I generally try hard not to be political in this forum. Not because I don't have political opinions, but because this family blog goes out to a very diverse group. And while I won't repost or share in larger political opinions, it is worth noting that American foreign policy under this administration has notably harmed us in the past year, and it cannot be ignored.
I did mention last year that the complete dismantling of USAID had immediate effects as we watched many American families depart quite unexpectedly, leaving halfway through school years. Our maternal and child health projects felt some impact as the government health sector in Kenya had to adjust to losses of support, particularly with ARTs for pregnant women with HIV and even stockouts of childhood vaccinations. Now we are dealing with an Ebola outbreak in the region with a notable absence of CDC surveillance and response. I fear that the outbreak has probably spread well beyond the communities affected in DRC, but surveillance and response have been very slow, with stockouts of basic things like testing kits. Sadly, the Ebola surveillance program was dismantled and not replaced with the dismantling of USAID. The impact on MCC has been the upending of our volunteer program, which has been scrambling to find ways to get people back to final orientations while dealing with new travel restrictions from countries fearing travel from this region to theirs. Even the US is putting limits on us. If we have been in Uganda (right next door) in the past 3 months, Rebecca and I would have to fly to only to one of 3 airports in the US for screening. Rebecca and a number of our international staff were planning to travel to Uganda, but have since cancelled those plans. I even worry that by the time we do travel back to the US at the end of June, these travel restrictions may apply to Kenya as well.
Our program has been harmed as well in the incredibly restrictive visa policy that has made it impossible for us to send one-year volunteers, students, or even senior staff to the US for meetings because every person applying is assumed to be trying to illegally immigrate. I cannot tell you the number of visa rejections we have had for people who would never immigrate---a retired professional with grandchildren and a wife, our senior program manager--a woman-- with a young family, countless volunteers, board members, and pretty much every student who hopes to go to the US for study here. These people are rejected at interviews before a question is even answered. There is clearly an unstated policy (as we have heard) to reject all temporary visas for study or work conferences. We have completely shut down our volunteer exchange program for Kenyans to visit the US, which is disappointing.
And now... the war with Iran. The war has created significant fuel shortages here, nearly doubling the price of diesel and gas. This has caused public transit and Uber to raise fares, and probably encouraged some hoarding because gas prices are controlled by the government. The result has been riots and general strikes that have forced our staff and us on several days in the past few weeks to work from home, as angry Matatu conductors and taxi drivers set many fires to tires on highways and buses and trucks parked across roads, making passage on any major arteries impossible. There are currently negotiations with the government. for some relief, but until the Strait of Hormuz is open, this will not be resolved fully. The other impact that we have not yet felt but is quite ominous is the fertilizer shortage, which may cause significant food insecurity in the region. We will not know until next harvest.
So that is the way current US foreign policy is impacting us living in Kenya. Full Stop.
I don't mean to imply by the above challenges that we spend our days in idle fretting (or doom scrolling on our phones). In fact, this month has been quite busy, and I will try to recount some of the highlights here:
In April, I was asked by our pastor's wife if I might be willing to take him up Mt Longonot for his Birthday at the beginning of May. They are Canadian, and he is turning 60. She did not feel up to it because of her health, but knew he wanted to try it. Longonot is a volcanic crater in the rift valley near Nairobi. I agreed to do so and arranged a van and talked to other men at the church about going along. We had about 8 in all who agreed to join for the day trip up and back to the crater's edge. The hike is not long by distance but VERY steep, and it starts at about 5000 feet and goes to about 10,000, so it is quite grueling. Typically, it takes 1 to 2.5 hours to ascend, depending on one's capacity and acclimatization to the height. There is an option to add 7 more kilometers to hike around the rim, which is also a bit treacherous and steep in places, so we did not plan to include that in our trip.
We set off on a Saturday morning and arrived at the base around 10am. It is a park, so we paid the entrance fee, and the 8 of us set out. I am happy to say we all made it, but it was hard on the knees and hips of the pastor. He did enjoy the challenge, though, and there were many hands to help each other along. I had prepared ham and cheese sandwiches and other snacks for everyone, so we had a nice picnic on top before making the treacherous descent (walking sticks are a must as there are a lot of slippery slopes). Coming down takes about 30 to 45 minutes, much faster than ascending.
It was a good day, and we were back in Nairobi by late afternoon. I was glad that I did not overestimate his ability, and it was a complete success. In the following week, we celebrated his actual Birthday with a party at a mutual friend's house. I really appreciate the diversity of our church, which was really evident at the event, even with a small group of friends.
