link to more village pictures

Here is a link to the pictures that the husband of my fellow fulbrighter took a few weeks ago at the village. He's a professional photographer so they're great pics of the kids. http://www.flickr.com/photos/christopherelam/sets/72157601524563373/show/
thanks for the offer of donation, it was a blow to my bank account but worth every shilling! you can give it to tim and he can put it in my account. Thank you for thinking of me and your generosity.

Left Behind

Before I left Wisconsin last January the mom of one of my patients asked what they could send for the kids here. After thinking about it I suggested kids' books because they all love to be read to. Imagine my surprise when she told me that the Prairie View Middle School in Sun Prairie Wi had collected 4000 books for the kids!!!! Yes, 4000! They fund raised and sorted and boxed up and shipped them here to me in early August. I had discussed their impending arrival with the Nyumbani management and after giving it a lot of thought I decided they should all go to the Nyumbani Village. The school is open there now, there are 177 orphans living there, with a target in the next 5 years of 1000. They had textbooks, many for the first time in their lives, but no real fun books to read. These are kids who have all been through the trauma of losing their parents, have been desperately poor, no food, no water, no bed , no house. Many have been raising siblings. They are so happy to be in the village, for many it's the first safety they've ever felt. And they want to learn, they are in the school even when it's not school time! I needed the books to go there, and they had a room they could turn into a library.
We had been told there were no customs fees on books, so when they arrived at the airport I was a little shocked that it would cost 39,000 shillings ($585.00) to pick them up. (bargained down from 44,000). Turns out there is an exemption but you can't apply for it until the cargo arrives, takes 3-4 months to get it and they charge exorbitant storage fees. So, it took 2 days but I was able to withdraw enough to pay the bill. We took the Nyumbani school bus to the airport where after an hour of searching we found the building with the 32 boxes of books. I paid the bill, and we hauled them back here to Nyumbani, the kids helped us unload them.
This past Wednesday Nicholas Makau, the manager of the Village,took 25 of the boxes up to the village. I came up the next morning with one of the doctors and the rest of them. When I arrived Nicholas said he had a surprise for me, but I had to wait. This is Africa, we always wait. Finally we headed over to the school.
When I arrived I saw some of the boys carrying some of the boxes into the school room, I walked in and saw all 32 of the boxes. and all the children in the village. They broke into song and dance, just for me. They were so excited, they were all wearing their new school uniforms even though it was vacation! I stood in the front of the room with Nicholas, the husband of the doctor, the representative of the Ministry of Education, on the side stood all the teachers.
Some of the kids took turns telling me how excited they were to have real books, how they would read them all and "deeply." They promised to always take care of them. Then the teachers and the representative spoke, all thanking the Prairie View Middle School kids, and wishing blessings for all of us. Then it was my turn to speak. I tried hard not to cry, but this is what I said:
I have learned many things in my life, but the most important is how to read. Because if you learn to read you can learn anything in the world. I have always loved to read because when you open a book you can be anywhere in the world. From the children of Prairie View Middle School in the United States of America to the children of Nyumbani Village Kitui Kenya: welcome to the world.
Then the kids were each handed a book and they held them up and said "asante sana Prairie View Middle School and Susan gold."
Another time in my life here I will never forget. Thank you Cheryl, Michelle and Jennifer of Sun Prairie for making this happen.
I truly am blessed to leave behind the now named Prairie View/ Susan Gold Library.
Stay safe Officer Tim xoxoxo Little boy

We have books!!!!

Thanks to the kids from Prairie View Middle School Sun Prairie Wisconsin, and Jennifer, Michelle, Cheryl

Officer Tim and Little boy

I thought you would all like to see who I say goodbye to at the end of the blog. Best son and grandson (Jack) anyone could ever ask for. I miss you both more than you will ever know.
Stay safe Officer Tim and xoxoxo Little boy

