Cobs Punch

On Friday, I am supposed to go to St. Damianos, a private mission hospital ran by two nuns. However, this past Friday, I wanted to go to the Kanduyi Children's home (right next door to the Red Cross) to check on Nafula and just help out the cooks and other staff for the morning. I received the green light from Moryne, the nurse who usually takes us to the hospital. It was a hot, sunny day as Alyssa and I walked up the dirt path to the set of buildings on the home's ground. The kids were taking a break from school to eat porridge and drink tea so they all started barreling towards us as got closer. As I was greating the children and having them show me their classrooms, I spotted Nafula's sister, Nasimiu. I gave her a hug and asked her where Nafula was. She said something in Swahili and then turned away. One of the teachers, Madam Susan, informed me that her parents had come for her. My heart instantly sank. I haven't even had a chance to say good-bye. On the other hand, I was so thankful they had come for her. But then I asked why they had not taken Nasimiu. She explained to me that they were leaving Nasimiu at the home to go to school that day and that they would come get her that evening. I was so happy to hear that until she continued by saying that her parents were very very poor and could not afford to keep the girls, that is why they were living at the home. They had simply come to spend the day with Nafula and then the evening with Nasimiu. My heart sank even deeper as I thanked Madam Susan for the information and for letting me see the classrooms. I can not even imagine what that must be like for a parent and child to be separated because of poverty. I'm praying that Nafula and Nasimu's parents can, one day, have both their girls back home.

 Me with some of the adorbale children. Faith is the

 little girl with braids in front with a big smile. She

was attached to my hip the entire day!

Nafula's sister, Nasimiu, and I 

                                                                                  
After the kids had finished their morning snack, it was recess time. The home has a playground area and also an open field for the children to burn off their energy. As the whord of children followed me to the playground, I noticed a group of older children playing some sort of game. I tried playing with them but continue to be swarmed by the young ones. It got to a point where I had to climb on top of the play set for a breather! They are so happy to see a mzungu that they literally hang all over you. Which is fine...for about 5 minutes. They also go crazy when you take your camera out. Hence, why they were around me the entire time. After about 20 minutes, tons of smiling faces and lots of running around, the teachers rang the bell for the younger ones to return to class.

Sidenote: There is a teacher strike happening in Kenya right now. Teachers want more money but the government won't give it to them. Therefore, the older children did not have to attend class. It has been over a week since the strike began and no one knows when it will end.

I walked over to the group of older kids and asked if I could play. They said "yes" and tossed me a ball, made out of an old sock and sand. I asked them what to do with it and they explained:

The game is called Cobs Punch.
It involves a bucket, turned upside down and corn cobs stacked on top.
Each player gets 3 tries to knock the cobs off and then the bucket over.
If you toss the ball and knock off a cob, you get to throw an extra time
When the bucket is knocked over, everyone runs and the team by the bucket picks up the ball and chases the other team, who was throwing.
The idea is for the team that is throwing to set the bucket back up and place all the cobs on top before getting "out" by the other team with the ball.
You get out by getting hit by the ball.

It is an exciting and thrilling game and I am definitely introducing it when I get back to the US! Also, I should have known better than to play with Kenyan children. They are fast and do not get tired. I ran around the yard one time and was dying. One time, Joseph, threw the ball and got me out. He was like, "Why aren't you running?!" Kid, I am a White, zero-lung capacity, short and stalky woman. It's 85 degrees out and I can't breathe. Clearly I am weak and completely out of shape. We played a few more rounds until I was drenched in sweat and realized I had been outside for 2 hours without sunscreen...but if you're my mom and reading this, I was lathered in sunscreen the entire time....

We said goodbye to the kids and headed back to the Red Cross to work until 7 PM that night! It was a good, productive week and I'm so excited for the next 4 weeks! I am learning so much and interacting with exciting, passionate and driven people on a daily basis. As someone once told me, I am looking forward to seeing the fruit of our (the US interns) investment.

Action shot

       Me, exhausted, from running around                           

    with the kids

Pictures

 I realized I haven't posted many pictures lately so let me catch you up to speed without a bunch of text.

