07 12: Latest News: Our July Volunteer Trip Blog:

           Kevin Williams, Kenya Project Chair

            After a wonderful Bon Voyage party thrown for us by Maywood Kenya Project co chair Joann McKay, 22 of us left for JFK to start our adventure. 

            But we picked a very bad week to fly to Nairobi via London’s Heathrow airport; they had a terrorist threat, heightened alert, and baggage mismanagement problem for ALL passengers’s transferring to other flights. When we arrived in Nairobi, all of our luggage was lost!  You may have read about that in the news, but we thought it was just our luggage lost, not tens of thousands of people’s luggage. Some luggage was found after four days, but for six volunteers, their luggage only arrived hours before we left.  Can you imagine living out of your carry on luggage all week?  But my 21 volunteers didn’t complain but took it as a challenge.  The people who did get luggage shared with those who didn’t.  We bought out the gift shop’s t shirts and taxed the tent camp’s laundry.  It was a bonding experience for all of us.   One volunteer summed it up, “How can I complain about not having my seven days worth of clothes when the school children only have one uniform for the entire year?” 

            Worse than losing our luggage, we lost four volunteers, Jeanne Matullo, Monica Reeder, and Bill and Doreen Wetzel who were stuck in London security while our plane to Nairobi took off.  We were constantly worried, but they had a nice night in a good hotel in London courtesy of British Airways and then joined us in Kenya the next day.

             For the rest of us, we spent a wonderful night in a Nairobi hotel and then a nice visit to a giraffe rescue center.  They ate right out of our hands!  Then there was a 45 minute flight in a too small plane to Siana Springs Luxury Tent Camp.  Everyone was so surprised at how wonderful their beds, showers, electric lights and full bathroom was, they expected primitive not luxury.

             On Sunday night, we had our first dinner at Siana Springs.  Shortly after dinner, you could hear the singing of the Maasai warriors approaching the open air dinning room.  And they came with a surprise for one of our volunteers.  Diane Rhodes, the head librarian in Maywood, was to start that day as the new incoming president of Maywood Rotary but she was in Kenya.  So the Maasai Warriors held their own “Installation Ceremony” to officially recognize Diane’s presidency.  She was pinned by the warriors and given an honorary Maasai name which in English means “Dependable”. She was very surprised.  It was  Maywood Rotary’s and probably any Rotary Club’s first Maasai Installation!  

Every morning, our volunteers could have an in person wake up call with hot coffee and or tea delivered to the porch on their tent.  And if you had your coffee on the porch, you might be joined by a few small deer that are called “Dick Dicks”.  One volunteer, Michelle, said, “We aren’t going to a zoo, we are living in a zoo; all the animals just come right to us.: And to everyone’s surprise, the tent housekeeper placed a hot water bottle in your turned down bed each night!  And every night, there was a cacophony of animals sounding off and led by the Tree Hyrax. 

            You might ask, “Why a hot water bottle in Africa?”  No one believed me when I told them that where we are going in Kenya it is NOT hot.  But it was very cool at night and in the morning.  In fact, on Monday, the first day of our visit to the school, we were greeted by Boniface, the assistant head teacher, and he was wearing a full length down filled ski coat!  He said, “I apologize for my dress, but it is very cold this morning.”  It was 58 degrees!  While you were having a heat wave back here in New Jersey, we were wearing sweaters and long sleeve shirts while sitting around a bonfire each night to stay warm.

Monday was our first day of volunteering at the school for all but four stranded passengers.  Volunteer Lynn Ofrane was the head of the volunteers who wished to walk the 1 kilometer each morning to the school.  It was her responsibility to collect the walkers and find the Siana Springs security man who accompanied everyone with his rifle so we did not lose any valuable volunteer labor to hungry wild animals.  We called him Chuck Connors.  Few in Maywood will believe it, but I actually walked to the school one morning and have the pictures to prove it.

The rest of us went in a Jeep to the school at 8:30 each morning.  The first day was the most meaningful to many volunteers.  They were astounded and deeply moved at how hundreds of children ran up to them to greet them.  They wanted to touch them, hold them and hug them while they thanked them. They shouted “Jambo” in Kiswahili or “Soapa” in their native language “Mai”. It was a warm “Welcome” in any language.  Several returning volunteers were so surprised that the students remembered their names.  Kelly Wright of Maywood listened while the Kindergarten children sang the songs she taught them last year.  And when I started to speak at the welcome ceremony, I asked all the 280 assembled students “Do you remember who I am?” and they all shouted “Kelvin Williams Rotary!”    

We were given a tour of the school showing all the progress that was made thanks to donors during the last year.  I was so impressed by the new school kitchen built with the donations from two elementary school children in Glenn Rock. Unlike the old kitchen, it had a roof, four walls, a fireplace for three large cooking pots, a storage space for the beans, rice and corn as well as the very first building in the entire area with water piped into a building!  Imagine your kitchen not having water and you will see how important this is.   

