An interesting survey !

I found this a few days ago in 'The Standard' newspaper.   Its an interesting picture of (probably) city life in Kenya.

Wife beating seems to be quite OK !  Even for the women concerned ..... 

"Despite the tough economic times, the poorest people in Kenya (73 per cent) are living happier lives than the richest (72 per cent).     


(Do these figures work out ?   I'm hopeless at maths/statistics !)



One in six Kenyans — 16.7 per cent — think it is justifiable for a man to beat his wife, while nine in 10 citizens have a problem with homosexuals and would mind if they lived next to them, a new survey shows.   11 per cent of women do not have a problem being battered by their husbands, saying it is justifiable. This figure is just half the number of men (20 per cent) who think it is not wrong to beat their wives, a punishable offence according to the law, which is believed to be on the decline due to increasing education levels in the population. 

The survey further indicates that while a minority of Kenyans would have a problem living next to unmarried couples, supporters of a different political party or people living with HIV, 87 per cent would have a problem living next door to drug addicts.

 And if you love the bottle, please note that “seven in 10 Kenyans (70 per cent) would not be happy living next door to heavy drinkers of alcohol,” notes the survey. Out of the close to 40 million Kenyans, 1.2 per cent of adults are considered binge drinkers according to the World Health Organisation (WHO), meaning there could be some 39 million unhappy neighbours in the country. 

But in what could be an encouragement in the fight against HIV/Aids, the survey found that only 16 per cent of Kenyans would have a problem neighbouring those who live positively. Stigma has been one of the greatest impediments in the fight against the virus and while 16 per cent is still high, the same survey notes that this is lower than the African average which stands at 23 per cent. 

Interestingly, more Kenyans trust their neighbours more than their friends and just eight per cent think it is okay to give or receive a bribe despite the choking corruption levels. 

Three in 10 (31 per cent) have complete trust in people of another religion, while two in 10 (22 per cent) have complete trust in people of another tribe. "

A delicate matter ....

I read today that girls in Kenyan schools are to be supplied by the government with free sanitary pads !    About time too .... teenage girls miss on average a week of school every month as they have no money to buy pads, so stay at home.   

This obviously puts girls at an educational disadvantage, which is an Africa-wide problem.   Half of the population earn less than $2 a day, IF they have a job, so buying pads is not a choice.

Perhaps it might be better to encourage and demonstrate the method to make re-useable, washable pads ?   Why not supply the girls with kits to make their own pads ?   

http://sewinpeace.blogspot.co.uk/2013/08/feminine-cloth-pad-tutorial.html

Update on Kuki Gallmann

I weep when I read something like this ...

https://www.theguardian.com/global/2017/jun/18/who-shot-kuki-gallmann-the-story-of-a-kenyan-conservationist-heroine

A beautiful land, being destroyed by a combination of its own people, the climate and politics.

Only in Africa (2)

Is it polite to talk about what in Wales we call the 'Ty Bach' ?    (The small house .... the tiniest room ... in Swahili, the choo).  

The first house we lived in, in Ng'iya about 40 miles west of Kisumu, was a very old dilapidated house in a school compound, probably built about 1930.   There was water laid on to a cold tap in the kitchen, and another in the bathroom, but no loo.  The head teacher of that school knew we were coming, so had hurriedly organised that a loo should be built for us ... outside, in the garden. 

It was the usual long-drop, pit latrine, hole in the ground type, in a 'mud-hut' kind of building, with thatch roof and a creaky, roughly made door, with cracks between each plank. The door was about 5ft tall, to allow light to shine in at the top.  The door handles were wooden cotton reels; there was a loop of string and a nail to secure the door on the inside.  When the head inspected it, she said we had to have a 'sit-down' seat, so the school fundi (carpenter) was shown a European loo in one of the modern houses, and instructed to construct a similar one for us, in wood.  He did; he made a cube like box, about two feet tall, with a small, hard square hole cut in the top ... and there it was, a throne fit for white bottoms .... made of rough wood, still with bark on, and the hole jagged and full of splinters !

This edifice functioned perfectly well during the day, (after we had requested some sand-paper) but we hadn't forseen the problems of night useage.  It gets dark very suddenly on the Equator, at about 6.30 p.m.   At first, we had only one paraffin hurricane lamp, and a night trip to the loo necessitated leaving one person in darkness in the house while the other went outside.   

Now, bright lights in the tropics attract moths, bats and beetles.   And there was the problem; how to prevent every creature from yards around from entering the loo and fluttering around the head of the person seated in contemplation ?   One needed the light to check there were no snakes being disturbed in the small house, yet one didn't need to be invaded by hundreds of moths and beetles.  What to do ?

Well, every question has an answer .... so the solution was to put the lamp down on the ground about ten yards away from the choo after checking for snakes, and then leave the door open !    (And hope no student or anyone else was walking past and could observe the sight of a brightly illuminated mzungu sitting on a box with pants around the ankles !)  

Another update on Sylvanus

I have today sent approximately 11,400 Kenya shillings to pay for more treatment for Sylvanus; this is about £86 which I have collected from very kind friends.   I have sent this money to a trusted friend in Manchester who will be back in Kisumu at the end of the month.

