"I bless the rains down in Africa"

test matatu ride the other day. this song came on (matatus are the mode of transportation. basically, they try to squeeze as many people as possible on a 14-15 person big white van. usually, there are about 18-21 full sized adults on it and sometimes kids. it's CRAZY and jam packed. like sardines. and when you're lucky, you'll get a matatu that plays music. it's usually really cheesey love songs, or they're african dance music, also fun.) anyways, the song came on and the three of us girls started singing and had so much fun. people were laughing at us. silly wazungus. it even rained that day (among most days. it usually rains a while in the afternoons).

life has been so great here. for the most part. ha. we decided to switch to do hospital work since the clinic/mobile clinic we were at didn't seem to need us and we were just doing the same thing. pastor antone (who i live with at the orphanage) set us up with the general hospital here in nakuru town.

it's been such a great experience working there so far. i've gotten to sit in on HIV counseling for people who have just found out they are positive. they go to 3 sessions before they get to have their fully supply of ARV's (anti retroviral therapy) bc the meds are free. they want to make sure people will take them and that they know about why they need to take the meds, and what HIV is, etc. it's good i think. they also do counseling (i think 5 sessions) for people who stopped taking meds and stopped coming to the dr. (you come back at least every 3 months to get more meds and maybe get blood work...CD4 counts, make sure there are no opportunistic infections, etc). in teh 5 sessions, you just learn more and you basically prove you will take them. i think this is good since you don't want a ton of wasted meds since it is in demand and sometimes i'm guessing, short supply. i went to the youth testing buidling and sat in and watched an amazing girl, faith, do counseling and i performed the actualy HIV test. my frist person was positive. a male who travels for work (and whose wife left him). i looked over after just a min or two and though "ah shit"...my first positve i have done. but, i think she knew. he wasn't so shocked. so i did a confirmatory test (positive again).

i've also gotten to do rounds with some of the nurses. ward 13 was the worst for me. this is the ward where the sickest of the sick come. i went in and after a few moments, i could just FEEL the sickness and overall-hopelessness. i felt i could cry if i allowed myself to (of course, i didn't...since i'm "dead inside." ha) the CCC/HIV nurses would see their patients (all mixed with people with pneumonia, malaria, etc). there was one girl, age unknown (they guessed 16-18) who didn't have any family. who was "all alone in the world." and they were trying to figure out what they'd do with her once she gets to go "home." this made me so sad. she needs healthy food SO badly, and love. pastor antone is in the process of starting an HIV orphanage up (hopefully in the next 2 years...i wanna help him to. side note) and i thought i would love her to go there. buuut...it's still far away. and there are SO many people that need a place to live.

another day...scott (a guy from canada we met!) said he was going to surgery. we met him there in the "theatre" (surgery ward). we put on scrubbs (which, made us look like we were prisioners...orange and baggy). basically, we met the dr.s very non-chalantly and there were surgeries already started. there is 3 rooms, all separated by a lil hallway. we could go back and forth as we pleased watching surgeries. SO crazy. i wantched hemmorage surgeries and a c-secion. the c-section was increadible. i learned a lot and was SO moved when the baby was born. again, i could have cried if i allowed myself. the baby was so perfect and for a moment, the woman in me made me want to hold and love the baby, and thought for a second about having my own. the used steirle equipment, but the carts here are all rusted and the buildings are not so lovely.

i went to the hospital the other day (a different one than i work with) bc i was sick. i got antibiotics and a few other things. it looked more like one in the states.

