The end

1:45 AM Monday night: I'm home, fed, showered, and snuggling in my bed with Cordelia. My flight was delayed 4 hours (of course) so we didn't end up leaving until 7 or so. Funniest thing though... I walked into JFK and got in the check in line and Sue Daye and her daughter (family friends) were there!! Turns out we were on the same flight and they offered to bring me home from Syracuse which worked out perfectly! It was also nice having someone to talk to for the 5 hours of sitting. So appreciative! We got home at midnight and I talked with mom and Marg for a bit before getting ready for bed. I have never been so excited to lie in this bed in my entire life. And having a shower with pressure?! Heaven. I literally almost got blown away by the water haha. Anyway, I've gotten like 5 hours of sleep since Saturday so I'm goin to snuggle with my puppy and sleep for a zillion years.

Back in the country!

Well, I'm back! Our flight from London to JFK was delayed 4 hours yesterday. Luckily, I changed my flight from JFK to Cuse from yesterday to today (Sunday to Monday) because I would have missed my flight. The flights were long and I barely slept. Obi picked me up from the airport at 5 and by 6 I was practically falling asleep. Now, it's 8 am and I've been up since 5. Worst. Jetlag. Ever. My flight to cuse is today at 4 if the weather allows it (bad storms here) and I can't wait to go home and shower and clean my clothes and not do anything for at least 24 hours haha. So happy to be back and with the boy and so close to seeing the family.

Spa Day

This morning, Wairimu surprised us with pedicures at the spa! We started off learning about holistic healthcare and acupressure/acupuncture and then she wanted to do a demo so I volunteered and got to have a reflexology treatment. Basically, each point in your foot is connected to an organ in your body and by applying pressure to each, you can promote total body healing. She was also able to tell where I had tension or problems in my body from the way each pressure point felt and she taught me how to do it on other people (get ready momma!). It's so cool, she was spot on haha! After the spa we went to a HUGE Masai Market outside of Nairobi and we ate lunch and shopped for a few hours. Then, we came back for our last dinner on the compound:( Wairimu bought us all a little present and gave us a card with our favorite animal on it, it was so sweet! We sat with her and laughed about things that have happened over the past month, and I realized how much we have done and what an incredible experience this has been.
Grandma, if you're reading this, I want you to know how truly grateful I am that you have given me such an amazing opportunity. It's something I'll never forget for the rest of my life and I would have never been able to have such a life changing experience without your help. I love you so much and am forever grateful.

Reflexology

Pedis!

Finally "home"!!!

Not much to report... spent the day writing my paper/watching youtube vids with Anna/taking a nap... got on the plane, half hour flight from Eldoret to Nairobi, hour drive back to Karen (stupid traffic), Isaiah made soup, salad, and samosas, and now I'm back in my bed, finally. So funny how coming back to the compound feels like home. The whole way back from the airport, we were talking about all the things we can't wait for when we get back to the states... Mom, Dad, get ready... I 'm SOOOO ready for your food<3 And I can't wait to see Obi on Sunday, and allllll of the family on Monday, and to sleep in my bed, and snuggle with Cordelia, and catch up on True Blood and Game of Thrones with Mom, and lay out by the pool with Caitlin, and go for bike rides to the river with Mom and Dad, and listen to Aunt Polly play the piano and sing, and see Aaron and Eddie FINALLY (favs duhhhhh), and have coffee with Aunt Lorie, and tan on the roof with Margaret, and eat real ice cream (it sucks here), and the 4th of July party, and the list goes on. I don't want to leave, but I'm ready to be home... if that makes sense at all.

