Today has been an incredibly long day. Actually I think that you can classify it as two days. We started off our day with a 4:45am wake up call. We all met to make sure that we had passports and additional sensitive items. We got on the trolley and headed down to 30th street station, where we got on the Amtrak to DC. All of us were pretty beat and slept most of the way.
Once we got to DC we had a ridiculous $80 taxi ride to Dulles International Airport. It took us a minute to find Ethiopian Airways check-in but when we did, it was unsuspectedly crowded. We got our tickets with no problem but when we tried to get through security, they told Pedro that his passport picture didn’t look like him. After three security officials checked his passport, they finally let him through.
All of us boarded the plane and we were on our way. We were in for a monster 13 hour plane ride. After multiple hours of sleep, reviewing our curriculum and watching movies we finally landed in Addis Abbaba, Ethiopia. We grabbed another flight and made our way to Mombasa. Side note, we got some video footage of the sunrise over the Sahara Desert, and our flight in general which should be on the way soon.
Once we got in Mombasa, we met up with the program director, Jacob, who is amazing. He single handedly started the school where we will be doing a part of human rights work. He brought us to his home where we are staying and we had a traditional Kenyan lunch. It consisted of fresh chicken and rice in this delicious sauce. The food was much better than what I had anticipated.
After a brief lunch we had a meeting at the school where we will be working to discuss what is expected of us and how the program will be implemented it. That lasted a surprisingly long time (about two hours). Everyone had a lot of questions and it seems like we are going to have a good program, teaching human rights to the children. We actually saw some of the children while we were at the school. It was utterly amazing, how they can be so happy and enjoy life so much when they have so little. The kids were really funny and kept on posing for Alex’s camera (pictures to come).
After leaving the school we drove down to the women’s right organization (sauti ya wanawake) where we will be doing the second half of our work. We had another two hour meeting with them about how our program will be implemented. Ultimately we came to the consensus that we are going to have a grand day of training on Wednesday for 100-150 women community leaders. Kenya just passed a new constitution last August, and many of the women in the community where we are working are unaware about the guarantees to equality and various fundamental rights that are embodied in the new document. We are going to work with the Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) here in the country to provide these women with this valuable information. We believe that by providing this knowledge, the women of the Mtongwe community will be able to avoid the instances of abuse they have suffered in the past and make sure that the provisions of the new constitution are actually implemented.
Once all our meetings were over, Jacob took us out to see what the Mombasa night life was like. We ended up at a lounge/bar. We had an amazing meal of roasted goat, roasted chicken, Tilapia and chips (fries).
We have all probably had about 6 hours of sleep over the last two days and I’m really tired so I’m going to sleep. Continue to follow our adventure, as we try to make a difference, experience the culture of our native land. As mentioned Pictures and video will be forthcoming so be on the lookout.
We have all probably had about 6 hours of sleep over the last two days and I’m really tired so I’m going to sleep. Continue to follow our adventure, as we try to make a difference, experience the culture of our native land. As mentioned Pictures and video will be forthcoming so be on the lookout.
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