Muzungu in Kisumu

I have arrived in Kisumu, my new home for the next few months! The plane trip from Nairobi to Kisumu was interesting, to say the least. Walking across the tarmac and climbing the stairs into a very smaller propeller plane was a new one for me. The airplane had a total of about 15 people on board, and I wanted to so badly to speak with the guy in the seat next to me but it was too loud! The pressurization was a problem and my ears are still popping. But I have arrived safely and that’s all that matters.

Maureen and Christine greeted me at the airport. Maureen is a Kenyan girl, aged 22 who is working here at the clinic for about $100 a month. Christine is a nurse practitioner from Boston who has been here for a month already and my new roommate. They took me to my new residence, which is quite nice. Unfortunately the host family situation fell through so Christine and I are staying in the “servants quarters” behind the house of the K-Met organization director, Monica. She has been out of town this week so I have yet to meet her, but I can’t wait. I hear nothing but nice things about her.

I have a small room with no electricity (getting wired today hopefully!) Christine has electricity so I spend my time in her room. We have a small kitchen with only a sink and a pantry, a bathroom (where the toilet doesn’t work) and a shower with cold water. It’s not so bad as long as you plan your showers in the middle of the day or after a long run. It gets quite chilly in the mornings so showering then is out of the question. The main house has a fully operation kitchen so that is where we cook our meals. We have a security guard on duty over night so I feel quite safe.

Crime is not as bad here as it was in Nairobi. For example, the night before I left Nairobi, the girl I was staying with Esther, her mother got into an accident and rolled her car. A couple of men came up to help her, offered her assistance in flipping her car back over and pulling her from the wreckage. In the meantime, they robbed her blind. They took everything from her car, even the deployed airbag! It was quite sad, but luckily her mother is OK, the other things can always be replaced. We spent the remainder of the early morning dealing with the police and at the hospital making sure she was OK. The health facility there was quite nice, I was surprised!

Back to Kisumu…I am now at the office of K-Met. The facilities here are nice and I have been just getting oriented to the city, the country and its health system and politics. This year is presidential election year so it’s an exciting time. I visited the women’s clinic yesterday where the conditions were not so nice. It is a clinic/learning facility for women and one of the new initiatives started by K-Met is called Sisterhood for change, where local health workers identify young women who could use their services. Most of these women are orphans themselves, with children and are HIV positive. The purpose of this program is to empower the women to learn a trade and take their health and their families into their own hands. Some are learning hairdressing, others catering and still others tailoring. Local caretakers also at the facility care for their children. It is a nice concept and although the program is still new, I am optimistic that it will be a success. The young girls take the classes for 9 months and they are left with the knowledge and skills to gain employment in the community. At the same time, they are getting family planning education, although they have not accepted contraceptives. Christine is busy trying to convince them that the hormones in the pills will not make you fat, and the lubrication on condoms will not either. They believe that the lubrication is oil/animal fat and receiving that inside of them will make them fat. I am sure it was some man that started that rumor. So this week I am busy getting to know the community and recognizing the problems that are facing the community members. After this time, I hope to dive right in and get to work offering program recommendations and evaluating the current programs K-met offers. They are really a good organization with huge hearts so I know they will be successful in this community. They are so far!

I am trying to figure out a way to get my pics from my camera/computer to the computer in this office (they are old and many do not have USB ports) but I am sure I can figure it out by this weekend, even if I have to go to the Internet café. Keep checking back for updates.