It's a Jungle Out There!

These past two weekends we've been trying to do as much as we can in Kisumu before we make our way back to Eldoret. This included a hippo hunt from Kiboko Bay (Kiboko means hippo in Swahili) and the Impala Park. The hippo hunt was really cool because the three of us jumped into a boat that looked like a large canoe with a roof on top and made our way through Lake Victoria. We passed people from the area doing laundry and swimming, as well as fisherman throughout the whole trip. There were some divers, guys with nets, and others on their boats. It was interesting to see all the different ways that people here catch fish. I figured in this post it would be more beneficial to see the pics throughout then try to read my descriptions about them. So I chose a few to put up, but I downloaded a bunch more in my gallery so everyone can see the whole trip.

Here are some pictures of the fishermen:

We also passed a lot of papyrus trees and other wildlife within it:

 And the hyacinth was taking over the whole area:

(there is water under there somewhere)

One of the major highlights of course was when we found the family of hippos. We were able to get within just ten or so feet of them, which was really cool. They didn’t seem to really care we were there, which is good because they are apparently the most deadly animal in Africa, even though they are vegetarians. 

After we got enough of the hippos we went to the fisherman shoreline. We got out of the boat to have some lunch and feast on the best fish ever. It was definitely fresh since we got to pick out our own to eat. Thankfully they were already dead when we picked, but as you will see presentation is everything. This is the first time I literally pulled the meat off the bones. You just have to forget that there is a face looking back at you and go at it. It was delicious!

So after our feast we got back into the boat, pulled ourselves out of the hyacinth, and continued on our way. Just a note about the hyacinth, it is seriously taking over all of Lake Victoria. One day Lake Victoria is going to be completely covered because of this stuff. It somehow got from South America to Lake Victoria – presumably from a human of course – and has now overrun the lake. There are many efforts to control the plant, but nothing has worked yet.

            After a very fun 3 hour tour :) we made it back from our adventure along Lake Victoria.

The following weekend we went to the Impala Park which is located not too far from the bay. We met up with Beatrice and her three younger children, who were very cute - see pictures of the little one with the ice cream. At the park, impalas can roam freely throughout, while more dangerous animals are kept in fenced in areas. There we got to see ostriches, monkeys, birds, cheetahs (we got really close!), a hyena, lions and lionesses. I have lots of pictures of these guys. Here are some of my favorites:

and the cute little one that did not need a fence:

Well all the rest of the pictures are under My Gallery in the upper right of this page. Enjoy!

Not All Peaches and Cream

Reality sets in quickly when the poverty that you know is out there hits you right in the face. I have been writing a lot about the fun trips and occurrences that I have been able to experience while I’ve been here, but it is probably time to write a post about what I also see throughout the area that I live and do work in.

Last Thursday morning, the 17^th, we went to one of the main health centers in the Nyalenda slum where we are implementing our formal survey. It is called Pandi Pieri Health Center and has a comprehensive network of services for the area. That morning we just wanted to make an initial contact in order to set up the time that we would conduct the survey. We have found that it is much better to form a relationship with these centers before taking up a good deal of their time with our survey. One of our favorite community health workers, Beatrice, also works there so we met her and participated in her nutrition clinic that morning. These are the types of clinics that we would want to see in this area. Beatrice’s work for these mothers is amazing. The deal is that every Thursday morning the women in the area who have children under five years old can bring them in to get their weight, height, and MUAC (middle upper arm circumference – this helps determine whether the child is malnourished). When the majority of the women had finished getting the numbers, Beatrice took them over to a cooking pot where she showed them how to properly cook the nutritional porridge in order to keep their children healthy. This was taken from an essential nutrition pack that the USAID provided. Next all the women came together and listened to Beatrice discuss one of the health topics for the day. Today was on weaning children after 6 months. It is promoted here to have 6 months of exclusive breastfeeding. This is because the child will be properly nourished, harmful substances won’t be introduced into their diet, and it is the most affordable option. She explained the weaning techniques to the mothers and went around the room asking what foods their children like to eat most. This is to make sure they are feeding them the best food that they could be.

Beatrice and the other community health worker helping out, Daniel, took their weight and MUAC results to determine the food supplements that they could provide at the end of the session. Those children who had very poor measurements would receive enough plumpy nut to last them the week. Plumpy nut is a peanut-based food for use in famine relief which was formulated in 1997 by André Briend (thank you Wikipedia). Overall it is a great supplement to children who are malnourished to help increase their weight while providing them with the correct nutrition that they should be receiving daily. I tasted it and it was like a reese’s peanut butter cup minus the chocolate, so yeah pretty yummy. For those children who weren’t severe, but still needed more nourishment, the CHWs gave out a fortified flour supplied by USAID that they could make into porridge, just like the demonstration earlier. So all mothers - around 25 ended up showing this morning - were able to receive some sort of food to provide their family for the week. If they wanted more supplements for the next week they would have to return to the next nutrition clinic the following Thursday. This promotes great nutritional behaviors and truly shows how work on the ground can make a difference in the lives of the community.

