We are hitting an annual milestone this week, and it is a good time to do an update on our work thus far. The past two posts were recaps of our summer home leave and catching up with family. I like to document it because we do only go back once per year. When you see family that infrequently, change is more obvious. Aging happens in lurches, not as a smooth transition. So that time seems precious, and as filled as the year is, the time back needs to be treasured.
Both Rebecca and I have been back for several weeks now. I preceded her by a week, and this season of our work features orienting and launching a new crop of one-year volunteers. The SALT and YAMEN programs are 1-year opportunities for young adults to spend a year in service with an MCC partner somewhere in the world. The SALT program recruits from the US and Canada, and the YAMEN program recruits from the rest of the world. In past years, we have had volunteers from Cambodia, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Indonesia, Ecuador, France, and even Laos. I should also add that we send between 3 and 6 Kenyans and Tanzanians to other countries for a year of service as well, to different countries, so it is an exchange program.
This year we have five volunteers: one from the US, one from Canada, one from Bangladesh, one from Zimbabwe, and one from Uganda. (Four women and one man this year). Two of them will be placed in Arusha, Tanzania, at an agricultural partner called ECHO. Coen, the young man, will be living in a rural Masaai community in Kajiado County, and the other two will be in Nairobi. One will be at a school, and one will be working with the National Council of Churches on an election violence reduction project.
Since this is meant to be both a service and a cultural experience, they will live with host families that are identified by the partner organization they are seconded to.
There is quite an extensive recruitment and vetting process that leads to a person being chosen, and once chosen, there is extensive orientation to prepare for a cross-cultural experience. The first phase of orientation begins as a cohort of all volunteers for that year together. The YAMEN cohort actually met in Kenya, so members of our team were involved in some of the activities they did. I did one presentation and taught them a dance, "Jerusalemu," one day. It is always an exciting atmosphere to be in with over 100 young people from all over the world getting ready to go to new places. (Some had never left their countries or flown in a plane!)
After about 10 days of orientation as a cohort, volunteers go to their respective country programs for an in-country orientation. This was a short trip for our group since they were already in Kenya. In January, we had to move out of our office in Westlands and move into a large two-story house where we set up office spaces but also had 3 bedrooms to spare for a volunteer guesthouse. This has saved us a lot on booking a hotel or Airbnb for them to stay in during the 3 weeks of in-country orientation before they are placed in host families.
This time is spent mainly in language study. They take Swahili lessons for about 3 hours per day. The rest of the time, we do more cultural orientation, as well as set them up as new employees with a phone, SIM card, computer, etc., and teach them how to use M-Pesa to buy things. There are quite a few financial logistics about how money is received and reported. There is also an orientation on security, health, Kenya history, Mennonite Church history, and some preliminary meetings with partners and host families to sign MOUs etc.
We also do a number of outings with them. We have taken them to a different church every Sunday, for instance. This past week we went to a small Mennonite Church in the middle of an informal settlement called Embakasi. It is a very poor, densely populated area. The 3-hour service was in a tin building surrounded by other churches blasting music was quite an interesting cultural experience for them.
The weekend before they came to our church, where Rebecca, David, and I were leading worship on our instruments. That weekend we also had them over for a meal and took a walk in Karura Forest, which is a nice nearby place for a walk and recreation in Nairobi.
Between a number of our staff, we coordinated to give them orientation in and out of the classroom, including taking public transport to the Central Business District, visiting some local tourist sites, using Ubers, and discussing managing culturally sensitive situations like dating, dealing with financial requests, expectations for weddings, births, and bereavement, etc.
At this point, they are chomping at the bit to get out into their assignments and begin to live life with their host families. The final team event this week was a full team all-day meeting, which began with a meeting of our 4 program coordinators for food security, peace, education, and health. MCC HQ is now requiring very high levels of compliance with regard to reporting. Nowadays, auditors expect NGOs to adhere to far more complex guidelines with regard to tracking grants than when we started 15 years ago. It requires a whole team of us to work on meeting all requirements for all projects. So the meeting was important to coordinate between finance and project staff.
We had the meeting at our house, and Rebecca and I had prepared an elaborate Indian meal for the whole team. I made dahl, and Rebecca made curry. The food was appreciated, especially by our Bangladeshi volunteer, Foibi. Our volunteers joined us at noon for lunch, after their final Swahili lesson. In the afternoon, we did several team-building activities, including some line dancing and some skits involving dealing with awkward cross-cultural situations. (Several of them featured 'time' expectations.) The last thing we did was celebrate some Birthdays and eat cake.
This officially ended their orientation period, and this week will take them to their assignment locations. Some of our team will help the Nairobi-based volunteers get set up here, while others will go to Kajiado with Coen. Rebecca and I will go to Tanzania to take the two Arusha volunteers to ECHO and their host families.
During this month, we started up a lot of our personal activities that we had set aside during our absence from Nairobi this summer. Church activities began, and as I said above, we took a turn leading worship on guitar and banjo. We also got started in a new small group with more teens connected to our church. I went back this month to Nairobi West Men's Prison, where I have been serving as a volunteer in our prison ministry. I have grown spiritually from participating in this and visiting these men regularly. Kenya is a difficult place to be incarcerated.
David is back in full swing with after-school activities. He is doing swimming again this season and has been staying after school every day until 5:30 pm with the team. This is his 3rd year doing this, so he should be good when meets start.
We have also attended several school events to launch the new year, the Senior Class, and a day to visit his teachers in an open house setting. David has also been applying to colleges and got all his applications in yesterday. He is applying to 3 schools: Goshen, Messiah, and St. Mary's in MD. We will see what each of them offers him. It is hard to believe he is already a Senior!
Rebecca and I have also started back up in choir, and David is doing voice lessons. Since I gave Rebecca a fiddle for her birthday in July, she has also been working on that. David is in honors choir this year as well, so we are all singing in different capacities.
Lastly, I should mention reconnecting with friends. We have had a few dinners with our next-door neighbors, the Ungers, fellow Mennonites, and Canadians (which makes for some lively conversations).
