Kenya
Friendship
The Committee to Support Links between
Bloomington, Indiana and Bungoma, Western Province, Kenya.
Founded in March, 2000
Page updated Oct 16, 2000
Our goal is to establish a Sister City relation between Bloomington,
Indiana and the town of Bungoma in Bungoma District of Western Province
in Kenya and to affiliate ourselves with Sister Cities International.
http://www.cs.indiana.edu/~port/kenyafriends/
Our webpages:
If you would like to make friends or find people with
common interests in Bungoma Kenya, please get in touch with us.
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Contact Bob Port at
port@indiana.edu or at 812-333-1627.
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Brochure. We
have prepared a brochure to introduce Bloomingtonians
to Bungoma. Ask Bob Port for a copy. We also have an inexpensive
trifold flier available in quantity.
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Bloomingtonians in Kenya. During the summer of 2000, we have several Bloomington
representatives of our group actually located in Bungoma doing
volunteer work.
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Visit by Rev. Reuben Lubanga. Rev. Reuben Lubanga will visit Bloomington from about
October 9 to Octover 21, 2000. He will give a number of presentations
in public and for various groups.
About Bungoma.
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Location: close to the Uganda border at the foot of Mt Elgon
on the highway linking Nairobi, the capital of Kenya with Kampala, the
capital of Uganda.
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Population: about 60,000 people in the town itself and about
1.5 million in the surrounding districts. Most people here belong to
the Bukusu subgroup of the Luyia (or Luhya) group of
Bantu languages spoken in western Kenya.
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Role: It is the administrative center of Bungoma District.
Being situated on both a major highway and the East African Railway
linking African nations means much truck traffic and all the problems
that come with having many strangers passing through.
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Local Links: There are a number of people in Bloomington who
have lived in or worked in or visited Bungoma. All of the following
have expressed a committment to developing the Sister City
relationship.
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Hank Selke, a Bloomington native, worked there as
a volunteer in summer, 1998 and returned home determined to support a
social service NGO run by an Anglican minister, Rev. Reuben Lubanga.
Hank organized `Outreach Kenya Development Volunteers'
which sent a total of 6 volunteers to work in the Bungoma area in the
summer of 1999 and 2000.
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Henry Wakhungu and his wife Pheobe
and their children are from Bungoma and have lived in Bloomington for
5 years with their children in local schools,
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Prof. Robert Port lived in Bungoma as a Peace
Corps Volunteer in 1966 and still remembers the place very fondly,
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Prof. Laura Stachowski has visited the town and
is arranging to send students from the education school for overseas
experience to schools in Bungoma.
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Leana McLain and her family have visited
Kenya . She teaches in Monroe County Schools and seeks to incorporate
material on the Bungoma area in her classes.
Children listening to a health presentation at a school
in Bungoma.
Part of the farmer's market in Bungoma.
Related Links:
By R. Port.