Ghost. Celebrity. Superhero.

In the course of the past week I visited 5 schools, 2 projects that focus on orphans, a dispensary, a health clinic, a hospital, attended an HIV event, and went on a hike.  It was an insanely good week.  I have been having so many meetings with “official” people.   I was thrilled to see so many kids and talk kid projects.  No offense to adults but I would rather spend my time with kids most days.  I’m excited for the possibilities and there is so much I can get my hands in here. 

 I am going to the hospital once a week to observe all the wards.  Tuesday I was in the HIV/AIDS wing.  First the patient sees the nurse to assess if  they are taking their meds regularly, how they are feeling, temperature, BP, etc.  Then the patient consults with the dr.  who prescribes the appropriate ARV’s the patient should be taking.  The patients who are losing weight at a rapid pace visit with a nutritionist.   USAID provides nutritional flour for those whose weight is a concern.  BMI and a couple other things are measured.  As well as a serious of questions regarding the patient’s health.  I was able to consult with the nurse and the patients and got to fill out the paperwork.  I usually despise paperwork, but I enjoyed doing this.  How do I phrase this.  It’s sad that the people I am meeting with have HIV, but it felt good to be doing something related to what I came here for.  It was interesting to see what their weight was the previous visit in comparison.  I saw many people coming through the office who were in the severe category for weight and BMI.  The majority of patients on this particular day were mothers with their infants.  The infants are also given ARV’s and have checkups because the virus could be transferred from mother to child.  Some of the babies were scared of me because they think I’m a ghost.  Others played peek a boo with me and a couple brave infants let me hold them.  Before I left that day I spent some time in the pharmacy learning about different ARV’s and observing how the pharmacy works.  I get bored with a job that keeps me doing one thing all day so moving around to all parts of the clinic was just my pace.  I plan on working in this section of the hospital regularly. 

Yesterday I was in my village and I was going to buy bread.  The second I stepped out of my compound I had a kid grab a hand on both sides.  Before I knew it I had a string of kids holding hands.  We walked up and down town like this for a good while. I already have all eyes on me and stick out everytime I open my door, so you can imagine the attention this brought on.

I live right next to a girls school so when I returned home I had 50 girls swarm the gate to shake my hand, actually some of them just wanted to touch my white skin.  They rushed the fence, crowding each other, put a hand on me, pulled back quickly, did it again and shrieked and giggled.  I have never felt more celebrity than I did yesterday.  We talked for about ten minutes then I decided, I need the teachers to like me for future projects, so I shouldn’t distract them from what they called, “cleaning their school.”  Which was actually cutting the grass with machetes.   I almost ran home grabbed mine and joined in.  Actually I think I might next time.  Machete in hand makes you feel pretty awesome. ..Super hero like.  

When a week leaves you feeling like a ghost, celebrity, and superhero I’d say it was one for the books!

Karibu nyumbani yangu!

Karibu nyumbani yangu.  Welcome to my home.  The rope is my clothes line.  

My living room

My Roman wall, so naturally, this is one of my favorite things about my home.

Close second to my Roman wall.

And then there's this beauty.  I have a rad PC bestie who gave me that special find.  Kenya has random pics of equally random kids.  No worries, I repaid her and will continue to give her a pic everytime I see her.  With hopes that she will have the entire collection by the time our 2 years is over. 

My room.  Seriously, that's all there is to it. My bed, a chair, and my beloved mosquito net that keeps bugs, lizards, bats, and their poop away from me at night.  

My spare bedroom/closet.  I plan on having another bed made for visitors.  (ahem, family and friends!)  Dressers are over rated and I never liked putting my clothes away anyhow.  Plastic chairs get the job done. 

My kitchen.  I'm in here ALOT!  Girl likes to eat and everything takes preparation here.  Also, you can see my row of buckets.  Can't have enough of these in my life.  I use them for everything.  Each has it's own purpose...storing water, washing dishes, washing my hands, purifying water, washing clothes, bathing, and yep I have an "oh crap" bucket when it's too dark to use the choo outside or if I get sick.  Pretty jealous of my life right about now, ya!?  