This experience was so great we came back this past Thursday to help out again. We first implemented our survey this time then came to the clinic to do what we could with the remaining time left. There were almost 30 mothers there, so there were a lot of children running all around. We gave out tons of nutritional packets and plumpy nut to supplement them for the following week. It quickly felt like a blow to the face when we learned that one of the babies that we weighed last Thursday had died this past week. He had come down with something and by the time they brought him to the hospital he could not recover. He was only ten months old. Reality quickly sets in.

A few days ago Beatrice took Lauren and I around the community because she wanted to show us some of the families that she works with. Beatrice sees malnourished children in the pediatric ward in the district hospital to teach them about the proper way of feeding their young children. She will then do follow up visits in their homes to make sure they are continuing the correct feeding practices and help provide them with any additional counseling that they may need regarding these issues. It is an amazing on-the-ground program that she has been doing for over ten years now, and is truly making a difference in the lives of these women and children. Lauren and I accompanied her on her home visits for the morning. She was planning on seeing three places, but it was the second one that truly displayed the hardships that these families face regarding malnourishment and disease. The three of us walked into one hut and greeted the mother and child. The child, who was probably about 5 foot 4 inches, would be lucky to weigh 90 pounds. She was so frail and quiet, only looking up when she was spoken to. After we left Beatrice started telling us how this girl used to be so beautiful and healthy, but she fell ill and no one could figure out what was wrong. They tested her for HIV, malaria, etc, and nothing came back positive so they just sent her home. I have a feeling that they couldn’t pay for the hospital visits and tests so she had to leave. She looked so young because of how tiny she was, but when I asked her age Beatrice said she was 19 years old.19! I couldn’t believe it. Beatrice said that the family isn’t doing anything at this point and that the girl is eating very little even when the food is available. We had to continue on to the next house, but I was left wondering if the next time we made the community visit rounds if we would get to see her again.

Last story for this post. These are the difficult but telling truths of the area, and this is the story that will last with me for a lifetime. Yesterday, after a morning implementing our survey and helping out in the nutrition center, we grabbed some lunch right before going on to the next place to do some more surveys. Lauren and I (Jess was at home not feeling well) started to walk along the sidewalk to meet Steve who was going to show us to a pharmacy in the area. We saw a girl walking in front of us who seemed completely out of it and was only wearing what looked like an apron of some sort. That is all. Her backside was completely bare to the world. Lauren described the scene perfectly when she said she felt like she was in a horror movie and a mentally ill patient just escaped from the ward, walking around in a daze, and at any moment something big was about to occur. The school children who were passing by were pointing and laughing, and it was all we could do to try to tell them to stop and have them go away. Not one adult looked twice and it seemed like we were in a parallel universe where no one else saw this poor girl walking down the sidewalk oblivious to the rest of the world. We decided immediately that we needed to put some clothes on this girl. Lauren went after her to try to stop her and I looked around for a place I could buy some pants. Steve saw me and asked what was going on and I just said I needed pants. Somehow there was a shop ten feet away with pants hanging in the doorway. I pulled the first pair there was and bought them for 350 shillings. This is probably the best $4.50 I’ve ever spent. They looked small, but there was obviously no time to try something on. Lauren had come back by this point saying that she could not communicate with the girl at all and that it seemed like the girl was completely out of it. The three of us got back on the sidewalk and saw that she had traveled quite a distance down. We did not want to run after her and make a bigger spectacle than it already was, so we walked as fast as we could, watching where she was going. I saw her turn left and I was just hoping that she did not get too far. We walked far enough where I saw the dirt road she had gone down. Steve and I caught up to her and he was trying to communicate any way he could. She still would not respond and he even commented that he thought she was mentally ill. Steve and I opened the pants for her to step in and once she realized what we were doing she stepped into them. I zipped and buttoned it up and then folded down the top. I thought the pants were small, but she was even smaller. I was just glad that she had some clothing on her.

We did not know what to do next; still no one batted an eye at her or made any attempt to reach out and help. She looked at us, still without making a sound and continued to walk in the opposite direction. We made the decision that we had to leave. It makes you feel helpless when you know there is nothing more you can do to help. I, at the very least, left knowing that we had given her some part of her dignity back, although she was unaware that it was fleeting, and that she may be somewhat less vulnerable to the dangers that surround her. This is what I have to tell myself, so that I am okay with leaving her there. I hope now that someone kind discovered her and helped her find her way. This is just another reminder that I am working in a slum area and stories like this surround me every day. Sometimes you just wish you had enough pants for them all.

So this is my humble post to put in perspective all of the fun I have also had in Kenya. Just one more week in Kisumu before traveling to Eldoret where I am sure to experience so much more in many different ways. Just hope this post can help make each one of you thankful for everything that you have and the loved ones that surround you every day. :)

We met Mama Obama!

