Traveling Cat

March is over and we’re starting our fourth month in Kenya! It seems the rains have started here, and I’m typing this as it hails outside. Yes, this morning I was sweating away in mud huts doing family visits, and now it is afternoon, it’s still hot, and we’ve got hail falling from the sky and thunderstorms booming all at once. Quite bizarre. The rains aren’t the regular rains yet where it’s supposed to rain lightly each afternoon, but any rain is good rain. Our garden is coming along smashingly, and all across Western Kenya people are planting their maize this month.

This might promise to be my longest update yet, so feel free to disregard to read later when you’re bored and have more free time. Or just skip below for pictures. It was really meant to be half the length is appears, but I included a sad story about a little girl I was trying to help this month and that doubled the length. So let’s begin, shall we?

CHICKENS: Cindy gave in and let me purchase an egg laying hen at the beginning of the month. A week later we were given a cock from a pastor to keep the hen company. (Hens need cocks for inspiration, we learned. A hen without a cock doesn’t lay eggs, and doesn’t come home at the end of the day). At first she used to try to peck his eyes out and take all of the food for herself, but now they’re friends and they wander around together all day. We let her out of the house in the morning, and she comes home on her own each afternoon around 4 or 5pm. She walks right up the front steps, passes through the living room, clucking merrily as she goes, and walks right into the storage closet that’s been her home here. Camilla lays eggs most days, and she likes it when we pet her, so in our book she’s pretty darn cool. Scrawny, our free little cock, doesn’t do much except get skittish around people and poop everywhere. The grossest thing about them is to see them pecking at and eating broken eggs… yolk and shell and all. It’s like we have cannibal chickens… no joke. Our buddy Amos built a chicken house for them, and hopefully now that it’s done we’ll be able to retrain them to go there very soon. I’ll be sad to see Camilla go outside, but know it’ll be less work and much cleaner in the long run. It’s been fun having her as not only a source of eggs, but also as a household pet and source of entertainment.

NAIROBI: We spent a one quick day in Nairobi and had lots of great conversations with women who are in their 20s and are becoming nuns. One such conversation with them revolved around differences between Americans and Kenyans. The idea of moving out of your parents’ house at age 18 and becoming independent was foreign to them. They asked how young can you get married? How many wives are you allowed? Do you have wife inheritance? Couples can divorce? How expensive is school? Is high school really free? Really? Doesn’t the church tell you to live together and have babies together before getting married, to be sure your partner is the best fit? It was a fun and interesting exchange of ideas and there was much learning on either side of the conversation. We hope to visit Nairobi again in April, and hopefully we’ll be able to stay longer than one day. (The drive there is very long, but with limited vacation time, that’s all we could manage this trip).

ENTERTAINMENT: While the chickens were pretty entertaining, the most fun I’ve had all month is visiting the Catholic boarding school nearby and learning how to do African dance from primary school girls. Call me a dork for admitting our best ever Friday night entertainment was hanging out with elementary school kids, but seriously, it’s true. They’re super duper fun, are full of energy, and are super entertaining. They’re also super obsessed with us and our celebrity status has yet to diminish in their young minds. (Cindy and I discuss regularly how weird it will be going back to the States eventually and not be followed, stared at, shouted at, and idolized by little kids and some adults too). For now though, the younger ones are content just to touch our white skin and see if it turns their hands colors. And the older, braver ones love to touch my hair. And they all love to show us how to dance, which is the best. What more could a girl want out of a Friday night in Kenya?

MEDICAL: Cindy and I both got sick this month with what turned out to be some minor bacterial infection. We went to a private hospital out past Kakamega, and got antibiotics that we’re currently taking. I started feeling better very soon, even if I am a little lightheaded from the meds. I was entertained to know that the cost of postage to send in the insurance claim form to the US would be double the cost of the entire doctor’s visit. Needless to say, we’ll be skipping the claim and paying out of pocket for both the visit and the prescription. How cool is that? The cheap doctors visit, not the expensive postage from Kenya.

