Sue's African Adventures

just a quick note

2009-12-19T13:25:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone!

I promise to put up pictures from Kate's trip soon, but I just wanted to say I got home safely. Thanks to everyone who followed my blog this year and to everyone who made my year in Kenya one of the best of my life.

The long journey home

2009-12-17T08:31:00.000-08:00

Well considering I have about 15 more hours to kill on my layover in Belgium, I thought i'd blog about my vacation with Kate. Hopefully she'll agree to guest blog about her impression of Kenya when I get home.
Anways, she and Kiirsten arrived in Kenya safely late last Tuesday night and Tom and I picked them from the airport n Kisumu on Wed. morning. Kate only got to spend about 24 hours in Malava, but she said it was her favority part of the trip.
Friday morning we headed down to Kisumu where we parted ways with Tom and Kiirsten. Kate and I wandered around Kisumu and took a long walk so she could see the Lake. Saturday we took the bus to Nairobi instead of flying b/c Kate wanted to seethe Rift Valley. By Saturday night we were in Mombasa. We stayed at the Castle Royal again and after a very long day of traveling, we enjoyed live music and cool beers. Sunday I took Kate for a tour around Old Town Mombasa and then headed to our hotel in Diani beach. We strolled on the beach, but not for long. The Beach boys were being very aggressive (people say its gotten worse b/c the tourist season is slow). Our hotel in Diani was lovely. It wasn't beach from, but right across the street. We had a pool and an air conditioned room- which is really all you need. The staff was so attentive and courteous. We spent most of our time either lounging by the pool or swimming in the ocean, although we did manage to get up early for a half day safari in Shimba Hills National Reserve. The pictures will be up soon- but we saw lots of cool animals. We hiked down to a water hall with two older Scottish gentlemen, saw giraffes right next to our car and a whole family of elepants walking back from a bath.
We decided to take the train back from Mombasa and arrived in Nairobi with just enought time to wander around downtown (although I got us lost and we ended up in a bad part of town I'd never been to before), get cleaned up and have one last dinner with the sisters in Nairobi. But when we got to the airport, our flight has been delayed for two hours. We didn't end up leaving until almost 3 in the morning, but Kate managed to make her connecting flight home today. I am still in Brussels, enjoying a very cushy hotel room and avoid the three inches of snow on the ground outside.

World Day for Disabled

2009-12-06T02:46:00.001-08:00

There are new pics up on my picasa page from out World Day for Disabled Celebration on Thursday. It was a TON of work, but I think everything went pretty well. It was certainly worth it, seeing all our clients together, having fun.
This is my last weekend in Malava and my house has been taken over by teenage girls. There are like 30 aspiring sisters here this weekend for workshops. Needless to say, my quiet little home is not to tranquil right now. I'm looking forward to having my space back to myself tomorrow.
This is also the last week at St. Julie's. We have a ton of end of the year wrap up stuff to do, like taking toy inventories. Hopefully that well help me keep my mind off the fact that I'm SUPER excited for Kate to get here. She leaves the states tomorrow morning, but won't be here in Malava until Wed. After a short 24 hour visit in Malava, we're off for a whirlwind 8 day vacation around Kenya, and then its back to the states next week. I recently discovered that I read my itinerary wrong for the flight home and I have a 26 hour layover in Brussels. Initially I was really frustrating, but now I'm kind of excited. I've never been anywhere in Europe before, so I'm going to walk around, enjoy the architecture, have some waffles and drink some of the best beer in Europe. I'll be back in Cincinnati (back to winter!) on Friday December 18th.

Kenyan Thanksgiving

2009-11-28T06:26:00.000-08:00

Sorry everyone. I know I've been delinquent about blogging. Life has been so so busy the last few weeks. We had a ton of work to do for the parent meeting a few weeks ago and since then we've been getting ready for World Day for Disabled which is next Thursday and of course, all the cooking for our Kenyan Thanksgiving. So in lieu of writing everything out, I put up a ton of new pictures. There's an album from Katie's going away party. She left two weeks ago Monday and will be spending some quality time with her family before going back to Nigeria in January. She does have to fund raise again...so if you're interested in helping her out, you can contact her from her blog "How Did I Get Here" which is in my blog list.
The other album is a compilations from our St. Julie staff outing at the Kitale Nature Conservancy, the St. Julie parents meeting and play day, our Kenyan Thanksgiving and of course, Tom and Micheal's barely month old puppies. The staff outing was alot of fun, although a little sad. The place has a home for disabled animals, which I thought would be animals that were injured but were infact animals born with disfiguring birth defects. The parenst play day was also alot of fun...mostly b/c I had to most popular play station. Kenyan adults loved to learn how to play spud.
Finally, our Thanksgiving was a HUGE sucess. Tom and Micheal did the Turkey, cranberry sauce, mashed potatoes, gravy and hosted. I was in charge of everything that needed to be baked in an over- so I made green bean cassarole, stuffing, apple crisp and pumpkin pie, from an actual pumpkin I bought from the market. I have to say, I'm pretty proud of myself, and the boys. Despite all the adjustments that needed to be made cooking Thanksgiving the Kenyans ingredients, things came out delicious! I'm especially proud of my pumpkin pie. I'd never made pie crust, let alone the inside from a real pumpkin. I wasn't there for the slaughtering of the turkey, although I'm sure Tom will have pictures up on his picasa page. Anyways, we enjoyed the day with a selection of Sisters from both communities, some St. Julie people and Hezbon from Tumaini (and of course Shinzi and her puppies!). As sad as I was to miss Thanksgiving with my American family, it was a really wonderful meal with my Kenyans friends.
Kate will be in Kenya in a week and a half and I'll be back in the states just in time for Christmas. I'm so sad to be leaving this wonderful place that has been my home for almost 11 months, but i'm also very excited to see my friends and family (not to mention have access to a microwave and washing machine again!).

Whirlwind international trip

2009-11-10T05:06:00.000-08:00

Well Tom and I arrived back safely in Malava on Sunday after an amazing trip to Uganda and Rwanda. There's a ton to tell, but let me begin with these three points:
1) My dad was right about it always being helpful to have a handkerchief with you. In this case, it helped when it started raining inside of our bus.
2) If you're going to go to Rwanda, consider learning a few words in Kinyarwanda or at least French. Knowing English did us almost no good.
3) The best way to see a new city is from the back of a motorcycle.

So anyways, Tom and I left last Tuesday and crossed the boarder at Busia and got into Kampala around 8:30. We had no idea where to stay, so I asked the taxi man and he took us to "the place where all the mzungus like you go". He was right. Backpackers Hostel is this strange little hippy oasis for European indenpendant travelers. But the price was right, the food was good and the beer was cold. We spent a day in Kampala, wandering around the city, and then down to Entebbe for lunch on the lake. Kampala is a beautiful city. Uganda all around is better maintained than any city I've been in in Kenya.
Having seen what we wanted in Kampala, Thursday morning we got on a bus bound for Kigali. A ride that was said to be 8 hours ended up being around 10, but it was beautiful. I think Rwanda is the most beatuiful place I've ever been. Southern Uganda goes from these brillant green hills to these rolling mountains, over the boarder into Rwanda. We got there as it started to rain, so the mist was rolling in over the tops of the hills. The bottom of the valley was covered in neon green tea fields. I could have stared out the window forever. But just as it got dark, the hillsides became covered in lights. Kigali is a city sprawled out over the sides of the hills. It was so beautiful. We got off the bus however into what felt like pure chaos. It was raining hard and cold and it was so hard to find a cab, considering we didn't speak a language that the people around us spoke. I only knew the name of one hotel so when we finally took a cab there, we found it was $90 a night. We learned very quickly that Kigali is an expensive city. We obviously couldn't spend that kind of money, so we bargained them down to $50. They ended up having a wonderful chef with inexpensive food and good beer. I realized on this trip that Kenya got the short end of the stick from the East African brewing company. All the good beers are in Rwanda and Uganda.
Anyways, we spent all of Friday in Kigali. We were planning on going to the Parc du Volcans (?) on Saturday, but when we found out the boarder crossing into Uganda was only opened from 7 am to 7pm, we had to scrap it. I'm very disappointed we didn't make it, but Kigali alone was worth the trip. After securing bus tickets back to Kampala for the next day and checking into a less expensive hotel, we headed out to the genocide memorial. I have to say, I think it was one of the most intense experiences in my short life. Its amazingly well done. The outside of the museuam is a series of symbolic gardens and 15 mass graves where 300,000 of the genocide victims are buried. The memorial opened ten years after the genocide and people brought the reamins of their loved ones from all over the country to be buried there. I couldn't bring myself to photograph them, but I did take pictures of the beautiful gardens. The inside is set up in three sections. The first a a historical time line, going from colonialism to the aftermath. It was facinating...I learned so much I'd never known before, and I feel like I've read alot about it. The second section wa about other genocides from around the world- including Armenia, Namibia, the Holocaust and Serbia. It was interesting and well done and I was especially interested in the sections on Armenia and Nambia, which I knew little about. The final section is devoted to the children victims of the genocide. The rooms were filled with wall to ceiling photos of children who had been targeted and killed with plaques about their favorite things, their last words, what they saw and how they died. The Hutus specifically targeted children and women to ensure that the Tutsis couldn't continue into future generations. I practically ran through the whole exhibit- it was just too overwhelming. Kigal is a strange place to be after being at the memorial. Its like a haunted city. The president, Paul Kagame, has worked very hard to unite one Rwanda, but it still strange to look at Rwandas and wonder how the genocide affected their lives.
I could have spent a lot more time in Kigali, but we had a long journey back to Kenya, so we hopped on a bus back ot Kampala at 5:45 am, hoping to be back in Kampala by around 3 and make it back over the Kenya boarder before we found a place to stay. That did not happen. Firstly, the boarder crossing back into Uganda took like three hours. There were a bunch of other Americans on our bus (which is REALLY rare) so we chatted in line with a guy who had been on fellowship in Rwanda, working for the ministry of finance. There was also a group of college kids studying abroad in Kampala with the School of International Training. Finally we're back in Uganda, about half of the way back to Kampala and it starts pouring down rain. Then I feel it raining on me and sure enough, the window isn't sealed correctly. Sprinkles turn into pouring so I do my best to stuff the whole with a handkerchief, wringing it out every few minutes. Mean while, the hatch in the top of the bus isn't closed properly, so its pouring down on Tom and several other people as well. Tom rigged up my kikoi, which I had been using as a blanket, and it helped some, but mostly we just sat and got rained on. At least it was a break from the heat. So the 2:30 bus finally arrived in Kampala at 6, and we took motorcycles back to Backpackers for one final night. We got a bus going back to Busia in the morning- althought the bus did not end up going to Busia at all. The conductor took our money and let us ride all the way to Mbale, almost 100 kms out of the way, before making us get off the bus , putting us in a very overcrowded matatu and sending us to cross the boarder at Malaba instead of Busia. As luck would have it however, we happened to be crossing the boarder right as a guy from Austria working in Nairobi was crossing- in his own car. He and the girl- she was Slovenia- he was traveling with stopped and offered to give us a ride since they were going through Eldoret to get to Nairobi. They took us as far as Kaburgenia (about 20 kms north of Malava) and wouldn't take any gas money from us. It was luxurious after the crowded bus and matatu and they told us about the work they were doing in Nairobi (he works on water sanitation projects for the World Bank, she's working on her PhD in Art Anthropology). We finally arrives back in Malava on Sunday afternoon.
The next 4 weeks are crazy busy. Katie heads back to the states next Monday. We have a ton of meetings for the center, including planning for World Day for Disabled, a staff outing and an epilepsy clinic. Kate will be in Malava in less than a month and I'll be back on US soil five weeks from Thursday. Its all ending so quickly, I'm trying to savor the little time I have left.
Pictures from the Uganda/ Rwanda trip will go up today, so check the picasa page. Tom already posted his, so you can check out his blog as well.

2009-10-29T10:36:00.000-07:00

Its been kind of a sad week. Another client died, and while its terrible when ever any child dies, this one hit close to home. His name was Kevin and not even a year old. I'd been to his house, taken him to the clinic. He came to therapy almost every week. And his story is so sad. His parents are super young- his dad is away at secondary school, his mother is 16. Her parents kicked her out when they found out she was pregnant and she was living with the dad's parents. But mostly, its sad b/c he died from neglect and it was completly preventable. And in some ways, I feel like St. Julie's is partially at fault. While I was going over his file, I found the reports from his Community Based Rehab Worker and each of the last four visits said that the child was too ill to do anything. I just wish someone had alerted us to his condition. We could have provided him with help at the hospital or food. But we didn't know, so we couldn't do anything about it.
Next week Tom and I are headed out of Kenya. The center is closed on Wed and Thurs so we're using 5 days off to see Uganda and Rwanda. It'll be whirlwind, but I'm so excited to have a chance to see more of East Africa and quadruple the number of stamps in my passport. Expect a long entry and pictures sometime after the trip.
Unfortunately, we had to cancel the trip to Karunga this weekend. We'll miss partying with Americans, but we're going to have a smaller version with all our Malava friends on Saturday. I still don't have a costume, but I have one more day to figure it out.

2009-10-23T06:28:00.000-07:00

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.

Water wate everywhere...

2009-10-15T08:08:00.000-07:00

I have reached a new level of excited. After a month(to the day) of having no running water at all, I got the heads up from Sr. Katherine today that not only could we use water in the taps, but we could also use high volume things like the shower and flushing to toilet. There are no words to express how happy I am. I have been bathing my self from a bucket of cold (sometimes warm if I wanted to spend the time to boil water before hand) water for 30 days now. I finally get to take a real shower.
I think today is just an example of how crazy different my life is here. I can't remember a day (expect for camping trips) when I did have the option of clean running water. As I exclaimed my excitement at work today about the opportunity for a shower, I realized there are a ton of people here that I see every day who have never taken what I think of as a shower in their whole lives. More over, I know lots of people who have never lived in a home with running water, let alone clean water you can drink right out of the taps. It just makes me think, for the millionth time this year, how much I take for granted at home.

