Friends of Londiani is an Irish charity working since 2002 with communities in the towns and villages around Londiani in Kenya. The work is based on the needs of local people and the projects are focused on healthcare, education and clean water. My friend and neighbour John Spillane is a director of FOL and introduced me to the idea of getting involved in the project.
The costs are significant. Each volunteer is required to pay €2,000 to cover flights, transport in Kenya, training materials and expenses. Volunteers are also required to fund-raise €1,500 which goes towards the cost of completing the projects. In addition there are insurance, vaccination, visa and other costs to be borne by the volunteers.
I was very fortunate with fund-raising. Family, friends, work associates were more generous than I could have expected. Barbara's walk to Santiago de Compostela in May brought in a staggering amount. In addition I took part in a fund-raising rugby event at the end of May. I was required to score three tries as flying winger for Crosshaven Veterans team. All I can say is that Tommy Bowe had better watch out as I scored 4 tries and raised €500 on that afternoon. To give an example of people's generosity, Bective Rangers, one of the visiting tournament participants, put €130 in the box and many players gave 50 and 20 euro notes. Some individual contributions were exceptionally generous. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of these people for their kindness and generosity.
Several weekend and evening training events were organised for us by FOL prior to our take-off. These were well presented and the content proved very relevant to our projects on the ground. The following report of my trip is to give an idea of where your money was spent and the benefits it achieved.
THE PROJECT
We were initially due to set off for the project on July 17th, but this was cancelled at very short notice due to a threatened outbreak of inter-tribal violence prior to the national referendum later taking place. The deferral was upsetting and inconvenient, but later when I eventually arrived in Londiani I learned enough to know that this cancellation was a wise and good decision. The new departure date was October 30th and our group gathered at Cork Airport under the leadership of Rose Hennessey. Rose is an experienced FOL volunteer and her care, guidance and support was outstanding for the three weeks of the project.
We flew to Heathrow and departed from there on a 9-hour flight to Nairobi, where we were met by Martin Ballentyne and a driver. We travelled the first day through dusty crowded Nairobi to a country resort beside Lake Elementaita. After lunch we had project briefing and stayed in this pleasant lakeside area that night. The following morning I rose early to see flamingos on the distant lake and superb starlings in the garden. The weather was pleasant and sunny. After breakfast we set off for Muhoroni. On arrival at the FOL project here - a school and hospital - we got a wonderful reception from the local children with singing, dancing and hand clapping. We stayed that night in rooms provided by the local convent. Liam Kidney, Brian Colclough and I shared a dormitory room and for the rest of the project we three shared together frequently. They are two great companions and we enjoyed some outstanding craic together.
At this stage our elevation above sea level was 7,000 feet, and the following day we set out for Dhubusat, at 10,000 feet : three times the height of Carauntwohill and about 100 km to the northwest. On the way we had magnificent views over the Rift Valley and we were driving through hills and valley which were like scenes from the lower Himalayas without the snow. The roads were terrible and the last 20 kms of dirt track took three hours in the Landcruiser jeep. Here the courntryside is well cultivated with tea plantations and maize, while mainly Friesan cows graze in the fields. Most transport on the road was by donkey, a small sturdy breed that looked well cared for. Sometimes you met up to 20 donkeys in a bunch carrying maize husks or tea down to the main road for collection. Dhubusat is set on the flat top of a mountain, and is green and spectacular. Again, a lovely group of kids met us with singing and dancing. FOL has two major projects here : a hospital and a school which they have built and developed over the past five years.
Liam Brian and I slept in a tent for the next three nights. It was on a slope, the nights were cold, dogs barked and Liam and I snored. If you had to go to the loo during the night it involved a trek to the long-drop latrine. We enjoyed ourselves thoroughly and even though the meals were vegetarian, we had excellent porridge, eggs and tea. The vegetarian diet was monotonous and unfulfilling. I hope I never see a bean again! During the day we undertook our first projects. Brian and I ran a Small Business Education course with particular emphasis on financial planning. Dhubusat is without electricity at present but expects to have it next year and also expects that the road will be paved. As I experienced the introduction of rural electrification in Adare in County Limerick in my childhood, I felt at home talking about its expected impact. We ran our programmes in one of the classrooms. It ran for a day, starting in theory at 9.00 am but in practice at about 10.30, and finished at 4.00 pm. About 30 attended each class, and would be mainly people with very small farms (about 5 acres) hoping to make some extra cash. The kinds of business they were interested in developing were chicken rearing, running a motor-bike taxi service, honey farming, rearing nursery plants, and laundry services. Getting cash to start up was often their biggest obstacle, but these are hard-working industrious people who need the money to send their kids to school and to improve their homesteads. FOL give bursaries to deserving children for school uniforms and for fees. As there is an interview before the bursaries are granted, Brian and I did interview preparation for about 40 school-children on Day 3. We really enjoyed this. Even though the children are initially shy, once this barrier is overcome they are great fun and love to communicate. In the meantime, Liam who is a professional photographer (see his pictures attached) was getting material for FOL promotions. On our last day he got us up at 5.15 to bring us to a water project FOL had completed earlier which brought running water to the school and hospital. It was a half hour walk uphill and my legs nearly failed me. I really felt the lack of oxygen but the view from the water tower was spectacular. A huge panorama as dawn was breaking showed ranges of mountains and valleys with green fields and small copses of trees. On our return we took down our tents and packed them. After a final farewell to the school children and the hospital staff we set off down the dirt road to Muhoroni. We had had heavy rain the night before and the road was even worse.
