Limuru Round Two

Been in Limuru since Sunday, July 21st for our second round of classes at St. Paul's University. Let me tell you, it is FREEZING. Low 60s all week. I sleep with a million blankets each night curled in a ball.

Anyways, now about class. This week has been even better than the week of classes in May. We are much more comfortable with each other so there is more discussion. Great discussion.

On Monday we talked about our 8 week placements in our various organizations. Shared all about Lea Toto and the work that I have been doing all summer. Also shared about my one-woman battle against stigma in the informal settlements. Still haven't completely decided whether to continue with that course of study in the future, but I might.

Tuesday we had lectures/discussions on relationships between organizations, the role of global missions in East Africa, Christianity and Islam, and sexuality. Very interesting topics and very interesting answers. It has been clear in my 8 weeks living in Kenya that all these topics are pressing and visible here.

Wednesday we split of into groups and discussed our organizational assessments from our 8 week work placement. Leslie and I talked about Lea Toto and our research done there on stigma and the role of male CHWs in the community.

Wednesday afternoon and Thursday morning we were split into groups again and were handed case studies to be presented on Thursday afternoon and Friday morning. My group's case study was on how to make the Comprehension Care Center (CCC) model sustainable after international aid ceases funding the groups. It was difficult to come up with a solution to this problem and in the end we were very radical in our proposed solution.

After our presentations on Friday morning we sang a song together and prayed before taking lunch. Lunch was special today since C.B. Peter made Indian food and we had a dessert! Chocolate has never tasted so amazing in my life!

We are going back to the hotel to relax before being picked up at 9am tomorrow morning to begin our long, arduous trek across Kenya to MOMBASA! So excited about laying on the beach all day for a week. Maybe not everyday because we have some things we want to do before we leave. For example, horseback riding on the beach, touring old ruins, eating, shopping, and generally taking pictures of everything.

Onwards! Be back to the US on August 6th!

Maasai Mara Safari

Just returned from a 3-day safari on the Maasai Mara. So amazing! Cannot even express it in words, but I shall try.

Day 1:
Picked up around 11am for a LONG drive out to the national park. We stopped and had a traditional Kenyan lunch in Narok. Should also mention this: the 'road' was HORRENDOUS. Leslie took a video of a part of the drive down there to show how ridiculously bad it was. I will never, never, never complain about potholes in the US. Americans don't know the meaning of  'pothole.' Anyways, we got to the park gates around 4pm and began our first game drive! Within 30 seconds of entering the park we saw gazelles, zebrahs, and wildebeast. -Sidenote: This is the best time to go to the Maasai Mara because of the great migration. The wildebeast come down through the Great Rift Valley of Kenya into Tanzania. Millions of wildebeast moving.- If you are having trouble picturing a wildebeast either Google it or think of Mufasa's death in The Lion King. Mufasa was trampled by the wildebeast migration. Knowing that I was already prone to not liking wildebeast, but I ended up liking them a bit.

After driving through zebrah and wildebeast for awhile we saw a bunch of tourist white vans clumped around a rock formation. Of course we drove over there to see what they saw and it was a lioness! She was up on this rock right next to the sunset and I got some amazing pictures. It was amazing. I thought this might be the crowning moment of the trip, but alas it was not. The park closes at 6:30pm so we exited and made our way to our tented camp. Roomed with Leslie and Emily in a 3-bed tent thingy. Hard to describe- the 'tent' part is where the beds are and then the back is the shower, sink, and toilet, which is stone. We discovered that we had a 4th roommate when we went into the bathroom. A HUGE spider. Not joking. I have never seen a spider this big. It was tarantula size. About the size of my fist. Big. I tried to squash it but it saw me coming and moved into a position I could not get to. Smart spider. Thankfully, we had mosquito nets above our beds so we tucked into those at night and hoped the spider wouldn't come crawling over.

