The transition from an idea to a reality, a face to a friend, a story to an identity...

Quick update: Life is Kenya is hectic but amazing.
-I've been working from about 8-7 the past week-and-a-half doing the trainings (last week) and working with the soap group (last week and this week). The training was amazing. We had 27 graduates, laughed a lot talkind about poop and water, and learned a lot from Elizabeth... she's great. Exciting news with the business: we've successfully made soap! And it's going to be economically viable! And the whole experience is like a mix between a chemistry project, a business, and a meeting of friends... mix in the fact that everyone speaks english as a second language and that the culture is completely different... it's crazy. It's been fun. Working with these people is teaching me so much about myself (and about working in a group.) That sounds cheesey, but it's true. I want SO badly for the business to be a success. Today we experimented coloring the soap with some local plants, adding scents with rosemary, citronella, and lemongrass, and working with local materials (lime and sodium carbonate) instead of wood ash or commerial lye. I'm going to bring some bars home to sell here so they can hopefully buy a bike to transport the soap to other markets!
-My friends here are amazing. I had a sleepover with a 21 year old and 40-something year old this past weekend because I was alone at the guesthouse. At church they do "fundraisers" for different causes/projects. People can bring money or gifts to give that are auctioned off during the service. I bought Jael (our cook) a chicken. She decided to keep it and name it Happy, because she knows I'm vegetarian and decided it was a happy chicken because it wasn't eaten and that she could use it to lay eggs for a while.
-Sunday a bunch of us when to Homa Bay to find some resources for the soap-making. We went to this volcanic area with hot springs and boiled an egg! And we met a former MP for the area, and we got tons of aloe vera plans (literally just pulled them out of the ground, threw them in the land rover, and replanted them to use for the soap), we were led to this stone that "looks like an alligator"... after a really long walk I was not too entertained... the story is that an alligator escaped from Lake Victoria and walked up to this rock and then got too tired and died there and was turned to stone in the heat. It was hilarious. It looked nothing like an alligator. Also, we all got in the lake and it was amazing! So beautiful! Hills and the water all in one place...


The real blog entry: Sitting on my bed, under my mosquito net with the window open behind me, the sound of kids playing soccer outside, birds, cows, chickens, the smell of the pineapples that are arranged on my chair, ripened and ready to be eaten, and the most beautiful sunset somewhere out there... I say it's beautiful even though I can't see it at the moment because it's beautiful every single day. This is my reality. For months (the past 3 years really) living in this reality has been an idea or a dream of mine. It's unbelievable to realize that in just 5 and a half days I'll be flying away from this reality to land only hours later in another reality that is equally my own. All of these... the dreams and the realities... are equally beautiful to me.

Side note: The past few weeks I've really struggled with knowing that wealth is so abundant in the US, that it seems as if you could reach out, pick it off a tree, and just give it to someone here to taste it.* I laugh (not really laugh) when I think of these 8 people who have become friends, working every day for hours to learn how to make soap, advertise, run a business, etc... all for a product that they will sell (if they are successful) at 10ksh/bar. This is about 15 cents/bar. I laugh thinking if I got a grant or a donation for $1000 dollars (80,000ksh), that it would be the equivalent of them selling 8000 bars of soap... or really 16,000 since they'll cost about 5ksh each to produce.

To continue: I've struggled with this so much while I've been in Kenya... the disparties... that all the hardships and frustrations and atrocities that I've encountered... from hearing of so many preventable deaths to witnessing car accidents to hearing about post-election violence to experiencing corruption first-hand at the post office... I will leave these sorts of issues when I fly back to the US, but this life is a reality for so many people living in less-developed countries. For these 2 months, this is my reality; I take the good with the bad, the delicious fruits with the heart-breaking stories, always knowing that it is temporary, but also thinking it beautiful (maybe because I know it's temporary?) However, this is thier reality indefinitely. While a lot of them wouldn't have it any other way, and seem at home hanging onto the backs of matatus**, eating Kenyan food with pride over the way they make it better than those in other parts of Kenya, and using thier meager resources in ways that are absolutely fascinating***, there are a lot of people here who dream of living in the US or Canada or the UK. The idea of the US/Canada/UK is beautiful to them... maybe their reality isn't beautiful, or maybe certain parts are, but would living in the US/Canada/the UK really be as beautiful as they imagine?

