Off the beaten path on our last day.

I mentioned in an earlier post that I struggle with wanting to expose Coyle (and my students) to a variety of perspectives and not wanting to get caught up in the cycle of poverty tourism where people of privilege go to gawk at people living in poverty. Whenever I travel I try to see these places in a way that benefits the local community and allows for us to connect on a personal level rather than just taking pictures out the bus window. I’m still not sure that’s the right answer either but it’s the best  I can come up with.
A place I really wanted to see in Kenya was Kibera. This is one of the largest informal settlements in Africa where huge numbers of people live on less than $1.00/day with no electric, running water, trash removal or formal schooling. There are a lot of Kibera tours out there and most are run by outsiders which I wasn’t happy with. I finally found one run by a foundation called the seed foundation which helps to educate and feed the neediest local children and also focuses on skills training for residents (computers, tailoring, etc). All of the money we spent on the tour went to the project and we would have real genuine opportunities to interact with people in meaningful ways.
When we first arrived we walked up to a high point to overlook the area. You can see that Kibera is sandwiched into whatever space they can find and just next door is an apartment building. Since the government owns the land Kibera is on they have been known to force residents to move when they want to build. In the picture below you can see the apartments to the left and Kibera to the right.

We then started walking through the neighborhood exploring. The leader of the foundation told us stories about how in the wet season the streets we were walking on became a river and there were often homes swept away. 

As we walked through the community Coyle  gathered a crowd as usual as all of the kids wanted to talk to him and play with him. He was shy at first but then enjoyed running around with them. Again I don’t want to post face pictures of children I don’t know but I did get a few pictures of Coyle and his adoring fans that I feel comfortable sharing.

After walking through the community for awhile we made it to the place I was most excited to see- the school. As I mentioned earlier the Kenyan government does not provide education for the 

children of Kibera so all of the schools in the community are considered informal schools. This one, supported by the Seed Foundation serves about 100 elementary age students. 

Even though the students were on vacation a bunch of them and several of the teachers came to meet

 with us and talk to us about their experiences. As a teacher it was fascinating to see how much they 

accomplished with such limited supplies. The building was two stories tall and we had to go up a 

flight of steep narrow stairs to get to the second floor. Up there we met the group of students. There 

were vocabulary words pinned to the tin walls and throughout our conversations we were interrupted by the sound of the chickens that are kept downstairs. Coyle was fascinated with the chickens and it’s interesting to think of my class being interrupted by the crowing of a rooster rather than the beeping of a cell phone!

Coyle got the opportunity to sit in the students’ desks and to check out their kitchen and eating area. 

(Straight ahead is the kitchen - kids eat in this area)

After our wonderful visit to the school we got to see a typical home in Kibera which was. 10x10 

room with one to two other rooms attached. Toilets are communal and shared by about 20 homes. One of the most amazing things about Kibera was the overwhelming hope that permeates the community. Everyone we saw was working hard to make whatever money they could. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly and happy to work together to move the community forward. Despite its sometimes bad reputation we were entirely safe and welcome in Kibera. My biggest safety concern was that so many people kept taking my arm to help me walk over the uneven ground I was afraid I was going to knock one of them over!  

It was a wonderful and inspiring day. I left excited about the work being done by the seed foundation and excited about some opportunities to connect these students to my own classroom. 

Coyle said he loved everything about the “village” although he was afraid of the bathroom!  He said he loved the chickens And the chicken coop!  While I don’t think he will remember this day forever I do hope that he is starting to internalize the idea that people all over the world live in different ways but still have so much in common. 

After such a busy morning Coyle was worn out. Maybe time for a quick nap before packing up to fly home tomorrow morning. What a way to end our trip. 

Today’s adventures are brought to you by the word poop

This morning Coyle and I (and Mr Snuggles) suited up for an early morning game drive.

But first a quick stop for a hearty breakfast which for Coyle consisted of multiple plates of baked beans and some fruit (surprisingly not part of today’s poop chronicles!).

It was a beautiful day for a game drive and we saw tons of animals, especially my favorite, the zebras. Coyle of course was in charge of photography again. 

Lest anyone thing Coyle is an urbane and cultured world traveler, he spent most of the morning 

wanting to find the “Barfalo” which as he tells it is an animal that barfs all over the grass and in the

water. (I have no ideas where he comes up with these things!) He also kept asking the driver on the 

game drives so we could take pictures of animal poop. I’ll be sure not to share those pictures in this 

blog. 

The big thing we did today was have the opportunity to visit a Maasai village. The Maasai are a nomadic tribe of herders that live in the Kenya and Tanzania. They are most known for their red robes and for their dancing which includes high jumping. The leader of this village describes themselves as semi-nomadic. They have been in this area for about 5 years. The Maasai have permission from the government to graze their animals in the national parks so many groups live around here.

Because it’s the dry season, the “junior warriors” or boys ages 16-25

Are away with their cattle several hundred kilometers away for the past few months. If all goes according to plan, they will return in about a month. Living in the village on a more permanent basis are older men, women and children. They open their village up to tourists for extra money but more importantly to share their culture with the world. 

