It Could Happen Here - The Attacks on Eden House, A Trans Haven for Kenya

Episode Date: September 13, 2022

The gang catches up with residents of Eden House to discuss the attacks and the work that Trans Rescue do to keep trans people safe around the world.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

You should probably keep your lights on for Nocturnal Tales from the Shadowbride. Join me, Danny Trejo, and step into the flames of fright. An anthology podcast of modern-day horror stories inspired by the most terrifying legends and lore of Latin America. Listen to Nocturnal on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, five-year-old Cuban boy

Elian Gonzalez was found off the coast of Florida. And the question was, should the boy go back to his father in Cuba? Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or stay with his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Or whenever you get your podcasts. We'll be right back. everything. So I'm here today with Aria and Anne. Aria, she lives at the Eden House over there in Kenya. Anne is the chair of the management board at Trans Rescue and has over 40 years of trans rights activism. They're going to explain today a little bit of what Trans Rescue is, what Eden House is, and the threats and attacks that they've been facing in the last couple of days here. So perhaps Anne, you could explain what Eden House is and the threats and attacks that they've been facing in the last couple of days here. So perhaps, Anne, you could explain what Eden House is. And I think I really liked in your website where you explained the difference between like a hidey hole and a haven. So if you could get into that, that would be wonderful. Sure. Eden House is a trans haven in Kenya.

is a trans haven in Kenya. Our primary mission is that we help trans people escape from dangerous places. That implies that we help them go somewhere because, of course, they have to have a safe place to go to, which means we often end up renting an apartment short term or doing something like that while they get established in their new place. The problem, and of course, that that was getting expensive in Kenya, where we can move a lot of people because some areas of Kenya are quite dangerous, but the major cities are not quite so dangerous. Areas of Kenya are quite dangerous, but the major cities are not quite so dangerous. And so we move people into the major cities.

But we were trying to be efficient and save money. And we thought about making a kind of temporary DOS house or a place with bunk beds to the ceiling and whatever. But we realized that would still cost us money and it wouldn't be a very positive experience or affirming experience for the folks living in it. And we realized that we could instead do a transhaven. That is a place where a person could come and if they chose, never leave. Live there the rest of their life if they want. Instead, do a transhaven. That is a place where a person could come. And if they chose, never leave.

Live there the rest of their life if they want. So when someone comes to Eden House, they can expect to receive help to find some income producing activity. some income producing activity. And as time goes on, they'll eventually be expected to contribute to the running of the house. Our plan is, we just started a month ago, but our plan is by about the end of the year to have the house no longer be requiring funds from us. And then we can do it again.

We have space for eight people when we get up to eight and it doesn't look like it's going to bleed us dry we can do it again and we can and in the end we end up with something that i think many trans people in any country would love to have because that's uh you know that's something as long as i've been around there have been many discussions of building such places yeah it's a very admirable project and um i know uh gare and i just visited the tenacious unicorn ranch i've been before and it's really powerful to see like how empowering those spaces are and how um they can help. So I can see that you set up in Kenya. Was there a reason that you picked Kenya?

Was that it was there was a very large trans community there or something that led you to. Frankly, in in such places, people often have. There is the old queer, I know somebody who knows somebody system, and people have kind of webs of trust. And as a result, where we get people coming from to ask us to move them is very irregular. There are some countries we never hear from, and we certainly know there are queer people there. We know the conditions are bad and would, you know, and we'd be happy to move people, but we don't have a lot of penetration. In others like Kenya, we're in

the network and people are telling, giving each other our contact info. Also, we have some capabilities. We had built up kind of a center there. So we decided to focus on Kenya. Kenya is relatively easy to get into as far as visas and so on. And so it's a place we can send people when we might have trouble getting them into, say, Europe or the United States. We can with.