I'm quite in love with an author/poet Brian Andres, who writes poems called "Story People." When I was in Shimba Hills, sitting ontop of these beautiful rocks that overlook the village and the rolling hills and the houses like dots, where you can see the ocean peek through between the hill crests, I was reminded of one of the poems. It just came to me like a good idea or the feeling hunger... so naturally. The poem is "She said she usually cried at lease once each day not because seh was sad, but because the world was so beautiful & life was so short." Sitting on these rocks with the amazing view and the hot sun and the breeze and the kids playing just overwhelmed me with an appreciation for the beauty of Life and of Living. Since that day I've been reminded of the poem each day. I wonder if Kenyans become overwhelmed with how beautiful the world is. I think they do. This is their reality but it's a beautiful one... I think it's normal to romanticize ideas/dreams, but reality is normally a lot less glamorous than we'd expected. Life, my reality, is much more beautiful than even the way i dreamed it.

In a similar way, I think we glamorize faces and stories until we really get to know the person and the identity behind them. A face becomes a friend when you've looked close, seen the flaws, and still are able see the beauty. I think it's a lot more common to idealize a face or a story when it's distant than to still see it as beautiful when you get up close. My friends here (and my friends are home) are so incredibly beautiful. In the same way, thier identities are beautiful. I can glamorize thier faces and stories... tell you about incredible perserverance against all odds, and creativity and intelligence and amazing singing and physical beauty, but honestly, these people have flaws too. They're beautiful all the same. I feel so blessed to have gotten close enough to them, to have shown them my flaws and still be accepted by them, and to have seen their flaws and still seen the beauty.

This blog made no real sense. But it's okay!

*I have this incredible urge to just GIVE people money because so little goes so far. At the same time, I know this isn't the answer.
**a mini-bus with about 12 seats that usually is filled with over 20 peoople, including several hanging out the sliding door (door opened) and a few holding onto the back (completely outside the vehicle as it flies over potholes, around slower vehicles, etc).
***I'm the first to admit that i don't have the most "common sense" of any person out there. But the resourcefulness that Kenyans have is amazing. I saw a guy carrying a full-sized wooden bed fram on the seat of his bicycle as he stood beside, guiding the bike, and wheeling it home. Working with people who have SO MUCH common sense about EVERYTHING is beautiful and humbling.

What a week!

This week has been an emotional rollercoaster... I feel incredibly exhausted and exhilerated at the same time!
The week consisted of:
-Attempting to make more soap, and struggling to embrace the successes along with the failures... trying to learn something new, especially when your resources are so limited, is difficult!! I've found myself measuring with water bottles, using plastic bags ripped up to line molds, stirring with sugar cane... all and all it's been crazy.
-Having numerous house visits with random lovely people of Lwala. Their generosity and kindness is astounding. I've officially eaten the most questionable food I've ever had. I dont even want to think about it long enough to recount the details on here. Also, eggs and spinach and sweet potatoes and avacado and everything for that matter tastes better here! I dont know if its the lack of more exciting options or just that everything is so fresh and happy and authentic... from the garden or picked up out of the yard... its amazing.
-SOAP meetings with the director of LCA, some of the staff members, and the potential group members/employees! we're looking for ways to make the process of soap-making less expensive... getting oil wholesale, growing plants that produce a lot of oil, looking for lye in construction warehouses or buying wood ash from locals... we're going to make it work : ) the kenyans are WAY more resourceful than me and understand the need for economic efficiency in a way that I will never fathom... so I'm sure they'll figure it out! We're treating this idea like a project rather than a business for now... presenting the group memebers/employees with the skills to make soap, to run a business, and to advertise, and they will decide whether its worth thier time and energy to make it a business!!
-Sunday I went and sang with a bunch of the women in the choir at teh nearby church... Susan took me and Leah was there and we sang and I told them I loved "Come Thou Fount" and sang it for them and then they brought out the words to the Swahili version of the song and we sang it all together and it was a perfect moment.
-Monday we had a meeting with the past participants of the WASH training and they were so sweet and then some of the women took me to this other meeting which was, as far as I could tell, a secret society of the women of Lwala. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. There were about 25 or 30 of them, and me, and we had chai and mandazi and they asked me so many questions, most of which I didnt know the answers to, about microfinance and HIV/AIDs orphanages and community development and tons of other things... it was amazing... I'm going back for my last 2 mondays in Lwala.
-This weekend Susan, Kelly, Tina and I went to Nairobi, then Tina and I flew to Mombasa, we met Mary, a friend, and Dickson, in town, had lunch, explored Mombasa, shopped, got our train tickets, and then went back to Mary's house to eat and sleep. This morning we woke up, went to teh BEAUTIFUL beach, were waifs for a while stumbling in and out of beach resorts filled with a hilarious mix of Europeans on holiday (speedos) and American missionaries relaxing after spreading the Good News (t-shirts and visors). We're heading to Ray of Hope to visit the kids and the orphanage and then riding the train back to Nairobi and then Tina is headed home and I'm headed to Lwala for my last 2 weeks...
- I cant belive that just 2 weeks from now I'll be heading out of Lwala, for home. It seems crazy... I have so many mixed feelings about it but all and all I feel like it will be a good time for me to leave...