Rosalia

Last Thursday I welcomed my friend and colleague Dr. Jim C to Nyumbani. He's one of the pediatric infectious disease doctors I work with at UW Children's Hospital. He's been coming to Kenya for 5 years to teach and work with a vaccine program. It was great to see him, he came bearing gifts sent from home! Thank you to Tim and Sarah K for all their shopping, I'm happily eating chocolate and listening to some new music! The day he arrived we went to Kibera to visit Rosalia. We arrived at the Lea Toto clinic site around 1, despite a week of planning there was still some confusion as to how we were going to connect with her. (as always this is Africa!) Finally around 2:15 we set off with one of the community health workers to find her home. As many times as I've been in the slums I will never get used to it. Which, I think is a good thing. The smell, the garbage dumps up against the shacks, the raw sewage, the cramped pathways, the sheer volume of people. We walked for quite a while, smiling at the children who as always call out "how are you?" Picking our way through Jim and I just looked at each other, thinking of the wonderful clinic back home where we work together. We were a long way from there.
Suddenly on the path there appeared Rosalia! She had seen us approaching and came to greet us. It felt so good to see her again, she kept saying to me "you promised to come and you did!!" She proudly led us back to her house to meet her family. Her house is a 5 x 6 shack made of mud, tin roof, dirt floor, wedged in on 3 sides with others. The mum and all the sibs share a mattress behind a sheet hanging from the ceiling. There was a small table and sofa to sit on. We all crowded in, I gave her mum the ugali flour sugar and bread I had brought for them. I gave Rosalia some books to read, which she quickly wrote her name in, first books she'd ever owned she said, a journal to write in and a pen. She was so grateful and touched. She showed me where her secret place is where she keeps her Movin Shoes backpack, now proudly stuffed with books. (Even in a place like that a child needs a spot all her own). Her mother is very ill with AIDS and malaria but so proud to have us in her home. We met Rosalia's twin brother, Titus. He is the firstborn twin and negative. It's the second twin who often is the unlucky one. She shyly told us that while she is ranked #2 in her class Titus is ranked #1. Obviously very bright kids. She has 3 older sibs, all who are excelling in school. They are sponsored by a local mission. I was reassured that the family seems to be connected, though still desperately poor they at least have hope. If her older sibs can hang in school they may be able to help support the family someday. If her mum dies soon I'm not sure what would happen to Rosalia and Titus, it often means no more education and life on the streets. After her mum invited me to come visit anytime Rosalia walked us back through the labyrinth to the clinic, it was hard to say goodbye. I promised I would find a way to stay in touch with her, for now I will send letters through the social worker.
My heart was reassured but heavy when I left.
Dr. Jim did some teaching and consulting and then on Saturday we left for the island of Lamu on the coast. It was so lovely, warm and sunny. The Indian Ocean is really mesmerizing. We stayed right on the beach, went fishing in a wooden boat they call a dhow. There are no cars only donkeys on the island, people travel by dhow up and down the coast. In the morning I would lay on the bed on the verandah and listen to the fisherman get ready to leave for the day. They are always laughing and singing and calling out to each other in Swahili. The kids who work on the boats are so happy and surefooted. It is so safe there, so far from the chaos of Nairobi. It was 4 days of perfect peace, good food, good times with a good friend.
Jim is off to do his work for 2 weeks before heading back to Madison and tomorrow I head back to the village to do some work there. Back to reality!
Stay safe Officer Tim and xoxoxo little boy

Where to start?

