Prelude to a Life
Before I ever boarded a plane for Africa, I sat with an ache I couldn’t ignore. I was 40, my children were grown, and I realized if I wanted my life to stretch wider, I had to be the one to pull it open. This is the introduction I wrote for Poverty & Promise, the book that came from my time living and working in Kenya. It’s a snapshot of what called me there — and the promises I made to myself along the way.
I turn 40 in 2003 and expect life to begin. Well, I expect great things to happen because my children are finally grown and our economic situation is pleasing. Jaime is 20 years old and James is 18.
Forty comes and goes without fanfare, however, without life change. I soon realize if anything is going to happen, I must make it happen. And what changes do I seek? To grow and stretch, to experience other cultures and languages.
In May 2004, I book a trip to Tanzania, leaving Atlanta for Arusha on December 12th. The kids reluctantly give me permission to be away for Christmas. The trip will include hiking Mt. Kilimanjaro and going on a five-day safari in the Ngorongoro Crater and on the Serengeti Plains. Summiting Kili and touring the African countryside should be enough stretching. And so I begin to prepare for the trip by buying clothes and equipment, getting immunizations and a visa, and physically training for the climb.
Still, something is missing. Instead of being a pampered tourist, I really want to plop down and assimilate — to contribute in some way. If that isn’t an option for the Tanzania trip, certainly there are other ways to live and work abroad while giving of myself. I discuss moving to another country with Jaime and James and they seem okay with the idea. They seem resigned to let me go where I will. They know I’ll be miserable otherwise.
After researching humanitarian organizations, I settle on Voluntary Services Overseas (VSO), a UK-based organization started in 1958 which recruits volunteers from around the world to share their skills and knowledge in developing countries. VSO is very much like the American Peace Corps, but they pull volunteers from many nations, including developing countries, and send them where they’re needed most.
Unlike the Peace Corps, which largely sends freshly graduated students, VSO recruits professionals with years of experience in fields like finance, program management, marketing, and business development. Their selection process is rigorous and requires a lengthy application along with a full day of interviews and activities, where potential volunteers are observed and either chosen or rejected.
Once selected, the volunteer is offered two or three possible placements, complete with extensive job responsibilities and descriptions of the country and region. I am offered three: promoting a biosphere reserve in Phnom Penh, Cambodia; marketing a farmers’ cooperative on the banks of the Zambezi River in Zambia; or serving as a marketing advisor to a college in Kenya.
Together, VSO and I determine the best fit for my skills: marketing and communication advisor to the Tropical Institute of Community Health and Development (TICH) in Kisumu, Kenya, beginning in February 2005.
Kisumu is Kenya’s third largest city, perched on the edge of Lake Victoria. Barclays and Standard Bank both have branches there, and there’s a hospital, museum, library, restaurants, and cybercafes. Approximately 300,000 people live in Kisumu, but the city’s infrastructure is strained. Road surfaces are crumbling and only 40 percent of the population has piped water. Kisumu is the poorest city in Kenya, with around 45 percent of the population living on less than USD $150 per year.
The port city of Kisumu found its fortune funneling goods on Lake Victoria between Kenya, Uganda, and Tanzania until the break-up of the East African Community in 1977. During the 1980s and early 1990s, the port was mostly dormant. However, commercial shipping has since resumed to Tanzania and Uganda, bringing money and activity back to the area. Aid organizations like the United Nations (UN) have been a boost to Kisumu’s economy. The UN World Food Program has kept the port city relatively busy transporting goods to Uganda, Burundi, Rwanda, and Congo.
Each year, the UN releases the Human Development Index (HDI), focusing on three measurable dimensions of human development: living a long and healthy life, being educated, and having a decent standard of living. When I prepared for this journey, Kenya ranked 148 out of 177 countries. Norway was number one, Sweden was number two, and the United States ranked number eight.
The poverty line adopted by Kenya at that time was USD $17 per month per adult in rural areas and USD $36 per month per adult in urban areas. More than half of Kenya’s population (56%) lived below the national poverty line, a percentage projected to increase to nearly 66 percent by 2015 if trends continued. Poverty was, and is, a major impediment to meeting the basic needs of Kenyans, especially women and children. Life expectancy at birth was 45.2 years.
The UN created the Millennium Development Goals to align the objectives of governments and aid organizations in developing countries. Kenya adopted these goals in 2000 and began tracking progress. VSO, working in Kenya to help achieve these goals, focused on three approaches: empowerment, partnership, and commitment to learning. My role as marketing advisor was a tiny piece of Kenya’s development puzzle. Here were the UN’s Eight Millennium Development Goals adopted by Kenya and targeted for 2015:
Halve the proportion of people whose income is less than $1 per day
Ensure children, boys and girls alike, complete a full course of primary schooling
Eliminate gender disparity in all levels of education
Reduce the number of children who die under the age of five by two-thirds
Reduce the maternal mortality ratio by three-quarters
Halt and reverse the spread of HIV/AIDS; halt and reverse the incidence of malaria
Integrate principles of sustainable development into country policies and reverse the loss of environmental resources
Develop a global partnership for development
Being a volunteer required that I sell my home and possessions, leave family and friends, and build a life in Africa. I began the journey with naïveté and high hopes — a middle-aged American woman with an open mind, giving herself to Africa.
What I received from Africa and my Kenyan friends changed the core of who I am.
Closing Reflection:
Looking back, I see how this “prelude” cracked my world wide open. Those months in Kenya reshaped my sense of what it means to belong, to serve, and to listen. I carry those lessons — and the promises I made to myself then — into every corner of my life now.
Note: The facts and figures above reflect my understanding and research from 2004–2005. Much has changed since then — and yet, the hope that pulled me there still feels timeless.
About the Author
Cindi Brown is a Georgia-born writer, porch-sitter, and teller of truths — even the ones her mama once pinched her for saying out loud. She runs Porchlight Press from her 1895 house with creaking floorboards and an open door for stories with soul. When she’s not scribbling about Southern music, small towns, stray cats, places she loves, and the wild gospel that hums in red clay soil, you’ll find her out listening for the next thing worth saying.
