A Week of Slow Progress

At this moment, I'm down the way from the Oginga-Odinga Rd. Nakumatt in an internet cafe/cake shop.

Progress on the clinic updates to get District approval has been rough. Tom has proven to be quite difficult to work with, keeping his own schedule--working irregular hours, disappearing for too-long periods of time when he should be getting materials, and then just going really slowly. We've now hired out segments of the work to other people, so it should be done sometime in the next two weeks. The partition wall, records room, ceiling paint, cabinet locks, and consultation chairs are complete.

Curtains: I had a bit of sticker shock when I saw the initial quoted price for the curtains. Who knew that 17 hand-made bi-layer curtains would cost so much? Elizabeth, the hired VCT 'manager', is making the curtains and she estimated that it would take her about a week. I gave her an installment towards the curtains to pay for materials.

So why am I in Kisumu again? Well, after a bit of uncertainty on the dates and times, I have a ticket to Zanzibar tomorrow. I'll meet Nicole, who I went to high school with, and I believe one of her friends. This is a bit of a detour from the ICODEI/Kabula VCT, but I think it's well timed since now it's a waiting game until the finishing touches are taken care of. When I return, Krishna will arrive--and we can get the District Health people out to approve us and get going with the first few weeks as a testing center before we leave at the beginning of August.

Cultural tidbit of the day is the matatu. I don't know if I've mentioned them before, they're such an unusual and highly-effective means of transportation. Essentially, these are private vehicles that serve as busses throughout all of Kenya, as well as what I saw of Uganda [I wonder what other places in Africa use matatus?]. You stand by the side of the road, almost hitch-hike style, and they pick you up. They make money by cramming as many people as possible into these things. There are fourteen seats. My personal record is sitting in the back of a matatu, with someone in my lap; a total of 23 fully grown people were on board. Some of the other ICODEI volunteers reported riding on a 29-person packed matatu, though that included children/babies. These vehicles go careening down the rough roads and the frame shudders with local music blaring. All matatus have a name, many of which are religious in nature. "Temple of God", "Praise to Above", "Blessings"--all matatu names. Also, though, there are some really racy names and many famous Kenyans/Africans are featured in the names as well. Some are just catchy slogans. Some are Western celebrities--like "Britt Spears", one that I've seen. Matatu culture is also great. People on them are so friendly and all help each other out, much more than people on the street--it's like an "all of us are in this together!" sort of mentality. One of the Canadian water filter team volunteers says that this is the only country where she's ridden as a lone female and not felt uncomfortable or been uncomfortably assaulted physically or verbally (and she's traveled quite extensively from what I gather). Certainly not to say that it never happens, but her sentiments don't surprise me from my personal experiences.

Joyce, the clinic business manager (I included a picture of her early on in the blog) is going to call and keep me updated on VCT progress, and Elizabeth is going to call and let me know how the progress goes with the curtains--which means I shouldn't have a dearth of information about ICODEI while I'm away. The other volunteers who have arrived in the last few weeks are using this weekend to go to Uganda and go rafting. I can't wait to see their photos.

In other news, I submitted my primary application to medical school a few days ago. I've already gotten two automatic secondary applications, which just means more paperwork. It's nice to move to the next steps though!

Until next time!, when I can include pictures of tomorrow's journey to the farthest south I've ever traveled, and the third country I'll have been in Africa.