Gumboots and Back to School

It's been raining more lately, and it is MUDDY! I wore gumboots (rainboots) all day yesterday and still needed them up at Sidai today. It's been impossible to keep the floors at the children's home clean, and my socks are completely red from the mud. Also, the stairs leading up to Sidai are so muddy that it's practically like a slip and slide. Luckily, I've managed to avoid wiping out on the mud so far.

I visited the school where I'm enrolling Frances today. I wanted to put him in the best school I could realistically afford to commit to paying the tuition for. I ended up enrolling him in the 3rd best school in the area, so I'm really happy and excited. He starts on Tuesday. Matt and I will be on safari on Tuesday, which will be amazing, but I'm a little sad that I won't be able to take him to his first day of school. Yes, I feel like I'm his mom!

I leave Kenya two weeks from today. Although I miss all of you, I'm starting to get really sad about leaving. Frances has been waking up in the middle of the night calling my name. Another girl didn't leave my side for 2 days after I got back from Uganda/Rwanda, and the oldest boy surprised me by saying that he's going to cry when I leave. I know that they have volunteers come in and out, and also know that they bounce back really quickly after volunteers leave, but I still feel terrible about it. Plus, I simply don't want to leave them! I feel like I grow closer and more attached to them each passing week. Hopefully, I come to terms with leaving in the next couple of weeks.

One bit of sad news - the boy that Austin and I met outside Sidai (who was living on the streets b/c his mother is a drunk who beat him) is no longer at the home. While I was in Rwanda, his mother showed up (drunk) with his younger sisters and took him home. Apparently, she was beating him and the boy (Daniel Joro) was crying b/c he didn't want to go. If he comes back to Sidai, Lucy is going to take him to another children's home in Kibiko where hopefully his mother can't find him. Since the mother has legal rights to Daniel, there is unfortuately little else we can do for him right now.

News from Kenya

Since I heard this hit CNN, I thought I'd update about the latest Mungiki news.

As I've written about before, Mungiki is an extremist/terrorist group that is part of the Kikuyu tribe. The mainstream Kikuyus, however, are very against what the Mungiki stand for. This week, a group of Kikuyus decided the police/gov't weren't doing enough to stop the Mungiki and attacked a number of suspected Mungiki members in Karatina (abt 2 hrs from Nairobi; where I was originally supposed to be placed, actually). The Mungiki then retaliated...and you can see where this is heading.

A news crew went into the area and found a suspected supporter of Mungiki, a woman, close to death on the grass outside her home. They asked their police escort to call an ambulance, but the police refused saying it was too dangerous. They watched the woman die.

All of this is extremely sad, obviously. The people aren't happy with the police response to Mungiki. Taking the law into their hands, however, is scary. Their acts of revenge are most likely going to spur additional acts of revenge from Mungiki...and so on.

It's very frustrating to see this on the news every night. Tension b/tw Mungiki and the Kikuyus (which my family and many of the kids at Sidai are part of), not to mention the rest of the country, is getting worse and worse. Combine this with the political tension here (people of certain tribes will never vote for people from other certain tribes; people are extremely unhappy with gov't; etc.), and I'm really concerned for the future of Kenya. I would not be in the country during the next election (if they even make it that long w/o major upheavals or violence). You can see how there is the possibility of tension and violence continuing to expand.

I'm not trying to worry anyone (sorry, Mom). I feel completely safe here. My concern is more for what is to come in the upcoming years. I really hope the government can come up with a way to dissipate some of the tension, but my confidence is the government is definitely lacking.

Here are a couple of news articles if anyone is interested:

http://www.nation.co.ke/News/-/1056/590848/-/u64bc3/-/

http://www.eastandard.net/InsidePage.php?id=1144012430&cid=4

Back home in Kenya

After the worst bus ride EVER, I'm back in Kenya. I'm in Nairobi checking email b/c 1) it's faster here and 2) to avoid getting back on a bus for a little longer. It was only 12 hours (short compared to the 24 hrs to Kigali) but was definitely a worse experience. We were on a crappy bus, and we know just enough Kiswahili to know people kept talking about us. Now the roads in Kenya are terrible - sometimes they don't even really exist and you have to drive on the shoulder. However, if the driver had not felt the need to drive like a total maniac, I probably would not be sore all over from all the bumps! Oh well, despite having no seatbelts, we made it safely back to Kenya.