p.s. MORE PICS UP FROM KISUMU AND ON

Sally Test

Today (Wednesday), we got to take the morning off to sleep in, so after a solid 12 hours, I woke up, ate breakfast, and Anna and I sat in bed until 2 o’clock reading and writing our paper (aka blogging, creeping Facebook, and listening to music with a blank word document open). The wifi here is really not so great either, so sorry for the delays in posts! At 2, we all went back to Moi Hospital to spend the after noon in the Sally Test Pediatric wing. Sally Test was started by Sarah-Ellen Mamlin (Joe’s wife) and is sort of a safe haven for children in the hospital. Some were just visiting for a couple of hours from their wards, while others had been there for years, abandoned by their families in the hospital or brought in by social workers. When we first walked in, a little boy about 2 years old ran up to me, buried his head in my knees, and stretched his arms up for me to hold him. I picked him up and he snuggled into me and we walked around and played for a little while. Then Andrew started pushing him around the room in a wheelchair, which he loved. I spent a majority of the time holding a little boy who I initially thought was a newborn premie. He was 6 months old. He and his twin brother had been neglected by their mother, and, after being admitted into the hospital twice for malnourishment, she finally just left them there and never came back. As I held the tiny baby, I looked up at Anna who was holding his twin brother and started to cry. I wanted to take them home. I wanted somebody to want them… to care about them like their mother hadn’t. He had an IV hookup in his wrist and you could see every tiny bone in his body. His arms couldn’t have been bigger than my thumbs and I could wrap my hand around his body and almost touch my middle finger to my thumb. Every breath he took shook his little body, and when he opened his eyes, he just stared at me. I held him tight and didn’t let go… I couldn’t. It was hard saying goodbye, but I knew he was in good hands; the nurses and volunteers are so gentle and loving with the babies and toddlers.

For dinner, we went to an Indian restaurant called the Sikh. We were invited by the Mamlins; every year, they have a dinner for the university students and workers in partnership with AMPATH and their friends and family. There were 85 people there from all over, it was so cool being able to talk and interact with them! Now we're home and packing up our stuff to send home with Njau and Nixon in the morning. They get to drive 9 hours and we get to fly...yay:)

:(

poor little guy

Imani

This morning (Tuesday) we split into groups again and my group went to Imani, a workshop built through AMPATH for women with HIV/AIDS. It was sectioned off into stations; jewelry, ceramics, paper, fabrics, etc. We watched the women make necklaces, bracelets, and earrings out of recycled Oprah magazines and homemade beads from crushed up stone. My favorite was watching them make paper from recycled newspapers and old AMPATH medical history papers. I bought some magazine bracelets and an over the shoulder bag with ellies on it; I saw it when I walked in the door and couldn’t take my eyes off of it. Njau kept trying to shield my eyes and hide it from me, but I was already set on buying it. After we shopped a bit, the manager asked us to shred paper for the last hour. It was riveting… -_-

We went to lunch all together after, but Ashley and I were having some “digestive problems” haha. I’ll spare you the gory details, but we’ve both been unable to keep any food in for about 2 days now, but we feel completely fine. Long story short, if we eat anything, we can’t be more than 5 feet from a toilet for the next 3 hours. Right now, we’re lying in my bed eating crackers and soup broth and watching a movie while the rest of the group is out for Chinese. So far, it’s been 4 hours (I feel like a recovering alcoholic haha), so I think we’re in the clear! I’m just going to keep pounding water and go to sleep early. We aren’t doing anything tomorrow until 1, so I’ll be able to sleep in too.

p.s. Mom, don’t freak out hahaha, I’m fine. 

