But first, we had an overnight at Sandai Farm (Sandai Farm)which was absolutely gorgeous! We had a delicious meal (and except for the giant spiders) a very relaxing night and morning walk.
Morning walk and sunrise over Mt.Kenya!
Then we went and visited a Green Belt Movement Farm in Tumutumu. The GBM is a program started by Wangari Maathai to establish community empowerment and education as well as tree planting to help farmers not only create a better environment but to have the ability to sustain themselves. Check it out! The Green Belt Movement also I highly recommend you read Wangari Maathai's book Unbowed which is just an incredible book that also helped her become not only the first African to win a Nobel Peace prize, but the first environmentalist to win one. It will also give a better insight to my experience (as far as what I saw and how Gikuyu's live) to my rural homestay. Seriously read it!
The rural homestay component was the part of the trip that really grabbed my attention to this program initially. What better way to get to learn about a culture than to EXPERIENCE it? I stayed with the Waweru family in Nyeri county, Tetu East, Aguthi location and Ithekahuno sublocation. People here value specific locations and names as well. The naming system is very complex and your name is very important, as well as what clan you come from and your location. So this is my family tree:
Joseph and Penninah Wawera
Bernard > Jane
- Kelvin & Joe
- Loreen
- Agatha, Triza & Charles
- Yvone
Thomas
Isaak
Dorcas
My family was incredible. My baba, Joseph and mama Penninah were so welcoming and just as excited to have me there as I was to be there. I had 7 siblings, but only my 19 year old sister Dorcas lived there still. I also had two nephews that were always around Kelvin (17) and Joe (4) who I grew to know very well.
I love my Kenyan family! They really took me in but I got closest with my sister Dorcas who I followed around and did what she would do in a typical day. This included cooking over a traditional Kikuyu fire, washing dishes (bent over in other pots) and keeping the compound clean. We had a lot of really great conversations about my life back home and also about Kikuyu traditions and values. I got a lot of questions about snow like, "how do you get water when it's all frozen like that" and, "does the power still work if it sticks to the electricity lines, water and electric don't mix" (that one I promised to find the answer and write to the cousin that asked me). But I also had plenty of in depth conversations about politics, coming of age for boys, homosexuality (it's illegal in Kenya) and Female Genital Mutilation (FGM).
It was overall a very informational visit, I also learned a ton from my baba about farming. Although he was a former police officer the family farms coffee now. When you think farm in America you think of John Deere and wide land filled with one or two crops. Here the situation is much much different. There are no tractors, no machines to tend the land, everything is done by hand and it is all hills.
But I also realized how important family is, not only to this community but it should be to everyone. I had brothers and sisters calling and saying hi from across the country. Each member has their own role in the family and they truly care about each other. I have so many stories that I could write about (and since this post is already wayyyy too long) but I think the biggest thing I took away from the rural home stay was just no matter how differently we live in traditions, religion, customs and even our standard of living we all have needs and we all have a place. Therefore we have an opportunity to reach out and really make a difference in the livelihoods of other people and maybe, just maybe make the world a little better.
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