Mama's Sweet Home

Kathryn Bohannon (Mama), Donnie McGuire, Inez Culpepper and Sue Culpepper
(Below is an old photo of my Mom, Grandma, Great Grandma and Great Aunt Inez)

Mama has the sweetest little home; curio cabinets filled with Llardro and other delicate knick knacks. There is always music playing in the living room, usually classical pieces, and Mama fills a cream pitcher, along with her lidded sugar bowl, when serving coffee each morning. Of course, she fixes tea for herself. The double refrigerator doors are covered with photos of her three daughters and seven grandkids, along with magnets collected from around the world. Now that she's retired, Mama has a semi-routine of drinking tea with breakfast, checking her emails, and reading books and watching movies in the afternoon (and occasionally visiting with friends). She loads her dishwasher by grouping spoons with spoons and forks with forks for easy unloading. I follow her lead when loading the dishwasher after dinner. I've thoroughly enjoyed these few days with Mama and her serene semi-routine. When I'm washing dishes in Africa, I'll think of Mama and her spoons with spoons, forks with forks, and all those happy faces beaming from the double refrigerator doors.

Voices from Another Era

Mama brings her cassette player into the living room where I'm working on my laptop. She turns it on and I hear my children's voices; Jaime at age four and James at age two. They sound so Southern! And it's hysterical to listen as Mama leads the very young Jaime and James in singing Jingle Bells. Jaime describes the nightgown she is wearing, identical to the miniature nightgown her baby doll is wearing. She is preoccupied with holding the microphone and James keeps wandering away and yelling out in the background, but Mama manages to interview them about their friends, what they received for Christmas and how much they love their Mama and Daddy. Mama recorded their voices 18 years ago, when home movies were virtually non-existent, and hearing them is like being in the room once again with those sweet babies. Jaime is now 22 and James is 20-years-old. To hear their young thoughts and their baby voices is a time warp and a heart warp.

Ice Storm 2005

Winter Wonderland

We wake up in Warner Robins and see ice covering everything; houses, trees, fire hydrants and cars. Overnight, freezing rain collects on every surface and leaves icicles hanging from eaves and light fixtures and Azalea bushes. It's gorgeous, but dangerous (especially for the trees, which snap under the weight). Instead of returning to Atlanta for our Happy Group's Bowling event this afternoon, I stay at Mama's and wait for Atlanta, a two-hour drive north, to thaw. In late morning, we venture out to Wilson's Bakery to pick up five dozen finger nut cookies. Wilson's has been in business for more than 60 years and we can't get enough of their cookies. Between me and Donnie, the cookies disappear faster than the ice.

Old Family Photos

Circa 1944: From left, Grandma Bohannon, Great Grandma Mims, Inez Culpepper (holding her son Billy), my Mom--Kathryn Bohannon, Uncle Richard and Aunt Gail (kneeling in front).

My great aunt, Inez Culpepper, and cousin, Sue Culpepper, drive up from Dublin, Georgia, to visit me and Mama. Sue is married to Billy Culpepper, the baby in Aunt Inez's arms in the photo above. Inez, at 83, is as feisty and irreverent as ever! If she reads this, she'll call me an "old turd" (or worse!) for writing it. My nephew, Donnie McGuire, stops by to visit on a break from his studies at Georgia Southern. We look at old and older family photos of bare-footed children standing on dirt roads, trying to identify the kids in the pictures. Most of them are my Mom and her many, many cousins and aunts and uncles.

It'll be two years (at least) before I see Inez, Sue or Donnie again. They're okay with that. In the meantime, I've downloaded hundreds of new and old family photos--and I'll travel through the pictures to visit family amongst the dirt roads and Piney woods of South Georgia.

Home Cookin'

Kate Yandoh, a friend who grew up in upstate New York, suggests I eat my favorite foods now because they probably won't be available in Kenya. Upon arriving at my Mom's house in Warner Robins today, I tell her we must eat dinner at the Cracker Barrel and breakfast at IHOP. So here's what we eat over the next few days: Fried chicken livers, boiled cabbage, fried okra, catfish, chicken n' dumplin's, turnip greens, pancakes, grits and pork rinds. My recommendation is to order turnip greens as all three sides with your Cracker Barrel dinner platter!

