"Your assignment, if you choose to take it, is..."
M I S S I O N - I M P O S S I B L E
Country: K E N Y A , A F R I C A
The task: B U I L D S C H O O L
Help provided: N O N E
Tools available: N O N E
Training provided: N O N E
Culture preparation: N O N E
People showing up to help: N O N E
Assignment: "You will be sent to Africa to build a school. No One will come to help. Arrive to Nairobi Kenya International Airport. From the airport go to the train station and catch an overnight coach heading south to the coast of Mombasa and onward to Maweni Village."
Agents: "After arrival you will need to find your team members in the village and coerce them to assist in the mission. The cooperative agents you will need to locate are : Mama Benedetta, Pascal, Thomas, John, Dickson Teachers: Consolatta, Jadi & Binti, and neighbor Val with her friend Charles."
Find Agent Pascal : Alias: "Main Man"
Specialist: Goods supplier.Indigenous labor relations
Find Agent Thomas: Alias: "Mortar Maniac"
Specialist:Human Concrete Mixer 24 Hour Compound Guard
Obstacles you must overcome before you start:
"Chase down the source of funding from Holland, re-motivate the coordinator from Portland, reassure the dejected villagers, threaten the local surveyor and assume a unsolicited leading role. Finally, Re-establish faith in each person."
Find Agent Dickson- Alias: "Plumb Bob"
Specialist: Head Mason. Straight up dude
Find Agent John- Alias: "Lil' John"
Specialist: Mason apprentice
BEWARE: Dennis the Messiah Menace
Hindrance to the project. False ally. Will take the shoes off your feet. Covets everthing you have. (But will keep you in good writing material.
BEWARE: Possessed Witchcraft Village Man
Hindrance to the project. Real Scary. Avoid at all times.
NO PHOTO: For obvious reasons
Obstacles you will encounter:
"Dennis-the-Menace-Messiah will waste unnecessary amounts of your time with pathetic blundering. The Possessed-Witch-craft-Village-Man will scream at you, and discourage your works daily. Add the lack of running water, inexistent power, transportation, tools, funding and your mission is ready to start."
No rocket scientist is needed to figure out this project, but a plan and a team would have been good. In fact, many simple things would make life easier in Kenya. We've noticed that running water would be an effective tool when building a concrete structure from bags of cement and piles of sand. Yes, having power and water would be an easier way to do things. But, in retrospect that wouldn't be very interesting to write about, now would it? Some adventures and hardships are worth the story and this is proving to be true. Building a school 'African Impossible' has been challenging to say the least, but also provides free entertainment and a much overdue workout.
Background you will come to understand: "The environment in Kenya has been harsh to local people with droughts, famine, and corruption. They are struggling between modern approaches that are encroaching on tribal ways. Maweni village is a rural slum close to the tourist resorts of Diani Beach. The village has a population of about 400, varying from different ethnic tribes and different faiths but with one common goal; Survival of the poorest.
The village homes are made of thatch in the dirt and are on land that has been squatted for generations. The concept of a land deed is not in their tribal ways and far from their understanding. It has become necessary for these tribes to join the modern ways, but they lack the education to compete for modern jobs in today's world."
And that's why we are here. Over a month later, we have learned to live amongst them, work with them, respect them and learn from them. We hope to equip the local people with opportunities for education.
We have learned important history lessons from listening to the locals under the moonlight. Similar to the history of the native American Indian's, the English came over and claimed the indigenous land from the Kenyans. The visitors, drew out plots on their own paper, and no tribe had the opportunity to see the lines, or had the right to purchase their native land. It is an interesting situation to be a part of today, as the people are continuing to be pushed out of their homeland.
The land we are building on, was purchased by supporters from the states through the Amani Education Project. (Thanks again to all who joined this endeavour at the fund raiser done in Portland. ) The land and school will provide a safe and stable learning environment for both children, and adults in the area.
Objective: "You will start with pre-school classrooms, but they also need to accommodate adult education courses for the generation who has already been left behind. When the initial phases of the project are complete, you would have built a fenced compound that will confine two new classrooms, one commons area/dining hall, one kitchen and two toilets."
With our construction background, business, organisation and diverse travel skills, it seemed like a job that we felt more than qualified to do with the help of a few friends. We have learned to take all our experience and all our previous knowledge, and simply burry it. Nothing applies, nothing is available, and no one has shown up to help. Everything is done different in the Maweni Village World. We have made new friends, found good contacts, beat the odds and steadily but slowly, we have a school going up. We drew up site plans, made building estimates, employed a few local labours and set to work.
Find Agent Mama Benedetta- Alias: "Mama"
Specialist: Big hugger. Rock chopper. Native Motivator
Find Cultural Coordinator: Neigbor Val & friend Charles
Aly's to project.Technical Trouble Shooters. Infectious Laughter
To Achieve your First Objective: "You will need to build a fence to keep the supplies secure. The task must be done swiftly or they will steal the poles from the holes before the concrete dries. In order to accomplish this, you will need several post hole diggers, a cement mixer, a water truck, basic tools and transportation. But you will recieve NONE of these things." (I hear someone, somewhere, smirking, hee, hee, hee)
We started digging holes for a fence but instead of dirt, found solid coral stone. There are 'post hole diggers' available in Kenya, but these tools are big brawly men that are equipped with a steel rod. It gets the job done and for only .28 cents a hole. I never considered a construction site that would be without tools or a contractor without a truck, but it has proven to be possible on this job. We have accomplished getting rolls of chain link, lumber, rebar, bags of cement, windows, doors, gravel, and sand to a job site without those modern four wheel machines. We have our resources, and they include a bicycle, foot, hand cart, bucket, wheel barrow, and ferry.
