Racetracks and Roadways

We had a tricky timeframe to work with this month since the KCP exams (the 8th grade exams that determine the children's high school possibilities, and often-their future) happened the first week were here. Then all the kids got a week off. We had to squeeze a lot of school visits into one week once the students came back, and before the holiday break. Yikes. Good thing these ladies are troopers. Especially since one school required a 40 min hike up a mountain with pads on our backs :)

(Tate teaching about how to use the liners)

(No matter how quietly we try to leave a school it always becomes a mzungu parade)

Tate and I have really enjoyed our last week here. My mom sent the kids a bunch of their favorite toy-matchbox cars. Tate and I painted a barabara (roadway) on an old cement slab by the house, and the kids have been loving it. We added a few extra features, like a parking lot and a petrol station for refueling. After much discussion in Swahili, they send Arnold forward as the spokesperson and asked if we could add a hospital, a school, and a market.

Jescah (the Kenya spelling:)

 

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The Second Line

Its dark and we're late for dinner. Tate and I just walked about 30 min one way to the only chemist (pharmacy) that was open to get Tylenol and ibuprofen for Zed because he has a fever. Again. He just finished antibiotics last week for an upper respiratory infection, and now he's febrile again. I remember when Arnold looked like that and was always getting sick. The CCC clinic already talked to me about transitioning Zed to the second-line HIV drugs. (A little info about HIV: all patients are started on first line ARV-antiretrovirals, but if the drugs become ineffective then they transition to second line. Sometimes it happens gradually over years, but usually it's because the patient had a period where they stopped taking their drugs. HIV is a very cunning virus and can mutate so the first drugs are no longer effective if the wee beasts are exposed to the drug and then given time to develop resistance).

Zed has never ceased to amaze me. I first met him as a filthy, flaccid and vacant-eyed toddler. When we got him a year ago at the age of 8, he didn't speak, had trouble walking, and wasn't fully potty trained. Now he has learned swahili and started talking, he started school (is in the top 10 of his class), and runs around with the other kids. Switching Zed's drug line is very significant for two reasons. The first is positive-it will probably make him feel so much better. He shouldn't get sick nearly as often, will have more energy, will continue to get stronger. The second is terrifying: there are only 2 lines available.

Teddy (aka Vincent)

(My favorite pic of Arnold, because I feel like this button-nosed, out-of-breath profile best shows his intense innocent little soul.)

 

I often debate with myself about what to put down in writing here for the whole world to see. As some of you can imagine, any work in a third world country comes with its portion of hair-pulling frustrations, heartache and discouragement, and if I shared them all you would most definitely stop reading this. Those are burdens I choose to carry, and I appreciate so much that anyone reads this at all and shares in my joys and successes. But then there is the grey areas; the bittersweet, which is how am feeling tonight. I am beyond amazed at how much these kids have thrived and improved. How strong and brave they are. But we will now have two kiddos on second line therapy. And suddenly they seem very fragile.

 

Jessie

 

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Your chances of survival are excellent

We've been all kinds of busy with a variety of work and play. The rabbit house and chicken coop are completely finished and occupied. We have 4 rabbits now, one male and three females. It turns out the female rabbits were already pregnant when we got them, so we are going to be up to our eyeballs in rabbits in a few weeks. Should be interesting. The kids have been doing a great job collecting food for them and keeping their house clean. I came up very early one morning to meet with the fundi, and I found Vincent just sitting in the rabbit house watching them. Presh.

(Tate, Daniel, and Vincent)

Tate has altered her sustainability project a little to include a water system and gutters, instead of planting some new crops. We decided the water situation was more pressing. Currently the water source is about 100 yards down the hill; which doesn't sound that far........ until you are in the shoes of the 10 year old lugging a 10 or 20 liter gerry can up and down several times a day. Now that Giddeon has finished the rabbit houses we have contined to keep him busy almost everyday and he will be installing the tank, gutters, etc.

(Giddeon putting in the cement pad to support a very heavy water tank)

We took a little 3 day break and went to visit the Maasai Mara and my friend Isaac took us in a wonderful safari. We stayed at a new lodge called Osero, that was absolutely lovely, and because its low season, we were the only people in the whole camp. It's a small, intimate little camp that makes you feel like you're sleeping right in the middle of the savannah........which we kinda were. We were reminded of how close we were to the animals when a herd of Cape Buffalo tried to plow their way thought the meager fence. We heard all the Maasai guards shouting things like "wapi?" (where?) and "kuja kuja" (come, come!). Then they went off running.....so of course Catherine and Tate jumped up to follow. If you think a charging Cape Buffalo sounds scary, you should see a Maasai warrior yell and throw his club. We watched them chase the thousand pound buffalos away with nothing but a club and a knife, and we just stood there with our months open. I felt, at that moment, that as long as we remained behind the Maasai, we couldn't have been safer. When we asked Isaac if people ever die on safari, his response was, "your chances of survival are excellent." I had to agree.