Last year, the volunteers gave a four year scholarship to the only 8^th grade girl, Janet Lepore.  Janet was the first Maasai girl to attend high school, such a thing never happened before. And Janet came down from her high school to see us give the second four year scholarship to 8^th grader Margaret Letura, again, the only girl in eight grade. 

This year, I decided that the best way our volunteers could better understand Maasai culture was to assign each of them a “Student Partner” who would “shadow” or be with them the entire week.  It was the smartest idea I came up with. Each volunteer was assigned their student on Monday morning. And relationships grew very deeply by the end of the week to the point that one volunteer from Maywood, Linda Tobin, promised her seventh grade student a full four year scholarship to high school.  And that’s a $2,500.00 donation!  Other volunteers are considering doing the same gift to their students. 

Monday was a difficult day with more challenges.  Four volunteers were still back in London.  The truck carrying library books, garden tools, seeds, school supplies (pens, pencils, blank notebooks, etc) thousands of library books, two swing sets, one see saw, one jungle gym, other playground equipment, 36 bunk beds for the boy’s dormitory did not arrive.  But that did not stop our 22 volunteers.  They took the paint that was already there and started to paint the entire boy’s dorm.  Other volunteers cut the tall grass and dug up the hard dirt for the new school garden.  Nothing was going to stop our volunteers. 

What happened with our volunteers during the next four days was just one miracle after another: 

Returning volunteer and former Maywood councilwoman Jeanne Matullo had a great idea that was very popular among all the students and staff.  She enlarged and printed out all the pictures she took on last year’s trip and put them into an album she donated to the school.  For children who have never seen a picture of themselves, it was a wonderful gift. Jeanne also had help from her fellow volunteer Gail, also from Florida in assembling all the playground equipment.  The children had never seen a swing or sea saw and had to be taught how to enjoy them by another returning volunteer, Kelly Wright from Maywood.  Professional photographer Lynn Ofrane from Teaneck took Empopongi Primary School’s first class pictures which she will print and matt at her own expense and sent to the school as her gift to the children. Her last “class” picture was of our 22 volunteers which she labels “Mr. Kelvin Williams’ volunteer trip class 07”!  

When the supplies did show up, there was no one happier than the Director of the Maywood Library, Diane Rhodes.  She was joyful to be able to create the first school library in the entire area.  With her volunteers Dorothy Fenniman, Bill Wetzel, Doreen Wetzel, Jane Dineen, Cathy and others, they cataloged over a thousand books purchased in Kenya with donations to the Maywood Rotary Kenya Project.  The library is no bigger than a very small bedroom in any house in Maywood, but it is the most beautiful library I have ever seen in my life. Diane set it up so that the surrounding two schools and seven villages can borrow any of the books the teachers requested we buy. 

The Maywood Rotary Kenya project is always looking for ways to make our adopted school more self sufficient.  Last year our volunteer team built a fence around the entire school to keep the animals out.  That accomplishment allowed us to build a school garden so that the school could grow their own food for lunch each day.  We were lucky enough to have Maywoodian Dorothy Fenniman’s grandson, Spenser Fenniman, a manager of an organic farm in Maine join us.  Spenser spent months researching how best to start the garden while each of the students of Empopongi Primary students brought cattle manure to the school each day.  With the help of many of our volunteers and dozens of students, they planted Kale, pumpkins, onions, tomatoes, carrots, cabbage, spinach, lentils and potatoes.  And Julie Harris Kleinert not only dug the garden like Peter Rotolo, she also made up signs for each plot from small pieces of wood she found.  When she wasn’t busy with the garden, Julie spent time painting the boy’s dormitory.

Cathy Palumbo, another volunteer, had a complaint about painting the dorms, if she stopped painting for even one moment; one of the student partners would grape the paint brush right out of her hand.  All the students wanted to work on our projects because it was their school.  At one point I was worried because we had to carry the parts for 36 bunk beds from a storage space up several hundred feet to the dorm for assembly. It would take the volunteers a long time.  But before our volunteers could start the work, dozens of very small children were carrying bed head boards, foot boards and box springs!     

Maywood volunteers Bill and Doreen Wetzel, both Clinical Social workers, got a special assignment.  About a year ago, a tourist from Utah, Coral Terry, visited our adopted school.  She noticed two children who needed medical operations, Benson with a missing arm and Samuel with a deformed foot.  She made the commitment to bring both children to Salt Lake City for the medical operations they needed.  Bill and Doreen did many hours of interviews with both students so that we would have the information needed to make them feel more welcome and less uncomfortable visiting the USA. In the process of these extensive interviews, Doreen and Bill became our first hard experts on Maasai culture, learning more cultural information than we could have hoped for. Look for them to give a talk about it soon in Maywood. 