Day 2:
Next morning, spider was gone. Not knowing where it was made me even more nervous. Left the our tented around 7:30am for our second game drive. We were told that we were going all the way to the Tanzanian border, which is a good 5-6 hour drive, without stopping and taking pictures. We saw a ton of gazelles, zebrahs, and wildebeast. We saw some elephants and giraffes. But on to a GREAT story about cheetahs: We were drive 'off road' and saw a couple lime green jeeps parked in the middle of nowhere. We drove up to them and realized that they were looking at two cheetahs lounging around. Jill, one of the girls in our car, was talking about how whenever something goes bad on a trip it always happens to people around her. Very comforting to here. All of a sudden the cheetahs start to get up and start walking towards us. One jeep ahead of us starting moving to get a better view. One cheetah had the same idea. The cheetah jumped on top of the jeep in front of us! (Picture this: these jeeps have a moveable ceiling so that you can stand up and put your head and shoulder outside to get better pictures. All safari jeeps/vans have them and they are ALWAYS up.) The cheetah was sitting on the back of the jeep about a foot away from these people. We heard a bunch of screams for about .5 seconds and then shushed so that the cheetah wouldn't jump down INTO the jeep. The other cheetah decided that this was a great idea and jumped on top with the other one. Our van started to move closer to get a better view, which our view was great anyways. Jill almost shit a brick because we were all terrified that the cheetah would decide that our van looked better and move over. They finally got off after the driver of the jeep starting to inch slowly away. Pretty awesome, but no danger :) Some amazing pictures!

We finally made it to the end of the Kenyan border and had lunch. As soon as we sit down we are surrounded my monkeys. One stole my apple out of my lunch box!! They were so brave. They even tried to get into our van to get to our food in there. After lunch we followed a park ranger (with a rifle) to go see some crocadiles and hippos on the river. FYI hippos are mean and will kill you if you get too close. Thankfully we were on the other side of the river.

Day 3:
We woke up at 5:30am to be gone by 6am so that we could see the sunrise in the park. Did not quite work out since the park doesn't open until 6:30am. But still pretty great. The only animal we had not seen was a leopard and a rhino. The guide said that we would probably not see any rhinos since they are very endangered and the park is very big. We went on a leopard hunt 'off road' because we saw a carcass in a tree. (Leopards are nocturnal. They hunt at night and sleep all day) We did not see a leopard but others did so it is safe to say that we were in the vicinity of a leopard. I was completely ok with that since they are ferocious.

On our way we stopped by the place we saw some lions on Day 2. The lions were still there and this time they had dinner! The pups were nawing on a carcass while the mama slept near them. We drove a little bit and discovered the whole pride! Two male lions were napping in some trees with their lionesses and pups. Got some amazing pictures.

The second most amazing thing (cheetahs were first) is the rhino!! We were driving down a dirt road with nothing of interest on it when our driver spoke to another driver. Totally speaking swahili so no one had any idea what was happening. We came upon another jeep with tourists snapping pictures off to the left. We stop behind then and see a RHINO! No way. We are there for about 5 seconds when the rhino starts to CHARGE our JEEP. No kidding. Our driver heard our screams/saw the rhino and hit the gas. When the rhino stopped, we stopped and starting taking pictures again and laughing about how we almost died. Then the rhino started charging AGAIN. No way. The driver hits the gas again until the rhino stops. He finally loses interest in us so we back up and start snapping pictures again. Not sure how wise that situation was, but it was pretty epic.

We started back to Nairobi around 11am and made it home around 4pm. Pretty amazing weekend. Lots of great videos and pictures to be shared on Facebook!

Until next time...

Kitengela

Just realized that I haven't posted anything in a really really long time. So here's to catch everyone up!

Last week Leslie and I finished our tour of all eight Lea Toto centers and did all of our interviews. I ended up with 17 interviews of social workers and counselors. I have been transcribing some each day. Each interview is between 15-30 minutes long so it is not that bad. Transcribing still takes me about 1-1.5 hours each one. I have scheduled it so that I will be done on Thursday and can start coding and analyzing the data I have. I am taking Thursday, Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday to analyze because next Wednesday we are meeting with all the center coordinators and some social workers and counselors to share our results. I can't really work this weekend because Leslie, Emily, and I are leaving on Friday morning for safari on the Maasai Mara! Really excited for that.

