Hi All!
Sorry for the bombardment of posts. There was a storm, which isn’t very favorable for relying on solar panels to charge our electronics. But here you go!
This past weekend was amazing. We went to Auindo, which is about 3 1/2 hours away from Matoso. We ordered a private car because the public transport is also what carries the fish for the 2 hours to Migori. It was so hot and I was so grateful that we paid the extra $4USD to have our own “luxury car.” Well, it wasn’t really a car so much as it was a minivan. A minivan that had to fit 18 people and their overnight bags. That was quite the experience. We were jam packed in!
The ride was worth it. We went to another one of Semi’s really amazing friend’s houses. Her name is Jane. She worked for the BBC in London and was also involved in journalism in Japan. She is so well traveled and smart. It was so refreshing to meet a progressive and proactive African woman. Her whole house is green. She gets her water from the earth. I don’t know exactly all of the technology, but she essentially drilled down until water. Solar panels and a windmill power her house. Everything she eats, she grows. She has four fishponds, cattle, goats, lamb, chickens and turkeys.
She gladly opened her house up to 18 people. To me, that speaks volumes. Ontop of that, she had a full banquet for us. Literally, a rain tent with tables and chairs covered with beautiful linens. We ate like kings that night. I have never been so well fed in my life! Well, in the past 4 weeks.
It was great! I used a REAL toilet that flushes. I took a shower with running water. I slept inside a home. I could not believe all of the effort that she put into having guests.
It made me reevaluate my standards for hosting!
This week should be really interesting. I went to Migori on Monday. There was a riot. I was pretty scared. People were so angry and outraged. All I could hear people yelling was, “this is how we do things in Africa.” That in itself was frightening. Then to top it off, people were putting up roadblocks…and we were stuck! Our car was stuck in the middle of it all. As it turns out, there was a really bad accident and a few people died. There is a lack of driving laws throughout Kenya. People go as fast as they want and yield to no one. The community was so sick of people speeding through their town that they decided to stop traffic and create cement speed bumps. The two hour drive took us an extra 2 hours because we were trying to take the ONE back road, which everyone else was on. It was quite the experience! I am so glad everything turned out well.
That is all for now!
Love to you all!
Saturday, August 6, 2011
Light in Darkness
Hi All!
It has been a very interesting few days. There was a massive storm, so our solar panels were not available to charge computers. Needless to say, there is a lot to fill you in on.
I planned to take the orphan Matilda to the local health center to get checked out. Her stomach looked as if she was being eaten alive by worms. It felt really strange too. I decided to take her down to get checked out. Turns out she does have worms and a pretty serious case of giardia. Her check up and her medicine all came out to cost under one US dollar. I was shocked. She just finished her last round of medicine yesterday. There is a night and day difference with baby! I love it. She is so happy and running around! It was also really great because the health officials let me go into the lab and look in the microscope at the different tests we ran on her. I got to see the giardia protozoa wiggling around. I also got to look to see if she had Malaria, which she luckily does not!
I firmly believe that Kenya is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been to in my entire life. But it is also one of the most ugly and darkest areas. I have thought a lot about how much I should divulge in my blog. But I figured it was most important to be honest. This next part is very sad and incomprehensible. While we were at the health center I kept hearing these wails of severe pain. It was coming from a baby. One of the men that is taking our computer literacy course is a doctor at the health center. He came up to class later in the day and apologized because he could not make it today. Apparently, the screams that I was hearing were in fact coming from a baby. A five month old had been raped and she did not make it. I cannot even fathom whom or why anyone would do that to an innocent baby. It is the most cruel and disgusting thing I have ever been so close to. Of course, I have heard devastating stories. But I have never been in the same location as someone like I was on Friday.
I swear that I can be having the best day and it will literally crash into shambles within five minutes. Conversely, I have these moments that reaffirm my faith in humanity. The redemption came Friday night. There are some other CDWs (community development workers) in the area. They were flying home to Germany on Saturday and there was a going away party to celebrate all of their hard work. We were previously engaged so we decided to go – despite the terrible news. There had been a lot of rain and lightning on Thursday. The lightning was not uncommon. We see lightning a lot at night. We left Matoso around 9 to go to the party. The weather was awesome. As we keep driving, the lightning really picks up. But it seems so far away. But as we keep going, the lightning is brighter and more frequent. One of our piki pikis got a flat tire, so he went to Matoso to bring us a new motorcycle. As he pulled away, there was a TORRENTIAL downpour. The raindrops had to have been the size of grapes. The wind was roaring and taking no prisoners. We were about 15 miles away from camp, so walking was not our best option at this point. We walked to a house and one of the motorcycle drivers asked if we could come in. Mind you, it was 10 o’clock at night. This old woman, who was 78, answered the door in her white nightgown with the biggest smile. She made us tea and offered to sleep on the floor so we could have her bed. Her generosity towards complete strangers was absolutely astounding. I have never ever experienced the kindness that I have in Kenya.
