June 2008

Hi Friends,
It’s been three weeks since I arrived in Kenya and things are starting to settle down. I spent my first week in Nairobi staying with my friend Tony and is family. It was a little odd, like arriving to the US after a long time away and spending a week in Boston before going home, but it definitely ad its up side. For one thing I was able to spend time with Jess and Kennedy, both of whom are doing well, and both of whom are leaving for the US at the end of July. Kennedy, who is born and raised in Kibera and who started Schofco, the most impressive organization I know off, and who is, in general, one of the most impressive people I know, will be a freshman at Wesleyan this fall. Those of you who are still students there, find a way to meet him, he is wonderful. Jess is, of course, wonderful, too (which is why they make such a good couple). She is doing senior thesis research that looks at the causes and impacts of Kenya's post election violence and is working on another play with Schofco youth, this one addressing that subject.
Now I'm in Mombasa, Tony, who studies environmental science at Kenyatta University, is on break until Sept and doing an internship with Matano's organization, CRDO, so he is staying with me and Cynthia and Mowly. Sorry to go crazy with lots of names, i'll try to explain a bit. Matano helps us to run the Likoni Scholarship Fund, he shares his office with us, he teaches our micro enterprise education class, and he helps us navigate the world of running an NGO. Cynthia and Mowly are my sisters, I lived with them last time I was in Kenya and will continue to live with them every time I am here.
Until this morning we were all sharing one small room in a house where the landlord never paid the electric bill and which had a smelly bathroom. For all these reasons we've moved to a newly constructed house. Here we have two rooms and a clean bathroom, but since the house is new and has not yet been hooked up, we still don't have power. The landlord and says it will be less than a month before we are hooked up so we'll use candles til then. Its a bit inconvenient, we have to charge our phones at fiends' houses, and makes me lazy at night, but really, its not bad. And the house is a good one.
Work wise things are good. We are having our first mentoring session this coming Sat and are preparing for that. We are also writing a constitution so we can register as an org in Kenya and are visiting families to see how everyone is doing. The big news is a guy named Mato, whom Kwame (my LSF partner) called the Kennedy of Mombasa. He is young, 24 or 25, used to be a homeless street boy, and now runs an organization called TWAAF which is a home for orphaned kids, a primary school, and a recording label. He is a musician so he as concerts and uses the money to support his 15 kids and he is introducing the kids to music so they can all make an album together that can bring in money. The school came about because the orphans were being excluded from local public primary schools. It now has 120 students, mostly from the community, and 4 teachers who mostly volunteer their services and do so with a lot of enthusiasm. This past friday we joined the kids for a field trip to the beach and had a blast. We've also been talking to Mato about how we can partner up. Our thoughts so far is that he will help us with our mentoring program, since that's his area of expertise. We are also going to start sharing is school building with him and make use of it in the afternoons as a reading room for our secondary school students. Once we have library books and computers we will set them up in the school so that all of our students can use them. I also imagine that we will help send some of their kids to school when they are old enough for secondary. In general, I think we are going to pool resources and find ways of working as a team.
Kwame and I have also been talking to a guy named Collins who is a Likoni native and the manager of Energizer Batteries in the coast province. He said he'd see about getting Energizer to help sponsor us, that he can make arrangements for us to bring our students to visit local business to learn about career options, and that he can help us bring together a group of professionals from Likoni who might donate to us or help mentor our students.
All in all we've been getting lots of exciting ideas and feel good about how things are going. I'll try to write again soon, maybe once we've gotten the internet in the office up and running. My number is 011254720391661, so call me or write me text messages. Or just write, GFondiller@gmail.com, it would be great to hear from you.