Returning volunteer and Superior Court Judge Lois Lipton taught “Gender Equality” last year.  This year she used her skills to help run the meeting with the Empopongi Primary School Board of Education.  Lois was impressed that all the elders were sincerely grateful for the four year’s help by the Maywood Rotary Kenya Project.  They did not want to be dependent upon us and agreed to help cover 10% of the cost of all future construction projects.  That is a massive amount for the Maasai community and a good step towards independence. 

The board of education members wanted to show their gratitude to me personally for all the work I do for the Kenya Project.  I was honored until they explained to me that the highest traditional Maasai honor they could give me was to give me a newborn daughter!!!!  Knowing that Tim would kill me, I had to decline so they offered me two cattle.

Volunteers Alyssa Locascio, a first grade teacher from Glen Rock and Kelly Wright from Maywood, provided a lot of joy for the children.  Alyssa taught yoga to children, wisely using yoga positions the children would understand: the lion, the cat, the rabbit, and other animals the children were already familiar with.  Kelly brought music and taught the American dances they learned last year during her visit.  There were literally hundreds of children crowding around both volunteers and eager to learn. Carolyn Rhodes, another volunteer had the brilliant idea of bringing bubble mixture and wands for the children, something they have never seen before.  With the help of  Monica Reeder, volunteer from Washington, the Maasai children learned how to blow bubbles while other children chased the bubbles.  Monica had another great idea, she brought many jump ropes, something the Maasai have never seen before.  But within a few short hours, they learned how to “Double Dutch” with great skill. 

 If you have seen the pictures of our adopted school, you know it is rather stark looking, so one donor gave specific funds to plant flowers and bushes around the school.  Volunteer Michele Dick and Arlene Rotolo, with the help of many students, dug through the hard soil to plant these flowers and bushes.  It took a lot longer that you would think.

Some of our volunteers did manage to do some teaching.  With the battery powered DVD player we brought to donate to the school, Linda Tobin taught a class on different American families.  Linda told me, “I have found that if you have an 11 inch DVD screen, you can fit 22 attentive Maasai children in chairs to watch the entire DVD.”  Bill Wetzel did a short health class for the older boys.  And Alyssa Locascio and Kelly Wright gave an extensive, detailed and helpful health class for girls.  Dorothy Fenniman stood at the door making sure no boy students tried to get in.

Did you know that the Maywood Rotary Club’s Kenya Project has a branch in London, England?  It’s headed by Wayne Collins a donor who has provided so much to the school including a new Nursery/Kindergarten last year as well as two four year scholarships to 8^th grade boys to go to high school.  This year, he donated the cost of the girls dormitory and brought his party of six volunteers to work with us at the school.  They arrived on Wednesday July 4^th, so naturally, we invited them to our surprise (to the volunteers) 4^th of July party!!!  Being good sports, they joined us in a special dinner in the bush under a tent decorated with 4our surprise (to the volunteers) 4^th of July party!!!  Being good sports, they joined us in a special dinner in the bush under a tent decorated with 4^th of July decorations.  Our Master of Ceremonies, The Honorable Superior Court Judge Lois Lipton made the following official proclamation at the party:

“By the legal power invested in me by myself, I hereby proclaim that every USA and UK citizen will be an honorary Kenyan Citizen tonight and that every Kenyan Citizen is an honorary USA and UK citizen today!”   But Judge Lois didn’t stop their.  She then insisted that all Kenyan citizens (every staff member), UK citizens and USA citizens sing their national anthems, one after another.  It was so wonderful, it almost made up for missing Tim as Grand Marshall.  But when we were done singing, Lois wasn’t yet done.  She then ordered we all sing all our national anthems at the same time as loud as we could.  We did and it was hilarious! 

The “Brits” as they became known as, were a very helpful, important and funny addition to our volunteer group. They would work hard at the school each day and then at night we would all meet in the bar lounge. The Brits on the left side of the room and the Yanks on the right.  The rivalry continued with a singing competition.  Led by Jeanne Matullo, the American’s would come up with one song, like “My Country Tis of Thee” and then the Brits would retaliate with “God Save the Queen”.  At one point, a Swedish Doctor came into the bar and we all switched to singing Abba!  I haven’t laughed that hard in years and look forward to seeing the Brits again next year.  They are Rotarians without even knowing it. 

Our last day at the school was deeply moving.  The students came to dance and sing for us.  But most impressive to our volunteers is that almost every student’s father and mother showed up to thank us.  The mother’s presented each volunteer with hand made jewelry as gifts of thanks.  It was heartbreaking to say good bye to our student partners, the teachers and all the other students.  Every one of our volunteers left a piece of their heart at our adopted school, Empopongi Primary School. And as group trip leader, I am so proud of each of them.  I hope next year’s group leader is as lucky as I am with the volunteer’s contributions and hard work. 

Four years ago, Corey saw the school and said something had to be done about it.  I told him it would be impossible.  I was wrong and I am glad that Corey was right.  It changed the world for over 280 children and their families because now they can live with food, clean water, an equipped school and hope for a better future.  

 

Kevin Williams, Chair

Maywood Rotary Kenya Project

July 13, 2007