And so we're perfectly happy to end up with lots of folks. We'd like to make the place attractive enough that it's also a place that we even have people coming who aren't particularly in immediate danger. We're working from a philosophy of abundance that we want to grow. And we have a rule of we don't want to make a place that we wouldn't want to live ourselves. And honestly, Eden House is a nice place. It was the personal home of a rather wealthy family. It looks nice. Aria, would you maybe like to describe for us your experience at the house, what it's like, and how places like this are important

so that people can understand? Maybe if you could start with how you became aware of the Eden House and that this was an option that was available to you. Okay. So I met, we got in touch with Anne early this year. Yes, early this year, around February, January, if I'm not wrong. So, that was before Aiden was formed. So, we really

had a long discussion on us moving from where we were. We were at the coast and things were really, really brutal at the coast side of Kenya. We were going, a lot of stress, we even lost one of our friends. And, yeah, it wasn't really good. It was really bad. So yeah,

we had a discussion about moving to Eden house and it was a work in progress. So we took some time working on that. So eventually it happened. And so we came to Eden house and it's a very beautiful place. I would agree with that. Yeah, and Anne also flew all the way to here because we were new here and there were some things that we needed done. And yeah, we are three of us currently in Eden House.

I got in touch with Anne and the rest of the team. There was Doris on board. Actually, she's the person who was responsible for the Malindi team. And yeah, the two sisters that I have, like, okay, they're my sisters because we've been through a lot of hell together. So yeah, we come all the way from Malindi also we are here together and so far when we got here

the place is very beautiful but just needed a little you know here and there decoration and you know clarifications and modifying and you know precarious whereby you know putting on security lights and the security wires. Yeah, still some things need to be upgraded, but, you know,

we still need to resource for a lot so that we can have some things being done. But so far, so good. Everything is good. are so good, everything is good. I'd interject that we're trying to foster a spirit of self-sufficiency. We've got everybody to make the furniture. Most of the furniture in the house has been made by the residents. We're starting some various fundraising or income made by the residents. And we're starting some various sort of fundraising,

you know, or income activities. We've made a chicken coop, and we're in the process of getting chickens. Yes. And a sewing machine. And one of our residents is a talented artist. We're going to set her up to have a place to sell her artwork. and one of our residents is a talented artist. We're going to set her up to have a place to sell her artwork.

That's the kind of things we're doing. Thank you. Aria, I'm really curious kind of on a day-to-day basis. Yeah. What are the things that you and the other people who are at the Eden House do in order to protect yourself? Like when you're going about town, when you're doing errands, is there like a degree of operational security that you have to keep in mind? Yeah, actually, we have a rule whereby we don't go anywhere without letting each other know,

especially if we are going to a long distance. Putting in mind, we are very new into this area, so we are going to a long distance um putting in mind we are very new into this area so we don't know a lot of places so currently we are just in the house trying to get to understand a few things actually we've been doing um um the repairing we have uh we have a chicken coop at the park it's kind of a small um a small place whereby we needed to fix some things so we've been working on that so that we have the place ready for the chicken when they are ready to come in and also for me i've been um going around to see at least allocate some few places whereby you know uh we can feel safe like hospitals, I've been trying to get in touch

with people like around here. I haven't been easy, but at least now I can say I can go to a hospital that at least it's kind of familiar with me. Yeah, we also have a place where we buy, what are these things? The house supplies and all that stuff. We are really trying as much as possible to like minimize our moving around from places to places to draw attention so we're just trying to go with time and see how people will accept us existing to

this community so we don't want to bring any attentions whereby people will start asking questions like you know what's happening there or what's not happening there. Yeah. Yeah. I noticed as well that the house used to belong to a politician.

Is that right? So it has some measures of sort of external physical security as well. Yeah. Which is good. Welcome. I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter

Nocturnum, Tales from the Shadows, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters Modern day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you.

Take a trip and experience the horrors that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires.

From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, Better Offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season, I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology. I just hate the people

in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day 1999,

a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian.

Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well.

Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now, and I cannot decide

if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives.

I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show. I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy

on it. Maybe we can talk about, I know Kenya is a big country and it differs vastly depending on where you are and who you're with. How is the climate towards trans folks? I haven't been in Kenya for probably 10, 15 years. How is the climate towards trans people? Have things have it become like a big topic, like a culture war thing recently? Or is it sort of can you explain, I guess, what it's like? You were saying it seems like it can be a risk just to go outside,

which is pretty sad. Yeah, it is a risk to go outside. You know, here in Kenya, in different sites of Kenya, like at the coast, okay, taking example at the coast side from where I come from, it's really bad for the trans community

because now there they are very transphobic and homophobic people like most of the transphobic and homophobic people come at the coast side because um these are people that um tend to keep their culture and religious like you know more of a more of a key thing in uh in someone's life more of like they use they use the Quran and the Bible to christicize the trans people and the gay community.

