October 8

Today we return from Namanga! Good riddance! It was such a sketchy place. Nonetheless, I felt really comfortable teaching this week, even if didn't have such a captive audience. It happens. This morning, we were not vaccinating (sleeping in!!), but we arrived at the site for our last lecture in Namanga at around 9 a.m. There were only 2 women there, and we had to wait about an hour for someone else to unlock the office door. The lesson went fairly well, besides getting lost in translation quite a bit with the intern who was translating. I learned that if I smile enough and use my hands enough to make motions they pay much more attention. As time progressed, in line with Africa time more women showed up and took their places in the classroom. As I finished my share of the lesson and took a walk outside, I noticed some Maasai women taking shade right outside of the classroom under a Neem tree just looking inside the office. I asked one of our Maasai speakers with GSC why these women were just lounging in this office in the middle of nowhere. So she approached them and asked why they were sitting there, they told her they were just taking shade. BS. They were waiting for chai and mondazi. She scolded the women and said in Maasai 'You left your house, left your babies, are not going to do any errands or chores, to walk all the way over here to take shade under this specific tree. Plus, you are not getting a free education steps away from this building. Come inside and at least take a proper seat." I thought this was hilarious, because sure enough as we hauled the basin with chai and pots of mondazi from out of the Land Cruiser about 12 women came running from out of nowhere to take a seat inside of the small office where others had been sitting and diligently taking notes for the past two hours. I'd really love to meet these NGO's who give out money, do they really think they're making a difference? What sense of accomplishment do these people feel when they go back home to Europe, America or wherever else they're from?

The ride back went so smoothly that I even fell asleep. Which if you'd see the paper thin slab of pavement they call a road here, you'd think I was sedated. At GSC HQ we found out we can go tomorrow to see an HIV patient in her home and ask her some questions about her condition and stuff like that. I've been looking forward to this for a while, so I'm excited to finally experience this!

Next week we'll be in town, and I'll be doing some BIA stuff alone since one of our volunteers has reached the end of his stay here and they're going on holiday. Good stuff. And I'll have my creature comforts of electricity and my queen sized bed back again! Sante Mungu for hot showers!