I sat under a tree the other day wondering how long it would take our lumber to arrive on a two-wheel push-wagon from the nearest town, about two miles away? I began thinking about the 3 cars, motor scooter, and tractor that we used to have at home, and wished to posses even, just one of them again. I spend a lot of time thinking about 'imaginary and abstract concepts' like... customer service, trust, commitment and water that comes out a faucet. Maybe this hot, equator sun is getting to my head?Tasks at hand: It will not be necessary to re-invent the wheel, but you will need to be imaginative and resourceful to complete the task on a minimum budget. You will learn to be appreciative when comprehending the effort that goes into building a structure 'African Impossible.'
Sometimes it's difficult to realize the function in a dysfunctional situation, but it's here if you are looking for it. Take for example the clear plastic hose; that when filled with water, serves as a level while building the classroom foundation, or a siphon when stealing fuel. Imagine a flywheel; that normally synchronizes an engine when on a car but in Kenya, functions as a ground compacter when wired to a metal post. The tree will provide vital shade, if it's not being chopped up for firewood or a made into a handle for our broken shovel. We do make huge progress every day even if its with the help of bailing wire and a different set of building codes. To appreciate this job, you must first understand the obstacles that have to be defeated in order to accomplish a simple task. 
Let me use just one example of the process starting with the block that makes up the buildings. In the state of Oregon, we order pre-fab building blocks off the shelf at Home Depot. Then we go through a drive through where the guys in orange aprons, load it on our truck and then we hit the gas and drive away. (Drive, Drive, Drive. Wow, another abstract thought. Sorry, I got caught up in the moment remembering private transportation.) Now, I'm embarrassed to say; that a Home Depot trip is not much of a story to share with these hard working guys and gals who spend the whole day in 'the pit.' First they have to chisel a two foot section of the coral rock from the earth. Then it is shaped into a blockish form with a machete and loaded into wheelbarrows or a truck for big deliveries. The broken parts, then go to our dear Mama Benadetta who smashes them by hand into gravel sized pieces. When it's available, we get two buckets at a time from the pit, which we mix with sand, cement and water to make a mortar that holds our coral block building together.
Emotional Distress to Encounter: "You will challenge your morals, your values, your existence, and the reason why you decided to take on this 'mission impossible.'
Volunteering in a third world country and on a job site, forces you to find your own role, be compromised by different personalities and problem-solve in a culture that is foreign. I have been made to question everything I've known or felt about 'social responsibility.' Our first day here in Kenya, a stranger approached our door. He was a kind middle aged man, who was weak and shaking with sickness. He asked for money to travel home, so that he could die with his family. He was suffering from AIDS and needed a long-distance bus ticket. It was our first day in a new country and we didn't know what to do? What would you do? I made him a few sandwiches, and we gave him enough to get closer to his destination. We are surrounded by poor and sick people with varying problems that are important, individually. The problem is, we can't help them all. And after exhausting ourselves physically, mentally and financially... instead we ask "What can they do to help themselves?" There are vital needs everywhere but after 7 consecutive months of volunteer work, I ask myself again, "How much do I personally owe the world of poverty?" It's a question I have to answer every day, as people continually demand from us. The poorest people in the world are an interesting study as it seems there is no limit to their taking. We can dig under a hot sun doing volunteer work and someone resting in the shade will demand the shoes off our feet? We can give an entire village free goats and someone will ask why they didn't get a bigger one? We can build a school for their community and someone will ask, why don't we just give them the money instead? A stumbling drunk with a beer in hand, will tell us they don't have enough food to feed their children? We have sacrificed a 30 year career, and sold our belongings to afford volunteer service in Africa, and someone will demand that if we don't give them money today, that we "want them to starve?" We have learned many, new ways to deal with people but have concluded that, 'Education is the Answer.' We have kept our humor and it proves to be the antidote to our sanity. We remind ourselves that we are here for the children, and we are here to educate, which will naturally bring about change.
Collateral Damage: "Be warned, all work will be done under a scorching 98 degree sun, with 98% humidity in a non-existent air flow. Your bodies will encounter dehydration and abuse. Brenda will spend 10 consecutive hours at the well, pumping hundreds of gallons of back breaking water to make a cement slab. Brian will need to shovel hundreds of wheelbarrows of mortar and, mix countless piles of cement on the ground. Afterwards, he will need to visit the hospital to treat septic wounds, get injections pain pills and antibiotics. When you collapse at nightfall, it will become necessary to console cold Guinness and pain relievers to mend your injuries."
The heat and water deficiency has become our biggest hurdle to deal with. Image if you can, trying to keep a water flow from a well, that is located across the village at the pace of building a school. It demands a hand pumped, bucket brigade which is brought over on trail on foot, on head, on wheelbarrow and on a bike. We are proud to say that we hit the all time record for 'the most water pumped from the Maweni Village well.' (No need to spend money on a fancy gym membership, as the Maweni Village School Project offers the same workout for free.
We are sore and tired from the physical work in the extreme heat, but the experience continues to be amusing and educational. At the days end, we retire to our home nestled in the trees and swing from our hammock with monkeys that keep our company and require nothing from us. We have plenty of comfort and are surrounded by a community of new friends who remind us how valuable our life and existence is, to everyone we come in contact with, at the Maweni Village.
"So, Brian and Brenda... If you choose to take this mission understand that no one will take responsibility for your being there. The success or failure of this project is up to you. You have nothing to gain and only your sanity to lose. Good Luck"
"As seen on tv: This blog could self destruct in 30 seconds"
But probably won't, as nothing goes according to plan in Kenya
