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Wakesho: For tomorrow.
Wakesho means “for tomorrow”. Mama Wakesho has big plans for this project. It’s been running for a couple of years now and It’s been helping many people. The problem is that the house they are renting now is very small, the weaving-machine barely fits in one of the two small rooms. So they have now bought a piece of land and are planning to build a new centre there. The project doesn’t have a lot of money, but they have a lot of faith. Mama Wakesho is showing me the plans and asking for my help, but there is not really much I can do. They make products like shirts, pants, the thing you can put your plates and glasses upon on the table, dresses and other clothes. Right now they are making two dresses for Helene. It’s cheap and they are nice. So if you want a dress a shirt or anything else a tailor can make, just send me your measurements and I can bring it or send it with someone back to Norway. Maybe that way, I can help them a little bit 🙂
Learning how to be an acrobatic clown
This week I brought Helene to practice with Pumaboys. She is learning juggling, balance and pyramids, just like me 🙂 One of the Pumaboys, Cedric, can now ride the unicycle my brother brought for them. I’m impressed!
Following footsteps, discovering signs.
On wednesday, me Chathura and Helene went to the Wakesho-group in Bamburi Kisauni. It is a group founded by “Mama Wakesho” to help youth raise money by teaching them weaving, hairdressing, baking, tailoring, making of soap and other small things. Mama Wakesho wanted us to sign the visitor’s book and in that book I found Sol, Lisa-Marie and Hans Christian’s names from October 2009. They are the previous interns from YWCA/YMCA of Norway. I think It’s funny how I follow in their footsteps by visiting the same places, meeting the same people and finding small signs and memories that they left behind on their journey in Africa. Soon, there will be someone else following my footsteps…
Have no fear, Helene is here!
Last monday, Helene arrived in Mombasa early in the morning. She is a teacher-student from Krokstadelva, almost the place I’m from Norway. It’s nice to have someone from my home down here in Kenya again 🙂 She is staying until the 5th of march, so I’m taking her around in Mombasa. Right now she is in Masai Mara with Elisabeth, Kine and Big Mike, so I’m spending my weekend in Nairobi 🙂
Kris, Jeff and Wabbs doing Migwani!
On my way to Lamu I met Jeff. I invited him for new years in Mombasa and he met my brother. Jeff has a brother. That brother has a wife. That wife has a sister. That sister married a man who grew up in Migwani, a village a 3 hours ride east of Nairobi. That man has a brother that we call “Wabbs”. Wabbs invited Jeff to Migwani. Jeff invited me to come with him. And that’s how random life is sometimes!
So I met Jeff this friday morning in Nairobi and we took a bus with Wabbs to Migwani. There we met his two sons and a lot of other family members at a really nice, calm and relaxing place. All the children were eating mangoes and had mango juice all over their faces, hands and clothes. It’s MANGO SEASON!!!
During the weekend we went down to the city centre, met “the sock man” met a lot of friendly people who were all related to Wabbs and Jeff somehow. We ate the local “nyama choma” or grilled meat, met a guy who looked like Nelson Mandela who was really happy. “Nelly!!” During the night, since there were no electrical lightsources in the village at night, we could see the stars really clearly, and a lot of them! We saw a shooting star who looked like a big fireball or a comet with a huge sparkling tail in many colors. AWESOME! So I made a big wish…
The brother to Wabbs started a project in the village. A school/center for hindered children. We went to visit them and they were so fun! We laughed a lot, sang, played and they really loved the blitz from my camera when I took pictures. They also had a good water collecting system, where they collected water from the roofs.
We visited a lot of relatives, including wobbs’s aunt who had a stroke and was in the hospital. We went there to see her two times, and both times there were more then ten people visiting her, sitting on the beds next to her, talking, taking care of her. That really impressed me, they really care about their relatives!
On sunday we were supposed to leave at 11 am, but since we met so many people on our way, had to talk to them and had to visit a lot of people, we didn’t leave before 3 pm. TIA, eh? Before we left we also visited the place were Wobbs is slowly by slowly building a small house. It was a really nice place with a beautiful view!
After watching Liverpool 1 – Chelsea 0 in Nairobi with HÃ¥vard, I left for Mombasa and watched the stars and “Karlsvogna” upside down (compared to how it looks like in Norway) as I fell asleep on the bus. Thank you for a nice weekend in Migwani, Wabbs and Jeff!
I made her smile :)
Last friday I went to Twinklestar primary. I haven’t been there for a long time, so the kids were soo happy to see me! “Teacha Kristoffah!!” When the children had their brake, I took a little 2-year-old girl named Bridget, who looked really serious, on my lap and sang norwegian children-songs for her (I don’t know that many english children-songs…) Then she started smiling and laughing 🙂 And she started pulling the hair on my arm, wich kind of hurted me, so I screamed! Then she laughed even more. So we sat there for quite a while, I sang, Bridget laughed, she pulled my hair, I said “AU!” Bridget laughed even more. Teacher Elizabeth said that she had never seen Bridget smile before, she has always looked so serious. So I felt really proud! But then I had to leave, so Bridget cried and didn’t want me to leave. So I look forward to come back and make her smile again! 🙂
The water is coming soon!
