There's alot to report for a week that feels like its flown by.

Two of our clients- Vincent and Priscilla- needed ultrasounds before they could come to the clinic in Eldoret with us in November, so I played babysitter Tuesday for the kids while at Kakamega Provincial Hospital. After wait for a good half hour (quick by Kenyan standards) we were all called into the examine room by the doctor who took one look at Priscilla and exclaimed she was too big to have an ultra sound of her head. She has hydrocephallus and the docs at Eldoret wanted an ultra sound of the ventricals in her brain. She's absolutly tiny- a year and a half but about the size of an eight month old. As usual, the doctors assumed I was a doctor/ nurse/ physical therapist and proceded to do the procedure on Priscilla just to prove it wouldn't work. Now I have to take her to Moi Teaching and Referal Hospital later this month so she can have a CT scan. Vincents ultra sound of his kidneys and bladder was sucessful, even though he screamed through the whole thing. I don't think I convinced the doctor that I was not in the medical profession, however, b/c he gave me the results of the procedure in words only a nurse/ doctor would understand. Oh well...as long as the docs at Eldoret understand, thats all we need.

Tuesday was Kenyatta Day...the birthday of Kenya's first president Jomo Kenyatta. It also meant Tom and I didn't have work, so we headed to Kisumu for a day trip. There is an AMAZING craft market there that has the best prices I've seen in Kenya. And everyone at their shops are hand making the things that they're selling. I bought almost everything I need for the Christmas holidays for less than $60 USD. We also went out to their airport to buy plane tickets for Kate and Kiirsten (his girlfriend) who are flying to Kisumu together in December. I'm so excited for Kate to get her, and October has flown by. After a few other errands, we took one of the nicest matatus I've ever been in (no stops between Kisumu and Malava, less than two hours to get home).

Thursday was our meeting to review the findings of the consultants who came to SJC a few weeks ago. In standard Kenya fashion, the meeting started an hour late, took three hours and was more preaching the reviewing. We went point by point through each of the strengths and challenges of the program while also going off on wild tangents and having disagreements about almost everything. By the end, I was so burned out I wasn't even really paying attention to the suggested reforms. The consultant made some really excellent points on how to improve the program, but I just think he didn't spend enough time at the center to really get a feel for us. Which isn't his fault, he was hired only for a week, but I still felt like the whole thing could have gone better. At one point he listed poor staff commitment to the program as a challenge, which I throughly disagrees with. Our staff is small, but each of us is fully committed to realizing the vision of SJP.

Tom and I promised Pst. Jairus (a community based rehab worker for SJC) that we would come to visit the school where his wife is the head teacher again so we could sit in on some of the classes. We went a few months back to meet the kids, but this morning we headed out a little earlier to see the teachers in action. The school is very small, but they're working hard to expand it. Right now they just have nursery thru class 4, but are hoping to add class five next year. To do that, they're need new classroom space, new land to expand the school, new teachers and new text books. Everyone there is working so hard, but like so many schools here, its drastically underfunded. If this sounds like a project you might like to help out with, I can put you in contact with Pst. Jairus. Check my picasa page and Tom's blog for pictures.

So thats what's been going on. The sisters are all in Nairobi this weekend, so Katie and I have the place to ourselves. The pump for the water turned out to be defective, so there's not running water again until we get a new one. I've found a way to prep myself for cold bucket showers. I put on my ipod in my room and dance like a fool until I'm hot enough that a cold shower feels good. I look forward to the return of running water. Tom and I are going to Karunga to visit Lauren and Krist (the other CMMB volunteers) next weekend- including a Kenyan toga/ halloween party. It should be a ton of fun and we'll get to see a part of Kenya we havn't seen yet. Looks forward to new pictures.