This past weekend was loaded with fun. The girls staying in Nyumbani Village down near Kitui came to Nairobi so that we could celebrate some birthdays. Meghan, Amihan, Carrilea and a couple of their new friends came to Nairobi on Thursday and stayed until Sunday. We all went out to a bar/club about a block away from our apartment and had a grand ole time. Seriously, great times were had that night/early morn.

Saturday Emily, Sara, Leslie, and I traveled by bus about an hour southeast of Nairobi to Kitengela. One of our fellow students, Edward, at St. Paul's University invited us for a visit to his church. The service started at 7:30am so we all decided that going a day early and sleeping over would be the best course of action. We arrived around 4pm and were picked up and taken straight to the church to meet up with everyone. Some of the youth were there preparing mandazi for the next day. The best way to describe mandazi is like an unsweetened sopapilla. You prepare the dough, roll it out, cut it into squares, and then drop them into a boiling pot of oil to fry. Kenyans eat them with tea, which they take after church on Sundays. The youth were going to sell them to the church goers to raise money for a P.A. system for music. We all had so much fun watching/helping them make mandazi.

Afterwards Edward divided us into two groups for our overnight stay. Emily and I were team 1 and Sara and Leslie were team 2. Team 1 went back to stay with one of the youths and spent all night cooking chapati and ugali. They were complaining the next morning about how difficult it was to make both foods. But totally worth it. Emily and I stayed with the Theo family. They prepared for us beef stew, cabbage, chapati, pineapple, and watermelon. A typical Kenyan dinner (minus rice). The family we stayed with was so accommodating and very sweet to us the entire time. We made some friends for life in Kitengela.

We got up early Sunday morning to attend the youth service at 7:30am. It was great! I loved singing the songs, even if some of them were in Swahili, and listening to the sermon. It is apparent to me now after attending 3 Kenyan churches that it is tradition to make the visitors stand with a microphone and say a few words in front of the whole congregation. Usually I would be happy to hunker down in my seat and pretend as if I always attend that church, but there is really no hiding here in Kenya. We stayed for the 9am English service so that we could introduce ourselves to the adult population. We left after the announcements and welcoming and joined the rest of the youth outside.

The night before the youth had set up a huge tent outside so that they could serve the tea on Sunday. They also had a ping pong table. I did not play ping pong because I am so bad but I did join about 10 others in a card game. They called it poker, but it just seemed like a crazy complicated game of group Uno, elimination style. I'm pretty sure that some of the rules were made up. But it was a lot of fun! We played one entire game of elimination and Leslie beat everyone. It was hilarious that the muzungu beat all the Kenyans!

We ate lunch at the church with some of the youth. We had beef stew, rice, and cabbage (see? typical), which was all delicious. After church Edward invited us to visit with him and his family at their apartment. We met their adorable twin babies. Technically not babies since they are 1.5 years old but totally adorable. The boy, Clive, only needed about 5 minutes to warm up to us. He was even flirting with Leslie by the end of our time. The girl was not amused with us at all. Sara held her for all of 30 seconds before she got upset and reached for her daddy again. She was very distrusting of these weirdly colored white people in her home. I totally understand her anxiety though.

We got back on the bus to Nairobi around 4pm and totally collapsed when we got home. Overall, it was a very successful weekend and memories that we will always cherish.