2009-10-13T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was another Kenyan first, but not a happy one. The nightwatchman for St. Julie's Center passes away over the weekend and we went to his burial yesterday. It was actually not that different from a US memorial service in content. We got to his home (actually it was the home of his second wife, there was some confusion because he has had three wives) and paid our respects. His coffin (covered in bright red velour) was propped up in his bed frame with one of his widows sitting next to it. After greeting her and the women from St. Julie's singing a Swahili song, we joined the hundreds of other mourners sitting around the yard and listened while a variety of people talked about Samuel. It was mostly people from his church, the African Holy Spirit, but Grace got up and spoke for St. Julie's. Apparently they wanted all of us to greet the crowd, but we didn't understand b/c everything was in Luhya and Swahili. Thank god, I don't think I could have stood in front of that many people and spoken in a language I barely know. After being squeezed on a narrow wooden bench in the encroaching equatorial sun for and hour and a half, we were invited to join the hosts for lunch. There were obviously grades of food people got and most were having tea and ugali, but we were asked into the house for rice, goat and sodas. It was a learning experience, and like so many other times here, I wish I understood the language better. Then I would have known all the nice things people were saying about Samuel. But the truth is that most of it was in Luhya which I don't even try to understand beyond greetings.

Looks like we'll be going to Karungu to visit the other CMMB volunteers Lauren and Kristy for Halloween. Apparently there is a Kenyan style toga party that weekend. We're all really looking forward to it!

2009-10-07T08:50:00.000-07:00

There hasn't been a whole lot going on, but here's a quick update.
Life at St. Julie Center has taken on two new additions- professional consultants. They'll be here for the whole week, assessing how productive we are as an organization. They're meeting with our board, community members, local churches and medical professions, children, parents and of course the staff. We had our meeting this afternoon- me, Tom, Angela and Grace had a chance to sit down with them and answer some questions about how we influence the program and what we think about how to sustain the program. For a meeting in Kenya, it was pretty quick. The whole process was initiated by the leadership of the SND's, so I'm hoping that the report that put together says good things.
Life otherwise has been pretty uneventful. I seem to have recovered full from the most recent battle with malaria. Here's hoping I'm done with it for good. Next weekend we have a staff outing for St. Julie's center, although we still haven't all agreed as a group where to go. Later this month we'll head to Kisumu for an overnight (probably for the last time) to buy vacation plane tickets and enjoy being in a city. Its hard to believe its October and in just a little more than two months I'll be back in the states. Kate comes to Kenya on December 8th and I'm so excited. Its going to be wonderful to be able to share my life for the past year with someone from home.

Happy birthday to Laura and Stacy!

2009-09-25T08:58:00.000-07:00

Well I was afraid this would happen sooner or later. Looks like I have malaria for a third time. Its not too bad, but they decided to treat it this time with quinine (the stuff they put in tonic water to make it bitter). The side effects may actually be worse than the malaria. It makes me really dizzy and leaves that tonic water bitter taste in my mouth. But the weirdest thing is that I feel like my ears are stuffed with cotton and they're ringing like I just left a night club. But hopefully this will be it. Quinine is apparently very effective at getting rid of malaria that is other wise drug resistant. I surely hope so!
Otherwise there's not much going on out here in Malava. Things have been quiet at St. Julie's since we got back from our Nairobi vacation. We have a staff outing and teaching Kenyans about Halloween to look forward to in October- and if anyone wants to send us candy, that would be awesome!

2009-09-13T11:22:00.000-07:00

I realize thats its been a while since I posted last and I want to let everyone know I did get back safely to Malava a week ago. Vacation was really nice, but it made me realize I'm so happy I wasn't placed to do my service in Nairobi. First of all, its really expensive (at least when you make as little money as we do). Secondly, there are lots of places where you can really forget you're in Kenya. One night I went to see a movie and while waiting for Tom and Michael to get out of the movie they were seeing, I sat and read my book at a nice little coffee shop in a mall. I realized that I could have been anywhere at home, doing the same thing. It was nice to get back to our little community where everything moves a little slower.
Last Saturday we went and saw my friend Lucy take her first vows as a sister of Notre Dame and celebrated with three other sisters who were celebrating their golden jubilee (50 years). The whole thing was great- full of music, dancing and great food like most Kenyan celebrations.
I was on my own this week at St. Julie's Center since Tom was still on vacation with his family. If you haven't check out his pictures from Masai Mara, you should, they're amazing. It makes me very jealous to know that I won't have a chance to go down there before I leave. Anyways, being there by myself didn't make it that much busier, but I did get the preliminary draft of a grant I've been working on done which was a big relief. If we get it, it could mean up yo $10,000 USD for our program.
We've also had a lot of visitors with us recently. There are two SND novices who are from Zimbabwe (but live in S. Africa) staying with us for a few weeks. They're been at St. Julie's center and i've been able to ask them lots of questions about what Zimbabwe and S. Africa are like. Tumaini also had two British volunteers last week who stopped by St. Julie's to see what it was all about. Finally, Katie's sister Amy has been with us for almost three weeks and heads back to the US this Wed. Its been so nice to have Amy here and I hope she's enjoyed having a chance to visit all our service sites. She's going with Michael to school tomorrow to test out her English teaching skills.
The rest of this month will be filled with grad school applications and making bookings for Kate's big visit in December. It's strange to think that I'll be back in the US three short months from Thursday.

2009-09-02T23:47:00.000-07:00

Vacation in Nairobi has been more adventure packed than I thought it could be.
Last Friday we hired a car to drive us from Malava to Nairobi for our retreat with Sr. Jane. Probably something I won't do again, considering the guy nickel and dimed us until the drive here cost as much as it would have been to fly. The retreat over last weekend was fairly uneventful, but Fr. Gene (we're staying at a retreat center that is also the home of Carmelite Fathers) gave us some interesting food for thought. Staying out in the Karen area of town has given us a chance to explore parts of Nairobi we haven't been to yet, including stumbling on a bronze foundry with some truly amazing artwork (Tom has pictures up on his blog).
Vacation really began for me Monday afternoon. In an effort to start my Master's program next fall, I've been working on applications here, which meant taking my GRE in Nairobi on Monday morning. It went as well as I had hoped, so to celebrate I met Katie, her sister Amy (our first American visitor!), Tom and Michael at the famous Carnivore restaurant. Named one of the top 50 restaurants in the world, the offer more than 10 kinds of meat that waiters bring on swords to your table until you signal that you're through. I honestly can't even remember everything I ate, but I know it include some delicious spare ribs, crocodile and ostrich. Monday I also finally got to see the 6th Harry Potter movie.
Tuesday I wondering around central Nairobi with Tom and Michael. We tried to find a modern art museum that we just couldn't locate, ate at an American like fast food restaurant and went to Nairobi's national museum. The museum is highly rated in the guide books, but I thought it was pretty disappointing. There was an interesting photography exhibit and an area displaying the pre human skeletons found by Dr. Leakey up by Lake Turkana. But for all the historical things this country has to offer, the museum glosses over most of them. I will admit that the space and the land surround the museum are beautiful and it was a nice place to spend the afternoon.
Yesterday we got up bright and early and Tom, Michael and I hit the road in our rental car. We planned to climb Mt. Longonot (a recently extinct volcano offering amazing views of the Rift Valley) and then drive around Hell's Gate National Park in hopes of seeing more animals in the wild. We got to Mt. Longonot around 9 and I'm so happy we decided to climb it in the morning. The whole climb was very steep and challenging, and I don't think I would have made it to the top if it had been hotter. Mostly the climb was challenging b/c with out the rain, the path had the consistency of kitty litter mixed with sand. Think about hiking up a mountain in sand from the beach, and thats kind of what it was like. Despite the physical challenges, the view from the top was worth the pain. Check out my picasa page or Tom's blog for photos. After climbing back down, we headed to Hell's Gate. Thee park is beautiful, with tons of wild life and a staggering gorge of reddish cliffs. I saw ostriches and warthogs in the wild for the first time. I think game viewing for the day included ostriches and warthogs, zebras, giraffes, Buffalo and tons of birds. There might be more, I can't remember. We drove around Hell's Gate, snapping photos and looking for animals until I got the car stuck in deep sand at the top of a hill. The boys pushed the car out, only to get stuck again in a ditch when turning around. This time, all the pushing could not get the car to budge. We tried everything thing we could think of. We put rocks under the wheel hoping it would grab on to those. We tried prying it out of the sand with logs. We tried everything we could think of for two hours with no luck. At this point we were about 10 kms from the ranger station and only had about 3 hours until it got dark. We tried calling all the numbers we could find for the warder at Hell's Gate, but b/c Kenya has been rationing electricity, none of the phones were working. Finally, while I was trying to explain our situation to Kenya Wildlife Services, we decided to start walking to the main gate, hoping it wouldn't take more than a few hours. Unfortunately, each of us had only brought a liter of water for the day, and while the morning was nice and cool, the afternoon had become very sunny, very hot, and we had already drank all the water we had. So the prospect of walking 10kms in the sun with no water didn't sound like much fun. Michael drank a half full water bottle he found on the side of the trail. Luckily, after walking for only about 20 minutes I got connected to the cell phone of the warden for the park. She arranged for one of the rangers to come out with a big truck and pull us out of the sand. We made it safely back to the main gate and headed back to Nairobi after buying several large bottles of water. But, as luck would have it, less than 5 kms out of the park, we got a flat tire and found out that the jack we had in the back of the car didn't work very well. A helpful matatu driver stopped and changed the tire for us in the time it would have taken be just the get the jack in the right place. We finally made it back to Nairobi, covered head to toe in dust and dirt and exhausted.
Today and tomorrow we have sometime to do more laid back touristy things around the city and on Saturday Michael and I will go to the first vows of our friend Lucy who up until this weekend was an SND Novice. Saturday night, Michael and I head back to Malava (Tom and Katie will be on vacation still with their families) and its back to work next week!

2009-08-20T08:17:00.000-07:00

While I began this week thinking that this week and next could be nice and calm before vacation, they turned out to be anything but. Katie made brunch on Sunday, but mid way through the day started feeling really terrible. Not hungry, achy all over....and those of us who have had malaria know what those symptoms mean. Unfortunately for her, this would be the 5th time she's had malaria since March. Sister Jane surprised us Sunday night with a visit from Nairobi and she determined that Katie needed to see a specialist rather than going to Malava hospital. So Jane took her to St. Elizabeth's in Mukumu, run by the Sisters of Mary. B/c she seemed to be having such a tough time getting rid of this nasty little parasite, they decided to admit her and give her a two day quinine drip to see if that would kick it once and for all. So Jane brought her back to Malava to get some overnight things, picks me up for moral support and we stayed with her until she got settled. Tuesday I drove Tom and Michael down to visit her, and despite everything, she seemed pretty up beat. While the hospital certainly isn't what you think of when you think of a hospital at home, it was clean and everyone was friendly. After getting a clean bill of health on Wed. I took Katie home. She seems to be doing ok.
Last weekend Angela's son Gracious turned two and not only did we attend the birthday party, we also got to help with the prep work. I went over with Tom and Michael in the morning b/c they wanted to learn how a chicken is killed and prepared for a meal. Angela let each of them kill a chicken (there are pictures of this and from the party on Tom's blog...I forgot my camera). I did not take part in killing the chickens, but I documented it on Tom's camera for posterity. Michael also threw one of the chicken heads at me, but luckily he has terrible aim and it missed. The party was a great success, even if Gracious did cry through most of it. We had an excellent meal and great company.
We head to Nairobi a week from tomorrow for our August retreat and a little vacation. I'm taking my GREs while we're there and the novice, Lucy, will take her first vows on Sept. 5th. Both Katie and Tom have family coming into town while we're there and it will be really nice to have our first American visitors!
Speaking of American visitors, Kate has finally bought her plane ticket! My sister will be joining me here in Kenya on December 9th for a whirlwind vacation before I return with her to the states on December 17th.

Weddings all over the world

2009-08-10T05:35:00.000-07:00

First of all, it was really nice to see the Casey side of my family on Skype last night! I hope you all had a wonderful time this weekend...I was very sad to miss seeing all of you.
While I missed my cousin Caitlin's wedding this weekend, I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of Angela's sister. Saturday morning was supposed to begin with a Harambe for David's church, but like most African events, when we arrived on time, it hadn't started yet. So after donating what we could to help David's church find a new worship space, Tom, Neto and I hopped on a matatu to Bungoma. We arrived expecting the ceremony to already be over (it was supposed to start at 8am). When we finally reached the church (around 1pm) we discovered that the ceremony had yet to begin. When Angela and the rest of the wedding party arrived, we learned that all the vehicles had broken down and the priest was not going to show up until three. So we hung out long enough to watch the wedding party process in and hear some of the speeches from family members (not that we could understand them). Finally, before anything had really begun, it was time to head home. We had a soda and some chapatis with Angela and then headed back to Malava.
Last Friday was our epilepsy clinic and my one task was to fetch the doctors from the hospital in Mumias (about an hour away). When I asked where to find the hospital, everyone told me just to take the road to Mumias from Kakamega and I would see the sign. They promised me I couldn't miss it. I now know I must ALWAYS ask for more specific directions. Long story short, Tom and I ended up being an hour late picking up the doctors. Despite that, it was our fastest clinic by far and Tom and I got out of there around 1:30.
This week is a trip to Sababtia Eye Hospital, which I'm really looking forward so since I haven't been out there in several months. Saturday Angela's son Gracious turns two, so we get our first taste of how Kenyans celebrate their children's birthday. It should be alot of fun.

