Rural Homestay

So, the week after orientation week was rural homestay week.  We all boarded the lorry (which is the giant blue truck with a row of back to back benches running lenghtwise down the bed facing outwards) and started the 8 hour drive to Kabondo, a Luo community in Western Kenya near Lake Victoria. The lorry doesn't exactly have the worlds greatest suspension, and Kenya doesn't exactly have the worlds greatest roads, so the ride itself was a little unpleasant. We did get to see lots of wildlife on the way, though, including giraffes, zebras, baboons (who were literally in the road), flamingoes, storks, and wildebeest, which was pretty cool.  Kabondo is a rural area, and many of the homes are cow dung and mud huts with thached roofs.  Few have electricity, and even fewer have running water.  For bathrooms, they have outdoor pit latrines, which don't have seats, just holes in the ground over which one carfeully squats and prays.

After we arrived, there was a short ceremony, and then we were taken home by our new "parents."  My father was Dixon Adede, a physics teacher and graduate of Exeter (he attended on a British Consulate scholarship), and my mother was Rebecca, a primay school teacher.  As it turns out, my family was relatively well off.  They had a solar electricity, and were one of only 3 homestays with running water and, much to the chagrin of everyone else on the program, a flush toilet.  So, I only used the outdoor toilet once, just to say I did.

My family had 5 boys, but all but the oldest were off at school.  This meant that I spent a majority of my time with 28 year old Omondi, who showed me around the area.  For lack of a more tactful, and perhaps elegant description, let me just say that Omondi was a giant tool.  I would say a good 80% of the conversations we had served no point other than to convey to me how great he was.  I got to hear many times how hard working he was, and that if he could only find work he'd be one of the top 5 billionaires in Kenya.  The details of how he'd accomplish this with nothing but a certificate in mechanical engineering I never really found out. 

My parents, however, were great.  My father spoke wonderful English, and having been to Britain, spoke often of the "lack of civilization" in Kenya, which was at first surprising.  If I were to say something like that at WU, I would be shouted down for being ethnocentric and not culturally relative.  We had may interesting conversations about development, education, corruption (a favorite topic of virtually all Kenyans) and many other things. 

My mother was one of the nicest people ever.  She loved to dote on me, especially at the table, where she was always making sure I had enough (aka too much) to eat and drink.  Rather than try to narrate the whole week, here are some highlights:

-My father got an attack of malaria while I was there, and he was in bed for a whole day while being treated with IV quinine, since he has resistant malaria and normal anti malarials don't work for him.

-Got to see a pretty sweet smallholder farm that belonged to Omondi's friend David, who was my age.  It's comparatively huge, and was fascinating for an ag. nerd like me.  He grew a couple varieties each of sugarcane, sikuma wiki (kale and collared greens), maize, and tomatoes.  Some were for market, some for his own consumption. He's an incredibly hard worker, and his farm was impressive.

-A bull was born while I was there, and I had the honor of having it named after me.  So, if you're ever in Kabondo, do drop by the Adede house and say Hi to young Brandon Adede.

-The boda boda is the primary form of transportation in Kabondo.  It's name comes, I'm told, fact that they were used to smuggle goods (usually cash crops) across the border between Uganda and Kenya back when trade was a little less free (get it, border border--> boda boda?).  So, for a good portion of my trip, I was chauffeured around on the back of Omondi's boda boda.

-Luo food is, well, interesting.  Given its proximity to the lake, they eat a lot of fish, which is fried, cooked, and served whole.  It's a little disgusting, but not that bad if you just eat the flesh and not the skin or head (which my family loved).  We also had chicken (not bad), liver (eew), and beef (again, not bad).  Each meal is served with a heaping pile of ugali, which is basically cornmeal and water, and one of the heaviest things you'll ever eat.  It has virtually no taste, but the little is has is less than palatable in my opinion.  The Luo, however, love it, and eat it with everything.  Sometimes they mash it up in their hands then poke their fingers in it to make little spoons with which to eat broth.  As far as I know, no one in the group liked it, and we've all pretty much decided never to eat it again.  Also, the Luo eat with their hands, which is fun, but a little disconcerting at first, especially when someone is passing you the salt.

-I had some interesting conversations with Omondi about witchcraft.  Too much to go into here, but suffice it to say that he believes many of the misfortunes that have affected the family are the result of some sort of magic, the mechanism for which he was unaware of.  I thought it was very interesting, especially when one considers the fact that he's a fervent Lutheran.

Overall, it was a good experience, and it was really interesting to see what rural Kenyan life is really like.  At the same time, though, it was a really intense experience.  In the end, all the families begged us to stay another week, but I think there was a general consensus that, aside from that being impossible, a week in Kabondo was plenty.

-bjj