Lala salama

This morning started a little slowly – transportation was double booked – so I was late getting picked up and missed the caregivers who had come in early to complete the “survey”. Charles helped with them in my absence(he had done all the others with me – and obviously is a better communicator than I am anyhow!). In just 3 days we’ve done 29 surveys – so I am hopeful we’ll have no trouble getting Kennedy’s goal of 50, my goal of 60 (& perhaps Charles’ new goal of 75-100) over the next two weeks.

Velma was ready to hit the ground running for home visits when I finally arrived – practically scolded me for being late (in fun, I think… humor is really hard to grasp, cross-culturally, though) – so off we ran for the entire remainder of the day. While yesterday’s images were painfully clear, today’s already are a blur… an 18 year old girl who could not speak went on our special needs list…a bright young boy (total orphan) with sickle-cell anemia went on both lists (unserved OVC’s & special needs) – his illness has left him unable to walk & out of school. Then to a mother of 8 who lost her husband last year… her son had been in a accident that sent him to Kenyatta Hosp of for 3 months when he was 6 years old… his ankle & lower leg are horribly scarred and his big toe is separated from the rest of the toes and bends completely under his foot (how could a hospital send a child home with such a disability that leaves him able to walk only with great difficulty… lack of money, perhaps?). The mother has never been told what happened in the accident & the boy either doesn’t remember or cannot talk about it. Then to a school full of bright children (Habari? Habari? Habari?... I think I shook a thousand little hands!). The teachers at the school were very helpful and had 3 children they specifically wanted us to see – all special needs of one sort or another. The children were all in regular classrooms, but two significantly delayed… none currently paying school fees. My limited experience is that schools rarely allow a child to stay in school once a payment is missed – these were very kind and caring teachers. Then off to two more schools – the first was the Ronald Ngara school (where we had previously visited the special needs kids)… Velma made arrangements with the headmaster to have the parents of several children come to the HOPE ofc tomorrow to be put on our “unserved OVC list”… the headmaster insisted that I sign his guest book again… then onto a final school where we met with a number of vulnerable children and asked that they come with their parents tomorrow too – again, to be put on the unserved OVC list.

Velma is a real go-getter… she’s a big woman with a big heart & I think knows everyone in Dandora & is intimidated by no one. She is helping me learn Kiswahili & proudly tells most everyone we meet that she is my teacher (mwalimu)… and she actually gives me work to learn at night & checks on me the next day. Our final stop before getting back to the HOPE office was her little café. She insisted I at least taste her porridge in the calabash (what she called a big dried gourd, cut like a great big spoon). I have eaten porridge several times and am not real fond of it, especially out of a dried gourd… but there is no saying “no” to Velma. I took a fake drink – and managed to get my hair in the porridge – a big section was hard & sticky the rest of the day. Back to the office – evidently the electricity had been out for much of the afternoon; Makena had a grant report due today & was very upset that she could not complete it. Again….things often do not go as planned in this Kenyan world.

Other stories (ordering school shoes, my list of words from the screen-printed lettering on the new city minibuses, and the note on fear) will have to wait for another time. It’s been a long week & I am falling asleep as I write. Lala salama (good night)… Velma would be proud of me.