ANYWAY, besides the bus ride home, our trip was amazing. After Rwanda, we went to Uganda. We spent the last couple of days in Jinja. We rode kayaks in Lake Victoria and up part of the Nile. I also went swimming at the source of the Nile. I skipped the Class 5 rapid trip (I place blame on a certain float trip in Tahoe where I almost died), but it was absolutely beautiful. A year ago, I never would have imagined that I would have been hanging out around the Nile River!

I still need to post on Rwanda, but I need some sleep to deal with that one! More soon...

Safe in Rwanda

We survived the 24 hour bus ride and arrived in Kigali, Rwanda on Thursday afternoon. Rwanda is AMAZING! I hadn't even realized how stressful Kenya was until I came here. People don't harass us nearly as much, and I'm also much less scared of getting hit by a car here. :)

We've been to a number of genocide memorial sites (it's the 15 anniversary). I have so much to write about all of this, but I'm going to wait and write a longer post when I get back to Kenya. It's amazing how Rwanda has been able to completely turn itself around in just 15 years. I can't describe how meaningful this trip has been so far and how impressed I am with this country.

We are leaving Rwanda early tomorrow for Kampala, Uganda. Happy weekend!

Off to Rwanda and Uganda!

Yesterday morning, Dannie and I took a motorbike to visit Letoya and Moses (2 boys who are being sponsored to go to private school) in Maasailand on the other side of the Ngong Hills. Although we primarily just played keepaway w/ Letoya's shoes, we had a lot of fun. On the way home, we saw giraffees and baboons. Even though I've seen both here before, it's still really cool to see them so close to where I've been living.

Jen, Chris and I leave for Rwanda and Uganda this afternoon. We're on a 24 hr bus ride to Kigali, Rwanda today. We don't have any other definite plans for our trip but will be stopping in Kampala, Uganda on the way back to Kenya. We'll go to some other places in Rwanda and Uganda as well, but we're just playing it by ear for now.

I accidentally knocked the camera off a table yesterday and now won't turn on :( I'm really bummed but will make Jen and Chris take lots of pics for me.

I'll try to update while I'm in Rwanda/Uganda but will definitely update when I get back in 7-10 days.

Miss you all!

Who has the right of way in Kenya?

Pedestrian or vehicle?
Answer: Vehicle

Pedestrian or cow?
Answer: Cow

Cow or vehicle?
Answer: It's a toss-up.


Well, I'm in Nairobi. A bunch of volunteers are staying at the volunteer house, and I'm having a really nice weekend. It was a tough week. Not only was there the bad news re Angelina's test results, but there is also some drama about where two boys from Sidai who are starting boarding school next term (which itself is amazing) will be staying during school holidays. Currently, they are with their family who did not treat them right, which is why they were at Sidai in the first place. I had to say goodbye to a boy who was crying when he walked away from me, so things have been tough. Anyway, it's nice to get away for a couple of days and just relax.

HAPPY EASTER!!

Very Sad Day

So...a few weeks ago, I was talking to Lucy's daughter about Ruth (the little girl who was HIV+ when we took her to get tested), and she mentioned that Angelina (7 yrs) was positive but then took medication and her next test was negative. This made absolutely no sense to me until I reasoned that she must have had a positive test when she was <18 months old. Babies can have HIV+ test results that are actually just due to their mothers' antibodies and later test negative.

The other day, however, someone again mentioned how Angelina had been positive when she came to Sidai. This was making me nervous, so today I took her to get tested again. Unfortunately, her test was positive. I can't describe how disappointed I felt when I saw the test results. It was terrible when Ruth tested positive, but I was relatively new in Kenya and hadn't had the chance to get to know her well yet. Angelina, on the other hand, is one of my favorites at Sidai. Plus, I had thought she was perfectly healthy. She is hilarious and so full of life. I have no idea how she had a negative test a couple of years ago, and I am so sad and frustrated that she hasn't been on medication. At least we now know, and she started her meds today.

Anyway, sad day for me. On a sidenote - the nurse asked me if the kids shared everything, such as food, toilets, etc. I said yes, like a family. The nurse then told me that the kids with HIV shouldn't be sharing. When I said that you can't get HIV by sharing a toilet, she said "sometimes kids scratch when they use towels, and that could spread the disease." Okay, HIV is not spread like that, but I just told her that the kids don't share towels (ha - they don't even have towels!!). Lucy later was worried about the kids w/ HIV sharing toothbrushes. Now, I've given the kids several lectures about not sharing toothbrushes, and I really don't want Ruth and Angelina sharing w/ the other kids b/c I don't want them exposed to more germs than necessary since they have weaker immune systems. However, this again is not how HIV is spread. It's amazing how despite the fact that 20% of the Kenyan population has HIV/AIDS, people still are completely clueless about the virus (apparently even nurses).

