Always forward, never backward!

This morning I woke up very early because I had a visitor come to give me a lovely present. Squeak (one of the cats) had caught a very very large rat and still being a kitten wanted nothing more than to let it remain in misery while playing with it - Catching it over and over and over again while it was squealing. I'm not a big fan of rats but I am worse with handling pain and death so had to feel sorry for the little (or BIG) thing. I had to go and get Charles who is one of the boys who does work around the house to come and remove it from my room. I'm almost fully recovered from the trauma now!!!!!!!! A lot has happened since I wrote last. I'm just remembering that I wrote this same line in my last post so things must be going well here! Yesterday I picked up the donation from the local supermarket. They gave 5,000 Shillings worth of supplies which included 14 mailla papers, 2 cellotapes, 3 wall clocks, 30 student files, 5 pkgs of plasticine, 10 pkgs of water colour paints, 6 rulers, 250 exercise books, 4 blackboard erasers, 150 pencils, plus teacher supplies like scheme books, pens, glue, class registers etc. !!!!! I'm continually impressed with the businesses in Bungoma and how much they are wanting to help us. I don't think that the organization had considered the local capacity of donating here and were relying very heavily on international donors. Benson thinks I can work magic but I'm trying to assure him that the people sincerely want to help and it's not just my special touch (ok, well maybe just a little!). I also had another business give 24 small bags of maize flour and a case of soap for the hygiene program. They are also going to donate more in the future and when I was talking to that manager, another delivery man of another company was listening and asked for my information so that he could also help. So, it seems like things will only get better! This past week I was able to start doing home survey's for the children who had just started at the Academy in January. I have completed about 15 in the two days and have seen many things. I thought I was already in rural Africa but apparently I wasn't! I took one of the teachers, Emily, as well as the parent chairman, Edward, with me for both translation and safety reasons. We hiked through very tall sugar cane fields where there are no roads but just narrow paths. I visited home after home completing my surveys. The first home we visited on Wednesday gave me a chicken.... and the thought is really really awesome but when it's 35 degree heat and I'm sweating to death and already carrying around all my supplies for surveying, the last thing I want to do is carry a chicken under my arm.... but, there I was again carting around a chicken! One of the questions on the surveys asks if the family has lost any children and in the first day out of 7 surveys 2 had answered yes. I thought that this was bad but on Friday I met a family with 8 children in which the mother had actually given birth 13 times but had lost 5 of them before the age of 4 years. It's really difficult for me to hear this and I'm constantly having to collect myself between homes. I guess I was hoping that it wasn't really as tough here as we are made to believe at home. The reality is that it really truly is. Most of the deaths were entirely preventable but due to lack of knowledge and resources the family could do nothing. Malaria, phnemonia and diarrhea are the top three killers of children in Africa and in over half of those malnutrition is to blame. It seems as though I have an endless amount of work to do. This same family had a daughter of about 10 years and I knew right away by her physical features that she had down syndrome. I think that this sort of genetic disorder is less common in Africa so I was surprised to see it. I had noticed a few schools that were for special needs children but never thought too much about it. I asked the mother what she knew about the girl and she said the doctor told her that she was perfectly normal but would just learn more slowly than other children. That kind of bothers me because I really don't think it is accurate information and that nobody made an effort to really help the family to understand this little girl. Just from watching I think that she is very high functioning for someone with down sydnrome as she is very polite and quiet and understands instruction well. She just can't form words herself. I really want this girl to come to join the young nursery class because I think that the young kids are innocent enough not to judge her and be cruel and I really think she would enjoy singing and dancing and colouring which is what a big part of their day involves. I also visited a home yesterday that had previously been surveyed but I wanted to check up on them because the notes were worrying me. It was a family having both mother and father with 6 children. They were all living in a one room home with a grass roof and mud walls that was the size of a big sandbox. Three of the kids come to Tumaini Academy but are always late and never washed and look very malnourished. What I experienced while visiting the home was a very drunk father who was leaning against the wall to stand and the mother was sitting on the floor in the corner with all the kids huddled around her not saying a word or even looking up at me. I couldn't understand what the father was saying to the wife myself but afterwards Emily told me that he was giving her trouble for having the kids dirty and late. But... they are having to walk an hour to get to school so you can't know what they are doing or getting into along the way. I'm now really worrying what trouble I've caused for that woman because I fear that the husband is going to take the problems out on her in a very harsh way. I'm going to go back tomorrow to make sure things are ok and talk with them more. Every time I have a conversation here I'm learning something new and unfortunately it is mistakes that I'm learning from. In many of these areas, no mzungu has ever ventured so although the parents have seen us from being in town at the markets, many of the young children had never. While passing one home there were two little girls about 1 and 3. When they saw me they burst into tears and ran to the mother. The older girl was in hysterics and covering her eyes like they were going to catch fire at the site of me. I had no idea what to do. I wanted to just go over to them and reach out my hand but every time I took a step closer they just screamed louder. I decided to leave the encounter at that but it was an odd feeling to be seen as such a monster!!!!!!!! I'm finding the heat hard to handle also and often when I stand up am getting very dizzy and seeing spots. I hope I will get use to it soon. Today I'm working on organizing the school records because within a week or so the office will be built. As we have a few children coming from more regular family situations they can afford to pay fees but I am finding out that noone has been keeping files up to date to make sure that the fees are actually collected. So, I have to play the mean lady and tell them to cough it up. Without a steady income of donations, we have to have a few children paying in order to offset the costs in giving the orphans free education. Maybe by the end of next week I won't be liked as much as I am now. People in Shibanze are constantly begging me to stay at their home and insisting that I'm far too tired to bike all the way back to Kabula (and even though they see my bike every day leaning against the school wall, they don't really believe that I know how to ride it). It's still hard to accept the royal treatment I'm getting here. People are always offering me the best seat in the home, trying to accomodate me by any means possible and I just want to give them that best seat but yet it makes them so happy to do this. I guess I'm just feeling guilty that I'm recieved like this yet am going home (even here) to a much better situation. On Thursday we had the first group meeting for women in the community. I was really surprised to see that 18 had showed up! Although, they had me worried because most were an hour late but this is Africa time. You get use to it quickly. They were all very keen to learn about hygiene, and nutritional health stuff so can't wait for the next meeting. We just did some introductions and I wrote down a list of things they were interested in so next week we will do a seminar on breast feeding and when and how to wean the children. They've also divided themselves into two groups and have volunteered to each once a week to help with the school garden that will provide some of the foods in the lunch program in the future! I can't believe that as of tomorrow I will have been here for an entire month. It's been going by so quickly and although I know I've accomplished a lot here, I feel like my brain is being stretched in 10 directions and that I have a never-ending list of other things I want to see happen. But, baby steps are necessary and I have to remind myself that I can't take every problem under my own wing. I better get to the administration work as weekends are my only chance now but I'll be sure to write again soon! Thanks for keeping on reading and if anyone else is interested in donating then please just send me a message to my guelph or hotmail account! aflanaga@uoguelph.ca, or flan_15@hotmail.com! BYE FOR NOW :)