African Women and Water Conference participants Jeniffer and Priscah-the amazing women of Kamanyi village in Kitui, a dry region southeast of Nairobi. These women are the epitome of your small town, model community members. Jeniffer is a teacher and Priscah is a business woman. They are key members of the Tei Wa Wo community based organization, leaders in the church, board members for other local organizations, and they are helping to establish a polytechnic school for young girls to help learn sewing and other income generating skills. I had a wonderful week staying with them in their community, watching them implement their new water project. They installed gutters and storage tanks at a school and a clinic and the day after they completed it started to rain! They are now selling the water to their community, saving to install more community rainwater harvesting systems.
Done with the shopping for rainwater harvesting materials and ready to head back to the village (a 3 hour, dusty, bumpy ride hugging the new plastic water tank).
Feeling like a celebrity! People in Kitui were very excited to have ther picture taken with me.
Almost an African woman what with my new clothes and little friend!
The Kitui ladies took it upon themselves to see I have proper clothes to wear in Africa.
The amazing ladies of Kamanyi Primary School (heading to fetch water at the river for the school garden and kitchen).
"Dear God, help me to be number one or two AMEN" Exams are a particularly stressful part of education in Kenya. Almost weekly there are stories on the TV news or in the newspapers about national exams. Last fall the stress of exams led to student strikes, violence and vandalism at many secondary schools. The pressure to perform well and the implications it has for their futures is intense. At the home I was staying at in Kamanyi, my little host brother woke up at 2:00 am to study by candlelight before going to school! For 2 weeks straight he did this!
School lunch
Collard greens was the main course every night of my visit, served with chapatti or ugali and milk tea.
And I was tutored nightly on how to properly prepare and cook Kenyan food (this was done simultaneously with my Kikamba language lessons-this is my little teacher and whew she was tough!).
Amazing sky! This was a welcome sight, as it had been 8 months since it had last rained.
There aren't words to describe this beautiful little girl! Her smile says it all! 
Tei Wa Wo community group member with her adorable son.
The short bus! Only passes through the village twice a day to transport people to and from Kitui town 3 hours away.
Main street Kamanyi
Yes, it's amazing, the white woman knows how to roll chapattis!
This is how it started...you can see from above that I attracted quite a crowd.
These two gentlemen are fantastic! They are members of Tei Wa Wo and volunteered their time to help install two rainwater harvesting systems for the local clinic and primary school.
Yum, chapatti!
What a face!
Bicycles are a common sight in Kamanyi and the women are quite mobile on them. They ride into the village center, to the farms, to church...it's amazing how this simple addition to thier lives makes such a difference. In Kamanyi a bicycle has become a household spending priority.
It's a different version of writing on the bathroom stalls
And a nice greeting when I arrived back in Nairobi!
1 comment:
Your pics are awesome, like Nat Geo awesome.
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