2009-08-04T05:28:00.000-07:00

The last few days have been crazy eventful. Last Thursday was an Eldoret day and also my first time driving the big 11 seater matatu. It was a challenge and honestly, the less I have to drive it the better. I did make progress with a little girl names Priscilla. She usually screams when I come near her, but I guess she decided on Thursday I was cool and wanted to be my friends. I also think she's associating me with the toy library and what kid doesn't love the person who gives them toys.
Friday I headed to Tumaini with Tom and Michael. There was a group of 12 Americans from an Evangelical Christian Sports Mission group. They had been running a sort of summer camp all week, playing games and telling bible stories, so we went to help out where we could and have a chance to talk to some more Americans. My day started with taking my buddy Clifford back to the hospital so the doctor could check out his broken arm and hematoma that formed from his mom not taking good care of it. The doctor had good news and it looks like he won't need surgery, but he's going to keep on monitoring him. My afternoon at tumaini was spent chatting with the new Americans, playing jump rope with the girls and basically being a human jungle gym for the some of the little kids.
Friday we were invited to lunch at John's house. John works in town helping to put people on the matutu. He had been reminding us all week, but he was no where to be found when we showed up to meet him. We had to send the other Matatu man, tyson, to go find him at the chaanga den (changa'a is an illegal alcohol that's brewed here and sold really cheap). John finally showed up three sheets to the wind and took us to where he lived. An afternoon that was supposed to be lunch with his family turned into a three hour hike around rural Malava meeting all of his family, seeing where his church is and where his kids go to school. All the time he was talking to Michael trying to negotiate a bride price for me or Katie. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but polygamy is not only legal here, but widely practiced. He already has a wife and four children but recently decided that he wants an American wife and more children that would be African American. I guess John kept telling Michael "I just want one American girl and you have two. Surely you can give me one". I went from being throughly entertained to really pissed off to shrugging the whole thing off as a learning experience. Michael did finally convince him that we were both married to American men, but promised to look for any American women who might want to come back and marry him. The whole thing was just really crazy. Here was this man who is probably old enough to be my father expecting me to just be handed over to him to be his wife. No one ever asked me, it was just expected that once they negotiated my price that I would be handed over. Michael tried to explain to him that he wouldn't want an American wife- that I wouldn't cook or clean or listen to him or be quiet, but John didn't understand. All he could see was the money and prestige that an American wife would mean for his family. The day ended with a lunch of ugali and veggies where his wife reiterated how much she would also like an American wife. Luckily his children were adorable and kept us entertained for most of the day.
Sunday was my day to make brunch, but the girl who does laundry for tom and Michael needed some extra money for a doctor visit so we pushed my lunch and invited all the Tumaini American volunteers over for a laundry girl pilau lunch. The pilau was DELISH and hanging out with Americans my own age who were Tom, Michael or Katie was really fun. I have to be honest, being around that many Americans after 7 months out of the states was kind of overwhelming. Tom put it really well. When all the conversations going on around you are in Swahili, you can tune them out b/c for the most part we can't understand them. But Sunday all the side conversations were in English, so I couldn't really tune them out. So it just felt like there were a ton of people all talking at once. But besides that, it was really nice to meet some friendly new volunteers. Unfortunatly that was the extent of our interaction with them. They leave today.
Monday it was back to Eldoret in the big matatu for me. One of our clients who is in school needed to go in for surgery for an abscess above her eye and our night watchman needed to see his doctor. Sr. Joy and I left at 6:45 in the morning and didn't get back until 7 pm. This is a long long week in front of me. We had a staff meeting today and Friday we have an epilepsy clinic before which I have to pick up the doctors for the clinic in Mumias. There is also a Harambee and wedding this weekend and trivial things like the fact that I desperatly need to do laundry. So there should be lots of good stories after next weekend.
I'm sad to miss seeing all of my Casey family this weekend. An early congrats to Caitlin and Mike on the wedding!
Also, the volunteers being at tumaini this week reminded me that I don't think I've ever blogged about the sponsorship program at the school and orphanage where Michael works. For about $25 USD a month, you can sponsor a child who might not be able to afford school fee, uniforms, doctors visits, etc... Anyways, if this sounds like something interesting, go to http://www.tumainimilesofsmiles.org/.

2009-07-27T06:42:00.000-07:00

Well, as I was trying to fight off my first African cold, Katie and I spent a nice weekend in Kisumu. Every once and a while its nice to get to a city and sleep in a hotel. We went out on the Lake so Katie could see the Hippos (which is just as exciting the second time as it was the first). It was really pleasant and cool and our guides spoke excellent English. We said hi to local fisherman and even saw some people trying to secretly brew some illegal changaa (illegal booze).
Saturday Tom joined us. We did some Nakumatt shopping and has Chinese food. We tried to go to the Kisumu museum, but Katie and Tom didn't have proof of residency so it was a little too pricey for them. We did find an awesome little craft market with some stall that help HIV positive women and teenagers in and around Kisumu. I got some presents, but I'm not telling. They're going to be a surprise.
After a Saturday afternoon of sunning ourselves at the Kisumu hotel pool, Katie and I went to see a movie (Hannah Montana, don't make fun). All in all, a lovely weekend away. I have a trip to the clinic in Eldoret this week and the four of us are trying to plan our vacation in September. August is a month full of celebrations- so I'm sure I'll have lots to write about.

2009-07-20T06:00:00.000-07:00

I'm really sorry for not posting for a few weeks. The truth is, there hasn't been that much to report. But here are a few stories

A few Fridays ago, after some rushed grocery shopping in Kakamega, I met Katie for lunch, only to find she was already sitting with another American when I arrived. Annette runs a non profit offering alternative education options for Kenyan girls out of Chico California. She was in Kenya for 6 weeks to check on operations here. We had a really nice lunch with her, talking about her work, our work, and how nice it is to use American english. Earlier that morning I drove Neto and David to an Awareness Workshop for St. Julie's. Every few weeks, Neto, David, Angela and Grace (or some combination) go out to churches in the community to tell people what we're doing at St. Julie's and hoping to find more children with disabilities who aren't being treated. Since the workshops are all in Swahili or Luhya, my role that day was purely as a chauffeur. Or so I thought. This Friday they happened to be addressing an entire primary school. I was planning on just sitting in the car, reading my book and listening to my i pod until they were done, but the head teacher wanted for me to address the kids. So I got up in front of an entire primary school and in broken Luhya and Swahili said good morning and that my name was Sue and I was from the US. For a moment all the kids looked at me, and then all burst into laugher. Nothing like being laughed at by a room full of children. After that I let David and Neto do the talking and fidgeted until they were done. It's actually a really neat thing to be a part of b/c these awareness workshops help us to reach far corners of our district that otherwise probably would never have heard of us.
I spent most of last week under the covers rather than going to work. Not really that sick, mostly just exhausted. At first I thought it might have been malaria again, but all of us seem to have gotten it. Katie first, then me and Michael and now Tom. It seems to have passes, and I'm feeling much better.
This past weekend Katie and I went to Kisumu just for the day. She was itching to get out of the house for a little while and I didn't have enough energy for the hiking/ nature options nearby. It ended up being really fun. We ate at a Chinese restaurant, my first in almost 7 months. Then we did a little Nakumatt shopping and came home. I think we're going to head down again this weekend, but for a few days. Katie wants to see the hippos in the Lake and we might hit a few of the other tourist options Kisumu has.

I wanted to say another BIG Thanks to First Church. The second package of toys arrived last week. They've been divided between our toy lending library, the toys used at the center and the toys that are going to be used at our new outpost station. We're all so excited for new toys so thank you very much.

Thats about all in my life for now. Hopefully I'll have some fun stories and pictures when I get back from Kisumu.

2009-07-06T09:21:00.000-07:00

In the hopes of bringing a little of the Americana summer time fun to Kenya, Tom and Michael had a cookout on Saturday to celebrate the 4th of July. Lots of our friends came when we explained that while December 12th is Independence Day here, Americans celebrate independence on the 4th of July. The food and company was great and the whole afternoon was very low key. They made hot dogs and
hamburgers and potatoe salad. I brought ice cream and watermelons. We
sat around with all our Kenyan friends, had some beers and listened to
some Michael Jackson and Tom Petty. It was a very nice afternoon. Tom
has some pictures up on his blog, so if your interested in seeing
proof that I'm still alive, go to www.aviewfromthecave.com.

Otherwise, there's not too much to report on. I bought some new
bootlegs last week so now in a addition to like 100 movies, I also
have the first three seasons of One Tree Hill, 3 seasons of How I Met
Your Mother, 3 seasons of Lost and 2 seasons of Ugly Betty.

Last Friday I went to the orphanage in Kakamega where my roommate
Katie is working. It is a special home for abandoned and abused
children. We spent the morning in the baby room, waking them up,
playing with them, giving them baths and their bottles. When they went
down for a nap mid morning, we played with some of the older toddlers
who are still too young to be in nursery school. There was a little
girl (I can't remember her name) who had just come to the orphanage
last week. She was removed from her home b/c of abuse and you could
still see the scars on her face, legs and arms. She was soo beautiful
though. I sat down on the ground and after a few shy seconds, she
crawled right in my lap and laid her (somewhat snot covered) face
against my chest. I think she really just needs someone to hug her
alot. Although in many ways, I wouldn't trade anything to have Katie's
job, she really does get to have a profound affect on the lives of
these children. I mean she has them when they come out of terrible
homes or as little babies. She gets to show them that someone loves
them. And that can make all the difference. Don't get me wrong, I love
St. Julie's, but Katie has a chance to make a real difference

THANK YOU!

2009-06-29T05:52:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post a BIG BIG thank you to my First Church Family back in Cincinnati, especially to Katie Campbell for organizing the toy drive for the children of St. Julie's center. The first package of toys arrived in Malava today. Your generosity is so heartwarming!

I'll be sure to post pictures of our kids enjoying their new toys soon.

2009-06-27T08:06:00.000-07:00

Just FYI, there are some new pictures from May and June on my Picasa pages, including some of our St. Julie clients and pics from my trip to Nairobi.

Welcome Katie!

2009-06-26T06:15:00.000-07:00

Our newest volunteer has arrived! Welcome to Kenya Katie O'Dea. I spent most of this week in Nairobi picking Katie from the airport and then showing her around. It was also my first time using the matatus there alone so of course I got on the wrong one when I first got there and ended up a a part of town that they call little Mogadishu. Luckily everything worked out and I made it to Racecourse in one piece. Anyways, Katie arrived after what was a very adventurous trip from Nigeria on Monday evening. Check out her blog (the link is on this page) for the full story. Tuesday Titus (who works for the sisters in Nairobi) took us around town. Katie and I saw "State of Play" at the movie theater in town and got fast food quality hamburgers from a chain called Steers. I think Katie was really amazed at how Western Nairobi feels. Sometimes, in the center of Nairobi town, I forget that I'm in Africa. Anyways, on Wed. I took Katie to a craft market near where the sisters live and introduced to buying touristy stuff- Kenya style. Its a little overwhelming for me still, and I've been here for almost 6 mos. In the afternoon Sr. Jane took us for lunch at the Nairobi National Park (where some baboons escapes and treated themselves to lunch from a trash can in the parking lot by our car) and then to see the dancers at Bomas of Kenya. Since I've already seen the show at Bomas, I mostly stared at the white tourists, wondering where they were from and why they were in Kenya. We came back to Malava yesterday and were treated to a ride up in the new vehicle that the sisters just bought rather than taking the bus. We had dinner with the whole community last night so Katie could meet all the sisters.
Today we had a parent meeting where I didn't do much more than read my book in the back of the room, discuss the answer to eliminating American poverty with Tom and take registration.
Last week was fairyl uneventful, but I did have the chance to go to the Kenya Music competition, district level at Sr. Beatrice's school. While we were waiting for her to get there, Tom and I wandered around and ran into Sr. Inziani with her nursery school class. They had just won first place in English and Swahili recitations so they redid them for us. Super cute...they're competing next week in Bungoma for the provincial competition. If they win then they go on to the national competition in Mombasa. Sr. Beatrice's school also walked away with two first prizes. Go Malava district!
This weekend we're going to show Katie around a little bit more to get her used to Malava and Kakamega. She'll be working at an orphanage for abused and abandoned children in Kakamega, so I'm sure she'll soon know that town than the rest of us. I hope all my Cincinnati people have fun at Paddlefest this weekend!
Look for new pictures on my picasa page soon, I'll try and post them today!

2009-06-14T09:31:00.000-07:00

Gowri I'm a bad friend...but a very happy belated Birthday!

There's not too much to report from this end. I went to Eldoret to the Angelican Church clinic there with some of our kids this past thursday. A bunch of kids didn't show up so we only ended up taking one car. We thought that we would have a quick day but unfortunately they forgot the leg brace for Jairus so we had to wait for them to attempt to fashion a crude one that will work until we can take him again for the right one. Otherwise, life here has been pretty normal day to day. I would like to say a VERY big thank you to the First Unitarian Universalist Church community and especially to Katie Campbell for your generous contribution of toys to the St. Julie's Centre. I can't wait for them to get here. I'll be sure to post pictures of our kids when they get here. Your generosity is really heart warming.

Next weekend I'll head to Nairobi for a few days to meet our newest American volunteer- Katie O'dea. For those of you who don't know, Jean left Kenya back in April due to some minor health problems. I've gotten used to being on my own in the community here, but it will be nice to have a roommate again. So I'll be sure to send you all an update from Nairobi sometime next week.

I hope everyone at home is doing well. I miss you all. I can't believe that next week is our half way point is next week. Time is flying by. Thanks for keeping up with my stories.

2009-06-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

Another month passes us by and I continue to be amazed with how fast time flies. Everyone at home keeps telling me it feels like I've been gone forever, but the last 5 months have gone in the blink of an eye for me. In a few short weeks we'll be half way done with our time here in Kenya.
In other good news...I will have a new roommate on June 22nd. Katie O'Dea, another NDMV volunteer who has been in Nigeria since January will be joining us in Kenya. While we're sad for the community in Nigeria that is losing her, we're happy to have her coming to us!
There's been a lot going on in the last week or so. Tumaini finally opened its new orphanage (after months of Michael's painting) and we had a chance to see the children off from their old home. Tom, Michael and I joined the rest of the Tumaini staff along with Ryan and Randall (two other American volunteers who were working short term at Tumaini) for the big move from one home from the other. I helped Violet, the social worker at Tumaini, get all the girls dresses in their finest. Unfortunately, I didn't actually make it all the way to the new orphanage with them. Like so many things in Kenya, festivities began much later than they were supposed to so I had to duck out early and head to the hospital in Malava to have some blood work done before they all left for lunch. Sure enough...I had malaria again. They're not sure if it was the same strain as before or if I got it again, but they put me on a much stronger medicine this time and I'm feeling back to my normal self already.
Last week we also had a chance to meet children from another local primary school. Pst. Jairus, a community bases rehab worker and St. Julie's parent invited us to visit the school near his house where his wife is the head teacher. We were introduced to all the classes and the teachers and learned some of the challenges that the school has been facing over sodas. I walked around and took pictures of the children in their classes and we promised to return sometime soon for a whole school day. Afterwards, Jairus invited us back to his home to meet the rest of his family, including his beautiful baby grand daughter. Her mom actually let me hold her for a while which doesn't happen very often. We had boiled maize (corn) on the cob that had come straight out of the field and Jairus told us more about his family. All in all, it was a great afternoon and I'm looking forward to going back. This weekend was a four day weekend. We had today off work to celebrate what we have been calling Independence Day part 1- Madaraka Day. Madaraka means power in Swahili and today in the anniversary of Jomo Kenyatta officially taking power. Part two- Kenyatta Day- comes in December and celebrates the day that Kenya officially become an independent country. I was reading a very interesting article in the newspaper the other day about how many problems in Africa stem from the fact that they have tried to become modern, independent countries in decades while Europe and the US had centuries to get it right. This is kind of amazing to think about. In the US we take being our own nation for granted. There's certainly no one still alive who remembers when we were a British colony. Independence is only 46 years old here and there are still lots of people who remember that transition time in the 1960s. Anyways, we didn't do much special to celebrate. Michael made an excellent brunch of corn, potato and leek chowder and we watched Kung Fu Panda with some of the local kids. I did have a chance to get down to Kisumu for a night this weekend. It was nice to eat out (somewhere other than the Honey Drop or the petrol station), buy yummy new foods at Nakumatt and generally get out of Malava for a little while. Oh and I saw the first movie in the theaters since leaving the US. That was awesome. I found out recently that the new Harry Potter movie will come out in Nairobi on the same day that it comes out in the US. I might be really lame and go to Nairobi to see it. Or wait until it comes to Kisumu.
Well I think thats it for now. I have pictures from Tumaini and from Pst. Jairus's primary school to put, which I hope to do very soon. Thanks again for following my story!

