asante sana squished BANANA

JAMBO!

So I realize that it has been quite the amount of time since my last post, pole, but let me tell you I have been getting my hands down and dirty, and well (burnt while making a massive bot of sukuma) but all in all my time here in Maragoli has been outstanding. SO here is the breakdown of the past ninish days (which have seriously felt like three months) but have also been unbelievably fun and meaningful!

SO we leave Kisumu which was seriously awesome after being stuffed into our sardine like appartment for a week. Imagine Big Brother except with no running water, toilets or electrisity and you can imagine the time we got up to! Kisumu was seriously awesome though, in many, many ways and I came to quite enjoy my frequent matatu trips into the united mall or the nakumat grocery store! The last night in town we went out for pizza which tasted like heaven, you seriously don't realize how much we miss food from home here (However we did find a place to buy cadbury chocolate bars in maragoli and we have been shovveling them in by the boxload). We also went out dancing at this seriously sketch underground club where we took over the dance floor and danced to the constant replay of Shakira's waka waka and michael Jackson. Our Matatu's were also pimped out with flashing lights and lil' Bowow kareokee videos! P.s. So in my week in Maragoli I have been constantly traveling to the government offices at Sabatiya where there is a mechanic who blasts the old school backstreet boys and N'sync tunes all day long. I am often tempted to return to my pre-teen days and start singing along, but then I wouldn't just be a mazungu, I would be a seriously crazy mazungu.

So fastforwards to Maragoli. I am eagerly sitting in a matatu with Kris and Emmanuel trying to brush up on some last minute swahili before arriving at Ahuga's house. Ahuga is like the man everyone should get a chance to meet in their lifetime, I think I am confident in saying that he is one of the wisest and down to earth people that I know. He also has a seriously nice house and a hugely kind heart. Anyways we arrive, I mess up my greeting (but pull out a quick asante sana, which seems to be my go to word whenever I get stuck) and am instantly surrounded by what seemed like a see of chilren screaming Mirembe, Mirembe. 3-thousand high-fives later we are dancing as a team with SOOO MANY PEOPLE and so many drums and being greeted by the Kiritu community! It was probably one of the most emotional times that I have had in Kenya thus far and it really said a lot to the welcoming spirit of this community (I have video to show when I get back)! We spent the night eating beans, potatoes and ugali prepared by the outsanding william (our chef) and settled into bed. I finally was able to use my mosquito net, which made me happy and prevented me from being eaten alive like some of the other members on our team. On a side note I am thanking malarone for not only keeping me safe, but for also providing me with happy dreams unlike my first night in Nairobi where I could have sworn beatles were crawling all over my pillow.

To describe this town in short I have written a small poem:

OH Maragoli you are so green with your banana trees that make me feel as though I am in Paradise. Your huge rocks that remeble space eggs make me feel as though I am wandering through the set of Jurassic parks and your sunsets make me feel warm, like the three thousand cups of chai that I am offered every single day. Your people are like no other, so unbelievably kind and SOOO FAT (that was a joke (which our team makes often), the people here are not fat but surprisingly thin considering the amount of food that I am offered everywhere I go). Fin.

I realize that my poetry skills have not been as fine tuned as I would have liked in Kenya, but let me assure you that this place is so beautiful and so opposite to anything that I had ever imagined for Afrika. I have been spending a lot of time in the community meeting people, making new friends, eating endless amounts of bananas and avocados, drinking copious amounts of tea, going to the bathroom from the copious amounts of tea and working my buns off on projects. P.s. so I don't know where bananas or avocado's come from in Canada but they should come from here because they are crazy sweet, like you would not even be able to begin to imagine how good they are. Also, blue band (which is like margarine but 4000 times more unhealthy) and bread have become a staple of my days, I must eat like 40 blue band sandwiches a day! I have also been spending every spare momnent that I can riding on piki piki's (motor bikes) and coming into the market to eat mango's and practice my bartering skills (which are seriously necessary here).

Back to the note of amazing people, I have had the chance to meet some of the most kindhearted people on this planet. Maragoli feels so good to me because everyone here in the community is seriosuly passionate about making a difference in the lives of everyone around here. Everyone volunteers endlessly to help improve the community and it has been an incredibly inspiring place that I know I will return to one day. Well actually I will be returning for a few days in August, but I know next summer I will hopefully be back! Ahuga has been our amazing host and a seriously awesome person. I have had the amazing opportunity to have late night talks with him and he has given me such useful and encouraging advice which I am carrying close to my heart as I try to help Kibera. Emmanuel has grown to become a very close friend and it has been amazing to come and see where he lives and meet his family. He is doing SO MUCH, and I mean SOOOO MUCH for this community, it's hard to fathom. Alice, my Maragoli mama has stuffed me to the brim with boiled bananas (which surprisingly taste life potatoes when you add ketchup), and I am going to return in August and use my non-existent roofing skills to help fix her roof and paint it a highly fashinable shade of lime green. Lousie, a fellow Canadian who has been working here for years with the Mongano foundation(check it out) has also become a good friend with some of the most hillarious advice and stories, she will be traveling with us to Kibera on ITT. Her team is also awesome. I have also been becoming closer to my amazing team especially as we stuff our face with blue band (I will attempt to sneak this past security in Canada).

Maragoli has also been amazing because we have been able to get our hands dirty and start some community development projects. We went to a community meeting called a baraza where we listened to community proposals and have used some of our fund-raised money to build a new community spring, revamp the community center and pay for memberships for all of the community children, we have been working on the special needs school and Emmanuel and I have been working to get the North Maragoli Youth Polytechnic in Mutambi registered. This is my first time in such leadership role and we are so far in the midst of constructing toilets and a fence in order to have the school up to standards for government registration. It has taught me a lot about how the government in Kenya works (a.k.a how corruption works), such as in my 9 hour wait to meet with the education minister the other day which didn't end on such a bright note. I have also been learning about how to keep money in order and deal with community members. It has been awesome though and we have decided to skip out the the Kakamega rainforest to ensure that this project gets done. I have sent Kris armed with a camera to take another million pictures to add to my already extensive collection. I am also in the midst of painting a few sign for the polytechnic which is looking SWEEEETTT!! Right now Emmanuel and I are also working on a new pilot project to sponsor children from Maragoli to come study at University in Canada. The children here are so smart and so passionate and I cannot thing of better candidates for university, I know that one day these youth could change the world if only given the opportunity.

Anyways, it is time to jump into the market for some ingredients for dinner. As the team is in Kakamega I am provided with the perfect opportunity to fine tune my chapati making skills, and learn to make mandazi which I promise to make when I get back. Ohh... funny story so in Kenya oven's aren't really the norm. Instead you cook over a fire. So the other night, community party, hundreds of people, josh cooking ugali (a really...really thick mais paste to scoop up stew with), hella amounts of smoke, HUGE spoon, smokey tears, stirring, smokey tears, stirring, rose yelling STIR HARDER STIR HARDER. Lets just say that ugali, not so good and a little salty (from my sea of tears), but ugali none the less.

Peace + Love from KENYA (off on a 10 hour bus ride to Jinja for some bungee jumping and white water rafting in 2 days). Also remember that , Backstreet's back ALRIGHT!!!! ( an ode to the seriously retro tunes here)

-JOASH (my Swahili name),
Kwahari!