Teddy Aksel

The last few days I have been in and out of school teaching the kids everything from P.E to mathematics. I am teaching at a school called Olympic. It is a private school with classes from the equivalent to preschool all the way until grade 8. The school facilities are pretty good, they have a soccer field, basketball court and pretty good structures for classes. Although the class sizes make the rooms stuffed to the max, and there are usually 3 kids on a desk not even as long as I am, the kids still have a great opportunity at the school. Working there for the small amount of time that I have, I have noticed that the school is extremely unstructured and the kids have serious trouble focusing. Most of the time you are unsure as to what you will be teaching and when you will be teaching it. Teachers show up irregularly, and when we are in the class, sometime will just sit down and watch us teach instead of teaching themselves. One day I taught the grade 7 class English. They were learning how to speak, and how to use past tense. I noticed during that class, that there are only 3 or 4 people who are really eager to learn, and the other people are almost oblivious to what’s going on. The other thing that I noticed, that upsets me the most, is the amount of bullying that goes on in these classes. There are always names being thrown at each other, and yesterday I even saw some kids drawing with marker on another kids face. Then we went outside for lunch time. I had heard stories about a group of older kids who aren’t part of the school, coming onto the school basketball court to play soccer, and when the kids tried to use the court to play basketball, the older kids would tell them to go away and would throw rocks at them. It was the first time I had actually seen the kids there, but they were only using half of the court, so we decided not to cause any issues and we just used the other half. It is rather frustrating how much these kids face, even when they are in a better situation than most of the other kids would be. The other amazing fact is that, this school is in the middle of the largest slum in Africa, Kabira slum. I walked through Kabira slum a little bit, but haven’t really had the chance to see very much of it. What I have seen of it has been hard to take in to an extent. The smell is one thing that I don’t think any human can ever get used to. It’s hard to breath and a lot of people are cooking on open an fire which means a lot of smoke is in the air as well. The most remarkable thing so far has been the attitude in the slum. People seem to be smiling all of the time, and they have a very optimistic view on life. It is interesting because back home in Canada, we are very negative even though we have a steady income, and are spoiled like eggs. It is interesting to think that those who have the most, want the most, and those who have the least are happiest with that they have.

We decided to change our placement. The orphanage that we were at didn’t have anything to do because all the kids had gone back to school, and the owner of the orphanage told us things to do, but they all involved us spending lots of money to get them done. We decided that we were going to go to Nairobi, the three people I was staying with the to one house and myself to the volunteer house to work at a school in the largest slum in Africa called Kabira slum. I went to visit the area one day just to check out the different placements. I went to two schools, one of which was in really bad shape, and the other one a private school. I first visit the one that was in bad shape and I was extremely intimidated by the environment. Two hundred kids in a little tiny piece of land, about 20 kids per class, each class not bigger than an average sized washroom, with 3 kids to a little tiny desk. Although the kids seemed to be enthusiastic, I could not see myself working there every day, it was far too intimidating. Not to mention that lady who went around with a big stick hitting the kids if they didn’t get back to class fast enough after break. Then I went to visit the private school, where the atmosphere was a little bit easier to handle. The facilities were nicer and the teachers friendlier. Also, I wouldn’t be the only volunteer in the school, as I would have been at the other placement. Unfortunately that night (after visiting) I got really sick and haven’t been able to do anything which makes for a really boring blog.

