My hospital visit

Sorry for all the updates today but unfortunately I am sick. Funny story actually. Come down with severe flu like symptoms on Sunday. I was really struggling. We all suspect I have Malaria, no worries, hit up the hospital the next morning. Monday morning off we stroll to the hospital. 3rd world hospital mind you. Perceptions are a funny thing because what was going through my mind was not good. Do they have clean needles, will I get HIV? I was definitely worried. Get to the hospital, luckily we are escorted by a Kenyan woman we live with because otherwise I would probably still be there waiting. It is a round about process but eventually I am booked in to see the doctor. There are about 50 people all waiting to see the same person. Some look so incredibly sick. It is evident that some have HIV/AIDS. There are a variety of people from children to the elderly. We all wait outside on a wooden seat. After about 3 minutes, I skip the line because I am white. It is very unfair to all the others and I don't feel good doing it, but am told it is disrespectful if I don't. I get told to go to the lab and checked for Malaria and Typhoid. Only a pin prick I am told. I was feeling very weak at this stage. Get to the lab which is a tiny room with 3 nurses, one taking blood samples (without wearing gloves) and 2 looking at the blood samples under a microscope. Everything is done openly, I can clearly see all the patients going in and getting checked. My turn is up, great pin prick easy. Nope...giant needle in my arm. Clean needle, straight out of the wrapper. I felt all the blood rush from my head, I felt dizzy and quickly told Jemma "I am going to faint" and off I go. Luckily Jemma was there, she held me up and stopped me from falling right out of the chair. Needle still in my arm. I come to, but am still out of it. Asking where am I, and telling Jemma I was having a good dream. Within 10 seconds I look down at my arm, see blood splatters and go "Oh yeah, now i remember". Funny. The nurses didn't know what to do. I made quite a commotion, all the Kenyan's were staring at me thinking what is wrong. I never faint either. I do not like needles at all, but they don't bother me and have never fainted. That was until Kenya haha. So at the end of the day, I have an infection in blood stream that needs to be attended too, I get a truck load of medication, Jemma has the scare of her life and that is my hospital visit. The hospital isn't too bad, just very different. They use clean needles and get the job done with minimal resources. All up it cost my 5 dollars to see a doctor twice, get a blood test and buy medication. Cheap day really.    

Paskalia

Paskalia is a beautiful, cheeky little girl. Every afternoon she visits us, telling us stories about her day, playing games, dancing, screaming, watching the Lion King. I love that movie. Paskalia is also an orphan. When she was around 2 days old she was dumped on a rock by her mother. This is not uncommon as we have slowly been finding out. Almost everyday, a new child is found abandoned by their parents. Paskalia was taken in by the Rangala Baby Home. She does not know her exact age, her tribe or any relatives. She stayed at the baby home for a number of years and was eventually sponsored by an Australian woman who had spent some time volunteering at Rangala. This woman has been attempting to adopt Paskalia, however the Australia process makes this hard. There is also a rule that you may only adopt a child when they reach the age of 12. I am unsure if this is Australian or Kenyan policy. Anyway back to Paskalia. She attends a lovely private school called Little Angels and is enjoying her first year of school. She is currently around 7 years old and healthy. Fred and Judy take care of her as one of their own and provide clothing, food, a home and care and love for her. Judy tutors Paskalia as she is very behind in her school, but is catching up quickly. Even if Paskalia does not get adopted, she will lead a beautiful life here under the care and guidance of Fred and Judy. I could not think of a better family for her to be placed into.       

