Hand in Hand for Kenya

After a really long flight from Istanbul to Mombasa with two our delay we arrived at 7 am in our Backpackers lodge in Kilifi town 1 hour North of Mombasa, exhausted and tired. Although the reception didn’t open until 9am, we used the time to relax on the terrace with a bit of breakfast. Finally we could move into our house, large room with a double bed and bunk beds. Outside the house were the amazing washing rooms - well not rooms, more a garden - with a shower in the middle of bamboo trees and a toilet house out of wood...all for ourselves!

After a few hours of sleep we met Edison, whose families live in a village and or mission was to build new facilities the next couple of days for them. On two motor bikes we drove 20 minutes to the middle of nowhere passing laughing and creaming kids, who were so fascinated by us that they ran after the motor bikes. 

We reached the few houses of Edison's family and took a look at the conditions, what we were about to do and organize the next days. Surrounded by at least 30 kids from all over the villages it was hard to talk about such materialistic things. But in the end looking into these happy children eyes we immediately knew, why we were here and what we were doing it for. Seeing happy children and being able to give them a home and nutrition from chickens, which we will buy, made us already happy!

Back in town we stopped at some places for food and drinks to take with us to our Backpackers, where we prepared some simple bread with Avocado followed by a beer. When we met some locals they told us about the illuminating plankton in the see and that we had a chance to see it tonight. Accompanied by them and their dog Mogli we headed down to the beach and were overwhelmed by the lightning beneath our feet when walking through the water!

We came back to the Backpackers and sat beside the pool and had some beer with the locals. When I made my way to our house, a girl passed by asking me how my injured leg was and we got to talk to each other sharing our inspiring stories. We has quit her corporate job and starting her own blog, that features stories about walking in the nature with dogs and what kind of connection can happen, either to yourself or with other people. So I told her my story how I met my boyfriend in the mountains at a walk. He was there with his dog, so we got to talk to each other at first on the dog but then about everything and that’s where the story began. She was so excited about this story, that she would like to feature it on her blog, launching shortly. Everything happens for a reason and so do connections with humans from a same mind set. Talking to her was such an inspiring moment, amongst all the other warm hearted experiences today definitely one of the highlights today!

Original plan was to wale up early around 9 am to meet Edison at 10am for to visit the school of the community. We were so tired that we remained in bed until after ten and postponed our meeting time to 12am and the visit to a day later. We sat by the pool ordering breakfast and waited for Edison to pick us up. After ordering passing by some guys one of them, a French guy named Alex, again asked me for my leg and discovered that he might have the same injury, so I brought him some of my cream. Few sentences later he told me about his project together with a friend, connecting with locals, organizing film festivals and a sailing boat trip along the coast of Kenya and Tanzania. Immediately he asked me if I wanted to join, also on only one of the multiple tours, which are 5 in total, each about 5-6 days. One is starting on 28th of January on Zanzibar, from which date on I would be traveling by myself anyway. So we exchanged contacts and were about to talk later in the evening about the details. Again, what a connection to wonderful people, just because of my leg :)!

By the time we talked, Edison arrived and we drove by motor cycle to the house of Mama Rehema, which was the first Hand in Hand for Kenia project. Such a beautifully kept place with a house, a farm, a vegetable field and several chickens and ducks, all belonged to her and she kept it in a perfect condition since then. We sat down with her and she told us a bit about her three kids and how life is here. Here houses never have an integrated kitchen or toilet, always separate facilities. She had made space for cooking in the farm house and maybe an extension of this farm house for proper kitchen space would make sense until we found out, that she didn’t have a toilet. She uses it from neighbours and so we checked out the area, where such a toilet house could be built and how much it would cost. We told her, that we would check with Robin and the financial situation and get back to her, if we could manage. She was such an engaged person and eager to do some of the construction works herself. That is exactly what we want, initiate things and motivate the people to continue on that. She was definitely worth it investing.

Back in our Backpackers we sat together with Edison and phoned with Robin to organize everything for the next steps on the two houses of Edison's community. Soon the French guy from the sailing trip joined us and got to talk to Edison as well. The film festivals organized by him are about local community life and stories. Edison had told us that he had a ceremony talking place next day, that made him officially a man at the age of 26. The ceremony was lead by a priest and by following his prayers he would then be a man to for example finally get married.

The French guy offered him to connect him with a friend that does professional films and she could also capture his ceremony. Edison was really happy and so they exchanged contact for to meet next day.

The French guy left and so did Edison after a while and we chilled on the wooden tower covered with matrices. In the evening we simply made ourselves pasta with tomato sauce and sat by the pool talking to our Kenyan friends from the evening before.