WE TRIED: I brought a battery charger from home for camera, flashlight, i-pod speakers, etc. However, it fried upon first use here and we’ve had to spend lots of money on trips to big cities and buy batteries. Mostly it just means I haven’t used my nice new camera more than three times. My kind and generous parents spent $25 to ship me a new $20 battery charger from the States, that I then had to pay $16 customs on when it arrived in Malava. ($16 is a huge wad of cash when you only make $100/month, but I was prepared to do so since I knew the battery charger was inside the box). Sadly, the new battery charger also fried upon first use in our house and now we’ve spent even more money and still have to buy batteries on trips into Kisumu or Nairobi. (Why it’s fried is the big unknown frustration… I’m able to charge a cell phone, i-pod, and computer, so why my voltage converter and plug adapter combined with the charger won’t work is beyond me). I’m thankful to my parents for trying to help, but sad it didn’t work out in the end. Side note: if you’re going to mail packages, please consider writing the value as a tiny amount so I can avoid custom charges. Large envelopes so far have been getting through without us having to charges, which helps make up for the big fee I had to pay this week.

WORK: So much to say. The Toy Lending Library opened with a good first month! I’m still doing computer work, also do family registrations for the center, and help with training meetings for CBRWs and volunteers. I also do play therapy at the centre when I have time in my schedule. This month I also did a few home visits to interview families we’re considering for sponsorship funding. It was very interesting to go way off the main road, onto private farms, and into the mud huts where our families live. Each family is genuinely full of need, it’s still hard for me to prioritize a deaf and mute teenage boy who’s struggling to find food to eat and has no communication skills, a teenage girl who is blind but can speak and wants to go to school (her family thinks she’s a bad omen and they beat her), and a three year old Downs Syndrome baby who needs open heart surgery.

However, the majority of my time this month has been spent taking families to clinics, workshops, hospitals, eye care centers, etc. A few of the nurses and doctors I’ve visited have referred to me as children’s Community Based Rehabilitation Worker. While my role is not technically that of a CBRW (I don’t make many home visits), I am indeed often playing the basic role of liaison between the children/family and the center or medical institution. One of the many trips I made this month was to an orthopedic workshop a few hours away. I took a boy named Songa and ordered him his very first pair of shoes. Hard to believe he’s almost 20 years old and is just getting his first pair of shoes. These will be custom made with lifts in them to accommodate his one leg that is significantly shorter as a result of his bone disease.

Our programme was also able to help a family purchase a prosthetic leg for three year old Mercy whose bad leg was amputated last year. It felt great being there, holding her hands, and helping her walk for the very first time! It was a definitive moment, one that confirmed I was in the right place at the right time, doing exactly what I was meant to be doing.

THIS IS THE STORY OF A GIRL: My biggest focus this month was a tiny baby named Pavin. Her mother brought her to the centre the first week of March desperate for help. Pavin was born with no anal opening and had both stool and urine coming out of her vagina. She would need multiple surgeries to correct the problem. She was also born without a left nostril which made her breathing very difficult and made eating/breast feeding even more difficult. She was three months old but was so tiny and emaciated she looked like a premie or newborn. I was put in charge of her case and took her two hours away to a hospital in Eldoret. After many clinic visits and x-rays, she was admitted to hospital and was scheduled for surgery. After a few weeks of observation and further tests, she finally had the first of a few surgeries she’d need. I visited Eldoret again and again for different trips and was so excited and proud to see her doing well after the surgery. Her mom said she was eating more, was happy, and was even laughing for the first time!