Moi Teaching Hospital/Tumaini

This morning, we met up with Joe's (the physician from last night) wife and daughter for a tour of Moi Teaching Hospital; the hospital that came out of his one room HIV clinic started 10 years ago. Sarah-Ellen (the wife) first showed us the original room where the clinic was started and it was amazing to see how much it had grown in just 10 years. She took us through the pediatrics wards and the surgery wards, the burn units and the ophthalmology center... it just didn't end. My favorite was the Mother Baby Hospital; it was beautifully decorated by the mothers' paintings and it was very well taken care of.  It really was hard to believe the growth from when it started out. We went for lunch at Cool Stream, a restaurant behind the hospital where all the food is locally grown... you could actually see the farm that it all came from, a little ways beyond the building. We had chippaties, ugali, greens, and fried bananas. After lunch, we split into 2 groups and my group went to Tumaini (swahili for hope). Tumaini is a sort of safe haven for street kids who have no where else to go. They have an outreach program which goes out into the community, spreading the word about the program and finding kids who have no homes and bringing them in. They don't actually live there, though... it's more of a day program. The kids come (freely) in the morning, shower, get breakfast, spend the day playing games, shower again, eat dinner, and then go back "home". We spoke with Johnny, the director of the livelihood program, and he told us that just in the few months that he's been working there, he's seen a drastic improvement in many of the young boys lives. There were girls there also, but about 95% were boys. We talked to Eli, a 13 year old boy who I was drawn to instantly by his captivating presence. For a 13 year old boy with no family, he seemed like a pretty great kid. And so smart!! He was one of the only kids who had learned English at the program, and fluently, at that. He was very witty and engaging and carried a conversation on with us for quite a while. He wanted to know what fun things there were to do in the states and who the most famous celebrities were and he just kept asking questions and telling us about Kenya. I was so sad when he said he didn't want to go back to school because in just half an hour of talking to him, I knew he had soooo much potential. Johnny things that the program will help steer him back in the right direction, though.
After Tumaini, we went to dinner at the IU house (Indiana University has a very strong partnership with AMPATH... Joe went to IU and started it). Then, we had a wonderful discussion with Dr. Astrid Christofferson, an OBGYN from Toronto who visited Kenya once and ended up moving here a few years ago. She talked to us a lot about maternal health care in the country and the problems women here face daily in terms of healthcare and why the mortality rate is so high. I was so excited because this is where so much of my interest is! And she was so sweet and so smart and easy to talk to... our discussion definitely finalized my ideas for my final paper, which I will post when I'm finished. Also, pictures for the other posts from New Frontiers are slowly uploading, so check them out!

Forest Walk/Eldoret

This morning, after breakfast in the cottage, we went on a hike through Kakamega Forest. The view from the top of the hill we climbed was beautiful, and, a little higher up, got to go in to a bat cave! I almost wouldn't leave the cave because one of the bats kept flying back and forth in one part and I was freaking out. After our hike, we showered, packed the vans, and ate lunch. Then, we left for Eldoret; we're staying in Eldoret Club, which is like a Members Club type thing and it's really nice. Andddddd there's wifi! Yayyyyyyy! Again, it's not great, but it'll work, especially considering I got to Skype with all the fam at my house tonight for Father's Day (s/o to Mom, Dad, Marg, Nana, Aunt Polly, Uncle Stanley, Eddie, Uncle Donnie, Aunt Katie, Aunt Lorie, Uncle Keith, Aidain, Jo-Anne... miss you all so much, can't wait to see you next week!!!). Earlier tonight, we met with Joe Mamlin at his house a few minutes from where we're staying to talk about AMPATH; the program that he started here in Eldoret and that we will be working with for the next 4 days. He was about 80 years old and such a sweetheart and SOOOOO smart. He's originally a physician from North Carolina who started travelling right out of med school, helping to build up and support med schools in less fortunate areas of the world. I won't get into all the details of his life, but it was fascinating and one thing he stressed over and over was to "stay vulnerable". He told us that history is constantly changing the course of our lives and we need to stay vulnerable and not stick to one set path throughout life; to open doors along way, no matter what may be behind them. Life throws so many opportunities at us, sometimes without us realizing, and we just fall into place. Looking back, he never would have thought that after graduating from medical school that he would be in a tiny town in western Kenya, running a world renowned medical program focused on sustainability. Basically, he started out building a medical school in Eldoret (there wasn't one there to begin with) and then realized that the school was located in the middle of the worst HIV/AIDS pandemic in the world. He started to get grants from the states to treat HIV and in turn, started to educate the community that once stigmatized the virus to the point that even though people were dying left and right, they acted is if there was no problem. Today, they are treating over 3 million people in Kenya, and not just for HIV... the goal is to rid the country of "the three headed monster" as he calls it; hunger, disease, and poverty. Also, they are trying to prevent the new wave of chronic diseases expected to hit the country (heart disease, hypertension, cancer, diabetes, etc.). Volunteers from each community are going door to door (literally, knocking on doors of every home in their community) and testing everyone in the home for HIV and other diseases. He calls it "flittering" (FLTR: Find people in need of care, Link them in to health care, Treat them, and Retain them). I could go on and on haha, but really, the whole time I was thinking, if this man hasn't gotten the Noble Peace Prize yet he damn well better. When we got into the car to leave the house, Wairimu told us (without me even mentioning my thoughts) that he was a candidate the last few years, but this year she thinks he'll get it because AMPATH was just given a $75 million grant. The government loves the work they're doing and many countries are already following in their footsteps and modeling programs after his. It was such a wonderful talk that I didn't realize we had been there for almost 2 hours and we hadn't eaten dinner (it was 9 pm). So we ran and grabbed pizza for dinner at Mama Mia's and now we're back at the room for the night.

