Strangers to A Foreign Country

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So if we thought we had been challenged by the Kenyan way of life in Nairobi and Lamu, we had seen nothing yet. We arrived at the Muiru's home in Mangu on Monday and have had an interesting week of acclimating and figuring out the nuances of rural Kenyan life. We are living with our host's (the woman who set up our placement) parents, younger brother and sister, neice, and a few "house-help," who are all very nice and kind, though its a very patriarchal family and I am still cringing everytime the father orders people around. One of the biggest challenges has been that there is no running water as we had expected, so nothing in the hygiene department is quite easy- a.ka. getting water for the bucket to bathe, using the outhouse with a hole (my personal favorite), brushing our teeth outside to spit in the grass, finding boiled water to drink. Oh, and even though it is a poultry farm, all the animals are kept separate, so thankfully at least the chickens are not an issue.

We have had four days of work at our volunteer placements so far. Ross is working at a Polytechnic school, teaching a carpentry class. He had a frustrating time with it at first, because they lack a lot of neccessary tools, don't speak english, and of course is working with adolescents 😊, but it has gotten much better as he's gotten to know the other teachers and the students are getting used to him. I am working at an agency called the Integrated Aids Programme and the experience has so far been pretty incredible. I have been working with the nurse, who is awesome, and heads the home-based care department. We go into the field and visit her clients, who are PLWHA's (people living with HIV/AIDS) check on their progress, provide medicine and brief informal counseling. It would be better if I could understand the language, but even mostly observing I have learned so much in a few short days. I will elaborate more later, but the thing that has struck me the most is the gender relations here. Literally women do everything. All of the patients we have visited are cared for by their mothers, grandmothers, or sisters. In addition to caring for the ill, these women must work the amount of two people (many of the men in these families are absent or do not work due to alcoholism and/or unemployment), raise their children and grandchildren, and tend to the community. I have had very open, honest conversations about this with one of my coworkers who described, "In African society, one person must be enslaved, like a donkey... and that is the female because she is weaker." Yikes. Needless to say, when I explained that Ross is the cook and often does his own laundry, he was hysterically laughing in disbelief.

One more thing... the highlight of our days has been coming home to the 15 ORPHANS who are living in the shed behind the house we are staying in (its not oo bad though). Our host has started an orphange, but the building is not ready yet, so they are living with her family until then. They are incredible and I think both Ross and I have fallen in love with them. They get such a kick out of having mzungus (white people) around. At first they were shy, but have warmed up lots, and we have taught them many important things, such as wheel-barreling and how to spin and make themselves dizzy. There is a pair of Australian volunteers coming next week to work with the orphans, which kind of makes us jealous, but at least having new people in the house will make us feel like old pros!

Hope everyone is well! More later,

Nys and Ross

P.S. We tried to upload some photos, but it doesn't seem to be working. We will add them as soon as we can.

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Comments

[Alex]

Finally
much better. i cant believe all the stuff you guys are doing and the people you are meeting. hopefully you can teach them that women are actually much stronger than men. your mission Nys. Its really gross you dont have running water - is that really the reason you're not posting pics? well, i'm so happy things are going so well and you guys are alive and without disease. we miss you guys so much. i'm already starting to plan the welcome home party. get ready.

[Angie]

HI!!!
Nyssa! You are amazing and I am sure everyone you meet over there is so grateful for your time and compassion. I so admire you working with hiv/aids patients and advocating for them. Ugh, I feel worthless in denver. Love all the stories, def. write as often as you can! miss you!