finally!

Firstly - sorry for making everyone wait so long for another posting but... bad luck for me, I was sick again. More sick than the last time. This is all new to me because it’s rare that I even catch the common cold back home in Canada – so I’m quite the baby when I’m bedridden for 4, 5, or even 6 days and can barely hold my head up. So, once again I went through all the fun of not having control over any bodily functions - and let me tell you just how fun it really is. But… I’m getting tougher and seem to somehow get through these episodes as my body continues to adapt to all things good and bad here in Kenya. Last time I updated I talked about a woman named Susan who I’d brought to the hospital here in Bungoma. The good news is that she is out after 10 nights of being admitted, and getting better each day. She had a test done for tuberculosis and pneumonia and it was found that she had both which would have definitely killed her if she kept going in the direction she was. I also found out while working with her family that her kids weren’t going for their immunizations so now they are all up to date after some firm scolding on my part!!!!!! I really can be quite mean – well not so mean, but enough to get the job done! It’s important that people understand that if they cannot even take advantage of things that are offered by the government for free that we can’t justify in spending all this money on treating an illness that should have been prevented in the first place. The problem is that the majority of the people I work with have such minimal education that it's a huge struggle to even explain to them why these things are important! As for the other woman with the growth/tumour on her stomach - she will having a surgery on April the 16th (that’s right, in 2 days) so keep her in your prayers and lets hope that nothing goes wrong! Otherwise life has been filled with both very bad and very good news. I will start with the bad so that we can end on a happy note. Last Thursday before I got sick AGAIN!!, I went to my women’s group meeting to find some really sad, bad, terrible news. One of our student’s older brothers was taking the cows to the river for water and somehow fell in and drowned. Here in Kenya you can find a child as young as the age of 6 years herding 4 or 5 cattle and having complete control over them – so it’s not uncommon for a 10 year old like this to be taking them all to the river with no supervision. The next thing to happen for me was that I moved. I have found that I’m doing so many things in Bungoma that I really needed to be stationed there. After all, I put in 9 solid weeks of bucket bathing and no electricity so I think I’ve earned my new ‘city’ life! Plus, I’m REALLY tired of malaria and now I’m in a bedroom that has walls that meet the ceiling which will hopefully help in keeping those little @*#&$&@* away from me!!!! I’m living with a woman named Massie, her 4 year old daughter Nicole, a house girl named Lydia, and Massie’s cousin Anne who’s here until she finds work! So far things are great and I’m enjoying having the organizations laptop PLUGGED in inside my own room. Nicole has been having a great time getting acquainted with all the neat things that this new Mzungu creature has brought to her home too. As happy as I am about the move I’m also sad to lose the surroundings I’d gotten use to at the family’s home in Kabula. I’ll especially miss all the kids and those two kittens who’d gotten use to sleeping in my bed with me every night getting spoiled while I snuck them leftovers from each nights dinner! I won’t be getting any pets either because Massie is not an animal person – but I think I’ll survive. I hope! As for the good news... A young couple completing their last year of medicine with a 3 month term in Nairobi hospital were looking for a new, struggling project to help out with. Lucky for us they met up with the German volunteer that was here (Solveig) and they decided to pay us a visit to see if ours was something they wanted to help with. Basically they collected from doctors and other medical students back in Germany (where they come from also) and had quite a large donation to make… to something. They arrived on a Tuesday morning very early after the 8 hour bumpy bus ride. Early in the afternoon I took them to Shibanze to look around and they decided right away that this was something they wanted to donate towards! So… we rushed back to Bungoma and started shopping at about 5pm. We shopped from the local supermarket that had previously made a donation to our school and bought so so so so many things. As I’m trying to remember them they are going through my head too fast for me to type! We got office furniture, school supplies galore, all the cooking supplies that the kitchen could dream for, and most importantly some toys for the kids to play with as they had nothing. We weren’t able to build a proper play ground with the short time that the couple spent here but we were at least able to buy balls, cars (toy of course!), a sandbox, and skipping ropes among other things. Of course, not to worry since that fundraiser at the Anchor went so amazingly well!!!! After unloading all of these things we asked the children if they thought they’d like to have something for their very own that they could keep and take home. They all got really quiet wondering what it could be and then we had them line up to each receive their very own school bag! Now they all have little backpacks which are absolutely adorable. Between the backpacks and the balloons that I’d brought there was quite a lot of crying… all happy tears once again, of course. Since that, every time I'm in Shibanze I see little ones with backpacks on because they won't let their new presents out of their sight! We had even surprised my director Benson with two truckloads of goodies as he had no idea about these visitors arriving! It was the closing day for the term at the school so the ‘guardians’ were there for a meeting when we arrived. Perfect timing! When the teachers introduced the couple, the parents did some sort of clapping thing that they’d obviously practiced… which was enough to put all Mzungu’s within listening distance into tears – and that it did. I knew there was a good reason that I quit wearing makeup altogether when I got here – because it would be running down my face from happy or sad (far more happy of course) tears every day. We spent the whole day playing games and even had a lunch with fruit juice (which many had never tasted before), bananas, a maize and bean mixture, as well as Chai. This really was an incredible day. We now have enough school supplies to last the rest of the year so we can focus on other important things that we need so badly! I wish I could snap my fingers and you could all have the same feeling I have from this experience so far… it’s something you cannot possibly understand or comprehend until you do it yourself. I hope what I’m writing can somehow allow you to experience at least a good part of it all. Between these entries and pictures, it's the best I can do!! I’m adding a few pictures of the local markets I go by each day and really soon I’ll upload pictures from when our visitors were here so you can see all the fun things that were going on! So.......... now I'm finally on vacation. Here I am sitting in a little internet cafe in the city of Mombasa. It's located on the coast line of Kenya and as big of an attraction as Nairobi. I left at 4:30pm in the afternoon and arrived by bus at 10am the next day! I have been here for two days now and have so far spent my time relaxing on endless stretches of white sand beaches in bath warm water on the Indian Ocean. Life is rough! Now that I'm here and finally pryed myself away from my work for a break - I'm realizing how much I needed it. I was in serious need of some battery recharging. And, I'm looking forward to tackling that playground with maximum energy so that it even makes playgrounds over there look bad! As for my travelling plans, tomorrow I plan to head south along the coast into Tanzania. Within a few days I'll hopefully make it to Zanzibar Island and spend a full week there before heading back to Bungoma! I'll try to update while I'm travelling but otherwise you'll hear from me in about 2 weeks!