Mama, a.k.a. Kathryn Bohannon, cooks Brunswick Stew and we eat it with buttered bread for lunch. Granny Brown used to make Brunswick Stew the traditional way, with a complete hog's head simmered in a giant pot for hours. Here's the recipe Mama got from Aunt Betty Jean Brown of Hazelhurst, GA. The recipe calls for pork, just not the head:

Brunswick Stew
(With notations by Kathryn Bohannon)

1 large chicken
1 small Boston pork roast (I buy one and have it cut in half and then freeze it.)
6 to 8 medium potatoes, cubed
tomatoes, diced (Canned is okay. I run the tomatoes in the blender before adding them.)
1 small can tomato sauce
2 medium onions chopped
Tabasco sauce
1 small can garden peas
1 package yellow corn kernels, frozen

Directions: Cook chicken and pork together with onions until meat falls apart. Remove skin, bones, etc., and shred the pork and chicken with a fork. Add potatoes, tomatoes, corn and tomato sauce (to add color to stew). Add salt and pepper to taste. Add Tabasco sauce to taste. I make a big pot of stew and divide and freeze it. I add garden peas only when thawing the stew because I don't like to boil the peas.

Kisumu on the Shores of Lake Victoria

Kisumu City Proper

Here's a map of Kisumu on the lake's edge. If you enlarge the photo by clicking on it, you may be able to see the Esso gas stations and a listing of banks in the city. Barclay's and Standard both have branches in Kisumu, and there's a hospital, museum, library, restaurants, cybercafes and book stores! Approximately 300,000 people live in Kisumu. However, the city's infrastructure is strained and collapsing in parts. Road surfaces are disintegrating and only 40 percent of the population has piped water. Kisumu is the poorest city in Kenya with some 45 percent of the population living on less than US$150 per year. As bad as it may seem, the city does possess charm and dignity. Its mood is tranquil with a spaciously open and shady layout. The city, excellently located for accessing and exploring western Kenya, is well-connected to the rest of the country by bus and matatu (passenger mini bus).

Kisumu found its fortune in shipping. The port city funneled goods between Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania until the break-up of the East African Community in 1977. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the port was mostly dormant. However, commercial shipping has resumed to Tanzania and Uganda, bringing money and activity to the area. Aid organizations, such as the UN, have been an ironic boost to Kisumu's economy. The UN World Food Program has kept the port city relatively busy transporting goods to Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda and Congo.

Goals are Good

Here's a summary of the United Nation's Eight Millennium Development goals adopted by Kenya and targeted to be achieved by 2015:

• Halve the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 per day
• Ensure children, boys and girls, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling
• Eliminate gender disparity in all levels of education
• Reduce the number of children who die under the age of five by two-thirds
• Reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters
• Halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS; halt and reverse the incidence of malaria
• Integrate principles of sustainable development into country policies and reverse the loss of environmental resources
• Develop a global partnership for development

Where does my marketing advisor role fit into this greater picture? Because TICH educates its students in health and development issues, and works with local organizations on these issues, my position will impact goals related to health, social well-being and education. I'll be working to build TICH's organizational capacity, which will enable the achievement of these goals.

Floating

What a strange sensation, being out of work. Unstructured days roll by. There is no work week and no weekend, just a gradual blending of day into night into day, while I adjust from UK time to Eastern Standard time. It's a luxury, really, this open time frame.

The process of preparing to leave America is surreal. It's a big, fat letting go of life as I know it. An evolution of saying goodbye to everyone and everything familiar. An unrelenting list of things to do: make phone calls, sell the truck, meet with financial advisors, update bank accounts, schedule lunches with friends, decide what to take to Kenya (we have a weight limit on the flight) and plan trips to see family. Read, read and read about Africa and Kenya as day shifts into night into day. Michelle Strong, in Vancouver, is preparing to leave North America for Ethiopia on Jan. 30th, and she's advised me to brace for a last minute frenzy during the final week. She'll be ready, though, with time to spare because she's very competent. Taking Michelle's advice, I constantly make lists and revisit them, trying not to panic.

After training in England for a week-- where I constantly thought about the job in Kisumu -- I feel I'm halfway to Kenya already.

