i am coming just now

as with most things this past (final) week has been full of a lot of 'lasts': last tae-bo class with the body builder, last Swahili class with chubby lil Wycliffe, last bike ride at sunset, last class with the Moi students, last time we'll have "mexican monday" at the IU House, last time with the boys at the street kid center...

it's been sad. yet, nice to genuinely feel as though i have a home on the other side of the world.

a few new developments have happened this week too. i got a package from aaron and j (!) it was naturally full of a danielle steele novel (my weakness), a sweet poem, and had a dozen firecrackers. i had to pop one in front of the customs agent so he could decide if he should tax me. he yelped and jumped a mile (and didn't tax me). the taxi driver also jumped and said "EH!", as did my friend, mwangi. learned learned: party poppers are not a popular toy in africa.

a guy here from Indiana has taken it upon himself to take care of the 5 puppies at Tumaini. their feast consists of dry food, soaked in milk, plus some wet food--and the Kenyans think he's crazy for caring for dogs so much. but the puppies are adorable, we typically kiss them on the head and let them kiss our face and the street boys erupt in laughter every time. but the guy is currently on vacation, so kayla and i are on puppy patrol. he printed out very detailed directions and twice a day we have been going to the center and playing with puppies. it's heaven.

puppies, patiently waiting

opposite of heaven (hell?), one of the boys at the center is deaf, his name is ernest. he is so sweet and active and plays with the puppies and was raped the other night while in the street. one of the older men sodomized him. he was taken to the hospital and put on prophylaxis within 24 hrs, but hearing that news just punches you in the gut. it's perhaps the shock factor, but i haven't cried here, but when i hear things like that it just gets me. i want to believe humanity is inherently good.

ernest

baby trina, bundled up and happy

the boys doing their math assignment

playing teacher with jeff, a smart 7 year old who counts out loud on his fingers

in other (happier) news purity regina had her baby! a beautiful little boy she named Leon Labon. she left the center yesterday afternoon and went down to "base" and delivered him, on the street, within two hours. her sister helped her, they bought a clean razor blade to cut the umbilical cord and she claimed she didn't feel pain. but she said he must have come early so he could meet me before i left {sigh}. we went to visit her today in the local slum. she looked tired but healthy and the one-day old was precious--he was just sleeping the whole time. we talked about how he will go to university and play football (errr, soccer?) and grow up to work at the street kid center and be so smart he will visit america one day.

i also learned a swahili lullaby:

lala toto lala (sleep baby sleep)

mama anakuja lala (mama is coming, sleep)

ataleta ndizi lala. (she will bring bananas. sleep)

marion, me, leon and purity

the 20-year old, happily exhausted new mother

last night we also had our farewell dinner. we managed to gather everyone that has shaped our time here stuff them full of kenyan food and beer. our favorite taxi driver was there, as was the dean of the school of public health and all of our kenyan dance partners. it was a great send off.

megan, kayla, kei and i with the tumaini staff

jani, enoch and i

the group with our dear kenyan friends

everyone with our teachers

last day tomorrow with the street girls, last market visit and a 5 hour bus ride to nairobi. i hope to visit my old host family and have lunch with the woman from the CDC (scoring an internship means i can return in january!). then 20 hours of travel and i will be in newark.

tutaonane kenya.

tulienda kwa safari.

last week coastin' by. few classes, meetings, some final episodes of six feet under, laundry, tae-bo at the gym and girl's day at the street kid center. i sat with purity and talked about her baby she's to deliver in the next month and how she wants to meet my mom (another reason you have to come visit kenya, cyndi) and how she wants to learn to sew so she can get off the street. she lets me practice my swahili and translates what i don't understand. i will miss her, for sure. and will be back soon enough to meet her baby.

purity and i

and for our final weekend in eldoret, we took off to maasai mara. world famous. home to the 8th wonder of the world. full of lions. we took the rogue route, and just hired a matatu and picked up a maasai warrior on the side of the road in narock. we camped and ate about half a dozen peanut butter sandwiches. the maasai guy's name was Lawrence and was 20 and married with a baby girl. he wasn't technically a warrior yet, 'cause he hasn't killed a lion, but that practice is becoming outdated due to conservation efforts. we cruised around in our van and saw all sorts of animals.

the sky is so huge and the african savannah is actually as beautiful as you have probably imagined. hanging out of the window brought that infinite feeling where you wish everyone you love could be there to see it with you.