Here I am in a meeting with Mama Phidila (YWCA mombasa manager), Asenath (accountant) and Martin (the pastor who helps me with the borehole project). To bore a waterhole is a bit more complicated than I expected. We have to get permission from the government, we have to buy the land, we are setting up a pumaboys-board who is going to be responsible for the borehole. They have to pay a monthly fee to the government for using the water. But then again, they can sell the water to people and earn a little bit. The accountant is going to control that the money is being used in the right way. And we are planning to have an orginization, planning and leadership-course for the pumaboys, so they can manage the borehole alone. When the borehole starts working, they are going to give monthly reports to the YWCA on how they are doing, how much they are earning and how much they have to pay. That way, It’s also easy for me to follow the project when i go back to Norway.
Until now I have collected 14700 NOK or 207000 KSH. That is very good!! Thank you guys! Right now we are just getting the paperwork in place, then soon we can hopefully start the drilling!
I still need more money, some of the money also have to be used to pay a monthly fee to the government and to maintain the borehole. If I get 350000 KSH, we can build a borehole with an electric pump, if not, I think we will build a version where you have to pump yourelf. So if you want to help me, transfer some money to this account: 9713 40 11940. Thank you 🙂
Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a Mercedes Benz?
This picture is from outside a church (wich is inside Royal Court Hotel). Sometimes we go to church on sundays. I’ve been visiting some different pentecoastal churches and they have a very different way of doing things than in my lutheran church at home… My favorite-church so far is located inside a hotel. They have really catchy worship-songs with a nice band playing. The mood gets really great. They speak in tounges wich is really strange. The pastor is preaching like he is really burning for the message he is trying to deliver us. He is screaming! “Hallelujah! Can I get an amen from someone? AMEN!”
But I have noticed that they focus on material things. Being successfull, rich, praying for a nice house, a nice car. In Uganda I went to a really big church and I saw people giving testimonies. A lady had been praying to God and the prophet of the church to get a big fence around her house. Now she had gotten it and she thanked the man of God (the prophet) because it was like a small miracle to her. To get a fence. I guess I find this a bit strange because from where I come from most people are really wealthy and we have everything we need. Therefore, I think many people also think that they don’t need God, they don’t care about God, Jesus or faith… But here you find so many people that has almost nothing. So you pray for money, you pray for a car, you pray for fence around your house. You pray for a borehole….
And people are so proud of their religion in this country! On the cars, matatus, tuktuks and motorbikes you see writings like: “God is able” or “Jesus lives” or verses from the bible in really big colorful letters. And then the muslims have their big fancy writings about how good Allah is, or why Muhammed is the best. In Norway you would be crazy to do that. You’re not supposed to show off what you believe in like that. But I think It’s really cool!
Haba na Haba, step by step
The Haba na Haba project is geared towards establishing creative arts activities for youth, while at the same time using creative arts to educate the community. The project activities are open to all, regardless of religion, race, tribe or political affiliations and aim to give youth an opportunity to express and develop their artistic potential. Since the project members are mainly youth from very poor families, no registration fee is required to participate.
Last saturday I went with HÃ¥vard and Kristin and visited their Haba na Haba band practice. And they were good! They played, sang, danced, grooved, laughed and smiled! I got in a really good mood from being there with them. And I joined in to sing “I can be your hero baby!!” Iglesias style 😉 HÃ¥vard has documantary-education and has just started a film-group to make a documentary about Haba na Haba. Exciting! You can visit their facebook-page here: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=5674781526
The last supper…
Last week I spent in Nairobi. From tuesday to thursday with my brother, then I waved goodbye to him at the airport and I spent the rest of the time with friends. I stayed at Kristin and HÃ¥vard’s place wich was very nice! Last wednesday my brother, me and HÃ¥vard ate at Carnivore, a really nice restaurant where you can eat a lot of different meat. What was funny was that it was everyone’s birthday that day. (Or was it..?) So the waiters had to sing… like 10 times for different tables. They had drums and everything, and I joined them with a little drum and swahili songs. Yey 🙂 I met Brenda and we went to “Luna Park” she was extremely afraid and almost fainted when we took a merry-go-round-ish-carousel. Very funny! I took the “banana boat” and felt very proud… I also visited HÃ¥vard and Kristin’s working-place; “Haba na haba”. More about that in the next blogpost.
Kristoffer's daily life in Kenya with the YWCA 