This weekend was outreach weekend. It consisted of going to the Great Rift Valley, which was amazingly beautiful just because of how huge and green it was. We then moved on to KCC Slum. The KCC slum is a small area that had over 3000 homes built side by side (literally side by side) but in January of this year, there was a fire that burned down 3000 of them. When we visited, the conditions were still pretty bad, but there was not many homes built. You can only imagine how hard it would be to have almost nothing, and have that taken away from you too. The rebuilding process is slow but it is the process, and a school has already been built by a very generous man (previously a volunteer) and it now houses over 100 kids. We then moved on to one of the coolest parts of my life so far, “Hells Gate”. Hells Gate is the place where the Lion King was made after, and it is home to lots of wild life and a lot of nature. There were two options, to bike or to ride in the car and take pictures. I decided to ride in the car because I was sick, and because I wanted to be able to get good pictures. That wasn’t working out to well because I wasn’t going to be able to move out and go closer to the animals. Eventually some of the bikers wanted a break, so I decided to bike the rest of the way. It turned out to be an amazing move because there was a group of 6 giraffes running out from the forest away from the group. I was behind the group because I was taking pictures of something else, so I decided I was going to cut off the giraffes to take pictures. I was able to cut off two of them who stood there and stared at me while I took tons of pictures. It was probably the coolest thing I have done because they were gigantic, and because who else would try and cut off wild life to take pictures. The next morning I realized that all of my money was gone, $750 worth of money stolen. I spent the morning stressing about what I was going to do for the next two months, but I was thankful that I had spent almost all of the donation money I was given already so that wasn’t stolen. We arrived at our first stop for the day, IDP Camp meaning internally displaced peoples camp. I completely forgot about any money that I had lost, because these people were literally living with nothing. Their houses were made of tree branches and plastic covers. How stupid would I have to be to think that my problem of losing money, that I will be able to go home and replace, will ever be anywhere near the problems that they had. I will be trying to organize speeches about the experiences that I had at IDP and the next stop on our tour once I get back from Canada so if you are interested please let me know and I can come out to your event and speak. The next stop on our tour was the Garbage slum, which is exactly what it sounds like. A group of 110 families who live on a garbage dump and make a living off searching through trash to find food and essentials. This experience I can’t really right about because I still haven’t gotten over the shock of what I saw. In the end I learned that despite the loss of all of my money, I would never be able to understand what they go through on a daily basis.

Today was one of the most fun days that I have had because we visited a bunch of animals and got to interact with them. We started off with a giraffe sanctuary where we were feeding and kissing giraffes (yes I got a video don’t worry). It was pretty cool, really nasty and romantic all in one, weird combination, I would say so! We left there and went to an elephant orphanage where we saw and heard about a bunch of elephants and how they were saved. They did circle around and let us touch them and take pics with them, but the park was so packed it wasn’t as fun as it could have been. We then moved on to a crocodile park, where we were able to hold a baby croc and a tortoise which was really cool. The funniest part was when the tortoise got scared and peed on one of the volunteers. The best part was where we went next. We went to a monkey park where we were able to feed them and have them climb on our shoulders and heads and eat from our hands. It was super cool and pictures will be uploaded as soon as I have the time to.

Today we went to the orphanage again expecting to do laundry (because there are 41 kids there is heaps of it) and do other things like cook and clean, we were definitely met with a huge surprise. Today we were told that we were going to climb a mountain (more like a very oversized hill, but none the less a huge climb) that I now call “Mount Mzungu” meaning mountain of white people because it was the first one I had climbed. Two of the volunteers, including myself, were wearing flip flops, and the other one had a bummed leg because she fell in the shower. It took us about an hour and a half to climb to our destination, where we were going to get grass for the cow. Yes I did just say, to get grass for the cow. When we got there, one of the farmers pulled out a machete and handed it to Mama, and I took it from here knowing it wouldn’t be okay for her to do the work. I spent about thirty minutes chopping the grass down and putting it in piles, then another twenty chopping it into little pieces to fit into our bags that weighed about 170 pounds each. We packed them into a wheel barrow and then tried to wheel it down the mountain. You can imagine, or maybe you can’t, how hard it is to wheel that much weight down a mountain in a crappy wheel barrow. We ended up paying someone to drive it down for us. When I got back from the hike, we went home, and my host family’s brother asked me to come play soccer with his city’s club team, which I very happily agreed to do. When I got there, I wasn’t so sure it was a good idea, because their field was this huge area of about 3 inch thick mud. None the less I played, got soaked, fell and laughed just like all of the other guys did. Again I find myself realizing how much I take for granted the things I have, like a soccer field that isn’t mud, or a soccer ball that isn’t heavy with water. I guess they aren’t lying when they say this journey is a life changing experience.

