In November my daughter Erinda and I went together to the library to get into internet. She was sending out CVs to find a job for the winter as she is a dive master and in winter here there is no work. She sent out 13 but said to me she wanted to go to Kenya… That was a calling… The next day they rang her from Kenya and 10 days later she was there. So she opened up a new continent for us to go to!!I was going to Kenya before my birthday (beginning of February) and now I have just come back after a very strong experience. Those who know me might understand that this was not meant to be a vacation. It certainly was not, yet it still was marvellous.
Some of you probably know that I have travelled quite a bit; also to countries with very small financial resources and possibilities. But the poverty I have seen here, the under-development, I have not seen anywhere away from Africa, not even 35 years ago. Now Kenya is one of the best African countries in this sense, where poverty, underdevelopment and filth are not as bad as in the other African countries.
For me this was quite a shock, although I had been prepared by my daughter Erinda who already had informed me a couple of months before me flying out there.
She already had travelled to Kenya to her job as a dive master and the 5th of December had already told me that “it is like nothing I have seen elsewhere. Not like south-America, not like Asia. There are no tarmac roads in Nairobi, everywhere there is dirt, rubbish and at night it is really dangerous. The people don’t easily except white people into their circle.”
She travelled on to Mombasa and about 60 km. south of Mombasa, crossing the river, was the place where she was going to work.
After it was clear she really arrived there and started work, and had uttered the enormous wish to start to work there as a volunteer, preferably with some G.N.O. as she saw that sooo much needs to be done there, I decided to book a ticket to fly over. I asked Helmut, my husband, if he wanted to join, which he did. Before I still had to do work in two different places in Germany, seminars and training of therapists, so I booked for the month of February.
When we arrived I felt an invasion of different emotions because of the variety of impressions jumping into me. I felt lots of sadness of the people and the atmosphere, joy because of the beauty, repulsion because of the filth and stank, exhilaration because of the contact with the people thanks to the bit of Swahili I learned fast, surprise because of the high prices, delight because of the beauty of the flowers and the lavishness of the fruit etc. It has been very impressive to see how poor and primitive this country is with so little knowledge, the majority of the population sad, scared, unhappy and in great need, and living amongst rubbish and dirt. It is not a country where everybody smiles. They have an honesty in the expression on their face that is quite unsettling. Yet whatever I did, wherever I went, the sadness was always very present and so the urge to do something was born.
First I thought I should make a foundation that can help to pay school fees for the children. So many parents would love their child to go to school but they cannot afford it. Yet school fees are les than 365€ a year, less than 1€ a day!!! And this includes the transport from school to home back and forth (important as so they can still live at home), the meals at school(so they get enough to eat), the school uniform (so they have some proper clothes) and a medical insurance! But when you realise that many of them just earn 5€ to 10€ a month(!) and the fortunate ones 40 € a month you can see the problem.
This first idea popped up because several people I had talked with, expressed to me their great wish to have their small daughter go to school. They invited me to their “homes” to see the circumstances they lived in and explained their situation. After the first one, a cleaning lady, I was already going to pay for her 9 years old daughter’s school fees, yet after the 3rd I knew that this was an endless pit and I need a plan, as that amount of money I simply don’t have.
This plan is not totally off board though, yet it is not what I will start with, but might be included in the project at some later time.
I felt I had to wait, observe, as I wanted to go to the root. I felt we will be led to the right situation and so it came. Erinda and I were both very tuned in and with each other and so, on a day we had rented a car, she suggested driving southwards and explore.
Of course the road was a dirt road and the three of us took care not to leave the coast too much as it is very easy to get lost. No road signs!!
We arrived at the Kinondo sacred Forest and met Salim. He is the guide and the manager there who takes care of the forest and its sacred places. He told us lots about his people and the history of his tribe and the 8 other tribes belonging to the same spiritual ways.
He does this work to help his people; it is a project to make a change. (soon on the new blog about Kenya)
We talked for hours and for him the fact that I am a seer (as he calls it) was very comfortable and he talked about the “invisible” with great ease, which was pleasant to Erinda and me as that is quite unusual in our world. I was seeing things of the past at the same time he was talking about them the way he had been told by his father and grandfather. That was interesting for us all.
