Patrick's Dilemma and Rusinga Trip

Another mega-update I fear. Brace yourselves.

The story starts on Friday during the morning, when Patrick was busy dealing with the students who hadn’t paid their fees. Two brothers were sent home to collect the money and then sent back to school by their father who had said he was sleeping and didn’t want to be disturbed. They were sent back again. Two sisters were also sent home, and the mother sent back one girl, having told her to collect her things and come home. So, Patrick asked me… what should he do?

Non-profit organizations are really very similar to businesses, except the ultimate goal is impact rather than profit. An organization has to be sustainable and has to meet its expenses. As much as he would love to, Hope Streams cannot function if the students don’t pay their fees. They are already half a month behind and are running a deficit made up by generous community members. But this can’t work in the long term. So, he needs the fees. But if he demands the fees then the two girls will be pulled out of school, effectively punishing the girls instead of the parents and going against the entire purpose of the school, to provide an education for the local kids. So think about it, what would you do?

In the end he had the girl stay at school on Friday. I will have to see tomorrow if she is back in class again. But it’s not a simple situation, for sure. What’s really sad is that the school fees for a month is shillings, or about $5. But the parents can’t pay. And if the administrators are too lenient, then even the parents who can pay (like the father of the two boys mentioned earlier) will take advantage of the generosity of others and simply go without paying. Financial sustainability is a big issue for Hope Streams, like many other community groups.

After we had classes on Friday, Joyce and I took a Matatu downtown to meet Ken and take our trip to Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya at about 160,000 people. Kisumu is in the west, on the coast of Lake Victoria, the world’s second largest lake and the source of the mighty Nile. Interesting side note: Apparently due to a contract negotiated in the 50s by the British, the Kenyas are not allowed to actually use the water from the lake, which means that even next to Africa’s largest fresh water source, there is a water shortage.

The bus took 7 hours to reach Kisumu so we went to our hotel, and some dinner and then headed to bed. It was up early the next morning to drive to the ferry to Rusinga Island. On the drive Ken told us about the project we would be visiting on the island and we also discussed politics (more later). We arrived at the ferry in a small fishing village and took some nice photos (on Joyce’s camera, mine is still broken…) Ironically, we took the 45 min ferry over to a peninsula that is closer to the island, and then crossed an artificial land bridge to the island. The island has no paved roads, is largely rural and is where Ken grew up. We went to stay with his brother and his large family (also more later). We walked down to the lake and then went climbing along some of the rocks and enjoyed the view. Then it was off to visit the project, a model school run by the humanist centre and sponsored largely by the Czech government. The school is much bigger and better equipped than Hope Streams. There are residences for the orphans who live there and brand new classrooms.

One important point that I discussed with Ken a lot on the way was that at this school the teachers are not allowed to hit the students. It was very interesting to see the responses I got to my earlier post on this topic. In general most people believed I should accept the local culture. However, Ken was on my side and argued that no violence is good violence and was very adamant that this island school have no physical punishments.

That night for dinner we had fish from the lake and slept early. We got up Saturday morning and Mark, one of Ken’s nephews, took us on a boat to Bird Island (Bonnie, you would have been sooooo jealous!!!) We saw lots of different birds and entire trees that were white from you can guess what. We also saw several Monitor Lizards and I got within a foot of one for some nice shots. (Oh Bon Bon, you missed it…..)

Then we went for a walk and visited the site where Mary Leakey had unearthed Proconsul Africanus (Mom, it’s your desktop). Then we visited the mausoleum of a famous Kenyan politician who was assassinated in 1969.

In the evening we had a very interesting conversation with Ken’s brother. He had recently taken a second wife and was therefore polygamous. He asked Joyce and I out opinions on this, which led to some interesting thoughts. However, I decided to take it further and asked him his opinion on gay marriage. I have noticed that unlike north America and even south America, there is absolutely no mention of homosexuality here at all. I had gotten the impression it was taboo, but hadn’t actually asked. It was a very interesting talk between him, from a country generally against gay marriage but ok with polygamy, and me, from a country that is generally ok with gay marriage but against polygamy.

Today (Monday) we were up at 6 to catch the ferry back. The island was very beautiful and so peacefully but we had to get back for exams this week for the kids. On the ferry we met a guy going to Kisumu so we offered him a ride. He turned out to be a journalist and we talked once again about Kenyan politics. It seems that in generally Kenyans believe best the solution to all the problems would be to clean out and restructure the entire government and start over. That’s how little faith they have in the system. And when I ask people when they think change will come, most say at least another 10 or 15 years. The politicians in power now have it too good to let it go easily, and new leadership is needed to see any difference for Kenya’s reality.

Patriotism here is an interesting thing. In Brazil, people are VERY patriotic. You will see flags everywhere and people are proud to be Brazilian. Even in Ecuador you could feel it. Here, there is very little patriotism. Firstly, because people associate first with their own tribe before their country and second because there simply isn’t that much for Kenyans to be proud of. Many are disappointed with their country and even apologize to me for being so negative. Change is wanted and needed but when and how it will happen remains to be seen. The will is there, the way is needed.

After arriving in Kisumo once again we went to the lake to buy some fish to bring back to Nairobi (we bought cooked fish). Then it was a quick lunch and onto the bus for another 7 hours back to the big city. It was a looong trip but we got to see Western Kenya and experience a bit of rural living, plus had some interesting discussions and learned ever more about this country.

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Live Update (now Wednesday): Yesterday I had a long but good meeting with Patrick and the admin at Hope Streams to discuss strategic planning. I am going to be heading up the plan, which is really cool and I think it will be a great experience :)