Today we went to our placement and host family houses. We (myself and three others) are placed in a place called Ngong, and in an orphanage in the district. It is not too far from Nairobi and has running water and electricity, although it is monitored and kept to a minimum. She has a daughter who is adorable, and a son who is about my age who is a pretty cool guy as well. We went to the orphanage and it was so inspiration to see the behaviors and attitudes of the kids that lived there. When we got there we were greeted by our “Mama” with a huge hug and a smile that implied she needed help. We went outside to meet the kids and a bunch of them were actually doing laundry. That might seem like a menial task but here it’s really not. They form a sort of working chain, one person scrubs dirt off, then you keep passing the clothes along, dipping them in fresh water, and squeezing out all the dirty water until they are clean. We decided to hand out a bunch of toys to the kids, and I definitely expected them to attack us like every other person did, but they didn’t. They waited in line as we passed toys out and then they ran off to play with them, it was really cool to see. After playing with them for some time, we started to do laundry with them. Got in the line, started doing our part and of course splashing the kids with water. The best part was when we started cleaning their underwear and they started laughing at us because in Kenyan culture, you don’t do other people’s underwear. We then went on to go and talk to Mama about what she needed. The first thing she did, after smiling with such a beautiful smile because of all the happiness it symbolized, was say food. She continued to list off all of the things that her orphanage needed, but of course we knew we wouldn’t be able to tackle them all. Me and one of the other volunteers decided to go fifty-fifty on a 40 000 shilling donation for food. We took Mama to the market where she bought a bunch of charcoal to cook with, and tons of food that had to be lifted to our house in a truck. When we got back to the orphanage the kids were extremely eager to help, and carried most of the stuff into the house on their own, despite the fact that there was nothing under 40 pounds. In the end of all of this, I guess that I have learned the importance of giving, and how much I take food for granted. I don’t think when I get back I will be eating as much, you are welcome mom:P.

Today we went to a medical clinic in Mlolongo. It is an extremely poor area of Kenya, but for some reason, is probably the most beautiful place I’ve seen in the world. Not because of the landscape or the scenery or anything of that sort, but because of the people. When we got there we were given a tour of the small district, the whole time being escorted by kids holding out hands or jumping into our arms. Despite the immense poverty, the minute a child holds your hand, is the minute you realize that they are absolutely no different from you. They are just a child, who lives, and plays, and loves, but with a lot less to live with. We were told a story about a street child who was adopted by a lady who has 8 children (all adopted off the street) and he now is trying to get into college to study environmental sciences. We then went and hung out a bit with the kids, they sang us a welcome some and then they used us as swings, taking turns to have fun. When we went to the area where we would be having the clinic, we ended up throwing the kids across a small pool of mud (not a crazy throw, they seemed to love it), built a tent, and prepped whatever we had the ability to. When the people started showing up we were given different tasks. Myself and another were assigned hand washing station, and told to give out soap. My first mistake, sitting down with the box of soap, because once I started giving it out, I was attacked by everyone, including parents. Then we went and did registration for over 300 people who got treated. It was sad because most of the treatments were exactly the same, no matter what the symptoms were. The most depressing part of the day, that I will honestly never forget, is when we were asked to take care of this lady’s twins. They were 6 months old and very sick. They had bumps all over their bodies and coughed a lot, not to forget the fact that they weighed next to nothing. Regardless, they were two of the most beautiful children I have seen. When I got home later that night, I was told that at least one of them was going to die, not because of the sickness, but because their mother couldn’t afford to feed and house both of them. I don’t think I will ever forget the moment when I was told this. And I know for sure that I will never forget those babies, and I hope that somehow, they are able to survive and will not die because they get a chance to live.

Today we went into the market again because one of the volunteers was leaving too go home. It was really cool (yet sad) to see how emotional she got leaving Kenya. People really get attached to everything here, and I think I am starting to understand why. I had a little bit of an adventure today, when I decided to leave the market by myself to go home. I took the wrong Matutu, and ended up a little while east of where I was supposed to be. The good thing was that I recognized where the bus had turned off my path and I got off not too far from where I was supposed to be. As I was walking, it was awkward because every single person was staring at me. Sometimes when people look at you, it’s the “uh oh, I don’t belong here” type of feeling, but here in Kenya, when they stare at you, it’s the total opposite. It’s really hard to explain what the feeling is, but you feel like these people see you as hope, when in turn I see them as the same. Some of them even shout to you “welcome to Kenya” and they shoot you a thumbs up, which I have now come to believe is the international sign of acceptance.