Muhoroni has two streets, mainly flanked by shacks selling second-hand clothes, tailoring services, a "butchery", tinned foods, household goods, and several Chai Hotels. These "hotels" consist of a screened off kitchen and a small room with tables and chairs where you are served hot, very sweet milky tea. It is an acquired taste. There are lots of donkeys on the street and the occasional motor bike taxi and local minibuses or matatus.
On the following day Liam Brian and I assisted with holding a Field Day in a nearby farm. We erected four open-sided tents and put a rope barrier around the perimeter. This is a local health promotion event and the District Health Authority is supposed to be the main organiser. With us was the FOL nursing team. The Health Authority bigwigs arrived eventually at 11.30, made speeches, and retired for chai. I had to organise the locals into three queues: women with young children, older children, and the rest. I let in the women with children in groups of 20. In the first tent they received a hygiene demonstration and some vitamin pills. In tent 2 they were given mosquito nets and in the third tent babies were weighed and vaccinations administered. The children on their own went to another tent where they were given Vitamin A and worm pills. The remaining group (mainly men) got a demonstration of how to set up a simple hand washing station and ways of sterilising water. A great outing was had by all and there was a real festival atmosphere. Some children returned to the vitamin and worm pill tent a second time thinking they were sweets. I can only imagine the consequences. FOL nurse Nora Butler from Charleville later told me that she weighed 132 babies. Most were underweight for their age.
On Saturday we ran a sports day in the local school in the morning, and in the afternoon we set off for Monastery where we were to spend the next seven days. Again a tough drive to this location which indeed turned out to be a monastery. It had been set up in 1950 by a group of Belgian Trappists but abandoned in 2005 when there was severe tribal unrest in this area. The main building was a large rectangular stone-built church in very good condition. It was flanked by a two-storey cloister with kitchen, refectory, dormitories, showers and toilets and office accommodation. These were in less good condition and deteriorating It could accommodate about 100 people and I don't know if that number was ever reached. Even though there was no electricity in the area it had very good diesel generators which gave light for about two hours each evening. Water came from an excellent spring, and was always freezing cold. There was an extensive surrounding farm , very well run, with a dairy, sawmill and carpentry shed. There was a rusting medium sized bulldozer in the yard, and apparently in the old days this had maintained the road to the monastery in good order. There had been a water bottling plant there which used the excellent spring water. At night it was cold, nearly always windy, but most days we had good sunshine with some afternoon showers.
The first morning there, Sunday, we had mass said by the local priest Fr Michael. The nine o'clock mass was a children's mass and was a fantastic occasion, Beautifully dressed young boys and girls sang and danced for the full service, conducted mainly in Swahili. After mass one of our group, Eithne, a retired primary school teacher, taught the children a new hymn in English, Down in the River to Pray, which they sang perfectly on the third attempt.
John Spillane was due to arrive that day so we went out in the jeep that afternoon to meet him. The rains came and soon we were completely bogged down in the road. John's jeep also got bogged down and it took us all about four hours to get back to base. At least John was able to bring news of the Ireland-New Zealand rugby game and of how Munster's Ronan O'Gara and Peter Stringer nearly saved the day.
