Home Visits

It’s been a busy few days of food security/diet diversity home visits with the women in the community. I realized today that so far, for me, this is one of the most enjoyable aspects of my job here this summer. I love spending time with these women – they are incredibly resilient and hard working and seem to make the most of things with whatever they have. I love spending time outside with them in their kitchen gardens hearing both the good (and the bad) and knowing that for them this is their livelihood. If these women didn’t spend all day working in their gardens their families quite simply would not eat. Secretly, I am also amazed at the Kenyan woman’s ability to bend over at the waist like a gumbi doll keeping her legs straight and work like this in her garden ALL day. First of all my hamstrings wouldn’t let me do that and second I wouldn’t last 30 minutes.

We also had another “Champs” meeting, this time with the women at Muchui. We have planned to incorporate orange sweet potatoes (OSP) into four different dishes that wouldn’t normally have sweet potato in them: chapattis, mokimo (a mashed plantain dish), githeri (a maize and beans stew), and uji (maize porridge). They have been growning white and purple sweet potatoes for awhile, but have only just begun growing the orange variety. They are quite high in Vitamin A so we are trying to encourage them to use them as much as possible. It was really interesting to sit back and watch them talk as a group (in Kimeru – the local dialect) how they could do this. They were very animated and they even decided that they could dry the OSP, grind it into flour, and incorporate it into even more dishes.

Other than that not much is new. I feel like I am settling in here and learning to live by “African Time” – our taximan AND our translator were both one hour late yesterday… but we finished the work we set out to do, so “hakuna mata” as they say.

Will post pictures when I can.

One of the many reasons why I am so lucky to have Edward in my life - he had two big bouquets of lilies delivered to the hospital for me

The Muchui "Champs"

That's it for pictures for today. I had a whole bunch of the women in their gardens but they are taking too long to download. So long for now.

Nanyuki

So today was spent exploring Nanyuki. We started the day off at a camel farm hoping to go for a camel ride. But lo and behold the camels had wandered off and were nowhere to be found… Sooo off we went to a monastery to see the African “Bible in the Ground” – a series of outdoor stones and paintings depicting the ENTIRE bible situated along a rather long and arduous path. It would have been interesting had we not had to hire a guide (a monk) who took almost an hour at the first station alone along the path. We eventually managed to hurry him up and were told that most people spend 8 or 9 hours walking the path!!! Mwenda (one of the Kenyan employees of Farmers Helping Farmers and our go-to Kenyan friend) also showed us the old railway which they just stopped building one day because the Italian who had the plans lost them when he spent a wild night with a prostitute. True story.

Our lunch was probably the best part of the day – the “Trout-Tree Restaurant” was a cute little restaurant situated up a fig tree overlooking a trout pond (interestingly the owner happens to be Canadian). Excellent food and a nice atmosphere.

We took our supper at the hotel and all I can say was that it was a series of unfortunate events. It will be one dinner not soon forgotten and it provided all of us with some good laughs.

Anyhoo, I am looking forward to returning to the Sisters tomorrow – it feels like home now, so I guess that’s a good sign. Our work begins in earnest on Monday and I think that this will help the time pass quickly.

Hope all is well with everyone.

Birds nests hanging in an acacia tree

A new building going up - notice the ever so sturdy scaffolding out of old wood?!

The "end of the line" - the railway track that never was

Our "cottage" in Nanyuki

The pool at the hotel - it is the only pool accessible to the public in Nanyuki

Trout-Tree Restaurant

The trout farm

The main trunk of the tree

Storing bottles in the folds of the tree

A Hyrax -  never heard of it before, but very cute

"Goodbye, You're welcome and Come Again"

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.

