Bye Bye Shianda...

 The last few weeks have literally flown by, especially as Eugenie and I were caught up in organizing the event against gender violence in the market area.

Successful event, during which with theater and music performances  were addressed gbv topics, women's land rights and what to do in cases of gbv violence

 

By now it is time for me to go home as well. What can I say about these months?

It is difficult to put into words all the emotions I am feeling these last days in Shianda.

I am sad at the idea of leaving, scared at the idea of coming back. Honestly, I wish I could have stayed longer, because right at the moment when I really felt at home, the time has come.

I didn't always feel this way, the beginning was riddled with ups and downs, and anxiety due to being in a new place with new people, and especially in the first period it was hard not to feel lonely.

But that is part of the experience; over time I began to feel part of the community and and to consider Shianda my home. In all of this, the support and presence of my companions has been important.

What I would like to suggest is to come here with an open mind, try to live and laugh at every new experience, to not be scared, not to be afraid of stand for yourself , and to trust people because there is beauty in the world but sometimes it is not immediate and it takes time to be able to discover it.

I leave Shianda happy with this experience and the people I met!

This is it...

Mostly with sadness I realize that I have to leave Kenya soon. More and more I find myself thinking that I will miss certain things here, even walking down the street or buying ground nuts from my favourite lady by the gas station. Buy fresh fruit at 8 in the morning after walking home from the gym...

Time has gone too quickly, and I am not ready to leave. 

During this short period of time, I have grown- grown to appreciate and acknowledge more the privileges I have, grown to love this little place called Shianda, grown to appreciate little comforts. I have become more open-minded but also learned to stand up for myself more. I have learned to ask for help and recognize better when I need time off. I have met incredible people who I will have a deep connection and friendship for the rest of my life!

 

During my deployment I managed to work on different projects. I spent some time working in Shianda health centre, I gave trainings to young mothers about breastfeeding, safe environment for child, infant nutrition, recognizing a sick child. I trained community health extension workers as first aid trainers, so they would have the skills to train others. They also assisted me in my biggest project- training 300 community health volunteers (CHVs) in basic first aid. I organised a fundraiser to get the means to do this project, to offer tea, lunch and training materials for the participants. I trained about 300 CHV in 14 days in 12 different dispenseries and health centres. It was a very consuming project, but every day during my trainings I saw the interest and need for knowledge. The determination and dedication to learn. I am very proud of this project and truly believe it is of great value to the beneficiaries. 

 

Overall, I have loved my deployment here in Kenya. Not every moment has been easy, there has been setbacks, frustrations, stress, sadness, anger, annoyance. But there have also been incredible moments, successes, a lot-a a lot of laughter, deep connections and friendships. It has been an extraordinary journey which I will appreciate for the rest of my life!

All of my 14 amazing groups, who I trained in basic first aid!

Enjoy your place!

The advice I want to give to those who will come here in the coming years or to anyone who finds themselves living a life experience in a completely different context from the one they consider "home", is:

  ENJOY!!

Face every day with extreme curiosity, let yourself be carried away by events, by people, take new paths every day, ask questions, experiment.

Take as many walks as possible and get lost in the trees and houses.

Try your hand at experiences never done before.

Experience the local culture first-hand.

Taste new foods, let yourself be attracted by the scents.

Be ready to change and evolve.

Enjoy it and you will be forever grateful.

Shianda for me was all this.

Go out at any time of the day to buy something fresh to eat, 

stopping at the corner, on the main street or in the large market 

and chat with the ladies of the stalls.

Waking up in the morning to go spend an hour with my friends

and the "Shianda guys" in the gym above the office

and there fill up with smiles to face the day.

Walking for a 10-minute walk and returning home 3 hours later, 

because the landscape was getting more and more beautiful and new,

and it was impossible to stop.

Spend 5 hours sitting on a plastic chair, 

alternating moments of play with children, 

and laughter with passers-by, 

to have the famous braids.

