20/10
The first couple of days it has been raining on and off leaving little time to work on the field. Instead I have been spending the time reading or listening to the radio, although receiving a good signal is always a hard task in this hilly area. So far I have finished "The Uncommon Reader" by Alan Bennet, which was a good and fun read. The house in which I live with my host father is more of a hut. Roughly 10m2 split into three rooms one of which is the living room. The living room includes a table and seven chairs most of which are never in use. Here we get brought food from the kitchen, which is attached to the house of the hosts mother some 8m away. My room lacks the promised door for privacy since the day I arrived but that is probably because my host father has been away every day attending to something in Machakos or the surrounding. There is only space for one bed, which lacks a mattress however making it not the most comfortable sleeping experience. I will go to town on Tuesday to buy one.
There is still no sign that Anne can come to my project and I have the feeling KVDA will decide on the day she returns from Uganda. Those that do the work and keep the association going do not have the power to make decisions like Chofe, KK and Jessy and those that do have that power do not want to share it because they feel threatened. Another big problem I see with the KVDA is that the money that the BMZ gives out every month (200Euros) is simply given to the organizations leaving them with the task of coordinating finances. This results in 50Euros going to support the volunteer and the respective project and 150Euros staying with the KVDA, which really does not give the impression that the KVDA is an association that simply coordinates volunteers. This is justified by saying that the host should not see the volunteer as a means to get extra money, which is fair enough but that could be solved by splitting the 200 into 50 for the volunteer, 130 for administration and 20 diverted into something like a fund from which the projects can then apply for money and the KVDA can still decide whether the project deserves that money or not and there would be an alternative for the volunteer to always asking his "muzungu friends" for money or fund raising in an environment that lives off 1$ a day.
The people here are so disconnected from the world that children who love football ask me whether I know Manchester United and if so where it is. They have heard or random players or clubs as all the cheap merchandising ends up in Africa and it is not uncommon to see a little boy with a Barcelona belt buckle but when questioned not knowing what that is or at best having heard of it but then saying "It's in England!" The best example of this however happened on the first day. I was showing my host father and two others the pictures I had brought from Berlin and Geneva and while explaining what a subway is to a perplexed audience, handed out Haribo gummi bears to be faced with having to explain that they are sweets and that you have to chew them until they are small enough to swallow.
When you are in a surrounding that is so completely different to yours you really realize what influenced you and what your "culture" is our has become. In one of the evenings at the house in Nairobi we were all sitting outside eating dinner with every volunteer. Konstantin, Max and I then said to each other in amazement that the Scotsmen was really Scottish, the Japanese girl was really Japanese and the French girls seemed really French. Having said this in German I now switched to English and asked the closest French girl whether she in return thought we were very German and now others joined in and after a few seconds the verdict was yes but the most German seeming was I. The one who lived less than half his life in German, who spoke English best and generally had an international upbringing seemed most German. Of course we were all just stereotyping and one response to why I was most German was because "my hair is really blond" but it was an interesting moment nevertheless and strengthened my observation at LGB that paradoxically in a school with about 90 nationalities and every skin color possible racism was no problem but the students identified much stronger with nationalities. Although the LGB readers might want to disagree with that.
One major cultural difference which I have already mentioned is the perception of time. In Europe everything is arranged according to time. After all this is where the 24 hour day and the Gregorian calender was invented, which close to everybody uses today. The idea that you have to use the day as efficiently as possible because the day only has 24 hours and time is running away might be Europe's biggest yet less obvious export through imperialism etc. Ryszard Kapuscinski a Polish journalist who traveled Africa since 1957 describes the perhaps most vivid difference beautifully in his book "Afrikanisches Fieber". I apologize to those who do not speak German but me translating this would ruin the passage.
"Fuer sie (Afrikaner) ist die Zeit eine ziemlich lockere, elastische, subjektive Kategorie. Der Mensch hat Einfluss auf die Gestaltung der Zeit, auf ihren Ablauf und Rhythmus. Die Zeit ist sogar etwas, was der Mensch selbst schaffen kann, weil die Existenz der Zeit zum Beispiel in Eireignissen zum Ausdruck kommt, ob es aber zu diesem Ereignis kommt oder nicht, haengt schliesslich vom Menschen ab. Wenn zwei Armeen auf eine SChlacht verzichten, dann hat diese Schlacht nicht stattgefunden (das heisst, die Zeit hat ihre Existenz nicht unter Beweis gestellt, existiert nicht)."
It is always extremely impressive with what patience Africans can wait. They sit in complete silence on a 1 hour bus ride or stand immobile at the side of the road waiting for a matatu to arrive that is not already crammed. The silence is not seen as antisocial and the long delays not seen as the result of somebody else' wrongdoing.
Yesterday I played football with some boys from the village for the first time. On a pitch that was muddy, slanted, covered in rocks and in no ways straight they all played bear footed. Motuko a 15 year old who had to drop out of high school because his father cannot afford it anymore and now helps out occasionally is exceptionally good. He along with three others try very hard to communicate with me in English, while everybody else sticks to kikamba the local language. Sometimes they like to go to the next village on Saturdays to watch a Bruce Lee or Chuck Norris movie translated into Swahili when they can afford to spend the 5 shillings (5 cents).
Finally, just to warn you, my host father and I are thinking about trying to raise money for either more water tanks in the area (as then the water shortages would be less detremental) or for seeds (as even if there is water some might not be able to afford seeds so go hungry anyway). However I want to gather ideas and set priorities first before laying it out to you. As this is Africa and time is not definite that might take two weeks.
Swahili of the day!
Jumatatu = Monday, Jumanne = Tue, Jumatano = WEd, Alhamsi = Thu, Ijumaa = Fri, Jumamosi = Sat, Jumapili = Sun