27 February 2006

Misconceptions

We´ve left the confines of our mud hut in Kenya but not without many memories to muddle over. It seemed like most of the people we met there wanted to be in the U.S. We were told that everyone in the U.S. is comfortable and rich. They believed you could do any job and get paid a lot for it. They had no idea there was poverty and a journalist told me she wished her grandfather had been an African slave. On top of that they had no idea there are black people in the U.S. and you don´t know how many times we were asked if we were ¨white¨. One person was so confused that they wanted to know how could we be white with such dark skin. Ok, so now I was confused ¨What about all the Black American artist plastered on everything from the Matatus to clothing? We saw more 50 cent stuff in Kisumu than we ever see in Arizona. Oh, well that´s because ¨50 cent is so dark he must be a Luo from Kenya¨. My mouth was dropped wide open. ¨So what about all the other black entertainers whose names and faces are airbrushed everywhere?¨ It turns out that there are people who believe these are Africans coming from some other country in Africa that they are not familiar with. This is all a true story. With that said my ideas of the back to Africa movement are over. If you want to know more you´ll have to read my book.

Today I woke up in Barcelona and walked to a fluhsing toilet after I reached for my own roll of toilet tissue. I don´t have to carry that with me around here but I think it will be a while before I kick that habit. I went to wake up Mateo and our new travel buddy Miss Sylvia ¨Akua da poet¨ Doku so we could cruise downstairs for some free breakfast. It´s a good thing it´s free too because the Euro beats the dollar 1.2 to 1 and money goes fast in this part of the world. So much for being rich. Now that there´s three of us travelling, perhaps we´ll be able to stretch the money a bit further.

We´ll be heading North to Huesca to an organic retreat in the mountains where we´ll have to quickly adjust to consisitent Spanish dialogue. We´re getting our taste of it so far and we´re handling ourselves but between the three of us we speak about 60% Spanish. Let´s see how we do in a months time.

I have a little roll call I want to do. We´re not sure who is following us so respond to this post and give a little shout out to let us know you´re here. We see some consistent names and we are usually really excited to read our blog responses to see if those people have commented but we don´t know if other people are out there but silent. Also if you may, tell us what´s been your favorite place that we´ve visited so far and what is something we haven´t done that you suggest we do.

OK folks, we´ll be standing by to see who´s out there.

Joronda

10 February 2006

top ten

salaam

recently my mom just celebrated a birthday, which now puts her less then 1 year away from retirement...hooray!!! after 40 plus years as a medical technologist (microbiology, mycology, phlebotomy, etc.) my mom is finally approaching her glory...getting the hell out of the proverbial "9 to 5", and finally being able to do what she wants with her time...and i for one couldn't be more happy and proud!!!

so with that, i thought that i would offer everyone a few travel suggestions on how to spend your retirement, honeymoon, vacation etc. in a lettermen-esque "top ten" style.

be forewarned...the following is all true and uncensored


Mateo's Top Ten Experiences That Are Not To Be Missed By The Microbiologist In You.


10. being on a train somewhere in china and watching passenger after passenger plug a nostril and forcefully expel the others snotty contents into the air, and onto the floor, walls, tables, chairs, sleeping bunks, and bodies of anybody that happens to be near.

9. being on the same train and hearing the gutteral orchestra of numerous people pulling mucous from every part of their body into their throats and spitting the thick nasty blob directly on the carpet and floors of the cabin...then having to wade through the spit to get to the toilet, water heater, etc.

8. passing through a vietnamese kitchen to use the toilet and witnessing your meal being prepared directly on the floor with cockroaches, flies, and dogs all trying to sneak a taste.

7. being anywhere (in any of the countries that we've visited) and watching people jam no less than 2 knuckles worth of finger into each nostril, dig for gold, find it, roll it into a ball, and then flick it with no concern as to where it may land...then having the same people shake your hand, pat you on the back, or make your breakfast, lunch, dinner, snack or whatever with the same hand they just used to clear their nasal passages.

6. just arriving in your shaolin dormitory, looking at your bed and noticing that your sheet, blanket, pillow, and headrest are all stained with dirt, body oil, urine, and blood...then checking all the other beds in the room and realizing that they are exactly the same.

5. passing back through the same vietnamese kitchen with dirt and urine on the bottom of your sandals...stepping over vegetables and around meats and realizing that, not only is there no soap for washing hands, but you've just dripped dirt, urine, and whatever else is on the bottom of your sandals, directly onto the vegetables that are going into your spring roll....mmmmm.

4. precariously squatting over a loose pit latrine in a mud hut with a roof that is exactly 5'6" from the ground and inhaling the maggot infested scent of everyone elses bowel movements during the course of the year. listening to the fighter plane like sequences of the flies and mosquitos as they dart at your bare ass, and feeling many of them land on you back and crawl down the crack of your ass trying to get to the source of the liquidy shit that hasn't been solid since you left home. watching the biggest cockroaches you've ever seen crawl 6 inches away from your face, arms, legs, and over your exposed toes. and finally, watching the dust particles circle your exposed flesh and wondering if your inability to pee the previous day and night was the direct result of dirt lodged in your urethra, and whether or not you were on your way to a uti.