Pavin and her mother, happy after the first surgery

I ended up making six different trips to Eldoret during the month (generally 6-10 hour trips) to check in on her, talk to doctors, advocate for her care, schedule tests and surgeries, support her mother, pay fees, and negotiate with doctors and legal committees to have other bills waived. (We’d already paid 10,000/- Ksh, and her young parents were from a very poor village unable to pay the rest). I’m sad to say we got a call last Thursday from the hospital. Despite the positive recovery I’d witnessed first hand, Pavin developed complications from the surgery and died overnight. My programme director asked me to make a final trip to Eldoret and collect the mother, and the child’s body, and bring both back to their village. I was able to confidently and effectively deal with English speaking hospital staff during the month of visits for Pavin, but I had a Kenyan staff person accompany me on this trip since I had no language skills or cultural know how that would enable me to visit the family’s rural home and notify them of the death. Families here don’t have phones and hospitals don’t notify next of kin, so it was up to us to tell the family. I was told we could be stoned by upset family members, which seemed dramatic at first but became more of a real fear when I remembered that people are still stoned here in Western Kenya’s rural villages for offenses like stealing. Indeed, there were family members, including the blind old great-grandfather, who were blaming us for the child’s death. He was also blaming the mother, saying it was her fault she was cursed and brought the bad omen baby into the family in the first place. The great grandfather eventually came around, and the grandfather actually came to me later in the evening and thanked me profusely for all I’d done for the child.

Like many ordinary things, death happens all the time in America but it seemed somehow different here in Kenya. I wasn’t prepared to fight the morgue employees for the right to drive the tiny body home in our private vehicle without a casket, I wasn’t prepared to sign burial permits since the father doesn’t own any form of ID card (sub-chiefs in Kenya can also issue burial permits, but not in an accidental death), and I definitely wasn’t prepared to be the one to dress the dead, cold, limp infant in her burial clothes. It was a long drive home from the hospital with lots of sobbing from the young mother. Upon arrival to the family’s home, it was already dark and there was still a fear of how the family would react after having the day to digest the sad news. Neighbors and family members came pouring in down the dirt roads, notified of our arrival by the passing of our truck. Some people at the house were running around in the dark and throwing themselves on the ground. Others were praying. There was much shouting and wailing. There was sobbing and flailing. The mud hut of the great-grandfather was lit up by a kerosene lantern, and I went inside and cried quietly, joining the crowd in prayer.

To say the whole day was incredibly sad would be an understatement. The night visit at the family’s hut was, quite frankly, terrifying. And when I finally got home after it all, I felt like my limbs were made of bricks. I was a crying and sobbing mess. Cindy was sweet and had dinner waiting for me, but I didn’t have much of an appetite. I was however glad to be home where I had soap and water and could attempt to scrub the smell and feel of dead baby off my hands. That’d have to happen before I was going to put any food in my stomach.

I know Pavin isn’t the first child from our programme to die this spring, and I know there will be more deaths to follow during my time here. However, I suspect her death will remain with me for some time to come. As an AC program director back in Seattle, I had my team members write “Great Stories” about successes they had each month, and I could easily write more about being with Mercy and holding her hands during her first steps with her prosthetic leg. It was a really great moment and promises to change her life forever. However, the story of Pavin is the one that lingers with me this month. While Pavin’s story is more tragedy than success, it is a powerful reminder about the difficult, and often painful, struggles so many families here face on a daily basis. It’s a constant reminder about why I’m here doing this work. If you’re one that prays, feel encouraged to say a little prayer for her family and for all of the families of the disabled children we serve.

If there’s been a flicker of depression anytime over the past few months, this week would probably be it. I know it won’t last, but it’s definitely something real for this week. It’s probably a combination of many things, and while none are the end of the world, they can add up. I’m still processing Pavin’s death, am still sick and on meds, I was super frustrated by the frying of the new battery charger (and lack of further use of my camera), I’m sad that I’ll miss my nephew’s birth in exactly a month, and sad that I’ll miss Dieter’s wedding in July.

That said, I’m still feeling valued and productive at work, still entertained by the chickens, still am excited to learn and grow on a daily basis, still love cooking my meals and gardening and reading daily, still in awe daily of the beauty of Western Kenya, and still couldn’t wish to be anywhere else. What a crazy month it’s been… feels like forever ago that we went to Kisumu for a weekend away and saw hippos and got robbed and ate yummy Indian food. In reality it was just a few weeks ago and the rest of the month seems to have flown by. I hope you’re well in your corner of earth. Please do stay in touch and send on over any questions, comments, or feedback.