Research

Haven't been blogging lately because nothing has been happening that is blog-worthy. I can talk a little bit about my research though! **Disclaimer: Not much detail here because the paranoid academic in me says not to since I may make this topic my dissertation.**

Yesterday Leslie and I had a meeting with Nicholas, the Lea Toto Program Manager. He wanted an update on our research and how we were finding our time at Lea Toto. This meeting actually got me very excited for the work that I want to do. Up to this point I have felt like I was just floating around Kangemi aimlessly. I was told to shadow the social workers but they are usually in their office, which has no room for me. Actually, there was no place for me to sit so many times I would just awkwardly stand in doorways. If you know me at all, then you know that I need direction in my life. I always have a plan and when I don't have a plan I do not function very well. Even if the plan is minute or careless, a plan is still a plan. Staying for the past 3.5 weeks at Kangemi have been great and priceless. I have learned so much about the people and the program by being there. I would not replace this for anything. That being said, I do have to admit that I do not enjoy aimless wandering. I want/need/have to have a purpose.

I have found that purpose. It takes the form of a research question and may possibly morph into my dissertation one day. But that day is a very long way off. First I have to write my thesis, survive prelims, get into Rollins MPH program, complete MPH, and then I'll finally devote 2-3 years to my dissertation. The trick is to decide on a dissertation topic early enough that you can begin writing sections of it for other classes. I also need to decide if I love this topic enough to spend the next 5 years of my life on it. I think I might.

My time at Kangemi is counting down. Only 3 more weeks and 2 of those I will be traveling around to the other Lea Toto centers. In our meeting we decided that it would benefit Leslie and I the most to get the opinions of other centers and not just our own. We will be traveling to Kawangware, Kibera, Dagoretti, Kangemi, Mukuru, Zimmerman, Dandora, and Kariobangi. We will spend a day at each center interviewing staff and learning about the work routine there. I'm excited to see the other informal settlements around Nairobi.

Forgot to mention this! Several of us went to church on Sunday in Kibera. It was very exciting to visit Kibera. I did not realize how close we live to the entrance- only a 15 minute walk. I was deeply impressed that Kibera had several paved roads. I've been told that since Kibera is known around the world that they get a lot of foreign aid, more than others in Nairobi. Also, there are many, many, many foreign aid workers there that conditions have risen a bit. We were invited to church by one of our St. Paul's colleagues. She is a minister in a couple churches around the area and grew up in Kibera. The service was all in Swahili but you don't really need words to hum along to a hymn. During the service I just looked around and observed the other people. There were only about 10 other people at the service and several children. One child kept trying to sit in our laps and screaming, "Hi, how are you?" It was great fun.

Until next time!

Hell's Gate Gorge

We went to Hell's Gate National Park on Sunday. Our plan was to go on Saturday but it was raining all day. This is a sign of the impending apocalypse because it is not supposed to rain in Kenya unless it is the rainy season, which ended a couple months ago. Anyways, we decided to wait another day because it would not be as fun in the rain and potentially life threatening. Hell's Gate Gorge is known for its deadly flash floods. Not sure how many people die each year, but it's substantial. Spoiler alert- we all survived our trek.

In all the guide books they say that the trip into Hell's Gate Gorge is a bit of a hike and troublesome for the weary traveller. I'm calling bullshit on that right now. Hell's Gate Gorge is part rigorous hike and part terrifying rock climb. I've never been rock climbing... until Sunday. Crash course in a gorge is the best way to learn. We met with another student from Emory last week and she told us a little bit about her experience trekking through the gorge. She said that she did not go all the way to the end because of the crazy acrobatics along the way. I'd like to say that we all survived the entire way. Very proud of myself.

I should have known the level of difficulty within about 2 minutes of starting the trek. Our first obstacle was actually getting down into the gorge. We had to pick our way down a pretty steep cliff and then swing ourselves from a tree branch onto a small (half the width of my foot) outcropping of rock. Then just jump a rushing river and up the other side! Whew, one down. Many, many to go.

I want to express my sincere and overwhelming gratitude to our guide. He was amazing. If you looked through my pictures on Facebook you will see one where I caught him in action. He literally just got a running start at most of the rocks and leapt up on top of them. He was like a mountain goat. Many times he would wedge his foot against yours just in case your foot/shoe gave out and started to slide down the rock face. At one point he swung Katie Sack by her arms to set her down across a stream. It was hilarious. I think I caught the aftermath of that one on camera too.

