Homestay with Rose

Alicia has been a wonderful hostess for me here in Kenya, and has done just an excellent job setting up places for me to teach, and also coordinating a few overnight visits with some of the members who were so very eager to host me at their homes.  The first one was last Monday night with a very active and intelligent woman named Rose.  Rose has been very involved with Amani, and other organizations, for many reasons.  She has two children with Spina Bifida, which in Kenya is just nearly impossible to treat well and live with... access to wheelchairs and handicapped equipment is expensive and very rare.  Furthermore, just 8 years ago, Rose herself became handicapped after a bad fall that infected her leg with Tetanus.  The leg was removed after a 6 month struggle to control the infection and she now walks with crutches.  Her involvement in Amani as a person who experiences the struggles of living with a disability has made her a huge advocate for the group and keeps her well involved in the community. She is an inspiration to many. This is her and her daughter, whose legs were amputated at age 12.

After my Monday morning class at the EARC with kids with disabilities, Rose and I headed off to her town to spend the afternoon and I would stay the night.  First we went to a meeting of people with disabilities from her area, there was a man with a non-profit holding a meeting letting people know how they could get access to adaptive equipment and wheelchairs. After a few minutes listening to them speak Luhya and being stared at I was asked to stand and give a speech (??!).  I smiled and said where I was from and gave a quick overview of what I was doing, and made sure to compliment them on how they were doing a great job helping each other as a community and working hard to empower themselves as individuals. It was really moving to see all these people with sticks for crutches, broken down wheelchairs and other improvised materials to help them get around... Rose was saying how these meetings help people network with others to get new jobs and stay off the streets, keeping them from living life as beggars. This is the church the meeting was held in.

 

 

After the meeting we had lunch, chips (fries) and soda, and then Rose and I walked through the market, stopping at another meeting she had with a group who was trying to find a way to buy a machine to make bricks, since most of the people make their own bricks by hand and it takes weeks.  Then we wandered through the market and bought some food for supper.  It was here that I was asked by many women to take their pictures and several said they'd never been so close to a white person before!  Here's my favorite picture of the market:

 

 

Finally we headed off to Rose's house, a beautiful farm compound out in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by gorgeous fields and open skies.  We had a small parade of children behind us by the time we arrived, and as we settled on the lawn to chat before the sun went own I just smiled at the gaggle of children gathered in front of me, scared and too shy to talk, but I talked enough and soon took out my yoga cards and was showing them a few things here and there. Rose and some family members (her daughters, I think) were just talking behind me, watching and laughing at the kids while cleaning the rice and chopping the veggies for supper.  Finally as we really got into the swing of the impromptu yoga class, (no translations necessary since my acting abilities were turned to "high") Rose took my camera and snapped a few pictures.  I'm very glad she did since the whole experience was just so special for me.  The kids loved it, they started to open up and be more comfortable, we just connected nicely and had so much fun playing and laughing.

 

 

 

 

Finally the sun set, Rose called me inside, the kids said farewell, and I helped and watched as Rose and her daughter prepared a lovely meal just over a small coal-fire pot on the dirt floor of the living room. It was delicious--fish, rice, tomatoes, onions, potatoes and scuma! I was tired after that and we had a nice cup of tea before going straight to bed!  It was a lovely experience, and so nice to talk to Rose more and really hear her story. It was very important to me to see and experience how rural Kenyans live, too!  Alicia and I just visited some other friends of hers in Port Victoria yesterday, and next week I have two more homestays so I am really getting the full experience.  I love it, and I think it is so important and makes them feel so good to host a visitor :)

 

Love love love,

Maia

Another Class, and a Few Pictures

Good Morning!

This will be a quick post as I have to go to the adult Yoga class this morning in Eshiakula, but I thought I'd put up a few more pictures. It's really nice to have Alicia to take a bunch of pictures for me, and she's very enthusiastic about documenting everything we do and helping to promote Amani! On Monday I taught a class for kids with disabilities at the EARC (Educational Assessment and Resource Center) that is located in Mumias.  We had a nice turn out, and the kids and adults all really enjoyed the class.  A few women from Amani also came to observe and participate since I am instructing them on how to continue with classes after I leave. That is one really wonderful thing about the members of Amani--they are very enthusiastic about learning the skills themselves in order to continue teaching and serving to others after we leave. Rukia is one lady, who is disabled herself, who will be taking over the kids' classes in the next few weeks. She is very excited for the opportunity, and Amani will pay her a small stipend to teach once or twice a week and bring classes to schools around the area. So here's a few pictures of things I have done and seen so far!




