I finished my Halloween costume, cleaned the house, got a couple long runs in, and finished kibaibai's dog tent!
Since I have a couple of vacations planned in the upcoming months..... the main one of course GOING HOME! I had to figure out what to do with Kibaibai, since everytime I leave hime to be watched by my farm boy, I come home to find something more from my house missing! It is starting to really bug me, so Lindsay and I decided to build Kibaibai a dog house! I found some great ideas on the internet, about how to build with recycled plastic bottles, and since there is not really any type of recycling done here, I thought GREAT! Well.........Lindsay and I hiked to turbo, bought the supplies and hiked back (and got our work out in for the day).
We also found a lady selling Strawberries!!!! I had not had a strawberry in a year! By the time we got to my place they were more like strawberry puree, but we still ate them..... well I was eating them until Lindsay found a worm in one! Yep thats life here.... we ended up making make shift strawberry daquiris.
Anyways back to my story, Lindsay built the frame, while I worked on the plastic bottles,..... well go figure I didn't have enough bottles! The idea I got was to cut the bottoms off and stack them, then line them up to make a wall.... well I only had enough to make to rows! So that's when I decided on the doggy tent.
Wednesday:
Yesterday and today I did home visits with my new co workers, Scott and Susan. They work for the Living Room, which is the organization I am now also working with. The home visits are where we go and visit the HIV positive clients, and check on how they are doing, if they are going to their appointments, taking their medications and what not. The first place we stopped today, the women is a mother of 3, she is HIV positive, and mentally ill. Here they don't have specific diagnosis's for the mentally ill, here they are just called "crazy". The women was not around, she had left her three children, all under the age of 5, to fend for themselves. Their neighbor has a kind soul, and makes sure the children get some food. However she herself barely has enough to support her family. I was told the mama who left her children, goes and finds small jobs to do, then uses the money to buy food for herself and doesn't feed the children. The youngest girl, was a client of the living room for a few months because of malnourishment, but has since been discharged due to her recovery. The mother is a client of AMPATH, which is where she gets her check ups and ARV's at no charge. Also when you become a member of AMPATH, you get 6 months of food supplies for you and your family, and guidance on starting your own garden. As you have probably guessed, the mother never started her own garden.
When visiting homes like these, we are not there to bring food/money to everyone who needs it, unfortunately there is no funding for that. We take note of what is going on, and unless there is someone who desperately needs medical attention, there is not much we are able to do. I give as much information as I can about nutrition, water, health, anything I know, but it's still hard when that's all I can do...........
As heartbreaking as these home visits are, I really like my work so far with the living room, and I really like the people I work with. They have no problem walking everywhere (which is a blessing!) Alot of Kenyans would rather take a motor bike than to walk a couple kilometers.
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