Happy Birthday Rachael!

2009-05-20T04:16:00.000-07:00

Some kids in Malava wanted to say Happy Birthday! I hope you have a great day! Remember when you turned twenty-one and got a cake made out of candy and we played with the pinata in the backyard! Miss you tons buddy

Well other than the fact that Rachael Valley becomes a year older, theres not much for me to report. Life has been pretty normal around here recently. I did get my final birthday package last week, filled with great new reading and listening material. Big thanks to everyone who sent something for my birthday!

Last Friday I made my second driving trip to Eldoret, skipping the epilespy clinic to take one of our clients-Luka- to see a pediatric cardiology at the teaching and referral hospital. It was an incredibly long day since I first had to get him from the hospital in Kakamega where he was admitted, drive the two and a half hours to Eldoret and then drive him back. But it was really important b/c he's suffering from failure to thrive and the docs at Malava and Kakamega just can't figure out why. So I took him to get an echo and see the cardiologist. I have to say that the Moi Teaching and referral Hospital was clean and efficient. In an hour we got in, paid, had the echo and talked to the pediatrician. There was nothing wrong with his heart, which I guess is good and bad. Good b/c fixing heart problems can be VERY expensive and this is a very poor family. But on the other hand, we still don't know whats going on with his malnutrition.

The weekends was relatively uneventful. Went to Kakamega on Saturday and got some new movies. Sunday I made brunch at the boys house (chili...yum) and watched the Exorcist whie it stormed outside. This week at work has been nothing out of the ordinary and today was slow, so tom and I sat in the office and studied Swahili. Next weekend is a four day holiday weekend and I think we're going to go to Mt. Elgon for the weekend...so there should be some good pictures of wild elephants. This weekend we might take a hike up to the ridge that runs along all of the western province. Its part of the Nandi escarpment which runs along all the way up from Kisumu.

Hope everyone at home has a wonderful memorial day weekend and the beginning of summer!

Happy Mother's Day

2009-05-10T08:46:00.000-07:00

Happy (belated- sorry I'm a bad daughter) birthday and Mother's Day Mom! I hope you're been having a wonderful and pampered weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all the other wonderful women in my life who've been keeping up with my stories!

This week has finally felt like life is back on track. I feel like I've finally gotten back into my groove. that said, there's not much to report.
Last Sunday we went for a hike in the Kakamega rainforest with the other two CMMB volunteers in Kenya- Cristy and Lauren. They live in Karungu which is on Lake Victoria, near the border with Tanzania. They live two hours from the closest dirt road and their town has no electricity or running water. Needless to say, our little place in Kenya felt like a wonderful slice of civilization. We had a chance to hike up to an overlook that the sister had told me about with incredible views of the countryside and the Nandi Escarpment- check out the pics on my Picasa page.
Work this week was like any other with a little bit of play therapy mixed in with admin tasks and reading the news paper. Friday the center had a training on epilepsy that I missed to go with Judi to the Provintial Hospital in Kakamega. One of our clients- Luka- is failing to thrive and the docs in Malava are stumped. He saw the peds specialist at the hospital in Kakamega and told us that malnutrition is his biggest problem- which we already knew b/c the family is very poor- but that he also needed to have his heart checked out. He needs an echo from a hospital in Eldoret so for now he's admitted in Kakamega and I'll take him for an echo next week. I got Mariah Carey and Bob Marley tapes from a store in Kakamega for the long drive there and back. It looks like I'll be driving when ever Judi needs me to so if anyone wants to send me their old cassette tapes from home- that would be great. Remember, small padded envelops only take about ten days to get here!
Otherwise, life has been pretty normal. A large group of children have taken to playing at Michael and Tom's house in the afternoons so I got to play with them for a little while yesterday and today. They're such good kids, Michael and Tom are really lucky to have their company.

Thats all for this week.

2009-05-02T03:56:00.000-07:00

For anyone who is interested, I finally posted some pictures from our coast vacation. Check them out on my Picasa page...the link is on the right side of this page!

A trip to Eldoret

2009-04-30T08:39:00.000-07:00

Today was my first experience driving a long distance on Kenyan roads. Sr. Judi told me before we went on vacation that she would need help taking children to a clinic in Eldoret today b/c they would not all fit in one car. Since I'm the only one of the volunteers that has a lot of experience driving a manual transmission, I started taking lessons at the beginning of this week. I wanted to get a feel for driving on the left side of the road before I drove all the way to Eldoret. Anyways, after a next practices with the driving instructor and one time out in the pick up with Sr. Katherine, I felt ready.
I collected some of the parents and children in Malava bright and early this morning and waiting for Sr. Judi to get back with the kids who needed to be picked up out of town. Eldoret is about as far away as Kisumu is, but I've been told it does not take as long to get there b/c the road is much better. I'll say this, it was faster and the road is better is most places, but there was still plenty of bumping along as we made our way there.
The traveling clinic only comes to Eldoret once every two months and they see children who are dealing with orthopedic problems as well as children who have neurological conditions. The children we took were mostly kids with Hydrocephalis and spina bifida as well as kids who were having ortho problems fixed the bracing. The clinic was held at a community based rehabilitation center run by the Anglican Church of Kenya.
Something that continues to amaze me is how much people thank me. Today I met any members of the ACK community based rehab team and they all said how wonderful is was of me to come to Kenya and how wonderful the work I'm doing is. I wanted to say "Hey, thanks for letting me come to your country. And I just drove here...you guys are the ones fixing our kids". But i know this is rude so I say thank you and thank them for their work as well. Like Sr. Beatrice tells me...visitors are a blessing.
Anyways, we were at the clinic for hours b/c we had so many kids with us and I didn't get home until after 6 this evening. Driving on the left side of the road isn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. It's more then inside of the car thats weird. The seat belt is on the other side and I have to shirt gears with the left hand instead of my right. But, all in all, I'm pretty proud of myself for making it all the way there and back.
Not much else has been going on since my birthday, which is actually really nice. I'm getting back into the swing of things here and enjoying the quiet life. The have been some interesting things going on in Kenya. There are a bunch of article's on Tom's blog that I suggest you read if you're interested!

A Very Kenyan Birthday

2009-04-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

Happy Birthday to Kate (well...and to me)! I hope your birthday back in Cincy is wonderful.
As for me, 7 hours ahead, my birthday is almost over, but it was a really nice day.
Tom and I went into Kakamega for lunch and I got three new bootlegs, including one of Julia Roberts movies and Sex and the City Season two. I've been having bad matatu luck recently b/c now two matatus in two days have broken down on my way to Kakamega and I had to get out and wait for another one. Also, today in the matatu a lorry drove by and splashed a puddle of stagnant muddy water on the side of the matatu and on me since my window was open.
But anyways, after getting new bootlegs, Tom and I had a delicious lunch at the Shywe guest house before heading back.
The sisters here also had a very nice dinner for me this evening. Tom and Michael came, along with everyone from both houses here on the compound. We had a delicious meal of chapati, sukuma and beans made by the new postulants- Susan and Elizabeth. After dinner came ice cream, cake and presents. All in all a wonderful 24th birthday.
I want to say a BIG thank you to my family for my birthday present that came in the mail yesterday. The best thing is having my knitting stuff again. I've started a new blanket with the yarn and needles my mom sent from home.
Thank you also to all the people who sent birthday wishes from home!

Return to Malava

2009-04-21T08:00:00.000-07:00

It's been a really long almost two weeks, but I arrived back in Malava after our coastal vacation yesterday. I have now officially used every form of transportation Kenya has to offer...except for a motorcycle.
It would be a really long post if I went through day by day, so I'll just list some of the highlights
- Exploring Ft. Jesus and haggling for fabric on the street on Old Town in Mombasa
- Swim in pools on the top of a coral reef
- Swimming in coral caves with a lot of bats
- Exploring a tidal river and floating all the way back to the ocean after treking across a crab infested "minefield"
- Air conditioning, hot showers and movies on TV
- Eating lots of really good food that I didn't have to make myself including shwarmas, fresh fish, goat ribs and crocodile
- Having a live baby crocodile just chilling on my arm
- Reading and relaxing under palm trees with the sound of the Indian ocean
- The train ride from Mombasa to Nairobi- felt really old school and we saw a huge family of giraffes!

All in all, we got a little taste of Mombasa town and a little taste of the beach. We ended the whole thing with a retreat with Sr. Jane in Nairobi. The retreat house had the best shower I've had since I got to Kenya, I took two a day. I flew back to Kisumu rather than taking the bus like I had on the way there. It was really fast and completely uneventful.

Pictures will come soon!

African weddings

2009-04-06T08:03:00.000-07:00

Well it might be a while before I have a chance to post again. We're leaving on Wed. for a little vacation to the Indian Ocean and we won't be back in Malava until April 20th. We'll be at the beach for a few days and then we're all going to be in Nairobi for the weekend of the 18th for a retreat with Sr. Jane. It's amazing that our time here is now more than a quarter over, I feel like I just left.

Well last week was pretty slow but there are some fun things to catch up on. Jean and I headed to Kisumu just for the day on Friday to indulge ourselves in a little bit of shopping. It was nice to wander around, have a nice big lunch and get some new clothing. The matatu back took forever and we didn't get back to Malava until after dark. Luckily Sr. Katherine came to our rescue and picked us up at the top of the road so we didn't have to walk in the dark.

Saturday Jean went to the orphanage to play with the kids, but Michael, Tom and myself went to a Kenyan wedding. David, one of the therapists from the center invited us so Nancy (who also works at the center) came to pick us up around 10. We got there and waited and waited and waited. We did get a chance to watch them slaughter the chicken we were going to eat after the ceremony. Finally the wedding party arrived around 1:15 and the ceremony started around 2. The processional in was amazing. All the bridesmades and a bunch of younger girls and the groomsman danced all around the room and the bridesmaids made an aisle that the bride walked through. But once all that was over we had a 2 hour sermon to get through by the preacher of their church. We left the hall when we thought the wedding was over, but they were still in there singing and praising while we ate our dinner. We finally had to leave so we could get home before it got too dark. All in all, a learning experience. I think if I ever get married I'm going to make the wedding party dance, it makes it so much more festive.

Sunday was Palm Sunday so I walked to church with Jean. Angela told us there would be a procession from the school behind where the boys live to the church and I was interested in seeing that, but there was none. There was a small reading on the church grounds by the priest and then people went into church. Jean and Michael went to the service while Tom and I hung out at his house. Church was followed by a quick lunch at Honey Drop and then home to clean and get ready for vacation.

Tomorrow I'm going to an orphanage and center for abused children in Kakamega with Sr. Katherine. I'm thinking about working there a few days a week. I love the St. Julie's Center and I enjoy my work there, but I'm looking for something a little more hands on. I'm hoping that this place will be the answer. I'll know more about the arrangement when we get back from the beach.

Also...I forgot to bring my camera to the wedding, so hopefully Tom put some pictures up on his blog.

Care packages, presidentail visits and birthdays

2009-03-30T10:28:00.000-07:00

What a week its’ been.

Tuesday I accompanied Sr. Joy on home visits. The first one took us three hours to track down a father, first at his home and then at the school where he is the deputy head master. It ended up being worth the effort. It turned out the mother has been lying to us and stopped doing the therapy at home with her daughter and wants to send her away to boarding school. The father is very concerned, especially since now the child needs another surgery. It seems as if he’s going to work hard to stay on top of his daughter’s therapy to make sure that the next surgery is effective. The second visit took us to the home of a little boy who has plaster casting. While Joy talked with the mother and grandmother I played peek-a-boo with one of the other little girls. The grandmother jokingly promised I could take her back to the US with me since she seemed to like me so much. After no one was home at the third house, we headed home. Still it was long for a St. Julie’s day and we didn’t get home until almost 5.

We also got a visit from the president of Kenya this week. President Kibaki came through on Thursday afternoon. Of course all of us were excited at the prospect of seeing the president of another country so we got there close to 2, when they said he would arrive. We watched a two local men playing on homemade instruments while we were waiting, but soon after we arrived he began singing about us and the whole crowd of more than 50 people turned to look at us. It was a little uncomfortable. We moved across the road to get good spots, but I lost mine when I went to go get a little breathing room. Rather than pushing my way back to the front I sat on a blanket with one of the parents from St. Julies and listened to all the commotion. Luckily Michael, Tom and Jean got good pictures of the president. From what Sr. Joy told me, people were really upset with the whole situation. They were spraying down the ground to keep the dust from flying up on the president. Kenya is in the middle of a pretty horrific drought and people in our town don’t even have water to plant their crops. Then, when he showed up 2.5 hours later he didn’t let any of the local officials speak, he didn’t talk about improvements for the region and didn’t say thank you to all the people who stood in the blistering sun for hours waiting to see him. All in all, he spoke for less than 10 minutes. Thursday evening culminated in a joint early birthday dinner for Jean (March 29) and Tom (April 2). Eating with all the sisters is always so nice, not just b/c we don’t have to cook for ourselves, but to be able to sit at a full table with lots of interesting conversations.