I had an amazing experience today interacting with the kids out side of the house I lived in. To give you a sort of visual representation of where I live, picture two fences. The first one separating you from the village, a place filled with tin buildings line with shops that sell anything and everything, mostly second hand, nothing over 10 dollars for the most part. In between the first and second fences, a small little area with houses (small houses in crappy shape), and tons of kids playing. Then behind the second gate, the place where you are staying. So every day you will have no choice but to pass these kids to get to your house. So today, a few of the volunteers decided to take a few pictures of these kids as they were passing by, and the kids loved it, so I decided when we got home, I would do the same. So when we got home I took my camera outside and they loved taking pictures and posing and talking with us, and hugging and holding our hands. It was unbelievable how happy they get so fast, and the fact that their smiles are so beautiful, even though unlike most people I know back home, they don’t spend any time in front of a mirror trying to perfect it. We decided, even though we were advised not to, to go to the market and buy some things to give to the kids, like a new ball, some ropes, and some cookies, small things like that. The reason we were warned not to was because they swarm you and attack you and take it from you. I decided I would use that as a chance to help them learn a few mannerisms and say thank you. So I lined them up and told them if they said thank you, I would bring them things every week. That did not last very long. They started swarming and grabbing and I decided to hand them off to another lady who was there (a mother who lived in the area) to give out. They immediately swarmed her, and the weirdest thing happened, she started laughing. It was as if it was a game to them, and these cookies were a treat they were never going to see again. It made me think, who am I to come half way across the world, and teach them manners that we have in western society, and to judge them based on the fact that they don’t have any, when clearly, giving me a perfect example, they were completely happy with what they have, and were able to make every situation a good one. Thinking about the fact that they have almost nothing, and they had a chance to get their hands on something, why on earth would they not swarm me and try to steal it from my hands?

Today I learned one thing. You don’t need a mirror to learn how to smile.

Today was a fun day, we decided to head out to city center for the masaai market. The masaai market happens once a week in the city center, and it’s basically bargains galore. It’s funny how ridiculous it is actually. You walk into the area where everything is laid out and as soon as you walk in (if you are white) you get stormed by people who want to take you around and sell you things. I was greeted by a guy who goes “ARE YOU A FOOTBALLER?” which I responded to with a not really. Then he goes “oh, then what do you play”. I said baseball is my favorite sport. He goes “OH BASEBALL, COME HERE I WANT TO SHOW YOU SOMETHING”. Any person with any logic would imagine he was about to show me something that had to do with baseball, clearly I was wrong. He decided that he was going to show me around to every single place in the market and try and sell me stuff. Being warned, all I could think about was the asking for obnoxious amounts of money for things that weren’t worth it. I finally decided I was going to buy a scarf, and I told him. He pulls out a piece of paper, writes 1) and 2). He goes “1 is me, 2 is you, you know how it works”. He wrote down 18,500 shillings. For those who don’t know, 1 dollar (American) is work 82 shillings. If you do the math, that’s 225 American dollars. Apparently Kenyans think white people have more money than brains. I told him that I would pay 500 shillings max. We had about a 30 min conversation in which we went back and forth between prices. “Can I ask you, 12000?”…”Can I ask you, 10000?” and so on and so forth, same words each time, just the price dropping. I managed to get him down to 1000 shillings which was pretty awesome. Then when I finally found one of the volunteers I went with, I stuck with her for the rest of the time. She was really interested in buying an African drum (a very beautiful one I might add). Being the professional she was at bargaining, she shoed people off left and right until she found a really nice one. She was really firm on 6000 shillings for this drum, where as the person started at 28,000. I’m being 100 percent honest when I say he followed us around for the rest of our duration trying to convince us to buy it for more. One thing that really bothered me though was the fact that he kept coming to me saying, you are the decision maker, she listens to you, which obviously wouldn’t get me any brownie points with the volunteer. So we decided to leave, and not surprisingly he still followed us outside of the market. All of a sudden since we were leaving he dropped prices really fast. He said okay 6000, so she handed him the money and he is like, no 6500, give me another 1000 I’ll give you 500 back. I honestly thought she was going to punch him in the face, so she started grabbing the money back, when one guy through the fence started speaking to him in Swahili. He was like fine take it and he turned around and stomped away. It was very entertaining to see all this happen. One thing about the market that really bother me was how they reacted and spoke about white people. “Mzungu” is the Swahili word used for white person, and when the person was taking me around and showing me things, he kept speaking to the venders in Swahili saying Mzungu, make him pay more. I guess I can understand though, white people are very few and far between in Kenya, and they treat all of them equally thinking we are all rich.

