Hello from Kunya Village

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Happy December! I am now in Kunya Village near Ragengni, and staying a few feet from the shores of Lake Victoria. This is my first opportunity for internet since arriving on November 27. Kunya Village is much farther away from such things - no more 10 minutes up the road, as from Majiwa Village to Bondo. Unfortunately, although the location of the program where I am now has electricity, they have disconnected the internet, which I am sure that all volunteers would be happy to pay for. Time and expense to travel to Kisumu, or even Bondo could happily be avoided.

I am now with a program called Mama na Dada (mother and sister in Kiswahili). I must say that I miss Majiwa Village and the Gayas. It seems like a much tighter knit community, and the Gayas are intimately involved in the village life as leaders, so their projects seem much more active and effective. I don't feel a cohesiveness at Mama na Dada. The director works out of Nairobi, but has a nice home here at her husband's home village. The main assistants that manage the programs from here and take care of the volunteers are people the director knew from Nairobi and asked to come here to help her. So, they are not of the village, and not really involved, although they do participate in various program and group meetings. But, I miss the commitment and involvement of the Gayas. And, I miss their food, complete nutrition, fellowship, communication, education, and keeping up on events, including politics. The general election takes place on Dec. 27, and there are high hopes for change. The people want an end to corruption, and more opportunity for education and jobs.

My nutrition related activities include/will include individual and group counseling at the nearby clinic (the clinic is not part of Mama na Dada, except to provide volunteers). Kunya Dispensary is a district facility with one nurse (male), David Ouma, who acts as a doctor. David examines patients, gives injections, prescribes medication, sutures wounds, and delivers babies. He is assisted by one Community Health Worker (CHW), an informally trained health/nursing assistant who dispenses the prescriptions, applies dressings, registers patients, collects patient fees of 10 KSH(15 cents) which pays for the visit and all medications, and cleans the facility (early each morning before the clinic opens). For this, she receives about 1000 KSH, or $150 US dollars per month, for 5 days/week and 10 hr/day. If another comes to assist, she is paid 50 bob, or about 3/4 of one cent per day. Community Health Workers, female and male, are trained in various health aspects, including basic nutrition (given in 2002), which they take door to door in the community. They are dedicated and giving, and their job is not paid. Even now, CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) is having the CHW train on bilharzia, an infection from the snails in Lake Victoria), and go door to door to inform and give medication - for which the CHW are not paid. Previously, the CDC had them go door to door to survey how many people may be at risk for bilharzia - also for no pay. They are proud of their community work, and do it gladly, usually a few hours a day, then do their own work at home, and whatever they do to earn a living (money for food).

My other nutrition activities include education with the Circle of Hope Daycare Center orphan guardians, Girl-Child group (adolescent girls' education for knowledge and self-empowerment), HIV support group, and the Community Health Workers. I am currently putting together a project that I hope will improve the vitamin A status of the community. Fruit intake is almost nil here, unlike over at Majiwa Village. It is not grown much in this region, and unaffordable to obtain. Some papaya trees around, though, and people could have more with education and encouragement. Vegetable intake is very low. And yellow/orange vegetables are almost non-existent. No carrots are grown or eaten here, or pumpkin/squash. About the only vitamin A vegetable eaten here is greens, but not daily. So, I am planning to obtain carrot and pumpkin seeds and encourage people to plant and grow. I will demonstrate how much cooked carrot, pumpkin, or sukuma wiki (cooked chopped kale with a little tomato and onion) is needed to get daily vitamin A, then give seeds to start a planting - except for kale, which is grown here and available. I'm still trying to find out how to access bulk seeds.

But, the project I am now most involved in is efficiency and quality at the clinic. I am helping David with weekly and monthly reports. They are manual and cumbersome, and take a ridiculous amount of time. I have put some on the computer at the Mama na Dada office, and am putting daily numbers in, and training David to do the same. The clinic needs a computer. I would love to just buy one, but I am going to try to get donations first. At least they have electricity here. What I am going to pay for is shelves for the medicine storeroom, so I can properly clean, organize, store and label the meds, and set up an inventory system that David fully supports and is very excited about. The current situation is a nasty mess - helter skelter with rodent droppings all over everything. I am finding expired items, and rodent messes and chewed items in boxes. No one checks meds in and out, and I have personally seen CHW give people drugs without a prescription (thinking they are helping). So, I am a woman on a mission, with this being my major daily job for the past couple of days and to be completed in the next few. A carpenter is coming to the clinic to meet me in the morning. Can't wait to get those shelves in!

More details next time about my living situation here. So much to catch up on. Hopefully next Saturday morning, but I have a nutrition class with CHW next Saturday afternoon. Today we are in Kisumu. I am with fellow volunteers, Suzanne from Vancouver BC and Sarah from New Zealand. Would prefer not to come the distance to Kisumu, but Bondo internet not available on Sundays. And, I have groups to meet with on Saturday afternoons. So, I just need to get up extra early on Saturdays to go to Bondo and back by 2. I am very busy and having a hard time doing everything I want to get done (especially documentation after working all day). Maybe some pictures next time, if I can get them uploaded at the Mama na Dada computer this week. Thank goodness for the computers and electricity there, even though no internet, which would be a huge blessing.

Happy Independence Day to Kenya on December 12. Hopefully, they will have positive changes after the election on December 27. Still a long way to go.

Best to all,
Denise

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