okeyo, the director, is a PhD marine fisheries conservation guy, working alongside a few more Kenyan ecologists and toxic waste mgt"experts" ...O may be late 40's, trained in Africa, Germany and England, the others are around my kids ages.

work life is noint the bush, but we have challenges everyday getting tasks done.... no wifi, fax or copiers, all material is 'paper free' so shared with staff through flash drive, electricity may be out part if the time, etc etc. Poor records to fall back on, in the sense that most files are in different places. Nevertheless, my non-profit years, plus last decade at PBS will help me guide them in certain areas, improving grant writing skills etc. Great guys, and they laugh hysterically when I put pili pili hot sauce on the polenta-like national dish, ugali, (making it 100 times more edible)

I start the typical day by listening to BBC News (by crank radio or solar charged, when I can baby sit the process during clothes washing by hand on a Sat... since I'm conserving on batteries for now)... I hope for water from the shower... really my bucket baths were more dependable! Then, I quickly put on one of my old sundresses from the 80's embellished up by local leso..tied in some fashion over shoulder or wrapped, whatever seems to be working... and head scarf. I try to look as Kenyan as possible and continue with the struggling Kiswahili.... for credibility....

...then I walk to matatu stand 12 minutes for commute (in Denver, quick to downtown from my house..this takes abo 40 min). The matatu is exhausting, like bumping along at high speed in a packed sardine can,,,

I return the same way, depending on the route I decide best suits my mood, fascinated by the maneuvering of the traffic snarls, sort of a cross between Rome and Bombay I think!

Weekends, I try and swim somewhere without the beach boys bothering me....I can be misinterpreted as a "shikamoo", or rich European mama needing entertainment. Its all true, of course but I don't have the budget of an old European divorcee!!

I don't know many people yet, so I try and keep busy, going to library, beach, old town dukas.... there is a nice, upscale area called Nyali Beach where there is a decent market, great coffee shop etc... or, look for places like the Bambolulu Cultural Center (they have great website www.bamboluluculturalcenter.com) to learn about amazing Kenyans making crafts and special bikes for and by the disabled.The roads here are terrible other than the main thoroughfares and Moi Avenue bank sidewalks..... the rest are and rutted out shoulders, somewhat trash ridden.So the handicapped wheelchairs with "SUPER" tires are making mobility possible for some. My "Keens" ugly, keep me looking like a PV vol, but upright at least...

SO, keep dropping in on me once in a while..I miss everyone

Ambassor to Kenya House

US Ambassador's front door to welcome press and 50+ new volunteers August 23, 2011

Swearing In Dutch Ambassadors foyer

Our PC training team, health and business, cultural and language

Favorite Businesstrainer at PC, Timothy Kibet - Former CEO in public health

Cupcakes Wa Kenyan

More Ambassador House Reception

Leaving my favorite baby girl in Loitokitok

Leaving Training Centre at Outward Bound

...with my Peace Corps trainers in small business and Kiswahili. At his residence for our searing in celebration!

Ambassador Residence Nairobi

Eco-Ethics International, Mombasa, Kenya, Maritime Conservation

http://www.ecoethics-kenya.org/index.html

To write to Dutch:

Dutch Hodges PCV

US Peace Corps

PO Box 698 - 00621

Village Market

Nairobi, Africa

During the last 10 weeks of Peace Corps training I have visited and interviewed many community health and business projects around the country – western province…in Kakamega and Kisumu, Bondi; the central area communities of Lake Naivasha and Nyanza, Rift Valley and Nakuru; the eastern area around Garessa, and finally the beautiful coastal communities of Mombasa, Kilifi and Malindi. The trainees are here to learn, help with business plans, evaluate operations, and to assist in measuring the effectiveness of each project. The process will help us to prepare for our permanent site assignments. The trainers are Kenyans from over a dozen different tribes. I‘ve worked with Kalajans ( area which contributes all the renowned runners), Kukuyus (real entrepreneurs) Meru, Luos, and Kamba and wonderful American staff from all over the US. The Peace Corps efforts here are coordinated in conjunction with the Kenyan government and the national plan to strengthen education and reduce poverty. (Everyone working, from school teacher to the agribusiness professional working in a shamba with a farmers is here to learn, but also to leave knowledge behind…where there is a more educated, employed Kenyan there is less spread of AIDS and other serious illnesses. The training of women is also a priority, they are motivated, work more hours in a day than I can handle, and want to pay the school fees so their children can continue to qualify for secondary school.