3. catching and weighing chickens, some with congestion, diarrhea, and rectal boils, and then being covered (hands, barefeet, pants, shirt) in their shit, feed, vomit, and blood, and slaughtering some 200+ of them at your compound in kisumu, kenya...then coming back and finding one of them dead in the same coop that you've been in for the past week.

2. going to the food prep area in your kisumu compound and seeing that same dead chicken lying in the "kitchen" next to a pot of boiling water and knowing that it is almost dinner time...then hearing on the news that a case of the bird flu has been found in nigeria.


and the number one experience that is not to be missed by the microbiologist in you...


going to use the squat toilets in your shaolin dormitory and finding that all of them are filled with stale urine and mounds of shit...then having no choice but to piss directly on someone elses shit and feeling their shit and your piss splash back up onto your shoes, pants, bare legs, and bare ass...and knowing that you have no running water or soap.


so who's ready to travel? :)


happy birthday mom!


salaam
mateo

p.s. i don't have a uti.

p.p.s. we never ate the dead chicken, instead it was thrown into the trash pit and burned...but its cause of death is still a mystery.

06 February 2006

Here Chicken Chicken

Over the past couple of days we've spent most of our time in chicken houses. We're involved in a poultry raising project and we had to get chickens ready for market. I thought I might become strictly vegetarian but so far so good. We started the first day with an order of 100 chickens but very quickly it got dropped to 30 because the chickens weren't making weight.

If you read the previous post then you know our living situation. There's no running water so we have to fetch it from a 65' well and haul it back to the village or travel a long distance over uneven terrain losing a quarter of the water on the way back. The toilet is a pit latrine with maggots crawling on the feces about 7' down and flies circling the pit opening. The door is half of a 70kg chicken feed bag. Meals are cooked outside or inside over wood burned coals and the fire temperature is raised using a plastic plate to fan the coals and flame. Our light source at night is a small parafin lamp and a flashlight. When the moon is in the sky it gives us enough light to make it from our mud hut to the latrine without the flash light. It really puts a lot of things in perspective for us. In one of the mud huts lives several orphans that live in the compound doing most of the daily work.

We are invloved in several projects but right now the chickens are a top priority. They are ready for market at 41 days but our chickens are about 7 weeks old which means the community is losing money. 400 chickens eat and drink a lot daily so they need to be sold quickly. It takes a lot of work to dress them for the market too. Going to the grocery store in the U.S. I was never aware of the process but now with first hand experience a chicken will never look the same to me again. Mateo and I have been responsible for weighing the live chickens and sending the good ones to slaughter. The slaughtering is done behind the mud hut where all of our cooking is done. Interestingly, the person slaughtering does it in a humane way which we later found out he learned from a Muslim.

The chickens are plucked, cleaned out, washed off and put in individual bags. Then all are put in a feed sack to go to the hotel that has placed the order. The workers are paid with the gizzards. Everyone working comes from the community and the money made will funnel back into community projects. It's all really grassroots. No high tech tools or machinery just knives sharpened on rocks, a few buckets, a wood fire and some plastic chairs. Everyone sits out in the grass under a tree getting the work done.

In addition to the chickens there's also trench digging to lay water pipes. Although women's rights are extremely lacking in Kenya the women in this part of the country are the major bread winners in the house however it's not by choice. The women spend so much time fetching water it takes time away from their economic endeavors. The pipes should help reduce time so people don't have to go so far for water. The women are also making homemade cinder blocks to build 10 composting latrines in the community. The waste will be used for manure after a drying process some years down the road. Every project that will benefit the community is done by the community. Old and young people are out there putting in a lot of hard work. We're trying to lend a hand wherever we're needed meaning sometimes were doing multiple jobs at once. It is so cool though.

As for our dealings with the chickens. We've slaughtered 132 so far. We have another order to finish filling on Wednesday and when everything is done the focus will be on the layers, the chickens who will make lots of money for the community with 400 eggs per day.

Fish Eyes

When Mateo was a child his mom would make him a good hardy meal of tuna noodle cassarole. As tasty and filling as it was he would throw up everytime. He was convinced she put fish eyes in it and whenever he bit into a "fish eye" everything that went down immediately came right back up. It wasn't until last year that he foun out the infamous fish eyes were in fact bread crumbs quit contrary to our first lunch in Kisumu.

We sat down at a table covered with flies on Lake Victoria. The server brought a basin and pitcher for us to wash our hands. Moments later the largest fish I've ever seen on a platter was sat in the middle of the table and 5 of us started pulling from the fish with our fingers and some corn meal mixture called ugali. We were told we had the honors of breaking open the head. We just kind of looked at each other like, is this some sort of test. They said we could have the eyes and I just knew they were joking. Then they started questioning us on not eating the eyes. "it's very nice, it's the nicest part...it's delicious" I didn't even try to grab for it. One of our host stuck his finger through the eye socket and detached it from the fishes head. Mateo and I were both watching flies land and take off of this fish while drippey hands dove in to grab flesh and juices. Our host Edward grabbed the eye and for the next 60 seconds he was chewing away. "it's very chewy" he said.

We didn't eat those fish eyes but a dinner and lunch time staple at our compound is small fish. We believe they are minnow. They are cooked with oil and diced tomatoes and again eaten with ugali. It's the whole little fish, eyes and all starring at us from the bowl. We get plenty of fish eyes over the course of the week.