So being in that area, it's very, very bad and very, very risky for trans community. Comparing to the other side of Kenya, I wouldn't say it's not risky, but their level of understanding of the trans community and the

gay community it's um it's more of an it's more of a way that they are kind of confused not sure where to understand but it depends with also the area that you are you might find you end up um for example now where Indian house is like for the few, for the month that we've been here, the feedback that I can say I have from the community around here is they're like more of people that are calm and more of people who are more of used to their own personal things. They don't like, you know, put their nose into the things that they're not involved with,

if you get what I mean. In other towns, having new people, people who like, you know, want to know why they're there and, you know, all that stuff. But in this town that we have, we are in Eden House,

it's kind of safe in a way that people are not putting their nose into us, like more of wanting to know about us rather than they are welcoming us more of uh you know um the landlord is kind of friendly i would say that um the the kibanda kibanda it's more of a small grocery shops so the kibandas around here the small grocery shop they are the people who are selling the you know the groceries and all that stuff they are friendly i haven't um i haven't uh incurred or you know engaged or seen any transphobic or homophobic reaction towards the man that have been here most of the people here are much of welcoming like i would say that and uh yeah it's really different from where i come from

trust me from the town that i come from you can't walk with makeup or with anything that makes you look girlish or anything that makes you look resembled to a transgender or maybe gay or something it will be a bad thing for you in the day yeah a little bit of the geography of Kenya, remember that on Kenya's coast, up in the north, is the border with Somalia. And so the culture naturally mixes over the border. And this is also an area where lots of folks are coming over because of the political instability in Somalia. And it's an area where lots of folks are coming over because of the political instability in somalia

and it's an area of el shabab uh terrorist activity so so that makes particularly the north part of the coast uh rather dangerous place yeah just if people are interested i know like the state department sort of has a do not travel, north of Lama pretty much. So people can see it on the map, but there are certainly areas where risk would be higher. Unfortunately, talking of that, there have been some attacks, threats against Eden House in the last couple of days. right threats against Eden House in the last couple of days. So if either of you would like to explain exactly what happened as far as you're comfortable, I think that would be great. Yeah.

Let me explain, because I think I'm the right person to explain that. So they're there. OK, this happened when I was around here. Actually, we had an attack and one of the windows, people, people break into the house, not inside the house, but inside the compound. And they tried getting in the house. But yeah, thank God the place has secure doors and windows but they they took off uh one of the glass from the window and they tried to like they had a stick that was uh was uh was holding um yeah a magnet on the end so they were trying to use the stick with the magnets to pull out the keys so that they can have an and clear

entrance into the house but thank god we had removed the keys so that they can have a clear entrance into the house. But thank God we had removed the keys to where we normally used to put and kept it somewhere else. So the keys that we were aware they were targeting, they were only the keys to the meter box and the fridge. So they took those. And yeah, I presume they later realized that they wouldn't go through with those because they were not the right kids.

So the next thing we wake up in the morning, the magnet was down on the floor. And we noticed that the window had a piece of glass missing. So that was the first incident that happened. So we reported that to the landlord. to the landlord. And previous day before that happened, there was a neighbor who came by and they

said that someone tried to break into their apartment and they were kind of curious because they never knew if people moved into this house so they just wanted to check in what was going on. And we kind of get into like, you know, know each other and they kind of gave us a warning

and that's why we removed the kid and uh the day when they came they couldn't get in so yeah after i left now this is a recent incident that happened then then the next night they came back and we found a couple of broken windows in the morning like they tried to pry some windows out and ended up breaking the glass and gave up but but yeah that's uh so at the time i think we all just thought of this as ordinary you know theft activity but this latest incident it's pretty unclear but this may be a more targeted attack yeah and perhaps it's silly of me to even ask this but could you speak a bit on what kind of help you can expect from law enforcement if any um i would say if any i would say like you see uh the place where we are staying, from the law enforcement, I would expect that they put some, like, you know,