(My girls resting at the top after a sunrise hike in Maseno).

 

Jessie

 

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Boarding School and Birthday Candles

We went to visit Joshua this week, our oldest boy who is being sponsored at boarding school. We were lucky enough to be around and available on the first saturday of the month, which happens to be visiting day for his school. He is currently in Form 3 (a junior in high school) and quite a sweet and intelligent young man. He already chose a math and sciences focus for his studies and he would like to be an aeronautical engineer. Wow. You can imagine the ruckus that ensues when 5 ladies, 3 of whom are mzungu (white), go visit a teenage boy's boarding school. Joshua handled it with such grace, even though he will probably be teased for weeks to come ;) Quite an impressive young man.

The girls also got to experience a completely packed matatu ride with R&B music blaring, and then a drenching walk in an unexpected rain without our raincoats. Just a typical day in Kenya.

In other news, it was my birthday last week and it turned out to be a lovley day. I got to talk to my twinny who lives in Japan, to wish each other a happy birthday. I was given a very thoughtful gift of a mini-projector before I left for home movie nights while I was here. I stopped at one of the local dukas (shops) and got a big crate of sodas, which is always a treat here. Catherine hit up our new little bakery in town, and got fresh baked cupcakes and cakes, and we hung a sheet on the wall to serve as our screen. My kiddos and Jacky came, and we invited some of the neigorhood kids as well. That already put us at 16 people in a smallish living room, and then when the mamas came over to drop the kids off they asked if they could stay and watch too. Daktari Francis and my neighbor Judy also stopped by. Long story short, 29 people ended up enjoying the cinema magic that is Night at the Museum ;) It was a bit toasty and claustrophobic, and there was no chance of getting to the bathroom all night if you were sitting on the right side of the room.........and it was truly one of the best birthdays ever :).

I am a blessed girl.

Jessie

 

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Rabbits don't like Dark

Time is just flying by here and I am so thankful for my fellow travelers because they are doing such great work. Tate is a grad student who is working on a sustainable food sourcing project for Jemo House. We want to start raising rabbits, and add to our current chicken herd so we will have a sustainable source of meat for the future as the children and their appetites grow. We visited a few houses that were already keeping chickens and rabbits to scope out their dwellings. We quickly decided that a well-constructed house was out of our skill range, so we hired a fundi (carpenter) to do the job. His name is Giddeon, and he also gave us lots of helpful rabbit-rearing tips since he seems to be an expert. We chose him based on the meticulous state of his animal pens. He is also a man of few words, so some of his tidbits left us with questions.

Giddeon: "You need light. Rabbits don't like dark."

Me: "Okay. Should I put a bulb or kerosene lantern out here?"

Giddeon: "Yes." Then walks out.

Thankfully he does speaks to Vincent and Daniel (the oldest boys have been designated as the keeper of the rabbits) in length and in Kiswahili, so the information trickles down to us. There is nothing like having a 10 yr old boy as your translator to makes you feel like you are always missing a few pieces of the puzzle. Love this place :)

(Giddeon and the boys talking shop :)

(The finished rabbit house)

 

(One of our hens hatched her eggs the day the roost box was finished. It looks like this little one is trying to escape :) There are 6 more chicks under that mama. )

(James-13 yr, Millie-11yr, and Selah-5yr).

Last week we took a little trek through a part of the village I have never been to, to visit a family that was referred to us for a home assessment and a request for sponsporship. They are 3 siblings living with their grandmother after their parents passed away. The kids have been out of school for some time due to lack of school fees. The oldest boy, James, has been collecting sand from the river and trying to sell it for concrete mixing, so they could buy food. They live in a decent-sized house, but with a very leaky roof and dirt floors. It's raining now as I am writing this, and it riddles me with guilt to sit in a dry home as I think about what theirs must look like right now. But we do have a fundi going there early this week to fix their roof and repair the beds so they are sleep-able again. Catherine and I went to the school to get their school fees sorted out, and also got them enrolled on the school lunch program. We had a little concern about James because the first two times we went to the house he wouldn't talk to us and he ran off before we could even see him. His teachers weren't sure if he would come back to school. When I asked the girls to come to our house the next day to get measured for their school uniforms, the grandmother said she would beg him to come but she didn't know if he would. I was starting to think this kid might be bad news, so imagine my surprise when a sweet, soft-spoken, polite young man showed up on our doorstep the next day with his sisters. I think he was just ashamed to have missed so much school and gotten so far behind, so he started refusing to go altogether. He promised us he would go to school everyday if he didn't have to worry about getting food for his family, so we shook on it, and we are now officially sponsoring them.