Early start this time, left with Edison for visiting the school at 11am. Passing the class rooms already overwhelmed us, all kids shouting at us saying „ciao“! First we went to primary class, which is kindergarden and saw three of the kids, that Hand in Hand for Kenia supports, checking their uniforms if they were in good condition and watching them reading out English words. On the other side were the classes 1+2 where another 4 kids are that are supported. The uniforms of two of the kids are torn, so we decided to organize new ones, about 5€ per uniform. We then went to the head master‘s office to talk about support opportunities. He gave us the amount of school fees per kid, we wrote it down and said we had to talk to Robin from the organization for how many kids we can pay depending on the budget. When we went towards our motorbikes again, all the kids were following us, so happy to see us. Some of them hadn’t seen white people before. We stopped at the dress maker to order the uniforms and made a down payment, rest to pay when the uniforms are ready in 4 days.

Back in Edisons village we talked to the workers, made a list and plan on the things to buy and next steps.All the kids surrounding us, but not saying anything brought us to the idea creating a game. We broke wooden sticks, placed an empty coconut and showed them how to play boggia. They understood very fast and enjoyed playing during the time we were there.We quickly made our way back to the Backpackers to relax since Natascha wasn’t feeling good.

When we asked Edison if he had a woman or getting married...but at least in his community it is only allowed from age of 26. To be a real man in his community and in order to get married, he needs to follow a ceremony with prayers and rituals in a cave. This ceremony was about to take place today, but since Alex from Musafir offered Edison to film his ceremony and show it on a film festival on 13th end of this week, Edison decided on postponing his special day to tomorrow when the film crew has time to accompany.In the morning we were supposed to bring Alex, Alicia from the film crew and Edison together to discuss, but that didn’t work out. So I agreed with Alex to meet in the afternoon when we returned from our school tour. Alex joined us by the pool at the Backpackers and Edison had the chance to tell his story. They exchanged contact and agreed on meeting Alicia who was supposed to arrive in the evening. The Musafir boat crew would prepare dinner on the boat, so we could gather there.

Natascha stayed in the Backpackers, not feeling well, so I took Edison down to the beach where we took a small boat to the Musafir. On board we couldn’t believe with how much effort and love this boat was built the past 7 years. Paolo the boat owner has been living in Kenya for the past few years and together with the help of sailors from Lamu island built this boat, finished it recently and brought it to Kilifi coast. When Alex met Paolo in 2017, they decided to create a very special project together. A journey from Kilifi to Tanzania, devided into different parts. Each part includes 3-4 days on land to capture local stories from people and communities, filmed and edited and shown on a separately organized film festival at the end of these land days. After the festival the boat takes off to sail 2 days to the next location and the project continues the same way. I decided immediately to join them on 28th of January in Zanzibar.

We had agreed to meet this morning at 10am with the Musafir crew and Edison to go for his ceremony. I thought that only Alex and film maker Alicia would come, but in the end 12 of the crew showed up and everyone wanted to participate, be part of this special day. Waiting for Edison we gathered at the Backpackers to make a short plan. In the meantime Natascha remained in the room to relax, she didn’t feel like coming with us.

While waiting for Edison we devided into production and story team, which I was part of. We wrote a short script and some interview questions for Edison until he finally arrived and we could go through his story together.

In the morning we met Edison in the morning to go the doctor first for Natascha. After half an hour we were already done and she left with Antibiotics. 

Today’s plan was to write the list for Mamarehemas toilet build and then go to the hardware store. So we sat with her and her Fundi to make the list for materials. Edison was not very motivated, so took over and made the list directly with the Fundi. For a long time they had been talking in Suaheli and at some point we were anoyed and interrupted Edison for asking what the plan was. Then he told us that no hardware store was open today because of Saturday. We started to be a bit more strict and made him aware of that we only had 4 days left to complete the project. At once he then suggested to go tomorrow on Sunday. All of a sudden the shops were open?! Well then we agreed. Now that we were done, he came up with something else....we had to go to the village for to confirm the list of materials. He hadn’t told us before. We did as he said, made an updated list and then only wanted to go back to Backpackers. There we simply relaxed, cooked ourselves something and went quite early to bed being tired from the unexpected things today...but it seems that that’s how Kenyan time works, pole pole, slowly slowly 

This morning Edison was on time and we left at ten o’clock for to get the materials at the hardware store and sursprisingly worked out well. After one hour we left with a transporter towards Mamarehemas house. There we left the big parts and went off to the village to drop off the rest.

We discovered that the walls weren’t as far as we thought and they still hadn’t continued with the chicken farm because bricks weren’t enough. Asking for where we could get more bricks from Edison told us about having not received the money for them. One new message after another and so we tried to speed up where we could. So we carried the newly cut logs from palm trees to the construction site, also the rest of the bricks. All the kids were helping and enjoyed working with us. Inbetween we also fixed a swing and finally cropped the wooden logs for the windows to then nail them to a frame. After a long exhausting day, reviewing the progress we decided to not finish the chicken farm and concentrate on the house. We told Edison and then went off to the Backpackers.

