Kenya

Children Kristen Casella

November 22, 2010:

“Mzungu! Mzungu!” An excited squeal rises up from the other side of the fence, I have been spotted. There is a frantic thudding of small feet on the Earth as the child on the lookout races to alert the rest of her discovery. More excited yelps float through the air as the once abandoned looking shacks seem to come to life with their voices. The sound of feet smacking against the Earth is louder now as...

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Re-Evaluating Development by Victoria More

July 29, 2010:

One of the hardest tasks to do is to try and formulate words out of the experiences I am having here in Mombasa. Maybe that’s because turning the intangibility of experience into tangible words means I have to actually understand the things that happen around me each day. And that’s a lot to ask, because each day as I come to understand and learn more, I realize how little I actually know.

I do know a few things though. I know that despite the bustle of the city, life moves a little slower here. I know that if I accidentally look left instead of right, the matatu will probably run me over. I know that the familiar focus on efficiency and productivity has little place in the office here, but work still gets done and this method has virtues of its own. I know that even when the locals grab their arms and shiver because they are “too cold”, I’m still going to be sweating buckets....

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Juxtaposition by Meggan Ireland

July 28, 2010:

It didn’t take long for the scenery to change as I turned off the main road for the first time with my host mother. We manoeuvred expertly over the bumps, around the potholes, and through the puddles. It hit me that while I may be living in a wealthy residential area, I am by no means living in a wealthy, developed country. In fact, the large, gated, two storey house belonging to my host family is situated on the edge of one of Mombasa’s many slums – informally, and ironically, named Shauri Yako...

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Sukuma!

July 10, 2010:

This was one of the most stimulating and exciting days of my life- I helped deliver a baby!!
In the morning at around 11, I walked into the delivery room and saw a 20-year old woman in labor with her first baby. I hung around with the doctor waiting for the birth for around 30 minutes and observed as he disinfected the woman’s vagina, checked the dilation of the cervix and the baby’s descent, and gave the woman glucose to offset the exhaustion she’d developed from being in labor. Then I went to the MOH’s office to discuss the jiggers campaign and my water tank installation proposal for around 15 minutes. When I was walking back to the delivery room, the mother of the woman giving birth called to me in broken English...

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The Welcome Dance. One of the best parts of field work by Justin Schon

July 6, 2010:

KECOSCE has held forums to engage young people in discussions on Islam and radicalization in an effort to combat radicalization. KECOSCE director Phyllis Muema notes that “young people now know what questions to ask” when people enter a community and attempt to convince them to adopt radical views. I have been very impressed to learn about the results from KECOSCE’s youth anti-radicalization project, and hope that this is not the only project of its kind.

KECOSCE’s other projects, working on social enterprise and peace and human security have also done impressive work. It is truly encouraging to see that there are organizations such as KECOSCE working so hard to address the challenges Kenya faces.

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