There I told him that in me a plan for a project was growing, yet I did not quite know how and where to start. I told him it was for the people in the villages, especially the women and their daughters and he became enthusiastic and invited us into his village, his community. This is special, and hardly ever done. I would even be allowed to take photographs.
A few days later we went there and also to the school where I met the second head master, a lady who gave us much of her time and listened with interest when I laid out my plan. She was thrilled and said that exactly that is the group where help is most needed and explained lots of the problems she saw. She and Salim committed to the project. Then Salim told me to leave a donation for the school, as that is what visitors must do(?)(so I did).
Yet I was not satisfied yet.
We took Salim back to his work, the forest, and gave him money to thank him for his time and went home with lots to think about.
We filled Erinda in who was very excited and… a bit sad she hadn’t come, as she had to work.
One of the great problems in Kenya is the untrustworthiness of most people. Something I saw everywhere. So I looked further for more people. This idea of more people I deducted out of what Salim told me of how the government support works. If there are a minimum of 6 people wanting to set up a business, the government will help. If they already have experience they will get a loan and can start. If they have no experience but really like to do “this”, the idea, they get the help in the form of training the skills needed, which might include going to specialised courses etc. Salim was the one that told me that in this way the government want to prevent the money going down the drain as they will look upon each other’s fingers.
Erinda has a booking girl at her diving base with whom she has become close friends, her name is Aisha. She is married to a wonderful man, Michael and they have a wonderful relationship (unusual in Kenya) and is expecting their first baby in June.
I talked about the whole thing with her. I explained my vision, my ideal to her, how to go about etc. She looked very serious and was very still. I could see appreciation in her look, but also something that bothered her. I asked her to tell me what she was withholding so she expressed her worry: how to be sure the money will really go there where it is meant to go?
After talking to her, most of the people I talked to about this project said, as she did, that 80 % of the people will try to put as much as they can in their own pocket…
Was that bad news? Not really, it just confirmed my feeling of wanting to find more people so they can check each other out. I told her this and then came the most wonderful surprise: her husband is involved in a project of a children’s home, an orphanage, over the last 5 years, and he really wants to start something new, a new challenge.
Michael is a wonderful, dedicated young intelligent man who called me that third last day of our stay. We were leaving two days later.He had hoped we would stay longer but when he found out there was hurry he made the morning of the next day free and came to pick us (Helmut and me) up early the next morning. He took us to the children’s home where we met Winnie, a lovely lady who does the whole administration of the place. She is very intelligent and has an enormous heart. She has her own family yet dedicates her energy to these children in the home, emphasizing that they need much love and care because of all they have been through… We talked and talked, and they became more and more enthusiastic the more I told them of what my goal is. And… they will help. They will meet with Salim and Mwanajuma (the teacher) and with Erinda and they will start to find out what to do to legalize the setting up. After 3 hours of talking, Winnie and Michael showed us the project they are in, the children’s home. It is beautiful!!! Everything is done with love and all is beautiful, yet what hit me the most from the beginning I was there: everyone smiles and the place feels very safe, like a warm hugging embrace. Winnie told me that they emphasize on that as these children have a horrible past…
Then at about 13.30 h. Michael took us back home.
To be quite honest, I have never done anything like this in this way. This is going to be a GNO and has to make a bridge between Europe and Kenya. If you know how that works, it would be great if you can help or give ideas. 35 years ago things were done without any kind of bureaucracy…
There is much more to tell, yet I will leave you now and just hope you will find this great. You don’t have to start to tell me whether you like it or not, that is not why I am telling you this. Anyway, I will need my time to be able to set this up and still do the rest of my life, private as well as work, like before, which already occupied a 100 %. Yet, if you can be of help write to me or call me. That would be really great.
Of course at all times I am available for more Information. Please just look where I am, as I travel a lot, which you can do on http://www.sasenyin.de/ under „Programm“ or at the Emailaddress: sasenyin@hotmail.com
My Tel. Number in Spain (where I live) (0034) 619 137 539
In Germany (only in case I am there) (0049)(0)1577 453 75 12
For now I just would like to say, keep trying to love and make this world into a better place and use the awareness you have, actively.
PLEASE SEND THIS TO ALL YOUR CONTACTS; YOU WILL BE DOING THE KENYAN PEOPLE A VERY BIG FAVOUR.
I just received the message that the first person has committed to donate € 365 a year. The project has begun!
With all my love, Ria (see links at the bottom of all)