Since we like to go on some adventure or another each weekend, this past Friday we went to go see no other than the Obama Mama! Now she is actually Obama’s step grandmother, but our name for her is much more fun to say. Jessica, Lauren, and I met up with Aduda, our community liaison person who is also now our friend. We all convened at the mall where the driver that he got for us would be. Before leaving we ran into the grocery store to pick up some things as gifts for Mama Obama. We got sugar, a big box of cookies and bar soap for washing laundry. Once these were all packed up we were on our way. It takes a little over an hour to get to where she lives because she is in a much more rural area than Kisumu. Our driver is part of an NGO I believe and has been to Mama Obama’s before – her name is Sarah so I’m going to refer to her as Mama Sarah now since that is what she is actually goes by – so it was easier to get an appointment to visit her. Yes, she needs appointments. Mama Sarah gets tons of visitors everyday ever since President Obama was elected into office. Sidenote: Mama Sarah used to be able to receive these guests freely. Then so many started coming she needed to regulate it somehow. She had to put up a fence and a guard post where the guests would have to check in first before going. She also doesn’t allow any videos of her place (but she does allow cameras so that could kinda be the same thing, but oh well). There was one incident where a reporter came in, took lots of pictures, and sent it back to his newspaper saying that it’s a disgrace that the president lets his grandmother live like this. Blah blah blah people got angry and upset, and now there are a lot more restrictions to the visits. For one, she does not live in any rackety shack, she is doing quite well in her normal-sized house with people cooking and doing laundry for her. She also has electricity and a satellite dish on her house. I believe she is just fine. Also, as was stated many times while we were there, you can’t change the entire way someone is used to living just because another person in your family becomes famous. She is comfortable with the way she lives and would not want it any other way, which made perfect sense to the rest of us. You will see the house she lives in and the surrounding area in the pictures. Ok that was a long sidenote.

So anyways we walked into her yard and sat in the nicely set up chairs awaiting Mama Sarah’s appearance. There were many chairs set up in a horseshoe shape, and were all made out of nicely carved wood. Mama Sarah’s “assistant” greeted us and explained that he would go into the house to see if she was ready to come out and say hello. We all waited patiently in our chairs for her arrival into the group. It was like we were waiting to meet a famous person or something. Well she finally came out and sat with us. We introduced ourselves, which the assistant translated for her. Mama Sarah doesn’t speak any English. She speaks Luo which is the tribal language of the area, so we had to use the assistant as our middle man. I wasn’t always sure that he translated what we said exactly right, but we tried our best to communicate as we could. Lauren helped campaign for Obama in Pennsylvania and had a picture of her with Obama to give to Mama Sarah. Mama Sarah appreciated this and it seemed like she was even more receptive to us once we told that story. She did assure us that she liked the visitors that came to see her everyday and that it kept her life very busy. We were also impressed by her strength; she is around 86 or 87 years old and is still full of life (average life span in Kenya is up to 60 years). You could tell that she was a no nonsense kind of lady. This was great to see because while we were there many more people started coming onto the grounds to visit her. We were all so thankful that we were the first visitors of the day and didn’t have to deal with a larger crowd because I think it would have gotten more uncomfortable. Also, when we pulled out our gift for her she was very thankful, and the other visitors that had just arrived started whispering to each other presumably asking if they should have brought a gift too. You are right mom, always bring a gift to a house you are visiting - I guess this is the same everywhere. :)

Well we left shortly after, so excited after meeting Mama Sarah – totally going to let Obama know next time I see him :) - and went on to the next leg of our journey for the day. We were driving up to an area called Kakamega. Get all your giggles out now; I know it’s a funny name. I asked if it meant big brother because in Swahili kaka means brother and well, mega means big anywhere right? Yeah, this is not the case, Aduda said there wasn’t a meaning for it, it was just a name. I think my idea is still good, though. So we drove for a little over an hour and grabbed some lunch since we were pretty famished at that point then jumped back in the car to drive another hour to the Kakamega rainforest. We went into what looked like a mini resort area to grab a guide and hike up the mountain. It was already getting late in the day so we just wanted a mini hike, to get to the top of one of the peaks and look out, then come back down. We entered the forest and were surrounded by lots of sounds of birds. It was pretty cool listening to all the different types that lived in the forest. We hiked for a good thirty or forty minutes or so until we reached the top and were able to look out at the expanse of land over the Great Rift Valley. It was beautiful. It seemed to go on and on forever. Definitely check out the pictures of this. This area is so incredible and I feel like I am able to view scenes like this over and over while I am here. It’s pretty amazing to be surrounded by this beauty day in and day out. We stayed up there for a little while, looking out at the sights below.  At one point Lauren thought she saw a big lizard run through a bush and started looking around it, I politely went to the other side and let them search on their own.

We climbed back down the little mountain/large hill, paid the guide, and started on our way back to the flat. We didn’t get home until after dark making for a long, but extraordinary day.  Each week passes by and the people here continue to amaze me with their kindness and strength. Two more weeks until we move back to Eldoret, I can’t believe how fast my time in Kisumu has been.