Njau and his pweetty flowerrr

Kakamega Forest

bat cave

Kisumu/Kakamega

This morning (Saturday) we met with a team of researches from Kemri (Kenya Medical Research Institute) one of whom co-won the Nobel Prize (Andrew Githeko) for his Malaria Research. We also spoke with his wife and another researcher. They each gave a presentation on their respective research projects and then we all went for lunch at a resort on Lake Victoria. It was so nice, the patio was right on the lake! After lunch, we left Kisumu to go to Kakamega. We don't have wifi tonight, but I could care less because we are staying at the most BEAUTIFUL retreat center I have ever seen!!! We're in Kakamega Forest at Rondo Retreat Center, and Wairimu booked a cottage for all of us to stay in for the night. It's seriously so perfect and peaceful here and I wish we were staying here for the rest of the week haha. We were served chai on our veranda as soon as we arrived, and for dinner, we went to the main house. Afterwards, we had tea and watched "The First Grader" and if you haven't seen it, you should. I loved it. Now, Anna and I are lying in our princess canopy bed. The canopy isn't actually a canopy haha, it's our mosquito net, but it's hanging from polished wood framing and goes around the beds like a real canopy. It's "just lovely" as Wairumi says about everything haha. We're calling it "the honeymoon suite for divorcees" because it's really just 2 twin beds pushed together to make a queen size bed... it's a lot funnier when you haven't slept in 2 days (the guest house we were at last night was about 1000 degrees and it felt like we were sleeping on rocks). Anna and I have gotten super close over the past 3 weeks... it's amazing what happens when total strangers are put into such life changing situations! Anyway, hopefully tomorrow we have wifi... we're travelling to Eldoret, which is about 2 hours from Kakamega. That is where we will spend our last 4 days of the trip before heading back to Nairobi for a spa/shopping day!!! Wairimu doesn't tell us much about the places we're going haha, she likes everything to be a surprise... and that it has been!

