Recently, Kenya has been pelted with what seemed like unstoppable rain. Because of over grazing, and erosion, flooding was a huge problem. Many lost their lives including many school children trying to cross flooded rivers just to get to the classroom.
This doesn't have to happen! Bridging the Gap Africa is working to make sure that communities have the bridges they need.
Just this past spring, a bridge was build for a Masai community in Losiijo. I was fortunate to be able to survey this site when I visited last fall and then actually do a design for this bridge. We had good ideas of the high water mark and designed our bridge to sit will above that waterline - plenty of "freeboard". But these floods even exceeded our high water! Luckily our bridge was strong and did not sustain any damage. But the most important thing is that the community did not lose any lives in these floods because they were able to continue to use the bridge! Even when the flood waters creeped into the local run lodge - running almost to the top of the doors! (see pictures) the community was still able to safely cross.
So many more communities need this same opportunity! Find out more about Bridging the Gap Africa and how you can help at www.bridgingthegapafrica.org
Bridging the Gap Africa Board Members have been working hard! Harmon has kept up the great work in Kenya building three new bridges over the last few months. Here at home we are working to raise needed funds.
We are going to be holding our first annual golf tournament this year.
Monday, September 10, 2012, Raspberry Falls Golf & Hunt Club
What a great year! It has been almost exactly a year since I first saw Harmon Parker on the CNN Heros 2010 show being honored for his work with Bridging the Gap. The 2011 show was held last weekend, and ten more Heroes honored (http://www.cnn.com/SPECIALS/cnn.heroes/index.html ) Time has flown by. By January of this year, I was talking with Harmon about being a Board member and planning a trip to Kenya. I can't believe how blessed I am to have this organization in my life and hope to give back even more this year. I'm looking forward to seeing what blessings we all have in store...maybe this year I'll write about the whole Rehm family visiting Kenya! But it is certain that I will continue to talk about the needs in Africa and how we can give those in a walking world a better future with simple bridges.
In the meantime, I give thanks for all the wonderful opportunities and people that have come into my life through Bridging the Gap - especially to Harmon Parker and his wife Teri - down to earth, everyday people making a tremendous difference in the world. Thank you for bringing me to Africa, showing me a walking world, and giving me a whole different perspective on life!
Happy Holidays, Merry Christmas and Peace to you all! Good wishes for a Happy New Year!
Bridging the Gap has been busy this month - completing two new bridges. Take a look at this West Pokot community helping to build their bridge with Harmon and his crew, Tom Clark and friend of BtG Ken. Can't wait until i can get back there to help build!
The bridge is getting built! This is the first site I was able to survey while in Kenya and I also helped do the analysis and design of the bridge. I'm so sad that I can't be there to help with construction, but Harmon, Sylvester and a great group of local community helpers are getting it done. Here are some pictures of the progress. I can't wait to get back there - hopefully in the spring - to help with another bridge build.
Bridges are in the news. At this point, most people have heard "structurally deficient" and have some idea of what it means. Unfortunately, bridge professionals are stuck trying to explain that we aren't letting the public drive on UNSAFE bridges, but that structurally deficient just means that the bridge has reached an age where major repair or replacement is going to be needed soon. Lobbyists and policitians have attached themselves to the "infrastructure issue" and bridges are getting more and more publicity...not necessarily good publicity, but at least people are recognizing the problem. Can government really spend more on the infrastructure - and where will the money come from?
Newsworthy questions....
I know this blog has hammered this point, but isn't it also newsworthy to talk about so many people in the world that don't HAVE a bridge to cross?
Bridging the Gap founder Harmon Parker and his wife Teri recently traveled to another Kenyan, West Pokot, community that desperately needs a bridge. The pictures show the way the people are crossing now...
It continues to amaze me that we take our bridges for granted! School children, "cargo" carried on backs, even goats have to cross this river everyday - even in floods! Luckily, Bridging the Gap, because of a generous donation, will be able to build a bridge for this community - making a huge difference in their way of life.
We can't take our bridges for granted here in the States - and these communities in Africa are a good reminder why. Creative financing is needed all around - in the US and for Bridging the Gap!