Nairobi - just like a little piece of the US

Two weekends ago Lauren and I decided to fly up to Nairobi for a weekend away and to visit our other friend from GW, also named Lauren. Because of this I will now refer to the Lauren in Kisumu as Wingo, as this is her last name and obviously more fun. So Wingo and I took a very easy and short plane ride – about 45 minutes max – to Nairobi where other Lauren’s taxi driver picked us up to bring us back to her apartment.  On the way we got stuck in horrible traffic since it was around 6 o’clock on a Friday. The only difference between what could have been DC traffic and here was that the highway apparently turns into an open marketplace when there are this many cars. There are people walking along the small spaces between lanes selling anything and everything. There were burnt cds, hats, belts, fruits, vegetables, and for all those people who need to do something to occupy their time while stuck in this horrendous traffic, rubix cubes – yeah, extremely random. So after sitting in this for about an hour we finally make it back to Lauren’s place, or should I say America. It was as if we traveled back to the States. She lives in a five story building, which is in a circle of three others. There is a pool in the middle with immaculate landscaping and walkways throughout. In her apartment she had a large living room connected to a dining area, kitchen – with an oven! – and laundry area where there was a washing machine! There were also two bedrooms and one and a half bathrooms. Wingo and I were pretty blown away. I guess when you get used to having two burners and not much else it’s the little things that get you excited. Not saying our place is bad in anyway, just Lauren’s place has it all.

Well we put the oven to good use by making sweet potato fries to add to our pasta dinner. We went out to a couple of places nearby, but this was a relatively quiet night because we had some fun plans for the next day. We got up early and were out the door with Lauren’s driver Daniel again for our day adventure. We planned to drive to Lake Naivasha, about an hour and a half away, and go to Crescent Island. Another one of our GW friends was taking an overnight bus to meet us in Nairobi for the trip but it was delayed so instead he got dropped off in Naivasha as we were arriving in the small town. We grabbed some snacks for the day and were off to the island. Once we pulled off the main road and drove down for a little there were zebras and giraffes just grazing along our pathway. After going a bit far into the brush, we found where we were supposed to park and proceeded to walk up to the large house that was occupied by the woman who owned the land of the island. There was a pretty steep fee for touring the area, but we convinced her to give us the student price even though only half of us had our IDs on us – I didn’t even bring mine to Kenya, who would have thought I would need my GW id here, I hardly even need my license.

                She was kind of a crazy older white woman who seemed to be very protective over her land and discussed with us all the changes that she has seen after living here for over thirty years. We just listened politely then went on our way. We met up with a guide who proceeded to take us along the island, walking “next to” so many different animals. There were zebras, wildebeests, water buck, and giraffes. It was so cool to have them all out there in the open. You really didn’t have to be nervous at all either because they were a lot more scared of us then we could be of them. We were walking towards this one large group of wildebeests that were sitting under a tree - there had to be close to 40 or 50 - and they all just stood up and moved away. We felt kind of bad for kicking them out of their area under the tree, but it was interesting to see them all just stand up slowly and move away without us making any sound or seem threatening in any sense. The tree they were under looked pretty cool so I decided I wanted to climb it. You will see in the pictures I just uploaded that Wingo and I were successful, but we really couldn’t move too much further up the tree then the first set of branches. We walked all along the island and saw some pretty amazing sites. The water was so very blue and the green leaves of the trees created such a dynamic scene. One more interesting part of our walk was the fact that there was a python that was seen around the area that our guide told us we could try to find. Jonathan and Wingo thought that would be cool; I was going to be totally ok if we missed the snake. Thankfully when we came upon the hole it was said to have lived in, the guide could tell that it had already buried itself inside and that it wasn’t going to come out any time soon. Darn, no ten foot snake this time. We stayed on the island for a few hours, but it was definitely time to head back to Nairobi and get ready for the fun nightlife that was ahead of us. One quick aside, we decided to stop at Daniel’s mother’s house on the way back to say hi which was totally worth it. We got to see her house and land, and very cute kitten :). His mother was very welcoming. What is so great about side trips like that is that you feel more connected to the area. We were able to hang out in a part of the town that represented how most people in Kenya live. Nairobi is very nice and all, with it's amenities, but Daniel’s mother’s place was homey and comfortable. So after a short trip to her house and the car battery dying – no worries we got to watch a seven year old hold the cables to a replacement battery while Daniel turned on the car – we made it back to Lauren’s place.

