Just out and about

Terry got a haircut yesterday in a very upscale salon.  He practiced his Swahili with the barber (there was plenty of time for that, as the barber was being very precise).  After his haircut, he was treated with a very nice wash and head massage from a young woman, and then passed back to the barber for a comb.  They offered a blow dry too, but Terry politely declined.

Terry with his barber, Jack

I read the newspaper while I waited for Terry.  Some of the headlines from yesterday were:

Police arrest suspected amorous teacher.  580 of 600 teachers were found guilty of the offense that shames the teacher profession. -- This was a story about a teacher who had been having relations with one of his students for two years.  The girl is 13.

Who desires to make polygamy repugnant.  Opinion piece in favour of keeping polygamy legal.  The writer argues that if it is disallowed, it will encourage illicit relations as even a former US President has proven.

Village in shock after coffee society boss is murdered.

It's not all bad news.  There is much hope for the upcoming election.  Kenya has a new constitution that promises to be more fair.  There is a new law that will give one third of the parliamentary seats to women -- I believe this may be the highest in the world!  And also a woman representative from every district.

On another note... yesterday we passed by this football pitch with students playing in grass up to their knees.  This morning there were two men cutting the grass -- with machetes.

School children playing football

After our shopping at Nakumat -- we will get as much as we can from local vendors, but we are still stocking up with basic supplies that we can only get in the bigger store -- I was chatting with one of the men who worked there while we waited for a taxi (luxury we indulged in this one time because we didn't know how else to get our chairs and big jugs of water home).  I can't tell if the Nakumat is helping the community, by providing jobs, or hurting the community, like the Walmarts and Costcos have done to small businesses.  Nicholas was dressed very smartly, in a dress shirt and slacks (not a uniform), so I imagine he has a relatively important position, maybe a manager of some kind.  I asked him if it was a good job.  He said it is quite tiring and the pay is small relative to the cost of living.  Every employee works 13 hours a day, with one day off a week.  Some lower employees only get two days off a month.  The law is for eight hours, but no one monitors it.

Matano was telling us that in order to get anything from the municipality you have to make a lot of noise.  When we asked him why we hear so many dogs barking at night, but never see any around, even when Terry runs for miles around, he told us that the government has a poison programme when the dogs get too many.  People want guard dogs on their property, but then they just let them wander around and don't care for them properly.  The government will announce that they will be putting poison around, so those that are responsible will keep their dogs in.  The last time this happened, Matano said their was such a smell afterward.  The town had to make a lot of noise before the municipality came around to deal with the carcasses.

We learned in a visit from Fredrick, which I will tell you about in another post, that the students at the university were very angry.  We didn't understand why.  There is much we don't understand here and overtime through many conversations, we put pieces together.  Matano told us today that the Engineering students were so angry because they had paid their tuition and they were just being taught under a tree.  The university accepted more students than it had classrooms in which to teach them.

Students, teachers, doctors and professionals are beginning to demand more from their government.  There have been many strikes in recent months, most fail, but hopefully this new constitution will bring about change.  One drop of hope... right?

This trip feels much less... I don't know.  I am less heartbroken, so far anyway.  The need is huge.  The Kenyan economy is in deep trouble.  But, I'm pretty clear that I can't fix it.  I have some ideas on how to contribute.  Anyway, the trip has only just begun...