I was busy, and can't think of a creative title

The last couple weeks…

Wedding – it was interesting. In a small tin-roofed and tin-bodied church in a small slummy part of Kisumu. Lots of dancing and praising God – the ceremony is also like a sermon. The bride Esther was so beautiful and her husband George seems to be a really great guy, even though I don’t know him at all. Fun, sweaty, tiring, eye-opening…all the usual feelings of new Kenyan experiences. I didn’t find a Luo fiancée unfortunately – maybe next wedding. I was the only mzungu as to be expected, so I had a lot of children who were hanging around the church rush up to me and ask for pictures. I took quite a few.

New friends – Two volunteers from Britain came, Peter and Lucy, who have great accents, and are really friendly in general. We are getting along really well, and they make fun of me for saying pants and pop – which to them is trousers and soda. Also, they make fun of my accent (though obviously I don’t have one, it’s all them) and how they think I’m American (which cuts deep). Last week I met Steven from Australia, who is gone now because he was only here for a week. But he was really interested in water and sanitation, which I think is great considering health is so related to water, especially here in Kenya. And then this week I met Oscar from Sweden, who was here for a week already, we just never met. He works with Peter trying to get this biogas digestor to work (something to do with cow dung, water and gas), and then he is off to another park of Kenya to work with forestry and agriculture. So, overall, really cool people and I have loved meeting and getting to know all of them.

The President – Last weekend the President and Vice President were launching some kind of district in a nearby area called Ambira (about 15 minutes from Ugunja). So the whole of last week people were cleaning and preparing and worrying. On Saturday a huge banner was erected on the road he was supposed to pass on. Most people I talked to said they didn’t like the President at all, even though there are pictures of him everywhere. Maureen the librarian said she was annoyed that people went to such great efforts to clean the town – the President should see the way the town really is and how desperate people really are. It was a big deal, and then it passed. I would be interested to see the President at the Hague. That would be great.

Love for Ugunja – my love and appreciation for Ugunja and Kenya in general has increased largely the last week and extending into this week. I am trying my best to soak in every minute and make every day packed with great friends and great experiences. I will genuinely be really sad to leave. I will probably be talking about it non stop for a few months, and people will start to get sick of my stories, and I will only start to miss it more.

The most useless to the most useful – looking back on my time here, which I’m trying to do so much because it makes me sad, I have realized I have made some amazing strides. When I first arrived and started at the health centre, I felt the most useless I had ever felt in my life. I didn’t know the language, didn’t know the people, didn’t know the issues, didn’t know the land. I questioned myself why I thought it would be a good idea to even come – what could I possibly do? This week I proved to myself what I could possibly do. I ran the antenatal and child welfare clinic by myself while the nurse was off at a conference. I did the documentation, antenatal assessment, handed out medications, gave immunizations to the children and the mothers, trained some community health workers, and most importantly was confident in knowing what I knew, and confident in knowing what I didn’t know. It was the smartest and most useful I have ever felt in my life, so I feel pretty darn good.

It’s hot. I’m sitting in the library sweating up a storm and eating peanuts and this corn-bread type thing for lunch. Tonight we are making fruit salad for the family – I am really excited! Tomorrow I’m going to Kisumu with Peter, Lucy and Oscar to explore and have some fun. This weekend I will probably be reading (White Fang by Jack London), doing laundry, and overall just chilling on the compound. I look forward to it greatly – this week has been tiring.

And that’s really all I have to say. I will be writing a lot next week as I go into reflection mode. For now I’m just trying to focus 100% on the present. Every minute, every hour, just taking it in.