 Nafula and I

 Alyssa and I leaving the children's home

 Talking to a young girl on my way to lunch. Photo cred: Alyssa Sajady

Rita, Joseph, the head of the Kenya Red Cross club at Kibabi Diploma, me, Alyssa, Mark, Ali and Edwin after the Chanuka Challenge last Saturday. We got certificates for helping organize the event and Alyssa and I served as judges for the public speaking competition. Chanuka Challenge is a chance for high school's and universities to come together and challenge each other in public speaking and trivia. The Red Cross has a wheel that participants spun (kind of like The Price is Right) and the arrow would land on a topic such as HIV/AIDS prevention, blood safety, dissemination, reproductive health, and general health knowledge. Participants were asked questions pertaining to the topic and if they answered correctly their team received a point. We awarded trophies to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place winners.

Entertaining Nafula with one of the Branch's baby bunnies while she soaks her feet in iodine. I realized she had jiggers and brought her to the Red Cross to remove them. Although she didn't enjoy the treatment, the bunny and the lollipop I gave her after helped. 

This is what her feet looked like before/during treatment. 

3 days later, I went to check on her and she was wearing her TOMS! We gave her two pairs and told her to wear them everyday. I am going to check on her again tomorrow! (Friday)

Single, Taken or Engaged?

This post is a lighthearted one about a common theme I have noticed among Kenyan men and women. It first happened last week at a tea party, hosted by Dr. Amin and Dr. Mohamud, the founders of the Kenya Red Cross Bungoma Branch. The party was a chance for the international interns (us) to meet with Peace Corps volunteers and other "international" people who were living in Kenya. International=USA citizens. I have yet to meet anyone else from a different country. At the beginning of the party we all stood up, introduced ourseves and said what we liked and what we hated. Mark, the youth coordinator, stood up and said, "I'm single and ready to mingle!" Everyone chuckled and then began saying their relationship status. Now in the US this might come off as revealing too much information or calling attention to oneself. Not in Kenya.

Today, we went to Kibabi (Kee-bab-eee) University to give a dissemination presentation about the Kenya Red Cross and encourage the school's Red Cross club to get more involved and host their own events and activities. When we arrived, we were greeted by a large room of over 50 students eager to learn what the Red Cross does and how they can be apart of it. We started with introductions of everyone and sure enough, Mark asked everyone to say their relationship status. While most students stated the generic, "single, taken, or engaged" a few threw out that they "weren't married, but weren't single" and others said, "They were looking" and then scanned the room. I felt like it was a dating forum rather an a Red Cross information session! When the a few of my fellow Kenyan interns introduced themselves, two of them said they were engaged. I was shocked! I had been around these women for the past 2 weeks and heard NOTHING about them getting married! I leaned over to Ali and gave her a confused look. She responded, "It's not like America, they aren't REALLY engaged to be married." Confused as heck I approached Cynthia one of the interns after the forum.

"Cynthia? You're engaged?!" I inquired.
She laughed and said, "No of course not! But it's better to say that."

I asked why and she explained that guys leave you alone if you tell them you are engaged. I said but what if you tell them you have a boyfriend? The 3 interns shook their heads and me and said it didn't matter because a "boyfriend" was merely seen as a temporary thing and the guy would still try to date you. So they said that so no one approached them after the forum! Then they were curious about me. I told them I had a boyfriend and he was Kenyan. They about fell over and I knew what they were thinking: Dang she moved fast. I had to explain that I met him in the United States and that he lives there and has lived there for about 20 years. They all laughed and gave me a hard time because they thought I was dating someone from Bungoma in just a week and a half! A lot of the guys here tell me that they want a "mzungu girlfriend" and then today one of the interns, Shelia, told me she wanted a "mzungu boyfriend." We told her to come to the states and she could have her pick.

It is really funny to hear how people discuss relationships and dating here. For example, last week Alyssa was able to go to her assigned school to do peer education with the other interns. At the end of the session, they asked if there were any questions. One girl raised her hand and asked, "Is it bad to have a boyfriend?" Of course the room erupted with laughter and Alyssa explained that they would discuss it next week with the theme "Romantic Relationships and Dating." When she told me about it, I of course laughed too and thought, "Well, that is a good question. It depends on a lot of factors."