My parents called this weekend, curious to see if I was okay. I guess a two week lapse in writing meant it was time to call. I’m definitely okay… just keeping busy. Decided I’d make a super quick trip to Kakamega to post a short post.

• The biggest news I could possibly share: We now own two chickens! Our hen is named Camilla and our cock is named Scrawny. We got Camilla so she could lay eggs for us, and yesterday was the first day she actually came home on her own and laid an egg! I’ll have to post more later about the chasing episodes that took place on previous days, but suffice to say it’s SUPER exciting that she came home at the end of the day, walked right into the house, and went to her home in our storage closet. Yay Camilla! Best chicken ever! Scrawny, on the other hand, isn’t so fond of coming home without a wild chase. Nor is he quite as fond of being pet as Camilla is. Hmmm. Hopefully he’ll learn to love us, or at least will learn to come home at night.
• In other news, we went to Nairobi this weekend for a super short trip. It was a one day, to be exact. We drove 8 hrs there on Saturday, spent the day Sunday lazing around while our boss had training across town, and then spent 8 hrs driving back Monday. Was relaxing to be there. Was tiring to drive there. On the bright side, we saw zebras, warthogs, elk, and lots of baboons on the drive, which makes up for some of the bumpy ride. Also ate chips (aka French fries) at a gas station cafe, which was pretty exciting. Who knew fries would be so sought after? You definitely can’t find them anywhere in Malava.
• Other exciting news: my first package arrived! Many thanks to Dot, Bruce, and Norm! It was a small box, cost $4 to ship via air mail, and got here in less than 2 weeks! Yay old friends!
• Work: I’ve been doing lots of transport lately. I’ve driven the truck to Eldoret four times in two weeks to do hospital runs for my kids. Driving here is kinda stressful with the tiny roads and giant potholes, but I’m surviving just fine. I’ve not strayed to the wrong side of the street (we drive on the left like the British), and I’ve not hit anyone or any cattle (also impressive considering the number of sheep, cows, and goats that wander into the street at will).
• New request: We don’t get radio stations here since we’re in the boonies, and the hours and hours of driving with no music is lonely. If anyone has old tapes they’d like to part with, I’d love to have a few! (Caroline? Jeff? Anyone else?) I’m not picky… any music would genuinely be good music! REM? Swell. Journey? You bet. Genesis? I’d dig it. Whitney Houston? Send her over. Goodwill selection of random stuff? Sure thing. If even 2 tapes arrive in Malava, I’d be super grateful for the company, and would be happy to send a token of appreciation from Kenya.
  

  Traveling Cat
  PO Box 323
  Malava 50103 Kenya
  (be sure to write AIRMAIL)

• What more to mention? I’ve been reading lots, gardening lots, and driving lots. We’ve had some slight rains in the past two weeks, which is a very good thing. We collect rain water in buckets for “showering,” cooking, “flushing” the toilet, washing the floors, washing clothes, etc. Rain = good. Not much else exciting to report.
• Mail: Last week was the best week for mail ever! More mail in one week than the entire previous month? Thanks Mary, Brandon, Rod, and Samantha! Y’all rock!
• Visits: My parents officially booked their ticket to Kenya! I’ve very, very excited to have them come, and be able to show them the area that’s now home. Malava is near the only rain forest in Kenya, and it’s truly beautiful here. The people are great and I can’t wait for my parents to meet folks. They come in Sept, which is a ways off, but gives me time to find things to do. Anyone else interested in a trip? You’re invited and the guest room is ready whenever you are. Oh, here’s an offer for the brave. I’ve got 2 4-day weekends coming up in April (Easter and also the wknd of May 1). If anyone finds cheap fares and wants to come visit, you’re welcome as always! (I know it’s not realistically going to happen, but you can’t blame a girl for trying to see her friends).

