2008.01.07: January 7, 2008: Headlines: COS - Kenya: Safety: MLive.com: Peace Corps Volunteer Faith Finholm is safe in Tanzania after being smuggled out of riot-ravaged Kenya last week on a flat-bed truck.
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2008.01.07: January 7, 2008: Headlines: COS - Kenya: Safety: MLive.com: Peace Corps Volunteer Faith Finholm is safe in Tanzania after being smuggled out of riot-ravaged Kenya last week on a flat-bed truck.
Peace Corps Volunteer Faith Finholm is safe in Tanzania after being smuggled out of riot-ravaged Kenya last week on a flat-bed truck.
While the period leading up to the election was mostly peaceful, Peace Corps officials took her group on a safari far from their home town near Homa Bay in anticipation of more unrest throughout the country. When they returned, she was sheltered in a single room with eight other workers while listening to bullets being fired and crowds marching through the streets. After a handful of too-short phone calls and a flurry of pleas to Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, Marsha Finholm was able to secure her daughter's location -- at the Peace Corps' training base in neighboring Tanzania -- and get assurance that she's coming home soon. Faith Finholm is scheduled to be one of the first Americans headed back once Peace Corps officials get her a new passport. Her original, like most everything she has, was left behind in the initial rush to shelter weeks ago. I could tell on the phone that there were things she didn't tell me because she didn't want to worry me, but I was already plenty worried," Marsha Finholm said. "It was a relief when she said that as soon as she gets a new passport she'll be coming home."
Peace Corps Volunteer Faith Finholm is safe in Tanzania after being smuggled out of riot-ravaged Kenya last week on a flat-bed truck.
Peace Corps volunteer flees Kenya
Posted by Chad Swiatecki | The Flint Journal January 07, 2008 08:51AM
Categories: Breaking News, Community: Flint, Top Stories
FLINT -- Here's what Marsha Finholm knows about her daughter, Faith, 23: She's safe in Tanzania after being smuggled out of riot-ravaged Kenya last week on a flat-bed truck.
And, most importantly, she will be home soon.
It's been touch and go just staying in communication for the past couple of months for Marsha and Faith, who went to Kenya last May to work with the U.S. Peace Corps.
The violence in Kenya that escalated after the Dec. 27 election first began in November after it appeared nominations for the election had been thrown out. Last week, the violence exploded into widespread ethnic clashes that left more than 300 people dead.
Throughout, Marsha Finholm of Waterford has closely monitored developments in Kenya, and prayed for her daughter's safety.
"I've just been frantic, trying to find out everything I can because when she can call it's only for a minute," Marsha Finholm said. "She called on Nov. 19, and all she said was 'I love you' and that she was right in the middle of things, then she had to hang up.
"We knew it would be an experience she'd never forget, and it turns out it really is in a way we never expected."
In an email message to friends and family in November, Faith Finholm described the fear and uncertainty.
"By now it is 3 p.m. and despite (coworkers) Cottina and Nyakoa's constant reassurance that the situation would blow over by noon, it hadn't. There were no vehicles anywhere, and surely none would enter such a hostile environment. I was stuck," she wrote. "People were still screaming. I climbed the stairs to the top floor making note of places to stash my purse and hide myself along the way. I felt like the stupid girl in horror films that always runs up the stairs instead of out the door. But there was no other option."
A Mott Middle College graduate, Faith Finholm joined the Peace Corps after graduating cum laude from Central Michigan University in 2006.
When Faith learned she'd be stationed in Kenya working for the Community Mobilization Against Desertification, she remarked that she'd "won the Peace Corps lottery" and looked forward to her job educating locals about AIDS and HIV.
Local children delighted in reading the story books she brought with her, and she looked forward to using her law and economics skills working on a $2-million grant for the organization, but that work was derailed by the violence two months ago.
While the period leading up to the election was mostly peaceful, Peace Corps officials took her group on a safari far from their home town near Homa Bay in anticipation of more unrest throughout the country.
When they returned, she was sheltered in a single room with eight other workers while listening to bullets being fired and crowds marching through the streets.
After a handful of too-short phone calls and a flurry of pleas to Gov. Jennifer Granholm and the U.S. Embassy in Kenya, Marsha Finholm was able to secure her daughter's location -- at the Peace Corps' training base in neighboring Tanzania -- and get assurance that she's coming home soon.
Faith Finholm is scheduled to be one of the first Americans headed back once Peace Corps officials get her a new passport. Her original, like most everything she has, was left behind in the initial rush to shelter weeks ago.
"I could tell on the phone that there were things she didn't tell me because she didn't want to worry me, but I was already plenty worried," Marsha Finholm said. "It was a relief when she said that as soon as she gets a new passport she'll be coming home."
Links to Related Topics (Tags):
Headlines: January, 2008; Peace Corps Kenya; Directory of Kenya RPCVs; Messages and Announcements for Kenya RPCVs; Safety and Security of Volunteers
When this story was posted in January 2008, this was on the front page of PCOL:
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Story Source: MLive.com
This story has been posted in the following forums: : Headlines; COS - Kenya; Safety
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