Visitor Report from Ralf Eckey...
Most visitors to Kenya come to see its wildlife, hoping to catch a glimpse of a leopard sprawled out in a tree, or witness a cheetah in full flight over the plains of the Masai Mara. Most visitors to this website have come to know a different side of Kenya - a story told in a small coastal town 70km South of Mombasa in one of the remotest, poorest regions of Kenya. Msambweni, the place I will call home for the next 6 months, has been put on the map by one family’s mission to give hope to one of Kenya’s more destitute communities and provide shelter to children that have been displaced from their families in varying stories of plight.
I was first introduced to Nice View Children’s village in July, when I came on a 2-week trip with one of the orphanage’s main sponsors. Inspired by the organisation’s mission and the tireless work of its founders, I promised to come back to play my part. What follows is an excerpt of a recent journal entry describing my life at Nice View Children’s Village. Towards the end, I detail some of the statistics of the project that give an impression of the impact Nice View is making on the local community.
I left for Msambweni almost 6 weeks ago and so far the experience of teaching at Nice View’s school has been incredibly rewarding. The children at school are friendly, energetic and are fascinated by the smallest of details. My students, clearly accustomed to different teaching methods, seem to be enjoying Maths and English for the very first time. The days are long, but the beautiful house I call home is paradise on earth. Most mornings I slowly come to my senses by the rising sun and the sound of breaking waves at the nearby beach. The views, especially early in the morning when the first fishing boats set out from the beach below and the sun rises over the unbroken vista of open sea, are simply amazing. It’s a pleasant way to start the day, and sure beats the road noise and shrill alarm system I was accustomed to in Frankfurt.
Being a teacher has been more thrilling than I imagined. My students are fascinated by the smallest of details; be it the use of relative pronouns, or my old life in Europe. They want to know what it feels like to walk in snow and hang onto every word when I describe the four seasons - the scene in Germany when I left, as Autumn was flourishing - the golden leaves falling from the trees, a multitude catching a gust, each drifting down like a spent petal from a flower, finally coming to rest upon layers of older leaves. When I describe to them that almost all of the trees lining the streets in Europe go from carrying leaves to being bare 2-3 weeks later, they gasp, look at each other, and in their excitement break into a short spurt of Kiswahili. A little later, their small eyes return back to me, keen for the next account of life on another continent. But first, I tell them, A lesson on the common misuses of homophones, which they probably find just as interesting.
Most of Msambweni’s commercial district is found directly along the main road. Most of the town’s residents live off the main road, somewhere in the dense bushland either side of the main artery of commercial life. Well worn paths branch off from the main road, linking one house to the next, beat by the footsteps of women and children ferrying water and other supplies to their homes. Nearly all of Msambweni’s residents rely on subsistence farming, living off whatever they can grow on the small plots of land surrounding their homes. Whatever they produce in excess, be it maize, milk, or eggs, is sold to neighbours or at the makeshift weekly markets. This income is used to procure another week’s supply of Ugali, which constitutes a staple part of their traditional diet. Kenyan houses are modest and a model of open floor planning. Many of the homes have no brick walls, the roofs hatched by tightly bound palm tree leaves in an arrangement, so I am told, that protect from the torrential rains in April, Kenya’s wet season. The roof is held in place by the strong branches of mango trees. On luxury editions, the home’s sides may be complete, some rocks and mud packed together to make walls. Glass windows, electricity and running water are non-essentials, and are not found in the homes of ordinary households.
Most mornings when I ride to school I look into the houses, and along one familiar route, the families wave back as I ride past. In and around the houses, along well travelled paths, small children play in the dirt, with goats, chickens and cows wandering freely amongst them. Some mornings I take a different route to school because of the many animals resting on the paths and because I’m scared I may run another one to mush. In my defence, the chicken that fell victim to my rear tyre didn't adhere to the rules that I was taught at age 16 - give way to the right. In the afternoon, as I ride home, with the many children returning from school, they stop in their tracks when they see me, waving and shouting excitedly “Jambo Mzungu” (hello white) and are clearly surprised to see a foreigner in their small coastal town. I now understand the accounts of James Cook, when he first landed on Australian shores when he was confused as a God by the native Australians. This town, like the rest of Kenya, is teeming with children and they love seeing a rare Mzungu.
