House of Courage: An internship in Mombasa, Kenya

The title? Yeah... it would take too long to explain. Ask me in person but for now just realize that things are very good.

We’ve had a very productive week at the House of Courage Initiative. For a while we’ve had to go through bureaucratic paper work and letters of approval from different stake holders in the Kisauni Youth Center in our attempt to get reconnected to power. This has been my main focus for my internship and with approval of funding nearly a month ago by FSD it seemed a done deal. At the beginning of the week however it seemed that we may miss our window of opportunity. Kenya Power Lighting Company (KPLC) was telling us that it was going to take another month to get an electrician out to hook up the power. Through FSD policy the hook up needs to be completed before I leave at the beginning of August.

Things looked bad.

It’s amazing though what a little smart preplanning with funds and knowing the right people can do in Kenya. HOCI had previously received a seed grant that was not enough to complete the power installation project. We sat on that money waiting for an opportunity to arise to use it. We needed the quotations from KPLC to get money from FSD but we needed to get money to an electrician to get the quotes from KPLC.

Don’t ask me to explain it right now…it’s Kenya.

So with the seed grant money we partially prepaid a trusted electrician the administrative people of HOCI were familiar at the beginning of the week. He then expedited the process so we could get all the quotations from the power company and begin work on the installation on Friday. Since we were able to get the quotes, FSD released the appropriate funds to us and the rest of the equipment and labor bills were addressed.

We’ll see the final product at the end of next week and I believe it will be better than I had previously hoped. KNOCK ON WOOD

Posted by Ben Marcy at 10:09 AM | Permalink | Comments (6)

Let me begin with apologies for not updating in the last two weeks. Over the time much has happened along with some subjects I can't print on the web but would be happy to discuss in person with dear family and friends.

For this entry allow me the liberty to go in a bullet point style:

• Title: The title of this entry may seem a bit crude but it comes from genuine frustration. We are now in the “high� season or tourist season when European and other Western visitors travel to Mombasa to enjoy the holiday. Other interns and I have begun to classify tourists as good or bad depending on behavior the exhibit when we see them. Fashion is a key give away to a bad tourist. If you are a woman and decide to come to a predominantly Muslim area, please do not wear short shorts and strapless tops when walking by the downtown mosques. My white female friends get spit on because of your misunderstanding of cultural indecency. When you also choose to display arrogance as an excuse of your ignorance, well then let me refer you to the title.
• Work: We’re still going slow at the HOCI. We did some major cleaning of the centre two weeks ago and were preparing for an assessment from KPLC (Kenya Power Lighting Company). Because of it’s frequency of blackout throughout Mombasa I affectionately refer to it as KPLD (Kenya Power Lighting Darkness). However the owner of the building the Center is situated in needed to sign off on an assessment and convincing him took quite a bit of time and persuasion. Today we are supposed to have an assessment. In other areas of work we have been refocusing a massive $13,000 grant that we hope to present to different funders in the U.S. It’s a slow process as the particulars have not been totally explored.
• Family: More and more I’m becoming connected with my host family. As I learn more Kiswahili the language wall crumbles more and more. I’ve become quite popular with the kids in the family. The other day I walked home with my nephew Mohammed from his primary school, which is near the centre where I work. Usually he takes the matatu home with friends but he looked at me his friends and I forked with him in the middle. I looked back at him and said “Twende� (Come on) and he rushed after waving by to his friends. A young male mzungu and seven year old Kenyan boy walking together through Mtopanga, quite a sight for people to stare at.
• Free time: Mostly I spend my free time writing more extensive journal entries in my personal log. Other times I work with another youth group from Mtopanga called Dream Achievers. Over the last week we’ve had two outreaches in which I’ve performed on stage to the stun crowd of on lookers wondering “Anafanya nini ila wazimu mzungu?� What is that crazy white guy doing? I also have begun learning how to cook traditional coast dishes which I will be happy to share when I return.

All for now, I hope to write again soon munguakipenda (God willing)

Posted by Ben Marcy at 10:12 AM | Permalink | Comments (8)

On Tuesday I received word that the FSD Competition Grant Proposal I wrote was accepted and the Youth Centre the House of Corage Initiative operates will be getting funds for a new power connection. We'll be able to have lights for the Centre to stay open later, fans for some air circulation and be able to show video programming on health and social issues affecting Kenyan youth. In the long term we can set up the computers we have in storage, contact an NGO partner for internet connection and begin a cyber cafe as an income generating activity for the House of Courage Initiative. We'll be providing affordable education, business and communication opportunities to an area of Mombasa where the nearest cyber cafe is nearly 6 km away and for the average Kenyan costs nearly half a day's pay for ten minutes of time.

But as with all things in Kenya, the work is pole pole (SLOW). We have to wait for the power company to come out and give us an assesment and then go through paper work and the actual hook up. This could take the next week or so to go through. In the mean time work is slow because of many meetings my supervisor and co-worker have been called away on at the very last minute. Today we had a full schedule ready to go but some of the funding NGOs called people away at the last moment to discuss some issues about assessing success of the magnet theatre program the organization has. These last minute notices of meetings take away from the groups time to develop their own initiatives and tasks as well as throw off everyone's schedule.

This weekend should be good for completing some profiles we are working on since the entire group will be working an outreach on Saturday. Weekends are actually ideal for work since we know where people will be to get information: at home. At a moments notice you have to be ready to go and move on to the next piece of the project you can complete...in the mean time you wait.

Posted by Ben Marcy at 11:01 AM | Permalink | Comments (10)

I've just returned from the FSD retreat in which I and the other interns had an opportunity to rest and reflect on the first month of our work in Mombasa.

My assessment of the situation is very positive. I'm working in different capacities within the range of experience with youth theatre groups. With the House of Courage Initiative, I have a group of older experienced artists who are sound on their theatre work. They are professionals in the areas of performance and public relations. The challenge remains preparing them for becoming a more well rounded organization and getting them on track for reaching their goal of becoming an NGO. This is the expectation the reality of being a Non Governmental Organization is something that takes a different form of discipline that members of the group have yet to develop. My role with the organization is to create an environment that will not just help them learn this discipline but force them to. With the recent completion of the FSD Competition Grant, it is my hope the group will soon get funds for installation of a new power connection and be able to open the youth centre they own and operate to its fullest capacity. In the long term, we hope to finalize a sustainable business plan for an internet cafe, that can help generate income for the members of HOCI and the organization as a whole as well as give members of the community of Kisauni, who have no immediate public access to the internet for 4 miles, new opportunities for business, education, and communication throught the world wide web.

The other group I work with in my free time is called Dream Achiever which is a relatively new youth group in my village. They started up just over a year ago and are learning the pieces of how to be an effective low range group. This includes dealing with the basics group politics among the executive board, realizing how to do effective outreaches, and understanding the basics of stage performance. In a sense I'm acting as a medium between this group and HOCI, which does more monitoring of younger youth groups to make sure they are doing their work effectively.

This work keeps me busy for almost 8-9hrs a day and is quite a shift going between the two. Still it is what has kept me focussed and not doubtful like some of my other colleagues. I am very fortunate.

Posted by Ben Marcy at 3:34 PM | Permalink | Comments (7)