Native American Living

In all my grade school textbooks, I remember learning about how the Native Americans lived: nomadic, spiritual, and incredibly resourceful. I remember reading things like, if they hunted a buffalo for eating, they would use every part of the animal for some useful or aesthetic purpose.

In Kenya, I believe I am coming very close to living like those fabled Native Americans lived, except in a modernized world. My host family seems to generate absolutely no trash. In my host family's garden (garden meaning 7 acres of farmland), they grow corn, bananas, carrots, and kale, and they also raise a small number of cows, goats and chickens. My family eats mainly corn-based meals (ugali-the tasteless hardened tofu equivalent), and then they burn the corn cobs to use as fuel for cooking. Any fruits peels or leftover vegetables go straight to feeding the cows or goats. As for other trash/waste: hard plastic jars or metal containers (the kind that would have peanut butter or jam) become a storage container or other things, or a flower pot. Any soft plastic bags (the kind you would find in America to put vegetables in at the supermarket) simply get burned.

Even after 6 weeks of Kenyan living, I have created less than one cubic foot of trash. Also, most of it is paper which is environmentally safe to burn compared to the plastic counterpart. This is the equivalent to the amount of trash I would accumulate in a single trip to the supermarket in America.

There are absolutely no recycling centers near Loitokitok, and I'm not certain but I think you would have to travel as far as Nairobi or Mombasa for recycling facilities. The little trash that is produced from the plastic bags often can be found littering the dusty roads of Loitokitok. Also, since there is no waste disposal service, the way biodegradable waste such as banana peels or vegetables gets cleaned up in the market area is: they send a herd of goats to eat it. No joke. Coal is a big source of fuel for the kitchens (or wood from their beautiful forests), so despite the resourcefulness, major problems lurk in the shadows as progress and development take their foothold on African soil.

The inequality that can be found in my immediate neighborhood is astounding to me as well. My family has all the luxuries: hot showers, electricity, satellite T.V..yet the housing situation would be worse than below the poverty level in America. The house only takes up maybe 100 square feet (though the garden is enormous). Still, the immediate neighbor is an old man who lives in a single room, not much bigger than a tent. The room is not big enough to fit a twin sized bed. When I went to visit him with my Mama, he was listening to the radio for entertainment by the light of a small kerosene lamp. Ironically enough, he had a cell phone (he charges it at my family's house for a small fee)

As a side note, I am beginning to like ugali. At first I loathed it, then it became tolerable. Now I sometimes crave it. I promise, it has no flavor, but sometimes when it comes off the stove piping hot I convince myself it will be delicious (as if "hot"-referring to temperature was a flavor). My steady inclination toward ugali kind of feels like I am falling in love with the ugly girl in math class that doesn't even have much of a personality.