And this is how I cook.  Kerosene stove and jiko.  With the jiko you have to use paper, sticks, and charcoal.  It's kind of an involved process and you get super dirty.  It's the short rainy season right now, so it rains everyday around the time I want to start cooking.  For these reasons, the jiko doesn't get used that much right now. 

This ends the tour of my home.  

Star Plan Shuttle Phoenix

So I am home...well my home for the next 2 years.  I arrived 2 weeks ago to my site called Namboboto.  I took a video of my place but I am in the middle of nowhere in Africa if you hadn’t heard and my internet is not so great.  

Moving to site has been a minor adjustment, but I am loving everyday in Kenya.  When I step outside my door in the morning I never know what the day holds (which I LOVE)... plastering a mud hut with cow dung, lunch at someone’s home, being invited to work in the field, dance parties with kids, meetings with community officials, long walks to places (but when you ask how far it is - the Kenyan response will always be oh it's not far. just down the road), a sweat soaked t-shirt and an hour later, you arrive.  Which brings me to today. 

I have been having a string of awesome days.  But I live in mother loving Kenya so everyday is awesome!  However, today was not one of my favorites.  My day started at its usual time of 6:30am. I am to be attending a 6 day health workers conference. I missed the first 2 days due to other meetings.  My schedule for the next 3 months is basically to get myself out there and integrate into the community while writing a community needs analysis report.  So there are a helluva lot of meetings with community leaders and members. 

Ok so back to this morning.  One of the members from my partner organization was to show me to the conference.  He said it was a bit far to walk so we should ride our bikes.  I asked how far knowing all too well that I would get the typical response of…oh not far, it is just down the road about 2 kilometers.  Ok, no big deal.  Piece of cake.  You may think biking sounds better than walking but I should tell you the roads are well less than and my bike is horrible.  Yes, it looks nice and it has a promising name…Star Plan Shuttle Phoenix.  (Right! How can you go wrong?)  But nothing about it is shuttle like or a star plan at all.  10 minutes of riding and my bike breaks.  It has been “fixed” once before.  I am still able to ride it, but it is taking 10 times as much effort as it should and the gears aren’t working.  Ok, 1 of the gears is but it is the ‘hard as crap to pedal’ gear.  My back tire is devouring my skirt at this point and I have to keep yanking it out.  I don’t want to be a wimp so I continue but I need to know how much further my legs will be in this agony.  Also, I need to get there before my tire wins this skirt battle we have going on.  Of course the response I get is…it is not far.  I refuse to take the bs answer and press again.  

Ok, you see that hill in the distance.  That is where we are going.  Are you kidding?  Not far! How was that EVER an option as an answer!?  That’s a day’s journey from here.  I hopped off the bike and ended up walking with it the rest of the way.  After 2 hours we arrive.  I’m exhausted and drenched in sweat and now I will sit on a wooden bench for 7 hours thinking about how I have to do this for the next 3 days, there and back.  

Of course the class is in Swahili and while I passed my exam my skills are not good enough to translate for 7 hours.  I must mention all of them are taking notes in English, go figure.  So I’m struggling to stay awake.  But its difficult for me to be discreet and blend since I am the only mzungu (white person and what we constantly hear called to us.) plus the class continues to refer to Sela the PCV - me.  Also, they have taken it upon themselves to change my last name because Kaufmann is too difficult.  Really!?  Because I’m having trouble deciphering the majority of names here since they seem to be mostly a combination of sounds, but sure go ahead change my name because it is difficult.  :) So I am mostly known as Sela Aumu.  Ok, I’ll take it.  Sure beats, mzungu give me your money. 

[We are seen as doctors or donors, pretty much when the community looks at us they see dollars.  As volunteers, we live on roughly $200 a month.  It’s not a lot, however, it is still considerably more than most of those we come in contact with will be able to bring home to their families. ]

I also have quite the collection of tribal names going on.  I should really write them down because they are too difficult to remember.  

After class ended I took my bike to be fixed.  It was returned to me as “fixed” 3 times before we decided they should keep it overnight.  Someone should probably tell Lance Armstrong to watch out for this girl and her Star Plan Shuttle Phoenix if it should ever get “fixed.”

Needless to say I will be walking the rest of the week.

Even though this was not my favorite day it was a good day and one that I will be sure to remember.