By eryon180
This weekend, we stayed in the village of Simenya! Simenya is located an hour away from the the ancestral home of President Obama and his grandma Sarah Obama. I was a little worried because I had the expectations that we would be in a hut, as we had seen passing along the road. We arrived at night during the rain with our mosquito nets and toilet paper in hand. I was placed with the village electrician who lived away from the main town.
I was very surprised to learn that they lived on a large homestead. In the Luo community, the ancestral homes were set up in a U-shape with the mzee or man of the homestead’s house at the top and the youngest brothers at the end. The homestead that I was on was similar to this but each house had an iron sheet and dirt/cement walls. We also had electricity and I had my own room in the “youngest brother” house.
The kitchen was located off of the mzee’s house which was half a kitchen/half a shed for the family cow. However, the kitchen was comprised of a three stone firepit and a jicone which is a coal-fired mini-stove and has no ventilation. During the time in the village, I spent most of my time in the kitchen, learning how to roll chapattis on a stool and how to cook ugali over the fire. My host family was also very very open and we had chai together every morning, afternoon and evening. At the homestead, I also had my first bucket shower which was interesting because my host mom would boil water and then I would carry a jerry can to a shed behind the house. It was actually really refreshing but also fun to avoid lizards while cleaning.
In the village, we went to the market to practice our Swahili and we bought chickens for dinner. This was kind of difficult for me because I never had to experience picking my dinner and deciding directly that an animal was going to die for my food. I actually had to leave so I could process this. We also visited the village primary school, community development center and a orphaned babies home. I learned that an organization called Compassion International has a large foothold in the village but it has a huge positive impact on the village. The organization hosts individual sponsors and matches them with students. They fund the student’s school fees, send clothes, snacks and even mattresses! It was interesting to see the on the ground impact of those kind of organizations and how effective they are.
On the last day, we had a party at our homestay coordinator’s house. We had dancers, performers and a lot of village children were there too! We danced for hours and hours and it was a lot of fun. Even though we weren’t in Simenya for long, it definitely had a significant impact on me and I hope to go back before returning the US.