{sigh} the final week is here. (see ya'll soon!)

Lawrence and our driver

the meg(h)an's jumping 'cause they were in tanzania

twigas

tembo

the rainbow we woke up to

playing games at the campsite

mwangi and i at dinner

water buffalo

zebras: as cute as you think they are

a view of the park in the morning

the king of the jungle

the african savannah

this article on rwanda is interesting. and on thursday night at da club, i spent the night collecting names of songs in my cell phone. here's a little taste of the hot kenyan jams (future dance parties just got a lil bit better.)

SB 2k10

well, i now know where heaven is. it's nestled off the coast on Kenya on a small island called Lamu. i think we had too much fun. the only two cars on the island are the "ambulance" and the district commissioners vehicle. the streets are small and beautiful Swahili people jump out from everywhere saying "Karibu!" there are about as many donkeys as people and they just stand around calmly, so you can pet them as you pass. the passion fruit juice is real and cold and less than $1. and it is hot, similar to d.c. in mid-july.

we did everything and nothing: i finished a book, took photos (to be developed soon), napped on the beach, sea-kayaked (again?!) to isolated beaches, swam in the indian ocean during the day, got sunburned, drank fresh juice, got a (cheap) deep-tissue massage laying on a mat under a fan, hung out at the one watering hole on the island making friends with rastas, spent one lucky night at this place with kayla and kei and a group of military men on vacation (little did i know, there is a large U.S. Army base on the coast of Kenya), swam in the indian ocean at night where our hands glowed under water, took a sunset cruise on a dhow, napped in a hammock, drank more juice, learned how to play dominoes, had a delicious coastal homemade meal with our kayak guides and had an all-around great time.

oh! also i got an internship at the International Rescue Committee for the summer--so i'll be hanging out with refugees, which is great 'cause it means i can still practice my swahili. and the national's new album 'high violet' leaked, and i like it.

home in two weeks. itakuwaje? how's it going to be?

the airport

a view of a small lamu town street

another street

the waterfront

our kayak guide, freddy and the beach we went to

my view

kayla and kei and i, cruisin' the indian ocean

a sunset view from my seat on the boat

our crew members, as seen through the blueblockers

sunset, take 2

kayla and i on the beach

kei on shella beach--it was the low-season for tourism

on the speedboat, with our new Canadian friend, Trish

a view from the majlis resort

in the resort, googly-eyed at the nice things

kei, myself and kayla

kayla, ash (a fellow ethiopian backpacker), penquin and freddy (our kenyan dinner hosts) playing dominoes

port victoria, part III

we are winding down here in the field. it's been an interesting 3 weeks. the other night kayla and my room was invested with little bugs. it kind of looked like the walls were moving. that passed, thank goodness. but now they're dead all over the floor. it's become a little cooler and i have gotten quite used to wearing ankle length kindergarten-teacher-esque skirts. the main takeaway message from our fieldwork has been that nothing in kenya really goes as planned. we were at the mercy of the ministry of health--they were to be our tour guides--and as many kenyans feel, (i'm sure) they don't always do what they say they will. or it's a cultural difference. or it gets lost in translation. or all of the above.

we spent a lot of time touring hospitals and dispensaries. a majority of women in this rural region deliver their babies at home. it's not entirely surprising when you see the health care facilities. in the mid 1980s the Ministry of Health initiated a campaign to incorporate and train TBAs--they were brought into big cities and given certificates and then sent back home to begin delivering their neighbor's children. then in 2002 the WHO published a meta-analysis stating that the use of TBAs increases maternal mortality, so the MOH retracted their previous training and banned all connection with TBAs. we met an elderly woman yesterday who was a TBA for 20 years. she was toothless and walked with a cane and gave us a real-life demonstration of a "typical birth" using a 4 year old bystander as her pregnant mother. we met with a handful of mothers in a clinic as well. it has been whispered that depo is the preferred method of birth control, because they can hide the injection from their husbands. some nurses even train women on how to fake having their period every month so their husband does not become suspicious.