Rolling Fields and Tiny Villages

View from Broadway Tower

At least this is a view of the Cotswolds from the base of Broadway tower, which was closed the day we visited. Even at ground level this vista shows the lovely dipping and waving of the English countryside, with sweet villages nestled in gentle nooks. It's sad to say goodbye to such loveliness. Hope to return one day and spend lots more time here!

SKWID Escapees

Curry and Boddington; A delightful combination
From left: Rose, me, Peter, Hannah, Svein, Evelyn, Frank, Trevor, Eileen, Jenny, Maria, Sue, Dan, Chris and Marianne.

Training at Harborne Hall in Birmingham has been fun and challenging. "SKWID" is the name of our course: Skills for Working in Development. Our trainers, Peter, Dan and Marianne, have guided us through a series of Ah-has and Eurekas! Tomorrow will be our last day of training, so tonight we all journey to a nearby Indian restaurant for fantastic food and great bonding. Most of the folks in this group are going to Malawi, except for Rose, a nutritionist, who'll be in Cameroon, and Chris, an education administrator, who'll be in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Oh, and Frank and I will be in Kenya!

Cheers! Afya!

Ian and me at an authentic English Pub

East Africans will raise their glasses and says "Afya!" It sounds like Ah-Fee-yah and in Kiswahili "afya" means much the same as saying "cheers." Here's to good times and good health! Kiswahili is an official language of Kenya, along with English. Sometimes the language is referred to as Swahili, which is actually what the people are called, not the language. In Kisumu where Ian and I will be living and working, the local Luo tribe is rather large (the Luo are the third largest ethnic group and one of the most cohesive tribes in Kenya). Their language is called Dholuo and we'll probably be learning a bit of that in addition to Kiswahili. Here's to conjugating verbs!!

Nairobi Bound

Kenya Group: Heidi, Ian, me and Tom

It was so lovely meeting Ian today at the VSO training center in Birmingham, England. He and I will be housemates in Kisumu, so it's nice to meet before landing in Nairobi next month. Heidi and Tom are from the Netherlands and they'll also be volunteering in Kenya. Heidi is a speech therapist and Tom is an engineer who'll work in a wheelchair factory in Nairobi. We'll all arrive in Kenya on Feb. 13th for a week of training in Nairobi. Our employers will go through the training with us. Frank (not pictured) is also from the Netherlands and he'll join us for training as well. Frank will work as a hospital administrator in a village about 100km southwest of Kisumu.

Chipping Campden Old Time Marketplace

Market shelter in village center

Different reasons are given for the naming of the Cotswolds region in England. One reason says the area was named for Codwald, a man from the 12th century who owned high forest land. Another explanation says "cots" are shelters built specifically for sheep and "wolds" denotes the gently rolling hills of the area.

Some villages, like Chipping Campden and Chipping Norton, get their name from the word "cheapen," which is the medieval word for "market." The market in Chipping Campden, located in the heart of the village, was built in the 12th century. Chipping Campden is also the perfect village for sampling scones with clotted cream and strawberry jam. During the winter, be sure to locate a tea shop with a burning fire and grab the closest table!

Cotswolds Calling

Gentle Guidance in the Cotswold

The Lamb's Inn, in the village of Greater Rissington, provides excellent accommodations and superb customer service, including this courteous sign posted in the car park. Greater Rissington is just one of many, many picturesque villages dotting the Cotswolds. Designated "An Area of Outstanding Beauty," the Cotswolds region is the largest in the UK stretching from Chipping Campden, in the north, to Bath in the South (78 miles), covering an area of 790 sq. miles (2038 sq. kms) and comprising farmland over 80% of its area.

The Cotswolds sit on deposits of Oolitic Limestone that has been quarried and used to build cottages and churches since the middle ages. Generally, stone in the northern part of the Cotswolds is a beautiful 'honey golden brown' and becomes 'creamier' in color further south towards the city of Bath. In addition to stone, the Cotswolds region is famous for its sheep. Wool once made up 50% of England's economy and sheep remain a familiar site on the undulating fields of the Cotswolds.

