Today we took a trip to a newly established village outside of Mai Mahiu near Naivasha. On the way to the village we passed the through the Rift Valley.
We also passed up the smallest Catholic Church in Kenya. Interesting fact: it was built by Italian POWs who were captured by British soldiers and forced to build roads. They built this church voluntarily so that they would have a place to worship during their imprisonment.
This village is the expansion of the Internally Displaced Persons camp that was started five years ago after the post-election violence of 2007/2008. For those of you who are unaware, the post-election violence was allegedly incited by candidates who had lost the presidential election and much of it was tribally oriented by Kalenjin and Luo (the second and third largest ethnic groups in Kenya) against Kikuyus (who are the majority ethnic population and dominate politics). These candidates are running again and are currently being tried by the ICC for human rights violations.
The people in the village fled from their middle and upper class homes in Eldoret to make a new life five hours away in rural Kenya. Once we got there we were greeted by nearly the entire village and all the children were playing in the grass. They toured us around their land that consisted of an assemblage of tents that were used as makeshift homes and newly built concrete structures that were to become the permanent houses of the population. It was really sad to see how poor their soil was for farming, so much of it was eroded.
After the tour we were each coupled up and chosen by certain residents to eat lunch with them in their new homes. My friend Connie and I were partnered up and chosen with a big giant hug and smile by a wonderful woman named Jane.
This village is the expansion of the Internally Displaced Persons camp that was started five years ago after the post-election violence of 2007/2008. For those of you who are unaware, the post-election violence was allegedly incited by candidates who had lost the presidential election and much of it was tribally oriented by Kalenjin and Luo (the second and third largest ethnic groups in Kenya) against Kikuyus (who are the majority ethnic population and dominate politics). These candidates are running again and are currently being tried by the ICC for human rights violations.
The people in the village fled from their middle and upper class homes in Eldoret to make a new life five hours away in rural Kenya. Once we got there we were greeted by nearly the entire village and all the children were playing in the grass. They toured us around their land that consisted of an assemblage of tents that were used as makeshift homes and newly built concrete structures that were to become the permanent houses of the population. It was really sad to see how poor their soil was for farming, so much of it was eroded.
We ate a lunch of rice and beans with potatoes and had some tea with particularly fresh milk after. The eating customs in Kenya was somewhat difficult to adjust to. It is important, when eating with strangers to eat EVERYTHING they give you, otherwise it could be considered rude. I was handed a large bowl filled to the top with the aforementioned food that was refilled before I could even finish the first one. And so I couldn't finish it all, but luckily Jane understood that I was full and just couldn't fit anymore food into my stomach. It is also unusual to converse while eating so sometimes I was thinking that there were awkward silences.
Looking around I saw the walls were covered in old and new calendars and lace curtains. There was a curtain in the doorway between the family room and the kitchen and wooden doors to each bedroom. Jane has 6 children, 3 boys and 3 girls, her youngest son James the only one that lives with her. Mary, a 15 year old girl from the village joined us for lunch as well. At the end of our meal, Mary was kind enough to sing us a worship song in English that she knew and Jane sang a Kikuyu worship song while playing her drum with James helping now and then with the vocals.
After our lunch we made our way back to where we had all originally congregated when we arrived. We all made small talk while purchasing bags and baskets that the women had learned to weave in the five years they had been living there. Some of the other students played with the group of kids that followed us out again. When it was time to say goodbye, the whole group sang a song for our departure that included each of our names and a lot of clapping. I had no idea songs for greeting and salutations were so popular in Kenya, it makes the idea of hanging out with strangers so much more appealing.
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