yesterday we went to an IDP camp (internally displaced people) and brought them de-worming medications (they were $.07 ea). the people live here bc after the 2007 elections, they were pushed out of their homes and/or their homes were burned and destroyed. most of these people were kakuyos (sp...there are 42 tribes here. most live together but the kakuyos were one of the main people fought in the post-election issues). ann, antones wife, is kakuyo. we walked around and prayed for a sick man and for a lady who lost her 40 year old son. i farthered my dislike for people giving out candy to kids randomly (ask me more about this later if you want, mostly just farthers the idea that wazungus-white people-give out candy, and the kids never stop with "give me sweet one..." and, is bad for them and unneeded) and actually processed through some of my picture taking ideas. like, how there's such a fine line between taking pictures of kids or people's "homes" bc you want to get a good pic/are materializing them, or taking pics of people bc you love them, or bc you want to share the memory with other people. i processed through deeper, but i won't get into it here. we walked through and instead of playing with the kids with everyone else, bre and i talked with this volunteer there (there are 2 volunteers, 6,500 people) about IDP camp issues. like...people make those awesome paper necklaces, but they're all the same, and there's no one to sell them to. or, how the camp is run by the same few people who somewhat corrupt it. etc. etc. peeling layers, and layers, and layers off the onion. and...it actually hit me really hard and i teared for a moment. no one noticed. but man...i was SO angry, and confused, and i felt like i need answers, but there is no answer. there are too many issues. even if you figure one out...each problem is effected by SO many other things that...it seems nearly impossible. but, earlier in the day (and again at night when i went to talk to ann and antone with bre), ann said..."it's ok/good, most things start small, and they grow." so...i have some ideas. from ann/antone, and from last week. we'll see how things play out.

i got baptized again sunday by pastor antone at his church he's been volunteering/working at. it's a lil walk from the orphanage. you go up a nice lil hill that overloks the nearby slum and can also see lake nakuru. you walk through the slum (not too bad of one) and end up at a gate leading to the church. i got baptized in a hole lined with plastic. the kids filled the water up with buckets that morning (it was so sweet, later that night, samuel and thomas said they loved it and that they each helped with a bucket to fill it up. bah!). it was a quick baptism somewhat in the middle of church service. before we went outside, pastor had me come up and say why i wanted to get baptized. then after we had bread (crackers) and wine (juice) since it was a special day. it was cool to have the kids there and to have pastor do the baptism.

as far as who i'm living with...(volunteers)

BRE (from canada) first impression, wasn't sure how we would get along. but she's AMAZING and such a blessing to have her here. we have so many good talks and giggle basically all the time. we have the same heart sometimes which is fun to share that with someone.

TONI (from england) she cracks me up SO much. her cute accent and the random things she says. like nicker crackers (underware). or...grace steals chipotes from other kids and puts them in her suit case "bless her..."

RYAN (from NY) the only boy. he's the planner in a way and sleeps like he's dead and/or sleeping beauty.

RAFIELLA (from mexico/cali) she joined us earlier this week. she is very easy going and easy to talk to.

i'm gonna add THOMAS here, though he's one of the kids (age 16). he takes care of us and always heats up our hot water for our bucket showers for us. he's taller than me and has the best heart. he used to steal and be known as the boy that steals in his old community. but i'd trust him with ANYTHING. he kinda helps run the show and takes care of everything (like us, getting milk every night, teaching us things, taking care of joy-the baby, etc.)

there are like, a million mosquitos (pronounced...mos-qwe-toes) here. there's literally 100-200 in the bathroom stall we bucket shower in.

community here is cool. people support each other through money and prayer and whatever they need. everyone helps take care of each other and kids.

this was SUPER long. thanks for reading.

jambo (hello)

so...i'm in kenya! it's been quite the adventure!

so...starting with my flight from BA (british airways) being cancelled from the strike from london to cairo (i was rerouted though and it was ok)...but they exchanged (somehow) my tickets in eastern africa for the ticket to cairo. so at 10p in cairo for my flight at 1220a, i was surpised to find that they couldn't find my ticket because it had become unvalid. i worked for an hour there trying to get it figured out (adding to the fun bc my parents are in spain, it was a holiday-memorial day, and BA didn't answer bc of the strike, though it was about 2p in the states). i bought another ticket for a ton of money, and am trying to get it figured out still to get my money back from BA's mistake. i've spent hours so far trying to get it fixed because i don't have a flight to uganda now either. so...interesting stuff. apparantly it's almost impossible for a mistake like this to happen since BA cannot use kenyan airways flights (who i few from cairo with, and who i'm supposed to fly to uganda with)...but, it did happen.

