The long journey South East from Ireland was smooth and arrival at Eldoret airport from Nairobi on a turbo prop plane wasn't as scary as I had imagined. It was certainly better than the alternative, a 6 hour road journey. We were met by Kieran and Bro Colm O Connell, a Patrician Brother who lives in Iten where we were headed. His comfortable jeep, a gift from his protégée, Olympian David Rudisha, made the 20min trip to the Brothers Eldoret house, Kapsoya, a little less traumatic than might have been the case. The driving and traffic has to be experienced and words couldn't do it justice but at least I had a heads-up from Kieran. On this route there were no traffic lights, no rights of way at junctions and it was survival of the fittest all round. Cars, minibuses, trucks and motorbikes just launch themselves across the junction, usually with inches to spare. Colm was a pro. Although we haven't yet driven at night, I understand there are no street lights. On a later trip to the centre of Eldoret we spotted a few traffic lights but none was working, making crossing the road a bit of a nightmare.
First impressions of Kenya on that first journey was of a country teeming with children being educated. There were streams of children from tots to teenagers walking along the road dressed in many different uniforms, bags on backs, older kids carrying younger kids, school buses with eager children hanging out and schools everywhere.
We stayed the night in Eldoret and the first myth to be smashed was the food one. We had told the children the staple was Ugali, a type of stiff porridge made from maize, which we would be eating for every meal. And although it is a staple, the meal we had on our first night included 3 types of chicken, rice, cabbage, peas, carrots and Ugali. Bro Paul from Nobber, Co Meath has been here for over 30 years and along with Bro Colm taught in the Patricians in Newbridge (where Kieran is an art teacher) for several years in the 1970s before coming to Kenya. He works on various projects around the Eldoret area, all in education. Their latest venture is the building of a 800 pupil technical college. He had many great stories to tell of his time both in Kenya and Newbridge and knew more about the goings on in our home town than we did.
Although he spoke about his many friends who help fund their work in Kenya, it is clear there is a big emphasis on social enterprise and keeping costs down. When Iarlaith was going to his bedroom he opened Room 3 instead of his allotted Room 4 and there was a clutch of chicks under a heat lamp. Bro Paul said they would take 6 to 8 weeks before being ready for sale. In their garden they grow many of the vegetables we had for dinner.
The next day we set out on the 45 min journey to Iten in the car we had bought from the Brothers (to be resold to them in November on our departure). Although the road was good, it was a slow journey due to the huge number of Matatus (small minibus shared taxis) on the road all vying with each other for trade, overtaking on hills and bends, driving on the oncoming lane or on the inside verge when it suited. This was the same for the motorbike taxis, most people not wearing helmets, often carrying 3 people and perhaps a small child in the middle. A big feature of driving is the speed bumps at each Centre (village). Some are triple strips of tarmac which you bounce over and many are homemade mounds of the red earth of the region. Our small Japanese import car was not made for this torture and on several occasions the bottom of the car scraped on them. Since that first trip we have learned from watching others and driven across them sideways which helps.
The house we are renting in Iten (Ksh 20,000 per month, about e200) is surrounded by sheets of corrugated iron and behind a big metal gate which is kept locked. All the windows have wrought iron on the inside and while security seems to be important, since we've been here (a week) there is no sense there is any risk to our personal safety. By all accounts theft is not a big issue in Iten and any that happens tends to be opportunistic.
We have a fridge, gas cooker, kettle and toaster. Clothes are hand washed and we've taken to making our own bread as the Kenyans like their bread sweet. The house resembles your granny's house from about 30 years ago or the small holiday home in Donegal or Connemara, functional with no frills. It gets dark between 6.30 and 7pm every evening without fail and even a little chilly calling for a fleece as we play Uno up to bedtime of 10pm. We've had no electricity cuts so far but I think they are inevitable.
Iten wakes at dawn and the barking dogs and crowing cocks continue the Connemara resemblance. As the house is surrounded by trees we don't have an amazing view over the countryside but dawn is quite spectacular. The air is fresh and temperatures vary between 22 and 28 degrees, down to about 10 or 12 at night. There is a proliferation of birds and their songs in the morning and Kieran has posted some amazing photos of their many colours.
A day after we arrived, we visited the school Siobhra would attend, Sacred Heart of Jesus, just to have a look. However her form teacher, Philip, spotted us and came over. He had been expecting her that day and was disappointed she hadn't arrived. So we discussed logistics for her attendance the next day, some of which were a bit of a culture shock. It seems from about age 7 up, all the children become boarders and school is from 7am to 4pm. She got an 'exemption' and started at 8am the following morning and we collected her at 2pm. She came out looking a bit pale and very quiet and she whispered 'I want to go home'. After a while it transpired she had just witnessed corporal punishment for the first time and she had got a fright. A girl was slapped on her hand by the Principal for not wearing the correct shoes (at least she thinks this was the transgression). When I explained both her Dad and I grew up in an era when it also existed in Irish schools and we lived to tell the tale, she calmed down. She actually had had a very good day and all her classmates and teachers were very nice. Education is through English (apart from Kiswahili) so she was fine. She couldn't eat the runny porridge they get for their first break but drank the milky sweet tea which is also a Kenyan staple. There is no question of 'how do you take it.' The second meal of rice and cabbage she enjoyed. By next morning her friends, Sheila, Valentine, Mercy, Joy, Naomi and Daisy had made her a lovely yellow beaded bracelet which she has worn ever since. Siobhra enjoyed telling us that upon hearing the name of her brother, her new besties said they were going to name their first child Iarlaith. Soo....if you happen to be in Iten in 10 or 15 years time and meet an Iarlaith you'll know what happened.
