Lauren Nagler’s Dad, July 2006
Last week I wrote about seeing my daughter off to Africa. She boarded the plane at 11 PM on Tuesday, and was picked up on Thursday in Nairobi by Joshua Machinga who said he had just finished reading my article. I was flabbergasted.
Then came the emails. Shana Greene, the Executive Director of Village Volunteers, who helped organize Lauren's trip wrote to congratulate me for raising a child with a heart so big, she leaves the comfort of a life full of promise to expand her awareness to those in immense poverty. She said in each village Lauren will stay in traditional huts, using a pit latrine and a basin to bathe. She will never again take for granted turning a tap for clean water or taking a hot shower. And... Lauren will find joy and inner strength in everyone she meets, like the amazing Masaba Widow's Group who break into dance
seemingly for no reason, and youth groups who have formed a cooperative to run chicken and bee keeping projects to pay for their school.
Karen Kotoske, the founder of Amistad International wrote with the inside scoop on Joshua Machinga, founder of Common Ground in Kitale, an amazing man and one of the best community organizers in Kenya, helping change the world farmer by farmer. Amistad funds a small business loan program which enables the poor in Joshua's community to obtain start-up capital for small business enterprise.
Betsy from Ecology Action in Northern California wrote to talk about her daughter who grew up exposed to the work in sustainable agriculture. She chose to become a nurse practitioner and work in places like Liberia as the war was ending there, Sri Lanka right after the tsunami, and a violent mining camp in Venezuela where she needed an armed guard. Why, Betsy wondered, did she choose impoverished dangerous places when she could have worked in the safety of the U.S.? Yet, she too is proud of her daughter for the generous, intelligent gift she chooses to give to the world.
In Kitale I am told women's hearts break from the pain of a home with no food. Hunger and poverty turn their husbands away; their children cry wanting food which is not there. HIV/AIDS lives among them like a giant dragon gulping up its victims, leaving orphans, widows and widowers in its path. I am told the training the women receive in bio-intensive farming techniques is the only lasting solution they see to reverse the trend. I am told of a restored hope and bright future for their families, where their children will soon have food and attend school like children elsewhere in the world.
So, through that article in our local paper I received thanks from around the world for sharing Lauren with their friends in Kitale, and for sharing my parental story. I'm still in awe of it all.
Lauren Nagler,
August 2006
Wednesday we returned to the first group that I had been to last week - the wonderful women's group. Since we had been there and showed them how to dig bed in the "double-digging" style, they had completed 8-10 more. Wow! That day we showed them how to create a compost and introduced them to something called 'portable gardens'. Again it was a joy to be with them.
Thursday we learned how to cook Kenyan style. Yes, all the way from slaughtering the chicken to putting it on the table (we watched, didn't actually do it). I admit it was a little difficult eating the chicken we had seen arrive earlier that day strapped to the back of Simon's bicycle. But I feel that as a meat eater I am glad to have had the experience. However, I would be happy to never have to see that again. We also learned how to cook chapati and sukuma wiki. Perhaps the thing that is most amazing is that it was all done over a little charcoal stove - none of this four burner stove business. The whole process (to cook the three dishes) took about 2 1/2 hours. I look forward to trying out what I learned when I get home (starting with buying the chicken from the supermarket, of course).
In the afternoon we visited another widows group. It was wonderful. They greeted us with song and dance. But it was also heartbreaking to hear the stories of their hardships to support themselves and their families in the absence of their
spouse.
A very busy last week at Common Ground ahead.
Thalia Trusdell, September 2006
It's with great sadness that I left Kiminini (Common Ground Program) this morning, but I am anxious to see my friends at Mama na Dada and am looking forward to the next chapter of my adventure here in Africa.
