Joseph Kivaa takes a break from chores at Mary Craumer's farm. (Courtesy photo)

Joseph Kivaa sits patiently sipping a cup of hot chocolate he made moments earlier, waiting in his blue medical uniform. A computer monitor hums idly, and a pile of well-used calculus books sit neatly stacked in a small bookshelf in the center of the room. An intricate mask hangs on the wall across a bed, serving as a symbolic reminder of his upbringing in Kenya. The ceiling above his bed is unfinished, a tumble of wires and heating ducts begging to be concealed. Seeing my gaze, Joseph tells me that he has kept the ceiling unfinished for a reason, not because he hasn’t gotten around to completing it. “Whenever I wake up,” he explains “[the ceiling] serves as a reminder that although I have come this far, I can’t lose track of what I still have to accomplish.”

Joseph Kivaa grew up in the eastern part of Kenya, one of nine brothers and sisters. He went to school in Nairobi along with his sister, Ann, who eventually was able to attend a college in the United States. Joseph came to visit her in Massachusetts and came in contact with Mary Craumer, a Depot Road resident, who had adopted a girl from Lowell whose mother knew Ann and Joseph. Mary needed someone to care for her kids and also work on the farm and hired Joseph for the job. Joseph has lived in Harvard ever since and is currently studying radiology and nuclear medicine at Salem State College.

Joseph Kivaa helps Will Carley with a craft project during Astrolabe Farm's summer camp. (Courtesy photo)

Joseph has had to adjust to a smaller family in Harvard. “Our families back in Kenya are community-based families, based out of extended family: my aunt’s family, and my uncle’s family. We would all be in one place as one big community and oftentimes I would see my parents like brothers and sisters.” Joseph has carried over this love for family to his new family in Harvard. When I asked Mary about Joseph and his role in their family she responded, “He is our family. The line from doing for and being a part of has become quite fuzzy. He cares for [our two children] Henry and Ellie like we do. He has offered our children a deep love and attachment. He’s attached to them and cares for them in such a deep way that to this day they call him their brother.”

In addition to helping to support and stay in contact with his family back home, care for his new family in Harvard, Joseph also works 20 hours a week at Nashoba Valley Medical Center in the radiology and nuclear medicine unit, attends college at Salem State, and works on Mary’s farm. Mary and her family recently moved to California, but Joseph is still here, taking care of the property.

“Both David [her husband] and I recognized right away what a hard worker he was,” comments Craumer. “He has incredible determination, but it’s not loud or splashy. He pours his heart into anything he does. What he’s doing isn’t easy—living so closely with us—not in the Kenyan culture, going to college here when he never really had a chance to finish high school in Kenya, working at the hospital, living in a cold climate, not going home for over four years now ... it’s [not] easy.”

“Working and my family are things that were hard all through my entire life,” explains Joseph. “It’s so hard; it’s miles and miles away from home, and oftentimes I feel like I want to be able to talk face-to-face with my family. It is not a matter of difficulty; it’s a matter of absence. They are not there when I need to see them. But I have been used to this ever since I came here, and hey, that’s what I have, and I’m used to it.”

In Kenya, growing up for Joseph consisted of different cultural, family, and community expectations. “I had different responsibilities,” Joseph comments. “Most of the things I did were what was asked of me; there were always duties for me to do that turned out to be routine. Communal-based jobs were supposed to be done by every member of the village. For example, we would try to make paths or roads for people to walk on, and we had to work on them by hand. We had to make sure that everyone had a path to go to the market.”

After high school, Joseph’s life changed completely. “Back in the city I had to go to school and my duties were totally different. I would go to school and then, at the end of the day, I had to come home and do jobs that were done by my sister also, because I have a big family and oftentimes I had to take care of the family [by] cooking and cleaning as well. After high school and getting a job I got different responsibilities altogether, because I had to take care of the entire family by providing finances for everything we needed.”

For Joseph, work wasn’t a choice, but an expectation. “When you woke up, every teenager and person was expected to do the same thing. It was unacceptable for someone to say ‘I’m tired, I don’t want to work.’ But here I find that is acceptable. If someone says something like that, and you go to work and say ‘I’m tired,’ people will handle you knowing that you are tired. Maybe someone will help you more or something like that. [In Kenya] it was unacceptable to be tired. Being tired while other people are working is a taboo. You never let yourself get tired. You can’t accept it. We pushed ourselves in that respect, and that could be good, it could be bad. There are different cultural expectations.”

Joseph has also run a small camp at Mary’s farm over the past few summers for young children in Harvard. Joseph taught the kids how to care for animals and how to work on a farm, but also shared stories about his culture and homeland. Will Carley, who attended the camp, spoke about one special experience he had with Joseph at the camp. “One time, when I was the last one to leave, he [Joseph] let me hold a chicken on my hand.” Carley also mentioned how Joseph was always, “really funny and nice” and took him and his friends on walks to the pond. Jennifer Stone, whose son Ben attended the camp, said, “Joseph is a joy to be around. He always has a smile on his face and a kind word, especially for children. He has a wonderfully calm manner and this puts anyone who meets him at ease right away.”

Hellie Swartwood, the mother of Will Carley, spoke highly of Joseph’s commitment to sharing information about Kenya. “One night I was showing a movie, and I needed to get a bunch of people to see it, [so] I asked Joseph to see if he could get some of his friends to come,” says Swartwood. “[Joseph] got a woman from Kenya to come and she arrived at my house a little early. Will came in and started speaking Swahili to her, and she started crying. She asked Will, ‘How do you know that?’ I said, ‘Don’t you know that Joseph has been teaching the children Swahili?’ And she said, ‘It is the most respectful thing I have ever experienced when someone wants to know your language, and speak your own language and someone greets you in your own language.’

She realized that Joseph didn’t just move to Harvard; he moved to Harvard and taught people about Kenya—about his culture. He taught them in a way that we received it so respectfully; it is such a gift. He isn’t just living here; he is working for his country.”

Although Joseph does not know for sure what the future holds for him, he is grateful for what he has been offered in Harvard. “I feel like I can exceed my expectations here, but back at home it used to be a little bit hard,” Joseph adds. “I have books here, I am able to go to school, I have teachers out there, and my questions are all answered. I am treated as a single individual with my own abilities. There is a place for me here no matter what level of academia. You would have expectations which are the same here, but your expectations would usually be thwarted by the limitations that you have, you would have the expectations, but you would doubt whether or not you could make it.”

Joseph feels as though he hasn’t changed who he was, but has learned about the differences between the two places he has lived. “I don’t feel like I have changed as a person, but I have acquired a lot of knowledge in terms of the USA and Africa and the rest of the world. I have learned a lot; I have learned to stay with people who are not from my own community, to be with people with a different culture than the one that I have. I have learned to listen to the cultures of this place, it is hard and but I think I am understanding it very well. I used to know about this country from back home, and what I knew back home is totally different that what I found out here.”

“Joseph is special in this world,” Craumer states. “He is an inspiration of what the human spirit can do given opportunity.”