Tuesday
How did so many things happen all in one day? My Aussies left me in the dust today, literally. This morning Kristie oxycleaned her leggings to death and Elise packed I went to Makuyu and got 25 chapati so the girls would have a nice farewell lunch. Good thing I did too because lunch looked like ass. I had avocado, tomato and chapatti x2. At this rate I am going to start spouting tomatoes soon.
Matthew the lone Brit got realllllly sick today and yesterday. He said he thought he was going to puke so he grabbed his wash bucket and the next thing he knew he woke up with his head in the bucket. That was one of the 3 times he fainted. Poor thing couldn’t catch a break, he puked all night. Inga passed out while we were all hanging out in the Aussie girl’s room. Good thing they are both flight attendants and super quick with that type of thing. If the face is pale, raise the tail. How awesome is that!? A total of 4 volunteers went to the doctor, turns out that Inga has malaria despite taking her malaria pills every day. Because everyone was sick I washed all my laundry and scrubbed myself to death in the shower. I felt like Ace Ventura when he found out he kissed a man, LOL.
Wednesday
It’s a new day and the smell of malaria is in the air. Poor Inga looks like she wants to curl into a ball and die. She has had the same blank stare on her face since yesterday morning. Matthew is doing a lot better, he went to Thika today to get himself a real meal so he must be doing MUCH better.
I leave on Friday and am having mixed feelings about it. I am really going to miss the simple life but am looking forward to big city living in Prague. I will miss things like running to Makuyu along side of cows and women carrying buckets of water on their backs, eating avocado and tomato for every meal, having 6 hour work day be a “long day”, and even going pee in a hole. I still find myself reaching to flush or at least thinking about it every time.
Lately the pigs have been OUT OF CONTROL! Last night the same pig escaped from its pin 4 times, that same pig was sold this morning. I wonder if it knew something was going on because all morning they were squealing especially loud and high pitched.
Today I am going on my last day of field work with Martha and my roommate Almuth
Martha said there is a family she wants me to meet, so I am interested to see what the day will bring. To be continued… +
Just finished my avocado and tomato lunch after getting back from field work. The family that Martha wanted me to meet was a family that her and Zach had told me about a few weeks ago. It is a family with 7 children, two of which have physical disabilities. The father used to sell coal, which is quite common around here. About 6 months ago he was delivering coal to a known marijuana dealer in town and was arrested. The police system here is extremely corrupt. Marijuana is illegal here and they are very very strict about it. The father was put in prison for 4 months and was finally released because there was no case. He didn’t have any on him, he didn’t even have money to buy any, he was just going to sell the man some coal. Since he was put in prison it has been really hard for him to get a good job. While he was in the two children with disabilities got sick and needed and operation, his wife gave birth and needed a surgery as well. So everything kind of fell on this family all at once. We walked about an hour and a half through the mountains to get to this family, it was more of a hike really. The oldest boy Joseph, hikes the same path everyday to get to school. Only 2 of the 7 children go to school. There are two children that just left the orphanage at WWB and I am going to talk to Zach tonight to see if we can get 2 of the 7 kids from that family to come stay here, I think it should be possible.
On the hike back to Kamahoha (the town where we catch a matatu), we ran into a few farmers that asked if any of us were a doctor because there was a baby in the nearby village that was really sick. I so wished that I could have said yes. One because then I would have been able to help the baby and also because it just would be awesome to be able to say “it’s ok I’m a doctor”. Martha’s motherly instincts kicked. The next thing I knew she was in someone’s garden picking green onions, she said that if you make a paste out of it and rub it on the belly it will make it feel better. The next thing I knew she was running full speed up this mountain towards where the baby was. When we got to where the baby Martha was already there holding her. They said they thought she had an pneumonia. The mother and the baby girl were both crying. After a bit of searching we found a motor bike to take them into town to the hospital. The mother didn’t have any money so I have her 100 Ksh for the hospital visit and medicine. 100 Ksh is only about $1.25 and that will cover both the visit and meds. Medical care is reasonable here, however most families in the fields make only 100 Ksh per day.
Field work is a really eye opening experience, the more families I meet it doesn’t get any easier. If anything it gets harder knowing that there are so many families that need help. It makes me feel frustrated and helpless.
On a lighter note… I will be playing tourist on my last day. Going to some cool waterfalls in Thika, maybe get a private guide to show me around a bit. Until then my friends… Ps, I love blogging. I feel like I am having a conversation with someone from home, even though it is just a blue and white screen .
