We got a new student!!!

Sorry it has been so long since I last updated you all. I guess its been about a week so lets see if I can remember everything that has happened. Last week I traveled to Nakuru to visit a clinic and distribute the goods. It took about 4 hours, but the drive was beautiful! We went through a town called Kericho (its where my friend Marcus is living) and it’s the tea harvesting capital of Kenya. It is beautiful, the rolling hills in the middle of the rift valley, covered in a bright green, lush tea plantations. It was a nice drive, but unfortunately I accidentally fell asleep and the potholed roads gave my head a good beating and I developed a migraine headache the rest of the evening. My colleagues dropped me off at a nice hotel while they went to stay somewhere else. I begged them to take me with them, that I can “rough it” and stay where they are staying, but they insisted that I stay there. It worked out well in the end because my migraine got the best of me and I spent the evening vomiting and unable to sleep. It would have been horrible if I was sleeping somewhere else. But it was nice to take a hot shower!!!

So we visited with Dr Rose, gave her the supplies and that was it. But Rose’s receptionist sat me down while I was waiting and very seriously explained to me that she was looking for a mzungu husband to take her to America and asked if I could help her. So many of these women think all their problems will be solved if they could just marry a white man and get out of Kenya. So if anyone is interested let me know, I got the hook up with some cute Kenyan girls! Haha

The next day we drove back to Kisumu stopping on the way for some fresh tea and vegetables when we passed through small towns. When I got home, I wrote up a quick field report and was done. Now I just wait for all the data to come in from the clinics. It’s the end of the month, and I am baffled that it took a month to get the medication and paperwork out to the providers, but at least it is done now.

We got a new student last week and he is a ton of fun. He is an undergrad in Minnesota and this is part of a semester study abroad program. He spent the first 6 weeks in university in Nairobi studying the medical systems, issues and the like, and then he came here for his internship. He is part of 37 students in Kenya, 11 of which came to Kisumu for their internships. So its nice to have a few more friends. He is not staying with us though, he is staying with a host family, and he explains that his host mom is bipolar or schitzophrenic or something. She is always snapping at him one day then telling him how much she missed him the next day. Hmmmm,

Kristen got a bad phone call yesterday from her dad and he informed her that he mom is very sick so she is leaving Kenya today. Finding a ticket on such short notice, you can imagine is very expensive, and not many places take credit cards here. So it was a challenge finding her a way out of here. But we did and she is leaving tonight. I am trying to see if Patrick (the new student) can leave his home stay and come and take her room seeing as how I am going to be so bored without her company, and I really hate cooking for one (I have withheld the food from this new guard until he proves himself to me). Hopefully he can be my new roommate.

Oh, so Patrick already has one bachelor’s degree in modern dance, so he is quite the character at the clubs we go to. But before we get into that, I finally found this grate type thing that sets atop the jiko (outdoor cooking stove thing) and it works great as a grill. I visited the neighborhood butcher and got some steak and chicken and cooked it up Texas style on the grill on Friday night. Minus the barbeque sauce, I was able to make a pretty good marinade and went to town with steaks and mashed potatos. On Saturday, We went to Tamiez a club that I hadn’t yet gone too. It was pretty fun, and Patrick busted his dance moved out. He looks like he came straight from a Duran Duran video ☺ So he was quite popular at the dance club.

Sunday I went to Impala Park with my friend Ben. It’s an animal preserve with impalas (really?) and lions, and ostriches. But of course they wanted to charge me the tourist price, even though technically I am a resident but I couldn’t prove it. Ben tried to negotiate in Luo for a cheaper entrance fee for me but it didn’t work. So we didn’t go. I will have to get Monica motivated on filling out the paperwork for the resident card so I can go to these places cheaper. So instead we went to Dunga beach, watched the fishermen come in with their catch of the day, and watched the neighborhood women all rush around the boat to buy the fish stock to sell in the market. Its was quite entertaining, and it amazes me that the fish go straight from the lake to the market. YUM! Tilapia, Nile perch, catfish, and minnows (which they pop whole into their mouths like a snack- not me).

On the work front, I am not very busy. Waiting for data to come in is an easy job. So I have decided that I am going to try and finish up Kristens project with the SFC girls which entails creating a manual for them, so they are equipped with all the materials, activities and educational materials so they can be great peer educators. Once they have the manual, we are taking 8 of them to a town called Ugunja where there is a similar girls group trying to get started. Our girls are going to teach those girls all the ins and outs of reproductive health so they can then turn around and empower/educate their youth in their community. It sounds like a great opportunity and I am excited to finish it out for Kristen. Hopefully, if we finish the project, report the pre and post test data back to her, along with the demographics of the girls in the new group, she will have enough info to finish her report and thesis/practicum requirement, even though she is leaving early.

Last night, we had some friends over to kind of give her a farewell dinner. We stayed up very late and I am extremely tired today. After running around tying up her loose ends, I will see her off to the airport. That’s what is in store for my day. This weekend is a Peace Corps party for Halloween in Migori, which is about 2 hours away. I think most of the Peace Corps volunteers in the country will be there. It should be fun. I will be wearing a big burlap sugar bag, pregnant underneath and going as a sugar momma. Hey – it’s the only thing I could think of in this low resource setting.

Sorry it’s so long, but like I said, it had been a while and a lot happened. So deal with it ☺
More later - bye