Update #2
on Beatriz Pujol (Kenya), 25/Nov/2008 11:50, 34 days ago
So much has happened in just a few days. Hard to know what to write.I went to the ACK church service in English on Sunday. INTERESTING. The best part would have been the singing if the keyboard wasn’t blaring so loud you could not hear the congregation sing. The sermon was so incredibly fear based. It did nothing to encourage me to join. The other great part was there are at least two other churches right near by that when they sang it drowned out the service. FUN!Am learning my way around town. Everyone is friendly and eager to talk to the muzungo. Newt wanted to know what that means literally. It means“go around, go around”. When the white explorers came here they went around to the N. and then around the South and around some more without settling down. So, they became called muzungo. It refers mainly to white skin people of European decent.I have had questions about my housing and the rains. Sorry, I haven’t gotten to setting up a blog. Promise to work on, will try to send some pics with this email. My house is made of cement and the floors are cement. The roof is tin and there is a wood drop ceiling. Pretty basic. It has not rained yet. It is the season of the short rains and should be raining most evenings. Last night it drizzled and was somewhat overcast today, but no more rain. There is a serious drought. When it rains it is usually at night and I am told it will rain hard. The short rains should be in Nov and Dec. But there has hardly been any and the crops are suffering terribly. April/May are the long rains. Flooding and leaks are common but since it hasn’t rained yet I don’t know what to expect. The cement floors make cleaning up easier.On Monday I took a trip to Kikuyu hospital with some of the children and teachers. The only eye specialists in the country are at that hospital, so the kids are seen there. It is about 4 hours from here. We left at 3:30 in the am to beat the Nariobi traffic. But we hit some and got to the hospital at 9:00. In time for the first appt. But, the first child did not get seen until 10:30, the second after 2 pm and so on. Appts. Don’t mean much. There were literally hundreds of people waiting everywhere to be seen. What was amazing was that noone complained, children were not fussy. The kids from the center never complained. The stood or sat patiently. It was crazy. It was really eye opening. People are suffering so much. Somany people had so many apparent physical problems aside from whatever eye problem was bringing them to see the eye specialists. I also went into the inpatient ward to see a kid who had just had catarac surgery. That was intense. There were at least 50 beds in one big room. Moms slept with their children in the same bed. Sobering to say the least. So basic and minimal. We were finally done there at 5 pm, which was earlier than usual.Then we had to head into downtown Nairobi again (yes, right in the middle of rush hour again!) to exchange the car part we got last week. Back to the worst part of town. Finally we were leaving Nairobi after dark. Got back to Kitui at 11:30 pm. Long day. But it was an adventure and I learned a lot from the teachers. I learned more about Swahili and about the culture and some issues with the program and center. All in all it was a good day.The last two days I have been at the Center learning about what is happening here. There appears to be a lot of problems with the center. There are some serious political and financial issues. I am trying to get a whole picture, which is not so easy in Kenya. I am getting pieces here and there. I do have some concerns about how big the issues are and if I can really do anything helpful. I will meet with my program advisor from VSO in Nairobi on Friday and seek some guidance. Will keep you posted.On the housing front, I got a bigger mosquito net and it is much better so far (I am sitting on my bed typing right now, tonight will be my first night under it.) I also got netting for my windows, although I am not convinced they really do anything. Will work on that.I tried skype tonight with Karen and was able to talk with her. It was fuzzy, there was a slight delay and we cut out a few times. But it was great to see her in real time! I am not sure how cost effective it will be for me though because I pay for my online minutes. I will try to figure it out. If you want to call for now I suggest pingo.com. I am also looking into global phone to call you all. Will have that set up in the next day or two.My address for now is:Trixie PujolACK Integrated Program for the Visually ImpairedPO Box 271Kitui 90200KenyaI will get my own PO Box soon. But you can send things there. It is best to use the envelopes from the post office and write bible quotes on them and write“religious material” on it to help ensure it makes it to me.I think I made reference to my housing possibly being temporary. I have decided to move for several reasons. Mainly I want more privacy once the kids return. I also want a quieter environment and do not want to feel that I am“at work” all the time. There is some new housing just outside of town that is fairly nice ( I will have a real toilet and possibly a hot shower!). My neighbors in the same compound there would include the mayor and his wife, the head of the water dept, another bigwig and a British couple. I hope to move before Christmas. Will keep you posted.In the meantime my house is working out pretty well. I have running water on and off throughout the day. I took a drizzle shower last night but am perfecting the basin bath. Even washed my hair again and more successfully! Cooking is proving a little difficult as I do not have a fridge and therefore can only cook things fresh and can not keep left overs, milk or butter. I am eating eggs, tomatoes, avocados, fruit and soo thankful for my protein powder. I tried cooking meat one time but it is really tough and did not come out so well. Anybody know what works well as a meat tenderizer? (Lia??) So, I am learning slowly. Did my wash outside in basins and immediately had help correcting my method!Do not think I mentioned the British couple. There is an older B. couple who are here for 5 years doing missionary work. They also are working for the ACK and arrived 6 weeks ago. They stopped by on Sat and took me out to their home. They have a really nice place with all the amenities (fridge, stove, microwave, water cooler, fan, etc…). We had a great meal and a nice talk. I am sure I will spend more time with them. There is also a Dutch woman and guy here. There is a Peace Corps volunteer who lives about a 15-minute drive out of town. She is stopping by tomorrow. It is nice to not be the only muzungo around.Ok, that is a sum up for now. I am heading to Nairobi for the weekend to a VSO meeting, for some Westernization and to do some shopping. I am looking forward to meeting all the volunteers and catching up with my friends.HAPPY THANKSGIVING TO ALL! Eat lots of turkey and all the fixings for me!!!