Okay, with that, I’ve got to run and make the trip back home to Malava. Hope everyone is well! Do stay in touch!

I’ve got a little time in an internet while passing through Kakamega. I’d planned to upload more pics and send a quick “all is treating me well” email. Sadly there’s too much to write right now, so I’ll just post the pictures and leave you with some basics…

Cindy and I made a trip to Kisumu this weekend; it our first overnight adventure. We also had our first mugging adventure, which included our first purse snatching, our first death threat, our first hands on struggle with thieves, our first rescue, and our first trip to the police station adventures. (We’re both okay now, as are our purses. Just a little bruised confidence, which is probably good as it reminds us to always keep safety a priority, though it’s not like we don’t do it anyway). We also had our first boat ride (on Lake Victoria), our first view of hippos, and my first time getting my new camera to actually work (yay!). We also went to our first movie as a splurge and out of curiosity. We went to the “largest cinema in East Africa.” Wanna guess how many screens in the megaplex? Two. And it had air conditioning! It was worth the cost. It was a pretty sweet deal. Also had our first hotel stay, which included my first hot water shower from plumping/running water!

I got my hair done in braids a few weeks ago, and spent hours taking them out this weekend. I won’t be surprised if I go bald after all of the hair that came out. I haven’t lost that many chunks of hair since the medical allergy elimination diet a few years back. Crazy. I liked the look of the braids, but hated not being able to wash my hair, wash my scalp, itch, etc. Happily, now that they’re out I can do all of those things. :)

Okay, that’s about it for me this week. Hope everyone is well. In the mean time, please think warm thoughts for my cousin’s new baby Abigail who’s been in the hospital. Let’s wish her a peaceful entry into a wonderful childhood.

And for an actual update on life, we’re going to do it in pictorial form again. Yep, after discovering a net cafe in Kakamega that is so much faster than the rest, I feel compelled to share more photos. As always, feel free to post questions and comments, or drop me an email or letter if that’s easier. Side note: Be excited to know that while the post office has opened three pieces of my mail already, they didn’t take the fruit leather that Josh and Ginger sent this week. Yeah food in the mail (thanks J&G)! Anyway, if you’re mailing know that it seems to all get through okay, you just might want to tape up your envelope nicely.

And now, on with the photos!

We’ve got lots of great birds in our yard. The prettiest ones are the blue and gold starlings (songbirds with pretty songs). This ibis, however, is bigger and louder than all of the starlings combined. This ibis and his friends squawk loudly and I watch them in their nest each morning from my chair in the living room. We also have some cool cranes in the area that are pretty sweet looking.

DIY website: google the following for a glimpse into my world…
1. Hildebrandt’s Starling – beautiful gold and blue, they hang out on our clothes line
2. Hadada Ibis – shiny silver feathers, but loud and obnoxious call
3. Gray Crowned Crane – gorgeous, complete with fancy head dress (Sadly, we don’t have any of these in our own yard, but I see them regularly and think they’re swell)

Cindy and I took a day trip to Kisumu to buy bikes a few weeks ago. We got mountain bikes thinking bikes with gears would be good for the hills (Malava has decent elevation and is in the hills. We’re also between a forest and the country’s only rain forest, so it’d be fun to be able to go out and explore). Sadly, while the sticker on the bike was pretty sweet, we found the bike itself sucked when we got it home and tested it. Brakes don’t work, gears don’t shift, and it was missing a piece that held the front of the frame to the back. I found myself wishing for Dieter and Cindy found herself wishing for Rachel. There are so many great folks in Seattle who know so much about bikes… sadly I’m not one of them.

The trip to Kisumu was short but lovely, even if the bikes were duds. (The trip also increased my number of times crossing the equator by two). Kisumu is on the shore of Lake Victoria, the largest lake in Africa and the second largest lake in the world. We ate lunch along the waterfront and enjoyed the lovely view of the water and palm trees. We also sweat like dogs. It’s only 70-80km from us, but it’s at a lower elevation and is much hotter and more humid. Felt just like summer in Austin, and we had the mini sunburn to prove it.