We may not be able to directly contribute to the preservation of our bridges here in US, but for Bridging the Gap, even a few dollars make a difference almost immediately. Every penny helps!
Visit www.bridgingthegapafrica.org for more information or to make a donation! Building bridges really does change lives!
Bridging the Gap Africa is having "growing pains". The organization is small, starting out really as a "one man show" so many years ago (Harmon in Kenya). Now having grown to a full Board of Directors, an 'intern' engineer on loan from the Peace Corps, a few loyal Kenyans and me as the volunteer lead on the Technical Committee (scary I know!), we are facing more and more requests from communities in need. I've talked a lot in my blog here about the reasons why these communities need a bridge - and the bottom line is - they live in a walking world. Walking across a flooded, infested river is dangerous or impossible. Bridges lead to health, education...opportunity (I'm starting to sound like a broken record!)
Just since I've left Kenya - which I can't believe has only been about 10 days ago - the need has become more clear. This past week, we heard from Michele (manager) at Losiijo Lodge that three men died as a result of drowning trying to cross the river. This is a site we just surveyed! It just brings home the fact that Bridging the Gap really is saving lives by building bridges. If the bridge was already in place on this site, these three lives may have been saved. (see my blogs on Losiijo here: Bridge Needed - Losiijo Lodge or This IS the Good Road or go to their blog: Losiijo Community Blog )
Because of the great need at Losiijo, Bridging the Gap has decided to put a portion of the money raised on my "Wish" (http://wishes.causes.com/wishes/327535) site that I set up before my trip toward this specific Bridge. Thanks to all our great supporters for that! But the need doesn't end there.
Here is a quote from an email Harmon recently received from one African Community:
The log bridge which the donkeys were using was carried away by water and they are trying to put new logs. For two weeks nobody could get across . They need help. vehicles no longer go there so all their transport is done by donkeys. The very sick are transport using improvised stretchers and sometimes on donkeys.
It is hard to ask for money, and raising funds is not easy. But the needs are very real. The US has its own bridge needs right now - but when we talk about the funding needed to repair bridge infrastructure here, we are talking about Billions! AASHTO's 2007 Bridging the Gap: Restoring and Rebuilding the Nation’s Bridges (the title seems a little ironic now...considering I helped write the document!) states:
Within the next 15 years almost half of the nation’s bridges will exceed 50 years of age, exceeding the life span for which they were designed. Even now, one in five are over 50.
With age comes decay. One in four of our bridges are rated as deficient, either in need of repair or in need of widening to handle today’s traffic.
Estimates show that more than $140 billion will be needed to fix them.
Hopefully, the money will be alloted by the federal government to help us keep our bridges in shape...or maybe we'll all be riding donkeys to the clinic over log bridges in the future. The point is, when you look at the amount of money that is needed in the US to help our bridge system, it is overwhelming and seems out of reach.
BUT - when you look at the cost of building a footbridge in Kenya for a rural community - comparitively - the cost is small. For about $10,000 a bridge can be built for this community mentioned above. Just a drop in the bucket compared to what we are spending on our bridges here. Can't we all afford to chip in a little to make such a big difference?
Bridging the Gap Africa wants to be able to respond to all the requests for bridges that come in - but we need your help - your church, your corporation, your pennies! Every little bit helps. If you are interested in helping - please go to www.bridgingthegapafrica.org to find out ways to donate time or money - or visit our Causes website at: http://www.causes.com/causes/620206-bridging-the-gap-africa
TIA - This is Africa... which to me means - wow - this is a completely different world than the States! In no particular order...
1) Bathrooms...don't take them for granted. They might be a hole in the ground, a toilet with no seat, no TP or perhaps, just a bush on the side of the road.
Here's an example (bathroom in my room at one of the camps I stayed in - the pipe going up the wall is the shower...):
2) Most people don't drink coffee - and often if they do - it's instant. Instead, everyone drinks "Chai" tea - not what you would expect - just a 1/2 tea, 1/2 milk concoction
3) There are no guarantees with driving. Very few traffic signals, so intersections are for the bravest of the brave (and mostly roundabouts - AUGHH) - one three lane each direction roadway in Nairobi had NO LINES - free for all swerving all around. And be prepared to play Chicken on a regular basis...with large trucks...or vans with 20 people inside...or maybe with a few cows and goats...here's a short video of us driving...
