Village Life

I left Nairobi on Wednesday morning and traveled by bus up to Kakamega, a town not far from Lake Victoria in Western province. There, I met Rowland Amulyoto, VEF’s Regional Training Director in Kenya and my host for the next few months. Rowland’s house is in Chavakali, which is about 10 miles from Kakamega itself.

This is a predominantly Luhya area (one of the smaller to mid-sized ethnic groups in Kenya), and people generally speak KiLuhya, KiSwahili, and a little bit of English. As such, I am trying to soak up KiLuhya as fast as possible. Simple greetings "Malembe!" (hello) and "Kari?" (how are you) followed by "Malaye!" (doing well) always elicit a smile and response from passers-by. People think its quite funny to see a "mzungu" (white person) like me trying to speak to them in KiLuhya. In addition to greetings, I am learning how to say things in KiLuhya as I go about daily activities. For example, twice a day at Rowland’s house we "hoshera ngombe imwamu" (milk the black cow), yesterday we "hoshembera molusu nidjembe" (tilled the grass with a hoe), and we always "hora asukari moichai" (put sugar in tea).

I much prefer life here to life in the city. Nairobi was full of traffic, dirty, and a little bit overwhelming in general. Yesterday, however, when I walked through the town and "hochenda hoshokolo Eregi" (walked up Eregi hill) I was struck by the amazing sense of calm and peace in the area that comes when the sounds of daily life and human interaction overpower the sounds of the few cars that drive through every hour. The view from the top of the hill was absolutely beautiful. It was a clear blue day, and I had a 360-degree perspective of the surroundings. There are a lot of hills and valleys dotting the landscape, and everything is so green! I had no trouble learning the KiLuhya word for “green” because it is simply “green.” The entire area, both on the hills and in the valleys, is covered with fields of maize, with houses interspersed throughout. Everything is connected by a network of walking paths that people around here know like the back of their hand (and in which anyone like me who is not yet familiar with the area could become hopelessly lost). I am eager to learn my way around, though, because the paths are ideal for running. As for now, I am content to walk around with Rowland’s cousin who is my age. Everywhere we go, I am serenaded with the screams of young children as they peek out from within their yards or houses and shout “inzamama mzungu!” (Look mom, a white person!).

Today Rowland and I are going to chat about how to structure my work for VEF this summer, and hopefully on Monday the internship will begin in earnest.

Until next time, "kwa heri" (Good bye)!