Most folks in Malava don’t have electricity, and there’s definitely no running water, so garbage pickup isn’t exactly on the radar here. Some people just throw trash along side the road while others opt to burn it in their yards. (This photo taken in Kisumu)

We compost the majority of our trash (food scraps from eating three meals a day at home) and then we burn the rest in the front yard. This photo in our garden was taken by Cindy. I was digging us a deeper hole for compost, but our buddy Amos insisted on helping and took over the hard work. Gotta love that man.

Just because there’s often trash in the streets doesn’t mean it’s not beautiful here. Check out these hibiscus trees in Sabatia. Gorgeous!

My coworker Angela convinced me to get my hair braided by her friend Elizabeth who does hair as a side business. She said it’d only take an hour or two, but apparently my hair is long and pretty soft. After five hours of holding still sitting on a hard concrete floor, I had braids. My neck had a crick in it and my head was in pain from all of the pulling. You’ve got to pull and make them tight because they don’t tie the ends with bands or anything, they just let it hang. Anyway, the pain from the pulling happily went away after 3-4 days. Apparently the braids will easily last 3-4 weeks. I’m starting week three now, but while the Africans here give me lots of compliments on the hair (“very smart!” or “you’re becoming a good African!”), it’s frankly driving me crazy. I knew I wouldn’t need to wash my hair while in braids, which is good considering showers are from a bucket of rainwater. However, I feel stupid for not considering the fact that my head would itch like crazy from not washing my hair for a few weeks. It’s like when you leave a pony tail in for 8 hours and you just want to take it out and shake out your hair. Only instead of 8 hours, the braids are in for 600-700 hours. Seemed like a fun idea at the time, but I’m not sure I’ll do it again anytime soon.

We went to a priest’s ordination ceremony last weekend (near Busia near Lake Victoria near the Uganda border). It was my first ordination ceremony and I suspect it’s done slightly different here in Kenya than it would be in maybe Boston or Ohio. The atmosphere reminded me of a family reunion picnic, a small town community festival, or an outdoor summer wedding. It was outdoors in the yard behind a church on a hot February summer day. There were lots of balloons and streamers, close to maybe 1500 people on benches or sitting on the grass, lots of sun and sweating, and lots of dancing. After the formal ceremony, the crowd picked up the new deacons and priests, hoisted them up onto the shoulders of onlookers, and marched them around the yard time and again as people danced around them cheering and shouting. It was all followed by a giant feast of beef intestine (tumbo), chicken (kuku), and whole fried fish heads! (I skipped the animal options and was content with chipati, sukuma, and fanta). You can ask Cindy for her report of the tumbo… but I’ll warn you it wasn’t pretty. It was quite an energetic ordination ceremony and celebration, and we all agreed it was definitely more energetic than the masses we attend each Sunday.

Commerce: This wooden shack hosts a roadside cafe. The wooden shack is the most common form of storefront in my village.

Metal shacks are also common for stores, but not as common as wood shacks or mud little buildings.

Moon Light Video Show
Entertainment: Not many folks here have electricity, therefore no TVs or movies. (We have a hand crank radio that we rely on for our occasional news of the outside world when we can actually get BBC reception). That said, we’re finding that many villages have places like this one (above) where men can come and watch for a fee. (Women don’t really go out at night). This sign is advertising popular soccer matches happening that evening, including the Arsenal and Manchester United.

Last weekend we made a stop in Busia, a town on the Kenya/Uganda border. It was pretty similar to other small towns in the area, but since it was a border crossing there were lots of truckers. There was also a very high homeless youth population. Sadly, big truck stops here mean lots of prostitution, which in turn means high rate of AIDS. Perhaps this is why there is a large homeless youth population here? Not entirely sure, I just know the truckers/prostitution/AIDS facts, not the homelessness causes.

