Random Observations/Experiences from Garissa

• Goats are much better looking than sheep… I never realized how ugly sheep are until being in Kenya, and specifically Garissa. I’m not sure if it’s a different kind of sheep or maybe I just never paid attention before, but they have this ugly lump of fat that hangs under their weird-looking tail. I cant help but think of the part in Cinderella where the women are at the ball and the backs of their dresses swish back and forth from the buttress when they walk. That is what sheep look like except its just gross.
• Sheep sleep in the middle of the road if there is shade there and wont move for anything.
  Another thing about animals: they are all so thin here, with the exception of goats, sheep and donkeys. I have all but forgotten what a cow looks like when every one of its ribs and tail bones is not showing, and sadly I’m starting not to think anything of it. Although, there are still times I see an animal walking by (since they pretty much all just roam free through town) and I want to cry because it is so emaciated that you are left wondering how it is even still moving around. The camels are like that often too, with droopy humps and clearly visible rib cages. Its very sad.
• When you buy rice or beans you have to pick through it first, even if you buy it in a bag at the store, because otherwise you will break your tooth on a rock.
• At my work when people talk they use English, Swahili and Somali and I’m not saying sometimes one and sometimes the other… they use all three in one conversations and just skip in and out of each as the need arises. It boggles my mind.
• On the way to outreach, the first time I went, it was sprinkling, and when I say sprinkling I mean maybe one drop per 3 sq ft of earth per minute. We passed through an areas with a few houses and I saw a girl out in her yard with hands spread wide and head facing the sky twirling in a circle and then a few yards later I saw another girl doing the same thing. It took me a while to realize that they were playing in the rain… that was probably the most rain they had seen in months. And it has only rained maybe 3 more times since then, only once enough to make the ground entirely wet and even that dried within a couple hours.
  I saw a small child at one of our outreaches that had obvious downs syndrome. She looked like she might be 3 years old… I later found out she was 6. In general, I find it really difficult to guess how old kids are. Many times I’m sure a kid is under 2 who turns out to be 3 or 4...
• The shelter we do outreach at in one of our locations was built by the community and is my favorite by far. Its made of sticks entirely and some reed thatching them together. Its my favorite not only because it looks beautiful, but because it manages to shade you from the sun and also allow for a breeze to come through (a nice breeze cant be overrated).
  I know what it is like to be an animal at the zoo. At our last outreach, in a place where I guess few mzungus go, as the children came out of school in the afternoon they crowded around the mat where I was conducting interviews with women about FGM. They kept their distance, I think out of fear, and just stared speaking with each other in Somali (so I had no idea what they were saying). The girl I was with translated some for me like “look at her skin, its so white”. At one point the crowd was at least 20 or more just standing and staring, but unwilling to come any closer. Eventually they were chased off by a guy who was helping us who decided it was rude for them to stare.
• At the same site, the same day, we were interviewing a young girl (12 years old) about her experiences with FGM. In the Somali community (90% of the people here are Somalis), pretty much every woman has undergone FGM, most by the age of 12 at the latest. As we were interviewing the girl another came up and stood at a distance crying and appeared to be pleading with the girl. I asked what was going on and my translator told me, “she is crying because she thinks you are going to slaughter her sister”. The girl on the mat was her sister and I guess I looked as if my intentions were sinister. That was pretty much the most shocking thing I have heard yet.
• Earlier that same morning, an older woman came over to our mat yelling something in Somali. I had no idea what she was saying and we kept up our interviewing as best we could until the lady was escorted away. I then asked what she had been saying. She was yelling for all the woman not to take part in our interview and not answer the questions because they are bad. It definitely was an interesting day…
• Somali men wear skirts. They are called kikois and everyone wears them, maybe not every day, but they all do it. Its basically a sarong for men and then they will pair it with a button down shirt for a formal occasion or maybe with a t-shirt informally. I wish it were ok for me to wear one all the time.
