Matuini, KRC, and Living Positive

Yesterday, my self-defense class was canceled due to a lack of confirmation from the organizer. So I had the day off for other activities. The excursion for the day was Claudia, Mama B, and I went to a secondary boarding school, Matuini. Several young men we know are in school there, including one of Mama B’s sons. This was a family visitation day. There were many families there to see the boys. We came bearing food for a lunch. The mother and aunt of another boy we knew were also there.

We walked to the sports field and all the families spread out for picnic lunches.

Claudia and I were the only mzungus (non-Africans) in attendance, so we attracted a lot of attention from some of the younger siblings who were there. Below is a little girl who came right up to me. We “chatted” with no common language between us, her little voice barely audible. She came to where we were sitting and plopped down next to Claudia. Her mom kept an eye on her from a distance.

The school looks like a decent facility. Lots of buildings and grounds.

As is the case with pretty much all of the more rural secondary schools here, they have courses on agriculture. The garden below has cabbage, kale, onions, and various other vegetables. I’m sure the food supplements the meals for the boys.

The day before yesterday we had two stops, about an hour apart. The first was in Nairobi with a team of Kenya Red Cross workers. The workers regularly have to travel into the slums and other dangerous areas, where they are attacked.

Below, Wangari happily plants a pointy elbow on my sternum, as part of a grip breakaway.

The best space was outside for this session. It was fairly private. There was one guy hanging around, but I didn’t bother to chase him off. More on that later.

Cedric and Sarah are working on a technique with the women, below. The women were very attentive and worked hard to get things right. Since we had 5 trainers, we were able to provide a lot of individualized attention.

In the pic below, Wangari has moved on to breaking my finger. The two stops we had yesterday were both women, as opposed to school girls. The girls have to attend, since they are in school. The women want to be there, so they take things more seriously. We’ve had a total of nearly 400 girls and women so far this trip. My fingers are starting to show it, from this finger-breaking technique. I’ve got two fingers that are pretty well sprained. But they’ll heal, starting after the last class.

Another grip below that involves the finger break.

The below shot was intended to capture me explaining a technique. But the stars are Wangari and the two women she was working with. Even when they are taking it seriously, we can still have fun.

Our second stop of the day was to go back to Living Positive. For the women there, we have taken a 2-kg bag of corn flour (“unga”) each. For the visit today, we expected 35 to 40 total. We stop by a wholesale merchant to pick up the unga. This was our second trip there, so I’m officially a regular. They load the 24-kg packages in the van for us. I was particularly fond of this woman’s jacket.

As we were loading this, Wangari, Cedric, and Sarah were all hungry and needed ugali to fill up. Ugali is a local favorite, made from unga. It is similar to eating very thick papier mache paste. But it is filling. They dashed off to a nearby hotel to eat.

I stayed with the van and chatted with the woman below. After explaining why we are buying 312 kg of flour, I gave her a quick lesson in using a self-defense keychain and gave her one.

We got to Living Positive. I checked in with Tabitha again and had a cup of coffee—my second cup of coffee since 2014. The first cup since 2014 was three days earlier sitting in the same chair.

We started the class, and had a total of about 35 women. Note Paul videoing the action, on the right, below. I have a rule of keeping the techniques a secret from men and boys. I don’t teach boys self-defense. Period. I do allow men to attend if the women there vouch for them.

While we were conducting this outdoor class, a couple men selling shoes came by and tried to stop and watch. I just stopped what I was doing and stared at them. Tabitha and Paul spoke to them and shooed them off, so we could continue.

Below, working on a technique with a woman.

Cedric and Wangari are getting pretty experienced at this now. Wangari, especially, has been with me for many classes. They can run classes without me. The hard part is answering questions without me. Note in the two pictures below, the people living on the second floor of the building use the roof for extra space, including laundry. Both pictures also have young kids on the roof and there is no railing.

In the above and below pictures, the women are working on an eye-gouging technique.