I was truly blown away by the depth and beauty of the people I spent time with. While I was doing my best to be a participant observer, I fear I was not simply witnessing how they lived their lives but enjoying and being awed by them. Here are the stories of some of those people…
While on Mfangano, I lived with the Okeyo family (all visitors and volunteers on Mfangano in association with OHR live with host families). I was generously given my own little house on the family compound and ate my meals with Maureen, Rosie and Janet. The three youngest daughters of Baba, our father and patriarch. Baba was a fisherman before his back went bad and now makes nets. He has two wives, “the mothers”, and has provided for a large and fairly prosperous family. Polygamy is becoming less and less common in Kenya, however the Okeyos are seen in the community as an example of how “functional” families with multiple wives can be. Their children have nearly all made it through at least secondary school, some have found jobs on the mainland, and a number are closely involved with the running of the EK Center. I found it hard, impossible really, not to fall in love with the Okeyo children – spirited, kind, funny and wise. Whistling became our mode of communication, but we got all the important stuff said. Luckily, Maureen produced a detailed family tree in an effort to helpe me keep everyone straight!
Peter serves as one of two security guards for the Ekialo Kiona Center. A native of Mfangano east, he has worked for EK since 2009. Peter’s role is to keep the EK properties secure, and he takes this position very seriously. According to Peter, he enjoys working at EK because he is “doing my [sic] part to protect and promote good things in the community.” EK “is a program out of the community to help people with HIV/AIDS lead better lives” and everyone should know this!
Serving as a community health worker (CHW), the coordinator of the OHR Sisterhood Exchange program, and a member of the EK Steering Committee, Pamela is an ever present feature at EK. Originally from Mbita, Pamela has been a part of OHR since just after its inception in 2007. Soft spoken, yet quietly influential, as a CHW she has obtained a level of prestige not always achieved by wives and mothers on the island. Making her a logical choice for leading the Sisterhood Exchange program – a group of HIV+ women who have been given the opportunity to travel to the mainland (some for the first time!) to learn various craft skills, providing these women with new levels of education and economical provisions for their families. Pamela told me she was so happy to be part of EK because as a CHW, her involvement was helping her learn more about her work and do more as a volunteer. She is pleased by the benefits EK will bring to the community and in helping people with HIV/AIDS (“hopefully reducing stigma!”).
Richard, the Excutive Director of the EK Center, has been at the heart of the Mfangano east community solidarity for many years. Personally affected by AIDS, not unusual for this community, his desire for the community to help the community is apparent in everything he does. While chatting with me one day, under the shade of the trees at the back of EK, Richard told me of how Ekialo Kiona is in his heart; how he will do whatever it takes to make this thing succeed; it is “our home” and we are really very proud. The trust the community has already put in EK, Richard does not take lightly. Cyber-VCT isn’t happening anywhere else and neither is the level of trust EK affords within the community, “knowing your status is sill voluntary, but people now feel they SHOULD know their status!” Before we parted ways for the afternoon, he stopped me and said “remember, EK is almost run entirely by people FROM Mfangano!”
On only my second day on the island, I was afforded the pleasure of spending a few hours with Charles (with the help of my trusty translator Walter), a community elder and representative for Mfangano east to the island council of elders. Having lost a son to AIDS just the week before, Charles (about 71 he said) came out of his field to share tea with me and tell me the story of the island. In an animated fashion he told me, in Suba (the minority language still spoeken, but by very few in this corner of Lake Victoria), of the fleeing Ugandan royalty who chose to make their new home on Mfangano. He told me of how the villages came to be, and why Luo is now the prominent language spoken on the island (most children grow-up semi-quad-lingual speaking Luo, Swahili, English, and some Suba). As he escorted me back to Kitewi (I was headed for my first swim in the lake!), we met one of his granddaughters who he told me proudly was going to finish secondary school – just like he wanted for all the young women of his family.
While seemingly “traditional” and “conservative” at first glance, the people of Mfangano east are dynamic… Many are 7th Day Adventists or attend evangelical Christian services (quite common for this part of Kenya); the children do not learn evolution in school; and nearly all supported the recent constitutional referendum (which in addition to tackling corruption and land abuses, will also ban all forms of abortion). Yet, Baba and Charles have both been to seminary or higher education elsewhere in Kenya (and Tanzania!); young boys made orphans by AIDS and alcoholism have been absorbed and jointly cared for by multiple families in the community; the community wants to train its (female) CHWs to be their primary emergency responders; and the community is taking on AIDS. These lives are not easy, but they are complex and joyful. The people of Mfangano east embody their vision for a healthy community.
Images are author’s own – Mfangano Island, Lake Victoria, Suba District, Kenya.