they have a name that they put that, they're the lights that normally the government is supposed to supply, like, you know, what do they call it? They're these lights that they normally have to support. Street lights? Yeah, street lights. So, the place that you are staying, there's

no street lights. So, if a police was to ask me or um you know any security measures that were to be put like i would say that they put the street lights those would help at least there'll be more lights for like you know that should scare people away even if those people are thieves or anything you see so yeah that was that's what i would say okay yeah and i know two people were hurt in the most recent and sort of active aggression right yes yes this was the day before yesterday okay are they doing okay yeah they're fine actually i'm one of them i have my answer yes i'm one of them. I have my arm injured, but not really deep.

The other one is asleep. She had a really bad injured back, stabbed, and the arm also cut. So, yeah, eight stitches at the back, really bad. Yeah, I'm sorry. Yeah, that's not good at all. Okay, so that's not great. Have you, since the attack, is there like an ongoing aggression against you? And it seems like someone's targeting the Eden House, right? it's more of targeting the Eden house because I don't understand why we would only be the only person, like the only people experiencing the same, the same incident over and over like the next, the next houses,

they don't complain in such incident. Like, you know, like this guy, literally, if I'm just picturing the fact that we had to go out and, you know, turn on the machine. And we saw this guy and he just bumped into us with a knife and cutting us off. So I'm just picturing if this guy was waiting for like, I'm just seeing it.

If he was waiting for more people to come so that they can attack coming inside the house. Why was he even standing there in the first place? Because we found him there and he was like, he came through me because i was the one who was in the front so i i just keep asking myself like why was he standing there what was he waiting for yeah yeah that's terrible yeah and i point out that to get there to get there he had to climb a high stone wall topped with razor wire and get into position without triggering the motion detectors yeah uh which is you know not impossible with dupe it was but they keep coming back. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Welcome.

I'm Danny Thrill. Won't you join me at the fire and dare enter nocturnal tales from the shadows presented by I heart and Sonora, presented by iHeart and Sonora. An anthology of modern-day horror stories inspired by the legends of Latin America. From ghastly encounters with shapeshifters to bone-chilling brushes with supernatural creatures. I know you. Take a trip and experience the horrors

that have haunted Latin America since the beginning of time. Listen to Nocturnal Tales from the Shadows as part of my Cultura podcast network. Available on the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

Hi, I'm Ed Zitron, host of the Better Offline podcast, and we're kicking off our second season digging into how tech's elite has turned Silicon Valley into a playground for billionaires. From the chaotic world of generative AI to the destruction of Google search, better offline is your unvarnished and at times unhinged look at the underbelly of tech from an industry veteran with nothing to lose. This season I'm going to be joined by everyone from Nobel-winning economists to the leading journalists in the field, and I'll be digging into why the products you love keep getting worse and naming and shaming those responsible. Don't get me wrong, though. I love technology.

I just hate the people in charge and want them to get back to building things that actually do things to help real people. I swear to God things can change if we're loud enough. So join me every week to understand what's happening in the tech industry and what could be done to make things better. Listen to Better Offline on the iHeartRadio app,

Apple Podcasts, wherever else you get your podcasts. Check out betteroffline.com. On Thanksgiving Day, 1999, a five-year-old boy floated alone in the ocean. He had lost his mother trying to reach Florida from Cuba. He looked like a little angel. I mean, he looked so fresh.

And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian, Elian. Elian, Elian. Elian, he looks so fresh. And his name, Elian Gonzalez, will make headlines everywhere. Elian Gonzalez. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian. Elian Gonzalez. At the heart of the story is a young boy and the question of who he belongs with. His father in Cuba. Mr. Gonzalez wanted to go home and he wanted to take his son with him. Or his relatives in Miami. Imagine that your mother died trying to get you to freedom. At the heart of it all is still this painful family separation. Something that as a Cuban, I know all too well.

Listen to Chess Peace, the Elian Gonzalez story, as part of the My Cultura podcast network, available on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. I found out I was related to the guy that I was dating. I don't feel emotions correctly. I am talking to a felon right now and I cannot decide if I like him or not. Those were some callers from my call-in podcast, Therapy Gecko. It's a show where I take real phone calls from anonymous strangers all over the world as a fake gecko therapist and try to dig into their brains and learn a little bit about their lives. I know that's a weird concept, but I promise it's pretty interesting if you give it a shot. Matter of fact, here's a few more examples of the kinds of calls we get on this show.