Also, captured by Leslie, is the look of absolute terror on my face during an especially "fun" obstacle. We had to drop about 5 feet to the ground but missing the water. That is the one Katie was swung over. Did I also mention that it had rained? Plenty of mud and slippery rocks in the gorge, which made the trek that much more fun (aka terrifying).

I'm complaining a ton because it was hard work but worth it. It was a beautiful experience and bonding time for us. I can't say that I would do it again. Not after scraping the skin off my already poorly wounded leg. I got pictures of that too. I would also need to work on my fear of heights. And work out at the gym non-stop to feel even remotely in shape for that journey again. Still have plenty of crazy stories, ask me about them sometime and I will try my best to act them out.

I got some amazing pictures though. Nature at its finest.

Sidenote- some drama here at the apartment. Emily and Whitney went to Nakumatt this evening for some groceries. This is about 7 at night and dark, which also means that the street in front of our apartment complex is busy. They were crossing that street when a motorcycle came out of nowhere and hit Whitney. She fell to the ground and badly scraped up her feet. The motorcyclist also fell off his bike, so that makes us feel a little bit better about the whole thing. He was trying to beat traffic and take the unofficial "middle lane." Poor Whitney, it messed up her feet so much and she was in a lot of pain. She and Emily went to a clinic to make sure that nothing was broken. Hopefully she is just bruised and will be just fine.

Also, Katie Sack has never had ice cream cake and that is a travesty.

Done for now. Until next time!

Babies!

I got to work today and saw that there were two women and a small child sitting outside the clinic. This was odd because the clinic is closed this week. I figured that they had an appointment with a social worker. While sitting and having tea I heard the child cough a couple of times and it sounded like she had TB or some crazy, awful chronic cold. Beth told me that Faith would be taking the car and going to Nyumbani in Karen. This is the respite home where the social workers, doctors, nutritionist, or any of the combination can recommend that a child go. This can be reasons of severe malnutrition, bad home life, or parents not adhereing to the child's medical needs.

After about an hour we all pile in the car, four to the backseat again, which is super fun. Played with the baby a little bit on the 30 minute ride to Nyumbani in Karen. Sidenote- Karen is the nice/expensive suburb of Nairobi. There is no slum/informal settlement there, only the children's home that is run by Catholic nuns. When we get through the gates my first thought is, "Wow, this is an oasis." And it was. There was a gorgeous fountain and paintings on the walls of the buildings. All the buildings were really nice and clean, which is hard because dirt in Kenya goes anywhere and everywhere. The children were at recess when we got there so I saw them playing on the playground and on the football field. It was great to see them so happy and healthy.

We went straight to the intake center where some babies were and where they take measurements of the new children. In the room there were two cribs with babies in them and 3 other babies in small plastic chairs. These babies ranged from 1-2.5 years old and were the best mannered children I have ever met. They just sat in their small chairs and watched the adults talking. The babies in the cribs were smaller than the others and probably could not hold themselves up. One of the babies was smaller and just the happiest child ever. He was playing with his toys the whole time and making cute baby noises. The other baby was the complete opposite. For the first thirty minutes he just sat there staring at the blanket. Not moving, just staring. It was heartbreaking to look at him. After awhile I went over to him and tried to engage him in playing with a couple of the toys in his crib. Didn't really work that well. I got a couple of smiles out of him but not much. Then he started making small noises that I knew were about to turn into crying. I asked one of the nurses if it was okay to pick him up, which she said yes.

As soon as I picked him up he stopped making those horribly depressing noises. He saw the sun outside the window and grabbed hold of the windowsill. I leaned up against it so that he could look outside easier. I made a joke that we were making our escape, just really slowly. He still hadn't really smiled or even looked at me up to this point. What could I do? Other than make a fool of myself, complete with crazy noises, weird circling, bounciness, and playing peek-a-boo with my shoulder. Guess what? He smiled!!! It was amazing.

