They sparkle bubble over and in the morning all you got is rain…

30May08

My luggage came!!!!! Finally, I have a toothbrush, and a change of clothes. At first I was thinking, “Wow, I really get to live out my dream of living in Africa with only the clothes on my back,” but needless to say, that “dream” quickly got old. I spent the day with the Environmental team. We organized an “Environmental Day” and members of the community came out to pick up trash, listen to speeches, meet people, and attend a soccer tournament to raise awareness. When the actual game was over, I joined the local mens team to run around and score some goals. Environmental day here focuses on the proper disposal of trash (in kibera for example, it’s very common to just use a plastic bag to relieve oneself- and then they throw it up on the roof). So, the day was spent promoting sanitation to keep people healthy and prevent the spread of diseases. I met the health officials for Bomet and the mayor, which was pretty exciting because they spoke some English! I also spent some time at Tenwek primary school. The kids are so fun and loved the video camera. This specific day school has 500 kids and 16 teachers! They are incredibly well behaved!

Then I headed up to the hospital to hang out with the patients. That was definitely the best part of the day. Petra, Megan and I went up and brought the guitar and sang some songs in the different wards.

I love spending time with the kids, and even if it’s really hard to communicate- we can still have a lot of fun. There’s no privacy laws or anything so I get to find out about what happened to each patient and what the complications are etc. etc. so I am learning a lot!! At least one parent stays with them (the parent actually sleeps in the bed with their child), so I also spent a lot of time talking with them. And by talking, i mean laughing over my attempts to speak Swahili, Kipsigis, Masaii, and Kalegen (and many others i can’t spell). And I’m really trying to learn all of them!! When I’ve got it, I go around the entire room (maybe like 40 people) and sit down and practice.. and JUST when I think I’ve totally got it, someone looks at me funny and laughs and says something TOTALLY different and totally confuses me, and then, if the person next to them feels like saving me, they explain that the person is “from (insert one of 43 tribes here)” – and I try to learn to say it their way. THEN i have to relearn the one before, before going on and- I’m not the best at languages, but I’m really trying!

One little boy was pushed into a fire pit, and somehow managed to crawl out, but is burned ALL over his body. AAAH, after playing with him for a while I walked out and cried. Being friends with their doctors is on one hand REALLY interesting and fascinating, because we talk about their cases over lunch and dinner, but on the other hand incredibly depressing and sad because if they’re dying, well… you know.

The maternity ward is my favorite. If a mother is staying there- it means their baby is in the nursery. They are HILARIOUS, and so much fun!!! Today, after holding Joseph for a while in the nursery (the baby found abandoned in the latrine), I talked to one of the nurses Mercy. I’m still too scared to pick up the smallest babies (they really are only a little bigger than one hand), but she said it would take about a week and then I’d probably feel comfortable. I don’t know- we’ll see, I’m going to go back tomorrow. But yeah, after Joseph, I went to talk to the mothers, and had a lot of fun practicing the languages some more. We were all laughing (like 40 women) so hard a few doctors walking by stopped in to see if anything was wrong!!

Don left this morning which was sad, but we have some new families moving in next week I think.

Tomorrow is my day off, and I think I’m gonna wake up early and go climb to the highest peak around here. It’s some mountain and I can’t remember it’s name but it should take most of the day and once I get to the top I can see all the way to the Masaii Mara!! I will remember to wear sunblock this time!

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Tags: environmental day, language, luggage, nursery, premature babies, sanitation, soccer