Anyway, I'm heading to Nairobi for the weekend. I need a little break. HAPPY EASTER!!!

Mungiki

I think I have mentioned the terrorist group Mungiki before. Antony, Dannie and I were supposed to go to Nairobi this morning. I wanted to buy medical supplies in bulk for Sidai and Dannie was going to get some more school supplies. When I got to Ngong, however, I found out that Mungiki is making threats again, so it's too dangerous to go to the city. Also, the matatus are on are strike because it is really dangerous for them to run now too. Even if we still wanted to go to the city, it would cost a ridiculous amount of money because only a few buses are willing to run. Needless to say, we will try again later this week.

I'm pretty sure I'm going with Chris and Jen (two other volunteers) to Rwanda and Uganda next week. We still haven't bought bus tickets (24 hr bus ride to Kigali - yay) or made any arrangements, but hopefully it works out!

Random - I was reading the newspaper this weekend and happened to look at the "Soulmates" section (basically classifieds section for relationships). SO MANY of them had things like "HIV positive man seeking HIV positive woman" and "HIV test a must." It's just crazy (and incredibly sad) that HIV is such a part of daily life that it has to be mentioned even in want ads.

Dentist

Dental checkups don't really exist here. As a result, dental problems are really bad, and people only visit the dentist when they have a major problem. Two of the kids at Sidai, Simon and Esther Wamboi, were having problems, so Danny and I took them to the dentist in a nearby town yesterday. We waited over 3.5 hrs to see the dentist, so the kids were already unhappy by the time it was our turn. I assumed the dentist would do some kind of dental checkup/cleaning but nope. He just looked at the problems and decided that each of them needed a tooth pulled.

What a nightmare!! Simon was really brave up until the point when the dentist pulled the tooth - then he started crying and screaming. They gave him an injection first, but it still really hurt him. He's only 7 - so sad! Wamboi (8 yrs) was next and completely freaked out. She tried leaning against the wall to avoid the dentist, so I had to pick her up and physically sit her on the chair. She was crying and saying "no, Sara, no, Sara!!!" I felt absolutely terrible. At least it's over. Afterwards, we took them out to lunch to try to make up for it. They never eat anywhere besides Sidai and church, so they were pretty happy.

It's sad but dental health just isn't a priority here. So many adults have missing teeth. Many people I've asked don't even know what floss is! I made the kids promise me that they would brush their teeth at least 2x a day. Otherwise, I threatened to never bring in treats again! :)

I'm going to dinner with some other volunteers tonight, which should be a lot of fun. It'll be nice to do something different - and not eat beans and cabbage! Hope everyone is having a great weekend.

Daniel

Yesterday, my friend Austin (another volunteer) came to visit Sidai. Since he didn't know where to go, I took one of the little girls and met him along the main road. On the way back up to the children's home, we met a boy who was probably 10-12 years old. I didn't recognize him and asked him where he lived. Luckily, his English was fairly good, so we were able to talk to him. He told me that his parents were dead and that he lived on the streets in Ngong town. As he told us this, tears welled up in his eyes. I didn't know what to do, so I told him (Daniel) to come back to Sidai with us. He clearly wanted help and even offered Austin a pair of sunglasses as a gift (Austin didn't accept).

Back at Sidai, he told Lucy the same story. He said that his mom kicked him out and and then his mom's friend came and told him that his mom was dead. Lucy took Daniel to Ngong to verify his story (and make sure he didn't just run away) and talk to the chief (a government official). As it turns out, his mom is alive but is a drunk living in a village about 15 min from Ngong. She used to beat Daniel all the time and forced him to collect plastic, which would be sold for bar money. When he was very young, she made him go to the bar with her and would make him drink alcohol. Apparently, Daniel has 2 younger sisters that the mom also does not support. The neighbors even told Lucy that Daniel's mom told everyone that Daniel was dead in an attempt to get money from them! So sad!!! Lucy wasn't able to find the mom anywhere, but she assumes that she was drunk somewhere (according to neighbors, at least).

Daniel has been living on the streets of Ngong for awhile now. I can't even imagine, especially since it was raining earlier this week, and the slum was SO MUDDY. Since Daniel says he wants to go back to school, Lucy said he could stay at Sidai. He stayed there last night, but some things have to be worked out w/ the chief before it can be a permanent arrangement. I really hope it works out! He seems like a really nice boy, and I'm so happy that Austin and I ran into him yesterday. It's definitely a sad reminder of the problem Kenya has with respect to street children. I will definitely keep you all updated on what happens with him.