I kept on with this for about 30 minutes just enjoying watching him smile and stare at me like I was the craziest person on the planet, which could be true. I shared some secrets of the universe with him. I told him to listen to the nuns and not get into any trouble when he left the center. I told him not to chase after girls but instead focus on school. My wish for him was to go to college and then become a doctor. I wanted him to help the world that born him into such bad circumstances. I whispered that being HIV positive was not the end of the world, and that many people around the world live such normal lives with HIV. I wished for him to grow up and help fight the virus inside of him. Be a good man. Be a great man.

Not sure if he listened to me, but I like to think that he did.

After awhile he started getting sleepy. He ended up falling asleep in my arms with one hand on my neck. It is amazing to watch a baby fall asleep. One of the wonders of the world. They try so hard to keep their eyes open and watch you, but just can't help it.

After about 20 more minutes of watching this angel sleep I realized that we were leaving. I was so sad to put him down and leave him. I slowly put him back in his crib and silently prayed that he would make it in life.

Been Awhile

Haven't really updated the blog for about a week now. Sorry! Not much going on lately, at least not good enough to really talk about. I was told last Thursday that it may be a good idea to take a couple of days off so that my leg could heal. I took last Friday and Monday off so that it could scab over properly. Now when I walk it doesn't open up again. The small victories in life, my friends. I still get looks and questions about what happened. Fighting off a lion is a much better story than falling down a cliff/hill/mountain.

Work is pretty slow this week because the medical clinic is closed so the personnel can attend training in Kawangware. The social workers still have home visits to do this week, so that keeps me busy. I went on a home visit with Paul the intern and a CHW. We went to one home that had about 4 dogs outside. Thankfully they did not attack us, just sniffed for awhile. We went inside the home and I got to play with a baby for about 20 minutes. She was absolutely adorable. She kept looking at my hand like I was an alien, which to her eyes I probably was. When we left it really hit me that she was our client. Meaning that she is HIV positive. I still don't know how to deal with these realizations.

I was heroic on our home visit on Monday. We were walking down a ravine/sewer runoff and passed a chicken with some baby chicks. One of the babies' foot was caught in a piece of grass. I could not help it. I reached down and freed the little guy. As soon as I bent down near the baby the mama chicken started to run at me. Thank goodness I was able to free the baby quickly enough to escape the mama. Paul and the CHW looked at me like I was crazy for helping out the little guy. Circle of life. But I believe in karma.

To pass the time at work this week I have started doing the crossword in the daily paper. Getting pretty good at it. There is another one that is called "codeword." It looks like a crossword but they give you 1-2 letters, then you have to fill in the rest of it. No hints or help at all. Just the letters given. Some of them are super difficult. Leslie also does it so we text back and forth at work to see if we are on the same track. Not so much usually.

We met with our future safari guide, TImmy, earlier today. He lives in Naivasha where Hell's Gate and the lake are. It is about 1-1.5 hours northwest of Nairobi. We have decided to make a trip up to Hell's Gate this Saturday for some hiking. We talked with Timmy about planning our 3 day safari in the middle of July. Super excited and he does it pretty reasonably priced. He was a character though. He was the guide that took the Emory group last year and comes highly recommended. I can see why- he is very enthusiastic about what he does and just wants everyone to have the best time they can. I'm excited to see the Maasai Mara in July with the great migration.

Full disclosure- Emily, Leslie, I were sitting in the coffee shop waiting for Timmy when this conversation happened:
*Leslie drinking a Stoney, which is made by Coca-Cola*
Me: "Wow, they make a ton of stuff we don't even know about in the states."
Emily: "You would if you visited The World of Coke in Atlanta."
Me: "It's so expensive. Parking is crazy. I would just take a matatu... wait."
*Crazy laughter ensues*

I am fully embracing the Kenyan culture, I am very happy to say.