                The nightlife in Nairobi is a lot of fun. First Lauren had a bunch of people over to hang out before meeting up with others at the first bar we went to. There was one person there named Lameck, who Wingo knew from the time she spent in Bangladesh, who actually lives in Nairobi. He brought a bunch of his friends, so there was a large group of us hanging out and dancing before we moved to the next bar. It was just down the road and there were places to sit and hang out. Now something to note about bars/clubs in Nairobi, there is no such thing as “closing time.” As far as I know all, if not most, are open 24 hours. So as five o’clock (am) rolled around we decided to go. We were all obviously pretty tired at this point, so we grabbed some food and all went back to Lauren’s apartment. Thankfully we had no real plans for the next day so we woke up late and had some breakfast at a place that could double as any nice breakfast joint in the US. We decided to go downtown and see the Masaai market that had everything you could ever want from Kenya. Now this is the kind of place that you need real energy to enjoy. The second you walk in – the market is all outside, but there is a fence around it – you have someone jump to you and start becoming your best friend. I apparently was not in the proper mood for this place because the second this one guy started walking with me and telling me that I can get anything and that I can take my time, 50 billion times over and over again, my glare to him was probably not the friendliest. I have to give it this guy though because his persistence was none you would have ever seen. If anyone else got that glare they would probably have walked away, but he continued to tell me that it was ok, I can look and then give him anything I wanted to buy. We would then talk about price later. So I just kept walking, trying to ignore him even though he was like a gnat next to a light bulb. What made it even better was that his brother jumped in for the fun. So I was able to have Two people tell me about all the nice things I could get. I decided that I couldn’t fight against them anymore so I just went with it. I blame it on being tired from the night before, and tried to maintain some patience with them. I ended up finding some nice things which the three of us got to take and sit in a corner and barter with. After seeing his first price and pretty much laughing in his face, we went back and forth for what seemed like forever, or nearly 15-20 minutes, and came to something that seemed a lot more reasonable. Now who knows if I got totally ripped off, but doing the calculations in my head it didn’t seem too bad. We took all of our things back on the bus to head to Lauren’s apartment. Wingo and I threw all of our stuff in our bags and jumped in the cab back to the airport almost immediately in order to be in time for our flight.

                The weekend was so much fun and helped changed some of my perceptions about Nairobi. People like to nickname it Nairobbery, and although I know people who have gotten things taken, you just need to be aware of your surroundings and be smart. It’s a fun city, and ended up being a great weekend away that helped me feel a little like I was back at home. I will be visiting again soon I hope.

                Everyone should look forward to the next post where I meet the Obama Mama (Grandma)!

A Month Already???

So to my amazement a month has passed already. In one way, I could swear that I just got here, but in another, I already feel very comfortable here. I know it’s been a little while since my last post, but I’ve definitely been busy and because of that I think I’ve been dreading trying to fit everything into this next post, so I guess I’ll just have to write about some highlights from the past two weeks.

Jessica and I moved to Kisumu on January 24^th, so we’ve been here for just over two weeks now. Kisumu is such an awesome little city. It’s the third largest city in Kenya, but by no means would I call it all that large. There are lots of people and lots of vehicles, but it’s small enough where I’m already starting to know my way around, and if you know me at all you know it took a good year or so before I could begin to tell where I was in DC (and I still may get lost at times :)). We take tuk tuks to get around everywhere. The best way to describe these vehicles is if you picture the yellow and red plastic cars that we all had when we were little and would move around with our feet. They are shaped like that, are small, and seriously make the sound tuk tuk tuk tuk as we drive by places. Now they obviously don’t use their feet to drive it but they do have handle bars to direct where we go. They are a cheap way to get to and from all the places we need to go. We have one main driver who brings us to most of the places around town. We see him at least once every day on our very early drive to the gym. Yes, the gym. Lauren and I signed up for a gym here for the month because we were eating too much chapatti and chips (fries). Everything is fried in vegetable oil so gaining weight, surprisingly enough, is not hard to do in Africa. We get picked up by Sammy at 6:15am everyday and are driven back at 7:45am so we can shower and get ready in time for the bus to bring us to work in the morning. A note about the gym, remember how I talked about Javin, the bodybuilder from Eldoret, well, by joining the gym in Kisumu we have made more bodybuilder friends. Who knew that I would go to Kenya and know at least three bodybuilders by the end? The funny thing is that one of them, Victor, said he was a body builder and I was like oh, we met one in Eldoret, his name is Javin. And he was like, I know Javin, he came in second and I came in first in our competition (last I recall I think Javin said the opposite but I let it go, no need to argue with someone’s whose neck is bigger than your leg). The best part was that the next day he wanted to show me pictures from the competition. He had a pic of the four finalists which Javin was a part of. Victor asked me to point him out and thankfully I was able to differentiate between them all. But just wait - he also had his solo pics. And I was thinking the entire time, look at his face, look at his face, look at his face. Do you know how tiny those teeny weenie bikinis are in body building competitions?! Well I flipped through very quickly and was like uh huh, good job. Good job? What do you say to pictures like that? Well I was then thankfully able to go with Lauren in another room to finish our workout for the day. Man oh man, Kenya just continues to throw interesting stuff my way.