On Monday Brian and I gave the business course again to about 30 people and on Tuesday we commenced a three-day Peer Education course. This time the presenting team was two nurses, Margaret and Ailish, and myself. The topics covered over the three days were: 1. communications, values and relationships; 2, stages of development with a strong emphasis on hygiene, exploring circumcision, and male health checks; 3. sexual behaviour, family planning, socially transmitted infections, HIV/Aids, and living positively with HIV/Aids; 4. Maternal and newborn health. This is a tough course to deliver; the audience is male and female adults and included a few local chiefs (male) and a few strong women who are looking for social change. It is a very participative course and we had prepared well for it. The easy bit turned out to be demonstrating condom usage on a plastic model and showing its strength and elasticity by filling it with water. The hard bits were Female Genital Mutilation (still practised in remote rural areas like this), Living with Aids, and Marital Rape. The Three Stages of Labour are no bother to me now, but I need more practice! On this course we had the assistance of a young local translator when needed, but mostly we were able to make ourselves understood by speaking slowly, waiting for responses, and using manual signs. The course finished with great dancing, singing and praying from our participants. On Friday we did another local Field Day which was attended by about 150 people. On the way there I saw a pair of Crowned Cranes. These are birds i had very much wanted to see since i read Peter Mathiesen's The Birds of Heaven. On Saturday we had to leave this wonderful haven : it and the local people got a real hold on me and somehow I might return here again. During the week Mercy, a young local girl, had cleaned for us and helped with cooking. Her weekly wage is €2. As part of the business training I had set her up to provide a laundry service to the volunteers, and with good pricing she earned significant extra money.
The final week was spent in Londiani. This is a large dirty town with several schools and a hospital. We were accommodated here in a block of small rooms which were located in the parish church grounds. John and I slept in a small room with two bunks, which also had an ensuite toilet and shower. We did more business planning courses, interviews for bursaries, and a Health Education Peer Group course. John and I got to see Munster beat Australia on Fr Martin's television. He is the local Kiltegan Fathers priest and he and Fr Con (both from Cork) run the local parish. Both in their 60s and working in difficult conditions they are a wonderful example of our great missionaries. Last year Martin saw his great friend Fr Jerry Roche from Tipperary murdered by local criminals involved in a local land dispute. They are saintly men with no obvious replacements to continue their work. We also visited a local hospital and our nurses horrified by the lack of hygiene there, cleaned and painted the children's ward over two days. John and I met the local bee-keeper and saw the work done in preparing for a successful local bee harvesting co-op supported by FOL.
FOL's first project here was to set up an orphanage which now provides for 72 orphans ranging in age from 2 weeks to 22 years. They are happy children receiving good education and a secure welcoming home. One evening Fr Martin regaled us with great stories about local marriages and customs but also about the difficult times in 2005 when he had 3,000 people sheltering in the church compound during the troubles. This area at least seems well settled now. On Friday we began our return journey as many of the group were returning to Ireland on Sunday. I had picked up a sick stomach probably from eating a tomato washed in tap water and was feeling pretty bad. However, I think the worst feeling was leaving rural Kenya behind and entering dirty, crowded Nairobi.
SAFARI
On Sunday I flew in a small 28-seater to the Maasai Mara, where we landed on a gravelly runway, and from there by jeep to Basecamp Mara where Barbara was waiting for me. This is a sister camp to the one near to where Barbara had worked for five weeks in July. It was great to get together again and we had much to tell each other about our adventures. Barbara had just spent a week back at her conservation project counting wildlife and helping trainee Maasai guides at Koiyaki Guiding School. That evening we had a superb safari drive followed by an excellent meal. Our accommodation consisted of a good tent set up under a high thatched roof (formerly occupied by Barack Obama and family!) , with a proper bed and mosquito protection. It was set up beside the river, and throughout the night there were the sounds of monkey, frogs, and unknown animals. At 6.00 am the following morning we had our next safari drive and this pattern followed for three days. We saw elephant, giraffe, rhino, lions, cheetah, gazelle and many other animals in the wild, as well as identifying over 100 birds of the 2,500 different species in Kenya. It was a great rest and on Thursday we travelled again by small plane to Mombasa where we stayed 3 nights at Diani beach, 1.5 hours drive from Mombasa. Here it was very warm and the swimming was great. There was a feel of Goa crossed with Indonesia, particularly as we watched the dugout canoes sail out over the reef in the evening and return at dawn with their catch. On Sunday we set out for Cork and arrived home early on Monday morning to snow and freezing temperatures.
It has been a great experience. I learned a lot from the projects and once again thank all of you for your support and interest. Frank
POSTSCRIPT from Barbara
Frank certainly packed a whole lot into his three weeks with Friends of Londiani. I had less involvement in community activities when returning to my project in the Maasai Mara, but did manage to give the trainee Maasai guides some CV preparation and presented each of them with their own USB keys to save their personal data on. Kenya is way ahead in terms of mobile technology, and these young people all have mobile phones, though computers are harder to come by. I was warmly welcomed back by all the project team, and will always have very happy memories of my time. On the conservation side mating lions were a feature of this visit - and the males roaring throughout the nights sometime prevented sleep : they mate continuously for a period of three or four days, and get little sleep themselves! It was good to see lots of improvements in project development since my last visit. Like Frank, I would like to thank you all for the great support given to us both. Who knows what we may do next year!