Yesterday morning I finished the mural that the school kids and I did. They were on vacation until Sept 4, so I only had one week from start to finish, and the rain each afternoon put a real damper on this, but ta da!! It was a blast! First of all, I adore children's art, and was able to copy their drawings precisely, except I was asked to please dress them in school uniforms. Many visitors did not understand that the kids (age 3-16) drew the pictures. and they wondered why the safari animals on the huts were somehow better. Funny. I seriously want to do this at schools all over the world (starting close to home, I suppose), and preferably on smooth walls. Rough cement is a chore!
Then, after the brushes were washed and the paint stored away, the Masaba Widow's Group descended on me laden with banana fiber baskets they've been making, and we had a glorious giggly basket party. I had to turn down a few, because we DO want them to sell, but we ended up with more than 30! The women are anxious to keep making more - They have found a potential income generating activity that has no overhead (unless they have to mail them to Village Volunteers in Seattle), they enjoy and are good at, and they can do at home or in groups. Some of the women were quite creative, and they are going to teach the others what they discovered.
I am VERY proud of these diligent and delightful women, and I wish them great success. I'm going to miss them, but hopefully will get back there someday. I've learned a great deal about many of those women: their upbringing, marriages, children, family and tribal traditions, and their hopes and dreams. I hope this basket venture expands their dreams a little.
Then last night after dinner I had an awesome send off by the 12 girls who board at Pathfinder Academy. They came in and sang songs accompanied by snappy choreography. They are all darling, and I was longing for a tape recorder (yes, I know, I brought 6 with me, but they were back in the hut, and I didn't want to interrupt) I'll never forget it. "Farewell, Thalia, farewell. We love you, but we are going to miss you...."
Kieran O'Dowd, September 2004
Common Ground is a program that operates near the border of Uganda. This area was also hit hard by AIDS as it became a main trucking thoroughfare, which in turn brought prostitution, during the industrialization of Africa. The program has many projects including the operation of a well-respected primary school with over 200 students, widow assistance through micro-enterprise development, and the teaching of useful farming techniques to maximize food production and income generation. The farming techniques are also part of the school curriculum and the children operate a garden on the school grounds. Again I was greeted wtih song as I entered the grounds of the primary school. The kids were all assembled to entertain with not only singing but also ethnic dancing and poetry recitation. At the end of the ceremony, I was asked to plant a tree and you guessed it, the tree is named Wafula.
Joshua, the Program Director, knows everyone and is willing to help anybody with his farming knowledge and business acumen. There are still four deaths a week in the area, and Joshua has devoted his life to helping people at least have food no matter how AIDS has affected them. I met groups of farmers that are being helped by the program. Apparently much knowledge was lost during the British colonization, and Joshua and his crew are forming groups of farmers that wish to learn steadfast techniques so that no piece of any farm remains idle at any time. They teach crop rotation, terracing and tree planting for soil and water conservation, the establishment and maintenance of tree nurseries, ways to improve soil fertility, and income diversification by raising cows, goats, and other animals. The farmers were so proud of their accomplishments that they all wanted me to visit their farms. Joshua and I figured that we must have walked over 25 miles in two days.
I also met with the widows, a vivacious group of recent businesswomen who can apply and receive loans through Common Ground for such businesses as farming, poultry raising, kiosk operation, tailoring, and brick building. Many of these women rejected wife inheritance, a traditional custom whereby the widow is taken on as the second, third, or fourth wife of the deceased man's brother. Strong and determined to not let that happen, they had the courage to take a risk and start a business in order to raise their family on their own. I visited several of their homesteads where they were so excited to show me what they were doing. None would let me leave their house without a gift so if anybody needs pumpkins, guavas, pineapples, or bananas, please let me know. And these ladies knew something about marketing. Grace, who operates a tailoring business, wouldn't let me take a picture until she set up her sewing machine on the porch, hung up her best creations, and then proceeded to put a measuring tape around her neck and pretend to sew. She became a widow at 32 and was left with three toddlers. Her husband's family put pressure on her to come live with them, but she decided to start a business and was able to bulid a new home wiht her income. The group has meetings twice a month at which time they make payments on their loan, and the camaraderie among the women is inspiring as they sing, dance, and greet each other with high-fives and laughter.