My first day at Amani!  Tony is holding the sign, he's just the nicest and most helpful guy ever, and Pamela is on the side, so full of energy and excitement and a wonderful dancer!

Beautiful cloth at the market in Mumias, I can't wait to buy some!

I was being carefully scrutinized by the gentlemen all lined up under the tree during market day.... It's impossible to be subtle about picture taking when all eyes are on you all the time simply as consequence for your "skin condition."

My first class at the Amani Center, we had quite an excellent turn out!

The kids and adults alike are very good at "moo-ing" during cow pose; it always makes them giggle!

Observers to my class with the disabled kids; the lady in the middle is Rose, an Amani member and I stayed at her house the other day.  The lady on the left was good about helping her little tot participate in all the yoga moves he could :)

A spontaneous class with the kids at Rose's house. They were so much fun! Language barriers are of little importance when you have smiles and laughter.

Thanks for reading! I'll write up a blog about my stay at Roses' house too, but I have lots to do here that has nothing to do with a computer so I'd best be off and running!

Love, love, love,
M

First Class at Amani

Good Morning!

Yesterday was a very exciting day for me, as it was my first day teaching a kids yoga class here in Kenya. Alicia and I slept in a little, got ready and left for Mumias at about noon to get cash for me from the ATM and look around the market before heading to Eshiakula where Amani is located. I was quite nervous today to start the class for kids yoga. I had no idea what to expect, and neither did Alicia. Now, in the US when I teach to kids I’m usually most concerned about how many kids will
participate, how they will get along with each other if they are different ages, and whether or not they will behave. Here, I was not sure what to be concerned about, but mostly I was worried they would
be too shy and not want to do anything at all, or that they would not understand with the language barrier! But, as it turns out I had nothing to worry about.

We had Tony translate for me, sentence by sentence which was different for me as I really tend to talk and talk, so it was a good challenge to figure out. And we had plenty of children show up, at least 20 kids! They just kept on coming and joining in and oh they were very good. They were so well behaved, honestly I’ve never had a group of kids that big and had absolutely NO behavior problems at all, not even one. The most exciting thing I had to address was the baby who fell over… Anyway, it was such a different dynamic, they were so attentive, and quiet and absolutely glued to me the whole time, even the 3 and 4 year olds! There was no talking out of turn (except from the adults sitting in back) and I had no trouble getting them to try out new poses and make silly sounds and just have a fun time. I would have even preferred a little more rowdiness and participation but it was still great. Everyone loved it and they all came up and said thank you at the very end, they were very polite and still a little shy. 

Amani is great center because we are not just going in once or twice to teach a class or two for fun, but we are hoping to provide these people and their children with the tools to make their lives better and to empower themselves to grow and learn. As people with disabilities, it is important that they feel able to accomplish things in their community and that they can feel better and more healthy on a

daily basis to complete their tasks and live and normal life. They have asked and asked for more stress reduction techniques and yoga has been their main focus. They have several women from the community who now teach the yoga, and I will be instructing and training another lady who will continue to teach the kids yoga lessons after I am gone. They feel so good about themselves when they learn new skills and can equally share and teach to others in their community. It is a very well-run Community Based Organization, and the people are so proud of what they have accomplished on their own and with just some start up help.

Today I teach a class to disabled kids, and then I will be staying the night at Rose’s house, which should be fun to really experience a Kenyan’s home and lifestyle! So I will write again maybe Wednesday. Alicia has been working hard to edit the video of my welcome party to Amani, and we will try to upload that here with a few pictures of the school and classes so far!

Thanks for reading,
Love love love
Maia

 

 

Here's the video of my welcome party to Amani! We had to cut it down quite a bit, it went on for almost 15 minutes! This one is just 3 :) It's pretty neat.