port victoria, part I

we begun our journey to the rural village on sunday. saturday night we left eldoret with a bang--full of dancing and cheap rum. sunday morning we said good-bye to our good buddy mark (he's off to madagasgar) and hit the open highway with our hangovers. the ride on our 60-passenger "Moi University" bus was nothing short of hilarious. my bike almost fell out from underneath the bus twice, we needed to stop to put on windshield wipers in the rain, and one of the windows is covered by cardboard (naturally, a music video will come soon)

kayla and i with phillip and our professor outside of the bus

we moved into our guest house and spent the next two days touring hospitals. yesterday i went to a missionary clinic. it was dead quiet by 11am. so i sat around, sitting under the tree and drawing maps of the U.S. and playing with the few babies that stayed around. at one point i had this conversation:

me: "is there a bathroom i can use?"

nurse: "um, let me consult with the other woman."

{goes and talks in swahili for about a minute, comes back}

nurse: "so, you want to take a bath?"

me: "ohh, ha! no. just the latrine, please."

nurse: "oh, ok! this way!"

the costs painted on the wall

the operating theater

the gorgeous, daily sunset from the front door of my room

today, we went to a rural clinic 2 hours away. we sat around for awhile, talking to the one clinical officer and taking tours. there are 3 nurses for a catchment area of 21,000 people. their most recent delivery of anti-biotics was in july, and they're out by now. the bus ride is bumpy and little children yell in a chorus, "how are you! fine!"

when we walked into the pediatric ward there was a little boy who had just died of malaria. the mother walked by us with her hands on her head and just threw herself on the ground in front of the hospital and started to wail. she cried out for the remaining 45 minutes we were there. they had gone to two facilities in the area and both were out of the necessary anti-malarial medication. so, this helpless 4-year old boy died. it was difficult to actually witness the statistics i've read about. when we asked the public health officers when the father would come to console the mother, he said it was best to just let her grieve. then he chuckled. kenyans have a different habit of laughing in the face of despair. it's a nervous chuckle and i'm not sure if it's because they know more hardship than i do, so laughter may be the best medicine.

in other news, the bugs in my room are a force to be reckoned with. and my bathroom is a nice toilet (hole)/shower combo:

frightened rabbits

the emergency department here is called the "casualty". the operating room is called the "theatre". the morgue has been called "the final office". the cardiac department is a single room. this week we went to to talk to the head nurse of the local, private hospital. the only hospital in North Rift province with an MRI machine--and it's usually out of order. they don't have an ambulance. but they do have delicious chai and enormous mandazis for your enjoyment. and you will pay a significant amount of money to go there.

otherwise, this week i sat through getting my hair braided (they will be out before i return home. hakuna matata, mom) i took a couple of tests, made some bracelets with a few women at the street kid center, held a crying baby with a soaking wet bum, did some tae-bo at the gym, took a couple of naps, read a lot about the health care bill (!!), booked my 5-day vacation to lamu, made two eggs for breakfast, had swahili class, started watching Six Feet Under on DVD and briefly saw an outdoor photo exhibit of post-election violence done by this guy.

just hangin' around with the women and babies, making some bracelets

my friend and i

we are packing up and heading to the field on sunday morning = limited internet access.

so, for the next three weeks i will be here:


and i think the republicans are losing it. (again?! yup.)

hell, again.

this past weekend a few of us jumped in the van and went to Hells Gate National Park. Naturally, I made a music video (please pardon the swear words, typically i never curse--but lil weezy (and his teeth!) were just too good here and my imovie skillz are still in progress.)

glad it's warming up for you all on back stateside.

and in case ya'll want a history lesson about humanitarianism

our living room! hanging out on friday night

bikes!

the ladies at (delicious) dinner

bugs

occasionally, i experience my own personal hell here. in case you're curious, in my comfortable kenyan world, hell is when a mosquito gets inside your bed net. you'll be dozing off, it will be dark and the world will be wildly calm and then..........the buzz. it starts far away and it slowly gets closer (how do mosquitoes know exactly where your ear is?) until you just can't take it. you're awake. you get your cell phone for a light source and try to find the (blood)sucker. you fail. you're convinced it's gone and lay back down. it's not gone. the mosquito is rarely gone. so when it comes back near your face you end up smacking your own head. hard. but you never kill it. 9 times out of 10, i just put on my headphones and pull the sheet to my chin and hope my cheek doesn't itch in the morning.

i have also noticed that a handful of kenyans speak in questions. especially our professor. so we're in class and you think she's asked a question, but she hasn't. and if you answer, are you interrupting? i.e.
"the resources for the national strategic plan are in...? the document."
"it becomes business as...? usual."

