Help Send an Exceptionally Worthy Kenyan Student to University!

Dear friends and family,

What is a "harambee?" I learned about the culture of "coming together" while living in Kenya as a Peace Corps volunteer and learning Swahili. Many of my students struggled to pay their school fees, but one student in particular stood out to me as being exceptionally dedicated to learning, amazingly kind, and utterly in need of outside financial assistance to fulfill his goal of attending university and becoming a high school teacher. When I met Haron Kimathi he was the school captain at Athiru Gaiti Secondary school - the school I taught at. "Captain" is a position not found in American high schools, but is somewhat akin to a student body president, except with at least three times the number of responsibilities.

To attain the position of captain Haron had to be seen by the teachers as a paragon of model student character and be respected by his peers (who were in the position of both nominating and obeying him). I lived in the school compound and, for a period of time, started my days at 5am, at which hour, even over school holidays, Haron would already be in his classroom studying by a kerosene lamp. With this devotion he earned the highest marks in the secondary school's history, qualifying him to go to university.

Unfortunately, Haron's father was murdered when Haron was a boy. Haron has many siblings and out of them he was the only one to finish secondary school. He was able to do this because he touched the principal of Athiru Gaiti Secondary school, who was willing to make special arrangements so that Haron could have basic amenities (such as kerosene to study by), and because he touched my friends and family who paid his secondary school fees. Haron has shown his ability to succeed academically, and yet an even bigger financial challenge looms in front of him, one which requires me to broaden the scope of those I reach out to.

Out of the many degree programs he could take, some of them paying more than others, he desires to be a secondary school teacher because he recognizes the profound positive impact they can have on their students' lives. In Kenya I met teachers who would work 10 or 12 hour days consistently but I also met far too many teachers that did not have sufficient internal motivation to show up more than 50% of the time. I can say without hesitation that Haron will be in the former group and will be an immense asset to his students. Not only will he be the type of secondary school teacher Kenya needs to inspire its youth, but supporting him at this juncture will ensure he gets a job as a salaried government teacher, which will help break the cycle of poverty for him and his family.

Haron has been admitted to Chuka University College for the fall term, which begins towards the end of this August. There is a non-governmental organization in Kenya (begun by a former Peace Corps Volunteer) called the Kenya Education Fund, which is willing to perform the logistics of handling the donations and dulling them out to Chuka University College each semester. Additionally, they will send a receipt of donation to each individual who donates to them, meaning your donation will be tax deductible. Per year (two combined semesters) the cost for Haron to attend school will be 143,500 Kenya Shillings, which is approximately $1,793.75 (the approximate conversion rate is 80 KSH to 1 USD). The non-profit only requires an 8 percent overhead charge for their services, which is 11,480 KSH or $143.50. Therefore, the four years cost for us to put Haron through school will be $7,749.

I know many individuals have had to tighten their pockets the past couple of years. I certainly do not have very deep pockets considering I just returned from the Peace Corps; however, I believe deeply in this cause and am going to donate $100. I am going to do this because I know the money will have a bigger impact on the course of Haron's life than it will on mine.

Additionally, I would greatly appreciate your assistance in passing along this message to people you know who may be willing to contribute. The goal is to raise all of the $7,749 now, so that the organization is assured they wont let Haron down in agreeing to sponsor him. Also, that way you don't have to hear from me on a yearly basis.

Checks should be made out to the "Kenya Education Fund" and in the note section write "referred by Thomas Mosier." It certainly would not hurt to also attach a small separate note affirming that you were "referred by Thomas Mosier" and, of course, include your return address so they are able to send a tax exemption receipt. Their New York office's address is:

Kenya Education Fund
360 E. 72nd St. #3405
New York, NY 10021

It would be helpful if you are also willing to send me a quick email when you contribute so I can track how close we are to achieving our goal and to provide me a means of checking to ensure your money goes into the correct KEF fund.

Remember, since Haron is starting university at the end of August, we only have about one month to raise this money, so please act at your earliest convenience.

I sincerely appreciate that you took the time to read this lengthy email. I hope to hear from all of you!

All the Best,
Thomas Mosier

P.S. - The picture at the top features Haron (on the right in the suit jacket) with a few other students who all helped me to build a brick pizza oven (shown in their midst). The picture below is of Haron (left), me, and Elijah (who was by far my best physics student) in front of a patch of arrow roots we planted at Ahirtu Gaiti Sec school.

