Odds and Ends PLUS Pictures

Well, I must admit that having two Kenyan chefs cooking for us every night of the week is something that I could become quite accustomed to! Cyrus and Belton are the cooks here at the hospital and we hire them for the summer. It gives them a little extra income and allows us some pampering at the end of the day. They love it because they get to cook something other than boring old hospital food (Kenyan hospital food at that) and have begun creating daily themed masterpieces for us. Wednesday’s are Italian night and we had homemade pizza and a cream of carrot soup, and last night was Mexican with homemade burritos and a gingered leek and potato soup. They usually join us for dinner which is also nice because it allows us to talk with them about their lives here. All hospital staff live on the grounds as it is not safe for anyone to travel after dark and so it also gives them something to do in the evenings.

We spent most of yesterday at the orphanage. It is a little piece of security amidst one of the poorest areas in the region. It’s actually a little bit eerie driving in from a slum-like outside to a very clean, very well manicured inside. And although it is very difficult to not know what the future holds for these infants, the Sisters are doing an amazing job of making sure that they are being looked after now.

There are approximately 30 children under the age of 5 (although most of these are under 3) who live permanently at the orphanage and then another 60 or so that come in from the surrounding area for a preschool-like program and lunch every day. For those that live there permanently the Sisters try to place them back with the family by the time they are 3 (if for example their mother died during childbirth but they still have a father) and will place them up for adoption once they reach 5. We will be visiting every other week for the rest of our stay so it will be nice to get to know the little ones a bit.

There is a cute little nail salon up the road from the hospital so we stopped on the way home from the orphanage and paid Irene a whopping $300 Kenyan shillings (about $4.00 Canadian) for a decent pedicure.

We are off to Nanyuki this afternoon to spend the weekend. It is supposed to be a fairly modern little town (thanks to the British who still have an army base there and much to the dislike of the Kenyan people but there’s a whole other story for another time…). I’ll update again soon and add some pics (the internet won't download this morning - go figure!)


Here they are...

Belton and Cyrus with our pizzas

My salon of choice for the summer

Irene doing my toes

Machaka Orphanage

The playground at Machaka

These are the children that come from the community for lunch every day

There is a trade school at the orphanage which teaches skills such as sewing. These clothes have all been made out of paper as fabric is too expensive.

Breakfast time with Joseph and Nancy

This is the baby that we met at the hospital a few days ago whose mother had died. She is actually one month old, not one week but very, very tiny. I don't know her name.

This is Joseph again. He had been sitting up after lunch and I was rubbing his back when he fell over asleep to the world. Too cute.