                So enough about the gym, I have to go into the stories that have to do with why I am actually here. Since Jessica and I were in Eldoret for two weeks first and Lauren was in Kisumu those first two weeks, we have relied somewhat on her to show us around initially. She has made some amazing contacts with community health workers (CHWs) and we have been able to build on those friendships. Some of the best days I’ve had here in the past two weeks are with a CHW named Steve – Dad, you will be happy about the name, Mom, you will probably tell everyone that “there is a Steve in Kenya! What are the chances?!” He can’t be more than 20 years old, but I swear he looks twelve. He grew up in Nyalenda (the slum we will be surveying at some point in Kisumu), and currently still lives there. He is so sweet and is more than eager to take us around the area and show us anything that we would like to see. The first day that we went, the most poignant person we visited was a traditional birth attendant (TBA). TBAs could be thought of as midwives, but are actually more than that. The woman we visited, Mama Esse, takes care of many many women in the area. She provides prenatal care, advice, and general knowledge of what should be done during pregnancy, delivery and after. We got to see the area where she delivers the babies, which is in the room adjacent to her living room. We lift the cloth that falls in the doorway and there are two beds and a cement floor. This is it; now I am not surprised by any means because I have seen these huts many times now, but to know that just the night before there was a woman screaming in this room, lying on the cement floor giving birth (the beds are used for the women after they deliver to rest) is certainly something to imagine. What was amazing to see is that Mama Esse does have a small bin with cotton pads and gauze, a pair of surgical scissors, a few individually packed cord clamps, a uterotonic drug (to reduce postpartum hemorrhaging) that she claims to use on every delivery, and a box of gloves. She uses the money she collects from these women in order to buy these materials. Now I may be a bit biased but I think the government should absolutely be providing all of this for her, especially since she has probably saved hundreds of lives over these past ten years as the most trusted woman in the area to make the deliveries. You might be asking though, that if there is an emergency what can she do on a cement floor? She refers these women to the hospital if she knows that she cannot take care of them. Also, any woman who is HIV positive is referred to the hospital. So there are certain cases where she knows that she is not the proper person to be handling them. Mama Esse is a wonderful woman though, and Lauren and I are hoping that we can find some of the medical equipment that she needs and provide her with as much as possible for the future.

                I also need to talk about my favorite clinic that we visited in Nyalenda that day. This has to be one of the most ironic things I’ve seen in Kenya so far (and there has been a lot). The name of the clinic is Gods Will Clinic and guess what it specializes in? Family planning. I talked to the woman that was at the front counter about everything they offer and I was so excited about all the services that they had. We discussed: birth control - the pill vs. the injection (20 bob per month, 100 bob for 3 months, respectively) and the emergency pill (100 bob); HIV/AIDS testing; CHWs promoting these services in the field; and whether men accompany their wives to the clinic. I guess it’s good that I feel completely comfortable about discussing all of this openly and was able to get so much information from her. So in regards to the birth control, women will come in to take the pill, but more women opt for the injection because it lasts for 3 months. The pill is 20 bob per month – bob is the short way of saying shillings (they were a colony of Britain) and 20 bob would be about 25 cents. Can anyone in the US imagine a month pack of birth control for 25 cents? So that was exciting to see that women can come in and get this for such a small amount of money. The injection is 100 bob total for the 3 months. The emergency pill or what we could call Plan B, is also 100, so it is more expensive for a one time thing, but still affordable at about $1.25. The CHWs promote their services throughout Nyalenda in order to make sure the families have the proper family planning in order to keep everyone healthy. And of course I always ask about the man’s role in all of this. Understanding that the role of the man here is still pretty traditional it is somewhat understandable that they would not want to participate in this. Ideas are changing though and the men are being promoted to become more involved in the family planning process, which is great to see. The woman at the desk said that she has seen more men come in with their wives to make these decisions together. So overall this clinic definitely brought me some hope that people are becoming educated in how to keep themselves safe and healthy.

                I want to talk about one more visit that we had last week – I’ll have to write about more in the next post, since each day we get to see more and more amazing people in the town and it could probably take up ten pages if I wrote them all down now. We went with Steve to go see an herbalist in Nyalenda. He is also the village elder and very well respected throughout the area. This being said he lives about as far as you can go in Nyalenda and almost on top of Lake Victoria. It was a good hike through the brush and so much more interesting to walk through then the through the little city of Kisumu, since there is so much more culture to run into along the way. We passed by so many children who, in school, all learn to say one thing by heart, “Hello Mzungo, how are you, I am fine,” all in one breath. It is said with the best diction and to a beat that I wish I could better explain, but it is priceless each time. We respond, sometimes in Swahili sometimes in English, knowing that they will laugh at us whenever we respond in Swahili. So we finally reach the herbalist. The herbalist’s name is Lawrence and doesn’t know a word of English, so Steve became our translator. We sat down in his hut and began asking him about how he became an herbalist. He said that he worked in masonry up until age 30 when one night spirits came to him telling him about how he could help treat people. From that night on he decided to be an herbalist. He said that a lot of times when people come in with one ailment or another he will have to wait on diagnosing them because he has to sleep on it and wait to see what the spirits tell him to give them the next day. We politely shake our heads up and down and say ok. There cannot be any judgment here. This is the way they have done it for centuries and we are here to learn about the methods that so many people in this area come for - but we can then go home and talk about how there is no way that that tree bark is curing gonorrhea (I’ll get to that part in a minute). Lawrence leaves the hut and about five minutes later brings us a platter full of branches, leaves, bark, brown liquid, and other sorts of things. We go through what each one does and how to ingest it. There was one leaf for an upset stomach, another to cure a cough, a root to help with other intestinal problems, and of course the brown juice which was mixed from all sorts of things to cure gonorrhea and syphilis. We proceed to ask how effective this was and he assured us that after a glass of this in the morning and a glass at night it would be cured. We said ok. If only the US knew about this special juice I’m sure that healthcare would save a lot of money… as long as it didn’t put you in the hospital for all the worms and other bugs that you just ingested. Sadly he didn’t offer us any to try, so I can’t describe it to anyone, but that could be best for us all. We were at his place for almost an hour, but before leaving I asked Lawrence if he had any questions for us. He was most interested in whether the US used any plants like this to help treat people. My initial thought was hell no, but then thinking about it further we actually do. We just put it in a different packaging since Americans won’t pick up a tree branch and munch on it - silly Americans. He was pretty amazed to hear that we do actually incorporate some plants medicinally, such as aloe and Echinacea. It was a pretty cool transfer of cultural norms.