In the six weeks I have been here, visitors come almost daily to view the progress at Nice View. To put this into perspective, Msambweni has no tourist industry to speak of, it’s so small that plenty of tourists driving along the main highway don’t even know there is a town barely 2km away (it wasn’t on Googlemaps the last time I checked) and continue South on their way to Zanzibar; or North, on their way to Mombasa. No hotels, no tourist industry to speak of, yet visitors still come to this remote location, if only for one reason: to see Nice View Children’s village.
Much like the rest of post-colonial Kenya, Msambweni’s mostly agriculture-based economy sputters along: lack of education and scarcity of jobs have inflicted poverty on large swathes of its population. Msambweni’s unofficial unemployment rate is on the cusp of 80%. The typical daily wage of a male worker in Msambweni is $2 putting even the minimal fees at government-run schools out of reach for their children. This leaves each subsequent generation lacking the education to advance, later disadvantaged in pursuit of work of their own.
Msambweni’s problem is generational poverty. Nice View’s mission addresses this pattern of generational poverty by providing the resources normal absent from the lives of the locals: a safe home is provided for the orphans; a school is open for enrolment for all local children, regardless of race, religion, or prior educational background; and most importantly, work is created for the unemployed.
The statistics of the project are impressive:
Nice View - The orphanage
The orphanage currently has 45 orphans - a dozen welcomed into the already large Nice View family over the past 12 months. These are children that would normally be living, or were living, as street kids before they were brought to Nice View. Children who were orphaned because they were found malnourished after their parents had abandoned them, either voluntarily due to lack of food, or involuntarily after succumbing to the last stages of AIDS (no children at Nice View are HIV positive). Locals are hired to help build, manage and operate the orphanage’s facilities. Around 15 full-time members of staff act as support staff; cooking, cleaning, and taking care of the children and the facilities.
Nice View - The school
Around 70 children are enrolled at the local school at which I teach. The school has 8 full-time teachers, and an additional 8 non-teaching members of staff. Far removed from the crucible of hardship that afflicts the rest of rural Kenya, the children eat well, and grow up in a nurturing environment where they are encouraged to have fun while learning.
Nice View - The workshop
Alongside the orphanage and school, a fully functional workshop with woodworking machines imported from Europe was commissioned 2 years ago. With the abundance of new projects, the workshop has expanded and now 5-full time carpenters along with 5 temporary staff are busy fitting out the new school classrooms, and the new clinic with everything from chairs, to shelves, to door frames.
Nice View - The farm
Msambweni is fortunate to be located on an artesian basin which is thought to originate from the catchment area of Mount Kilimanjaro. Along with supplying the orphanage and school with fresh water, this constant stream of fresh water feeds into a lake just outside Msambweni (Mwambe). Some years ago, land was secured directly on the lake and two full-time workers now cultivate the fertile land. Most of the fruit and vegetables used in the kitchens of the school and orphanage come from “the farm.” The land, removed from the stresses of over farming and monocultures, yields some of the most delicious fruits and vegetables I have ever tasted.
Nice View - The clinic
A new non-profit clinic in Msambweni is in the construction stage. This clinic will bring much-needed low-cost medical services to the Msambweni community. Donations and donors are being sought to fit out the clinic with medical devices and medical supplies.
From the construction to the everyday running of the orphanage’s facilities, a microeconomy has evolved around Nice View: fishermen, farmers, milkmen, tailors and tradesmen of varying professions visit the orphanage and school often making the orphanage their first port of call on their daily routes through town to sell their goods and services. All of the facilities that have been constructed have been shaped by the hands of local tradesmen - local architects hatch the plans, and hundreds of locals have been involved with the construction of the various buildings that carry the Nice View Banner. One non-profit organisation alone can’t lift Msambweni’s community out of its economic capture, but the jobs created at Nice View, and the new money that enters the community, mainly from Nice View sponsors, act as an important catalyst for continued progress in shaping the lives of the children and the many locals that are associated with Nice View. To all the sponsors that have helped make Nice View be what it is today, thanks.
Ralf Eckey
ralf [dot] eckey
googlemail [dot] com