I just finished 4 days of teaching my classes to HIV+ adolescents who are enrolled in the Nyumbani slum outreach program, Lea Toto. (which means raising the child)The children came from all 6 sites, slums all over Nairobi. Kenyan schools are on holiday now so that's why we could get them for 4 days in a row. I co-taught with a Kenyan nurse, Francis, who works at one of the sites. We started with 29, ended up with 27. 2 dropped out because they got sick. It was incredible that as many came for 4 days. The weather was absolutely crappy, cold and rainy. mud everywhere. Some took 2 1/2 hours to get there, every day! We taught the classes at the Kawangwari slum site, it took me over an hour and 2 matatus to get there. The room was unheated, no electricity so it was very gloomy, old cement floor, tine walls and roof. Our table was a piece of wood balanced on USAID boxes. I sued the blankets from KLM and BA as a tablecloth. They still came. They came dirty, hungry, sick. But they also came so eager to learn, so appreciative, so full of questions. They would come through the gates with huge smiles on their faces, go right to the books I put out on the table. They'd gather together and share, talk and laugh and explain to each other.
These kids all live in horrific conditions, with less than nothing. Some are on ARVS, if they can find someone to do the training necessary for them to be able to get them. I would sit there watching them shiver and listen to them cough. One boy left the room and I found him vomiting and crying. He said he didn't want to miss any of the class. We fed them tea and snack when they got there, snack was buttered bread. After the classes ended for the day, about 1, they were given lunch. A whole plateful of warm nutritious food paid for by Nyumbani and made by one of our community health workers who has a little cooking business on the side. You could tell that for many of the kids it was the only food they would get for the day.
At first they were a little hesitant and shy around me, but by the end of the 2nd day the girls were braiding my hair, yes it's that long! It really hurt too, I would only let them put one in the front, they told me you have to feel pain when you get braided. As I have traveled over Kenya you always see women and girls sitting outside getting their hair braided, it seems to be a basic part of what they do and who they are. talking, laughing singing while they do it. Anyway, even the boys would come by and touch my hair!
Over the 4 days we taught them about their bodies, puberty, sex, hiv/aids, arvs, condoms, pregnancy, abstinence, rape, sexual abuse. It's all things that nobody here talks about, but they all really want to know. For these kids too knowing can be the difference between life and death. They role played how to tell someone they're +, answered their questions, some so poignant they made my eyes tear. We talked about how they feel about being +, what they see for their future. They don't ask, how long will I live? they ask, how long will I stay? I guess for them everyone is always leaving. By they end of the day no one cared how cold or dark the room was, the warmth of all the caring was deep into all our souls.
Today when I was leaving I cried, I got hugged and kissed and thanked so many times. They all got backpacks from Movin Shoes, they loved them. They were all proudly wearing them. They asked over and over if I could come back. All I can say is the world has so much to be ashamed of. These children deserve so much more. From everyone.
There was one girl in particular, Rosalia, who is 13 and lives in Kibera, the largest slum in the world. You will hear a lot more about her the next couple of weeks, and will see a picture. I have worked with and seen so many kids here, never has one shone like her. And it wasn't just my bleeding mzingu heart, all the staff at Kawangware recognized it too. She wasn't just bright, she could think things through and come up with answer. She was a step ahead of all the others, but came from even a worse place than a lot of them. And there was such sparkle in her eyes, so much life. I'm going with the social worker from Kibera and my friend who will be here Dr. Jim C to meet her family next week. If this child is lost, it will truly be a tragedy.
When I'm home, and I'm remembering, this is one of the places I will see myself.

The ups and the downs

We haven't had wireless here for weeks, so the internet has been sporadic. I apologize to everyone who I owe an email. I promise I will catch up tomorrow night. Last Wednesday was the worst day here ft or me so far. Even with everything I've done and seen, sometimes you just have a bad day Everything was complicated, not working right, it was cold and rainy, no hot water. There's a fuel shortage here now too so I couldn't even heat water. Had to slog through the mud down then back up the 3 hills to get to the ATM. The kids were crabby, the staff were crabby, all the volunteers were crabby, It was just one of those days. Then the very next day, things just got better again. My Australian friends invited me over to their house for dinner to meet their visiting children,(from Dubai and Jakarta) and grandchildren. Miraculously Mary called and said come early and take a hot bath! Even with the new solar panels I had managed really only one hot shower and that reeked of gasoline. At her house my whole body fit in the tub, and the water was clean, hot and odorless!
I love meeting their British friends. They have such an interesting perspective .One of the women was telling me she was born here, had lived here 50 years, when I said "so you're Kenyan?" She quite icily said "no I'm British." Kind of funny. Anyway, I like asking them about how things have changed over the years etc. One woman was hilarious talking about all the "rubbish" she buys from peddlers/beggars because she can't say no. They, like the rest of the people here though, don't seem to know a lot about hiv/aids.Easier to live in a bubble I guess.
On Saturday I went to the village for the day for my friend Nicholas Makau's wedding. He's the manager of the village and the slum clinics. I knew him when I was here before. The wedding started 2 hours late and the Mass was 3 hours long, and I didn't understand a word. It was all in the local Kamba dialect. It was great fun and very interesting, they left the church in a donkey cart. They had actually been civil married for 7 years, have 3 kids, this was their church wedding. We had to leave at 4 to get back to Nairobi, so I missed the next 12 hours of dancing and music. Would have loved to have stayed for that.
On Sunday, after Mass here at Nyumbani, I went with the priest to talk to "some people about my classes". He was kind of vague about it, and when we got there I was surprised to find a room packed with parents from the Kiberra slum who wanted to learn how to talk to their kids about hiv/aids, and sex. Incredible 2 hours. I learned so much about their culture, how hard it is for them to do this but they really don't want their kids to die. They asked me to come back, so I will teach them the first 2 Sundays in Sept. How am I ever going to leave here after experiences like that?
I've started teaching my classes in the slum clinic, I will write more about that later. When the signal gets better I will post pictures. Miss you all
Kuwa salama Officer Tim xoxoxo Little boy