I’m having a great time here in Kisumu and have so many more stories to share. I truly cannot believe it’s already been a month and hope that the time starts slowing down for these next three months ahead because there is so much more I want to experience. One more amazing thing about being here is the depth of knowledge that people have about politics in every other country. I have never felt more involved in world politics than I have in Kenya. I encourage everyone to read about what is happening in Egypt, and around Northern Africa and the Middle East. There are so many changes that will be occurring in the near future and it makes sense for everyone to be informed. That’s it for now, I hope to be updating this more often from now on!

Look Ma No Hands!

[WARNING: If you are my mom, you may experience slight numbness in your left arm and shortness of breath after reading the following post. Proceed with caution.]

This weekend can only be summed up as the most terrifyingly amazing weekend I’ve ever had. Let’s start it off with the drive from Eldoret to Kisumu (both in Kenya) then to Jinja, Uganda. This would have gone a bit more smoothly if an incident with a bus didn’t just go from Kenya to Uganda  a week ago, so it took us an hour and a half when it should have taken about ten minutes. We had to get out and get stamped for exiting Kenya and exchange money with someone who printed out a nametag for himself that called him a “Money Collector.” We are friends with our tour guide – remember Jay? – so he got us a good exchange rate. They still had to check the car over and over since it was new and then of course we parked in an area we couldn’t get out of since a truck parked behind it and was getting filled up with sacks of stuff. But eventually we got out of Kenya, drove across to Uganda, and got out again to get our stamp for entering Uganda. So finally we were on our way to Jinja where the real adventures would begin.

                We got in around 4:30 (hoping to get there closer to 3:00, oh well) and entered the campsite where we would be taking the buses for our white water rafting trip down the Nile! This adventure wouldn’t begin until tomorrow though, so we just got a few beers with three other friends that we were meeting there and grabbed some dinner in the campsite that we were staying. This was the easy day. We walked around the site a bit, which was amazing. It was all built into the side of a mountain that faced the Nile. There was a long walkway that led to a small beach. The dinner/restaurantish place in the camp looked out over the water as well, which was so cool to see. We all hung out there for a few hours, but knowing the adventure would begin bright and early the next morning, we headed to bed kind of early.

                There were four of us that were going so we got up with the ring of the alarm, threw on our bathing suits, and other layers – thankfully someone we knew went the day before and told us to put on longer layers because the sun was pretty brutal out there. We jumped on the bus with about 40 others and were on our way. Now to give you a bit of a background, we went this weekend because Jessica’s brother, who is in the Peace Corps in Uganda, was going with 30-40 others. If you want to take a time machine back to the 60s hang out with about 30 Peace Corps guys and girls, it’s a trip, no pun intended. So we were off in our rickety, open air bus thing to where we would take off in our rafts. We got a group of 6 together, the four of us plus Jessica’s brother and a random guy who was not part of the Peace Corps. We got sent off with Henry, our fearless driver of the raft. He did not talk much – even with my prodding of questions and general chit chat – but he did an awesome job of directing our tube. So to get the best picture of the trip down the Nile you’ll have to check out all the pics that I downloaded and at some point a video – which I will never be able to upload because of the internet signal, but believe me the flips are amazing on it – but I’ll give some highlights. We went over 11 Class 3 to 5 rapids with some Class 1 and 2 rapids intermingled throughout. Henry gave us some instructions as to what we should be expecting and what we should be doing when going down these rapids, but as someone who has never white water rafted down anything - unless tubing down a tiny river in the back of my house in CT counts – showing is nothing like doing. So he had us jump out of the tube, he flipped over the tube and all the rest, so we could kinda see what could happen. With what was apparently enough instruction, we were on our way and a class 5 was first. There were three important instructions, paddle forward, paddle hard forward, and get down! I was very good at the get down one. At that point you lay your paddle across the outside of the raft and hold on to the rope around the tube, while ducking inside of the tube – better to just see the pics. I’m the one in the light pink helmet with the light gray shirt on. It’s kind of hard to spot me because I was on the wrong side of the camera most times, probably better this way since I know I had a look of panic on my face at all times. So the first two rapids were terrifying but so much fun. It’s like you are zooming down the river then crashing into a wall of water, the tube taking it over, then crashing into more until the water calms down. Very cool.

