Rural Home Stay Component: KSP Spring 2015

Habari za! My name is Klare Nevins and I’ll give a little background on what the Spring 2015 KSP group was most recently up too. This past week each student was able to experience the first of KSP’s two homestay components – the rural home stay. These experiences are a vital aspect of what makes the Kenya Semester Program so successful as it gives the students the opportunity to truly integrate themselves in the local culture and start to gain the confidence to live as a Kenyan, not a tourist. The rural homestay was based in the Central Highlands of Kenya in Nyeri County this semester and each student was individually placed with a family who subsists off of their agricultural efforts.

Rich ecological resources characterize the Central Highlands of Kenya; the land is lush with green vegetation and has two seasons of consistent rain making it an optimal place to practice agriculture. Additionally, the land has a long, deeply rooted cultural history. The region is home to the Kikuyu people, the largest ethnic group in Kenya.

By living with our rural home stay families; we are put in a position of becoming complete learners who by participating in the family’s everyday life gain an understanding of what is means to be a Kenyan living in that area, in those communities. Over the course of the week students not only visited various locations around the community such as church, schools, and local natural attractions, but also learned traditional skills used everyday by their families. These activities included the cooking of traditional meals of chipati, ugali, mukimo, and others.  Harvesting subsistence foods that included indigenous arrowroot, maize, and various fruits and vegetables also took up large parts of each day and students learned how to harvest cash crops such as tea and coffee. If that wasn’t enough, students also learned how to milk cows, process dried beans for seed, hand washing laundry and practicing our various skill levels of Kiswahili. Overall we were so excited to learn about Kenya from people who embody the region not only through their traditional practiced culture but also through their everyday activities in a modern day Kenya.

Hi guys! I’m Ashley McDuffee, and my homestay parents are coffee, or “kahawa”, tea and maize farmers. Although my father is retired now, he contributed to society as a teacher and then served as an administrator at a primary school for many years. My mother was a nurse in a government hospital for many years, before opening up a clinic with a few other nurses. She specialized in the maternity sector and was instrumental in delivering home births of countless Kikuyu children. I found it extremely impressive that my parents held very demanding careers, yet still came home to work on their large farm every night, all while raising large families. Kenya’s rural areas, like Tetu West, are extremely agricultural-based. The majority of women in this area work labor-intense days plucking tea, harvesting coffee berries, and caring for children. Meanwhile men cultivate the land, plant trees, spread manure, and care for cattle. I think this agricultural lifestyle has shaped a unique family structure in rural Kenyan families. From what I observed, the mother is the caretaker; she raises children by teaching her daughters life skills, such as cooking and cleaning, and she cares for boys until they are taught life skills from their father. The mother is responsible for preparing every meal from scratch, and a large majority of her day is harvesting and preparing food for her large family. Additionally, I encountered the father as a figure responsible for providing for his family financially, thus he often assumes the role of the family authoritarian. He often works long hours away from his children in the fields or at his job in the city.

Thus, the family structure has had both positive and negative implications. In one aspect, every member of the family is expected to contribute to the family, and children are taught the values of hard work and familial responsibility. However, this has created a division in the family commonly accompanied by inequality. Men and boys are given “gender appropriate” responsibilities; for example, they are expected to care for livestock. Yet, women are responsible for kitchen duties, for example. This separation has the potential to weaken relationships between family members of a different gender. In addition, giving the men control over crops and livestock gives them power as “breadwinners”. Whereas, the kitchen duties and childcare done by women offer no monetary gain, and this can be seen as less of a contribution to the family. Despite the great potential for these issues, my family was quite close and each member had great respect everyone in the family regardless of gender. However, the responsibilities of my mother, father, and sisters demonstrated an undoubtedly patriarchal family structure. Overall, my time with them was unforgettable and I wouldn’t trade this experience for anything. I was able to experience a family structure a little different from my own and learn so much about the rural Kenyan way of life.

Hamjambo. Kate Tuttle, here! During my rural homestay, I was hosted by a very traditional Kikuyu family made up of family members that held completely different gender roles than I am familiar to. My homestay consisted of two sisters, my mother and father, and while my family at home is structured in the same way, the experience I had with them was extremely distinctive and unique. When I was picked up by the family, I was greeted only by my sister Purity Wanjiru and my father Granville, as my host mother, Susan, was at home preparing for my arrival. Almost as soon as I arrived to the home, I understood that Susan assumed the role of the provider and cook of the household. I, too, took this role of the house with my two sisters during the week. I observed that my father very rarely ever entered the kitchen, nor did he work very much on the farm. My mom, my sister, and I did the majority of the fieldwork; we plucked tea the entire morning and gathered vegetables from the farm to add to our lunches and dinners everyday. Therefore, while I continuously felt that I was contributing to the family, I often wondered exactly what the responsibilities of my father consisted of. While reading and researching the traditional Kikuyu people, I learned that males in their traditional families were expected to protect the family and that they were not held as accountable for the farm work as the women. I firmly believe that my family is still practicing these Kikuyu traditions and that they have not been greatly affected yet by Western globalization standards for gender roles in the home.

