Morning Routines
Almost every day I wake up and wash clothes so that I do not get behind and there is time for things to dry. I have it down to a pattern now. I soak the clothes overnight, I wash them out, then I wash them in soap and let them soak for about 30 minutes, then I go to breakfast. When I return I rinse them 3 different times and then hang them on the laundry line to dry usually until the next day when I get back from class.
Van to Flora
We have a new driver and he does not like coming down my road, so I go out to the main road to wait. There is a small shack/shop near so I have been buying the newspaper and then standing on the roadside and reading while I am waiting.
I got into the van this morning and there were extra seats. Since I usually sit on the floor I was a bit surprised.
“Where are our friends?” I asked into the van.
One of the bible translators from the Sudan slid up to the front.
“Sam* was mugged on Monday night. He is in the hospital. Karen* stayed behind to tend to him.” (In hospital about 8:00 PM Mon – Thursday afternoon. *Name changed to protect identity, Bible translators in the Sudan)).
Sam had traveled on the same bus that I was on as we traveled to the West on Saturday morning. His research assistant lives within about 50 Km. of Maurice. They had decided to return a different way than we did. They got up early on Monday, took a shuttle to Kisii and then a different bus back to Nairobi. They got back late very near dark.
Sam did not go straight back to the place where he was staying, but instead went to the Nakumat (Grocery Store). He left the store at 7:30 PM. He was walking near the stadium and railroad tracks and remembers getting hit in the head. The next thing he remembers is stumbling around. They took his money, emptied his pockets, took his shoes. His glasses were gone. His eyes are swollen nearly shut and his teeth are chipped.
Some good Samaritans took him to the hospital. Since he did not have anything, no ID, no money, these people paid money for him to get treated.
As Mat* was telling me the van was very quiet. It was a very sobering moment.
On the first day of class they had given us a very strong orientation lecture about preventing getting mugged. Three important things were violated:
1)Be in a safe place before dark (6:30 PM at the latest).
2)Stay away from lonely places (near the stadium /rail changing yard has a bad reputation and we had been warned to stay away from that area).
3)If you have to be out late only travel by Taxi.
Class
The early lecture was on Spiritual directors and diviners in African religion. These people are the counselors and discerners in the community. They try to help put thing right.
Dr. Katola’s class was on the structure, beliefs and practices of traditional Afrinca religion. One crucial area of the lecture was the conversation of afterlife. They have no concept of Hell or Heaven. The earth is all there is. Everything focuses upon this place. Reward and punishment happens here and now. When a person dies you either participate in the world as an ancestor or a bothering spirit. Hell or eternal punishment is almost completely irrelevant to traditional African people.
After lunch we had the final class on Ethnographical research. It was on asking questions that will illicit the information that the researcher wants to get. It concluded with an interview of some length with three Africans on the concept of evil, witchcraft, and witches.
Yaya
I dropped off my computer and books and headed to the Internet. I Figure it is a two-hour round trip to fast walk their, do the Internet and then get back to Flora. Since it gets dark about 6:30 I felt like I had time to make the journey with a good bit of buffer built in.
The roads I take are very busy. I walk past the Nairobi hospital that is very nice and modern. Tons of people were coming and going, super nice cars, very nice Western hotel is next door.
As I walk west the area changes and it moves to a middle class area and then a section that seem relatively poor. People are begging on the street. Some are selling fruit. Some cook ears of corn by making a fire in the inside of a cinder block and cooking above the coals. The ditches are filled with water and trash. People relieve themselves on the side of the road.
As I walk past people I am frequently looked at an only occasionally greeted. I caught the eye of person who then smiled and said “Hello.” It was the only thing said to me in the whole 2 hour round trip. Its like in the crowded world people create a buffer of privacy around them. Even though we are all flowing down the street and sidewalk we are carful to leave appropriate space around ourselves. The city life seems lonely for lots of people.
Return to Flora
I sat down at my desk and finished all the homework due on Thursday and then printed out all the pages. I reviewed the work that needed to be done for Friday, but needed to get some information at Tangaza to finish, so by dinner (6:45) I was ready for class.
Dinner
Seating in the dinner area is always interesting, people sit together and I have developed a couple of people who are inviting and friendly to sit with. The man I sit with mostly is quiet, but friendly. He has a foot infection and they are having a difficult time getting it to heal.
A European man joined us. He is a Presbyterian pastor in Holland and was passing through Nairobi on his way to the Sudan for a three-week teaching mission. We had a very interesting conversation about his work and our work in Ethiopia.
Invisible Cure
I got back to my room and decided to begin reading a book I had gotten at Tangaza. The Invisible Cure: Africa, The West, and AIDS. I absorbed the book and finished it about 11:30PM. It is an analysis of many different plans and initiatives to help deal with AIDS, STDs, and poverty in Africa.
There have been so many attempts to help. Almost all have failed to meet any of the goals set from the West toward Africa. It is a fair, but devastating critique of Western driven relief, why it rarely works, and some thoughts of things that might work.
The central theme is related to the lowering of the AIDS infection percentage in Uganda. Uganda is in bad shape. Idi Amin devastated the country, the transition from colonialism was botched, and The AIDS virus first moved to epidemic proportions in this area. Yet, in the midst of all this, a loose coalition of people were able to help lower the infection rates dramatically. They did not use any of the ways that the West says will work. They did not distribute condoms, they did not use billboard ads, they did not use abstinence education. All of these initiatives have totally failed in Africa. (I’m just reporting the book here, not my values, nor do I know enough to say what will “work.” I have enough experience and have read enough to know that the author is telling the truth).
Uganda used a grass roots almost free system of de-stigmatizing AIDS, homecare, and a simple phrase, “No casual grazing.” AIDS flourished in Africa not because of rampant sexual immorality, multiple partners, and strange sexual ideas (this is they way Africans are often portrayed). None of these seem to have produced the epidemic. The problem is we (the West) have believed these are the reasons and therefore have targeted our efforts at people we consider in “high risk” lifestyles.
Through moralizing the disease we initially convinced people that you only got AIDS by being promiscuous. We made it the fault of the people who got the disease. The startling analysis of the disease is how contrary this is to the facts.
The studies seem to indicate that the major difference between Africa and the rest of the world is the issue of polygamy and what it means in human relationships. Africans don’t have more sexual partners than people in other areas of the world, they just have them at the same time. The statistical analysis of this information and the computer models show that this creates the “perfect” setting for the AIDS virus to grow rampantly. In the West we have a very strong one relationship at a time culture, but in Africa it is not seen as betrayal to be intimate with two or three people at a time.
These people would not consider that they are “immoral” or living a high risk lifestyle. They would be married and possibly have a mistress (since polygamy is technically illegal, but ignored). They saw the ads as targeted at people who were sleeping around, sleeping with prostitutes, or using drugs. In fact the statistics show that sleeping with two people at the same time produces the greatest risk. The wife who might be entirely faithful (the usual reality) is exposed to what ever the mistress has and the mistress often has two partners. It grows exponentially very quickly.
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