Once a new piki piki returned, we decided to brace the storm and just get back to camp. It felt as if we were riding in the eye of the storm the entire time, which did not work to our advantage at camp. The few people that stayed behind to get a good night sleep were soaking wet and trying to gather all the electronics from all of the tents so they did not get ruined. I am very grateful that they did that. Who knows how I would be typing this blog if they didn’t! :)
We had a great big sleep over in the community center. I have never been so appreciative of sleeping under a roof than I did that night.
That is all for now! I will try and post again soon!
Love to you all!
It has been a very interesting few days. There was a massive storm, so our solar panels were not available to charge computers. Needless to say, there is a lot to fill you in on.
I planned to take the orphan Matilda to the local health center to get checked out. Her stomach looked as if she was being eaten alive by worms. It felt really strange too. I decided to take her down to get checked out. Turns out she does have worms and a pretty serious case of giardia. Her check up and her medicine all came out to cost under one US dollar. I was shocked. She just finished her last round of medicine yesterday. There is a night and day difference with baby! I love it. She is so happy and running around! It was also really great because the health officials let me go into the lab and look in the microscope at the different tests we ran on her. I got to see the giardia protozoa wiggling around. I also got to look to see if she had Malaria, which she luckily does not!
I firmly believe that Kenya is one of the most gorgeous places I have ever been to in my entire life. But it is also one of the most ugly and darkest areas. I have thought a lot about how much I should divulge in my blog. But I figured it was most important to be honest. This next part is very sad and incomprehensible. While we were at the health center I kept hearing these wails of severe pain. It was coming from a baby. One of the men that is taking our computer literacy course is a doctor at the health center. He came up to class later in the day and apologized because he could not make it today. Apparently, the screams that I was hearing were in fact coming from a baby. A five month old had been raped and she did not make it. I cannot even fathom whom or why anyone would do that to an innocent baby. It is the most cruel and disgusting thing I have ever been so close to. Of course, I have heard devastating stories. But I have never been in the same location as someone like I was on Friday.
I swear that I can be having the best day and it will literally crash into shambles within five minutes. Conversely, I have these moments that reaffirm my faith in humanity. The redemption came Friday night. There are some other CDWs (community development workers) in the area. They were flying home to Germany on Saturday and there was a going away party to celebrate all of their hard work. We were previously engaged so we decided to go – despite the terrible news. There had been a lot of rain and lightning on Thursday. The lightning was not uncommon. We see lightning a lot at night. We left Matoso around 9 to go to the party. The weather was awesome. As we keep driving, the lightning really picks up. But it seems so far away. But as we keep going, the lightning is brighter and more frequent. One of our piki pikis got a flat tire, so he went to Matoso to bring us a new motorcycle. As he pulled away, there was a TORRENTIAL downpour. The raindrops had to have been the size of grapes. The wind was roaring and taking no prisoners. We were about 15 miles away from camp, so walking was not our best option at this point. We walked to a house and one of the motorcycle drivers asked if we could come in. Mind you, it was 10 o’clock at night. This old woman, who was 78, answered the door in her white nightgown with the biggest smile. She made us tea and offered to sleep on the floor so we could have her bed. Her generosity towards complete strangers was absolutely astounding. I have never ever experienced the kindness that I have in Kenya.
Once a new piki piki returned, we decided to brace the storm and just get back to camp. It felt as if we were riding in the eye of the storm the entire time, which did not work to our advantage at camp. The few people that stayed behind to get a good night sleep were soaking wet and trying to gather all the electronics from all of the tents so they did not get ruined. I am very grateful that they did that. Who knows how I would be typing this blog if they didn’t! :)
We had a great big sleep over in the community center. I have never been so appreciative of sleeping under a roof than I did that night.
That is all for now! I will try and post again soon!
Love to you all!
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