Kenya ranks 148 out of 177 Countries

Each year, the U.N. releases the Human Development Index (HDI) , which focuses on three measurable dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life, being educated and having a decent standard of living. Thus the HDI combines measures of life expectancy, school enrollment, literacy and income to allow a broader view of a country's development than does income alone. Kenya ranks 148 out of 177 countries. Norway ranks number one, Sweden ranks number two and the United States ranks number eight.

The poverty line adopted by Kenya is US$17 per month per adult in the rural areas and US$36 per month per adult in the urban areas. More than half of Kenya's population (56%) live below the national poverty line. This percentage is projected to increase to 65.9 percent in 2015 if the current trend continues. Poverty remains a major impediment to fulfillment of basic needs of Kenyans, especially woman and children. Life expectancy at birth in Kenya is 45.2 years.

The United Nations created the Millennium Develop Goals to coalesce objectives of governments and aid organizations in all developing countries. Kenya adopted the goals in 2000 and is tracking progress. VSO, working in Kenya to achieve the goals, uses three approaches to develop: empowerment, partnership and commitment to learning. My role as marketing advisor is a tiny, tiny piece of Kenya's development puzzle. In my job, I'll focus on empowering co-workers and others, on partnering with them so their participation fosters ownership in their achievements, and on continually learning so I can understand their culture and their true needs.

Perfect Purple Flower

My Favorite Photo

I photographed this tiny flower (1/2" in diameter) in North Georgia last July 4th weekend during our Bohannon family reunion. It's simply my favorite flower photo. The hydrangeas from our backyard are a close second. I'll post that pic another day.

Love, Hate, Accept

When training in Ottawa in October, we were told most volunteers go through a cycle when living and working in a new culture. First, they arrive and are totally enthralled with everything, because it's new and exotic and stimulating. They love the people, the music, the street sounds, the buildings and the food. Everything! Then, as they work in their new role, they may feel frustration because things aren't progressing quickly enough. Perhaps their co-workers aren't as task-focused and eager for results as they are. Within six months of arriving, everything about the place grates on their nerves and they begin to hate the people and the music and the street noise and the food. They hate everything!

But as time passes, and their experiences compound daily, they begin to appreciate the beauty and the ways of the people. They learn to slow down and adapt, to accept things as they are. Within a year, they feel on target and at home. By the time their two years are up, they don't want to leave!!

I'm preparing myself psychologically and emotionally for these cycles, these waves of assimilating into a new culture. Prepared, yet flexible; anxious, yet hopeful. I'll keep you posted!

Toes: Two Weeks Later

Bruises still here!

Okay, this is pretty gross, so I apologize to the squeamish. But I'm fascinated with the amount of bruising on my big toes, yet those nails hang on. We've been off the mountain two weeks now and the purple toes linger as my crimson badges of honor.

You Can't Lay Me Off, I Quit!

The president of our company let our entire marketing team go yesterday; even though I had given my notice that next Monday, Jan. 10th, would be my last day. Gosh, thanks for the six years of hard work and dedication. Oh, by the way, you won't receive a severance package because you had given your notice.

Well, that's mighty fine with me. I'm off to the UK next week for training with VSO. We'll be learning skills for working in developing countries and examining our new job roles to understand how they fit into VSO's larger picture of development.

Zebra in Kiswahili?

Zebra Love in Kiswahili is "Punda mlia Penda"

"Punda" means "donkey" in Kiswahili, but "punda mlia" means zebra. Here are a few other Kiswahili words for African wildlife:

Tembo - Elephant
Kifaru - Rhino
Twiga - Giraffe
Mbogo - Cape Buffalo
Kiboko - Hippopotamus
Fisi - Hyena
Chui - Leopard
Duma - Cheetah

"Happy" New Year!!

Julia Versteegh threw a New Year's Party for the Happy Group and there's no place I'd rather be when the ball drops than with this group of wonderful, warm people. Volunteers attending at Julia's beautifully decorated and lit-up home were Richard, Tina and Bob, Eve, John, Ed, and Jennifer and Glenn. Nearly 30 kids showed up to "party," and we had only one minor mishap when Jason became sick. Thanks to Ed for retrieving his steam cleaner and making everything new again!! Being with this group of people is a heart-swelling delight. Happy "Happy" New Year to all!!