Saturday I had the chance to meet with Martha Thompson from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee. She was on a visit to Kenya and Uganda to check on the initiative that they partner with. The one in Kenya just happens to be in Kakamega, so Tom, Michael and I took the opportunity to learn more about the work they’re doing here. We met with Martha and Pastor Paul who leads the initiative here. He told us about how they’re working to find the people who came back to this area after the post election violence of last year with nothing. The NGOs who were here to help don’t really seem to be doing anything in this area so the work on this project is essential. Martha also filled us in on the other international projects that the UUSC is working on. The wonderful company combined with one of the best meals I’ve had since I got here made it a really enjoyable afternoon.

This Sunday was Jean’s 23^rd birthday so to celebrate she, Tom and I made the trip up to Webuye to see the beautiful Webuye falls. After taking a boda boda as far as we could, we walked the rest of the way. We didn’t see a straight forward path (although there was one) so we took a more adventurous route that involved a little bit of rock climbing. Finally we got to the base. We were going to try and hike up the right side, but there didn’t seem to be a place that was safe to cross the river. We ended up going up the left side, which involved more rock climbing. At one point I lost my grip on some mud and ended up with mud from head to toe after slipping about 4 ft. We finally made it to the top and were rewarded with some pretty amazing “I’m on top of the world” views. There was a nice little pool where the water wasn’t running too quickly and since the temperature had been steadily rising all day, we decided to take this opportunity to take a little dip. Maybe not the best decision to swim in unknown water, but the water was wonderfully cool and had the added benefit of kind of cleaning the mud off of me. After drying in the sun we worked our way back to town on the main road. I was happy we’d taken the boda boda there b/c it took more than an hour to walk the 5 kms back to town. Michael met us and we enjoyed a very good lunch and were rewarded with pouring rain. I’ve never lived anywhere where rain makes me so happy. We took a quick look around the market and then headed back to town.

Yesterday we also got two new occupants in our house. The new postulants- Susan and Elizabeth- moved in yesterday. I haven’t had a chance to talk to them very much, although Elizabeth was at Racecourse when we first got here. I’m looking forward to getting to know both of them better.

A BIG thanks goes out to my sister for my very first package in Kenya. I’m sure the customs official in Kisumu are enjoying the M&Ms that were taken, but otherwise everything else made it. I really enjoyed the treats (like Skittles) that we just can’t get here. It also took less than 3 weeks!

Thanks for keeping up with everything!

St. Patty's Day and a bount of new movies...

2009-03-23T05:16:00.001-07:00

Last week went by so quickly, but it seems as thought that's become the norms. I keep thinking that it was just the other day I bid farewell to cold, snowy Cincinnati Ohio, and then I remember that its almost been 3 months. CRAZY!
Anyways...Tuesday Tom and I had a staff meeting at the St. Julie’s Center that lasted around 3 hours. After, we went to the boy’s house for St. Patrick’s Day. Tom made Corned beef and cabbage with potatoes, which was delicious! I think it was great mostly b/c it was so different from the food we usually eat. Most of the staff from the St. Julie’s center came, but left right after dinner. Since Jean and I weren’t getting pick up until 8 we stayed and hung out for a little while to watch the stars come out. Again, a big thanks to Tom and Michael for preparing a great meal.
Nothing really new to report from St. Julie's.We also had a meeting with Judi last week. She wanted to know how things were going at SJC and I was sure to let her know that we didn’t have much to do on a day to day basis while we’re actually at work but we’re working on changing that. Actually, Tom and I are starting driving lessons this week with an actual driving school. I’m really excited; it will be nice to be able to drive. I’m even thinking about getting a Kenyan license, apparently it’s very easy and can be used as proof of residency. I’m also picking up a little side project. There’s a man whose daughter used to come to the center but sadly passed away. He writes stories about local legends in the tribal language, but has recently translated them into Swahili. Anyways, he needs someone to type them so they can be published, and I told Judi I would be happy to do it. It’s a nice little project to have in the afternoons. Sissy also called Tom last week,to check in and offered some ideas about new projects to take on. There’s a center for neglected and abused children in Kakamega, and she’s thinking about us each working there one day a week. There are also a bunch of little side projects that need to be done in the course of the year, so there seems to be more work that we can do. We'll see how it all plays out.
This past weekend was uneventful, but a lot of fun. All four of us went to Kakamega so Jean and I could change the day we’re taking the bus on vacation and buy more bootleg movies. Gotta love Kenya…20 movies on one disc for about 200 KSH (about 250 USD). It’s awesome. Jean and I also got some new shoes…I got dressier sandals for vacation since I didn’t want to wear my chacos with everything. Friday I also had breakfast with Tom and two Masai warriors at the Honey Drop café. It was neat! And a little scary. We got there and it was so crowded that the only seats left were at a table with two Masai men who work as night watchmen here in the village. One of them even had a bottle of their goats milk/ cow blood drink on the table. They’re intimidating b/c they don’t even speak Swahili, carry knives on their belts all the time and some have some very interesting tribal tattoos. Saturday Tom, Michael and I headed out to Tumaini to get some indoor painting done and then had homemade pizza from Jean at our house. Sunday was spent playing outside with some of the local kids and watching Shrek 2 and 3 with Tom, Michael and a group of Kenyan children.
So thats life for now...thanks for keeping up with my adventures! Next weekend I'm going to Kakamega to meet a woman who's coming here from the Unitarian Universalist Service Committee to see a grassroots initiative that the UUSC has been partnering with here. I'm super excited to see another UU!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY OWEN!

2009-03-19T06:13:00.000-07:00

Happy 24th birthday Owen Reynolds!
I hope your first Nicaraguan birthday is wonderful!

It's laundry day

2009-03-16T05:01:00.000-07:00

While my laundry is waiting to be washed, I wanted to do a quick update about life recently in Malava. Last week I went back to work after a week off with malaria. It was really nice to be back at work, even if the week was a little slow.

Last week I had a chance to go out to Tumaini where Michael and Jean work to help with the new orphanage they’re building on the site with the school. It’s really coming along and they say they should be able to move kids into the finished wing by the end of the month. It’s been so awesome to help with the painting and other work that needs to be done- helping to building a new home for children in need with my own hands. Michael also let me look in on his reading class on both days I was out there last week. On Tuesday he let me read “Lady and the Tramp” to his reading class and then I watched while he taught them new vocab words like “swoon” “frightened” and “creep”. When Michael was teaching them “creep” he snuck up on a kid who was sleeping and tapped him on the back of the head. Of course when all the boys were demonstrating the new word, they ran around whapping each other on the back of the head. Thursday Michael’s class sang songs to me and Tom and the class next door got so excited they had us come over to their class and sing to us too. Tumaini kids LOVE to sing and dance. They’re awesome kids, I’ve really enjoyed the time I’ve been able to spend there.

This Saturday all four of us went to Kakamega to run errands and Jean and I had a chance to spend most of the day by the pool. Just a little taste of our upcoming vacation…it feels so decadent to just lie in the sun and swim in the pool.

Sunday Tom, Michael and I went to church with Angela, one of the therapists from SJC. She usually goes to the Catholic church, but wanted to take us to another one in town so we could see what an evangelical church in Africa was like. It was certainly interesting and the only thing I can think to compare it to is when we went to the Baptist Church in Georgia where Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. used to preach. Someone preached for about an hour, then there was a lot of singing. At the end of every song, the crowd dissolved into incoherent praising and rejoicing. Then someone else came up to preach for about an hour. They say it usually lasts 5 hours, but we only made it through 2.5. See Tom's blog for a more extensive description. After church Jean met us and all four of us headed to a delicious lunch at Angela’s house. We watched Nigerian music videos, chatted and played with her almost 2yr. old son Gracious. He’s such a sweet little boy and sobbed so hard when we finally left. I initially thought it was b/c he was scared of Michael, but it turns out he was just sad to see us leave.

Last night I discovered that “Chinatown” with Jack Nicholson is a great movie and the bootleg movie I bought awhile ago in Kakamega really does work. I had been apprehensive about using it b/c the first night I tried to use it was the night my old power cord stopped working. It looks like it was just a coincidence and I enjoyed a little bit of “Titanic” before I fell asleep. We’ve also firmed up all of our plans for April vacation. The boys are flying, but jean and I are taking an overnight bus all the way across the country. It should take about 16 hours. We’re bound to have some really cool story!

Back to laundry time…thanks for keep up with my story! It was great to talk to some of the Leininger/ Carpenter/ Kennedy/ Gomien etc… family on Sunday night. I hope Alaina’s tooth came out ok and you all had wonderful birthdays!

culinary victories

2009-03-09T10:33:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post something short about how wonderful it is to cook here. Because there's a limited variety of the food we can eat, we're all forced to experiment with the food we do have to create new and interesting dishes. Today, I achieved two culinary victories in the field of tomatoes. A few weeks ago I tried making tomato sauce for pasta from scratch. It took about 3 hours, but I think what I made turned out pretty well. I worked on it again today, switching up some of the ingredients, changing the process a little and I have to say, it was a great success. Looking at it simmering away on the stove, you really wouldn't be able to tell that it didn't come from a jar in the supermarket. Please with this victory, I moved on to tomato soup. Again, it took several hours and a lot of experimenting, but I think it turned out pretty well. It doesn't exactly taste like campbells, but it's going to be pretty darn tasty with some grilled cheese sandwiches here.
Other culinary discoveries- grilled PB&J and Peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches (a big thanks to the boys for that one. Jean also made chocolate frosting yesterday with hot chocolate powder since she couldn't find cocoa. Imagine eating a cake with frosting that tasted just like hot cocoa. It was delicious!
There's a woman in the market who sells coconuts and I want my next experiment to some sort of curry sauce that uses coconut. So if anyone happens to know of a simple recipe for a sauce that needs curry powder and coconut milk, please let me know.

Malarial Boredom...pt 2

2009-03-08T11:57:00.000-07:00

Well there's really not alot to update this week.
I feel like I might have finally kicked the malaria (knock on wood), but being home from work for a week with absolutely no energy was not super fun. On the upside, thanks to honorable Tom and Jean for retrieving them for me, I saw several movies this week that I'd never seen before. Pineapple Express, Some Like It Hot, Indian Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark and Pulp Fiction, just to name a few. Tom's extensive movie collection continues to come in quite handy.
I did manage to get out of the house a few times and a big thanks to Tom for coming out to the compound to entertain me. Friday all four of us went to lunch at Ismael's house. He's the foreman here on our farm and he wanted us to come see his bomas (homestead). We had a nice lunch of soda, biscuits, fried eggs and ugali. For those of you who know me well, you know that I don't eat eggs. It was my first challenge to Kenya hospitality, but not wanting to be rude, I ate as much of the lunch as I could (thanks Michael for taking some of my eggs!). Don't worry, I haven't had some revelations about eggs. I still think they're gross. But i've been told that here, when someone makes you something to eat, unless its going to make you sick, you eat it.
We also finalized some plans for our vacation in April. We're going to the coast for like 6 days and then white water rafting outside Nairobi before a two day retreat with Sr. Jane in Nairobi. It's amazing to think that we've been gone for 10 weeks already. It's amazing how fast the time has flown by.
Today we went to Tom and Michael's for a tasty brunch of peppers and sausage. One casualty of the malaria was my appetite, but its been coming back. Jean went home to do some laundry but I ended up staying the rest of the day and having dinner with the boys and the cat. It was a really nice way to spend the afternoon and nice to have two meals cooked for me.
I'm glad to be headed back to St. Julie's tomorrow. As always, thanks to all of you who are keeping up with my story!

Malarial boredom

2009-03-04T01:03:00.000-08:00

Well, as Tom said in his blog, I have officially won the Kenyan Infectious Disease Lottery. I am the first of the four volunteers to come down with Malaria. Now, before any of you reading this become too worried, I’m really doing fine. Mostly, I'm just getting a little bored with all this bed rest. I’ve been out of work this week and went to the doctor on Monday. After a very brief consultation with the clinician, I was sent to the Lab to have my finger pricked for a blood smear. When I got to the lab, the man who was working was a man Sr. Joy had introduced me to on a previous visit to the hospital. Ironically enough, the only other time I have been to the Malava district hospital was with Sr. Joy to find a speaker for St. Julie parents on the prevention on malaria. But anyways, it was good to have an in with the lab man. There were lots of people wait (outside I might add…b/c the waiting rooms at this hospital is outside on the grass) but he saw me right away. I took my little book that the lab guy had written in back to the clinician. He started to ask me all these questions, without telling me what the lab result was. But when I stopped to ask, he assured me it was malaria. I have to say, although it might sound strange, I was a little relieved. I would have had to go to another hospital in Kakamega to see another doctor had it not been malaria, and I was honestly too tired to think about doing that. Assured that it was in fact malaria, I have spent the last two days in bed, watching movies graciously lent to me by Tom and reading. I’m getting a little bored and feeling almost all the way better. But I’m still pretty run down, so I’m going to wait at least one more day before I go back to work. But for my first time with malaria, it was a very light case. I’ll be back to myself in a few days, so any of you who might be worrying…there’s no need. It’s like a rite of passage in Africa.

Also, with all this time to just lie around, I’m officially on book #20. I’ve read 19 books in almost 9 weeks. I love all the time to read, I can’t remember I had this much.

Well other that this little illness, life here has been fairly routine. Work is starting to slow down a little bit b/c (finally!) the rainy season has begun. Many people are at home getting their fields ready for planting and don’t have time to bring their kids into the center. The others at the center have said this will continue for a while and we should get used to having more time on our hands. I can’t imagine having more time that we already have, but we’ll wait and see. I talked to Sr. Jane last week (she’s our site director here in Kenya) and I explained some of my frustrations with down time. I love working at St. Julie’s and love having a lot of free time, but I’ve been struggling to feel productive. When I go to Nairobi for retreat in April we’re going to talk about finding supplemental for me to do…maybe working in one of the schools around here. I think it will be nice to have something to do a few afternoons each week. I’m looking forward to it. In the meantime, I went back to Sabatia eye clinic with Sr. Katherine on this past Friday. Going out in the field, whether it’s during home visits or going to clinics has become my favorite part of working for St. Julie’s.

