arrival - first week

Entry #1 – 9/21/07

The plane ride was for the most part uneventful as was the overnight stay in Nairobi where I had a 12 hour lay-over and thus spent it in a hotel. The plane to Kisumu from Nairobi was uneventful except for the fact that the stupid baby in the row next to mine smelled like a port-o-potty. Not only did I have the last row on the plane that could not recline, but I also had to breathe through my mouth to avoid passing out from the fecal smell. Thankfully, the plane ride was only 1 hour. If it were any longer, I probably would have died.

The Kisumu airport reminds me of those “Bush” airports in the movies – single landing strip juxtaposed by a single building surrounded by lots of vegetation and no civilization. In this case, the town was a bit away but the first impression was still striking.

On the last stretch of the leg, we drove on a dirt road from Migori (the nearest real town near Matoso) to Matoso. It was an exciting drive to say the least. As is common in any underdeveloped country, road rules “are more like guidelines’ (what movie is that?), and we were frequently driving on the right side of the road (the wrong lane). Furthermore, the road was so full of potholes, ruts, and rocks that our main path was the very large rut, bordering on a ravine, on the sides of the road so that we could avoid the rocks and holes in the middle of the road proper. I’m glad I had my seat belt on (see, Amy, I told you I would).

The nights are alive with the noises of nature. I fall asleep to the rhythmic tide of Lake Victoria. The many animals at night that make noise include the snoring of cows, the hooting of owls, the cricketing of crickets, and some animal, perhaps a bug, that sort of beeps. On the first night, I thought something in my room was malfunctioning and was looking for what I needed to “turn off,” but eventually I concluded that this seemingly artificial noise was indeed coming from outside of my abode.

My first week was benign. I am orienting myself to the Patient Support Center which is the name they give for the sections that treat the HIV and TB patients. As I mentioned to some of you before, the goal was to bolster this part of Lalmba Kenya, set up a Directly Observed Therapy Program, and do whatever else is necessary. Now, our new mandate from the Ministry of Health and another NGO in the area, FACES, is to start doing pediatric antiretroviral therapy. It’s going to be a major challenge, but I think we can pull it off.

I have finally recovered from my cold. The stupid viruses that fly around in the ducts of airplanes… One day I had to rest and take the day off, because I really didn’t feel well.

Taking extremely cold showers and using the latrine have become regular and accepted activities. I still haven’t got used to the extremely big-ass spiders in the bathroom. They are scary looking but I am grateful for them because they eat bugs. I have a few geckos in my room, too, and I love them dearly as they keep down the bug population, also. Today I just saw a gecko eat a couple of moths and I was cheering him all the way. Stupid bugs; I hate bugs.

In fact, for some reason I sometimes have ants in my bed. I don’t know where they come from. I’ll see one or two or three crawling around looking lost. I squash them because once I was bitten by one and it hurt! I don’t feel bad about it because if I were lying on their ant hill, they would show no mercy. Plus, any animal venturing into abodes that aren’t theirs knows that it’s fair game…

The food has been only passable. Even the cereal tastes like it has been rolled in dirt. The best stuff that is cooked is the non-Kenyan food. One of the staples here is something called “Ogale.” It’s nasty (or at least I think so). It’s basically solid upma with none of the redeeming qualities of upma, knowing that there are very few. Plus, being on the lake in a fishing village, fish is a very common item on the menu. They are usually bony, fish-looking, and overall scary. I’m glad that they maintain ingredients for PB&J.

Well, I think that’s it for this entry. Hope you guys keep up! Write to you later.