Habari Gani?
(Swahili for “What’s the news?”)
John Linsley ’04 (KSP fall ’02)
The Lowell Whiteman School
42605 RCR 36
Steamboat Springs, CO 80487
jlinsley@gmail.com
Eric Buthmann ’05 (KSP fall ’03)
recently began a year-long internship at the School for Field
Studies (SFS) Center for Wildlife Management Studies - Kilimanjaro
Bush Camp in Kimana, Kenya. SFS is an international non-profit
academic institution which runs semester and summer study programs
for college students in five countries. The program in
Kenya focuses on the study of rangeland and wildlife ecology,
the human-wildlife conflict and the pastoralist lifestyle of
the Maasai people. As an SFS intern, Eric lives on site
and assists students with academics and field research. Eric
noted he would be taking part in a field excursion to Kenya’s
Maasai Mara Game Reserve in November with a group of students
and planned some travel in late December with Kim Johnson ’06,
a student on the fall 2005 KSP. The pair, both avid kayakers,
were hoping to head to the headwaters of the Nile River in
Uganda for some African whitewater. Many KSP alumni,
including Amber Dodge ’05 (KSP fall ’04), Ryan
VanderMark ’05 (KSP spring ’04), Will
Hartman ’06 (KSP spring ‘05) and Steve
Alexander ’03 (KSP fall ’02) have visited
the Nile headwaters region in recent years, whether for their
independent study projects or for a post-KSP whitewater adventure.
You can explore the SFS program in Kenya by visiting www.fieldstudies.org/.
|
| “Brett’s Kids”:
As explained in the accompanying column, Brett
Harvey ’02 (KSP
fall ’00) spent last fall in Kenya with the International
Community for the Relief of Starvation and Suffering (ICROSS),
a grassroots, community-based charity providing support
to individuals and families with HIV and AIDS; he worked
with a home-based care program for HIV/AIDS patients in
the Bondo region of western Kenya, and made these young
friends. |
Brett Harvey ’02 (KSP fall ’00)
returned to Kenya last fall for a short work assignment with
the International Community for the Relief of Starvation and
Suffering (ICROSS). ICROSS is a grassroots, community-based
charity, mainly working in Kenya, providing support to individuals
and families with HIV and AIDS. At present, ICROSS programs
reach some 330,000 people in Kenya. Brett spent much
of his stay working with a home -based care program for HIV/AIDS
patients in the Bondo region of western Kenya. He e-mailed, “I
ended up staying in Bondo for a total of three weeks; visiting
patients, attending meetings, distributing drugs and bed amenities,
and eating lots of fish. Although the visits with patients
were hard emotionally at first, I have found a way to make
them enjoyable, mostly because it really makes their day to
have someone from afar visit them in person.” Brett
purchased an old bicycle as his primary means of transport
between home visits. After working in Bondo, he headed
to the main ICROSS office in the Ngong Hills, near Nairobi. He
spent three nights with a Maasai family which is heavily involved
with ICROSS, noting, “I really enjoyed staying with the
family, and the kids, like anywhere, had lots of energy and
love to share. I drank tons of goat milk, some of which
had been curdling for over a week. It was the chunkiest,
most sour whiteness, I’d ever had. However, believe
it or not, I think it helped settle my stomach at the time.” Check
out the ICROSS Web site, www.icross.ie/.
Erik Rodriguez ’02 (KSP fall ’01)
is director and founder of ICROSS-USA, the organization’s
stateside chapter. In 2002, Erik was awarded an ICROSS
sponsorship to return to Kenya for a work assignment similar
to Brett’s, by Dr. Michael Meegan, international director
of ICROSS. In early November, Dr. Wairimu Ndirangu,
administrative director of the KSP, invited Dr. Meegan, who
lives in Kenya, to speak with this semester’s KSP students. In
a recent e-mail, Wairimu noted that Dr. Meegan will be sponsoring
another ICROSS work assignment for a St. Lawrence student from
the current KSP group. Look for an update on this exciting
student sponsorship in the next “Habari Gani?” column. If
you have interest in working with ICROSS in some capacity,
please email Brett at harvey.brett@gmail.com or
Erik at erikrodriguez@ureach.com.
Kaileah Christie ’04 (KSP fall ’02)
has been in Boulder, Col., and Alaska since graduation. After
a cross-country drive in August, Kaileah settled into her master’s
program in Latin American studies at Indiana State. Kaileah
noted that for the time being she has traded in her Swahili
speaking skills for Spanish.
Brendan Hayes ’04 (KSP spring ’03)
is serving a 27-month assignment as a U.S. Peace Corps volunteer
in the small landlocked country of Swaziland in southern Africa. In
a recent letter, Brendan wrote, “I’m settling into
village life pretty nicely. My village has about 50-60
homesteads and is situated in the mountains of west-central
Swaziland. It’s dry like the Southwest and most
of the agriculture is maize and cattle.” He added, “I’m
a little bit out of the way,--as far out as you can be in a
country this small--but I can still get to the capital in four
or five hours, by a combo of hiking, hitching and kombi (matatu).” Brendan
says the public health situation in Swaziland is daunting as
a result of the HIV/AIDS epidemic. He is calculating
numbers of children who have been orphaned as a result HIV/AIDS. Brendan
added, “The orphan issue is one of the more pressing
and tangible areas to work in, and I could probably spend the
next two years getting these kids into school and coming up
with feeding/care schemes for them.” Brendan is
at PO Box 252, Mankayane M206, Swaziland, Africa.
I am making preparations for a month-long sustainable development
program, based in Portugal, which I will co-lead this spring
with another teacher from my school. Please send me your news
and be sure to specify on which KSP you participated--include
information about your whereabouts, family, career, or Kenya
adventures of past and present. I look forward to hearing
from you.
Asanteni sana!
Summer 2003 Entry
Fall 2003 Entry
Winter 2004 Entry
Spring 2004 Entry
Summer 2004 Entry
Fall 2005 Entry
