The Bodo story, part 1

Sorry for the delay, but this has been a hard entry to write. The week I spent in the village was AMAZING, and trying to put it all into words is a little overwhelming. So since it's taken me a long time to write even this much, I've decided to split this entry into 2 parts. This one has already gotten really long, and you can expect another pretty long one later this week. But for now, here is part 1 of my Mombasa/Bodo saga. I hope you enjoy it.

From Nairobi (which is pretty central in Kenya), we took an overnight train to Mombasa, on the coast. It was a fun train ride and we were all really excited about the next 2 weeks. The best part about the ride was looking out at the sky at night. I think i had my head out the window for at least 2 hours. The night sky is absolutely beautiful. I've never seen so many stars in my life and the moon was shining so brightly. It was absolutely incredible. We got to Mombasa in the morning and spent some time shopping and walking around. I absolutely love Mombasa, but more on that later.

We only spent a few hours in the city before piling back into the van and driving about 2 hours south to the rural village of Bodo. The ride was so pretty, but I ended up sleeping for most of it. We turned down a sand road and drove a few miles into the center of the village. We were all pretty anxious about what we would find there, but all that melted away the second we pulled up. All the kids in the village were there to welcome us, jumping up and down and singing songs. I have to say that it was probably the best welcome I've ever had and it made us all so happy. We went to the pavilion that would be our main meeting/hang out spot for the week, where they had chai and snacks set up for us. After about 45 minutes, we were all introduced to our new families and lead to our homes.

Before I go on, I want to explain a little about Bodo. It's a small Muslim, rural village right on the coast of the Indian Ocean with only a little electricity for the whole village and no running water at all. Most of the men are either fishers, involved in the tourism industry, make random crafts, sell foods (coconuts, rice, meat, eggs, etc) in local markets, or are unemployed. All the women have no "real" job, but work harder then anyone I've ever seen. They clean the house, make the food, take care of the kids and laundry, etc. They are working all the time, it's amazing. And most of the men just sit around - it was a little frustrating to see. But everyone there was so welcoming and so nice - by the second day we all felt at home in Bodo.

My Family

My mama was absolutely amazing. She spoke no English, and I found out later in the week that she usually didn't even speak Swahili, but rather Kidoge, her tribal language. It was kind of a relief when I found that out. I realized that the reason I didn't understand what she was saying wasn't because my Swahili was that bad, but actually because she wasn't speaking Swahili at all. I found out throughout the week that she's a midwife, and that she also helped to start a women's group in Bodo that's similar to a micro-credit organization. Whenever she said anything, it got done - even the chickens and goats listened to her. Sometimes she would just look at me, say "Ahh, Bodo!" and start laughing. She knew that I barely understood a word she was saying, but she would still just start talking to me and asking me questions anyway, and then either laugh and walk away or nod and walk away depending on my answer. There were a few tricky situations where I agreed to do something (like, for example, agree that I was tired and wanted to sleep) when what I thought I was agreeing to was something else (like a shower or to help her cook). But luckily everything would always get resolved.

The rest of my family was awesome as well. I had a 21 year old brother who spoke perfect English and was my tour guide/interpreter the whole weekend. He would ask me questions about America - like do we have monkeys or elephants, and generally about how things work there. It was so funny that so much of the stuff we take as common knowledge just isn't here. Like the fact that Barack Obama is the senator from Illinois, not the senator of the US. Or when he asked me about men having more than 1 wife. It was an eye opening experience to say the least. It's not that he was stupid at all, but rather that they stuff that we take for granted they just aren't taught. But having him around made me really conscience of gender roles in the area. I wasn't sure exactly how to act around him, and was kind of afraid I would somehow be married to him by the end of the week. But luckily, that didn't end up happening. I just kind of felt like I was on an awkward date with him the whole time. But I am very thankful he was around and so helpful. I also had a 15 year old nephew who spoke pretty good English as well. He liked to teach me Swahili, and he taught me the names of the planets (useful, I know), body parts, days of the week, and other random things. My favorite was when I asked him to teach me future tense and he taught me how to say "future tense" in Swahili. Not exactly what I wanted...

Other then that, I had 2 sisters, one who was very pregnant and should be having the child any day, and another sister who was only around for a few days before going back to her village 30 kilometers away. I also had a bunch of Aunts, Uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins. In villages like Bodo, everyone is related somehow. Either by blood or by some other way. For example, if a father dies, his children become his brother's children. It makes for some very confusing explanations of family ties, especially coming from an American perspective. But I loved my family - I loved having people walking in and out all the time. And they were so good about including me in what they were doing and being patient with me. But more to come on that later.

For the first few days, my family would just stare at me sometimes. I can't really blame them. They also laughed at me. A lot. Again, I can't really blame them. But it was in a very good natured way, and I was also laughing at myself most of the time, so I was really ok with it all.

My House

My house was very nice - a thatched roof, mud walls on the outside (that makes them cooler as the air can flow through) and concrete walls on the inside. There was extra space between the walls and the ceiling to provide for air circulation, but it also helped with noise circulation. Everyone pretty much heard everything that went on. There were several times when I heard my family practice saying my name in the morning, or heard my mom cooking, etc. It was really nice though - I liked hearing it all.

There were 3 rooms, and I shared one with my Mama. I did have my own bed, which was more then some people could say. I was happy about that. I didn't really see the other 2 rooms though. Straight down about a 15 foot hallway from the front door was the backyard area. This was where the living room, kitchen, bathroom and shower all were (and I use all those terms very loosely). The bathroom was about the size of a cubical with a hole in the ground, the shower was a little bigger and was just a bucket on the ground. There was no real "door" to the shower, so it was a little awkward. But after about 2 days and about 314 liters of sweat dripping off of me, I got used to it. The kitchen was a little bigger and was just a fire pit with rocks they used to balance the pots on. It was pretty cool to see how much they were able to cook on that one pit. Our living room was just a big open outdoor space between the house, kitchen, bathroom and shower. We used that space to eat, have chai, talk, hang out, whatever. We spent a lot of time outside, especially at night which I loved. All the stars in the sky were so amazing and I could have spent hours just looking up at them. I felt so comfortable in the house and I really do think that I could have stayed there for a lot longer. I'm not really sure what it was - but there was just something there, and I felt so much at home.

So with that, I'll wrap up part one. Like I said, I'll update again as soon as I can about the things I did, family life etc. I hope you enjoyed reading about it, and thanks again to everyone for all the comments. It makes me really happy to know that you are along for the ride with me!