Down to Business

It's been a busy but productive two days. On Monday morning we had a full tour of St. Theresa's hospital and I am amazed by how much they are able to accomplish with so little (in comparison to our hospitals). The Sisters run a tight ship and it is evident everywhere you look. It is ridiculously clean and well-organized for such a tiny place (120 beds). They are greatly overcrowded though and there are often patients lying outside in the sun.
It was difficult to see some of the babies in the peds ward as a number of them had been left orphaned after their mothers had died during childbirth and they were severely malnourished. They stay at the hospital for two weeks until they get medical clearance and then the Sisters move them to the orphanage that they have a short distance from here. Heartbreaking.
Monday afternoon we had tea and cookies with Sr. Jacinta (the head honcho at the hospital) and the newly hired dietitian. It was such a wonderful experience to sit down with these two women and try to understand some of the culture surrounding food and infant feeding practices here. There are still some fairly unusual beliefs in the rural areas of the country - such as the belief that feeding an infant or small child a raw fertilized chicken egg will aid in respiratory problems... They also noted that more mothers in this area are breastfeeding (not necessarily because they know it's better for the infant but because it shows that they do not have HIV).
Yesterday we went to Ruuju where we met with our new group of "Champs": women from the community who are well respected and are good cooks. We teach them the new messages about healthy eating and cooking (soaking their maize and beans, adding greens to the stews, adding orange sweet potato to increase Vitamin A etc) and then they in turn teach the other women in the community. We have 10 very wonderful, excited women who we will now work with for the remainder of the summer. It was a lesson in patience however as everyone was talking at once and our poor translator seemed to be slightly overwhelmed on a number of occasions! 
We had a farewell dinner for Edward and Jennifer last night and the Sisters came to join us. There is something about these women that I can't quite place my finger on, but I feel very calm in their presence... 
Edward and Jennifer just left for their long trip home and it seems very quiet around here now. We have the day in the compound and tomorrow we are all (the nurses, the business students, and us) going to Machaka (the orphanage run by the Sisters) to feed and hold and play with the babies. I'm going to need to put on my brave face for that one.

Ruuju "Champs"

Me, Novice Jen, Sister Naomi (head honcho), Sister Jacinta (head hospital honcho),  Sister Lucy, Novice Angeline, Novice Esther, Edward

Mt. Kenya

It's a beautiful Sunday morning here in Kenya and I am sitting in the compound having a cup of tea and listening to the nuns singing at morning mass across the road. The early mornings are quite cool and I am glad that I brought some warm clothes with me. 
We had a great day yesterday... hired a guide and climbed through the hills at the base of Mt. Kenya. We hiked for about five hours and climbed to about 4000 m - I was surprised at the altitude and how much it knocked the wind out of me. We took three of the employees from the local business centre with us and they were so excited to be seeing the mountain that they have only ever looked at from a distance. There were wild zebras running around and the sun shone for just enough time to snap some good pics. We don't have any major plans for today, some R&R I suppose.
It's hard to believe that we have been here for only two weeks - it feels like an eternity! Edward is leaving on Wednesday already and then we have 10 weeks left. I know that time will fly but it will be hard to not have him here.
I hope everyone is enjoying their weekend and that summer has arrived in Canada. Have a great day!

Hiking through Mt. Kenya National Park

Clearly Ed needs to work on his jumping picture skills

The park gate

Mt. Kenya in the distance

"The Boys" - Edward, Festus, Gikundi, & Mwenda (employees of the business centre)

The valley at the base of Mt. Kenya

Aha! Picture Time

Baboons 

Ed's Birthday Dinner

A Hippo Footprint

African Sunrise

Nice Kitty!

Peek-a-boo

Our 1st Home Security Interview. This is Penina and we are in her home.

Home Sweet Home - The 'compound' at the Sisters

The courtyard of our compound

My bedroom

The Garden at the Sisters; the big tree in the middle is an avocado tree.

School children lining up for Uji (maize porridge)

Long Day

Today was the first day that I have felt completely exhausted. The sun is so incredibly hot it’s unreal (but as we are on the equator I probably shouldn’t be too surprised) and the dust and dirt of a day of walking through the Kenyan countryside has me beat. It took two rounds of soap and water to see my feet again.

We spent the morning at a local primary school and helped one woman cook uji (maize porridge) and githiri (maize, bean, and kales stew) for 175 children over open fires (which we will ultimately conduct a nutritional analysis on). For many of the children this is the only meal they get in a day and you would be surprised at how much they can throw back. Then in the afternoon we went to the annual agricultural fair.  It happened to be the day that all of the schools from the area were there and we may well have been the top attraction. I was told that for many of the children we would be the first white people that they had ever seen. It was pretty funny. Lots of pictures, staring, skin and hair touching.

Yesterday we conducted another two food security interviews and they were in sharp contrast to the previous ones. The women that we visited were quite food secure (by rural Kenyan standards) and it was a relief after Tuesday’s interviews especially because the next crop will likely fail as well.

Tomorrow we are going to meet with the Sisters at the hospital to talk about what we are able to do around here (this is technically a community placement, not a clinical one, but we need to give back to the hospital for hosting us), and we are going to do a hike partway up Mt. Kenya this weekend. Stay tuned and hopefully I will get some pictures going (I have a very new appreciation for high speed internet – actually any internet is pretty good at this point).