By coincidence, I heard yesterday from Kenya that Sylvanus is improving; he apparently had two tropical ulcers on his leg, one of which is completely healed now, and the other is improving.   He has had/is going to have further tests at the local government hospital (which have to be paid for) to see what other treatment he may need.  

Compared to private medicine  in the U.K., £86 seems like a very small amount, but treatment at the Pandipieri clinic is good, although small amounts have to be paid towards the cost of drugs and dressings.

My heartfelt thanks to my friends who have donated to the care of this elderly man they will never meet, but who is overwhelmed with gratitude to his unknown English friends.

Nyasaye ber !!  

Old Africa magazine for June/July 2017

My favourite magazine has arrived - it comes air mail from Kenya.   This edition is special - it contains an old photograph I persuaded a friend of mine to submit !   

(Some of my wax print patchwork squares under it !)

Here is the photo from my friend .... I know EXACTLY where the building is, having walked past it dozens of times in the past, but it would hardly be fair to enter the competition, now would it ?

But seeing the success my friend has had in having his photo printed, I'm very tempted to enter one or more of my old photos, or maybe for the pages of contributors anecdotes - my story about the liver flukes !

We'll see .........

Only in Africa (1)

I bought a small piece of liver today for supper, with some bacon.  I don't like liver that much, but its supposed to be 'good for me' !   When I lived near Kisumu, I used to occasionally buy cows liver and make pate, which I do like, and cooking my liver and bacon for my meal I was reminded of the first time I bought Kenyan liver.

One day I cycled the three or four miles to the nearest market, on a Friday, when they killed that weeks cow, right there, in the market butchery.  I had an arrangement with the butcher to keep the fillet steak for me, as this was the least tough beef.   Sometimes it was necessary to go elsewhere in the market and buy the cabbage and bananas first, if they hadn't finished killing the cow !   (It doesn't do to be too squeamish in Africa).

On that particular day I saw the butcher had some liver on his stall (open air, flies included) so I bought half a kilo as well as the fillet.   I made some more purchases and then cycled back to our house, to get the meat into the (paraffin powered) fridge before it started to walk back home by itself !  Because of poor refridgeration we had to eat any fresh meat that day or the next.

Early next morning I went to make the pate, and in cutting up the liver, and removing the big tubes, I noticed some white things inside the tubes .... being married then to a biologist, I recognized the 'things' as liver flukes !   What to do ?   I wasn't going to waste the chance to make some pate, and there would be no more fresh meat for a week .... so I cut the liver up small, and ran a thumb nail along each tube to eject the flukes !   I think there were something like 20 or 30 of them by the time I was happy there were no more.   I dumped them on the cement path outside and stamped on them to kill them .... and got on with making the pate, which was delicious !

It doesn't do to be too squeamish in Africa .... 

My secret addiction !

Wax prints !    I have been addicted to these colourful and so typically African materials for fifty years, and have been buying and collecting scraps of them for most of that time.  When I lived in Kenya in the 1960's and 70's I bought lengths of kitenge material to make dresses, blouses and skirts for myself, and little dresses for the children, and mens shirts also.   (And the trousers I'm wearing at the top of my blog). 

Looking through and sorting old photos, I am surprised by how many of them have people in them wearing these prints.  

     

               

Most of these fabrics are now printed in East Africa, or Zimbabwe, or Ghana; some in Java, some still in England, but they have spread all over Africa, and are made in various qualities, with China now coming into this lucrative market, but with a poorer quality (and therefore cheaper) cotton material.   It does mean there is something for everyone.   Many of the designs have been around for over 50 years, in various colour-wise, and modern fabrics often have up to date political messages.   Obama was popular on some pieces of cloths !  

The bag in which I carry my stuff to the office each day is made of wax prints squares, and I have recently bought a book about the origins of wax prints.   I even use the scraps I have collected from a friend in Kenya for patchwork pictures, and have recently started on an African patchwork quilt !   I am addicted !

  My work bag which I bought a few years ago in Kisumu.

Magie Relph has produced this book; her shop in Yorkshire sells African prints that she buys in bulk every year on trips to Mali, Zimbabwe, Ghana and so on.     http://www.africanfabric.co.uk/ 

  

And finally, one of those accidental photos showing African print at its best ...

Did she purposely pick red flowers to match her dress ?

Thought for the day.

I was throwing out various papers, and found this I had written on the back of a bank counterfoil.   
"In the past, Africa was islands of people in a continent of wildlife.   Now this is reversed ...."

Sad.

(It might be a quote from some book, or something someone said to me ....)

The Lunatic Line

.... just a quickie about something I spotted today ....

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-4559154/Kenya-FINALLY-replaces-Lunatic-Line-built-British.html

The old railway from Mombasa to Nairobi, and then from Nairobi to the lake, which terminated in Kisumu, was great fun to travel on.    In the 1960's, the dining cars still had linen table cloths, and REAL hall-marked silver cutlery, and an air of colonial elegance .... but the trains soon deteriorated and the cutlery disappeared ... as eventually did the railway to Kisumu.