Mom skip this paragraph: So I can say that I only thought I was going to die once, which I think is pretty good when there are 11 very big and fast rapids to overcome. Ironically it was a Class 3, which was wrongly named 50/50. I would like to call it 90/10. This is because I would say 90% of the boats that tried going over ended up flipping. We were one of the unlucky ones. We went over a part and then a big wall just pushed us over. Now this would have been all fine and dandy if I popped back up, but no, I was under water to the point that I thought to myself, hmmm am I getting above the water at some point? Breathing would be nice right now. And then I finally did, and then more water whooshed over me, but of course, they know this happens all the time so there are a lot of guys in kayaks all around us which I immediately swam over to and grabbed on to the handle on the top of it. He brought me back over to the raft where 3 people were and Henry. Two of the girls got swept away and another raft pulled them up onto it. We saw them again a little while later. So yeah that was kinda scary, but you never feel better than that first breath you get after being under for awhile.

 So the rest of the time was crazy, but exhilarating. One of my favorite rapids had to be the waterfall we went over. It was a class five and looking down on it, it looked like there was no way we were going to get over. It was called Overtime, correctly named as it was 3 and a half meters up so roughly tenish feet. This may not seem too high if you are looking from flat ground but when you are going over it in a raft it’s a different story. There are some awesome pics of it in the photo gallery.

 It’s really hard to describe the exhilarating feeling you have going through each and every rapid as you think you could inevitably get flipped, but instead you just barrel through with mountains of water rocketing in your way. The entire trip down the Nile lasted almost 6 hours, so there was a lot of downtime. My arms are still a little sore from all the rowing we did. We also got to jump out of the raft during the down times and swim. So you then have to think to yourself while floating in the water, “hey, I’m floating in the Nile, this is unreal.” What made it even better was everyone got to the side of their tube and flipped off into the water. I don’t know the last time I flipped off of a boat, but I couldn’t miss a chance to do it again, so I climbed up and flipped away. Man, it’s fun to flip into water. Well the adventure for the day was done and we took the rickety bus 40 minutes back to camp. We got an awesome bbq and two drink tickets to celebrate the day’s adventure. Some of us explored around the site and then watched the video they made for us – I’m hoping I get a copy that is supposed to circulate around at some point. So many boats flipped through the course of the day, which made it a lot of fun to watch after the fact. You know, always fun to watch terrifying events after they occur. We hung out a bit more before bed. Now, there is one other thing in this area that a lot of people do, but I wasn’t sure if there was going to be enough time. I also heard that a couple of Peace Corps people were going to go, so I talked with Jay and he hooked it up for the morning.

Mom, you will probably want to skip this paragraph too. What did Jay set up the night before? Why did I not get a lot of sleep that night??? Because I was getting up early to go bungee jumping!!! Yes I am one of those crazy people that if the opportunity arises will do scary stuff that human beings were never meant to do. So I got up after a restless night feeling very nauseous, butterflies flying all around my stomach. I found the two guys I talked to the night before who were getting the other Peace Corps people together and we were already to go. Since we needed to get back to Kisumu as soon as I jumped, I was told to go first. I set up Lauren (the other GW person) and Jay to take pics and video tape the crazy experience. Jessica came up to the top of the plank to take pictures. I’m not sure what to call it, but plank kinda sounds appropriate. The other 5 Peace Corps people came out on the plank too. You’ll see in the pics the process of getting situated in since Jess did an awesome job of taking pictures of all the steps leading to my jump. It’s hard to describe the feelings up to the actual jump, but for anyone who has done it before, the anticipation before the jump is not a good feeling. I had the rope all tied on to my ankles – which consisted of a blue towel and some blue cinch cord – which the actual bungee clipped on to. The guy doing it said it was a Kikuyu tradition and it was 100% safe. I said uh-huh and got up to start my slow trek to the edge. I had to mini jump to one part and then shuffle the rest of the way to the edge. One of the pics caught exactly what I was feeling by showing my toes curled around that edge. I had to put my hands up to a bar to steady myself and prepare to go. When I was ready I was told to lower my arms and say out loud that I’m ready. Lowering my arms from the bar was very difficult, I probably put them back up 3 times, but thankfully everyone was very patient. Then the guy that was leading the whole thing told me he would say 1, 2, 3, bungee! And then I was to jump out like I was doing a belly flop. So he said 1, 2, 3, bungee and I said wait what, no! I apparently was not ready just yet. So we had to try one more time.  There was one point that I really did not know if I was going to be able to do it. Thankfully being a stubborn enough person that would never let me live it down for turning around, I sucked it up and the next time I heard 1... 2... 3... BUNGEE! I leapt into the air. Not sure if I completely remember the whole falling part, but it was crazy amazing. I swan dived with the Nile beneath me and the second I sprung back up it couldn’t have felt better. Then I got to bounce a bunch of times before being lowered a little to the boat below. There were two men there to get me. I grabbed onto one of the paddles and lied down in the boat. Yelling and cheering all around me, it was a feeling that you can only have after jumping into nothingness I guess. Go bungee jump, then you will know how I felt. Terror to excitement in a split second, utter craziness.

 So we hopped on the road back to Kenya (border crossing a million times better), leaving behind experiences that I can never relive in those exact moments. It was truly amazing. Each weekend passes and is better than the previous… what’s next?

(Mom, nothing is next, don’t worry about it.)