I live with my boyfriend and I found his piss jar in our apartment. I collect my roommate's toenails and fingernails. I have very overbearing parents. Even at the age of 29, they won't let me move out of their house. So if you want an excuse to get out of your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, your own head and see what's going on in someone else's head, search for Therapy Gecko on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts. It's the one with the green guy on it. So I'm sure people listening will be upset by this. Is there a way that people can express a solidarity or support you financially?

Yes. We need funds to keep running the house. And in fact, the guy escaped through a hole that was left only because we ran out of razor wire. We need funds to keep the project going. We need funds also to support our primary work. We're continuing to get people out of places like Saudi Arabia. We have people who are in mid-travel right now. And we have other people in hidey holes in dangerous countries. And we want to move all those people. And we'd like to start...

Right now, we're not even taking new folks on because we just have such a backlog. I'd very much like to fix that situation. So for all these reasons, we're doing... We're happy with what we're doing, but we do need funds at the moment. Yeah. Let's get into that a little bit. The we here is Trans Rescue, right? Yeah. Yes. Trans Rescue is a non-profit and you're based in Europe and you move trans people out of dangerous situations. That's correct. We're based in the Netherlands.

We're a stichting, which is in the US, that would be a 501c3. We're an ANBI qualified stichting, which basically is a 501c3. We're an ANBI qualified schticking, which basically is a 501c3. Okay. And you were telling us before we started the call that you think it costs you about 2,500 euros to move each person. Is that right? Yeah, that's the average. The average is probably slightly going down because of course, to move somebody into Eden House from the coast might be as cheap as 80 bucks to send them a ticket and then a few hundred dollars of settling them in Eden House. out of Saudi oftentimes means not only flying them, but sometimes flying our own personnel in and out on often kind of crazy routes. So a person might find themselves a long way from either Saudi or where they're finally going to end up.

And as a result, and then, so yeah, we end up having to spend a lot on plane tickets. And then we also, sometimes this takes months, we play paperwork games. We are not people smugglers, but we certainly are not people smugglers, but we certainly are helping people get to a country where they can actually claim asylum for the most part, which means, you know, and successfully claim asylum. And that often means manipulating edge cases in the international travel system yeah yeah that makes a lot of sense i can see why that would be expensive and complicated yeah so it's great that people can donate to you there is there anything like i noticed you were asking before for some mutual

aid help with your pr is that something you still need like are there things people can do maybe they don't have the means to yes we we're we're a small organization. We're not very large. And we actually are just cranking up our PR operation. We could use a press list. We could also use amplification from organizations with more kind of online cloud. We're basically a little group of people. And for two years, we operated as an informal group of activists. We realized that was probably not ideal for this very serious work we're doing.

And so last December, we reorganized as a proper schtick team. But yeah, help with boosting our signal at the moment would be very useful. Anyone who can, you know, spread the word of what's happened at Eden House, we would be very much appreciative.

Yeah. Well, we can definitely do that. Yep. Hopefully other folks can too. It's just so people can find you. It's trans underscore rescue on Twitter. It's trans underscore rescue on Twitter. It's trans rescue door dot org on the web. I will share that fundraiser link when when this comes out.

Aria, how have things been for you the last couple of days? Like I must be pretty rough. I imagine not feeling safe at the house. Yeah. Actually, the advice that we got from the landlord and the neighbor, there's a neighbor here, a lady, she came by and I have a number. I called her the day we had the incident and she came in the morning when we had a talk. So she suggested that we shouldn't be going out late nights.

And by 10, we make sure that all the doors are locked. And yes, and stay safe inside. In case of anything, she asked me to call her. And also the landlord asked me if in case of anything, if I hear any movement or any suspicious thing happening outside the gates, I just give them a call. It's good. It's good that people are sticking up for you in your community. It's really good to hear. Really good to hear.