The following day we made a formal visit to Iarlaith's school, St Patrick's, and spoke with the Principal. This is a very well known ' National' school set up by the Patricians and where Bro Colm had been Principal. It is the Alma Mater of some of Kenya's best known athletes including David Rudisha and Wilson Kipketer. Any pupil or former pupil with World Championship medals gets to plant a tree in the garden, which is by now a bit of a forest. The boys come from all around Kenya and about three quarters are Catholic or Christian and the balance are Muslim or other denominations. They have to do an exam to get in which sounds a bit like the 11+. All of the boys are boarders and Iarlaith is the only student who goes home at 4pm. He is also the first non African student in about 25years. Siobhra is the first ever in her school (which is about 15yrs old).
We used St Patrick's Maths book to determine which class Iarlaith would go into, Form 2. The Kenyan education system is 8:4:4, with 8 years primary to aged 13, 4 years secondary, 4 years university. In the few days Iarlaith has attended the school (8am to 4pm) it seems they are ahead of our system in terms of Maths and the Sciences. Although most of his classmates are around 15 yrs old, he thinks the Chemistry and Physics (separate subjects from Form 1) are around 5th year level. He has chosen Agriculture over Geography or Design as a good way to do something different. He's also sitting in on the Kiswahili class to absorb a bit of the language. Both Iarlaith and Siobhra have both picked up quite a few words.
An articulate, confident young man called Darren from Form 5 whose deceased father was a Zulu has taken Iarlaith under his wing, allowing him to sit with the prefects during meals. He is the school's medical captain and his privileges include his own room and a supply of painkillers and other first aid equipment. He said he won't go home for August holidays (3 months a year holidays, April, August and December) as he needed to study to get As in all his subjects to get into Uni to become a medical engineer.
We had Iarlaith primed to be able to articulate a career choice as we knew from questions Siobhra had been asked this was a regular topic of conversation. True enough Iarlaith got the question several times so he said he wanted to become a lawyer. The boys immediately weighed in with helpful hints about his subject choices saying history would be better than agriculture for that career choice. Darren offered to help him with his chemistry homework when Iarlaith said he found it hard. We advised on no account should he say he wanted to be an Art teacher or he might be out on his ear. There is no music or art on the curriculum and Kieran's offer to the Principal to give a few art classes to the boys was met with a deaf ear.
A few well placed hints found us at the 7am Mass on Sunday in the Catholic Church beside Siobhras school. It was packed to the rafters with students from Siobhra and Iarlaith's school and another nearby girls school, along with a few locals. It took almost two hours, helped along with copious amounts of singing and even some dancing in the aisles. The priest took the opportunity to lament the recent U.S. decision to legalise same-sex marriage and Ireland came in for a battering too. And this was after he had welcomed the 'Irish family in our midst'. The collection (of which there were two) involved the long walk up to the altar to the box in front of the priest. But the killer came at the end. The priest had also welcomed visitors from the US, UK and Germany and he invited one to say a few words. A man of African origin with a London accent proceeded to tell us he had come to Kenya with evidence of Creation and the Kenyans should not listen to the scientists who 'claim' we are descended from monkeys. The Rift Valley is noted for being the place where the earliest evidence of humans has been found thought to be between 1.2 and 2 million years ago. Creationists in a Catholic Church - a new one on us.
Later that morning, Bro James Combo who lives with Bro Paul in Eldoret took us on a trip about 2hrs south to his home town of Molo to visit a Franciscan Agricultural College and his mother. The road was good but had the usual speed bumps at every bend in the road. All along the route there were women selling farm produce, mostly potatoes, cabbage and peas. At intervals men held up live chickens in each hand showing them to passing cars. Apparently you buy the chicken live and kill it yourself for the dinner.
After creaking over the most rutted and pitted concrete-hard dirt track I've ever been on we came to Molo, where we heard lots of singing from the 3 hour services in the many many churches we passed. Down another narrow lane and we came to James' home farm and met his mother, brother, sister, sister-in-law and 3 day old nephew. His mothers house was a two roomed tin roofed shack made of mud walls over a timber frame built by themselves. There was no door and only one small high window in the other room. She welcomed us into the main room which had low couches along three walls and a low table. She served us a delicious lunch of rice, peas and a mashed potato very like colcannon. It was followed by the milky sweet tea and slices of shop bread. There was a separate structure for cooking.
The entire compound which also included his brother's house was pristine with well kept hedges and flowers and bushes. James explained his mother's house had to be built in a hurry as their original house some way away was burnt down by neighbours during the 'post election violence' in 2008. This was essentially an inter tribal dispute fomented by politicians. While no one was killed in his area, people were displaced and they had to start from scratch. They were in the middle of building another larger home which would provide better shelter. His mother was a farmer and survived with her crops of peas, beans, cabbage, avocados and potatoes. She also grew a crop called pyrethrum which the government buys. This is a flower which looks like dog daisies and is used in the manufacture of insecticide.
We then went to the Franciscan College famed for its honey which is sold into many of the major supermarkets. They select students from Kenya and neighbouring countries to improve their farming skills and also set up their own apiaries and the honey processing plant buys their produce. There is also an Irish brother in this College but he was away for the weekend. Bro James said we had to wear our missionary stomach as there also was lunch ready for us when we arrived here - a meat stew with rice. After buying some honey we set off for home as it isn't recommended to drive in the dark as many Kenyan drivers don't like turning on their lights and the rough roads can be dangerous and also because there would be 'Scoil Amárach'!
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