besides that, and being really sick my 2nd day in kenya, stuff is awesome. i love it here. when we were flying into nairobi, i fell in love for real! kinda like the first time i saw the ship at night in nassau, i just loved it!!! i also feel GOD a lot here. i feel HIM a lil differently that usual, but it is increadible. i feel HIM in guiding me, and i can see him in people and children here SO MUCH! there is a lot of joy here, and i think for those people, it is rooted in GOD. even this person (david) i have made friends with the past 45 minutes in this internet cafe! (he works through campus crucade and is from here in kenya and he just has it in his eyes. it's cool).

so...cairo was good! brenna showed me around and i had so much fun! we went to the pyramids, saw the spinx (sp?), went to garbage city (prob my fav thing we did, along with the faluka ride), shopped, went to downtown cairo, ate egyptian food (i did!), and took a faluka (a sailboat looking thing) on the nile for sunset. the stahls (the family brenna lives with) brought amazing picnic food. i left, and the non existant ticket thing happened in cairo but...i made two friends with other travelers! one from sudan (our plane stopped off there). i ended up getting to sit near him on the plane! i landed in nairobi (after no sleep on my redeye flight) and got picked up by oliver! we are good friends now! (we stayed at his house my first night in kenya before we traveled to my placement. he is a driver for IVHQ and we are silly together!) then we did training (a long time of training with no break for lunch till 3p. but apparantly that's when we'll eat lunch here). i met a lot of awesome kenyans who work for fadili and lots of amazing people volunteering from all over the world. most being from the states, canada, and ireland. there were 50 volunteers at this training which is the most they've ever had. on the 15th at another training they will have even more.

my origional placement was to do homevisits to women who have hiv, and who do beadwork. this is what i'm going to be doing in uganda, so i asked if i could switch. ryan (a guy i sat near who was also signed up for hiv work) was going to work at a prevention clinic in nakuru so i asked to switch to that and live with cathy (also going to live in nakuru). so, they let me! thankfully! and...on the 2nd we drove about 3 hours to get here to nakuru! it's a big city, not as big as nairobi, and we live a lil outside of the city. we have to take a matatu (a white van that squeezes a ton of people in and used as a bus) for 20 shillings (about 25 cents) to get to town. um...best part. i live in an ORPHANAGE!!! most placements people live with a host family and a few other volunteers. i live with 3 volunteers (ryan from new york, toni from england, and bre from canada), pastor antone, his wife ann, and their almost 2 year old joy, and 49 beautiful kids ages 7-16. how sweet is that? and not at all what i imagined or expected, but so much better! our house is so warm and inviting and bright. there are 2 boys rooms on our end of the house and our room, along with a room for other workers there. then on the other end of the house are 2 girls rooms and pastor anotone's room. i loooove it there. we live right outside a reserve park and it is green and beautiful. lost of mosquito's though.

we walk through a field to get to the main road to walk to work (east) or to get a matatu to town (west). i only have been to work one day (since i was sick for training) but it's on the grounds of a girls orphanage/school. there is a clinic there people all around come to. we have one building where we have an hiv room, a wound dressing room, a doctor consult room, etc. they are limited on supplies and materials for patients, but they are doing well. it's very different though! i'll tell more about it later once i know more! we also drove 37 kilometers away up into a smaller town (i want to live there, it's called subukia) where we brought vacinations to give to babies in a small clinic. no alcohol suabes used before the shot, and no bandaid, and they just gave the shot in the same room everyone else was in. i did the book keepings which is in a HUGE book used for the government. people paid 10 shillings (13.5 cents) for shots. crazy right! i really like the women i will be working alongside! one reminds me of whoopie goldberg on sister act!!! :)

well, i could go on a lot more, but, this will be it for now. i know this is a lot. ha. hope you are doing well!