We got to visit one of their houses which Coyle was super amused to learn was made out of cow dung. They are short and small but have room for a kitchen and two bedrooms. Each house takes 10 women about 3 weeks to build and they have to be rebuilt about every three years. 

We also met the community doctor in training. His father is the current doctor but is 93 years old so 

he is the one of his father’s 19 children (by 3 wives) chosen to take over and he feels it is his duty to 

do so. The Maasai only go to a hospital in the case of broken bones or a need for an operation. 

Everything else is done in the community. They use a variety of plants for treatments and he has to walk eleven days to the area where most of these plants are found. The junior doctor and his brother also gave Coyle a lesson in how to start a fire the Maasai way. They start with a very flammable material - poop!  In this case elephant dung is often used. They rub sticks together until it starts to smoke and eventually catch fire. Coyle collected some sticks to put on the fire and is so excited that he “saved the fire”. 

Probably the most rewarding experience we had in the village is one I don’t have a picture of. Coyle made a friend, a little boy named Samuel who was about three. He followed us all over the village and he and Coyle kept shaking hands and high fiving. It was really very cute. The reason I didn’t take a picture is because Samuel wasn’t part of the “show” that the village puts on that they encourage people to photograph and video. He was just a kid and I didn’t want to take advantage of that. If his parents were there and also wanted to take a picture of him and Coyle it would be a more equal interaction and I’m ok with that. I struggle constantly when I travel about how to learn about different cultures in a way that feels respectful and not as if I’m there gawking at people for my own entertainment. Having Coyle with me helps because you can’t help but make a connection with a kid around - he definitely does steal the show. 

After the visit to the Maasai village we had one last game drive where we saw some lions.

Throughout our time here we saw four of the “big five” animals that people search for in Kenya. We knew there were no rhinos in Amboseli so we knew four was the best we could do but it was exciting.  More exciting was how close we got to the animals Coyle loved like the zebras and the “ca-Zelles”. 

As the sun set over Amboseli we headed back to the lodge for one last night. Tomorrow it’s back to Nairobi for a couple of days till we fly home Wednesday morning. 

On safari in Amboseli

Coyle and I headed out of Nairobi yesterday to head to Amboseli National Park about 240 km away. Amboseli is not as famous as Maasai Mara park but I chose it for a couple or reasons and it has not disappointed. Amboseli is smaller, easier to drive to from Nairobi (I was not taking one of those tiny planes to get here 😂) and because of its predicable water sources the animal behavior is predictable so you’re not driving for hours and not seeing anything. We have seen so many animals and Coyle is having a blast. Finally, I chose Amboseli because I love mountains and the park is at the base of Mt Kilimanjaro. I knew that in the dry winter months in Kenya (which is what they are in now) the mountain is often obscured by cloud cover but we have been lucky enough to see the snow covered peek on both days. Even with all these game drives we still have time for Coyle’s new favorite activity, relaxing around the pool and playing with our local neighborhood naughty monkeys. Mr Snuggles, the worlds most well travelled teddy bear also got in on the game viewing excitement.  Now I will proceed to overload you with pictures because you can’t have a safari without pictures!

Benin monkeys, beads and bomas oh my

We had an incredibly busy and great day exploring Nairobi today. The morning started at the Nairobi animal orphanage. Nairobi has a game park outside the city and part of the mission of the park is to provide varying levels of support to animals in need. The animal orphanage houses animals that are often unable to be returned to the wild and need significant support. Many of them, like the Benin monkey Coyle loved taking pictures of, were rescued from luggage as they were being trafficked. The orphanage was a little too zoo like for me but Coyle loved it.

Next we headed to another part of the park for a walking safari. These animals can live in more open enclosures but still need too much keeper support to live on the open range. This is a family friendly way to see animals close up and we walked the paths. Coyle loved “catching pictures” of the animals and was so excited to see his first zebra. This was not a place I was all that interested in visiting but I’m so glad we did.

After our morning animal encounters we headed to a few places that I was really looking forward to seeing. The first was the Kazuri bead factory. Kazuri, which means small and beautiful in Swahili, beads are exported all over the world. The mission of the factory is to “provide and sustain employment opportunities for disadvantaged members of Kenyan society, especially single mothers”. All of the beads are hand crafted and painted and are incredibly beautiful. They employ over 340 artists and provide not only jobs but medical care and other support to the workers and their families. We took a tour of the factory where Coyle had the chance to work with the clay. Then he proved himself a very savvy shopper and picked out lots of presents for people and a beautiful necklace for himself. Apparently I just come along to pay the bills! He did tell me “don’t worry mommy I’ll pick out a present for you too”.

Our last stop of the day was at the Bomas of Kenya. The word bomas means homes in Swahili and it 

is a place which celebrates the different tribal cultures found in Kenya. We went to a show where they performed dances, songs, music and acrobatics from all over the country. The show was phenomenal. Coyle danced and clapped through the whole first half but didn’t quite make it through the second act!  I loved it because western tourists were a really small part of the audience. Instead it was mostly Kenyan school groups. Many of the students we have met love yelling “hello” to Coyle and he has just as much fun waving back and yelling “Jambo” back! 

It was a full and great day in Nairobi. Tomorrow we head out to Amboseli for a few days for a safari. More adventures to come!