Siriwo Primary School

This was Lucy's (another volunteer) project. Lucy discovered a primary school well off the beaten track that had never gained any assistance from volunteers. She visited the school and immediately fell in love with it. The school was in desperate need of some help and Lucy put up her hand. The plan was to concrete the floor of a classroom and repaint all the blackboards. Next was quotes and prices, the hiring of 3 skilled workman and 2 unskilled labourers. Done deal. Lets get this party started! The classroom was a mess. Full of dirt that needed to be dug out. There were sections of dirt that were at least a foot higher than the rest of the room, then holes and rocks the size of a giant green turtles. I am not sure how the students chairs held up in this room, but I am guessing not too well. First step was to dig it all out, spread the dirt outside and then prepare for concreting. Now one thing to tell you about work in Kenya is it never how you planned. This is a 3 day project, with 5 workers hired to help. The head workman who ran the show turned up whenever he wanted. Sometimes not till midday. In fact on the last day he didn't even show up at all. Also what started off as 5 workers ended up in about 13. News quickly spread that a white girl had employed workers so off they trotted, some 3 hours to get to the school to help out. And yes they expected to get payed. Cant' blame them but it was havoc. Now we weren't sitting around catching a few rays of sunshine either. We were in amongst it, working hard, digging holes with a pick, hoe and shovel. Initially we didn't have any tools, so the school children ran home to their farms and gathered some for us. 18th century tools mind you. I thought I was digging out the classroom with some historical artifact. Anyway, we dug the room out to the depth required and created a new path to the toilets with the dirt. The next day the ladies cleaned and successfully painted around 10 blackboards. Their blackboards are just giant black squares painted on the wall. The girls did a great job and the boards looked a million dollars. Well maybe not a million dollars but they definitely looked much better than they were. Again around 10 or so workers rocked up ready for work. Now concreting in Kenya is slightly different too. Rocks are spread out over the ground. Sand covered the rock. Concrete dust covered the sand. Add a little water, mix like crazy with a shovel and off you go. Wheelbarrows full into the classroom, now we are making progress. Some other workers were in the classroom leveling with a piece of wood. Nice and flat. Once finished it was onto the next day for the final layer. The last thing to do was a layer of just sand and concrete (they call this plastering) and job finished. Lucy repainted the school sign and it was all done. Good job team!!   

 

Mary

Mary wearing a pink dress

Sorry for all the heartbreaking stories today. I do have many cheerful stories as well that I will post. I just would like to tell you about Mary. Warning, this is one of the saddest stories I have. When we arrived at Fred and Judy's house in Yala, we were greeted by many Kenyan children. One of those children was a young girl named Mary. This is Mary's story. Mary is now in Grade 6. She is being sponsored by an Australia woman and attends the Little Angels Boarding School. She is doing well in school and I am tutoring her in Mathematics. During the holidays she stays with Fred and Judy. Many years ago, when Mary was very little, around 6-7, she ran away from home. Debra (Fred and Judy's youngest daughter) was out playing when she noticed a young bright-eyed girl standing by herself. Deb played with her until dusk. As the light was dimming, Debra returned home. Mary followed. Debra retrieved her mum Judy. Judy asked Mary where her family is and what is she doing? Mary explained that she has run away from her family and that they do not know where she is. She is heading to her grandmother's house but she cannot remember where she lives. Judy took her in for the night and returned her to her family the next day. It was over an hour by car away. As Judy was leaving she suspected something was wrong. Mary's father walked Judy out of the village and explained to her that Mary has been abused by her uncle and that is why she ran away. Judy with a heart full of sadness left the poor girl as they were not in a position to take Mary from her family. Judy explained to me that it was a delicate situation for Mary’s father. Mary’s father had tried to council his brother to stop the abuse of his daughter. If it was known amongst the community it was likely that the uncle would have been killed or taken to jail for life, which Mary’s father did not want as they relied partly on his income. 3 months later, Mary shows up on Judy’s doorstep. She had been abused again. Crimson red blood stained her skirt. Her eyes were puffy and tears streamed down her face. Judy took her in, cleaned her up and looked after her for some days. They discussed with numerous volunteers the possibility of sponsorship to attend a boarding school. An Australian woman came to the rescue. Mary visits her brothers and sisters for 2-3 days every school holidays. Her uncle has since moved away from the village. Mary is happy and very thankful for her sponsor, which without, you can only imagine the life Mary may have had to of lived.