4) Most directions to anywhere in Kenya include "turn off the paved road" (ok - maybe this is a BIT like Tennessee - ha ha). Amazingly - the GPS will almost always show the road - even when it is only a tire track through the savanah in the game reserve!
5) Nairobi is a lesson in contrasts - nice "compounds" with large houses, malls with nice stores and restaurants - just down the street from sheet metal shacks...
6) Government is still pretty corrupt...that's all I'm going to say about that...
7) When flying across the country - you might land in a corn field with a one room airport and a waiting area under the tree outside...
8) The people are BEAUTIFUL! Really - sculpted, and happy - smiling all the time and dressed in the most amazing colors! They looked like movie stars to me.
9) Sheep are really dumb. Goats and cows will get out of the road pretty quickly, but a sheep will come out and sit right in front of your tire.
10) Monkeys are the "squirrels" of Africa - they are in the trees and they will drop things on you..
11) "JuJu" is alive and well...even though most all the tribes in Kenya are considered "Christian" - there are still a lot of interesting "spirits" out there...like Night runners (read here for more on them! http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/politics/InsidePage.php?id=2000042604&cid=349 ) ...or girls that can make you wake up in the top of a coconut tree...
12) The cigarettes have warnings...much like the US - but not quite...you might see "Cigarette smoking causes Mental Retardation" or...something like this...
13) Animals in the "Mara" (game reserve) could, for the most part, care less about people. We drove right into a pack of 14 lions eating with about 6 other safari vans surrounding them and they never even looked up. Now if one of us got OUT of the van...that might be a different story...
14) Sometimes Elephants play soccer...
15) Africa has its own exotic smell - hard wood smoke, people, sometimes exhaust, animals...much wilder than here - many of my things I brought home still have that smell and it makes me miss being there!
16) If a Chief asks you if you can "jump" - you better be prepared to JUMP! (and sing, and do the "milk the cow" dance move with the walking stick...that's another story)
17) There are unbelievable pursemakers in Nairobi...leather is handstitched and awesome there - Teri took me to a showroom of purses made by a lady that used to work for Louis Vuitton (again with the contrasts!)
18) You might see one of your donated fraternity or sorority letter shirts out in the middle of nowhere Kenya...we stoped in a village where we were asking about the road conditions (muddy) and a man came out of his house wearing a fraternity t-shirt from Eastern Kentucky University...yeah - small world.
19) You are going to shake a lot of hands - with everyone, everywhere...
20) If you have children - you will probably be known by your first child's name...I'm "MamaJenna":
21) Women work HARD - they carry all the wood, water, go to market, take care of the babies...men often sit under the tree and talk about politics...or round up the animals...
22) Market days are big events - everyone dresses in their best and heads to town...so colorful!
23) "Personal space" has a whole different definition in a country that might cram 20 people into a minivan taxi...
24) Feeding a giraffe is a lot like feeding a horse
25) Harmon and Teri are the best hosts in the world...no question...
26) A lot of people speak English, a lot of people speak Swahili, a lot of people speak A LOT of tribal dialects - a lot of people speak a little bit of all of them...
27) If you are going to the market - you need to take Teri with you - she is an expert haggler...
28) In a traditional Pokot blessing...you might get spit on...
29) People are in need in Kenya, but they are happy and they are grateful!
30) Anyone that goes to Kenya will forever after have "Africa in their heart". It touches you and changes you. In the words of another blogger - "I NEED AFRICA MORE THAN AFRICA NEEDS ME. Why? Because it is Africa that has taught me that possessions in my hands will never be as valuable as peace in my heart. I've learned that I don't need what I have and that I have what I need. These are just a few of this continent's many lessons. I came here to serve and yet I've found that I have so much to learn, and Africa, with all its need, has much to teach me." ( https://www.themochaclub.org/i-need-africa )
Here is a look at my full trip to Kenya all in one album. Videos are coming soon! Catching up - both on sleep and work - after two weeks away and then two days in DC is a challenge, but I'm finally starting to feel back to normal as the weather changes to fall here in Nashville. More to come!