it is very confusing.

the rest of the day i napped. i napped outside. here:

then in my top bunk, here:

hooray for health care! too soon? i hope not.

kisumu, down by the lake

we have a lot of class right now. 9-5 everyday with a little break for lunch. it's mildly miserable. but on thursday we rallied after class and went the national agricultural fair, for an hour. the president had been in town to "open the ceremonies." there were little booths, and children EVERYWHERE (in school uniforms and girl/boy scouts attire) and camels and rides. we got suckered into a dance competition (the prize, you ask? a box of grape juice) in front of a crowd of excited kenyan children. and we rode the swings--probably thrown out by the st. louis state fair in about 1949. some of the chains were held together with chicken wire and they started the machine by setting off a spark in a tub of water. i wouldn't put my 4 minutes of fun on the list of safer things i've ever done. (read: i was terrified).

the operators of the ride

the stairs up to the ride of death

yay! i love sunflowers!

walking into the grounds with the school children


a view from stage during our dance competition

friday morning we headed to kisumu to tour the CDC (Center for Disease Control). it was pretty great. the CDC is working on quite a few large projects, including a stage III trial of a malaria vaccine funded by Bill and Melinda that i just read about in the BBC. we were able to ride out to the testing sites and talk to the directors of the trials. the CDC is also in both refugee camps here--Kakuma and Dadaab--doing preventative research on disease outbreaks (primarily TB and cholera) and testing refugees before they resettle to the U.S. and become your neighbor! we toured their air-conditioned, state of the art labs where they breed mosquitoes to examine their reproductive practices and to test the strength of mosquito nets. and the day we were the there the WHO approved a rotavirus vaccine (that had been tested in Kenya) for the whole world--this is important since 527,000 children under 5 died of rotavirus in 2004 (WHO). it was an informative-networking-packed-weekend.

kayla and i on the roof of our hotel before going out

looking at malaria-positive slides

a sign in the clinic

that night we went to the deputy director's house for dinner. he lives in a compound reserved for U.S. government employees and the homes are gorgeous with well-manicured lawns. we sat in the backyard and sipped red wine, ate sunchips (food can be bought at the embassy apparently) and chocolate cake and talked about past adventures and future goals. i want this life. there is something so romantic and adventurous--yet comfortable--about sitting in africa talking with a handful of expatriates. it's as if you're part of a well-cared for club and you're choosing to live right on the fringe of it. family, you should probably get your shots now, christmas may be in africa within the next 5 years.

the next morning we got up and went on a boat ride and sat by the lake sipping cold coca-cola.

beauty

the girls getting back into our boat

a sailboat

hippos!

and all things considered, this american life episode entertained me immensely for the ride home.

and my friend, who is pregnant, at the center for street kids got tested and she is HIV negative. and her baby is healthy. it made my day.

african diets

for the past 2 days, i was on the african diet. which ultimately means anything that goes in, immediately comes out. i skipped class and became very familiar with my top bunk. i watched some good movies (burn after reading), some mediocre ones (ghost town) and some bad ones (stealing beauty).

this past weekend we did loads. thursday we went to burnt forest, a rural area 45 minutes outside of town that was dramatically affected by the political violence in 1992 and 2008. the van got stuck in the mud (see video) and we had the best mbuzi in the country apparently--the goat is claimed to be the best, "because of the weather or something, the goats grow special muscles."

the group in burnt forest

friday we had out first "ladies-only" day at the street children center. and all things considered, it went well. i went out with the coordinator, andrew, at 9am to "mobilize." let me paint the picture for you: there is a big hill on the other side of the tracks. a river runs through it and there is piles of trash everywhere, ultimately the town's easily accessible dump. imagine there are small pockets of 3 to 4 teenagers sitting in circles, with small bottles of glue tucked up their sleeve and pressed to their nose. they are gambling with the equivalence of 4 cents or looking at pictures of decorated indian women in stolen calendars. we climbed through the water, trash and hopped over streams to gather up the girls. i've gotten quite good at the fist-pound and understanding enough swahili to know when they're talking about the mzungu (or! mgoso in sheng)--just enough to catch them off guard and participate in the joke.

one of the girls is 19 years old. she is beautiful and smart and curious and fluent in english. she says she was raped and the incident produced the baby she has been carrying for 7 months. she hasn't been to the hospital and doesn't know her HIV status. but she wants to know for her baby. these women are incredible. she asked me if i had a cell phone (my well-rehearsed, immediate response is "no."--otherwise people will call you 3x a day every day for 2 weeks) and she said "oh, well if you get one, i made this for you." she had made me a blue and white beaded case for my cell phone. it's beautiful, and needless to say i felt a bit foolish for having nothing in return for my new friend. another girl told me when she returns to her home in lodwar she will bring me. she will tell her grandfather and he will slaughter a goat in celebration. dad: you better become familiar with the local farm, because i told her if she ever makes it to boston we would slaughter a goat for her too, in the spirit of tradition of course.