Jambo, jina langu ni Claire Pacione! My host mami, baba, brother Dominic, and sister Jackline eagerly anticipated my visit to their church upon my arrival to Nyeri on Friday afternoon. After completing the family’s Sunday morning duties that included milking cows, feeding chickens, collecting eggs, making breakfast, and hand-washing clothes, we prepared ourselves for the 10:30am– 1:00pm mass…

As we take our seats, the Women’s Guild (a church organization helping the needy and the less privileged in the area) leads the church service accompanied by the choirs. As the sermon continues in Kikuyu, Jackline opens her English Bible to the corresponding scripture, and I read along. With time, I notice –with the few Kikuyu phrases Jackline and I have been practicing– that the church’s head speaker is referencing me in his speech. With this, Jackline gives me a gentle push and we somehow we find ourselves walking to the front of the church as a microphone is handed my way.

“Go on…talk!,” Jackline encourages me. Although the expectation to give a speech was so sudden and unexpected, I knew what I would share with the community that staring up at me.  I wrack my brain for the Kikuyu words I have practiced with my host mami the past few nights I start…

“Moriega. Jitagwa Claire. For welcoming me to Nyeri, Kenya and your Church, I am so grateful. I stand here with my host sister and host mami, as I gesture to her behind me, as they have taken me in as one of their own during my stay in Nyeri as an American student. Your vibrant community has made me feel at home in your town and Church and this you should be proud of. I will never forget the welcoming atmosphere you have created in my presence; your Kikuyu culture is beautiful. As you have made me feel part of your community, my family and I in America would be flattered at the opportunity to welcome you into our home if you ever find yourself on those shores. Asante sana”.

Quickly, the nervous faces that gaze up at me turn into softened smiles and nods. Jackline takes the microphone and translates my words for those who do not understand English well. But, what happens next is the most surprising of all. At the end of her translation, Jackline breaks into a beautiful gospel song. We both sway together, side by side as sisters.

Reminiscing on this moment I am able to reflect on the rich culture of the Kikuyu people as a community. As I listened to my sister and observed the church, I understood the important qualities of tradition, support, trust, morals, and commitment engrained by the Kikuyu culture. Although I have already studied such Kikuyu ideals through the pages of writers like Wangari Maathai, to feel the raw emotions of the community first hand was a lesson I will not forget. In that moment, instead of feeling like an outsider of the Kikuyu community, I felt unified, empowered and happy with them.

Mimi ni Wei Song, na ninatoka China! During my rural homestay, I was most impressed by the development and economy of Nyeri town. Unlike farmers in some other countries who strictly depend on the farm, the family-economy in Nyeri reasonably combines rural and urban resources. Both of my homestay parents have jobs in Nyeri, while simultaneously operating their farm with the help of an assistant farmer. Thus, the family has a great supply of fresh food for eating and selling that provides a solid income that improves their quality of life. Thus, the land and city construction work together to promote the local economy.

It additionally is clear that my homestay brother and sisters have better resources of education as compared to people of other developing countries like China, where education in most rural areas is a tough problem. My eldest sister currently studies at university in another town, and my other two siblings go to school in Nyeri with the help of their school bus service. After the children graduate, they have chance to get good jobs and also continue to manage their farmland.

Moreover, my homestay family has access to technologies such as television and computers. My homestay “baba”, or father, even told me that more people have started to buy imported goods like Japanese cars and cameras. In general, my homestay family is a positive example of the development and economy in Nyeri town, and they showed me their progression to a better life in rural Kenya.

Hey, Maggie Cummins dropping in!

During my experience in the rural homestay, I really focused on the education aspects of my family’s lives, as they had a teenage daughter and son and then two children under the age of ten in the education system. As soon as my siblings returned home from school, I would ask them all about their day, quiz them in kiswahili and in English, and look over their homework for them. School seemed to be something my family highly valued, and while they complained of exams and intimidating instructors, they seemed thankful for the opportunities they had been given.

Education was a fundamental component of the lives of the Kikuyu youth. Beginning at age 3, children began attending a pre-primary school, similar to a “pre-school” in the American education system. As there are no buses in East Tetu, children of this age are expected to make the commute along busy highways with limited sidewalk space by themselves. From this age until secondary students are required to adorn a school uniform, the colors of which vary between schools. Primary school, paid for by the government, lasts 8 years, a time in which students are required to take core courses in Kiswahili, Kikuyu, and English. By the time the children reach secondary school, they are allowed to choose their courses (a minimum of seven and a maximum of twelve) and begin planning for a career in the workforce or to continue onto University. Secondary school is subsidized, and students undergo a series of exams that will place them into a secondary institution, similar to the SATs acting as an agent in college acceptance. While primary schools are divided into “standards”, secondary schools are divided into four forms, one for each year. Education is required by law, and while supplies are limited and worn, students seem to value the academic tools that they have been given. On days that children weren’t in school, they were aiding their parents in work in the fields and around the house.

My host sister, a seventeen year old in Form 3, often spoke of the variety of classes she was enrolled in, some of which include; history, physics, biology, and agriculture. The agriculture course seemed to be isolated to local crops, rather than addressing the cultivation of crops in differing geographic locations. My sister aspired to attend a University within Nyeri, where she planned to study to be a tour guide.

Education made multiple appearances in the media when teachers in Northern Kenya went on mass strikes, protesting employment terms and refusing to return to schools until the government met their demands of raising salaries. Institutions threatened to fire instructors if they did not return soon, and students were unable to return to their studies until their teachers return. Another educational newsbreak revolved around land grabbing, and the tear gassing of children attempting to protest the confiscation of their land.

It is clear that the rural homestay component with the Kikuyu people has grounded us in regards to living in Kenya. Not only was the opportunity moving, it also taught us much about the culture, environment, and development of Kenya through meaningful moments and relationships.

– Kenya Semester Program Spring 2015