A Hamomi Halloween

Happy Halloween! Here's a re-post from October 31, 2010 by Eric. He and his girlfriend, Laurel, worked at Hamomi for 8 months in 2010-2011. 

-Susie

A Hamomi Halloween

This Saturday we celebrated Hamomi’s 2nd annual Halloween. It has become a beloved yet little-understood holiday for the students and teachers here. Last year Jamie and Susie, the directors of Hamomi-USA based in Seattle, introduced the day and since it was such a great success, we continued the tradition. We spent this week brainstorming how we could explain


and celebrate this pumpkin carving, trick-or-treating, fest of goblins and ghouls to Hamomi, without it being a mess of candy wrappers, pumpkin guts, and 135 sugar-high students.At first we thought about buying a pumpkin for each class to carve and decorate. However, after thinking it through and pricing out pumpkins, we concluded this was not the best option, nor was it in the budget. Trying to organize 12 to 18 students carving a single pumpkin would not have been

a success in any way. Not to mention, the undersized, whitish gourds they call pumpkins here, go for an outrageous 400-600 shillings. So, back to the drawing board it was... 

Another bright idea we had to dress in costumes and do some trick-or-treating with the students. After thinking this through we determined that maybe we’d attract even more unwanted attention on our walk through the Kawangware slum and into the Kangemi slum dressed as superheroes, animals, or the headless horseman. Also, knocking on peoples doors with 100 plus students, each demanding sweets would more than likely be seen as rude in Kenyan culture and could possibly tatter Hamomi’s stellar reputation with its neighbors. Scratch that idea… Crazy Wazungu and their holidays.

So we settled on an idea brought originally to Hamomi by the first Halloween facilitators, Jamie and Susie. Decorating masks it is! Laurel and Val (a French volunteer from Venezuela) spent the next two full days cutting eye and mouth holes out of 150 paper plates. I offered the services of my Swiss army knife and found myself the more fun and less blister-filled job of decorating a few sample masks for the students to see.

The day-of was really fun. We circled up each grade on the Hamomi field and gave them paints, crayons, markers, colored pencils, feathers, water colors, construction paper, glitter and any other decorative material we could scrounge up and the mask-making commenced. I’m not so sure there were many superheroes or animals created, but many more colorful, nameless creatures began to take shape. I was really impressed, especially with the 1st and 2nd graders' painting skills, although a few masks did end up that brownish-green color that mixing all the watercolors together makes.

At one point a teacher insisted I paint his face like a cat. After this I had a crowd of no less than four dozen students chanting “Cha! Cha! Cha! [Teacher!] Me next!!!” After about an hour of face-painting, the

volunteers all grabbed the candy we’d brought and each group went to a different classroom. Laurel and I began passing out candy from the baby classroom and made each student say “trick-or-treat” before we gave them their sweet.

Most younger kids (who are just beginning to learn English) really tried to say what we wanted in order to get a treat. They came out with such things as “tick-and-tweet” or “sick-or-sweet” some just stared blankly until we gave them their candy. However, there was a particular first grader who was quite insistent that, while he wasn’t quite sure

what a “trick” was, he absolutely did not want one rather than his sweet! We passed out sweets to each student, teacher, and even a few of the other neighborhood children who couldn’t help showing up right around candy time.

All in all, Halloween was a great success! I hope you all enjoy the pictures.

-Eric

Hamomi learns baseball...or something like it

Considering the World Series is under way, this feels appropriate. And it's a personal favorite. It's re-posted from September 30, 2010 by Eric. He and his girlfriend, Laurel, worked at Hamomi for 8 months in 2010-2011.  


-Susie


Hamomi learns baseball...or something like it.

On Friday afternoon, I had the privilege of bringing the game of baseball to the Kawangware (Cow-un-gwar-ie) slum in western Nairobi. I’m quite certain this is the first instance America’s Pastime has ever been played in this corner of the world. However, not having known this at the time, I handed one of the grade 7 students a few balls and a bat (whiffle ball gear) and told him I’d be down to the open PE area for a game. A moment later, as I made my way to the pitch I heard a bit of cheering and figured the first inning had begun without me. I reached the open area to find that was definitely not the case. Rather a game reminiscent of 3 ball soccer mixed with Quiddich (for those Harry Potter fans out there) was underway. Not quite sure what to make of it, I was much relieved when one of the teachers quickly put the kibosh on grades 6-8 improvised game. He then readied the students for my marathon explanation of the rules of baseball.

It wasn’t till this moment I realized, for someone who has not grown up watching the game that was plastered on my family’s TV every summer night, baseball is a really tough game to grasp for the first time, and equally difficult to explain.  Where to begin? I thought to myself. So I just dove in head first. I set up the diamond which ended up looking more like a rhombus facing uphill on Hamomi’s less-than-flat open field. In fact, the PE/ play area is basically on a 20 degree, dry dirt slope with numerous pot holes and other inconsistencies, but it works. I discussed the idea of the 3 bases and home plate and foul and fair balls. I then showed them how the batter hits the pitch with the bat in order to advance to first base, then second base, and so on… This somehow was translated into Kenyan English as “the man with the beater” beats the "thrower's" ball so he can run to "corner one", then "corner two", and so on… It sounded good enough to me, we were making some progress. 

After answering what seemed to be 15 or 20 minutes of “what if…?” questions from the boys, I decided to just start playing and scrap the whole concept of balls and strikes for the time being. The game was quite high scoring, as every boy was tossed the ball until he hit it… or should I say beat it. The lack of balls and strikes didn’t really affect the game too much because the few boys who missed the ball repeatedly just passed the bat to their teammate and gave it another go after frustration wore off.