It reminded me of elementary school when boys had "cooties" and you had "cooties" too if you touched them. Now, unfortunately, these "cooties" can be viewed as the HIV virus or other sexually transmitted diseases that are common in Bungoma. Except women have them too. Speaking to youth about empowerment and governence over themselves and their body will hopefully prevent them from getting into a relationship too soon and encourage them to speak up if they feel pressured to do certain things in a relationship. I'm also thinking Cynthia's idea is a valid one. If "being engaged" has authority over "being in a relationship" there are going to be a lot of "engaged" Bungomans.

Change of Plans

If you have been keeping up with my blog, you read my first post before I even left the USA during which I described that I would be coordinating the peer education program on HIV/AIDS....

Well...plans changed. Mostly because the Red Cross wanted me to have experience in many different fields and I appreciate that. Also because the structure of the peer education program is almost non-existent and the interns were given a "training" the week before I arrived. I put training in quotes because I'm not sure how effective a 1 week seminar is for the type of material that needed to be covered. Furthermore, there are three groups of 5 interns that are assigned to a school for the 8 weeks. I am in a group with 4 other Kenyan interns and we are to travel to Bungoma High School (an all boys school every Friday) to present a different topic. Last week, we all congregated at the office around 4 PM to head over to the school. I ended up getting into a meeting with Wekola, the branch coordinator and kept looking at my watch, which read 4:15 PM. He asked me if I had somewhere to be and I replied, "Well we were supposed to leave for peer ed around 4." Then Mark, the youth coordinator, chimed in,"Oh they are testing right now so we will not go." I was confused, shouldn't we have known this well before Friday? Or was this a pop-test? No body knew, all we knew was they were "testing" and we could not give our speech on life skills and relationships. We start off with basic topics and work our way up to HIV/AIDS discussions.

Today, after our weekly intern meeting, I asked about peer education for this week and if the interns needed to prepare anything to travel to the school. Mark replied with, "The teachers are on strike so we will not be going to the schools." So far we've missed two weeks, and we, the interns, have not prepared anything for these sessions. Many people seem uninterested and I don't blame them. 2 weeks of inactivity is discouraging and they don't want to put effort into something if it's not going to work out. So instead of getting frustrated, I've found different outlets to help out with. For example, my peers Alyssa and Ali and I began fundraising to purchase soccer balls and equipment for the KRCS youth branch. Currently, there are no soccer balls on the compound and many youth gather here on Sundays to hang out. However, they are lacking many sports equipment, including soccer balls (or footballs as they are called here). The Red Cross compound sits on about 2 acres of land and includes a large field for recreational activities. We hope that by purchasing this equipment we can encourage youth to not only come to the compound to use these new balls but also teach them about personal hygeine and health. This will hopefully translate to leadership in their school and community and encourage them to play sports or be involved with other extracurriculars. I am really excited about this project and even though it is different from my original plan, I feel that I, as well as Alyssa and Ali, am making a lasting impact. Check out the page below. Our goal is currently $1,000 and the site talks more about what we plan to do with the funds we raise.

http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/krcs-youth-sports-campaign/x/3732592?c=home

Furthermore I have made some goals that I would like see happen during my time here. As I mentioned before, it can be very challenging at times working with an international organization because your schedule and time does not always match theirs. However, I am hoping I can implement 3 of these 6 goals I have made out for myself. I feel that they are attainable in the short (yes, short) time-span I have left here. I am still trying to help out with the HIV/AIDS peer education program as much as I can and hopefully by the time I leave, I have a better outlook on how the Red Cross can improve the program, without my attendance.