A short anecdote: we were driving to Sabatia on Friday and we were almost there when we saw an accident in the road. There looked to be a petrol tanker in the road leaking something and a lorry (a little semi) turned on its side. There were people scraping gooey black stuff from the outside of the tanker into cans while the police stood off to the side doing nothing. Well I was outraged. I thought that the tanker was spilling crude oil which people were scraping with their bare hands. It may not have reached the American news, but about a month ago, an oil tanker overturned near a town called Molo. People came out to collect it and the news sources have said that the police, rather than keeping people away from such a dangerous scene, were charging people to collect the petrol. The newspaper said that someone who was angry b/c they didn’t have any money lit a match. Needless to say, the entire thing exploded and more than 120 people were killed. Well after that terrible tragedy, I couldn’t imagine that the police would just stand by and do nothing, not even help direct the quickly piling traffic around the wreck. As we got closer and closer I got angrier and more scared. After all, we had a bunch of children with us. This anger last until we got closer and I saw that one of the children had the black gunk all over his face and was licking it from his fingers. It was not oil, but molasses, that was for some reason being transported in a petrol tanker. The Lorry had turned on its side b/c it slipped in molasses. I was still a little annoyed that the police weren’t directing traffic, but the whole thing was pretty funny.

View of the hillside from the orphanage

Hide and Seek

Violet with Doro (L) and Ruth (R)

Madam Susan with some new friends

Saturday Jean and I headed to the orphanage that is run by the same woman who runs the school where Jean works. We spent the whole afternoon there, eating lunch, playing hide and seek and stud. We taught them to play jenga and they drew pictures of school and Madam Jean and Mr. Michael (our volunteers who are their teachers). The whole day was really wonderful. The best word I can think of for these kids is charming. We had a blast and it was really nice to spend a day with kids who are healthy. Don’t get me wrong, I love the kids at St. Julie’s, but it was nice to spend the day running around in the sun with these kids.

Two other good points of good news; the first package to Malava reached us last week. Michael received a package with books and supplies for his school. It took just about 3 weeks. I’ve been thinking that packages will take 3-6 weeks. I’m expecting a package from home and I hope it comes as quickly. That gives all you birthday well wishers just about 7 weeks. Letters have been coming much more quickly. All the small padded envelopes and letters have come in 10 days-two weeks, although one of Tom’s letters took a month. I also finally got a new power cord for my computer last week! It’s nice to be able to watch movie and use the internet on my own computer again. It came just in time, I can’t imagine how bored I would have been if I didn’t have movies during my bed rest over these last couple days.

Well that’s about all the news for now. Thanks for keep up with my stories!

A short visit to Kisumu

2009-02-23T04:23:00.000-08:00

A belated Happy birthday to my Dad! Happy birthday Daddy, I hope you had a great day!

Tuk tuk!

So, Jean and I went to Kisumu this weekend to see a city for a little while and just generally relax. Friday afternoon all four of us (Michael, Tom, Jean and myself) all got in a Matatu and headed to Kakamega for our Friday afternoon chicken and chips lunch. Jean and I hopped on another Matatu and spent the next two very bumpy hours checking out the new scenery, chatting with the driver on the history of the area and listening to 98 degrees on Kenyan radio. Seriously, they though one of their songs was so good, they played it twice in a row. We finally got there and I was def a little shell shocked. We’ve been out in the country for a while now, and Kisumu is the third largest city in Kenya, certainly bigger than Kakamega. So, since we hadn’t made reservations anywhere, we wandered around town looking for a clean and cheap place to stay. We had to look at 6 hotels, but we finally found one right as the sun was about to set. Hotel Palmers was a little more than we wanted to spend (a whopping 2500 KSH for a double…about $35 for you yanks) but it was gloriously luxurious with big beds, mosquito beds, fluffy white towels, hot water, views of Lake Victoria and (TA DA) a TV. So we caved and spent a little extra money to stay there. After long hot showers and making ourselves pretty we headed down the street to the much nicer Imperial hotel for dinner. We had a nice dinner pools side with beers at the hotel, then went to a local bar called Mon Ami for drinks. It’s really the strangest bar I’ve been to. It’s really a sports bar. There are soccer jerseys all over the walls and huge TVs with soccer games. But apparently at night time it turns into part club, complete with a disco ball and wonderfully bad American music. I think that night is the most fun I’ve had in Kenya so far. We danced the night away with new Kenyan friends.

Boats in the fishing village of Dunga

We finally headed back to the hotel, covered in sweat around and extremely happy. The best thing about being in a city was being about to take a new and better form of public transportation. The bigger cities in Kenya have Tuk tuks, three wheel vehicles- imagine a golf cart with a plastic top and three wheels. They’re much better than the bike taxis and way less sketchy than the actual taxis that are unmarked and have very tinted windows. So anyways, we took a tuk tuk back to our hotel, and made the driver pose for pictures with us and then wait while we took pictures with the vehicle itself. We watched some bad American show and fell aslep.

View of Lake Victoria from Hippos Point

A little boy fishing in Lake Victoria

Saturday, after breakfast, we checked out of the Palmers and headed for the New Victoria Hotel. We had tried the day before, but they were all full. They had a double open on Saturday and it was lovely. It was little small, but with hot water, a TV and best of all- a balcony. After we checked in, we went to go find a man to take us out on a boat in Lake Victoria. We took a tuk tuk out to this place called hippo point, but since we couldn’t see any hippos, we walk a further 3 km (in the blistering sun and heat) to a small fishing village called Dunga. We met two young Kenyan men along the way, Daniel and Martin, and they promised to help get us a good deal for a boat. They ended up staying with us all day. I expected them to ask us for money for guiding us around, but they didn’t. It was nice to have them. We also met some other Americans volunteering in Dunga at a clinic. Its really neat to run into other young Americans who are volunteering here. So we get to the place where the boats are and after some negotiating, we took off out on the lake to find some hippos. We finally did, after about an hour of looking and BOY are those things big. We didn’t get very close, but I really didn’t want to get any closer than we did. Hippos kill more people in African every year than any other animal combined. But the whole trip was really nice, seeing people fishing in the Lake and being out on a boat. After the boat ride, we walked almost all the way back into town (by this time it must have been almost 100 degrees in the sun and we had already walked about 6 km that day) and virtually collapsed poolside at a place called the Nyanza club (kind of like a Kenyan country club/ hotel) until it was time for dinner. We found a place in town that was advertising itself as a pizzeria and pub, but I ended up having some of the best Indian food I’ve ever had and watch the Arsenal soccer match. Kenyans love their football, but I just can’t seem to get into it. We were both so tired after a big day that we went back to our hotel, bought some yummy cake from the bakery downstairs, showered and watched poorly dubbed Spanish and Kenyan soap opera until we both fell asleep.

Hippos!

Sunday Jean got up bright and early to go to church, but I had a leisurely breakfast at the hotel and then wandered around the city until I found a nice park to read in. When Jean was done with church, we went to the Kisumu hotel (very nice) for lunch and a little time by the pool. It’s so nice that all these nice hotels let people who aren’t guests use their facilities for a low fee. We would have never been able to afford the hotels whose pools we used. We met two other American girls there, one who was a teacher there for a year living with a host family and another girl working for a non profit in Kenya organizing sports leagues and living with her Kenyan boyfriend. They were both friendly and chatty. It’s amazing how nice it is to talk to Americans. It’s so easy, compared with Kenyan’s English, which can be really formal.
After several very bumpy hours squeezed into the back of a matatu, we made it home in one peice. We took a boda boda back to the house when we finally got off in Malava, but my guy was so old, he didn’t make it all the way to the house. He stopped before we’d even gotten half way, breathing hard. Rather than make him suffer any more, I paid him the full fare, thanked him and walked the rest of the way home since it wasn’t all the way dark yet.
Not everything is Kisumu was all that nice. You could still tell that the town had taken a lot of damage from the violence last year. The matatu, boda boda and tuk tuk men are much more pushy, actually coming up and grabbing our arms to see if we needed a ride, and the street kids there made me really sad. Often they just sit in the shade of a tree with an empty pint bottle of liquor that they’ve filled with glue. They sit and sniff it until they’re high, then track down tourists to ask them for money. Some are sad and plead with you, some are mean and try to intimidate you. Either way, you really have to resist giving them money. It most cases, they’re just going to use it to buy more glue. It was the hardest part about this weekend. The poverty in Kenya continues to astound me. I can not wrap my head around how this country can have starving children and kids living in parks, but doesn’t tax their Ministers of Parliament. That’s right, the ministers don’t pay taxes…can you believe that. Its hard to know there’s really nothing I can do as a foreigner…that reform really needs to come from the inside.

swimming and mzungus in Kakameaga

2009-02-14T23:27:00.000-08:00

Life continues here in Malava, but we’ve had a few exciting events this week. Work continues to be pretty much the same. Tom and I have taken over all of the admin work that we can, mostly so Neto can spend more time with the kids in play therapy. We still have a little time to do play therapy when a lot of kids come in. I’m hopefully going to start driving lessons soon so I can take over some of the driving to clinics and taking kids to the hospital. We also had our first epilepsy clinic this week. Basically all the adults and kids who get their epilepsy meds through us come in to the center. They got a number and weighed by me. Then they went in to talk to Angela and then to be registered by Tom and Joy. It was out longest day yet at the center and they told us that when the doctor comes in, they’re usually there until after 5. But all in all we had about 25 people come in and it was a pretty satisfying day.

Jean and I got cooking lessons in traditional Kenyan cooking this week. The bananas here were ready to come off the tree, but they’re still really green. Rather than letting them ripen into what we think of as sweet bananas, they cook with the green ones and Sr. Beatrice showed us how to prepare them. We boiled some and then mashed them with green onions so make a dish that is really just like mashed potatoes. We also stewed some with tomatoes and onions- that was my favorite way to eat them. The cooking lessons continue today. We’re going to the boy’s house for brunch and chapatti (a kind of flat bread) lessons with William. So for anyone you coming to visit, we should be able to be able to prepare a good Kenyan feast for you.

Jean and I also discovered one of the best things about being here on an adventure to Kakamega yesterday. We heard there was a nicer hotel that had a pool that you could use for a fee if you were not a guest, so we went to check it out. Sure enough, there was a nice pool (the water was pretty green) with a poolside bar and restaurant. There were a ton of Kenyans around and a ton of kids playing in the pool. Jean and I spent the day swimming and working on erasing out t shirt tan lines. We even met some other Americans there who were working with a charity that was bringing supplies to schools. They were there with some kids at the playground and we got to talk to one of them for a little while. All in all, it was one of the best weekends that I’ve had so far. We’re headed to Kisumu next weekend for the whole weekend. We’re hoping to do a little more vegging out by the pool and looking for hippos in Lake Victoria. Hopefully we’ll have some fun wild animal stories for next weekend, but hopefully they won’t involve charging hippos.

A BIG hello to the OWU girls who came all the way to Cincy this weekend. I’m sorry I’m not there to hang out with you guys, but I hope you’re having fun! Thanks to everyone who continues to read!

Michael's birthday and other exciting events

2009-02-07T23:18:00.000-08:00

Another week in Malava…

Last Sunday we continued our tradition of Sunday Brunch. We went to the boys’ house for brunch on Sunday afternoon with Laurie (the American at Jean and Michael’s school) and Hezbon (a Kenyan who also works at the school. They made us this Zambian dish with rice and BACON. Laurie told us her story about being here when the violence broke out after the election and their evacuation. After Laurie and Hezbon left, the group of school age girls who likes to hang around Tom and Michaels house came by and started yelling at all of us to give them food and water. This, in turn, started a water fight…which was kind of one sided. Mostly the boys threw water and the girls ran away. They’re nice girls, but very noisy, we were happy when they finally went home.

Work this week had its ups and downs. Some days I was very busy and some days not so much.

Tuesday I went into the field with Sr. Joy, Mama Grace (the coordinator of the Community Based Rehabilitation Workers-CBRWs) and Margret, a CBRW for the region where we were going. First of all, I thought we lived in a little village. In the field, I got to see what rural Kenya really looks like. Of course I forgot to bring my camera, but I’ll remember it next time I go with Sr. Joy. Anyways, the point of these visits is to validate that the needs of the parents aren’t being exaggerated. Often, they’re cases where I family needs assistance with transportation or medicine, so they go out to assess the home situation. The first family we visited with a young mother who has a son named Vincent who’s leg needs plaster casting to straighten out some bones that did not grow correctly. We went to where they live, which seemed very far from the center, especially since they said that walked there. She also had another child with disabilities and wanted money for transport, since she could not walk all the way with the both of them. So we went, and there were a ton of little, half naked kids running around. We sat in the families thatch roof house for about an hour while the St. Julie employees asked the family questions. Since the whole thing was conducted in Swahili, I didn’t really understand the conversation. Sr. Joy said it took so long b/c people kept coming in b/c there was a vehicle there. They wanted to know what was going on. I guess vehicles don’t often make it back as far as we were. I can understand why. It wasn’t so much driving on roads as it was driving from dust roads to stone and grass, up and down the hillsides. At one point, we even had to cross two small rivers. Thank god for 4wheel drive.

Anyways, we moved on from there to visit a woman with 4 children, three of whom are in school and the littlest one who has epilepsy. She needed help with transportation, since she too lived far from the center, and help with the medicine needed to treat the epilepsy. Joy told me that this woman lost her husband last year, so you can imagine my surprise when we got there and the woman turned out to be around my age, maybe a few years older. I can’t imagine being my age and already having four children and having lost a husband. She was very friendly, and the visit was shorter. Joy said she would be able to help the family, but only maybe for a year or so while the woman was still grieving for her husband. She explained that since this woman had land with sugar cane, maize and beans that could be sold and the ability to work in nearby fields while her children were in school, she should not need our help once she is settled.

Finally, we had one more family to visit. It must have taken us an hour to go maybe 10 or 15km. We stopped for sodas and to buy some bananas (so much cheaper than in town). Finally, after driving up a very steep hill that didn’t really have a road, we arrived at the homestead of a little boy named Kevin who is living with his grandmother since his father is still in secondary school. That’s right, the dad is only 17. But that’s not even the part I found shocking. The mom, who was there with Kevin the baby, was 15 yrs old. I couldn’t believe it. Married with a child at 15. But Sr. Joy explained to me that it really is quite normal for that to happen, especially in families where the children do not go to secondary schools. In the Kakamega district alone, last year more that 80% of the children went to primary school (b/c its mandated and “free”) but only 10% of those children continued on to secondary school. And a man here becomes an adult at 12, when they’re circumcised. After that, they build their own house on their parents homestead and can take a wife as soon as they can afford the bride price. So here was this little mother, holding her nine month old son, almost 10 years younger than myself. I know I’m here to learn and observe and not judge, but it makes me happy to have grown up in the kind of American life that I did.

