Mzungu

I never thought I would get so much attention for being a white girl. Everywhere I walk here I here kids shout "Mzungu, How are you?" It's the only thing most of them know in English so they just repeat it like a parrot. But let me tell a little about where I'm staying. Margaret is a pastor at a church in Karen I believe. She lives with Maggie, who is a young girl who cooks and cleans for the house and shares one of the bunks in the other bedroom with me. There are no other volunteers here currently, but there are people stopping by constantly to visit including her niece's son Patrick who has dinner with us every night. The apartment is cozy, but very nice and the shower water is blissfully hot. There are little individual rooms for the shower and toilet and also a living room with couches and the dining room table and the TV. Last night we were watching some trashy Spanish soap opera dubbed in English. I hate to think that this is what Kenyans think of Western culture...

Anyway, my first day at work Josephine picked me up around 9:30am and we walked to her office which is a tiny two room place on the bottom floor of one of the rare apartment buildings in the area. It was not a five minute walk as advertised, but rather a 25 minute one along the main Ngong road that manages to be both dusty and filled with mud puddles. There are tons of furniture makers along the road that sell to the wealthy expats living in nearby Karen. At the office I met Elsie, who is involved with LocalAid and helped start a school for HIV orphans and other vulnerable children. When we walked up, there was a woman who was asking for an HIV test. The clinic doesn't have them yet, as government inspectors said they had to make some improvements in privacy and devise a way to wash hands in a basin like system since there is no running water. The woman received a referral form to a clinic that was farther away, but hopefully in a week, Josephine will be able to offer testing. We then talked for 2 hours about the situation of HIV in the country, how LocalAid was started from home-based care, and how they hoped to progress to having a doctor in the clinic a few days a week. Currently they have a jewelry program where LocalAid supplies the beads and sells the necklaces, but they pay the women for their labor so that they can buy some food for their families. Around noon we went on a small tour of how they large area of Ngando was divided up into several villages and how they go see bed-ridden patients from very far distances to offer some palliative care like massage, treatment of bed sores, and social interaction. Then we went to the school that Elsie started and I was absolutely mobbed by children! I had at lest three on each arm all asking how I was and just so eager to be held and paid attention to. Elsie has started a porridge program here because most of them have no food to go home to over lunch break. At least this way they are able to get a little food and hopefully concentrate better on their studies. I am going to be teaching there on Monday, so wish me luck. Any advice is welcome.

In the afternoon I decided to go the the Nakumatt to but some gum boots for walking around in the muck. You wouldn't believe the sanitation issues here. The sides of the "road" are lined with shallow ditches that people just dump their waste and garbage into. Cows, goats, sheep, chicken, ducks, dogs, and cats roam free in the streets in order to try and find food. I don't know how they know whose goat is whose or how people find their cow when it's needed, but oh well. There are barber shop and small food stand booths everywhere and people walk around hawking clothes that I'm sure were donations from other countries at some point. But anyway, on the way to Nakumatt (which was a 30 minute walk that I will not be making again) I received my first marriage proposal from a man named Peter. After I declined for the 7th time, he started talking about his born again nature and then left me with only one request for money was turned down at the entry of the Junction, an upscale shopping center where the Nakumatt was located. I bought the gum boots for 580Ksh and then a big bag of miniature Snickers for 514Ksh (like $7.50 each). My diet has completely changed here, and my sleeping habits as well. I eat about 50% vegetables instead of 50% dessert. I don't think I've had meat for 3 days, but I don't really mind. Dinner the first night was bean and vegetable stew with cabbage and rice (soooo good!) and last night was spaghetti with carrots, spinach, and avocado. I've also been going to bed around 8:30pm and waking up a little before 7am, which is crazy to think about back home.

Today was my first day of walking around to visit patients. The level of poverty that these people live in is absurd. Muddy waste is everywhere and entire families live in shacks smaller than my bedroom currently. Josephine brought a couple women a few articles of clothing, but what they really need is money to send their kids to school and buy food. The first woman we visited was a grandmother who is raising 5 kids by herself, 3 of her own grandchildren and 2 other orphans. She was sick that day and via translation I heard about how difficult it is for her in her old age to support all of them. I also visited a mother of 3 (the youngest 6 weeks old) who cannot go find work because her middle child has Spina bifida and she must care for him all day as he cannot walk. Her husband does not work either. I promised Elsie and Josephine to set up a website when I get back to the States via the GVN foundation where people can make safe donations to the LocalAid group to fund the beading support group or sponsor one of the most needy children at the school. Hopefully this will be a way that I can leave a positive impact, and I will start taking pictures of the kids of Monday. Love you all, kwaherini