We appreciate that. And on their behalf, what y'all are doing is very important. And we're sorry that you're encountering this kind of resistance, but we hope we can help at least get the message out about what you were doing at Eden House. Yeah, much appreciated. Thank you. It's much appreciated. I regret that we spent most of the time on security. I'm more excited about many of the positive things we're doing.

We're trying to set up a place where trans people can live their lives and thrive and have normal lives. Yeah. Let's talk about that. Let's talk about how many people do you have at the Eden House right now, if you're comfortable sharing that. Sure. We just opened so we've got three people we've got one more person who um went back to settle kind of settle his affairs and we'll be moving in um and we have um and we've got space for eight at the moment. We've had a couple other people inquire, but aren't there yet. We're kind of excited by the space we've got because there's actually room around us to grow. So we're expecting to get bigger.

Yeah, I hope you do. And how many people has Trans Rescue been able to help as an organization overall? One way or the other, we've moved about two dozen people. Of that, roughly half have been the serious kind of get people out of Saudi Arabia type moves. The others have been folks that we helped in sort of less dramatic ways. Okay. Yeah, that's a very meaningful contribution to a lot of people's lives.

So that's great. Yeah, I get, you know, it's great. At least one person lives locally, and it's great to kind of occasionally have him over for dinner or you know and know that we got him out yeah that must be really nice i think yeah it's important not to just center like hatred but also about success yeah yeah absolutely yeah i love that and it's cool that like you have plans to grow i've seen that you have agricultural areas around so you're thinking of like growing some food around the house and actually we have brought some foods we have some uh vegetables like uh spinach cabbage tomatoes green paper oh nice yes did they um did the uh garden survive the flood?

Actually, I was about to tell you that. Actually, when the water was coming in, all the spinach went and lied down and we were kind of worried. But when the water stopped flowing down and the sun came out, they kind of started going straight. So I wasn't much worried about that. came out, they kind of started going straight. So I wouldn't be much worried about that, but it's kind of freaking out because they all went down and were like, they're dead. We have a drainage

problem in front of the house. And recently there was torrential rain. Things I did not know about. Spinach is hard to kill. Things I did not know about Kenya. It hails there. Oh, yeah. I did not. Things I did not know about Kenya. It hails there. Oh, yeah.

I did not expect, I did not sort of imagine hail, but it hailed several times while I was there. And everybody was cold while I was walking around in a t-shirt. Yeah, it can add

some robust weather in Kenya, for sure. Yeah, I'm looking. It can add some robust weather in Kenya for sure. Yeah, I'm looking at these pictures. It's great to see you guys making your own furniture and doing all these things and really enjoying your time there as well as obviously we don't want to just focus

on the threat. So hopefully you can go back to that. Hopefully people can support you. Aria, is there anywhere online people can find you? Do you have a Instagram or Twitter or anything like that? Yeah, I do have a Twitter account.

My Twitter handle is at Rams-Aria. Can you spell that out for us? R-A-M-S Okay. With a lower hyphen. Underscore. Yeah. Underscore Aria.

Then Aria, yes. Okay, great. For underscore yeah yeah underscore aria then aria yes okay great yeah and um it's for for yourself and is it is it just trans rescue is there a personal one anything else you'd like um uh my email if someone wants to contact me is annie a-n-n-i-e at transrescue.org. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Hopefully. And we have a contact form on the website as well. If people are interested in talking with us. Yeah. Okay, great.

Is there anything else you'd like to get to before we finish up here? Yes. At on Fridays, we have a, we have office hours. So if you're in a country like the UK or the US and you would just like some advice or to explore your options,

that's another service we offer. We're happy to talk with you on video about that. When would those be? They're at 6pm Central European Summertime.

Which I think works out to midday in the US. Some parts of the US. People can look that up. Are your fingers primarily in English? Those are primarily in English. If you speak Arabic or Farsi or Urdu,

contact us. We can arrange to have somebody who speaks those languages talk with you. We maintain a telegram group, TransRescue. And if you get on there, you can use machine translation and talk with us as well. And we have

Arabic speakers that monitor that. Amazing. Yeah, hopefully people can take advantage of that if they need it. Thank you so much for your time. Our platform is here for you. If you want to share anything else, if anything else happens, please let us know. And we really appreciate you taking the time. Aria, I hope things get thank you yeah thank you thank you so much yeah all right okay

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