Lake Victoria

Princess Bed

View from our room

hewwwooo annnaaaa

veranda

Safari Day/The Last Supper

SAFARI DAY!!!!!! This post is mostly pictures, but the morning started off with the girls (the 4 of us are in one room) waking up 5 minutes before we were supposed to leave because Lourine set her alarm for 4:45 pm instead of am. So Wairimu knocked on our door and we flew out of bed, threw clothes on, went to the bathroom, and were ready to go before the boys. Naturally, we got the best seats in the safari van… I sat up front next to Jackson, our (beautifully dressed) Masai safari guide. We were on the road by 5:30, but 20 minutes in, Wairimu realized that she forgot our money to get in back at the compound (typical of her), so Njau’s van drove back to get it. While they were gone, we drove around a little and Jackson found us some zebra, gazelle, impala, and dikdiks, which are like mini gazelle. They’re so tiny and cute! Finally the other van came back and we made our way to the national park gates, 2 hours through straight back roads (as in, no roads). On our way, we got to watch the sun rise over the mountains. which was absolutely breathtaking, and we saw tons of gazelle. Once we got to the gate, we started into the grasslands of the Mara. We didn’t really see anything besides gazelle and wildebeest for a while, so we pulled under a tree, and Jackson basically turned the van into a breakfast buffet! I couldn’t believe it, the floor in the backseat slid out, and turned into a table and he pulled out dishes, silverware, mugs, and tupperware full of sausage, bacon, hard boiled eggs, and cereal for us to eat. It was so cool! We did the same thing for lunch, but we had salad, pasta, and chicken. Anyway, after breakfast, we drove deeper and deeper into the Mara. We saw Ostrich, Warthogs, Wildabeast, Water Buffalo, Jackals, Hippopotami, and lots of pretty birds. But we still hadn’t seen any of the Big 5. About 2 hours in, we saw a car parked under a tree so we pulled up and found a pride of lioness and their cubs taking a nap. They were all half awake and watching us carefully, checking on their cubs every few minutes. We stood their and stared for at least 15 minutes... it’s SO cool seeing animals in the wild when you’ve only ever seen them in captivity or on the TV screen. After a bit, we moved on and found a hippo, belly up in the middle of the grass. The smell gave it away instantly, it must’ve been dead 2 days before we got there. It looked like plastic and it was rotting from the inside out. As we tried to get upwind, we stumbled upon another pride of lions, this time, 4 males, 1 female, and, as we soon found out, a little baby cub. Jackson thought that the males must’ve taken the hippo down a couple of nights ago, because they only leave the water at night and this guy was fried to a crisp. The males were giant and so beautiful. We figured they must have already eaten, so after a while, we started to leave. That’s when we saw the fourth male stand up from behind the tall grass with the baby. The two of them and the single lioness walked over to the hippo together and started to eat! As disgusting as it was (they were eating its rotting stomach), I’ve never seen anything like it besides on animal shows, and the little one was so cute trying to pounce on it! We stayed for a while longer, then moved even further into the Mara, where we found an elephant… FINALLY! He was alone, eating, but a little bit later, we found about 5 other families that we were able to get a little closer to. After that, I was content, and aside from having to pee worse than I have ever had to in my life on the way back to the gate, it was a pretty perfect day!

We got back at 5 and had spaghetti and beans and garlic tortillas for dinner and had the a very memorable last night conversation. Tonya asked each of us what our favorite experience was and as we went around sharing, I started to get extremely sentimental knowing that we were going to be leaving. In just a few short days, we had become like family, our group and Tonya and Linda. I guess that’s what happens when you’re immersed in the wild with no distractions and a strong sense of community. I was definitely ready for a shower, but I wasn’t ready to leave. The day in the bush opened my eyes to a world I never knew was there, and one I never want to forget. And as we finished up dinner, Tonya said, “Don’t ever forget the experiences you had in the clinic. Don’t forget the face of the old woman, stripping down and begging for a massage. Don’t forget the unbearable heat of the manyattas. Don’t forget the flies covering the faces of babies. Don’t forget the women carrying enormous loads of firewood on their shoulders, jugs of water on their heads, babies on their backs. Just don’t forget.” The whole time I was thinking, “how could I possibly forget any of it?”, and, as if in response to my thoughts, she continued, “it may seem too much to forget, but life goes on, things happen. You get busy with school, work, family, friends, and the more time that passes, the easier it is to forget. I challenge you to never forget.” ....Challenge accepted.

So, after 4 days of squatty potties, wild animals, no showers, dirty feet, beautiful, starry night skies, whipping winds lulling me to sleep, the 5 second transition from light to dark (and dark to light), colorful Masai jewelry, late night girl talkssprinting to the outhouse at night so as not to get eaten by a lion, playing with wild dogs, life lessons/adventure stories from Dr. Tonya, and that giant African sun, I can confidently say, I will be coming back.

SUNRISE!!