The families we visited today were very poor, many of them with a lot of children. There was a little boy at the first house, Fred, who was the other child in the family who had disabilities. Similar deformities to his brother with the twisted legs, but there were also indications that he has mental retardation issues. While his baby brother had been into St. Julie’s, he never had. The grandmother promised, while we were there, to watch the other little one so the mom could take both of her children with disabilities to the center.

So…the visits were exciting, enlightening, and sad…all at the same time. But at least I felt like I was really learning more about what real life here is like.

Wed and Thursday were uneventful. I’ve started reading the Harry Potter series again, from the beginning, just for fun. We started planning for our trip to the coast that we’re taking in April. I think I may have found a little cottage for all of us that will only cost us around $24 USD/ day and includes a full time cook. We also got a box full of stuff for our kitchen from Nairobi; including exciting things like a colander and a cheese grater…it’s really the little things in life. I’ve been trying to watch “It Happened One Night”…on loan from Tom of course…but I keep falling asleep.

Friday I went with Sr. Catherine and 6 of our clients and their parents to the Sabatia eye clinic, which does cost free vision screening and is run by Quakers. Sr. Catherine was telling me that the Friends Meeting has become a very strong African religion and they run schools and hospitals all over the place. The eye clinic was extremely well and had doctors from all around the world. While Sister Catherine took 2 of the older children to be seen by the doctor, I took the others to the low vision clinic, where a lovely young woman by the name of Regina took them through a series of eye tests and made further recommendations about their therapy at the center or what specialists might be helpful. All the children were wonderful, but a sweet little girl named Valerie soon became my favorite. She came right up and wanted to hold my hand while we walked. She admired my bracelet and wanted to try on my glasses. Sr. Katherine told me later in the car on the way home that when she was only 2 (she’s almost 7 now) she was in a horrible accident. She was in a coma for a full month. Now, several years later, she’s a bit delayed, but she’s a happy, healthy little girl. She really is a miracle. She needed to go to the eye clinic b/c the last thing to return was her sight.

Saturday was a very very long day. It was Michael’s birthday and the Sisters had a little celebration for him on Friday night. We were invited for dinner with cake and ice cream at the community house and they gave him a box of new toys for the orphanage. So since Saturday was his actual birthday, we decided to switch days and have volunteer brunch this morning. I made my famous “Suey pancakes” (as Crissy dubbed them in college) and had them with honey since syrup is hard to find and very expensive. Jean and I decided that we wanted to explore the Kakamega Rainforest , so we set off after breakfast. The Kakamega rainforest used to be part of an equatorial rainforest that stretched across the middle of Africa from the Atlantic to the Indian Ocean. This little piece is the only piece that now exists in Kenya. It was not the Fern Gully rainforest of my imagination, but it was spectacular. We saw some more colobus monkeys and walked a very far 3 km in the blazing sun to find waterfalls on the Isiukhu River. The falls were amazing, and had the water not been so murky, I think I would have dived in with all my clothing on. We also had the chance to meet some entomologists (bug scientists) who were both Kenyan and I believe German. They’re traveling all over the country to collect different kinds of dragon flies to put in Kenyan museums.

Then it was off to Kakamega to use the ATM, but of course, on the way out, I managed to trip over some roots and fall, landing hard on my knee. I limped my way through the rest of the day, including two pretty terrible, pretty crowded and dirty matatu rides. I was happy to finally be home and get off my feet.

PS another story to add to the wild kingdom file- I was getting in the shower the other night and a gecko fell off the ceiling, hit me on the head and got tangled in my hair. Despite the fact that he was completely harmless, I screamed like the scardy cat I am.

Some new pictures

2009-01-31T23:20:00.001-08:00

Mama baboon with her baby...walking along the road

Colobus monkey..hiding from the camera in a tree

BABOONS!

malava forest

the countryside...as taken from a speeding matatu

Out to lunch for Laurie's b day
Tom, Hezbon, Laurie, Jean and Michael

The adventures continue

2009-01-31T23:12:00.000-08:00

Another week has flown by here in Malava. We've been here for almost a month!

i’ll begin with some funny observations from last Sunday at Mass. Since I can’t understand the homily, I usually look around and check things out, see what’s going on. First of all, there was a little boy who was wearing a shirt that had one of those “No smoking” circles in it, but rather than it being a cigarette in the middle, it said “Tan Lines” and the shirt was an advertisement for some nudist beach (either that or some Abercrombie Shirt) I have to believe his parents did not understand the English on that shirt, or that would have never let him wear it. There was also a little baby in front of me clothed in a full on winter jacket and ski hat. She was also wearing little gym shoes that I originally thought were “Nikes Airs”. I thought that was funny, since those shoes tend to be expensive, until I paid attention to that way it was actually spelled…”Nkie Aib”. Nothing like Kenya knock offs to give me a chuckle at church.

After church, we had our first volunteer brunch/ lunch. It was very nice…Michael and Tom came to our house and Jean and I made spaghetti with steak (not your idea of steak, trust me) and fresh tomatoes...not too bad.

Monday was back for our second week of work. We had a meeting on Tuesday afternoon with Neto (who does play therapy), Sr. Joy (who does admin stuff) Sr. Judi (our director) Tom and myself. We sat down and really had a chance to hammer down what we were all going to do and what our roles will be. While Tom and I are at the center, we will help to take some of the record keeping off of Neto’s hands and do play therapy when there is a need. We will also help to build new play therapy aids in the afternoons, as well as some other responsibilities. We’ll see how things play out. I told Sr. Judi I would be willing to drive some of the kids to appointments they have, since I know how to drive a standard. Looks like I’m going to have to start practicing driving on the wrong…I mean the left…side of the road. So work progresses on and Tom and I continue to do the best to make ourselves a niche where we can make a difference.

Lets see…also on Tuesday, we stopped being able to have running water and electricity at night. The little indicator in the well had gotten stuck on the side, so the sisters didn’t know that the holding tank was almost empty. Therefore, the whole day on Tuesday we didn’t have running water while the holding tank was filling and we didn’t have a chance to shower again (well besides bucket showers) until Thursday.

Wed was a great day at work...we felt really busy. We kept pretty busy updating client files, but I had some time to do play therapy with one of my fav little girls, Elisabeth. I think she’s around 5 or 6, but it’s hard to tell since her cerebral palsy seems to have made her a little smaller than average and she has very little speech. Still, she tons of fun, and has a great smile. She’s a really good walker, her legs were almost completely unaffected, but she has some pretty bad damage to one of her hands. So we tossed a ball back and forth in an effort to force her to use her bad hand and try and stretch out some of the contractions. She’s pretty good about it, but when she gets tired, she switched to her bad hand and you have to help her use the other one again. After work, we got a text from Michael and Jean, wanting to know if we would like to join then for lunch at the petrol (gas) station. Tom and I had a little extra time, so went to find the entrance to the Malava forest, which is supposed to be close to there. We went on a little walk in the forest, and were treated to a few sightings of the local colobus monkeys! They live there like raccoons live in the city. Ok, that’s a bad analogy, but its strange for something that I’ve only seen in a zoo so common place in their natural habitat. It’s very neat. More on the local monkey and baboon population shortly. We had a really nice lunch of chapatti (flat bread) and fried chicken for lunch and enjoyed each other’s company and the (very hot) afternoon. And we found out there are more American volunteers coming through some program in Georgia in April and July. We’re all very excited for new Mzungus!

Thursday was a bad day. Some sort of stomach bug caught up to me and I spent that day in bed (and in the bathroom). Luckily it didn’t last more than that day, and I got to watch a couple movies. Wow, was Friday a big day. We went into Kakamega to do some shopping, go to the ATM and go out to lunch for Laurie’s (another American working at the school with Jean and Michael) birthday. Tom and I got there around 1, but the others got held up, so we didn’t actually go out to lunch until around 3:30. It was worth the wait though…we had fried chicken and fries…so tasty! Laurie also got birthday cake and ice cream from one of the local supermarkets and we had a very nice celebration. Unfortunately, it was cut short when Laurie and Hezbon (another employee of Tumaini) got a call that one of the kids was very sick and needed to go to the hospital. So the four of us finished up our shopping…getting frozen food and other delicacies like hot dogs that are not available in Malava. I was standing outside Mama Watoto (one of our supermarkets) and this little boy came up to me with a sharpened metal stick in his hand. He proceeded to poke with me with it and ask for money. I yelled “Hapana, Hapana” (no, no) at him, but he wouldn’t stop until one of the Boda Boda (bike taxi) drivers pulled him away by the back of his shirt. And then once we got on the matatu and we were waiting for it to fill up, kids selling really random things…from peanuts to combs…came up to the windows, trying to get us to buy. People are often relentless when they think that they’ve spotted a Mzungu with money. Also, we saw three other white people in Kakamega, the first since Nairobi, and I found myself getting irrationally excited, pointing and yelling “look, there’s a Mzungu!”. I’m finally getting an idea of why the Africans always point at us. Jean and I took a boda boda (bike taxi) from the matatu stand to home…my first trip. You sit on a little padded seat on the back of the bike with little foot rests and a handle under the bike seat to hold on to. It was a little bumpy, but over all very pleasant and only 20 KSH (about 0.25 USD) for a half a mile trip.

Saturday Jean, Michael, Tom and I spent most of our day walking in the Malava forest. We walked in the woods for a few miles, then turned off the beaten trail, crossed over a little stream and walked up the hill back to the tarmac road. We were going to head back, but decided to see what was in the forest on the other side of the road, hoping to see some of the famous monkeys or baboons that we’ve seen a little bit of. BOY did we ever. We say a bunch of baboons in the trees, so we decided to go farther in, in the hopes of getting some better shots. Well…we stumbled into their home on the ground. We were walking, and all of a sudden, there are about 10 baboons…babies, mamas and big male baboons…all just sitting in the path. We crept closer and closer (I know…not the smartest thing to do with wild animals and their babies) trying to get better pictures, and were rewarded with some good ones. I looked down to adjust something on my camera, and I hear someone running by. Then Michael says, waaaayyy too calmly “I think we’d better run now. I think they’re charging.” Well I certainly didn’t wait to see if the male baboon were in fact charging, I turned and ran as fast as I could. Luckily, they weren’t looking for trouble, they just wanted us away from their babies. We got back to the tarmac, sweaty and ready to walk back to town, and we saw a ton, probably 25 or so, just on the road. We figured they’d come back to seek their revenge, but they just scattered when they saw us coming. We also saw some really cool black and white colobus monkeys on the way home…so neat!

The time continues to fly by in a series of wonderful new surprises.

phone number

2009-01-26T05:38:00.000-08:00

If forgot to put this up when I got it, but if anyone needs to contact me personally, I do have a cell phone. The number is 254715698986.

Feel free to call, remember the 8 hour time difference from the US Eastern standard time zone. It can be expensive, but I love to hear from people!

Our first full week

2009-01-26T05:22:00.000-08:00

We started work after having a few days to get settled and last Monday was the first day of work. There are 5 other employees at the center besides Tom and myself, plus volunteers who come in to do play therapy and Community Based Outreach Workers (CBRWs) who go into the children's home to investigate their environments there. The actual therapy is done by David and Angela, both trained physical and speech therapists. Neto is the one who came on last year when there were no volunteers here and he supervises the volunteers who do play therapy and keeps all the records surrounding it. Sr. Joy does a lot of the admin and computer work and Grace is the coordinator for all the CRBWs. Sr. Judi is the director of us all. Monday was interesting. We observed play therapy and what the therapists do one on one with the kids. Let me explain how the day works. We get there and Nancy (oops, she works there too) cleans up for the morning. Then the families come. They sit in the front room and play with the toys that are specific to the goals they're trying to achieve. For example, a little girl named Sylvia is 6 and has Down syndrome. To work on socialization, she and I played with a doll. Another boy, named Samson, has cerebral palsy and has leg braces, so we kicked the soccer ball to help strengthen his leg muscles. All the toys are organized based on the skills the kids should be working on. So anyways, they sit outside in the main room playing until Angela or David calls them into the therapy room. Then they do actually physical (or in some cases speech) therapy with the kids. Then the parents can let them stay and play, or they take them home. There is also a toy lending library, so the parents can continue to work on the skills at home. Everything is based around the parent's involvement. The goal is for them to continue with the therapy everyday when they can't come into the center.

So anyway, Tom and I got to do a little bit of everything this week- play therapy, sitting in on the therapy sessions, learning how to do some of the book keeping and admin stuff. Tom and I also began thinking about what our strengths are and where we can help. What they really need is more money…something Tom and I can def help with. So we have decided we're going to work on grants and fund raising this year. We're also going to try and take some of the record keeping from Neto so he can do more of the play therapy that he loves. I think the roles we're going to take on will develop over the next few weeks.

We also started cooking on our own this week. Everything has to be made from scratch and the beans were especially hard to cook. They had to soak forever. The one meal I made really wasn't very good. We can basically cook with beef, potatoes, cabbage, carrots, peppers, onions rice and ugali (which is almost like grits, but much thicker- made from maize flour and boiling water). But we're cooking more and more and I think the meal we made on Sunday (spaghetti with meat and tomatoes) was actually pretty good. I'm loving the fresh fruit. In case I haven't said it yet, African bananas are way sweeter than the ones we get in the US. I have one for breakfast almost very morning. I'm greatly wishing I didn't have an allergy to mangos! They're everywhere, and they look SO good.

We're also learning more and more about the little village where we're living. We're learning the real prices to things, not just the white people prices. We're learning who has the best produce and who has the best meat. People are getting to know us. We even found a little place that will sell us sodas for 25 KSH (about $.30 US). Our little town is very colorful and has a lot of character. I'm less nervous to go into little stores and ask for what I need in a combination of broken Swahili and English. It doesn't feel like home yet, but it doesn't feel so strange anymore either.

Two other things we did this week was have a brief lesson on Luhya (the main ethnic group here) and watched the inauguration. The inauguration was great! At one point during his speech, he has something like "To all the leaders who rule with corruption and coercion…if you unclench your fist, we will extend a hand". I felt like he was talking directly to Mugabe in Zimbabwe. I also got goose bumps when one of the announcers said "The whole world is watching"…b/c we really are. Since where we are is not too far from his father's village, they were also showing people celebrating there. People literally started partying over last weekend and didn't stop until the end of last week. Western Kenya is waiting to see what the new president of the US can do for them. I just hope they don't put too much faith in him, and many of the newspapers are encouraging Kenyans to work on their own country, rather than waiting for a foreign leader to solve their problems.

