Blogs from Nyanza Province, Kenya, Africa - page 9

Tuungane Reproductive Health Festival Tuungane is a youth centre in Kisumu City with satellite branches through the urban slums around Kisumu. They target youth ages 10-19 and promote abstinence and being faithful to prevent HIV and STI (sexually transmitted infections) through education, awareness and behaviour change activities. They also offer youth friendly VCT (Voluntary Counselling and Testing for HIV) and STI Services. In December they held a reproductive health festival where the youth performed in different categories, were judged by a panel and the winners were announced and received trophies. There were performances by youth from all the various centres, there was poetry, dancing, singing and drama - as well as some HIV plays performed by my friend’s drama troupe VUTIA, a group of men and one woman from Majengo which is a small town outside ... read more

Hi everyone, I'm in Rongo now. We drove from Nairobi on Wed. We're making a quick trip to Kisii today to do some banking, so we were able to come online. (It's about a half hour from Rongo.) Rongo doesn't have internet, most of it doesn't even have electricity. I'm having a good time here. It's very different. I don't have a lot of time to write, so I'll write in the details later. Hosea's family is very nice. We're now staying there. The day before yesterday I went with Agnes to her home in Awendo. Her family is also very very nice. The roads to get there were awful though and there were a couple times I thought the car would get stuck. It's been raining a lot, so everything is extremely muddy. At Agnes' ... read more

OK, not the center, more the middle. Kisumu is just south the equator, so we crossed a few times this week. In one village shop there was a sign that said, "located 30 miles east of the equator..." Last week, I did some work in the field and visited a few school and houses, pretesting the surveys we are going to use starting in January. One of my favorite things about visiting houses is seeing the way that people decroate with a mix of old calenders, poorly translated proverbs, and very serious photos of relatives. The small sitting rooms always have an abundance of chairs, a small indicator for how important it is to have enough room to fit any group that comes by. Doors are always open and the joy and hospitality of people never ... read more

Hello All! My sabbatical is coming to an end. I should have my feet on the ground in Calgary early December - almost 5 months since last I was there. I am in Nairobi finishing up some loose ends and enjoying the last few days with friends. Rachel and Tereneh have kindly opened their flat to me. I left Kisumu last Thursday after hosting a party for my adopted family at the Imperial Hotel. My timing was also good because I learned yesterday that the airport is closed until the runway can be repaired. (I thought our take off on Thursday night was a little rough!) Had I left it any later to make my way to Nairobi - chances are I would have had to bus it. We are talking a 10 hour bus ride ... read more

I had the great fortune and privilege to visit Sauri Kenya last week -- some 40 km sort of northwest of Kisumu. Sauri has been on my list of sites to see before departing Kenya. It is one of the first UN Millennium Village projects. There are some 13 original sites spread throughout Africa and Asia - many more have morphed in the last couple of years - all selected due to extreme poverty, lack of infrastructure and unique environmental, ecological, and health care factors. The idea is these villages can be incubators for unique solutions to unique problems. Sauri was chosen because the lands were depleted of their nutrients and because of one of the highest prevalence rates of HIV/Aids, and Malaria on the continent. I am so grateful to my friend Anne-Marie of C-MEDA ... read more