Jackson

Wairimu hiding from the lions 

breakfast in the Mara

happy family (gazelle, ostrich, and warthogs)

explosive diarrhea HAHA 

 

<3

In the bush

This morning, Joshua, the cook here, made us the most incredible cinnamon sugar pancakes. Then we were on the road to the New Frontiers Bush Clinic. About 10 minutes in, we came across a family of giraffes crossing the road and of course we all got out of the vans to take pictures with them. Shortly after, the road turned into a dirt path and the dirt path turned into… well… not a dirt path. We were pretty much driving through straight bush for at least an hour. They make the trip twice a week to their bush clinic. And when I said the compound we’re staying at was remote, I had no idea what we were in for here. The clinic was, in fact, not a clinic at all. It was a little tin “church” big enough to hold about 20 people, tops. There were 4 plastic chairs and 2 benches. On one bench, they laid out all their medical equipment and the other was for the patients to sit on. As soon as we got out of the cars, we were greeted by beautiful Masai women of all ages covered from head to toe in colorful fabrics and beads. It was quite a sight in the middle of such barren land. I stayed in the clinic with Dr. Tonya first while the others went out on a tour of the surrounding Masai village. We sat in the plastic chairs and the translator, Phillip, let patients in one by one. Then, he came back and sat with Dr. Tonya and I and told us what was wrong with the patients as they told us in their native language. As they came through (mostly women it seemed) I was noticing a trend. A lot of the time there wasn’t really anything seriously wrong with them, but they wanted to be seen, listened to, taken care of. One woman said she had pain in her chest and in her back because she got hit by a water buffalo. When Dr. Tonya asked when, she said about 20 years ago, so she prescribed some ibuprofen and talked with her a bit longer, just to give her some attention. Also, when asked their age, most of the patients had no idea. One woman who came in must have been at least 70 years old and her card said 38 years of age. They have no birth certificates or records, or as Dr. Tonya said, no scrapbooks with their hand and foot prints next to their dates of birth. That hit pretty close to home when I thought back to my TWO giant scrapbooks full of every single detail of my life from the day I was born and on. The more women that came through, the more I wanted to cry, really, thinking about the harsh reality of their lives. They find and carry all the firewood. They walk miles to the stream and carry giant jugs of water back on their heads. They build the houses (manyattas). They take care of the babies. And they do it all without the help from their husbands. One woman who I will remember for the rest of my life came in right at the end of the day and demanded (kindly) to see Dr. Albert, the other clinical physician there. She had been to him before and she wanted to see him again. We all think she had a crush on him (she was about 75, he’s about 25), but regardless, she was adamant. Anna, Ashley, Wairumu and I stood with her until he could come see her and she went on for about 10 minutes (in Masai) telling us what hurt and where and why and what she wanted done, knowing full well that we couldn’t understand her. It was one of those experiences that forever changes you. She just wanted to be heard and she didn’t care who was listening. When Dr. Albert came over she started to take off her dresses because she wanted him to give her a massage haha! He sent her over to one of the other volunteers and she finished taking her dresses off, bent over in the chair, and waited. The volunteer gave her an essential oil treatment and a steroid injection and when she was done, the women looked up at us and smiled her almost toothless smile. She was so incredibly beautiful and so happy, I had to walk outside for a minute to take it all in. Seeing her so happy made me even happier, and I didn’t even know her. Just the simple joy of knowing that she got what she came for, and that they could understand and acquiesce to her needs was more than satisfying. After working in the clinic, it was my turn to go on the tour of the village. Julius, the program director, took me through some of the manyattas, which are their houses made from dried up mud and cow dung. The first thing I noticed before I even had 2 feet in the manyatta was the constant buzzing sound. Okay, side note… because I haven’t mentioned it yet, I will now. FLIES. ARE. EVERYWHEREEEEEEEEEEE. And they don’t even brush them off, they just let them land on them, practically covering them from head to toe. And I’m really not trying to come off as insensitive, but when I see babies with flies all over their eyes, nose, and mouth, I really can’t help but cringe. Apparently, they like the milk residue around