"I got her for free"

Well, where have we left off? Last week Steven and I worked with the local Rotary Club to visit schools to do jiggers dips. Jiggers are a little bug that like to set up camp in the dirt floors of the common mud hut. The prefer body crevices however, especially between the toes. The problem with jiggers is that they turn the feet into what I would compare to shredded leather. Not cool. I am sure there is a safer and less toxic way to get rid of them, but alas, it's not available in Kenya. So we soak their feet in Triatix, which i am told is a form of insecticide. Given the alternative though, it does seem to be the lesser of the two evils.

Steven had an interesting conversation with a local merchant that I overheard and thought you might enjoy at home. I was shopping in his little store, and Steven was waiting outside and started talking to the shop owner. He was asking Steven what he was doing in Maseno and things like that. He eventually asked Steven if he had a wife, to which Steven replied, "yeah, she's right there." The shop owner commented on how young I looked, and after a little contemplation added, "you must have paid a very high dowry for her." (A dowry is a payment made to the father to marry his daughter. It usually consists of cows and cash.) I was surprised by this comment and a little flattered until Steven replied with, "No, I got her for free." The conversation then turned to how long we'd been married and how many children we had. When he found out we'd been married for almost 4 years with no children, he looked at us both sympathetically. I'm sure he was thinking to himself, " no wonder he got her for free." I did not feel this was the time nor the place to try to explain birth control, so I just smiled and kept shopping. It was an interesting cultural experience, not to mention I got a really good deal on some beautiful scarves. Perhaps he gave me a good price because he felt sorry for me and my barren womb :)
Ahhh, just another day in kenya...........

Jessie

kenyan entrepreneurs

I must start by saying how good it was to get a call from my dear friend Haseena a few days ago. And for 14 minutes! What a luxury to have such a long call :) Thank goodness for skype and good friends! Suddenly kenya is not feeling quite so far away.

I saw an interesting thing the other day as we were dodging potholes, aka driving, down the road. There was a big clod of dirt in the road, with a stick in it, and a red rag tied to the top. Our driver immediately slowed down. I wasn't sure what was going on since it wasn't a normal police checkpoint. There were lots of young kids, mostly boys, on the side of the road, and Kenneth, our driver, stopped to give them money. What I found out was that the red flag indicated that kids are in the road ahead doing roadwork. The kenyan government paved the roads in the 70's, and have done little with them since, so kids have figured out that if they fill the holes in themselves with rocks and dirt, motorists will stop to give them money because they are so grateful. Smart little entrepreneurs aren't they. This is one kenyan enterprise that I will religiously support. If 8 year olds can figure it out, why can't the government ? :)
jessie

weekend in kakamega

Hello Friends!
Steven and I are happy to report we had a very productive and successful weekend, which was much needed after my spell of homesickness and demoralization :)
A little background: Steven is working on starting a small shop in Luwanda, a village near us, to sell Mother's Union crafts. The MU is a group of women volunteers that care for orphans (usually from AIDS) and they make and sell crafts to support themselves. The MU is overseen by the Anglican Church, so ultimately the Bishop is in charge. Now the Bishop is a pompous and condecsending man, but only slightly corrupt, which is a blessing I suppose. Anyway, when he heard about the store, he said we couldn't work on it until we fixed up the store in Kakamega first (which is his hometown). It's over an hour away, which is a long way on crater-filled roads. We found his "bookshop" with a small amount of dusty anglican church books spread across a large amount of shelf space, and then the beautiful mother's union crafts piled in the filthy corners. One third of the store was being used as junk storage, so we started with dragging a fridge, motorbike, stove, and ton of garbage out to the trash. It ended up turning out really nice though. We put the books in the back of the store, and the crafts in the front, so you had to walk through the crafts to get a book. We got the idea from milk placement in american grocery stores :)

While we were still setting up a woman walked in for a book and ended up buying a basket as well. The shopkeeper, Elizabeth, got a big smile on her face and gave me a thumbs up behind our shopper's back and whispered, "it's working!" When the bishop came in to inspect, he said he was "starting to like it" but it needed more books. Not my problem sir! He suggested maybe we write a grant for some more books for the shop to sell. Yeah right! Like any grant is going to give money to a well-off bishop to sell for a profit. Hah! But it was nice to get something done, and now we can start on the Luwanda store. It was nice to go on a little trip as well, and we had lots of fun with Mary and Jim. We'll keep you updated!

jess and steven

It's been almost 2 weeks now, and we're finally starting to feel settled and get a little bit of a routine.  We usually have breakfast with our housemates, Diane and Anna, every morning.   This is what our little home looks like.  On weekdays Anna and I do rounds with Dr. Hardison and Diane in the hospital, or attend HIV support groups or clinics.  On Wednesdays we go to a nearby support group through the hospital.  This group also makes crafts and teaches new members craft skills to raise an income.  Although most kenyans we have encountered so far will tell you there is no stigma associated with AIDS, we have seen differently.  There is a noticeable "need to please" with the white medical staff, even if it means a flat out lie.  For example, Phoebe was a woman treated at Maseno hospital and diagnosed with AIDS.  One of her sons was also found to be positive.  She came back to the hospital shortly after discharge because when she went home she found her grave already dug in the front yard and her husband refused to let her or the HIV positive son back in the house.  That sounds like a little stigma to me.