See truckloads of sugar cane pass by 

and children run after them to get some. 

And many, many, many, many others..that I wish you all.

Facing everyday life in the village was an extremely beautiful and full of life experience.

Time flies

In the past two months time has flown by, and it is amazing to think that it is now only a short time before I return home. It is in the last month that I started to feel at home, because in any case adjusting to a new place, habits and people takes time. Especially the first month, because of the election everything was at a standstill, I experienced some ups and downs, had some anxious moments, and wondered if it was the right choice for me to come here. The answer is yes

Support group with young mothers

With Eugenie, a counseling volunteer, and the help of Hanna, a volunteer in the health area, we started meeting with a group of young mothers. At the first meeting we tried to understand their main needs. Most of them requested support for their children and for school fees, which unfortunately we have no possibility to grant. Hanna, however, managed to organize a three-day training on breastfeeding and child care. Meanwhile, Eugenie and I have started four support groups in different areas of Shianda. The groups meet every Sunday for about an hour each. To date we have talked about puberty, menstrual cycle and contraception. The girls are very shy, do not feel confident enough to speak in English and feel intimidated by the presence of two unknown adults, so there is a secret-box at each meeting where they can ask questions on any topic. The main goal is to create a bond between the girls and a safe environment where they can be free to express themselves. Hopefully the groups will continue to meet after we leave. Crucial will be Patrick, my mentor and active community member, who will help the young mothers meet. He is already involved in organizing the support groups every week and also trainings in the schools.

Bumini and Ebubere trainings

We organized trainings in two schools on reproductive health, consent, and how to recognize a healthy relationship from one that is not. Two students from each class participated and will then be responsible for disseminating the information they receive. Each class will be left with materials to help them talk about the topics.

GBV Ambassadors 

As soon as I arrived in Shianda, I attended Eugenie's counselling training, and from that moment our 

collaboration. At the end of September we organized a two-day training on different points of view, approach towards victims and listening.

I personally dealt with the approach to cases of violence that puts the victim at the center. I prepared two case studies: in one the victim was refusing help and in the other the victim had behaviors that were not accepted by the community (drinking, wearing short clothes). In both cases I focused on a non-judgmental approach, the importance of listening and respecting the victim's time. The goal is to always put the victim at the center and let them choose.

We are also working together to organize the November 12 public event on the topic of gender-based violence. For this reason, on October 24 we organized the first workshop where we decided on the topics to be addressed and their dissemination through posters and flyers.

The Map is ready!

Through the training on "Opportunities for people with disabilities" the community of Shianda acquired the competences necessary to reach the services and has been provided with the basic tools necessary to guarantee assistance in the social, educational and health fields.

We spent together three amazing days!

All the participants were well involved and interested in the topics.

Through the interaction between people, given by discussions, questions and answers, role playing and interventions by specialists, a network of contacts with the major local institutions has been created.

The participants have now a real “Map of services” and they are able to put in practice the knowledges they acquired, spread the info collected and train and link other people to the facilities and the institutions.

This is my last activity before my departure, and as I return home feeling proud and happy, people return home with greater confidence.

Shianda, thanks again for this energy!!!

Different perspectives...

My volunteer life in Kenya was full of ups and downs in the last two months.

On the one hand, I was not happy that I had to give up my plan to train the Secondary School g+c teachers on counselling. As explained in my first post I see a great value in that for the youth in the communities around Shianda. However, the head of the g+c department was not cooperative so that it was not possible to organize a training.

It took me a while to persuade myself that it is okay to give up on that idea even though it felt like I failed the youth and also meant that part of my work so far became useless. But in the end new opportunities opened up. Maybe even too many, because they sometimes even keep me busy during evenings and weekends...

A big positive change regarding my work was the arrival of Martina, the volunteer for gender. In the week after her arrival, she participated in my training on basic counselling skills for the gender-based violence ambassadors (gbva). During that training we realized that it would be beneficial to conduct a training with the gbva on the importance of multiperspectivity, understanding and communication. All as underlying base for the topics of counselling and gender. From there we worked on this training and included recaps on counselling and gender-based violence topics.

