Kate Cummings » Kakenya http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/kcummings Vital Voices in Kenya Tue, 15 Sep 2009 20:31:46 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.2.1 Gentle locomotive http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/kcummings/blog/2009/09/06/gentle-locomotive/ http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/kcummings/blog/2009/09/06/gentle-locomotive/#comments Mon, 07 Sep 2009 02:05:35 +0000 Kate Cummings http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/kcummings/?p=206 Neipamei Ngodia is the only girl in her family of 18 children and three mothers to go to high school.  At 14 years old, she refused to be circumsized (which leads directly into marriage), and was outcast by family and friends for her choice of school over marriage.  Now 16, Neipamei is determined to become a surgeon, and to return to her Maasai village so she can serve people where they are most comfortable - at home, speaking their native language with a doctor who understands not only their illness but also their culture.  Neipamei understands much more than most 16 year olds, and dreams bigger than her society would like.  Being in her presence feels both like standing alongside a gentle soul and a locomotive - she will not be stopped, smiling all the way home.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=A8tKJ50pZf0

Video by Kate Cummings. Location: Enoosaen, Kenya. Partner: Vital Voices, 2009.

]]> http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/kcummings/blog/2009/09/06/gentle-locomotive/feed/ 0 The Gift of an Unwritten Future http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/kcummings/blog/2009/09/05/the-gift-of-an-unwritten-future/ http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/kcummings/blog/2009/09/05/the-gift-of-an-unwritten-future/#comments Sun, 06 Sep 2009 04:06:39 +0000 Kate Cummings http://advocacynet.org/wordpress-mu/kcummings/?p=203 In this interview, Kakenya Ntaiya talks about the freedom she has found in education.  Tracing her path back to childhood, Kakenya remembers her family hardships and the constricting nature of traditional Maasai values on her future.  But Kakenya was not going to accept her family’s selection of a husband-to-be for her at age five; and she was certainly not going to let generations of ritual and multiple father-figures with a limited perception of her potential stand in the way of her own dream.  Instead, Kakenya - with the support of her mother - rallied together the very community that resented her independence and convinced them to send her to college in the US.  Now, less than a year away from finishing her PhD in international education, Kakenya is still dreaming - but this time, for her entire village.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFSqhkxcb3c

Interview by: Kate Cummings. Location: Enoosaen, Kenya. Partner: Vital Voices, 2009.

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