A visit to Nyumbani Village

A couple weekends ago, I visited my good friend and fellow PiAf-er, Maggie, where she works in rural eastern Kenya in Nyumbani Village. Nyumbani means 'home' in kiswahili, and the minute I stepped off the bota into the village I could feel the home-ness of everything. Nyumbani is self-described as a "model bio-friendly, self-sustaining community serving orphans and elders who have been left behind by the 'lost generation' resulting from the HIV/AIDS pandemic." The village is comprised of clusters - a gathering of four or five homes, each with their own plot of land for gardening - that share a borehole, and it was designed to be home to 1,000 children and 100 grandparents. There's a livestock area, which provides fresh milk daily from cows (see picture above of Maggie and me milking!), eggs from chickens, and meat from goats. There's a lush greenhouse area that grows vegetables such as tomatoes, sakuma, passion fruit, and avocados for consumption and sale. The village is almost entirely supported by solar power, has three schools (early child education through secondary school), a medical clinic (where I took a malaria test), and a polytechnic institute that teaches skills in textile and metal work as well as installing and maintaining solar systems. There's sports pitches, a basketball court, and a common gathering hall that hosts church services and social gatherings. Walking around, I was touched by the kindness of everyone we met. The grandmothers were warm and welcoming as we visited the different clusters, offering wide smiles and firm handshakes as we stopped to chat (well, Maggie was chatting as I speak approximately zero kamba, the local dialect). The children reminded me of the many goofy and fun-loving kids I've babysat over the years, eager to play and joke around with us. Maggie has such a presence in the village; I've heard her talk about life there and the community so often, and visiting gave me the chance to see how integral she is to everything that goes on. She's keeping a blog of her fellowship, which can be accessed here.

We had a great time hanging on and walking around the village, despite my malarial state! We hung out in the volunteers' guest house, worked on puzzles, saw a goat slaughtered for a goodbye celebration for one of the volunteers (and later ate it), danced with the world's cutest toddler, and strolled around the village. I was sad to say goodbye and really hope I can make it out again while Maggie is still there!