“Men Who Care Plan Their Families”
There are reproductive health clinics for men all across the country. The free VCT clinics are potentially even more common: Voluntary Counseling and Testing for AIDS and other STDs. Scary statistic of the day: the life expectancy for Kenyans has dropped from 57 to 47 in the last ten years, and is mostly attributed to the AIDS epidemic that is sweeping much of Africa.

And with that less than upbeat fact, I’m going to close this post. No more time to write… Cindy and I are celebrating our two month anniversary with our first overnight road trip and we need to get on the road. Kenya has three cities: Mombassa (24+ hrs away), Nairobi (8+ hours away), and Kisumu (2 hrs away). As you can probably guess, we’re jumping on a bus and heading to Kisumu. We hope to hit a sanctuary, stare out at the water, and hopefully enjoy the lovely kind of meal you can’t get near us… something like pizza or Indian food or maybe even fresh fish. Hope you are all well and enjoying your March. It’s still hot and sunny here, wish an occasional rain this week, and I’m doing well.

PS I don’t remember many birthdays nowadays (my headed is crowded with things like Swahili and water purification techniques), but here are some birthday wishes from memory. Happy late Jan birthdays to Dave, Mike, Beal, etc. Happy late Feb birthdays to Charlie, Kat, Andy, Dave, etc. Happy March birthdays to Dieter and Alyssa. Take care all!

Kazi is still going well and I’m still learning. The first month of work I spent most of my time doing play therapy with the kids. This month at work I transitioned in my role that isn’t as much direct service. My job varies from day to day, but includes computer work some days, play therapy some days, setting up a toy lending library, collecting registration, doing medical transport, and all kinds of other random things. Last week I was constantly on the road and did two trips for medical transport. I spent one day taking kids to Sabatia Eye Hospital, one day going to Kisumu trying to get the bike fixed, one day to Eldoret, and another day to Busia. It’s lots of driving on roads that aren’t exactly comparable to I-5, I-35, or the Beltway. But the medical transport is a vital part of what we do. Our small village doesn’t have all of the services we need to help our 200+ kids in the programme, so we do trips out to other towns for special clinics. Our kids and parents are great and here’s a small sampling of them…

Some of our kids are entirely blind and while others have eye problems that can get treatment. One of our girls just had double cataract surgery (she’s about 8) and we found out she’s recovering well so far but the risks are still very present. We sadly found out another of our girls, a 3 year old epileptic/Cerebral Palsy girl, is totally blind in one eye and will lose use of her other within a few months. (She had meningitis last year and it’s caused her to lose vision). I’m learning first hand that it’s intense and sad when you have to deliver the news to a mother that her quadriplegic child will never know the gift of sight.

One of my other trips last week was to a clinic put on by a crippled children’s hospital with doctors who made the 6 hour trek all the way from Nairobi. (Side note: yes, words like crippled are still the usual vocab, as is the even more dreadful term “deaf and dumb.”) I took this photo of some of our families in the waiting room. Three of our kids pictured have club feet – one needs surgery, one has a stump without a foot and needs further amputation, and the third is in splints with the hope of correction while she’s still an infant. Two of the kids pictured are hydrocephalus.

Club Foot
Club foot seems super common here and means the kid may never be able to walk. Wheelchairs aren’t common like in the states. They’re quite costly, they’re not ideal for rocky dirt roads, and are even less idea during the muddy rainy season. Often the kids need surgery, while splints work for some, including splints sometimes after surgery. This mama takes off the splints so the doctor can examine. Sadly, her daughter isn’t progressing very well.

Hydrocephalus
In very lay terms, hydrocephalus mean they have a giant head and many related, very serious complications like poor drainage from the brain, they’re easily injured, and it’s often associated with fatal heart problems. The life expectancy for our hydro kids is pretty short. We’re not sure how long they’ll live, but we aren’t giving up hope. Sadly, the amount of therapy we can actually do with this one is pretty limited… we have to be very careful not to injure or put a strain on her frail body. The doctors said this one’s condition was urgent and instead of a normal two month return visit, she was scheduled for an emergency trip to the hospital in two days.