General Economics

The average Kenyan earns 100-150 shillings a day, a little over a dollar. A PC volunteer earns $200 per month, so he or she still makes more than a teacher or techie working for a NGO. Rent in the city can be 1500 shillings so for the head of the family making 6-7800 shillings a month with a wife and three kids that doesn’t go too far.

Here’s another context. Steve Jobs probably has 76 billion in his checking account on any given day –The Kenya national budget is 28 billion ($) I visited several villages in the north where the death rate for children under 5 years is incredibly high at 20%. If we can help develop projects and train the locals to make a living, there are many solutions to reduce loss of life.

Types of Projects I have been exposed to…

Bee Keeping – Apiaries are being built by local fundis, constructing the frames, learning to handle the bees, harvest, and clean the equipment, all by hand. Beekeeping is flourishing Kenyans are eager to be taught and are good at it. We visited at night when the bees were docile! Challenges where PC business volunteers can help include:

- All work is manual even the capping of the frames and extraction centrifugal process!

- Keeping the equipment clean in this kind of environment without running water or electricity critical

- Protecting honey from critters

- Sources for equipment and transport to market

- Only 10% of what is harvested is making a profit

Fishing, Lake Victoria, Lake Nguru and the Coast

There is a Scandinavian NGO overseeing a large project with the Ministry of Fisheries to improve fishing practices and safety. Between 2000 and 3000 fisherman are lost annually due to drowning. The boats are not very seaworthy, mostly dugout canoes with sails constructed from burlap rice sacks or other materials fashioned to a eucalyptus mast. Even the expert boat builders from Mombasa who are training the regional craftsmen build their boats by hand, down to the drilling of holes. The boats are beautiful and strong but take many months to complete. Between the Swedes and other volunteer workers these challenges are being addressed

- getting the fish to market

- environmental waste management of by projects (one of the programs of my

organization, Eco Ethics International)

- education and training with fishmongers who work in pairs when the seasonal fishermen are living on the beaches. Instead of trading sex for fish they are learning

to make nets and crafts in to make a living

Fish Farming/Ponds

A good business for HIV sufferers since less physical labor is required.

Papyrus and Sweetgrass Furniture Making

Stronger than rattan, I can decorate my whole house for about $20! It takes four days to make a chair, and ¾ of an acre to earn 1000 shillings for the fundi. He is also expanding his business to make ropes, and woven area rugs, baskets etc

Common Stereotypes

-American like war

-The Indians take over Kenyan business and resources

-British are not popular due to the colonization however Kenyans love British products in the cities

Chinese are hardworking but not good teachers, impatient

Peace Corps Stressors

-Christian radio 24/7

-staying clean (a relative term)

-language (using Kiswahili only since third week here)

-making food edible (ugali, like our polenta from maize is tasteless, but pili pili hot sauce helps! I eat kale, chapatti (tortilla), potatoes, rice, beans and cabbage mostly)

-isolation

-Privacy, being stared at, called “muzungo” means traveler

-health symptoms

-too many local ladies hitting on the guys

-missing family

-wanting mail

-traveling on the matatus

-sore feet

-no sex

-not having enough TP or forgetting it

PC Rules We Hate

-No riding on piki pikis

-curfew for safety

-health rules and education (a morass of information)

We have had great training about integrating into our communities through the books and teaching of Gudy Kunzet and Kim, Communicating With Strategy (cutting through the layers of messaging, and cultural mores of people) and Everett Rogers, a British author who had dedicated years of study to addressing innovative decision process within our minds.

My tests are this week and next are for small biz practices, language etc... The kids follow us everywhere! I am doing well, but very hard work visiting farms, boat builders, other NGO biz sites..Love D,

Hi All - thought you'd like to see some of the fabulous animals. For my birthday I went to Amboseli National Park. Not the great herds of Masaii Mara, but still beautiful to see several kinds of giraffe (there are nine in all..!)hippos, eles, zebras, secretry birds, a hyena, the antelope, diks diks and flamingos roaming in their own environment.

I've recently been to Mombasa with a few other trainees to see some business sites that support HIV centers. The Ministry of Health in Kenya does work with the UN on AIDS education and treatment but the US provides 83% of the medicine and maintenance treatment ABR's and training for the Kenyan medical teams.

