February 18th, Back to Mbita!

Feels great to be in Mbita! The stress level dissipates, the animal sounds muffle your worries, and the children warm your soul. This is a wonderful community who all seem to be very excited about this new clinic. We have spent the past few mornings in the fishing communities going house to house asking men and women about their specific health concerns. It is incredible that people will welcome us into their homes and allow us to ask very personal health questions about hard topics such as maternal death, HIV/AIDS, and the health of their children. The fishing communities are all right next to the lake, and make shift tin shelters have been constructed all right next to each other. People comment they are surviving on about 30ksh ($0.50) per day. Which is interesting because they also tell us that 30ksh buys only one condom. HIV highly affects these areas, a lack of education, resources, and healthcare facilities all add to this problem. I have been working hard to set up meetings with different NGO’s and people from the Ministry of Health to learn the best way to set up a Comprehensive Care Center (HIV testing and treatment center) at our clinic. The reason we are conducting the surveys is because we are a community-based clinic so we know we must adjust the services we offer in order to treat the true needs of the community. HIV/AIDS is a major priority.

These communities are wonderful, although they endure hardships they do an incredible job of supporting each other and welcome us into their homes like we are family.

The clinic is looking great, but still a lot of “finishing” work to be done. We have hit a few more bumps this week, but they have not knocked us off our feet!

February 15th, 2010 "The day of Love"

2/15/2010

Happy Late Valentine’s Day! One thing that is amazing about working here is whenever I get too tired of working or my stress level rises and can just go jump around with the children. The girls and I made valentines with the children, and then we passed them out last night with little packs of sweethearts attached! (Thanks to Marissa’s mom!) These children are incredible, the smile, laugh, and teach me more about perspective then I have ever known. I was talking to one the the 13 year old boys last night named Charles about his story. He has been here since he was seven, he told me that his parents “they just died”, I asked if he had any other guardians or family, he said “YGC is my Familia”. It was so simple, so heart felt. There is never a day that these children don’t surprise me. Also, the Liberians Matthew and Moses are here, I feel like I have met my brothers, since MY brother spent three months with them! We were SOOO excited to see each other!

Today we are leaving to spend two weeks in Mbita, it will be a busy couple of weeks, tromping around the mountains, meeting with students, families, and fisherman, conducting a health assessment that we hope will help direct us in the care we give. This is one of the most challenging projects I have been a part of and I am truly growing so much as a person, a business women, and I hope as a healthcare provider and friend.  I am so thankful for these opportunities Being an American, growing up in a middle class white family, is something I have learned is such a blessing. I have so much to give to these people, and even more to learn from them. 

February 10th, Volunteers out to Mbita!

Marissa and Paula arrived this week, so we decided to take them straight to Mbita! The clinic is looking amazing. There are doors, the painting is finishing up, and the fence is being constructed....it all takes time but it is really coming along! Our hope is to open mid-end of March. We spent some time walking around the community, and being the great Field Director that I am, I led these poor volunteers on what we thought would be about an hour walk but turned into a two hour hike up and down the mountainside to arrive at a school. We were dripping with sweat, and when the teachers asked where we were coming from, they were astonished us "Mzungus" had walked all that way. Community mobilization is my passion, and wow did we live that out or what!!!  Paula, is a nurse from VM and is going to get her masters in public health at UW in the fall, so its great to have someone here to bounce ideas off of as we begin to really assess the health needs of this community. The next two weeks we will be hiking through the communities, working on peer educator groups in the schools, and interviewing fish farming families on the beach. Its exciting to continue to learn about the community, however, it is all difficult. Difficult to not be able to create change fast enough. My heart and soul continue to stir, with ideas and vision for the future, as my brain works through functional objectives we can attain right now. This is an exciting process, I can not wait to look back on things after 1 month, 3 months, 2 years. This is a very needy community and MED25 is going to make a large impact as we move forward!
Here are a few pictures, the little house, is a new technology called Pharoh Cement, its a very cute guest house, we hope to build many more so that all of our guests and staff can live there! 

Things are going well, I am learning more then I could have imagined!

I miss you all, keep the emails coming its great to hear about your personal lives!

February 7th, 2010, My new LOVE!

Sorry Noah, but last weekend I fell in love with a new man!!! This is little Michael, he is six weeks old, and is the son of one of my best friends from last year. A Kenyan pharmacist named Susan from Matibabu. This little guy is adorable, I am officially an Auntie! Last weekend was wonderful because I was able to hop on a Matatu and head to Ukwala my old stomping grounds. My host family was absolutely thrilled, our pregnant cow how twin babies while I was away, the boys are both in Secondary school, and we know have about ten times as many chickens. Truthfully, it felt like I was home again, with a family that really love me. It was a nice break and a nice refresher as I move forward into the week.