The kid are all off school this week so the Standard 8 students can take their big entrance exams for secondary school undisturbed. The kids are full of energy, per the usual, and have been keeping us busy. We found that the swing-kids-in-the-air game is a universal language. We had to limit it to 3 swings per child because a line had formed behind us and our arms were giving out :)

We spent an afternoon in Kisumu on Sunday and went to my favorite tilapia restaurant on Lake Victoria. The girls ate fish with the eyes and tail still on :). #alwaysanadventure

Jessie

 

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Yoga in the yard

Well, we made it to the lovely land of Kenya and my travel companions have jumped right in. I'm traveling with Catherine, a fellow Duke nurse, and Tate, a MPH student. We breezed through the 19 hours on a plane with no catastrophes, and landed in Nairobi. Turns out 5 of our checked bags (mainly filled with pads and medical supplies) did not make it out of Dubai. Bummer. Surprising enough, it turned out to be a great blessing since our travel agent did not book our tickets correctly and we would have ended up paying hundreds and hundreds of dollars in extra overweight baggage fees. Phew! Despite their insistence that the bags would be be delivered to us in Maseno, we picked them up at the kisumu airport two days later. But considering I was worried we'd never see them again, I was pretty satisfied :)

The children left these little gems in my room-hand decorated baskets. Lovely aren't they? I will treasure them. The things around my neck are called flowers, even though they are closer to Christmas tinsel. They are used for special occasions, like weddings and graduation. They kids gave one to each of us, and it was such an honor we left them on for a long while despite the fact that they are even itchier than they look :)

(Catherine and Arnold doing yoga)

(Tate and Zed :)

The children are all doing well and fallen in love with Catherine and Tate-and vice versa. Zedekia-our newest addition, is doing especially well. He is talking more, laughing and interacting, and he's getting so much stronger. My heart lept a little to see him trying to do yoga with Tate :). He could have never balanced like that last year. Sweet strong boy.

This is the time of year they call "short rains", which is ironically named be use we are getting dumped on. Most of the day is beautiful, hot and sunny, and the evenings rival a monsoon. Our porch is a popular place for all the neighborhood kids to hangout, and they have been entertained by all our mzungu (white person) oddities.

(Catherine holding court on the porch)

(Our porch railings are great for climbing and serve as a makeshift jungle gym, as Vinicent is demonstrating above. The rain overflowing the gutters only makes the challenge greater and more fun. You also get a free shower in the process :).

Zed is showing me his new skill of hand tattooing, and in the background Catherine has at least 8 little hands attempting to braid her hair :)

More updates to come when we recover from the jetlag :)

Jessie

 

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Best. Day. Ever.

Well. Today I got to experience the long periods of uneventful waiting punctuated by incredible excitement and yelling that can only be described as......a track meet that your child is participating in. Gave me an interesting new perspective, as I always assumed it was my parents one and only wish/commitment/interest to wait and watch me run in the first and last event of every track meet ;). They had the same events I am used to, but the biggest difference was the kids ran barefoot on grass, and sometimes even in dresses. My absolute favorite was an event that was new to me, and that kept us laughing the entirety of its 6 laps. The kids lined up on the start line, leaning forward, waiting for the wood blocks to be clapped together. Then they were off, in a race of very intense, focused, pocket-to-eye speed walking. If you've ever seen children trying to move as fast as they can without running (it often happens on pool decks), it can be quite a funny site. They assume a stiff-legged swagger that is only accentuated by a look of fierce determination and the pumping of arms to move you forward faster. Every once in a while they would break into a gallop or full-on run, but the teachers were all over that and quickly set them straight.

(Eddah and her girlfriends. She was shy and embarrassed when Dad and I were there taking pics. Embarrassed?! Of me?! Is this what parents feel like?! #loveheranyway :)

As some of you know, I have been waffling back and forth on the name for the children's home, and I am happy to say we have officially settled on Jemo House. It's named after a dear friend of mine, Jim "Jemo" Nowak, because I am quite certain I would not be doing this work today if it wasn't for him. He taught me to really see Kenya; to understand its beauty and its suffering. He showed me the how to serve people well, and how to maintain joy despite frustrations and sorrow. I would have given up long ago if it wasn't for him, so in his honor this home will be filled with happy, healthy, deeply loved and laughing children.