More on that later. The trip to Mombasa was especially exciting because I may be placed there after I complete training (with ECO ETHICS, an environmental maritime conservation organization with three offices throughout Kenya). What a beautiful harbor with carribean blue water and a expansive coral reef surrounding. Vasco De Game first came here with his Portuguese sailors in 1498 to establish an east African base but they were met with hostility from the locals and moved up the coast to Malindi. The natural harbor here soon attracted the Turks who build Ft Jesus in the mid 1500's. The Portuguese prevailed however, taking Mombasa back and expanding on the fort in the 1590s. Completing the rectangular shape of the fort to resemble Christ on the cross (since they regarded themselves as representatives of Christendom first rather than Portugal) this fortress lies tranquilly in the sun. But it was not always so. Ft Jesus has suffered a history of murder, seige, starvation and treachery that makes our modern world of hi-jacking and thuggery seem tame. Every sail that appeared on the horizon must have caused nerve racking hours of anxiety to the small colony of around 100 men separated from home by six months of sailing.

This amazing place is a long clear vision into the past.

More soon, but here I am at the waters edge of the fort and then again looking out from an original canon portal to the harbor.

Lots of love Ma and Dutch

So far I am in training and there is no internet. I forward these messages to Billy to post. My training is in Taveta south of Lotokitok doing business visits for HIV projects, a farm, water purification plant, fish ponds,

I am in classes all day, how to market products better, culture, health, 4 hours daily of language...packed. 4 more weeks of training to go.

I have classes all day, I may get to Mombasa where I can write a narrative but hard to do from phone.

This is a fascinating time to be in Africa with Lybia, Egypt, Ruwanda, ect

Some people were worried because of reports about the humanitarian crisis is Dadaab Kenya. I am not near the 10 million Somalis on eastern border, and the unrestful Turkana tribes in NW. Below is an insert about Taveta….

Feeling stronger everyday...

More soon

XO’D

______________________________________________________________________

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Taveta is a town in the Taveta District of Coast Province in Kenya. The town has an urban population of 11,500 (1999 census ).

Overview

The town of Taveta is wedged into a projection of Kenyan territory bordered on the north and west by Tanzania. The irregularity in the border was created c. 1881 when Queen Victoria gave Mount Kilimanjaro away as a wedding present to her grandson, then Crown Prince of Prussia and later Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany. Subsequently, the border was adjusted so that Kilimanjaro would fall within the boundaries of the German colony of Tanganyika instead of the British protectorate of Kenya.

Taveta thrives as a point of commerce between Kenya and Tanzania, with a twice-weekly outdoor market especially large for a town of its size. The market is fueled in part by Taveta's distinctive rail connection through Voi with the Mombasa-Nairobi-Kampala line, built by the British during the era of the Kenya protectorate and celebrated in the 1996 film The Ghost and the Darkness. Large numbers of people walk across the border from socialist Tanzania to buy and sell wares in Taveta; smuggled goods such as Tanzanian rubies and coffee are occasionally available there.

Source

Description above from the Wikipedia article Taveta, Kenya, licensed under CC-BY-SA full list of contributors here. Community Pages are not affiliated with, or endorsed by, anyone associated with the topic.

_______________________________________________________________________

Here is a link that will gives you good general information and maps about Kenya;

http://www.kenya-advisor.com/kenya-map.html

________________________________________________________________________

The cabbage "Duka" at sat market day..

The Masaii prepare it as "sumukawiki"

With garlic, onion, karoti, and spinachi.

I don't care if I see another cabbage!

Dozens of Kukuyu and Masaii vendors..selling everything from flip-flops to cilantro. Avocados are practically freebut no crank canopeners governing in Loitokitok!

We cannot hike Mt Kilimanjaro now while in training. Darn border regulations!

Kids coming home with me from school!

I say "Nipe Tano" or Hi Five and they laugh hysterically!

I think everyday that I could never have imagined the colors of the houses, the vivid clothes, the sights and sounds of this country......my new "home" in Kenya. The differences are experienced from both sides of the relationship! Africa has greeted me with a vengeance however.

Training is rigorous, another 8 weeks of Kiswahili, cultural and biz practices, medical ad nauseum,plus all the work in getting around on tightly packed, rutted red dirt paths, sometimes 6 mi per day on foot. All fascinating but exhausting. Then there are elephants moving slowly through the bush. We'll see if am really a hearty Coloradan. Kenyan and American staff, other trainees are amazing people. Several couples and strays my age, and all that youth too...to keep us going.

Several marriage proposals too, but i don't have enough goats to make the dowry requirement.

(and yes everyday I ask "what am I doing here!" Hoping to enjoy living in another culture wasn't it?)

Dutch

Sofia, my Mama runs a small cafe, Alvin is 3 yrs, Tasha 10 yrs, does everthing including helping me with Swahili, SoshaSosha (grandma) Love Ma

Saturday June 11 - En route from Nairobi w staff and other vols, to Tanzania border, 31/2 hrs in sardine bus! We went to mall in Nairobi for new phone cards with armed guards...but am at home with Acacia trees, and the wonderful Kenyans...