In the end of September, we finally conducted this training. In general, we were happy about the outcome. Grown together through the last training the gbva were more open to participate and discuss. 

The exercises I prepared for the training were aiming at the following:

- initiate reflection on the idea that every person has its' own perspective on life

- initiate reflection on the idea that we are all different in some aspects, but similar in others, e. g. that we might identify as women, but not all of us might identify as mothers whereas the mothers might identify themselves as parents and be that way in a group with the fathers

- promote an open-minded approach on different perspectives

- initiate reflection on the importance of communication to get information and to understand different perspectives 

Thinking a lot about how to reach those goals I finally adapted some creative exercises that are also used in trainings on intercultural awareness.

One of the exercises was to draw a picture in pairs. The participants were sitting back-to-back. One person of each pair was holding a picture which the other person of that pair was not able to see. The person with the picture had the task to describe the picture and the other person had the task to draw the picture following the description. The pictures chosen for that exercise were on purpose showing sceneries that are not typical for the people in Shianda. That way it was more essential to communicate and describe accurately.

In the first round only the person who was holding the picture was allowed to talk. In the second round (with another picture) the person who was drawing was also allowed to ask questions and communicate.

The first round was rather hectic, but by the end of the second round the participants seemed to have figured out how to work on that task together.

In the debriefing we talked about different perspectives as every picture looked different. How the drawings were described and drawn was both various. Furthermore, we talked about the importance and fragility of communication, e. g. that it is important to ask questions in order to get more information. All that can be related to counselling.

One of the gbva also mentioned that for him this exercise resembles how as gbva they get information/ stories from the gbva affected people. They can't "see" what happened. They can only listen and communicate to get "the picture".

Besides that, Martina and I also started to work with young mothers in the communities. Collaborating with Hanna, the volunteer for nursing, we talked to the young mothers in order to find out what kind of support they need and which of that we can offer. Most of the young mothers lack in financial support to provide for their children and also for their own school fees. Unfortunately, we can't offer this kind of support. However, after the needs assessment Hanna was able to facilitate a training on breastfeeding and childcare. Martina and I started to establish support groups in four different areas in the communities. We meet those groups every Sunday for around one hour each to talk about different topics they are interested in. So far we talked about sexual reproductive health, the female body (especially menstruation) and a little bit about (healthy) relationships. As most of the girls are too shy to talk in English and of course with adults they don't know we use a secret question box in the beginning of each meeting in order to identify topics the girls are interested in. It will take time until the girls will open up. However, our aim is to create a bond and exchange between the young mothers so that they can support each other with knowledge and emotionally. Hopefully, the young mothers will also meet regularly after Martina and I are gone. Patrick, the chairman of the young mothers group, will help to organize the support groups without us. He is also valuable for us in organizing our trainings and meetings with the young mothers. Without the help of the people who know the communities and community members it is not possible for us to do our work.

In the coming month, Martina, Hanna and I are also planning to train students of two schools on the topic of sexual reproductive health. The idea is that those students will function as multiplicators at their schools to do talks in their classes. We will also give out materials for each classroom so that students can read about this topic. 

Besides that, I will conduct another counselling training with volunteers from the WEFOCO groups in October. There is still a lot I want to do before I leave. Times flies by...

Funny fact... While I was writing this blog post I received the confirmation that the counselling training for the g+c Secondary School teachers will take place in the end. But I'm not going to change the post because this shows exactly the ups and downs and the unexpected happenings of a volunteer life in Shianda. Or as a Kiswahilian proverb says: "vitu zinaenda shagalabagala" (means sth. similar as "things are going crazy/ hazardous").

As I don't have enough funding anymore to facilitate a 3-day-training for the teachers as initially planned, it will only be a 2-day-training, but it is better than nothing. Let's hope that things won't go (too) crazy anymore...