The house is now all finished, and I am so pleased with how it looks. Below is the reading corner (comfy chair to come). Anthony and Caroline free-handed both the world map and the map of Kenya, which turned out perfectly. The tree above is on one of the living room walls, and it has all the names of our little family written on the branches.

After we left Maseno we went to my friend Isaac's home, and visited his extended family. They made us and amazing meal, and gave us such generous gifts of traditional Maasai wraps. We walked all over their property and they taught us about all the things they were growing, and the stories of their family. It was fascinating. The little girls did not leave our sides, and picked us bouquet and bouquet of wildflowers. When we came back to the house Sarah didn't come inside, so I eventually went outside to hunt he down. She was sitting in the ground, with a circle of little girls around her, and they were weaving the flowers from her bouquets into her hair. I've seen few things so lovely. When she stood up in that little ring of sweet girls, with shining eyes, she just whispered, "Best. Day. Ever." And I quite agree.

Maasai girls :)

As always, its getting to be time to go back to the US, and it feels like I just got here. Time moves a little too fast for most people's liking, and having what feels like two lives just speeds up that process even more. There are some days when this makes me incredibly weary, and I even find myself wishing for simpler, slower days sometimes. But then there are days like today that remind me how wildly blessed I am, and make me so grateful for these wonderful lives I have gotten to live so far. And for work that feels worth doing. And for family and friends that would travel across the ocean and back to support and help me. Actually..... I would have it no other way.

 

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Handprints and Hammer marks

Sorry I have been quiet, as they say here, but this last week has been busy. Let me catch you up on all our adventures. We visited two new schools to start the pad project. We started with Hobanaka Primary and Secondary schools, and over the course of 2afternoons we talked to around 430 girls and distributed pad kits to them all. I gave the first talk, and then the girls just jumped right in and did the next two talks. We did it in 3 groups since the biggest room they had only held about 150 girls. I don't think many people have a love affair with public speaking, and even though they are just teenage girls, their power seems to increase as their numbers do. I was so proud of Sarah and Caroline and how they spoke to the groups.

Dad and Anthony came with us to help haul the pads and see the schools. I assumed they would just wait outside while we gave the talks, so I gave them no warning of what happens when we visit schools sometimes. During our first talk I left them with Zach, one of the make teachers. As soon as they dropped the pads in the classroom, they walked outside to find an assembled group of boys. My best guess-about 90 of them. Zach introduced Dad and Anthony with this: "These are visitors from America who have come to talk to you and tell you very important things to help you in your future." I think they started out that epic talk with, "Ummmm........Okay." Even though I have come to expect such on-the-spot-off-the-cuff speaking requests, it still daunts me sometimes, especially when you walk out of an unlit class room into blinding sun and 90 expectant pairs of eyes. Poor dears. I think dad pulled out every motivational topic he had up his sleeves, and they were saved when Anthony finally found his voice and contributed, "Anyone wanna play futbol?" Then were a smashing hit from then on. They had us in giggle fits that evening in the retelling of their awkward tale. The next day there was a rugby game in progress, so they were saved from the on-demand speech, and I think Anthony and his rugby skills will soon become legend.

(Brian working on the shelves)

The house is coming along quite nicely, and the kids are doing their share as well. Even though it takes twice as long and looks half as nice, they've been helping paint and fix their home too. Vincent is quite a good painter actually, and the little munchkins were quickly delegated to other tasks that wouldn't leave lasting handprints and hammer marks on every exposed surface of the house.

(Vincent and Daniel working on the front door)

(Zed, Arnold, Naomi, and Brian with Miss Caroline)

 

Eddah has been arranging and rearranging the sewing kit my mom sent her. When she opened it up she whispered, "Wow, this is for me?" I think it may literally kill Arnold that there is a box of sharp, potentially dangerous, small objects and containers that he is not allowed to play with.....it now has a designated spot on the highest shelf in the house that is conveniently out of his reach.

Fret not, I have also been taking the group to do fun stuff, so it will never be said that traveling with Jess is all work and no play. We've hiked up the hill for sunrises, jumped back and for the between hemispheres, and played chess by candlelight (not so much for the romance of it, but because the power was out).

I will try my best to post one more time this trip to keep you up to date on our final adventures.

Jessie

 

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