This little darling came to the wednesday support group and of course, she wanted me to hold her right away.  She must have sensed I was a baby-whisperer :)  

  This is me teaching some kids a song about how you grow strong if you pray everyday, but you shrink and get weak if you ignore God.  We are in the shrink stage of the song right here :)

The maternity ward here is sadly under-staffed, and I've been asked to help out there as well.  Right now there is often one nurse on a shift, who is supposed to cover the ante-partum room, the delivery room(which can have 2-3 women in labor at a time) and the post-partum ward.  Call me crazy, but that seems like a recipe for disaster.  I mean with only 2 hands, you can only catch so many babies at a time.

I will be teaching CPR to the nursing students, and let the principle know that I might be able to teach a few other seminars depending on how my schedule works out.  In true Kenyan fashion, he told Diane is passing that he would like me to teach the entire ENT (ears, nose and throat) course.  Hmmm.......not what I had in mind.  Not to mention it is miles away from pediatrics or oncology, the things I told him I specialized in.  Needless to say, we're going to have a little talk today :)

We have been getting lots of rain right now, even though it's not the rainy season.   I have decided there is nothing better than the sound of rain on a tin roof at night.  Yesterday I found that I did not have those feelings for hail  on a tin roof as I nearly went deaf.  The combination of sunshine and rain seems to be common here and I like it.  It can make things like support group meeting difficult however, as many of them just gatherings in the shade under a tree, as homes are not usually big enough or close enough for things like that.

That's all the news I have for you right now!

Jessie

Squirrels?

Here's a trio of monkey's scavenging for food in a garbage can in our hospital complex. They are about as common placed as squirrels in our area and as such, don't even warrant a second look from the locals. Jess and I are definitely giving them the attention they deserve. It's amazing how human-like they can bee. They can be seen playing with each other, giving their young piggy back rides, attempting to tight-rope walk on electrical wires, and leaping from tree to tree. We even heard of one brave monkey slipping through the bars on our windows, snatching a banana off the table, slipping back out onto the porch and peeling it right in front of our astonished roommate as she sat and watched on the couch.

BEE my Valentine

Beekeeping has been a slow process thus far but we are starting to make progress. I'm working with a local man named Edward who's in charge of hives. So far we've only been working on clearing the area around the hives and have not even gotten to open a hive yet! They have about 14 hives that were mostly buried in the woods. First we're working on clearing brush so we can get to the hives, then we'll start working on hive repair. Many of them are rotted, possibly past the point of repair. Several of the hives are infested with ants and other critters as well. The good news is that there are plenty of busy bees buzzing around the hives despite their sad state. Edward estimates about a month and a half until the honey harvest, so we will have to work quickly to get the hives in proper shape. With this many hives the harvest should be abundant, but in the past it has been disappointing at best.

address in Kenya

Hey ya'll! We thought some of you out there might like to get our snail mail address over here. One of our housemates just got some mail, and apparently it can come as quickly as one week :)
Our address is:
Steven and Jessie Thomsen
c/o Maseno Missions Hospital
P.O. Box 116
Maseno, 40105, Kenya
I'll post more of our adventures soon, but we're at a different internet cafe right now, and the computers are painfully slow :)
Jessie

phone number

I almost forgot! We finally got our international phone working and charged with minutes.  The number is 011-254-719670922.  That is including the country code and regional code.  Incoming calls are free for us, but it would probably cost a fortune from the US.   I'm told that you can send text messages and possible call from skype for free, but I haven't tested it out yet.  I believe the time difference is about 8 or 9 hours ahead of you all.  

~jessie~

 

orphan feeding program

We're finally able to post pictures now that we have figured out which computers in the cyber cafe are fast enough to send pics :)

These pics are of Steven and I at the orphan feeding program. They give school lessons while the food is being prepared, and since we are mzungus (ma-zoon-goos =white people) it is assumed we are educated and know how to teach. So we did :)

Steven has jumped into the beekeeping and it seems his work is cut out for him. He spent yesterday trying to hack a path to get to his beehives with a machete. Anna and I have been asked to teach CPR classes to nursing students, and possibly nurses as well. It seems that attempting to resuscitate people is not done very often here, but could be helpful in some situations. We don't have the measures to save people that have already gone into full cardiac arrest, but I think at least the labor/delivery nurses should know a little CPR :) It should be interesting at least.

I am getting slightly frustrated with "kenyan time" and the setbacks it creates. But we just keep reminding ourselves to "embrace the culture", and learn to work around it. We spent the afternoon with an AIDS support group that also teaches women craft skills to help them raise an income. They have just started a little shop, and were teaching new members the skills today.

jessie

back in Maseno

We made it in to Maseno last night, and have gotten our first good night's sleep in a while, thanks to some benadryl :) Much to my relief, there is another person staying with us, and she is our age. Her name is Anna, and she's a PA grad student at Yale. She'll be here 2 months. We are looking forward to starting with the orphan feeding program tomorrow, and there is a new children's program on sunday that we'll be helping with, which acts as a support group for children/siblings with AIDS.
Other than that we've just been exploring the village and adjusting to.......well, everything. We were reminded last night to keep our windows shut while we sleep because the monkeys (the equivalent to our squirrels) are thieving little devils. Other than that, so far so good!

Jessie

Made it to Nairobi!

We finally arrived last night in nairobi, and are currently trying to recover from jet lag in our hostel. All of our bags arrived safely, minus one buckle on my backpack-you were right mom, I should have put it in a bag. The weather is lovely, of course, and we're enjoying the change from the recent wisconsin weather :) I was startled in the bathroom (which is partially outdoors) this morning when a tortoise the size of toddler decided to join me. He seemed friendly enough so I let him stay. I supposed I was actually in his bathroom after all. Well, we best be off to procure a phone and some kenyan shillings before we take our next journey.
We'll keep you updated!
jessie