Sawa, sawa....

D

Dutch Hodges PCV

US Peace Corps

PO Box 698 - 00621

Village Market

Nairobi, Africa

Fed Ex Works but is very expensive for a small package.

My Work at Brenda Dupres House

There’s a sign in the yard at the house where Brenda Dupres Grew up that says “Roots Run Deep Here”

For Brenda whose father built their home on Gordon Street in the Lower Ninth Ward in the year she was born, it couldn’t be truer. Both sides of her family – her father’s as brick layers and her mother’s as teachers were deeply rooted in the Lower Ninth. So when Katrina flooded the house with 15 feet of water in 2005 (they were rescued on the roof after 3 days) Brenda just didn’t lose the house she had been living in after her parents died; she lost her sanctuary and her father’s legacy (the African American families tend to live in the same house, same block for generations) and her tightknit community.

Brenda and her son and grandson left the area for a while, but were worried about people’s claiming destroyed properties.

Seven weeks after the storm when Brenda returned, it was a scary sight. “Everything was gray” she recalled, two large pines, were down, but the brick foundation still intact. “The houses around the corner were demolished and in the middle of the street.” The entire neighborhood was uninhabitable. Brenda had friends who helped her find places to stay, and she finally found a FEMA trailer but suffered illnesses she believes were caused by it.

Brenda received money from Road Home, but not enough to cover a complete rebuild. She was also afraid of becoming another victim of contractor fraud. She tried to find a reputable contractor and began work on the downstairs of the house, but did not have enough to finish the job. This is when the St Bernard Project comes in. They said yes to her application and she now pays for the materials with her remaining grant.

Every week of my month here new teams of people from around the country arrive to be volunteer workers. Church groups, families, couples, and co-workers with me grab hold of the sheet rock, drill, sand, put on texture, prime, paint, and install windows, and doors. Work on Brenda’s house began in

October and I will see it completed when I leave here May 11. It’s a good thing they are not paying me by the hour, but I’ve managed to become a pro at Uniline laminate flooring, love to use the roto zip drill to trim drywall, and put an Erwin Quick grip on my Christmas list!

The “Gulf Bags”!

In addition to keeping time with a woman called Katrina, I have been working two days a week in wetlands restoration. In the area situated at the southern end of the Mississippi delta are the marshes of the Delta National Wildlife Refuge, an area of bayous, islands and river canals which include the Channel Islands and Breton (one of the oldest designated National Wildlife refuges by Teddy R). Dominated by migratory birds and the important flora and fauna which provide the aquatic habitat for the needs of numerous shellfish and fish species, (redfish, plain ole mullet and the blue crab shrimp) the dynamic landscape has suffered from manmade damage (levees, oil spills) and no longer serves as a natural protector to New Orleans and other coastal communities. New “speed bumps” on the ocean floor are being created by teams of volunteers (that be me) who are hand crafting crevasses or cuts in the floor of the Mississippi and in the channels near the Gulf. This allows the salt laden river water to spread to ponds, water passes and the open water.

The process also includes the planting of our “gulf bags”. We put a quart of root zone humus or mulch full of oil digesting molecules created from cow manure (including everything from mucus and intestinal fluids) phosphate and other amalgam ingredients into non-toxic jute. This mixture has been “cured” at certain temperatures for two years and joins a little cork grass to take hold as a stabilization strategy that is now serving as a remediation effort around the world. The eco ecoli doesn’t like the root humus but any remaining oil on the plants and sandy bottom does. And the soil is nurtured by the new grasses.

Dear Friends,I have had a little trouble getting out of the country….( I always knew housework wasn’t healthy – 2 days before staging for Namibia was to begin I was the recipient of a spider bite that dragged me to St. Lukes). I am in the process of being re-deployed to Kenya as a member of the Peace Corps, Small Enterprise Development Team.In the meantime I am all better and this Spring I am working with ‘Katrina’ efforts to rebuild the community in New Orleans. I will be leaving for Africa again in early June. Here is the current information about the St. Bernard Project, until then – Stay Loose!calamity Dutch

http://www.stbernardproject.org/v158/

The St. Bernard Project has rebuilt homes for more than 350 families with the help of 32,000+ volunteers. With thousands of families still unable to afford to rebuild the homes they own, and with 200+ families in New Orleans still residing in FEMA trailers, SBP is determined to finish the job. Since Mardi Gras is all about tradition and family, we ask you to donate and "Get on the Float" with St. Bernard Project so we can continue to restore the traditions of our deserving families and bring them home.