Pray/Hope for the soap business, for Tina's travel back to the US, for the people of Kenya... for a productive and intimate last couple of weeks in Lwala... : )

An unconventional fourth and another phenomenal week : )

I've had another incredible week! Quick updates:
1. I feel so blessed to be friends with Susan, Leah, and Serah. All three of these women are so strong, intelligent and kind. They have graciously invited me into thier homes, fed me* what little they have, taught me through thier stories and hard-learned lessons, and dragged me into a few experiences that will surely become some of my most fond memories from the summer. It's truly the people who make a place... and Lwala has some incredible people!
2. The soap business is officially happening! I have less than 3 weeks left in the village (what?!?!) and so this (along with the last WASH training and finishing up work at the 10 schools) will take center stage in what will surely become a crazy last couple of weeks!! If you know of any grants for social business/entrepreneurship/microfinance, please let me know!! Or if you have any experiencing starting a business, any advice will help! I finally made the lye from wood ash today, SUCCESSFULLY**!! So now I have to add oil and it will be ready to be taught to others and sold... trying something new is SO much fun, but really difficult in a place with completely different resources, and where the nearest town is 30 minutes away and the nearest city is an hour away... it's been a struggle but I'm so happy it finally worked!
3. I changed my ticket to July 26th... this was the only ticket available and I thought that my originally date to leave on the 15th was pushing me too close to the start of the new semester and I was also told that I shouldnt be in/around Kenya near the vote for the constitutional referendum at the beginning of August. Luckily Virgin lets you change your flight for free : ) I know this won't be my last time in Eastern Africa so I'm not all too sad about not being able to travel around as much.
* Yesterday I went to Leah's house and had the most disgusting food I've ever eaten. It was so bad that it made the millet cake they eat, called Ugali, taste good. I'm not sure what it was, but I think it was from the leaves of a pumpkin or a squash plant. Leah and I have been exchanging visits at one anothers' houses and she is an incredible cook and an even better story teller. She is an oak tree to her children, family, friends, and the community. I love this woman. If you pray, pray for her... if you hope, hope for her... she's pretty sick but she's a fighter : )
** In order to use lye from wood ash to make soap, the lye has to be a certain strength. To test the strength, you float an egg in the lye. The whole process of leeching the lye from the wood ash is WAY over my head and I've tried about half a dozen times to make it, all with great disappointment as I've dropped an egg in the dark-brown liquid and watched it sink to the bottom. Tonight, over lantern-light, the egg floated!! I was SOO happy!! The hard part is over... now I can teach people to make soap so that it can be sold in Lwala, surrounding communities, and in Rongo, to generate some income for the community. I've never been more excited, and simultaneously intimidated. Pray/hope for this too.

Another beautiful week to come, I'm sure of it!