Goals in Bungoma:

1) Purchase soccer equipment and hold a tournament

2) Make "public health message" cards for jigger campaign

3) Make flip chart for jigger campaign

4) Create a timeline and calendar for KRCS Bungoma

5) Re-do the international interns brief

6) Needs assessment with KRCS

Names and Water

In Kenya, people usually have 3-4 names. One of these is their "tribal" name. There are 40 different tribes in Kenya and the Bukusu are the ones that live in Bungoma (among other areas). Bukusu tribe is one of the 16 Kenyan tribes of the Luhya Bantu people of East Africa. Besides Swahili, they also speak the Bukusu dialect. We were told on our first day (after introducing ourselves by our "English" names a million times) that we would be baptized with a Bukusu name. Sure enough, within 5 minutes of the jigger clinic, the Kenyan interns were asking us when we were born. They decided on "Nikesa" for me, which means born during the harvesting season. December is technically Kenya's fall season so this makes sense. I loved my new name but was not used to people calling me it. For instance, during the jigger clinic, Morina -one of the interns- needed more shoes and kept yelling my name. When I finally turned around, she said, "Nikesa, you have forgotten your name! I have called it 10 times!" My ears are now fully tuned to this new label and I turn and look whenever I hear it. In fact, I've been introducing myself to others around town or at the Red Cross with this name. Some laugh, others stare blankly, and a few tell me I am now a Bukusu. When I introduced myself to highschool students last Wednesday, I told them my "English" name first and then said, "But while I am in Kenya, you may call me Nikesa." They loved it.

Although this has nothing to do with names, I felt I needed to write about my new found appreciation for H2O. On Thursday, we were moved out of our hotel we had been staying at in the city center and into the compound where we will be remaining for the rest of our time here. The compound is brand new, closer to the Red Cross and was supposed to have running water and a Western style toliet. And was also supposed to be completed June 1st. As with time, dates don't really carry as much significance here as they do in the States. The reason we had to stay at the hotel for our first week was because our huts were not even finished. We moved to them because they believed we would have running water by the end of the week. Javen, the landlord, told us that we would have it by Sunday....and then the plumber got malaria.

Moral of the story: we still don't have running water. But I'm not complaining. I'm appreciating. The cook and housekeeper of the huts provided us with two HUGE barrels in our bathrooms last night. One was for flushing the toliet and the other was to bathe. I was so estatic I basically flooded my bathroom last night because of all the water I was splashing on my face. I washed my hands for the first time in 24 hours and could actually splash some on my arms. Tonight, I took my first bucket shower which felt so refreshing! I loved it and the water pressure was better than any shower here! While I was getting impatient and frustrated the three days we were without any sort of water, I realized people here go much longer. And when they do get water, it is often not clean, even to bathe with (this is of course my/US standards for water). Because I am a public health student, I can't stand not washing my hands. But I realized I had to get creative. During the day, I would wash my hands at the Red Cross, a restaurant, wherever I was with running water. I would also try to make sure I washed them before I headed home and then put hand sanitizer on before and after dinner. I hope I will never take water for granted again. I will probably keep turning my faucet on and off when I return home just to make sure it is still functioning. 

There is so much I complain about when I am in the US and even take the little things for granted. Little things, like water, that are a big things Kenya. And yes, I am sitting in my hut, in rural Kenya, with internet....but no running water. Totally ironic. Everyone...and I mean EVERYONE has a cellphone here, but water is scarce. And hot water is non existent. Unless you want to boil it and let it cool down before bathing. Which means you have to buy a burner and a pan. I'm very thankful to live in a country where I can drink out of the tap if I want to let alone come home to a steaming hot shower. These are things that I have expected to be in my life but living in Kenya has taught me how to appreciate these things I have taken for granted for so many years. And opened my eyes to how other people are living. And surviving. 

(Coming soon!) Here is a video of my hut. It's still messy as I am trying to get set up and organized. The black barrel in my bathroom is for the toliet and the yellow one is for bathing. 