Slowly we got ready for the evening, where the Musafir crew were preparing the film festival, where also Edisons film would be shown. We sat at the beach surrounded by lights, many people and some beers. So nice to see Edisons smile on his face when he personally announced his film in local language Suaheli. Accompanied by drums and flute the film started and everyone cheered after the 5 minute presentation. After another Kenyan produced film we remained for some music and dance before we headed back and shortly after went to sleep with so many positive vibes from people and stories we were surrounded with this evening!

Same same but different start today. At 10am we left with Edison to visit the school again for to pay the school fees. We immediately talked to the head master and payed for the seven kids, that Robin is supporting. I then offered him to take over the school fees for the 4 poor kids of Nursery: Alice, Frederick, Joseph and Stephan. Natascha then offered to also take over part of it. So we handed over the money to the head master, who was really happy about the support! Since the nursery was closed today, we couldn’t visit them. We would try tomorrow and then also pick up the receipts for the payed fees. We really felt happy to do a good thing here.

Our motivation had somehow dropped when we heard from Edison that the fundis in the village weren’t willing to continue working today. They had expected more money and payment every day, which we didn’t know about since we had agreed KES800 and payment after 3-4 days. They had been payed KES 1.000 at last project and we needed to confirm it with Robin now having to different stories.

At least our mood changed to a better when we got to Mamarehema and saw that her fundi had already started digging the hole for the toilet.

We agreed together that he should take care of finishing the hole and covering with our budget, which had reached the limit with this work and the materials that we had bought yesterday. Other necessary things would be completed by Robin when he returned in March. We then simply wrote down some additional material to buy tomorrow and left for town. There I had to get my phone repaired because I had broken my display the other night dropping it. We agreed to come back at five o’clock when he had managed to get a new display by then.

We drove back to the Backpackers for resting, returned to the city, repaired the phone and returned after a short walk through town.

The evening was again relaxing with food and some talks by the pool.

Only two more days left we wanted to make the most out of them, so tried to start really early today. We had arranged that our motor bike driver pikes us up at 8:30am to take us directly to the village to see if the new fundis were doing their job and if everything else was fine. Shortly after seeing that they were proceeding we left for to go to the school, but neither the nursery was open to see our new kids we were supporting now nor the head master was available to get the receipts, so we took of to the hardware store in town to get the rest for Mamarehema. We got our things really quickly since the owner Taher, we met the previous night, had already prepared everything. We took the materials by motor bike to Mamarehema‘s place and sat a while with her.

In the meanwhile the fundi was working hard to dig step by step into the earth partly covered with stones.

Mamarehema told us a story about Dan, who was the main contact and money keeper here in Kenya, also main contact for Robin. We were told that he could take over the project after we left, but the stories from Mamarehema made us distrust a bit. Dan probably took money for himself instead of giving it to the families, which it was meant for and Robin trusted him. For Mamarehema‘s toilet we gave her the money in advance to pay her fundi, we trusted her after all the progress she had made herself. But we needed to clarify the situation with Robin before handing over the responsibility and money for the village buildings to Dan.

We went back to the Backpackers and relaxed for the rest of the day. In the meanwhile Edison gave the fundis from the village the payment for today’s work and searched for car rental offers in town. We agreed on visiting the car rental store tomorrow morning for further information and decision. Together with Edison we talked with Robin and due to the situation with Dan, we decided together to give Edison the responsibility and money for the ongoing project finishing the houses. The planned meeting with Dan the next day of course was canceled then.

We had made a good plan what we wanted to do today, but as we learned on this trip plans can change every hour, so start with the first station, the village. We arrived there early morning to talk to Fundis and discuss how many days for finishing the house were necessary and how many bricks were still needed. After making the calculation, we found out that another 500€ were needed, which we had to hand over to Edison in order to take care of the finalization. We didn’t have the money! So we had to speak with Robin.

We drove to the school to get receipts and order missing uniforms for the kids. Also before going back to Backpackers to call Robin, we wanted to organize the rental car. That turned out to be a rip off because he asked for 40€ a day, which was ok, but the pick up from Tsavo National Park another 50€. So we decided to ask for only drop off....150€ he wanted to charge, so we left with no deal. Taking the public transportation for 6€ per person one way seemed to be the only reasonable and reliable solution.

After we had agreed with Robin, that we could get the additional 500€ to complete what we had started, we started the tour: order cement at hardware store, go food shopping, take food to Mamarehema, back to hardware, load cement on truck, drive past soda store for drinks for the kids, unload cement in village while bricks were delivered at the same time and we gave the kids the drinks. What a day!

In the end everything went well, we gave Edison the money and even managed to make coloured hand prints on the wooden doors with the kids to have the farewell picture :). Kids were happily playing and we were also happy what we had accomplished in this rather short time.

Back at our Backpackers we couldn’t do anything else but shower, eat and relax for the rest of the evening. Tomorrow the actual holiday would start and the journey would take us to Voi, close to Tsavo National Park.