When we got back home, we were locked out, and I got the chance to sit and watch some children playing in the streets. You could tell clearly that they were extremely poor as they were using a ratty piece of rope to skip and a piece of broken off signage to slide around on. They are not shy to come up to a person and try and steal things or to try and take things they know you have bought for them, which to some seems really rude and annoying, but when you grow up in conditions like the ones they have, no schooling, and sharing one room with many people, not eating very much (no there are not many obese people here) and just trying to get by on whatever they can, it shouldn’t be hard for others to understand your actions, and I feel like once the other volunteers leave and their biases no longer effect me, I am going to buy them all something but I am going to use it as a teaching point rather than a hand out. It really makes you appreciate what you have when kids who have hardly anything can still find a way to play in the streets and laugh with friends.

Every night when I am asleep I hear dogs, and they sound extremely vicious and intimidating, but I had yet to see them until today. There was four dogs walking around outside, and they are the dogs that you would see in your nightmares. Bones showing, dirty, very intimidating, until you realize that they have hardly any energy to even move. There is a constant feeling of empathy here for everyone and everything, but at the same time, I find it extremely important to see them as equal, which a lot of people have trouble doing. Even here in Kenya I have the luxury of leaving the area I am in, and go to a café where I can order scones and mango milkshakes, have KFC, or even go golfing if I wish too. I honestly could probably afford a car here if I wanted to (considering there are no new cars here, only second hand cars that are semi restored, not that I would ever have the guts to drive here). Although these people don’t have that luxury, it doesn’t make them any less of a person, if anything they can teach me so much more about life than I can teach them. Sure I might be able to teach them to read, or buy them a new pair of shoes, or maybe even put them into a house for a year, but in the end, the value of learning from a person who survives every day, not just lives every day, is priceless.

The kids here are beautiful and their smiles are amazing. When you walk by they all wave and yell “hello, how are you” but you can tell they don’t what they are saying, because when u say good how are you they say “how are you” over and over. It is surprisingly comfortable walking the streets; I thought that it would be a lot more intimidating.

Today I went into the city with a few of the volunteers to check out the city center of Nairobi. We had to go to westland which is past Nairobi so that one of volunteers could change her plane ticket to stay longer here. We went back into the city and went shopping and checked out the Hilton arcade. The Hilton arcade is basically a shopping mall, the words that overlap make me so confused because in Canada an arcade is a place you go to play games.

The people here are really nice even though courtesy isn’t really part of the culture. I had my first Matutu ride. A matutu is basically a van that seats 15 but really 23 people piled into it, but buses her cost roughly 30-50 shillings which is about 35-55 American cents. It was apparently a very careful driver, if so; I don’t want to see one that isn’t very careful. The stores here are pretty cheap as well, which is counterproductive because it makes you want to buy more.

I have also realized, because I travel with ladies, considering most of the volunteers are female, the men also use the line “how are you” to try and pick them up. It’s hilarious.

The first day in Kenya I am guessing will be the hardest. The flights down here weren’t so bad, if you look past the people who decided to put their seat all the way back so I had no room, and the USA Security deciding I was suspicious because of my name and beard and searching me in front of everyone! But at least I made it so no big deal. I am now inside of a house with 5 other volunteers, have a room all to myself which is pretty sweet. There are tons of animal noises around here, a cat, a few dogs, a roster that doesn’t seem to shut up, and tons of birds. The person who picked me up and dropped me off was named Henry and he was giving me a lot of knowledge about the country and how it runs, especially the failed designs, or lack thereof, of the Kenyan streets. We sat in traffic for a good two hours. The streets are nothing like they were in Canada, and lanes, what are those? Everyone seems pretty cool though, the mama in my temporary home is so sweet, and her kids and husband are as well. I heard a lot about outreach and a safari, and I can’t wait to experience those!!

When I got here it was POURING rain. I mean literally pouring. There was floods on many of the roads and people were walking out side like it was nothing. Henry told me that most of the water runs down into the slums which makes it even harder for them to cope with the conditions.

We have been playing cards and they taught me a few new games. The two little girls are adorable and they have taught me a few of those clapping rhyming games.

Got my phone and internet today as you can guess. SOO much cheaper here.