How did so many things happen all in one day? My Aussies left me in the dust today, literally. This morning Kristie oxycleaned her leggings to death and Elise packed I went to Makuyu and got 25 chapati so the girls would have a nice farewell lunch. Good thing I did too because lunch looked like ass. I had avocado, tomato and chapatti x2. At this rate I am going to start spouting tomatoes soon.
Matthew the lone Brit got realllllly sick today and yesterday. He said he thought he was going to puke so he grabbed his wash bucket and the next thing he knew he woke up with his head in the bucket. That was one of the 3 times he fainted. Poor thing couldn’t catch a break, he puked all night. Inga passed out while we were all hanging out in the Aussie girl’s room. Good thing they are both flight attendants and super quick with that type of thing. If the face is pale, raise the tail. How awesome is that!? A total of 4 volunteers went to the doctor, turns out that Inga has malaria despite taking her malaria pills every day. Because everyone was sick I washed all my laundry and scrubbed myself to death in the shower. I felt like Ace Ventura when he found out he kissed a man, LOL.
Wednesday
It’s a new day and the smell of malaria is in the air. Poor Inga looks like she wants to curl into a ball and die. She has had the same blank stare on her face since yesterday morning. Matthew is doing a lot better, he went to Thika today to get himself a real meal so he must be doing MUCH better.
I leave on Friday and am having mixed feelings about it. I am really going to miss the simple life but am looking forward to big city living in Prague. I will miss things like running to Makuyu along side of cows and women carrying buckets of water on their backs, eating avocado and tomato for every meal, having 6 hour work day be a “long day”, and even going pee in a hole. I still find myself reaching to flush or at least thinking about it every time.
Lately the pigs have been OUT OF CONTROL! Last night the same pig escaped from its pin 4 times, that same pig was sold this morning. I wonder if it knew something was going on because all morning they were squealing especially loud and high pitched.
Martha said there is a family she wants me to meet, so I am interested to see what the day will bring. To be continued… +
Just finished my avocado and tomato lunch after getting back from field work. The family that Martha wanted me to meet was a family that her and Zach had told me about a few weeks ago. It is a family with 7 children, two of which have physical disabilities. The father used to sell coal, which is quite common around here. About 6 months ago he was delivering coal to a known marijuana dealer in town and was arrested. The police system here is extremely corrupt. Marijuana is illegal here and they are very very strict about it. The father was put in prison for 4 months and was finally released because there was no case. He didn’t have any on him, he didn’t even have money to buy any, he was just going to sell the man some coal. Since he was put in prison it has been really hard for him to get a good job. While he was in the two children with disabilities got sick and needed and operation, his wife gave birth and needed a surgery as well. So everything kind of fell on this family all at once. We walked about an hour and a half through the mountains to get to this family, it was more of a hike really. The oldest boy Joseph, hikes the same path everyday to get to school. Only 2 of the 7 children go to school. There are two children that just left the orphanage at WWB and I am going to talk to Zach tonight to see if we can get 2 of the 7 kids from that family to come stay here, I think it should be possible.
Field work is a really eye opening experience, the more families I meet it doesn’t get any easier. If anything it gets harder knowing that there are so many families that need help. It makes me feel frustrated and helpless.
On a lighter note… I will be playing tourist on my last day. Going to some cool waterfalls in Thika, maybe get a private guide to show me around a bit. Until then my friends… Ps, I love blogging. I feel like I am having a conversation with someone from home, even though it is just a blue and white screen .
You are having a conversation with someone. I find myself wanting to talk back to the blue and white screen. Cannot wait for the Prague-Blogs.
ReplyDeleteOh I totally feel like im hearing you talk to me. I find myself nodding, and making comments. Im sure its going to be really hard to leave all those kids and family's behind. You'll never forget them and im sure when you get to the city or even back to Juneau and you go to Safeway for bread, milk, eggs, and tofu and they say "your total is $68 dollars" you'll be like, "WTF, Are you kidding me?!" It really puts into perspective how much we take for granted. Every time I take a nice shower I think of you and your bucket shower/washing machine/puke bucket/whatever else...
ReplyDeleteIt makes us all appreciate what we have. I will definitely sponsor a kiddo, or give money when I have it to the orphanage. You know im down to help as much as I can. Kally's changing the world people, watch out!!!