and...now! the port victoria double-decker music video!!

earlier this week we had been going on (endless?) rounds with the CLTS (Community Led Total Sanitation) group and UNICEF who sent an important lady to check on the progress. they "trigger" communities by walking around and picking up their poop, without latrines people defecate in the open, which then gets into the water, their food and their bellies = definite health problems. CLTS was started in Bangladesh following the tsunami and the idea is that people will be so disgusted they will find ways to build latrines. in theory this should work, but when people are living on less than a dollar a day they find it challenging to find resources to build latrines. for three days, however, we walked around and checked out the latrines that had been built. was the footpath leading to it worn? were there flies around (suggesting use)? was there privacy? was it near a borehole? how many people shared it? was it built in the V-formation to ensure stability? we held a number of focus group discussions, always under large trees. the trees were the "conference room," they belong to the community, they are not trimmed and are just there to provide a meeting place and shade. miraculously, a dozen chairs always appear at said gatherings, as does a visitors book to sign. it was discovered in a focus discussion group that a father and a daughter-in-law can't share a latrine, this poses problems when building one for a homestead where 40+ people may live.

there was also a supposed cholera outbreak while we were here. a handful of us paired up with our kenyan doctor counterparts and went to take histories of 4 patients. they put the cholera patients in "isolation" (the side room next to the operating theater). i watched as mr. odukis took a history on a 40 year old HIV+ woman who looked like a skeleton. they were all lying on cots with holes cut out so they could just defecate into buckets below the cots--some had had diarrhea for 2+ days. then the rest of the team went down to the beach and distributed AquaTabs and Pur and instructed bystanders and fishermen on the importance of treating drinking water.

we've spent a lot of time talking with people about malaria as well--it's quite prevalent in this area. LLITNs (long lasting insecticide treated bed nets) have been distributed, but interestingly people have been using them for various other uses: fishing in the river, building latrines, as a blanket and to protect their crops in their kitchen gardens. many people have used them correctly though and much progress has been made in the area around malaria prevention.

i spent an afternoon with a few CHWs (community health workers) we visited homes, and walked for hours, talking about health topics. i was offered a kitten and learned that kenyans are taught america is rich because we keep 10% of our crops and export 90%, so we always have enough. we have spent every afternoon "taking a soda" which is usually a highlight. this past weekend we went back to our home city and it was so nice to dance and have cold drinks and sleep without bugs--it's the little things in life. there is also an affordable beer here--it's now called 'president'. but back in the day it was called 'senator.' the brewery switched the name once obama was elected. i liked that.

i could go on and on. but i suppose that means i'm learning. namely that a dozen kenyan children can appear out of seemingly no where yelling, "Mzungu! how are you! fine!" wearing 1980's track jackets and no pants. this next week is spring break. i plan to learn nothing but how to apply sunscreen on the white beaches of lamu.

all of us on the island we visited on the last day to distribute AquaTab and condoms

a view of the beach

the braids and i on the island

read this derrick c. brown poem, japanese paper. it's a good one.

port victoria, part II

we finished our second week in the rural field site. here are a few pictures:

two houses (and a grave site) that we passed when surveying for pit latrines

a fisherman just fixin' his net

one of the little boys that followed us around

the scene down by the lake

three little girls that followed us up the big hill in town

a view of the village and the river that frequently causes flooding

joel and nancy, two of our classmates

all of us after successfully bungee jumping

for some sunday reading: this article about the ex-rwandan UN ambassador is interesting. and in case you were wondering if you can change human feces into fertilizer, you bet you can! also, a little kenyan comedy.

bucket list.

this past weekend we went to jinja, uganda. there were a lot of cold beverages, bacon, beautiful views, dancing (to Dispatch!?) and plenty of white people. the girls went rafting while a few of us sat by the pool and got a massage (?!) there is a big sign outside of the backpackers compound that says, "avoid morning sex africa." if you can tell me why, i'd love to know. also right outside the backpackers haven were delicious chappati creations with nutella and bananas in them. both nights it rained and we were staying in sturdy safari tents overlooking the nile, listening to the water on the roof--it was heaven.

all in all, a good, relaxing weekend. and i crossed something off my bucket list: bungee jumping into (and immediately out of) the nile river.