Let’s talk about disappointment.
So there’s another volunteer in Makuyu. We’ll call him
Peter. Peter is running a project with some boys from a technical school that
requires a lot of work. The students were supposed to get back to him by August
15th about whether they had the facilities to care for the chickens
that they will be receiving as a part of this project. Thirty boys were
selected for the project, going through a thorough interview process.
Only two boys have responded.
Peter also organized something with one of the teachers at
the technical school. The teacher had four cages at his house that could hold
the three hundred chickens that Peter purchased for the project. Only one of
the cages was ready when Peter went to check on it, but the teacher assured him
that he would have the other cages cleaned and ready when the chickens arrived.
Peter purchased all the things needed for the chicken cages and left for
Tanzania in order to renew his visa.
When he returned, it was to find that the teacher had not fixed the other cages, had been
prepared when the chickens were delivered, and instead tried to fit all three
hundred into the one ready cage. Not only that, but the teacher left his two
young sons to look after the chickens instead of doing so himself.
Sixty of the three hundred chickens died from suffocation in
a single night.
But wait, there’s more! The lady who sold Peter the chickens
was supposed to supply him with sixty percent large chickens and forty percent
smaller chickens. The pay differential is significant.
She switched the percentages and delivered more small chickens
than big ones.
This is not counting the people that Peter has contracted to
supply different materials for the project who, after accepting a down payment,
have stopped answering Peter’s phone calls.
I heard all of this as Peter poured out his frustrations to
Sr. Shanty at our dining table, his expression a perfect mix of depressed and
resigned. Every once in a while he smiled as he relayed the next thing that
went wrong. He said that he had asked a priest that worked in Makuyu for many
years for financial assistance with the project and had been surprised when he
was initially refused. It was only later that he discovered that the priest,
after building the mission from scratch and providing work opportunities to
locals, had been brought to court many times by the very people he was
attempting to help, having been accused of not paying them for their labor.
Sr. Shanty laughed, but it was a tired laugh, the kind of
laugh that happens more out of habit than of any real mirth. “This is what you
learn after twenty years,” she said. That sometimes you can try so much to help
people only to find that they don’t want to do the work it takes to move
forward. That what you give out of kindness becomes something that people
expect you to give, and then they become angry when you have nothing left to
offer.
I haven’t experienced this yet. I’ve been working with kids
who are in high school or primary school, who are still learning math equations
and English lessons. In some ways they are older than I am and in some ways I
am older than they, but they don’t expect anything from me other than my time
and willingness to help. I’m not paying them anything, nor am I running a
project that requires a lot of physical involvement or monetary considerations.
But it has become clear that some projects, some types of assistance, are far
more vulnerable to corruption or laziness than the people running the projects
would wish.
But at the same time, there are those two children out of
the thirty who did their part. They did their work and reported back. They are
willing to make the effort to make their portion of this project a success and
are showing that willingness through their actions.
And aren’t those two boys enough of a reason to continue
forward?
Peter said something that I think sums the whole situation
up pretty well. He said that he has been trying to go about his project in a
European or Western way, and that it is clearly not working. What he needs to
do is figure out how to do the project in the African way. In the meantime, he
said, he’ll just have to keep his spirits up and keeping moving forward.
Despite all the difficulties, I think there is something
honorable in simply trying to help others. Peter is going to keep trying. We
should do nothing less.
Interesting Stories of the Week:
- I accompanied Sr. Catherine to Nairobi on Friday to assist
with some errands (picking up medical supplies, meeting with the KCCB, getting
some books). While there, I was able to see the Basilica!
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| The Basilica! |
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| The most ridiculously heavy box of books EVER |
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| Inside the Basilica |
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| And people were there reading the Bible! |
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| Pretty legit stained glass right there |
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| Someone was filling up their water bottle with holy water?? |
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One of the side chapels dedicated St. Therese of the Child Jesus,
the patroness of the mission |
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| I just thought this was pretty cool |
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| The stained glass as you leave the Basilica |
- The strangest things I saw while in Nairobi
- A store called ‘The Diplomatic Barber Shop’
- A man selling 2 by 4 foot maps of Africa on the side of the
road
- A guy with a baseball cap that had an alien’s head on it
- A pair of glasses that don’t go over the ears, but cling to
the temples
Project Ideas!
So, fun fact, while it might seem great to have things
mailed to Kenya to help out, sometimes those things get…lost…in the post.
(Yes, that means some dude at the post office thinks it
looks cool and then keeps it for himself. What a jerk.)
Therefore, I am now looking at ways for people to donate
electronically (GoFundMe is looking possible). The best way to make sure money
is used for its intended purpose is to ensure that it bypasses as much red tape
as possible and ends up with the people who will actually be using the money.
So in this case it would be the sisters. I’ll let you know what the next step
is.
I have my heart set on the textbook fund for sure (as anyone
who has ever seen me read ever understands why) so I’ll update on what the
project will entail once our school principal gets back and I talk things
through with her!
Kiswahili Phrase of the Day:
- Siwezi kusema Kiswahili – I can’t speak Kiswahili (...this is fairly self-explanatory.)
Kwaheri!