The game went really smoothly after the first few “men with the beater” (batters) with a few minor exceptions. Apparently while explaining scoring I failed to mention after you make it to home plate you should stop and wait to bat again. This confusion was fixed after I noticed Clyford had just scored his third run after only having been up to bat once. Also I had to explain a number of times that tagging someone out and throwing the ball at them were not the same thing. The kids ended up loving the game! It is also a new crowd favorite. By the end of the game most of baby class through Class 8 was there cheering on Hamomi’s newest All-Stars. The final score of Hamomi’s first baseball game after only 4 innings was 11 to 16 (or 14 if we don’t count Clyford's 2 extra runs).

-Eric

A Honeymoon at Hamomi

Below is a re-post from Ben and Holly Golden's blog from their visit to Hamomi in March, 2011. They traveled around the world for their honeymoon and this is a great example of how you can stop by Hamomi even for one day and have a beautiful experience.


Sex-ed, 20 questions, and giraffe kisses - just another day in Nairobi!

Hello from the Wildebeest Guesthouse in Nairobi, Kenya, where we're waiting to head to the airport.  We're off to Paris to participate in the EU's emergency meeting on Libya...or to finish our honeymoon adventure before I head home to finish school (Holly will stay in Paris to write a masterpiece novel, hopefully).  But first, Nairobi.

Kids with our camera = some crazy shots

We spent our first few days volunteering at a wonderful organization: Hamomi Children's Centre (thanks to our friend Susie Marks for connecting us). We've seen a lot of development projects throughout our travels, but Hamomi stood out for its enormous impact with so few resources. You can (and should) read Hamomi's story, but here's the cliff notes: Recognizing that most can't afford "free" public schools, and motivated by a belief that education is a human right, an incredible person named Raphael started a school in the Kangemi slum in Nairobi. In just 12 years, Hamomi has evolved into a 120 student primary school that provides schooling (and meals) to kids without other options. If a student graduates from Hamomi and passes the entrance exams, Hamomi also pays the relatively hefty secondary school and boarding fees so that students can continue their education (an extraordinary 15 of 18 graduates are now at secondary school).  Hamomi has driven students, passionate teachers and staff (all working for a fraction of what they could earn elsewhere), and a steady stream of mzungu volunteers.

"Let me see your mzungu dance!"

We briefly joined the cadre of volunteers, and we certainly got more from the experience than we could offer.  Some highlights of our time at Hamomi:

• Holly was asked to give an impromptu lesson on sex ed/HIV to the older girls.  Meanwhile, I (along with a visiting Pastor) was asked to talk to the older boys about 'how to have good moral character.'
• Exploring Kangemi, including stops at a few of the teacher's homes.
• Lots of soccer, singing, and dancing.
• Our visit coincided with the Pastor's family visit, a wholesome and kind family from Boston.
• Ben was asked to play games in English, resulting in an epic 20 questions tournament.  Meanwhile, Holly was asked to teach about apostrophes.
• Learning that the students shorten "teacher" by saying "cha" (i.e. "Cha, is the round orange fruit you're thinking of a papaw?").
• Letting the students borrow our digital camera during recess.
• Discovering that one of our favorite UW Professors (Joel Ngugi) brought study abroad students to Hamomi (a tiny school in the middle of one of many slums in a huge city - what are the odds?).

Many thanks to those who donated on our wedding registry. Your donations funded Hamomi's most urgent school supply needs. We were also lucky to meet a pair of rock climbing teachers from the Yukon because a) they were hilarious, and b) they brought a huge bag full of donations for a school but didn't know what to do with it; Hamomi now has new soccer balls and crazy pens thanks to Andy and Dave of Whitehorse.

Our plans to meet up for St Paddy's day drinks with a friend working in mobile banking and micro-finance fell through, so we spent the day chilling in Wildebeest Guesthouse's garden.  Another great day, full of of reading, writing, a dog named 'Fatty,' lots of wine, and chatting with a Maasai named Justus ("Justice").
We asked Joseph, our new Kenyan best friend and driver extraordinaire, to take us to the most touristy sites in Nairobi on our last day, and we were treated to an elephant orphanage (baby elephants slipping and sliding in muddy ponds - adorable!), a giraffe sanctuary (where we fed giraffes - mouth-to-mouth - from an elevated platform - adorable?), a women's bead-making co-op called Kazuri (cooler than it sounds), and a delicious meal at an Ethiopian restaurant.

-Ben and Holly

Bananas and Airplanes!

Hi All! Susie here! Giving a couple fun Hamomi updates via pictures I got this morning.

Left: Bananas have been added to lunch once a week. That's all we can afford for now, but maybe it's the start of diversifying our menu and meeting more of our students' nutritional needs. They're pretty excited!

Below: The kids went on their annual field trip. We had canceled it this year due to cost, but were able to afford it in the end! One stop was to Wilson Airport where most of the kiddos saw airplanes close up for the first time. 

Coming soon: pics from our brand spanking new Medical Program. We launched it in September. Each student and staff member will now receive an annual check-up, (or 'screening' as they call it in Kenya), and follow-up services if necessary. It seems to have gone smoothly - I'm just waiting on the report and some pictures, and then I will post them here.

Thank you, Kory, for getting the blog up and running! Hopefully we will have lots of fun and keep everybody posted!

First Post!!

Hello World,

Kory here, volunteer coordinator for Hamomi! We have created this blog for past, present and current volunteers to use as a resource and find out about what is happening right now at Hamomi. This will be a place for volunteers to talk about their experience, tell funny stories about their trip and share pictures, etc!