It's been raining alot, which has helped to cool things off, but it means the postulate has less power since everything is run on solar. Alot of the things we do each day really make you think about resources in a way that you never have to in the US. Cooking and washing dishes in a place without running water makes you think about the amount of water you use (although we're lucky, we just have to go up to the postulate to get clean water). Solar power makes you think about the amount of things that get plugged in. The food you make has you thinking about all the work it takes to cook from the raw ingredients. As the sisters here say...Simple living sure does take a along time.

Hope Everyone enjoyed the pictures!

some pictures up until now

2009-01-26T05:09:00.000-08:00

St. Julie Centre for Disabled Children- where Tom and I work

the postulate house- where we sleep

The little house where Jean and I do everything but sleep and shower

Our Neighbors Grace and Eunice

The Main Road that runs through Malava

The whole gang petting a cheetah at Nairobi National Park
L-R Jean, Sr. Jane, Me, Sr. Phyllis, Tom, Michael

The house where Tom and Michael live

An Acacia tree in the Racecourse Area of Nairobi

2009-01-18T10:26:00.000-08:00

We have now been in country officially for a week, and what a week it’s been. Every single day has been full of new learning experiences. Our last day in Nairobi, we had a chance to be touristy and go to Nairobi national park for a Safari walk. We saw a ton off different animals…including petting a real cheetah (check out the picture!) She was very sleep, but help her head up while we took pictures. Our guide there was great; he knew where all the animals would be and how to call them so we could get more pictures. When we figure out a better internet situation, I’m going to try and post some of the pictures I’ve taken.

So after a wonderful few days getting to know the SND community in Nairobi, we hopped on an Akamba bus with Sr. Mary and started our journey up country to Malava. We didn’t make it very far before the bus we were on broke down. Luckily the bus that came to pick us up had cushy seats, which came in later going over the bone jarring bumps on the poorly paved roads. We drove through the Rift Valley and saw a (dormant?) volcano, zebras and a baboon. My photos do not do justice to how beautiful it was. We also drove through some of the places that were hit by last year’s post election violence. There was some rebuilding, but there are still internally displaced people living in huge white tents and the remnants of homes that were burned. After a very, very bumping final two hours from Kisumu to Kakamega Sr. Katherine picked us up from the matatu and we had a chance to settle into our new homes.

Our first day in Malava was chocked full. We had a chance to see market day- thank goodness Sr. Judi was with us, b/c many of the vendors gave us good deals on our produce for the week. They have been telling us that b/c of the drought and fields destroyed by the violence last year that food has been scarce, but we managed to get everything we needed and give our bargaining skills a work out. While we were out, we also had a chance to greet the community outreach workers who work for the St. Julie Centre. They were having a meeting when we stopped in…so Tom and I got a quick view into our new place of employment. After lunch, Sr. Katherine took us out to the orphanage and school where Jean and Michael will be working. The kids were all ready for us with a song and a poem and were much better behaved than some children I’ve seen in the US. We also had a chance to meet another American volunteer names Laurie who will be working on sports with the kids in the school for the next 6 weeks.

Yesterday we went into Kakamega to get the rest of the things for our houses that we couldn’t get in Malava. The idea of a supermarket in Kenya is a little different than running to Kroger. It is literally a big market, but inside, where you can get everything from this week’s milk to towels for your house. The road from Malava to Kakamega is very torn up and very bumpy. It’s interesting with three adults in the back seat of a pick up truck. We had most of yesterday afternoon off, after Sr. Judi showed us a few more practical things. It was the first time in a while where I could kick up my feet and read for four hours straight. It was very nice.

Today we went to mass at the parish church by the guy’s house. It was our first experience with full on Kiswahili and I thought it was amazing. The music was beautiful and there were little girls who danced in the aisles. They said it’s the longer mass, but I really couldn’t tell. It was interesting to listen to the homily in Swahili and see how many words I could pick up. At one point a women who had been sort of wandering around came and sat next to me. Then she got up, tugged my skirt out so she could sit on it right next to me and stared without looking away for a good 5 minutes before one of the people who was working in the church came and asked her to move. I may have been uncomfortable, but everyone else thought it was very funny. I felt bad b/c she was saying something to me, but I couldn’t understand her and she didn’t’ speak English. The father also asked us all to stand up before final prayer and asked someone from the congregation to interpret for us. Occasionally, the whole congregation would burst out laughing, but we really didn’t know why…another language barrier thing. Hopefully they were just laughing at his translation.

We had the afternoon off again today, and after tea with Tom and Michael and being walked home by our little neighbors Grace and Eunice, Jean and I headed back to Kakamega, this time on our own. We were successful in using the Matatu, although the one coming home was quite overcrowded and poorly ventilated. I think that almost every group of children between here and Kakamega yelled “Mzungu, How are you?” to us on our little adventure. It’s really funny, b/c you say “I am fine, How are you?” and they just either giggle or yell back yes b/c most of them don’t understand more than “I am fine”. Even the little ones on the matatu openly stare at us. There were even some little ones at church who sat completely turned around for the entire service staring. I think it’s cute now, but who knows how long it will last. I think once we’ve been here for a while, people will start to get more used to us.

Tomorrow is our first day of work and I’m really looking forward to it. I think it will help me realize that this is not a relaxing vacation and that we’re really here to learn something new and work hard. I’m sure work will offer a whole new day of learning experiences. We’re also having a lesson in Luhya greetings and culture tomorrow afternoon- as most people here are a member of that group. Many people speak Luhya, Swahili and English, so it’s helpful if we know as much as we can.

African observations:

- I’ve never seen the stars as clearly as I can here, but it’s from a completely different angle than the US. I’m going to have to find an astronomy book

- A bunch of the little kids wear sweaters with their school uniforms while us Americans are practically melting in this equatorial heat. And everyone keeps asking us in the late afternoon and evening if we’re cold.

- The matatus (mini buses- public transportation) in Nairobi have crazy themes like Obama, Jesus and Ludacris and often play quality American music like “Wind Beneath my wings”

- A ton of the kids here think we’re absolutely hilarious. The other run away crying.

Sorry there are no pictures yet. I'm still working on figuring out this very slow internet.

2009-01-14T11:37:00.001-08:00

We have now been in Nairobi for three full days. We got in late on Sunday night and quickly fell asleep after a quick cup of tea with the Sisters here. The first day we slept in last, which was lovely, since most of us were up for a few hours in the middle of the night. The eight hour time difference has been a really hard adjustment. After going over some practicalities after lunch, we had the rest of the first afternoon free to explore the Racecourse area of Nairobi where we’re staying. Luckily Sammy, who works for the nuns, showed us around. He took us to places that I’m not sure we would have had the courage to go on our own, including a market nearby. All the vendors came up to introduce themselves and talk to us. A man named Peter wanted me to buy one of his carvings so I could bring it back to Obama when I got back to the states. They seemed a little disappointed when they found out we did not bring any money with us. We also went to look at a church nearby, just as their school was getting out. All the little kids on the school bus went wild and started yelling “Mzungu, Mzungu” (white person) at us and waving. One little guy was even brave enough to come up and shake our hands and say hello. Yesterday we had a chance to go into the city centre of Nairobi. It gave me a much better idea about the area of town we’re staying in. Our side smells like burning metal and trash. The markets are made out of corrugated metal and old wooden beams. Everything is covered in dirt, trash or some combination of both. And rather than having barbed wire (b/c EVERYTHING has barb wire) people have cemented broken glass bottles to the tops of their fences in an effort to keep people out. And this is not a slum area. We saw a slum area today and that gave me some real perspective. We took a matatu into town. Believe me when I say, you have NEVER experienced as public transportation like this. The conductor hangs out of the door (how he doesn’t fall, I don’t know) shouting at people on the side of the road to see if they need rides. Then you get on and you pay 20 KSH (about $.30) to get a ride into town. Luckily, a man who works for the nuns named Sammy took us around town and handled our fares. Apparently they charge much higher fees for mzungus (white people) like us. We were talking about it more over dinner and they said had Sammy not been with us, they probably would have charged us around 100 KSH. So Sammy took us into town. We went to the banks to change our money and use the ATM and got our cell phones. Our phones were 2500 KSH (about $30) and that came with some air time. Everything is pre paid, there are no plans. It’s kind of weird. The phones are not great but it works. After that, we just sort of wandered around for a while. We went to this huge park called Uhuru Park and saw the memorial for the 1998 terrorist bombing of the US Embassy. Uhuru Park was AMAZING! We sat by a big fountain in the middle and enjoyed the cool spray and drank Fanta orange soda from glass bottles. There’s orange fanta everywhere! There was a big lake with some other tourists paddle boating. And there were some really cool birds, including these little ones that looked like sapphires. We then took a matatu back where I literally felt like I was going to fall out of the window and the driver was blaring Bette Midler’s “Wind beneath my wings” and “Lady in red”. We spent that afternoon playing board games and reading so we wouldn’t take naps.
Last night was the first night I managed to sleep through the night. It’s been a real problem, getting used to the time difference. It’s also strange getting used to sleeping under the mosquito nets. The second night was especially bad. I was awake for probably 3 hours in the middle of the night and still couldn’t sleep past 7:45. It was wonderful to have an uninterrupted night of sleep.
Today we went on a safari walk at Nairobi national park. We had a guide who knew where all the animals hide and sleep in the heat of the early afternoon, so we saw lions, monkeys, leopards, cheetahs, Rhinos and a ton of other animals. The people who work there also actually let us walk right up to the cheetah and pet it and take pictures with it. Not something you could do in a regular US zoo. The cheetah was just laying there, not chained or muzzled or restrained. It was so cool. We had lunch and then went off to the Bomas of Kenya. Bomas means “homestead” in Swahili, and they have a big exhibit that has traditional Kenyan homesteads. We didn’t get to see that, but we went to this presentation of traditional African dances. It was amazing, and I’m sure I would have enjoyed it more, but I got really over heated and wasn’t feeling well.
Tomorrow we leave for Malava. The sisters here have been wonderful, and it will be sad to leave, but I’m exciting to be moving to our new home. We’ve all been living out of suitcases for almost two weeks now. It will be nice to be able to unpack and get to work. We will have internet there, so I should be able to post again over the weekend with my first impressions of our new village.
Thanks for all the well wishes!

London baby

2009-01-11T00:20:00.000-08:00

The Kenya and Nigeria Teams!
Jean (Kenya), Tom (Kenya), Aubrie (Nigeria), ME, Michael (Kenya), Katie (Nigeria)

Baltimore Harbor

We have made it through the first leg of our flight from Washington D.C. to London. While the sun is rising here, I think we all feel like it should be the middle of the night. We'll lose a total of eight hours on this trip.
I've been in Baltimore since Monday for a training with the other volunteers from Kenya and the Nigerian volunteers. We had meetings on a variety of topics- community living, balancing life in mission, finding our inner unconditional. Lots and lots of information to process, but all really helpful in it's own way.
The sisters had a Missioning Service for us on Friday night, which was lovely. We had a chance to talk about our spirit and ideas behind our year of service coming up and the SNDs there sent us along with their blessings and their prayers.
We land in Nairobi tonight around 10 pm and will be there until Thursday. All I know about getting from the airport to where we're staying in Nairobi is that we're going to be met by the sister's driver Titus. I hope he has a sign. We'll have some orientation there, and I'm looking forward to seeing the places that I've read about in guide books. I'll be sure to post more about the experience there whenever I have internet.

Contact Information

2008-12-27T12:16:00.001-08:00

I finally have my mailing address in Malava!

P.O. Box 323
Malava 50103 Kenya

Letter are safe, but packages can be tricky. If you are interested in sending mail, it's best to stick to letters for now, until I figure out more from experience.

The phone number for the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur there is:

254 723 205 003

That phone number should be used for emergencies only. I'll have a cell phone once I get there, and I'll get you all the phone number as soon as I can.

Kate and I are leaving for Virginia/ DC area in a week to see the OWU girls for a long weekend, then it's off to Baltimore on January 5th. A big thanks to my friends and family who have made these last couple weeks and the holiday so special.

2008-11-09T16:13:00.001-08:00

I got back from NYC last Friday after a week of training with the Catholic medical mission board, and I have to say, the whole experience was much better than I anticipated...including a big supirse about my uncoming work. I was anticipating working in Nairobi next year, but our national director informed me that I would be going to Malava, a very small village in the western provinces, instead. I have to say i'm really excited, because this is the position that orginally got me interested in the program. In fact, all four NDMV volunteers will be living and working in Malava next year. The two guys- Shawn and Tom, will be living in a parish house together and myself and another girl will be living in the convent there with the Srs. of Notre dame. I've found out from past volunteers that there is no running water in the Parish house but, luckily for us girls, there is at the convent. There's also internet access and electricity...although both can be very unreliable.
There are two placements, and there will be one guy and one girl at each placement...although we're still not sure who's going to be where. The first placement is at the St. Julie Centre for Disabled Children and the other is with the local orphanage that is connected with the Norte Dame Sisters there. I honestly think that I would be happy at either place, but the placement at the St. Julie Centre is what got me interested in the program in the first place.

It's officially less than two months until we leave! Baltimore- January 3, Kenya- January 8

2008-09-13T10:43:00.000-07:00

Just an update...rather than spending these upcoming months in random office buildings I started working at Ohioans to Stop Executions last week. It's great, and i'm really happy to be able to continue in this line of work that i'm really excited about.

a quick beginning

2008-08-13T13:04:00.000-07:00

Just a quick note to begin this whole thing.

I have been accepted in the Notre Dame Mission Volunteer International Program in Nairobi, Kenya. As far as I know i'll be leaving in January.

So this fall will be spent finishing up my AMAZING year at the Intercommunity Justice and Peace Center. This comes much too soon on September 1. Then it's back to the wonderful word of office temping while I raise the money for my program fund, get immunized against everything under the sun and pack up life as I know it here in Cincinnati.

We have Orientation in NYC with the Catholic Medical Mission Board at the end of October. That's when I get to meet the other volunteers going to Kenya. We'll be there for a week, so i'm hoping it gives us a chance to get to know each other a little bit.

Here are some websites that might be helpful if you want to know more about my new line of work:

Srs. of Notre Dame de Namur in Kenya:
http://www.sndden.org/sisters-of-notre-dame-de-namur-where-we-are/sisters-of-notre-dame-de-namur-africa.html

Rescue Dada: (my placement)
http://www.rescuedada.org/

Catholic Medical Mission Board:
http://www.cmmb.org/

NDMV International Program:
http://www.ndmva.org/Service_Sites/International/index.htm