Roosters

This post is going to be short and sweet as someone recommended I write about my latest annoyance. It's really the only thing that I can't stand here and am going to be very happy when I return home and do not have to listen to its annoying screech at 3 AM. This would be my next door neighbor, the rooster. The most annoying bird/animal ever. I was first awaken by its high pitched "Cock-a-doodle-doo" at 3 AM my first morning here. It continued yelling until 7 AM when I finally had enough and got out of bed and turned on music. I used earplugs the second night but they fell out so once again I was woken up around 4 AM. THE SUN ISN'T EVEN UP WHY ARE YOU CROWING. So if anyone needs an alarm clock with a permanent snooze button, I suggest a rooster. If you are like me and want your sleep, do not get near the thing. Furthermore, buy some earplugs and hope you do not end up living next to one. I'm not a violent person, but I've had many day dreams about strangling that bird. Hopefully it will be something I can get used to but until then, I shove my earplugs in tight and pray that I can sleep until 7 AM. Not to mention, the thing crows during the day too! It's a permanent annoyance. So buy TOMS, not a rooster.

TOMS Shoes

Heads up, when I get back to the US I will ask you if you have purchased a pair of TOMS shoes and your answer had better be yes or I am taking you to the nearest shoe store. I bought my first pair 2 days before I left for Kenya. I had heard rave reviews about them and the whole "one-to-one" shpeal but never really jumped on the bandwagon. I figured I would give them a try and they would serve as my close-toed shoes for the trip. I am already planning on buying about 3 more pairs when I get home. I will also be giving them for Christmas gifts. You've been prepared and have 7 weeks left to purchase some. Here's why:

TOMS is legit. They recently collaborated with the Kenya Red Cross and sent 140,000 pairs of shoes to the BUNGOMA Red Cross. There are boxes upon boxes of shoes at the compound and they go directly to those who need them the most. For example, on Monday we did a jiggers campaign in Ndengelwa, a village about 15 minutes outside of town, where we treated 201 people for jiggers. As I mentioned in an earlier post, it is a parasite that lives in soil and sand and feeds on warm-blooded hosts. It works its way into the feet and hands of those who are exposed to these conditions. Many of the villagers live in houses with dirt floors and a majority do not wear shoes and unsanitary conditions can increase the liklihood of other medical complications. If not treated, it can cause major discomfort and pain and even loss of nails and foot deformation. There is no reason jiggers cannot be elimated from Bungoma County with a little public health action. 

Therefore, 5 Red Cross volunteers, Alyssa and I went to treat the outbreak. This included scrubbing the feet with antiseptic wash, soaking them in water mixed with chemicals to kill the jiggers, clipping fingernails and toenails and putting "Jiggerex" on their feet and/or hands to completely remove them. It's like a medical pedicure. Finally, the patients were given 2 pairs of TOMS shoes to help prevent them from getting jiggers again. Unfortunately, the volunteers had not prepared to give a public health message about waiting to wear the shoes until the jiggers had been completely removed from the patient (~2-3 days after treatment). I asked if they could tell them this while they were waiting in line for shoes and one volunteer said,"No we don't have time and neither do they. They need to go home and sweep the floors or get back to school." I understood this but we were spending an average of 3-5 minutes with each patient so why hadn't we told them about basic hygiene and how to prevent them from recurring infection? I became irritated with myself for not knowing much Swahili (otherwise I would have given the speech) and also with the volunteers because no one seemed to be educating the patients on jiggers and prevention. 

However, I was elated to see all the boxes of TOMS shoes handed out and knew that they were helping the people that needed it the most. We saw patients from 2-72 years old and they each got two pairs of shoes. Some of them, mostly children, cradled the newly minted gifts in their arms as if it were a newborn baby and kept smiling as they ran off to show their friends. Mothers rejoiced as they received 2 new pairs for their young child and older villagers were stunned at their new accessories. We were also able to give out about 50 pairs to children who did not have jiggers. It was a great site to see and made me that much more thankful for buying TOMS before I left. I knew I had bought a pair of shoes for someone in need, someone who can't afford even 1 pair, someone who did not realize shoes can save their life. 

Check out the TOMS website for yourself. And if you've never heard of them, read about their mission. They have every design you could possibly want and you've heard it first hand, they are given to a dedicated, compassionate and selfless organization who distributes them to those in the most need. 

http://www.toms.com/our-movement/l#giving-shoes

Here are some pictures from the jigger removal. 

Morina, Laureen and Mark setting up the scrub buckets

Elizabeth applying Jiggerex

Donated TOMS Shoes