Back to where it all began

 The new Public Health group arrived in country early June.  I was asked to attend training and lead a couple sessions last week on HIV/AIDS and working with supervisors and counterparts.  I was psyched to get to meet the new trainees and to return to Loitokitok to visit my host family.  It was weirdly awesome to be back where it all began a year ago.

When I was trapesing the path to where I lived for my first 10 weeks in country and sinking in a foot of dust I was wondering if my then 6 year old brother, Jeremy, would remember me.  When I turned the corner to my street Jeremy and the neighbor kids were outside kicking a futbol made of plastic bags and twine.  It was just as I remembered.  Jeremy saw me and even though it had been a year and my hair had grown about 7 inches he shouted Sarah!  We shared a high 5 and I couldn’t have been happier that he knew who I was.  In fact the neighborhood kids recognized me as well - asking me to take their picture.  It was as if I hadn’t even left.  What’s funny is I now have pictures of the neighborhood crew doing almost the exact same poses from a year ago and now present. 

My mama and baba weren’t home that evening so I returned the next day.  However, that evening my baba called me and wanted to come and get me from the hotel PC had put me up in.  He told me that PC didn’t need to put me in a hotel.  When I was there I should stay with them because that is also my home.  The next couple days while I was in town I stopped by after the 9 hour training days for way too many cups of chai and some goat I choked down.  I couldn't get my mama to look at the camera or smile, but that's how you take pics in Kenya. 

I was glad for the opportunity to spend some time with my host family.  After all much credit goes to them for getting me started in Kenya.  Oh and I spent probably an hour with my neighbor girl Beth talking and catching up.  She was so much help teaching me Kiswahili.  She remains one of the coolest 12 year olds I know.  She visited with me while she did chores and cooked dinner for her grandmother and brother who were in the market selling vegetables. 

My first morning there I woke up to a picturesque view of Mount Kilimanjaro.   It never got old during training and I was looking forward to seeing it again.   It is on my top 10 of coolest things I have seen.  I count myself lucky to have had Kili as my view for 10 weeks of my life. 

Before I went to training I met up with some friends for the weekend for a birthday celebration of one of my PC besties.

It takes me a couple days to get to my site from LTK so I spent the night in Nairobi.  I had a hot shower and ate yummy food and decided to continue my treat-yo-self day.  My hair has grown pretty fast and well it's not as easy washing it in a bucket so I got up the courage to walk in a hair salon and ask if they could chop my hair off.  I had a picture with me and this dude that was a swanky L.L. Cool J look-a -like swore to me he could do it.  By that point it was too late for me to get out of the chair and leave.  His techniques didn’t exactly capture my hair from my picture but it’s cool I live in a village.  It had been over a year since I had been in a salon.  Most hair cutting places here are tiny metal shacks that you can stretch your arms out and reach both sides.  Also, no kidding they have sweet names like Cleaver Hair Salon.  So you can get a chop of meat and your hair did with the same knife.  They washed my hair with 3 different products.  I forgot how awesome that part is.  They were probably wondering why I hadn’t washed my hair in over a year. 

In 7 days I stayed in 4 different locations and traveled for 34 hours.  It felt great to be home and felt great that when I say home I mean Namboboto.  (Of course I still long for home home…America!)

I had chalk drawings on my stoop and a bouquet of weeds stuffed in my padlock from my village kids when I returned.  And of course it was only minutes before this little one came to give me a hug . 

You get a net! Yo mama gets a net! EVERYBODY gets a net!

This is Brian he is in class 8.  He has 3 younger brothers.  At 14 years old he is the head of his house.  Brian and his brothers lost both parents to AIDS.  They have since had to drop out of school because they can’t pay the fees.  The boys have a few income generating activities they are trying.  As you can see in the picture they are raising rabbits to sell. 

This is Lillian.  She is living with HIV and a single parent to 4 children.  She teaches early child development at the local school. 

This mama is a caretaker for total orphans who have nowhere else to go.  I have run into this more times than I have wanted and yet, thankful for generous people willing to take in children that are not their own.

As you can see in this picture this family can only afford to send 4 of their 6 children to school.  You may have noticed that there is a set of twins.  How do you decide which twin gets an education and which one stays home to tend to the house?  Can’t be easy.

This little girl is 1 of 7 in a single parent household.  They live in a single room no bigger than a dorm room. 

Over the last 2 days I have visited 22 homes with field workers from an OVC (Orphans & Vulnerable Children) organization.   Many of the children are infected with HIV, but all of them are affected by it in some way, either they have lost a parent(s) or their parent(s) are living with HIV. 

I have been way out in the bush, hiking through weeds and thistles sometimes up to my waist earning the scratches on my arms and legs that I have acquired.  However, I was repaid with insanely gorgeous views from the hills. (Pictures just can't capture it.)

I will be passing out nets at least through the end of the year, thanks to some amazing people in Franklin. 

It has been interesting getting to sit and talk with so many, sharing stories, and educating on malaria and what it can cost (both monetarily and in lives.)

This week I have been to some homes of the poorest of the poor that I have seen in my district (and well probably in my 28 years.)  I still can’t get over 7 children plus a mother living in a space the size of my college dorm room.  At some point I have partially shut myself down.  I think you have to, to be able to witness these stories before your eyes over and over again.  At least for me it has been a necessary tool.  I have been coming home the past few weeks after handing out nets exhausted and I can’t say that it is entirely from the heat and all the walking. 

One of the things that is so good about working with this OVC association is that they have fieldworkers that will make visits to the homes to check on the kids.  They will also be checking that the mosquito nets have been hung and are being used.  You can pass them out and educate but can’t always be certain people are using them.  At least with these 700 kids we will be able to continue the malaria discussion and encourage the use of a bed net. 

I can only hope that these families will recognize how much they could save (not to mention the life of their child) if they just use their nets. 

Shout out to all my peeps in Franklin.  These are just a few of the people you are helping!