Gut Feelings

This trip was difficult long before I ever left. I was having second thoughts a couple of weeks before I left, but a non-refundable plane ticket had me hooked.

At first it seemed so perfect. The Africa of my first travel dreams was calling. I found an ad on Dave's ESL looking for volunteers; the timing was perfect and the bait was a three day safari, all expenses paid. Noises were made that contributions towards flights might be possible; Alison, the woman organizing the trip implying she had done these many times before, had lots of funding experience and a host of people queuing up to give her money. Later these assertions would turn out to fall somewhere between very generous stretches of the imagination and outright lies.

Then came the flight drama. I couldn't get one. And the more I put off making a decision, the rarer and more expensive they became; at last my only option for getting from Japan to Africa was business class. Of course I wanted to go in August. Super prime travel time for Japanese, who in their organized way, manage to plan months, if not years ahead for overseas trips.

I pretty much gave up, and a smarter person would have realized this was the universe in protection mode. I started looking at other options: I had five weeks off and money to go anywhere. Most of Asia would be engulfed in monsoon rains: there went Sumatra, Burma, and Nepal, my next choices. South America was equally expensive as Africa and Europe really didn't appeal. I started thinking about catching the new train from Beijing to Lhasa, wondering about the politics of using a means guaranteed to finally destroy what is left of Tibetan culture.

But many years of dreams of Africa haunted my subconscious. Then a bright idea. Catch a flight from Seoul to Kenya. A Korean workmate recently mentioned he got a flight to Seoul for the bargain basement price of about $50. I managed to organize a ticket for around my budget and was going. Ticket paid for, couriered over and I was locked in.

After my failed fundraising attempt, I was assured that if I sent all the boxes of stationary over that I had collected, I would be reimbursed the postage cost. Yeah right. The tundra will melt first.

Alison was awaiting charity status so she could procure funds. She told us that AVIF was a new charity set up specifically for the Kenya project. As soon as the registration went through, she could access the funds promised through grants. None of us ever questioned this. At the time I was trying to get my head around fundraising myself, Bo and I needing to raise vast amounts of money to get the roof rethatched at Chiiori. I was really looking forward to learning about the art of asking people for large amounts of cash.

A week before we were due to leave Alison told us all that she wouldn't be coming as she herself couldn't afford a plane ticket. Alarm bells started hammering. The words UNPROFESSIONAL screamed in my head, but I banished them, preferring not to worry about how a single parent could set up an NGO as her main activity and not have figured out how to pay herself; Alison now pleading dire poverty and claiming she could barely afford to feed her kid.

I focused instead on the positives. What could really go wrong. I had a plane ticket, a safe amount of cash and a huge chunk of time.

I was going.

Promises

I promised to write up a complete update on my trip to Africa; obvious to all it hasn't happened, bar some pretty pictures. Procrastination is my defence, but procrastination is a poor excuse for an excuse, surely only masking a greater fear.

Kenya was supposed to be a break from the pleasant routine of here in Japan. A trip to give me something to think about, some challenges, and a timely reminder of my mission in life. I had a romantic idea of going from a very rich country to a very poor one and coming away untouched but enlightened none-the-less.

In truth it was all of these things and more, rather than a kick up the arse, more of a kick in the guts, a shattering of my self confidence, something I crawled away from and only now, a month later have the distance necessary to look at the whole experience more objectively.

From the safe distance of Japan, with the added protection of a computer as an intermediary, I'm going to try to make an attempt to be as honest as possible about what happened internally and externally, possibly more for my own gratification rather than yours; an important first step in moving on from the disappointment in myself and starting again, for the eight hundred and sixty second time or so.

I'll try to head towards the humorous rather than the self indulgent, and please fell free to help with the arse kicking if it all gets a bit much.

Photos online

The first set of photos can be found here.

The lions are hiding in the bushes here.



More kids can be found here.

Back

Not a very informative blog so far, I hear you all screaming in disappointment. However keep your eyes peeled and in the next few weeks I'll be conducting post operative examinations.

I'm also going to set up an online slideshow if you feel like checking out some of the 300 odd phohtos I took. And that's after some serious deletion!

Wahoo! Leaving.

Yes folks. It almost didn't happen.

What with not being able to get a ticket and then not having a visa, I thought for a while i was going to spend the summer sitting in my apartment looking at awasted plane ticket, living on rice.

It all started when my boss sent me off to immigration by myself. Hasn't he figured out yet I can't even tie my sholaces without a diagram. He'd filled out the application for me, left off half the information and forgotten to date my new contract. oops.

So we're waiting, waiting, waiting for the piece of paper to arrive in the mail saying my visa is ready and it never comes. Last week he goes into immigration on Thursday to "sort things out." I receive a phone call on Friday saying my visa won't be ready for another week.

BUT I NEED TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY ON WEDNESDAY.

To get back into Japan I need a re-entry visa. Without a valid working visa I can't get this. If I leave without this, everything gets cancelled and I would have to come back in on a tourist visa, reapply for everything and not be able to legally work in the meantime.