Upon Arriving in Washington D.C.

I wrote a few notes about initial impressions of America after so long away:

Customs officials with canines, the officers jumping, hollering, and some some sniffing themselves in hopes of finding clandestine deposits.

I manually bound myself up 60 stairs, receiving looks of disbelief from the mass of otherwise stoic escalator passengers.

Near the top, but before my eyes see what lies over the escalator's horizon, I smell a familiar yet foreign smell: chips - as I know them in Kenya - but this poignant aroma cannot be derivable from deep friend potatoes and salt alone, the way they were prepared in Kenya. After two years of passing densely packed chips shops in Nairobi and the smaller towns I am an expert, and these tasty American morsels are frauds.

I have arrived in the land of intention, where all systems are refined & paradise lost.

Mt. Kenya Fading

I wrote this haiku when I was in the plane flying over Mt. Kenya on my journey home, no longer a Peace Corps Volunteer but unsure of what I was to become:

Mt. Kenya fading,
plane climbs; setting Sun glows red.
Life changes again.

And an alternative version:

Sun setting, plane climbs.
I see my old home below.
Then everything fades.

Rwanda

Today is my last in Rwanda. My impression is that the country is very similar to other East African countries, except that there was a huge genocide here. This series of events has changed the country in many ways; however, I am left feeling amazed that, at least on the surface, Rwandans such strength and national unity in moving on.

There are still beggars here, but the majority of these beggars do not have festering wounds or life-long diseases as they do elsewhere. Instead, many of them have scars where their extremities were hacked off - obviously removed outside of a hospital. For instance, I saw a beggar with 3 inches of forearm the elbow. I also saw a women whose entire face was one huge scar. She had trouble opening her eyes beyond that of a strained squint because the tissue healed improperly. People with missing legs and crutches fashioned in a backyard are almost the norm. And these are the survivors, over 1 million people were massacred.

Undoubtedly this has left a huge emotional and psychological scar on the country, but it is an extreme testament to Rwandans that without the beggars, the Kigali Memorial Center (genocide memorial), and the references by outsiders you would not suspect that such atrocities had taken place here.

The other way in which I have felt the genocide is through my pocketbook. After the world realized that they could have very easily prevented the genocide (the U.N. Lt. General on the ground predicted 5,000 troops with authority to keep the peace would have been enough to prevent most of the 1,000,000 murders) the country was flooded with NGO's and foreign aid workers. This has brought with it a lot of money, and a demand for good hotels, not the $6 cheapies that people like myself desire/require.

As a starting point to learn about the genocide, I recommend the film Hotel Rwanda, which seems to accurately depict one man's attempt to help others during the chaotic months of the genocide.

Ethiopia and Mt. Kilimanjaro

The first leg of my post Peace Corps travels was to Ethiopia with Whitney, a fellow PCV. We had a great, yet too brief time, which allowed us to see most of the tourist sites we wanted to, but left us always on the move from one attraction to the next. One of the most amazing sites we experienced were the rock-hewn churches in Lalibella. There are at least 6 full size churches and many other smaller ones, all of which were carved out of a single piece of rock.
One very fun aspect of the trip was simply meeting fellow travelers. Two of our favorite were Rutger, a Dutchman, and Jorge, a Mexican movie professor.

Whitney and I arrived back in Nairobi at 2am on January 1st, and before dawn on the 3rd I was on a bus bound for the town of Moshi in Tanzania to climb Mt. Kilimanjaro.

Summiting Mt. Kilimanjaro proved to be tied for the distinction of most difficult physical activity I have ever done (right up there with running a full marathon after only training for a half and doing the round-the-Mt.-Hood trail in one day). We left our highest camp at just after midnight and climbed 1200m through scree, finally reaching the summit at sunrise (right around 6am).
Our guide told us that at the summit (5875m), the air contains only half of the oxygen that it does at sea level. Needless to say, I was happy to have made it but, rather unfortunately, did not have the energy to spend a lot of time exploring the summit. Our group had 12 climbers, but we split into a faster and slower group for the summit climb. I'll let you guess which group the five of us plus our guide, Salim, were.
Tomorrow I am headed off to western Kenya, my stepping-off point for exploring Uganda, Rwanda, and possibly a corner of the DRC. More pictures when I return.