A man and his wife

I have many stories and information to post up. I have written most of these in my book and whenever I get the internet I intend to put them on the blog (although this doesn't always happen). When I tell you these stories, you may feel saddened or upset. It is no lie that living in Kenya is tough and there is pain, misery and death all around us. The Kenyan people have become accustomed to this way of life. They just make do. A lady we live with told me she goes to around 30 funerals a year. I met a man whilst I was on my way to visit a school. He introduced himself and his wife. They asked me what I was doing and how much I like Kenya (all Kenyan's ask how you like their country). They looked happy and well off. The man was wearing a nice red and green business shirt, khaki coloured trousers and polished black leather shoes. His wife displayed a beautiful bright lime dress with distinctive circular patterns of African origin. He then explained to me that his son, a student of the school I was about visit had just died and that he has gone back to his family home to complete cremation rituals. The way cremation works in rural Kenya is family members and friends retrieve bunches of wooden sticks. The body is wrapped up in fabrics and placed amongst the sticks and burnt. The ashes are then buried. During the cremation, there is mourning but also the singing of traditional songs and a celebration of life. To us this probably sounds horrific, but to Kenyan’s this is their tradition. This is how they do it. But amongst all the anguish people here are happy. They are grateful that they have family and friends. They smile and crack jokes at each other all the time. I am sure they grieve, but they definitely don’t show it. The man and wife didn’t display sadness. He explained to me that they have 8 children and that their son is the second that they have lost. He explained that this is common in Kenya, this is normal. I told him that I am extremely sorry for his loss and asked if there is anything I can do. He said “Thank you, but no. All I ask is that you enjoy your time in Kenya, help the Kenyan people and don’t look at we don’t have, look at what we do have”.

What are we doing?

So after the run down of getting here I guess it is best to update you with what we are actually doing here in Yala. Through out the blog I will put up more detailed information about everyone's placements but for now I will just bring up to speed. So I had the choice of working at a number of schools both primary and secondary. I chose Yala Township Mixed Secondary School. I am teaching Year 10,11 and 12's Biology, Chemistry, Physical Education and Business Studies. Jemma and Cara are working at the Round Equator Special School working with children with disabilities. Josh is working at the North Gem Community Resource Centre currently focusing on supplying the centre with a sustainable and steady income. I will post a lot more specific information about our placements after we have spent a considerable about of time there.  

The quick run down

So I have been here for a few weeks now but have only just started to manage my time to get cracking on this blog. Here is a quick a run of what has been happening and then I will post more about specific events. So after 2 flights, around 24 hours in the air and numerous more sitting in airports we arrive in Kenya. First impressions…HOT! Walk onto the steaming black tarmac and the temperature increases 3 fold. Soldiers in full uniform holding AK-47’s greet us as a group of young African children stare through a wire fence. Visa applications were painful. Unfortunately I went first and got grilled by a man wearing a blue tie. He presumed I was a business man. I am not sure why as I looked like I had been camping for 4 days straight. My hair was a mess. Eventually we got our visas and proceeded to wait at the carousel for our bags. Waiting, waiting, waiting. Jemma’s bag arrives, Cara’s bag arrives, excellent. Ben and Josh’s bag, whoops still in Qatar. Awesome. As we were about to board a flight to Kisumu this was less than ideal. First time in Africa, no bags. Luckily we weren’t the only ones and in around an hour we had come to an agreement that the bags would be flown to Kisumu the following day and we would pick them up. On the bright side, no customs. We finally boarded our flight to Kisumu and we are kicking ourselves that we are in Africa. Wow. Africa! We arrive in Kisumu with no hiccups. It pours giant red buckets of rain as we get picked up by the in-country coordinator and the father of the family that we will be living with, Fred Mito. Off to our hotel and sleep. What a great sleep it was too. The New Victoria Hotel in Kisumu. A bed, mosquito net, cold shower and a toilet that occasionally flushes. What more does a man need. The next two days are our orientation. Money issues, safety talks, shopping, phones, street awareness etc. We also went to the Impala Sanctuary which was nice. It is refuge for animals that are orphaned or a plight on the community. They are shipped here where they are taken care of. I pulled a lioness’s tail through the cage and it almost bite my hand off. That was a very scary moment. Had a little boat ride on Lake Victoria in search for Hippos, but not success. We went to pick up our bags which we thought was an easy process. It wasn't. 3 hours just to pick up bags. I even had all the documentation. African time they tell me, get used to it. At the end of the orientation we were shuttled to our new home in Yala with the Mito family.  

 

 

THE BEGINNING

Today I start my blog 'The African Daze'. The blog will be designed to update my family and friends of the sights and sounds of my African experience. I do not plan to pour my heart out or reveal my emotional roller coaster. I simply want to describe my experiences and help illustrate the African way of life. I am new to this whole blog phenomenon. I find it rather daunting and awkward to type my thoughts, feelings and experiences in a public forum where perhaps only 3 people will be reading it. However I will try my best to make the blog informative, insightful and most of all interesting! How is that for alliteration. My English teachers did educate me well. Anyway...here I go. Wish me luck!