Alan Riley, August 2004
Hodi - Karibu, said Joshua's wife, hot milk and soy will be very nice.
Asante, chit and chat, now outside, the sun bathes us with its warmth (now 10:30) and we are waiting for Bob (a collaborator) who works for the community. He is under the direction of Joshua Machinga, the Common Ground Program (CGP) coordinator - a program headed by a Board of Trustees - whose mission is to tackle the nations single biggest threat, poverty. Poverty breeds hunger, disease, illiteracy, and environmental degradation. This is a Kenyan non-governmental community-based organization that was founded in 1995. Set on five acres in western Kenya, the organization's training and storage complex includes demonstration gardens and food bank facilities that provide a practical model of a functioning Biointensive Agriculture system for local farmers, college trainees and children. CGP teaches poor people to develop and use technologies that give them more control over their lives and promote sustainable community development. The program builds on existing community resources. It does not impose solutions from the outside but seeks out new uses of local materials that will improve the quality of the local way of life.
Alan Riley, August 2004
Spent most of the day on the farm, our community field visit. Todays topic was a Vision Matrix, aspects of life and how they will effect them in the future, a lot of brainstorming, things that they felt were important in their daily lives. They came up with about 17 and prioritized them to the following six: Agriculture, environment, health, education, transport and communication and trade and industry. Looking into the past, present and future, a lot of discussion took place with Ben and Joshua being the facilitators. These once a week community work shops deal with issues that directly effect them, giving them an awareness as well as the opportunity to problem solve on issues that will effect their daily lives, teaching them to be self sufficient and yet having the support of their local community. Following these discussions they will attempt to put their solutions and ideas into practice. In doing so they will make their community much stronger by having a better understanding of the challenges that test them, i.e. local news today.
Famine Watch - the country has called this a national disaster and has made an urgent appeal internationally for food to save some 3.2 million Kenyans from starvation due to prolong drought and inadequate rainfall resulting in drought and crop failure. Other problems in the news is the AIDS problem. Now there are over 25 million people infected with the HIV virus (70 percent of total world infections ) in Africa and 20 million have died, leaving nearly 12 million children as orphans and another 3 million people will be affected this year.and it goes on and on! Just like me right now! I must also remind you that all the people who attend those meetings do not have inside washrooms or electricity (including Ben and Joshua), so I should not complain when the power goes off. Their transportation is more by bike and legs.
Alan Riley, August 2004
Visitors' View from Village Volunteers
Warm welcomes greeted my arrival to Pathfinder Academy with song and poetry and the planting of my tree Olea Africana (Elgon Teak). In six short weeks, I visited all the classes, interviewed potential ECD teachers, worked on the first school newspaper and consulted with Milton and Joshua on educational issues such as the organization and physical plant of the school. I also spoke to many parents in the community and the Parents Teachers Association. On a lighter note, I was able to enjoy the children in informal settings as well as observe them in their play.
I was given the opportunity to visit the Common Ground Projects in the Kiminini area. It was wonderful to visit and walk around your sunshine landscape and to be greeted with such happy smiles and welcoming handshakes. My guides and companions were Joshua and Ben Katimi (field officer) whose expertise and knowledge filled the gaps of my farming experience. I was able to visit the self -help groups at Sango "B: farm and the Masabe ""A" Widows Women Group. (I enjoyed their beautiful singing and of course my gift of a red chicken which has now found a SAFE home at the Pathfinder.)
In Conclusion, the Kenyan culture at the Pathfinder Academy reflects and forms a strong relationship with its educational program and agricultural community. The Pathfinder Academy and the Common Ground Program has much potential and I share Joshua's vision, and perhaps someday I will be able to come back and help the Kiminini community to put that vision into reality,
Asante and Kwaheri