• Just this past week, I walked through town in the morning and when I got to work I was really hot. I sat down in the office and took off my scarf so that I could cool off faster and then put it back on when I stopped sweating. While I was sitting there reading a report on FGM, without my scarf still, a woman came in talking to one of my coworkers. I thought it looked like she was gesturing at me but I couldn’t tell and when I tried to meet her eyes and smile she didn’t seem interested so I just assumed she wasn’t there to talk to me. Later in the day I found out that she hadn’t been there to talk to me, but more to yell at me. She was trying desperately to find someone in the office who would translate from Somali for her so that she could yell at me. What had I done to make her so mad? Well, apparently she sees me around town and knows I work at SIMAHO and that morning she had seen me walking to work. She was not pleased with the length of my skirt (which was mid calf length by the way) and came to yell at me to dress like a Somali with ankle length skirts. I think she just got more mad when she found me temporarily without my head scarf. Very strange situation, but its good to know that my coworkers will stick up for me like they did.
• There are many cemeteries on the outskirts of my town. At first I didn’t know what they were, I thought they were just fields that had been depleted of trees. Eventually, I noticed that each mound of dirt had a stick coming out of the top towards one end and realized that they must be cemeteries. I wonder if people still know who is buried under each mound?
  There are storks in my town… probably thousands of them. It took me a long time to figure out what these strange-looking, tall birds were, but then one day it just clicked. They are storks. Although, they look more likely to swoop down and steal a child than deliver one.
• I used to buy my vegetables from the same woman in the market each time I went and eventually she asked me why I always buy so little of each thing. I only ever by a quarter of a pound of anything or else it will go bad before I can use it since things only keep for a couple days at most. The entire conversation was in Swahili. I told her, “because I cook for myself only” to which she replied “where are the visitors?”. I could only laugh and say “I don’t know” because saying “I don’t have any friends” just sounded sad. Haha. Maybe some day I’ll have a reason to buy more J
• I was buying mangos in the market the other day and a boy came running up to me with his hand out shouting “mzungu! Mzungu!” and the biggest smile on his face. I shook his hand and asked how he was. He ran away and then came right back to shake my hand again. The whole time I stood there buying my mangos he kept running up and grabbing my hand or fist bumping with me. His name was Julius and he is the cutest child in all of Garissa, I’m convinced. I had to stifle an urge to snatch him from the market right then and there. I hope I see him again his little smile made my whole day.
• Doing yoga and pilates in my room in the morning on the weekends I’m sure is the same as doing hot yoga back in America. I’m already sweating when I start, and sweating profusely by the time I finish… if only I could have cold water to shower in when I stopped I wouldn’t mind so much.
• The water straight from the ground outside my house, of late, is so warm. I come home from a long walk, sweaty and tired and hoping for a refreshing shower, but the water that comes from the tap is so warm. We’re talking, warm even to my hands that are sweaty and have been in 100 degree heat for an hour. The kind of water that would make for a great shower in the middle of winter back in Seattle. Water so warm that if I were baking I might be concerned that it would kill the yeast of my bread. Sometimes after running it for awhile, filling up other buckets, it becomes less hot, but some days it just keeps flowing like its coming straight from a hot water heater. I will never have to heat water using my solar shower at least… maybe someone could make one that cools water down?
• The face covering cloth that the Somali women wear, in addition to their head scarves, the one that covers all but their eyes, is called a Ninja. Seriously. Apparently its because of the similarity to the masks of ninjas… I didn’t believe it at first, but its true.
• There is a dance club in Garissa!! I found this out only last night and it was actually kind of fun. One of my roommates and I went, first to a bar called Town Club, and then to the club called Locus. I was shocked. Also, there is a big difference between dancing at clubs in Kenya an America. In Kenya, it’s the boys who are out on the floor first dancing with each other. Its very common and not at all strange for men to be dancing together or even to come pull a friend of theirs out of their seat to dance.