When Cayuga County native Nicole Dean decided to travel to Kenya to earn social service credits last December, she learned a hard lesson.
Dean, 23, originally from Scipio and a Keuka College senior majoring in social work, needed to earn three credits for 140 hours of field service to graduate.
She could work with any agency and focus on anything to do with social work. She chose to fly to Kenya with her roommate, Katelyn Myhrberg, to work two weeks in orphanages there.
Why Kenya?
“A friend went there through Global Volunteer Network out of New Zealand,” she said. “She went by herself and loved it. She had the best time.”
Dean had always been interested in Africa and the problem of AIDS.
She also loves elephants and planned to go on two safari weekends, part of the GNV program.
Little did she know that one of the most stable nations in East Africa was descending into chaos just as her plane landed.
The pair left Dec. 29 from Syracuse's Hancock Airport to Washington, D.C., then took off for Nairobi via London. They arrived in Nairobi on Monday, Dec. 31.
Dean and Myhrberg would live with a wealthy host family and walk 20 minutes to the orphanage every day. The father, who also worked for the agency, came to the airport. He said he and his family would see them later.
“They didn't explain to us that there was an issue,” she said. “We weren't any the wiser.”
Joe, an employee of Volunteer Interns Community Development of Africa, met them at the airport and drove them, along with three other students, to a guest house in Karen, 20 minutes away from the airport.
“The guest house was beautiful,” Dean said, “a mansion with a fireplace, hardwood floors, two bathrooms, and five bedrooms.”
Ten students were to be lodged overnight in the house, then taken to their assigned orphanages.
“We didn't notice anything unusual. People were off to work. Organizers said they would drop us off at our placements after they went to the market to get water, but they never returned.”
After a breakfast of japatties (crepe pancakes), tea, and coffee, the jetlagged group took a midday nap.
On Jan. 1, a 9:30 a.m. orientation was organized with the head director of VICDA, Irene, who showed up at 11:30.
“Everyone just said it was ‘Kenya time,'” Dean said. “Nobody's ever on time.”
The students were informed about culture and learned a few phrases in Swahili.
Dean learned about her placement in Kimiur, an orphanage of about 35 children, male and female, between the ages of five and 13.
“Suddenly we found out that some assignments had been changed and people were being replaced,” Dean said. “At this time we didn't have a clue that Kenya was under attack.”
The Kenyan government had announced results of their presidential election that Sunday, while Dean was in flight.
Incumbent president Mwai Kibaki won with 51.3 percent of the vote, while Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement received 48.7 percent, 4,584,721 votes to 4,352,993.
Opposition officials shouted down the electoral commission chairman as he tried to announce the result and violence ensued.
Kibaki belongs to the largest tribe in Kenya, the Kyuku, comprising 22 percent of the population, while Odinga's tribe, the Luo, make up 13 percent.
Opposition supporters fought with police when Odinga accused Kibaki of doctoring the vote, and election observers from the European Union doubted the legitimacy of the count. Analysts said that it was probable that both of the main parties had been involved in electoral fraud.
An international observer said the vote count was “clearly cooked.”
Meanwhile, a curfew had been declared and a government ban on live television broadcasts was imposed. Many people were stranded and didn't know what was happening as violence broke out in surrounding areas.
“I didn't even know there was going to be an election,” Dean said. “They were heavily attacking churches, beheading people with machetes, but the e-mail we got from Michele, the GVN director on Dec. 30, after we had already left, said there had been elections and unsettling between the tribes. They would let us know if it was dangerous. They knew that we were already there when they sent the e-mail. We were told during the orientation that the slums were under attack. Those sent to the slum orphanages would be sent to a different location. We were 10 minutes away from the slums, so we weren't able to leave the house.
“That's when I started to think something was actually happening,” Dean said.
They were in a fenced-in compound with walls and a security system. They couldn't hear anything going on outside.