the women are relatively content by being on the street. andrew and i had a long talk about the culture that exists around the girls and they are more or less taken care of. most of them have "boyfriends" or caretakers. they get to the street as girls and begin having sex--most get pregnant--but the boys take care of them, they provide them with glue, food and clothing. he was suggesting the intervention really needs to take place before they get a boyfriend, otherwise they have little incentive seek an education.

after returning to the center we introduced ourselves ("ninaitwa Lauren, ninatoka amerika, mji Washington, D.C. kwa Barack Obama. Unajua?" -- this introduction typically gets received with warm cheers and enthusiastic hand slaps), played games, made rules, washed clothes and just sat around. one of the permanent figures in the IU house has been visiting the center and taking pretty incredible photographs, so if you want to see how beautiful the children are check out her blog.

sitting around with the girls, making rules

puppy cuddle puddle!

my friend and i

friday night we hit the town and went dancing.

saturday morning we woke up and began the 5 hour journey to port victoria. the road was long and the sky was big and i spent most of my day listening to this song. port is a small town on lake victoria, that doesn't even have a wikipedia page! it's where we will do our field work for 3 weeks in april. it's small, and rural and the children yell "mzungu! how are you!" anywhere you go, but it's beautiful and we're all excited. i'll be working on the "safe motherhood" project--plenty more to come as it happens.

a big storm came in the evening we were there. first the sky opened and it poured rain then as we waited 2 hours for our dinner (we danced and played games) there was an impressive lightening storm. it looked like war out over the lake; mother nature had put on a show for us.

in order to pass time in class, i organized my itunes list my how many times i've played a song. i learned i have spent 37.525 hours listening to 'trapeze swinger'--that's a whole work week.

the up and coming maternity ward

the girls taking shelter during the rainstorm

lake victoria at sunset

panoramic view of the lake

as the storm rolled in

kei and i walking down to the waterfront

the open kenyan highway--without the potholes

how i spent an hour today

cards and quarters

i keep thinking of this documentary my friend's mom told me about. a couple of interested people made a short film about what a handful of homeless women would do with $50 if it was given to them with no strings attached. i'm not sure what the name of the documentary is or anything, but one woman went to a salon to get her hair done. when she was asked why she spent the money on that, she said it was because, more than anything, she missed human touch. with the $50 she could pay someone to wash her hair and they would touch her for the brief time it takes to shampoo. that story broke my heart in some way.

the street girls here i'm sure would love to get their hair braided. it's the luxuries we typically take for granted when we're not strapped with the daily pressures of where we will get our next meal or the guards we would have to sleep with to get a place to sleep. anyway, today was a day for a little victory. spearheaded by kei, we have been meeting with the street girls to hear about their concerns and it was widely decided that they would benefit from a girls-only day at the center for street children here, named Tumaini (or hope). unfortunately timely, one of the teenage girls was recently gang raped. the idea gained momentum over the last week and we have been discussing on how to get it off the ground (big obstacles: funding and sustainability). then a woman came to the IU house who has an NGO with her husband and she had lunch with us and listened and decided to fund the effort until May. So, Friday morning (and Fridays thereafter) we will go to the center and hang out with the girls and be able to serve them lunch! (on the agenda: the hookey pookey; how babies are made; making sanitary napkins available; art) I really do hope it works out. Really good, dedicated, long-term people (both Kenyan and American) are passionately involved in the center; the commitment spans well beyond our short time here.

saturday night we went to an outdoor musical festival. this guy was there (who was voted the most famous celebrity in kenya). i met a (drunk) christian 30-year old who scolded me when i told him i wasn't regular church-goer then informed me he stays so young looking by having sex with so many women. hmm. then around the time my left-y belief system began the tirade about religion-based organizations and the effect of missionaries in Kenya, Nicholas Kristof published this op-ed and i had to go back to the opinion drawing board (i'm still there, i think it's a lifelong learning curve).

but this article is currently hanging in the dining hall here, and it gives a wonderful run down of all the wonderful things AMPATH is accomplishing, and Dr. Einterz is staying in the house with us for the week and is a really friendly guy.

and since i'm always getting ready for sasquatch, i've been jammin' portugal. the man.

because i love the out-of-the-matatu-window-video and this one didn't make the original cut