Another phone call says it "might" be ready on Monday or Tuesday. I burst into tears for an indecently long time and then do all my shuji homework to clear my brain. i buy the best insurance cover I can and hope not having a visa will cover missing a flight.

Finally the call comes onMonday morning. Visa is ready and waiting.

I'M GOING!!

pencils

Some time ago I sent out a letter to all the kids at the elementary school where I teach two mornings a week. It was a very formal fundraising letter explaining that I am giving up my summer holiday and working for free to help the poor starving children of Kenya. If the children wished to help they could contribute a small gift or donation towards the cause. I asked a friend to translate it into Japanese for me.

Somewhere in the middle, the translation became skewed, or more likely, my understanding of Japanese culture wigged out. I was hoping that maybe 10% of the kids would buy a small packet of funky Japanese pencils - they’re usually sold in boxes of 10 over here – and the parents might kick in $10. That would go nicely towards the exorbitantly expensive airfare and i could take an extra bag of stuff over for the kids.

I think we’re about to have a marked impact upon the economy of Western Kenya. I could quite easily set up my own stationary store. Apparently pens and pencils are significant units of currency in Kenya. I’ve heard stories of kids being given pens by foreigners and the dad going off to the local shop with it to trade for food or alcohol. I think the value of the pencil is about to drop sharply. Similar to after WWII when Germans were carting wheelbarrows of cash around. At least the kids will have something to write with. I must have several thousand pencils alone. I planned to count them all and make an inventory of everything, but time is not a luxury I can afford right now!


I forgot that Japan is a gift giving culture. Kind of stupid, really, when I get given something at least once a week. This week my student Shou gave me a box of cakes for giving him lifts home after class, one of my student’s mum’s (is my apostrophe usage correct there???) and my landlady brought over a chunk of watermelon for me. Oh – and i spent four hours this morning sorting through an entire corridor full of gifts for Kenyan kids.

I'M TRAVELLING BY PLANE, NOT CAMEL, GUYS.

One of the teachers asked how I was going to send everything and seemed quite shocked when I said I didn’t know. I further mentioned I am quite broke at the moment and won’t be making any cash next month. I was kind of hoping the school or the teachers might get together and kick in towards postage costs. No luck. It seems everyone thinks I will be working with UNICEF or some equally big mob despite my repeated attempts to explain grass-roots.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, depending upon how you look at it, some of the parents gave me all their kids old stuff. Old toys, old faded clothes, old scrubby used crayons, even half used exercise books. I figured with the huge amount of new stuff that was donated, the Kenyan kids aren’t going to miss it, and a lot of stuff wasn’t even worth the postage cost.

Trying to explain tactfully to the principle that I really appreciate everyone’s efforts, but that Kenya isn’t Japan’s garbage dump, was tricky to say the least. Luckily he understood and our big secret is that he is going to store stuff at his house until my next trip overseas. I’m still not quite sure how figurative this storage will be, but as long as I don’t have to deal with it, that’s fine!

At the end of the day I have three large boxes to take to the post office tomorrow morning, and a huge grip to take on the plane with me. My regular pack will also be half full of exercise books.

In cash, I raised about $40. Not enough to send even one box!!!

Not to sound ungrateful however, a huge thank you to everyone who contributed in whatever way. I'll be taking some really funky stuff over that could never be found in Kenya. Plus, most of it's going to arrive after we've all left and been forgotten about. A nice little bonus.

Thank you again everyone.

Surprise!!!

Welcome to my newest adventure.

All those who made it to Africa before me are now duly forgiven. It seems a lifetime ago that Mel and John and I sat in an Epping kitchen and discussed our big year in Africa, the big year which needless to say never happened. Ever since I first though of hopping on a plane Africa has always been my final destination in mind. My first big trip was to be briefly through SEA on the way to Europe and from there travel down from Morocco. Unfortunately my Dad got sick and I left Bangkok for Sydney not London. However, I still want to cross the Sahara. My greatest dream is still to sail from Darwin to Cape Town.

This is to be my reconnaissance mission. I have five weeks in Kenya with a small grass roots mob called AVIF. We have orientation in Nairobi followed by four weeks teaching in the middle of nowhere. Ostensibly we are going in as English teachers, however it sounds like we’ll be cover a wide range of bases. The HIV epidemic has hit Kenya hard, and as always, the women and children are the ones suffering most. Widows are hit especially hard; in some communities they have to undergo inhumane “cleansing rituals” which further expose them to the virus if they are so far clean. Children are pulled out of school to care for ailing relatives or to make money, or often because they simply cannot afford an education. Reading and writing are not necessary skills in many African communities. I’ve attached a couple of reports for anyone really interested.

However all this is on hearsay. Communications of all forms will be scarce, however I will be keeping extensive written, and hopefully video, records. After my comfortable life here in Japan, I’m looking forward to having scarce access to water and electricity. I need something of a shake up and going from one of the richest countries in the world to one of the poorest sounds like a sure fire way to make me re-examine everything all over again.