Luc isn’t one of our kids, but was another patient at the clinic. She was super smiley and very excited to talk to a foreigner. We hung out and ate our lunch together. She’s 10 years old and is learning to walk for the first time. She has splints and a walker and she’s doing great dragging her feet/legs along behind her while she uses the walker.

It’s easy to love our cute kids like this one. This sweetie has two club feet but no other “delayed milestones” (ie. she’s not deaf, mute, paralyzed, mentally retarded, she can hold up her head and sit unassisted, her arms and hands work, etc). She’s super fun and is bright as can be. Hopefully the treatment for her club feet will be successful and she’ll be able to walk someday.

If you’re wondering about some of the nicer outfits, know that many of our parents dress their kids up in their finest for big town clinic trips like these. Many of the parents have never been into the bigger towns where we take them for clinics, some only a half hour or hour and a half drive. I suspect the parents of our disabled children want to do anything they can for their kids to give the appearance of normalcy so the clothes are one attempt. At the Centre, normal daily clothes are often second hand and are worn, ripped, torn, and sometimes held together by knots or pins.

And if you were more broadly wondering “What exactly are you doing in Africa?,” hopefully you now have a little better idea. This was just a sampling of my kids this week, but gives you a taste of our kids and the struggles our families live with day after day.

Habari! It’s now March 5th which marks our two month anniversary in Kenya! I don’t know about you, but time has flown by for me this year! It’s crazy to think that six months ago we didn’t even know if this Kenya volunteer program would receive approval or funding. And once we got word that it was approved, things started moving incredibly quickly! I announced my resignation in September, hired a replacement in October (hi Marth!), quit in November and moved home, went to training in December, and arrived in Kenya in January!

Thanks for the many emails and comments posted… and welcome to new readers like Cindy’s family and random strangers who found this through google! Which brings me to something I should’ve done a long time ago, but instead of assuming it’s understood, I’ll say it in case you’re wondering. Here are two disclaimers… better late than never.

1. We got a txt msg this week from a family member of Cindy’s saying she found the blog (hello Denise!) and got a postcard from a former coworker who’s reading as well (hi Kara!). So, for folks who know both me and Cindy know that I think she’s great. We live together and work together, garden together and laugh together, clean together and scream together, and stress together too. Most of our adventures are here are joint adventures. Much of this blog could accurately say “we did this” or “we did that.” So if you’re wondering why I don’t always include more about her in here, know that I’m trying to avoid speaking for her. I don’t want to put words in her mouth so I’ve tried out of respect to write this just from my point of view. That said, she’s a giant part of this experience so you’ll definitely see mention and know she’s a co-conspirator in most aspects of my life in Kenya.

2. This blog is intended for me to share some of my experiences from my move to Kenya. It’s by no means a guide to all things Kenyan, and isn’t meant to generalize about Kenya as a whole. Instead it’s a glimpse into my life as it unfolds in my little village and on my limited travels. My life here in my village is uniquely mine, and it’s different for each person, and for each village, and for each city, and for each place of employment, etc. I can only post about what I see and do, so that what you’ll get if you’re visiting.

That’s the end of my disclaimers. Just wanted to make sure you Cindy fans out there weren’t feeling slighted, and wanted to make sure random folks knew this blog is from my PoV and not meant to generalize life in Kenya. Thanks for visiting! Come again any time!

Ps Yes, you read that correctly above, we got text messages this week! For us to SMS the states, we just dial “+0001AreacodePhonenumer”. Not sure what you have to dail to reach us, but I suspect you just do “+2540726900612″. Again, not certain since I haven’t txt’d from the States. It feels kind of funny to collect rain water for dishes and bathing, but be able to txt my dad and ask for a care package with chocolate and a t-shirt. :)