With no phone in the house, one of the workers had a cell phone. As one girl's family got through, she was told what they saw on the news. They contacted the other parents.
“We couldn't call out; only people could call in,” Dean said. “My parents got a hold of me at midnight (Nairobi time).
Dean said she was reluctant to return home. After all, they had spent all that money and effort to get there for what they deemed an experience of a lifetime.
“I wanted reassurance from the agency that it was safe,” she said. “Working in the orphanage would have been such a great experience.”
She even begged her mother to tell her to stay.
But after they spoke with an American girl named Melinda, still in the slums, where she had been working for the past year, it began to sink in.
“She said she did not think we were safe because she did not feel safe; then, she started to cry. That's when I decided I was not safe, when she said she couldn't give us reassurance,” Dean said.
The first girl contacted decided to leave, then four others, including Dean, went along. But five others remained behind.
Dean's roommate's parents arranged to buy airfare for them to return that day. They called the program director to say they were leaving.
“She said, ‘It's midnight. I have to get my sleep,' and hung up,” Dean said. “The way things were going, I couldn't trust them, even though they kept saying, ‘Hukkuna metatta (no worry).'”
They passed by a lot of men in camouflage guarding the entrance to the slums and showed their passports to machine-gun wielding guards at roadblocks on the way to the airport. They left Jan. 2.
“We paid $1,500 each to get home,” she said.“That money isn't being refunded to us.” So, all in all, the roommates paid $2,800 each for a couple of days in Kenya.
“I'm assuming Keuka College did know (about the danger). There was a travel warning. They said don't go near groups of protesters in Kenya. The school read that to us,” she said. “It sounded pretty simple to me. We said, ‘OK.”
The trip back was no fun either. They stayed overnight in a hotel room in London, went out to eat, came back, and slept, then boarded the plane home.
“We were very glad we came home when we did. There were 300 dead when we left. Now, there are about 900.” Dean has no idea what happened to the five students left behind.
“It was my first trip abroad,” she said. “I still have the passion to work with orphans, but, honestly, I'm afraid I will not go there ever again.”
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or e-mail kathleen.barran@lee.net
She could work with any agency and focus on anything to do with social work. She chose to fly to Kenya with her roommate, Katelyn Myhrberg, to work two weeks in orphanages there.
Why Kenya?
“A friend went there through Global Volunteer Network out of New Zealand,” she said. “She went by herself and loved it. She had the best time.”
Dean had always been interested in Africa and the problem of AIDS.
She also loves elephants and planned to go on two safari weekends, part of the GNV program.
Little did she know that one of the most stable nations in East Africa was descending into chaos just as her plane landed.
The pair left Dec. 29 from Syracuse's Hancock Airport to Washington, D.C., then took off for Nairobi via London. They arrived in Nairobi on Monday, Dec. 31.
Dean and Myhrberg would live with a wealthy host family and walk 20 minutes to the orphanage every day. The father, who also worked for the agency, came to the airport. He said he and his family would see them later.
“They didn't explain to us that there was an issue,” she said. “We weren't any the wiser.”
Joe, an employee of Volunteer Interns Community Development of Africa, met them at the airport and drove them, along with three other students, to a guest house in Karen, 20 minutes away from the airport.
“The guest house was beautiful,” Dean said, “a mansion with a fireplace, hardwood floors, two bathrooms, and five bedrooms.”
Ten students were to be lodged overnight in the house, then taken to their assigned orphanages.
“We didn't notice anything unusual. People were off to work. Organizers said they would drop us off at our placements after they went to the market to get water, but they never returned.”
After a breakfast of japatties (crepe pancakes), tea, and coffee, the jetlagged group took a midday nap.
On Jan. 1, a 9:30 a.m. orientation was organized with the head director of VICDA, Irene, who showed up at 11:30.
“Everyone just said it was ‘Kenya time,'” Dean said. “Nobody's ever on time.”
The students were informed about culture and learned a few phrases in Swahili.