The following week, we had another special event for a coworker. Our Office Administrator, Sarah, has been on maternity leave for the past 3 months. We have not had a chance to see her since she gave birth, and in Kenya, it is not considered good etiquette to visit a new mother until 3 months have passed. We hit that mark, so we planned as an entire team (9 office staff and 6 volunteers) to go and visit her at her house. This was an adventure in itself because Sarah is Maasai and her family home is out in a village in the Rift Valley. We drove together in two Land Cruisers for about an hour out of Nairobi. We felt like we were in the middle of nowhere and turned into a fenced compound where we came upon a traditional house, but behind it was a large 2-story, very modern house. (This belonged to her uncle.) We were welcomed by her clan, some wearing Shukas, and sat together for lunch in the big house. Sarah normally lives in Nairobi, so it was quite interesting to see her at her family home in this traditional setting where she spent her maternity leave. She was very happy to see us, and we all took a chance to hold the baby. We also had a nice traditional lunch.
We spent part of the day there, then rushed back in the afternoon for a number of work meetings, but we all felt like the visit was very worthwhile, and I cannot even say how much we have missed her presence in the office with our current workload.
Since our entire team was in town, Rebecca and I also took the opportunity to invite our volunteers to come have dinner at our house. It is very convenient now that our office has 3 bedrooms and is about 3 blocks from our house. It is easy to host them when they are in town. It was a great visit, especially since we will be leaving on our summer break before we see them all again. It was interesting that they wanted to know about my dance career, and we ended up watching some of my old dances on YouTube.
May is also a month when there are many end-of-school events. Ever since Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and as a member of the Honors Choir as well, David has made a lot of friends in the drama and music program. (He was also in volleyball.) Many of his friends were seniors, so he was not only involved in school programs, but was also invited to several graduation parties.
Among the events we attended were the choir concert for the school, which included songs by the Honor's choir, the end-of-year Chapel, and David went to graduation as well as a choir singer. He also had several volleyball games as the season ended in May. I should not fail to mention the award ceremony at the end of the year, where David received two awards, one for Pottery and the second for Chemistry.
He also went to two parties for his senior friends. It is good to see him developing a social group. He has even been playing Dungeons and Dragons with a group of friends. I think it takes about 2 years to really get integrated into a school community. Even for Rebecca and me as parents, the volunteer work with Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and many social connections for Rebecca, have really brought us all closer to the school community. It is worth putting in the time to build these relationships at this crucial time in David's life.
The other community Rebecca and I really enjoy is our community choir. It is called the German Community Choir because it meets at the German School in Nairobi, but it is not a German-language choir. In fact, it is one of the most diverse groups I have ever been part of. People from all over the world, and many talented, trained Kenyans, are part of the group. It is really great to be part of a group that sounds really together.
We have been working for the past 3 months on a concert of folk songs from all over the world. The repertoire was very challenging, and I think only 3 of the 20 songs were in English. I cannot list all the languages off hand, but there was German, Swahili, Shona, Zulu, Kikuyu, Luo, and Spanish, to name a few.
We performed a concert this past weekend, and I thought we sounded great. Among the highlights for me was a chance to play the banjo to the song Shenandoah, which we did as an American folk song. Probably the best-sounding song is Baba Yetu by Christopher Tin. Such a great Swahili song--The Lord's Prayer, but with power and rhythm.
I do not want to mislead any readers, with all of these social events, into believing that we are not immersed in work on an hourly basis. The fact is, we were completely overwhelmed with a number of processes happening simultaneously. The big one was the recruitment and hiring of a new volunteer coordinator. Our old coordinator moved to the Peace Program Officer position so we have been in a process for a month. We had about 70 applicants that we screened and narrowed down to 10 that we interviewed on Zoom, then brought in 4 for a final interview. The process was arduous, but we finally made a decision, and the offer was accepted. We expect to start orienting her on June 8th.
At the same time that was happening, we were also having our annual audit. That meant we had 3 auditors sitting in our conference room for a week, and sending us many queries the whole time. In addition, we have been following the process of our not-for-profit status renewal as well as registration as an INGO under the new public benefit authority. In short, we have been swamped in many administrative and bureaucratic processes.
Finally, I ended up being pulled into an application process for a really big maternal and child health grant, which could provide funding for 3 of our partners for several years. I spent about 40 hours in the last 10 days with the grants team and local partners writing the proposal and getting all the parts in. It was grueling and came to a bare-knuckled race to get it submitted under the deadline. I worked through 2 weekends and got up early and stayed up late many evenings. But we did succeed in submitting, which felt like a victory in itself.
I am glad to get this blog done before tomorrow. June starts a completely new chapter with my brother Jonathan and his wife arriving tomorrow, and David heading off to France for a week (school trip). Then later in the month, we head back to the States for home leave. More on that next month.
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