First Week in Kenya

One week into Africa (now a nearly two) and what a week it has been. Over the course of the week I’ve turned twenty-one and drank an avocado soda, seen another volunteer go hysterical from malaria, met with an HIV positive support group in the middle of nowhere in Africa, seen some pretty nasty illnesses while going out with the mobile clinic, served as a pharmacists, and gotten lost then run out of gas at 10pm in rural Kenya to push it uphill until we got more fuel.On Saturday, the eighth, I survived the exhausting ten-hour bus ride from Nairobi to Bungoma. Along the way I became intimate with the infamous Kenyan roadways experiencing: suffocatingly thick dust blocking view of the vehicle ten meters in front, treacherous Cliffside curves, and numerous potholes. The scenery was breathtaking however. We rose out of the lowland area of Nairobi to cradle one of the vast troughs of the Rift Valley, looking out over many national parks and game reserves before ascending up ascending up the up to the Western Highlands through the equatorial forests. Unfortunately I haven’t seen much for exotic African wildlife except for the occasional farmed herds of Zebra along the roadside.The ICODEI compound is more impressive than I was expecting, even possessing western style toilets. The huts we live in have solid concrete slabs and with two sets of bunk beds and a dresser, table and some chairs. Meals are served in the family house in their living room, where TV and charging of electronics happens in the evening when the generator runs. There is a friendly group of international volunteers that have been great getting us acquainted with life in Kenya and how ICODEI runs. The compound is a farm yard of sorts with roaming chickens and a dog with fresh litter puppies that chase her about. Across from the house compound is a primary school and health clinic that ICODEI run.We’ve been able to make great progress on the VCT project so far. Last week we met with a VCT counselor Elizabeth whom it sounds is essentially already hired for project. She has been working in Nairobi as a counselor at an NGO run VCT for the past few years, and wants to move back to the Bungoma area where she grew up. She comes with a lot of experience and information which should prove invaluable in helping get the VCT up and running effectively. Last Wednesday we visited an integrated VCT at the Catholic run hospital in Mumias. The visit offered us a wealth of information on the process to start up and run an effective VCT along with an offer to help us with if ever needed. Here we learned for the first time that we shall need two counselors rather than just one in order to get accreditation, so we’re having to figure out how to raise additional funds for such a counselor. On Thursday we were able to meet with two representatives of an HIV-positive support group that had formed in extremely rural and isolated area. There twenty-two HIV-positive individuals had banded together to support and help each other on a bi-monthly basis, rather than just succumb to the fear the plagues the society here. Meeting with the group highlighted that we must offer more than just informing people of their status but to offer them methods to cope to with being positive or being negative and continuing on with their lives. A message reiterated often when I discuss the project with locals. I feel that as part of the project we should attempt to form a network of new and existing support groups to help improve the quality of life of those found to be positive.Friday Krishna and I split up. He went to AMPATH in Webuye while I went out with the mobile clinic to Kitale where I was supposed to meet with another HIV positive group. Krishna was able to make great strides learning much from AMPATH along with acquiring a copy of the government guidelines for VCT clinics. I on the other had got to go one quite an adventure with our driver getting lost multiple times on the muddy ruts of the Kitale countryside, where after about 4 hours we finally found the school we were met to visit at about 1:30pm. No HIV positive group was to be found, but I was kept busy all afternoon working as a pharmacist dispensing medications and learning much from Amos our pharmacists in the Kitale region. The trip back was quite precarious with us not leaving until around 7pm and being on the little dirt roads after dark dodging boda-bodas (bicycle taxis). Once we finally got to the main road we went to gas station to find it closed so we pulled up to a little bar where our driver was able to acquire a one liter water bottle of some fuel or another that was supposed to the next gas station. Needless to say we didn’t make it that far and the pleasure of pushing our vehicle uphill for about 20 minutes on the utter darkness of the Kenyan countryside before somebody was kind enough to pull over give us enough fuel to get us to the fuel station a few miles up. It was about 10:30 before we finally got back to ICODEI.Krishna and I have just returned from a two day trip to Kendu Bay and Kisumu on Lake Victoria. Over the course of the trip we were able to visit an integrated VCT and a HIV comprehensive care center at a hospital, a standalone VCT center, along with Liverpool VCT counseling and training center. It was a very informative trip staying with Joe Sanders of Tamani Africa who had helped run and built the standalone VCT in Kendu Bay. Joe was quite the character having been jack-of-all-trades of sort over the course of his life. He had done such things as: spending nine years as in navy special forces in the Vietnam era, made about $8,000 a week as a pool hustler for a year in the 1970’s before finding God as an 7th day Adventist, run a carnival, been a bodyguard, transferred hundreds of millions of dollars for the federal reserve and a myriad of other things. While in Kendu Bay we stayed with Joe and a family that he helped build a house for and worked with. They were an extremely kind and hospitable family with the husband, William, doing everything he could to help us and feel at home. The area there was extremely beautiful with foliated rolling hills and spattered stone outcroppings bordering vast Lake Victoria, reminding me of a more humid San Diego. Liverpool has offered to help us recruit an additional counselor and gave us perspective on how they operate their mobile clinic activities. Currently we’re getting the approval process rolling with meeting the district health official later this week and setting up appointments for facility inspections.Thanks for all the birthday wishes last week. I’m sorry I hadn’t posted an update until this point, hopefully I’ll have access to the internet more than once a week in the future. If anyone wants to or needs to give us a call we can be contacted via Krishna’s phone at: 254-738804388. I would highly recommend getting a phone card or using Skype or some other method of cutting the cost though.I just got back from a Kenyan Presidential Rally in Bungoma. It's an election year here so the president had a rally. Needless to say it was interesting, especially since we got to sit up front next to the stage in the front row where all the Kenyan officials and other bigwigs sat. More soon hopefully.Thanks,Josh