Dean learned about her placement in Kimiur, an orphanage of about 35 children, male and female, between the ages of five and 13.
“Suddenly we found out that some assignments had been changed and people were being replaced,” Dean said. “At this time we didn't have a clue that Kenya was under attack.”
The Kenyan government had announced results of their presidential election that Sunday, while Dean was in flight.
Incumbent president Mwai Kibaki won with 51.3 percent of the vote, while Raila Odinga, leader of the opposition Orange Democratic Movement received 48.7 percent, 4,584,721 votes to 4,352,993.
Opposition officials shouted down the electoral commission chairman as he tried to announce the result and violence ensued.
Kibaki belongs to the largest tribe in Kenya, the Kyuku, comprising 22 percent of the population, while Odinga's tribe, the Luo, make up 13 percent.
Opposition supporters fought with police when Odinga accused Kibaki of doctoring the vote, and election observers from the European Union doubted the legitimacy of the count. Analysts said that it was probable that both of the main parties had been involved in electoral fraud.
An international observer said the vote count was “clearly cooked.”
Meanwhile, a curfew had been declared and a government ban on live television broadcasts was imposed. Many people were stranded and didn't know what was happening as violence broke out in surrounding areas.
“I didn't even know there was going to be an election,” Dean said. “They were heavily attacking churches, beheading people with machetes, but the e-mail we got from Michele, the GVN director on Dec. 30, after we had already left, said there had been elections and unsettling between the tribes. They would let us know if it was dangerous. They knew that we were already there when they sent the e-mail. We were told during the orientation that the slums were under attack. Those sent to the slum orphanages would be sent to a different location. We were 10 minutes away from the slums, so we weren't able to leave the house.
“That's when I started to think something was actually happening,” Dean said.
They were in a fenced-in compound with walls and a security system. They couldn't hear anything going on outside.
With no phone in the house, one of the workers had a cell phone. As one girl's family got through, she was told what they saw on the news. They contacted the other parents.
“We couldn't call out; only people could call in,” Dean said. “My parents got a hold of me at midnight (Nairobi time).
Dean said she was reluctant to return home. After all, they had spent all that money and effort to get there for what they deemed an experience of a lifetime.
“I wanted reassurance from the agency that it was safe,” she said. “Working in the orphanage would have been such a great experience.”
She even begged her mother to tell her to stay.
But after they spoke with an American girl named Melinda, still in the slums, where she had been working for the past year, it began to sink in.
“She said she did not think we were safe because she did not feel safe; then, she started to cry. That's when I decided I was not safe, when she said she couldn't give us reassurance,” Dean said.
The first girl contacted decided to leave, then four others, including Dean, went along. But five others remained behind.
Dean's roommate's parents arranged to buy airfare for them to return that day. They called the program director to say they were leaving.
“She said, ‘It's midnight. I have to get my sleep,' and hung up,” Dean said. “The way things were going, I couldn't trust them, even though they kept saying, ‘Hukkuna metatta (no worry).'”
They passed by a lot of men in camouflage guarding the entrance to the slums and showed their passports to machine-gun wielding guards at roadblocks on the way to the airport. They left Jan. 2.
“We paid $1,500 each to get home,” she said.“That money isn't being refunded to us.” So, all in all, the roommates paid $2,800 each for a couple of days in Kenya.
“I'm assuming Keuka College did know (about the danger). There was a travel warning. They said don't go near groups of protesters in Kenya. The school read that to us,” she said. “It sounded pretty simple to me. We said, ‘OK.”
The trip back was no fun either. They stayed overnight in a hotel room in London, went out to eat, came back, and slept, then boarded the plane home.
“We were very glad we came home when we did. There were 300 dead when we left. Now, there are about 900.” Dean has no idea what happened to the five students left behind.
“It was my first trip abroad,” she said. “I still have the passion to work with orphans, but, honestly, I'm afraid I will not go there ever again.”
Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or e-mail kathleen.barran@lee.net
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