'Never say Bread, say SupaLoaf'

So my internship and classes have started, and so far they’ve both been very interesting in different ways.Classes present a new challenge because of the scarcity of internet around here (and the cost/viruses that abound), so that makes it hard to do assignments online. Also, I’ve had classes for a week, and so far only one professor has come (but he only came for one class), and I don’t have a single syllabus yet.

Here’s a little glimpse of the start of one of my days.

Wednesday was fun. I have to take a matatu ride to work, and that morning I got on one matatu that was going out of town, but wasn’t actually going to where I thought it was going. I was the last person on the matatu, and the tout (the one that takes the money and tells the driver where to stop) looked at me and shrugged. I asked him if it was going to Kawangware (pronounced Cow-an-GWAR-e), and he told me that it wasn’t, and he was nice enough to tell me which matatu to take to get there. The second matatu that I got on decided that they didn’t feel like 1) waiting in traffic, and 2) going all the way to Kawangware. We weaved a lot in between the two lanes of traffic, and a few people were angry at our matatu and would point their car right in front of ours so we had to get back in to traffic. That was pretty fun. Most of the way to Kawangware there were two of left on the matatu, so the driver just decided to give us back our money and turn around. Thankfully a nice woman helped me find my way on to another matatu that finally made it to Kawangware.

Thankfully, I’ve been lost so many times now that I pretty much know my way around. Hopefully I won’t get lost anymore!! The more I walk around Kawangware the more I know my way around.

On the way back the matatu was so beat up that there were rusted patches on the bottom of it, and the door didn’t shut all the way. This is a pretty common experience, but it still amuses me every time, and reminds me of good old Shadowfax… man I miss that car.

My internship is going well so far (granted I’ve only been there two days). I’m not sure how much I’ve already described about Ray of Hope, so here’s a longer explanation. Ray of Hope is a clinic and community center. The clinic does everything: from fixing small wounds and helping HIV/AIDS patients to delivering roughly 60 babies a month and holding free vaccination sessions for infants every Friday. The community center has two parts, the first is a learning center that works with children orphaned by HIV/AIDS, or street children, etc, the second gives food, medicine and support to the community members through community meetings and individual counseling through home visits. A woman named Hendrica, runs the home visits, and community center, and she is my idol. She is a combined social worker, birth attendant, and counselor. She visits homes, gives of her own money, takes people to the hospital, sees death pretty frequently, and is generally a saint. She’s the one that wanted to start the learning center, because she saw so many orphaned children whose parents couldn’t afford the school fees anymore that she wanted to do something so that these kids could get some education and have some fighting chance.

The people at the clinic found out that I want to be a midwife, so now they’ve been planning how to get me to see as many births as I can, including taking me to a nearby women’s hospital that has a very busy labor ward.

It’s been so much fun to get to know everyone at the clinic and school. They are all so nice, and are extremely sweet and caring. The first day I was there I saw a pelvic exam of a woman who was having labor pains, and heard the baby’s heart beat. Most of the time in the clinic I sit and try to understand what everyone is saying in Kiswahili. Occasionally they realize that I’m sitting there and decide to catch me up on the last 20 minutes or so. One day we had a lunch of beans, potato and corn, and they told me that when you eat a lot of beans you fart a lot. I then taught them the American rhyme “beans beans the magical fruit…” which they loved, and made me repeat to everyone else around me.

Hendrica also took me with her as she visited some of her clients, which was so interesting to see what life is really like in Kawangware. I’ve kind of become Hendrica’s assistant, which is cool, because it’s interesting to see how she works, and what life is like for her.

Kawangware is crazy. All of Hendrica’s clients live in corrugated tin shacks that are 10 feet by 10 feet, and the rent is 2,000 Ksh a month (about $30, which may not seem like much to you, but to the average Kenyan living in the slums that’s a HUGE amount). There are generally more than 6 people that live in these houses, and on the day that it rains the roads are made up entirely of mud (and it’s been raining for the past week, thank G-d for those rain boots I got!!), so the houses become muddy also. Everything is cooked over charcoal, which creates a lot of smoke. Trash is also burned everywhere you go, which creates a very distinct odor, and adds to the pollution here (hence the black boogers).

I’ve also sat in on the nursery classes at Ray of Hope (which are children age 3 to kindergarten although there are a few older kids), which was fun. The children mostly stare at me and laugh, which is adorable, although somewhat frustrating. The first day I had to draw pictures, while they guessed what it was, and every time there was one that looked somewhat like what it was supposed to be they would sing a congratulation cheer. It seemed almost like they were mocking me, but it was hilarious.

So that’s pretty much what’s been happening so far! Once I spend more time at USIU I’ll fill you in on everything that’s been happening, and whenever something interesting happens at Ray of Hope I’ll be sure to let you know! (especially when I get to see my first birth!)

Miss you all!!!!

miriam