their mouths, so most babies we saw had flies literally covering their mouths. Okay, back to the manyatta. First off, cows are the Masai’s lives; they mean everything to the men. If asked to choose between a Masai man’s wife and one of his cows, he would choose his cow, and that’s not a joke. As soon as you walk in to the manyatta, there’s a pen for the calves with a wall dividing it from the kitchen/bedrooms/living room. It’s one room; a bed on one side for the woman and children, a small fire in the middle for cooking/warmth at night (the winds at night are wicked) and another bed on the other side for the man. The only light in the room comes from the fire in the middle of the room, which as you can imagine keeps the room at a solid 100 degrees, even in the middle of the day. (It’s also the cause of all the respiratory problems we saw earlier in the day at the clinic). I felt like I was about to have an anxiety attack for a minute; you couldn’t stand up in the room, it was pitch black, I was sweating profusely, and there were flies all over me. That and the smell of manure pouring into the room from the cow pen were pretty overwhelming. But once I got over my minor panic attack, I was able to really take in my surroundings and appreciate everything in my life so much more. Not only that, but I had so much respect for these people; they are so complex in their simplicity… if that even makes sense. After touring the manyattas, we walked to the school where about 40 kids ran up to us, all yelling “HOW ARE YOUUUU” just like the little kids in the Kibera slums. They all wanted their pictures taken and they would pose and laugh and run up to the camera… they loved it. They call us Mazungas, or white travelers, and they don’t see many because the area really is in a world of its own. Whenever we’re driving, they stand by the side of the road as we pass, waving and yelling “sweets, sweets, sweets!!!!!” wanting us to throw candy to them. Anyway, as we were leaving to make the 2 hour trek back to the compound, they all ran after us yelling “bye” and laughing with each other (video below). Today’s experience was probably the best yet, and we hadn’t even had our lecture with Dr. Tonya. I wish you could all meet her, really, she is the most amazing woman I have ever met. (Here’s a link to the NFHF video that made me cry http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5p3wxIyPayI&feature=related). We talked about bush medicine and the difficulties of running a clinic in the middle of nowhere. And it’s not only the location, but the customs (like circumcision and polygamy) that make her work difficult. Their influence has educated the local Masai enough to at least shed some light on the circumcision aspect, but polygamy (and the quick spread of HIV/AIDS that it results in) is not as easy. For one, many wives means many children and many children means wealth (in terms of family labor). Andrew asked why they can’t just tell them to stop or explain to them what the virus is. The first thing we learned about the Masai, even in my African Studies class last semester, is that they live in the present. There is no future, there is no past (no I’m not quoting “Rent”), only there here and now. There was a story we were told, of Masai men who had been imprisoned, who all died because they couldn’t understand the fact that they would one day be released. They only saw themselves in that moment, locked up, and they couldn’t bear it. Dr. Tonya told us that they can’t even get them to understand that if they let their cows walk through/drink from/poop in the river, and then they do their laundry/bathe/collect water downstream, that they’re going to get sick. They don’t see the connection because they cannot fathom what bacteria and microorganisms are because they cannot see them; what they can’t see isn’t there. Then she said, “try telling someone who doesn’t understand that, that they’re dying from a disease that is doing nothing visible to their bodies on the outside… you can’t.” She has a lot of patience and a lot of determination, I’m really not sure how she does it, but I have more respect for her than anyone I have ever known. She gave up her entire life… making 6 figures in an upstanding medical facility in Florida. Not to mention having running water, methods of sterilization, and everything she could possibly need for a patient at her fingertips. To leave all that and come to the middle-of-nowhere-Kenya, to open a clinic that she not only started, but runs, organizes, works at (voluntarily), and, cleans the toilets for… simply amazing. And she’s still as sweet as can be. Today was really as good as it gets.

giraffes crossing the road

haha sun was in my eyes, but they were so close to us! 

Masai homes (manyattas)

babiessss (notice the flies)

inside the manyatta... man's bed

stove in the manyatta

beautiful

children at the primary school

Here she is<3 "never forget"