The Beginning at Home #1

Hello!
It’s been a busy two days in Eldoret! Monday morning, we left Kakamega at around 7:30 to head to Eldoret with Joseph and our lovely driver, Michael. On the way out, we made a stop at Anneh’s (Joseph’s wife and my second mama) new nursery school. The school property used to be a dumping spot but Anneh cleared the space, planted grass, and built the entire school by herself; she’s very impressive! Annie and I can’t wait to go back to visit again and spend time with the little ones.
Once we got to Eldoret, we went straight to the Sally Test Pediatric Center. STPC is a place in the hospital where children who are either patients, siblings/children of patients, or abandoned children can go to play and learn during the day. Joseph, a nurse, gives preventative health talks to the parents and guardians of the children who come to Sally Test every Monday. After listening to his talk about the lungs and how to protect them, we had lunch at the IU house with Sarah Ellen Mamlin. Guess what we had? Hot dogs again! Annie and I are both pretty sure we’ve had more hot dogs in the past 4 days than in the past 5 years of our lives. Yum.
Then it was back to the hospital for what I think was the most difficult part of our trip so far: a full tour of the hospital with Sarah Ellen. Though Annie and I have both been on short, condensed tours of the hospital before, we had never been through every area of the hospital. We went through almost every ward, except for the surgery wards and the emergency trauma rooms. Our stops included the rape center (where they receive 100 patients a month with an average age of 12), the pediatric wards, the gynecology wards, the pediatric emergency room, the pediatric burn unit, and so much more. It was unbelievably challenging to see 3 or 4 children to a bed, hearing them crying and moaning. It is very interesting that we were just allowed to walk through the wards, invading all privacy the patients can try to salvage in the crowded hospital. We immediately got to work wheeling and walking the sick kids, mostly burn victims, to and from Sally Test. I was unsure Annie and I were going to hold it together as we walked into the burn unit and saw a little boy, probably about 3 years old, and his older brother, both of whose faces were completely burned. Both had other severe burns on their bodies. The brother was doing all he could to console the screaming boy but I’ve never seen such pain and anguish on a person’s face. The picture is burned into my mind.

To our great excitement, after we left STPC, Annie and I got to move into our permanent room at Neema Children’s Home where we will be living for the next 6 weeks. We had a lovely nesting party where we finally got to unpack from our suitcases and make our room homey and pretty. There are now pictures of our family and friends on our wall and everything looks like home.


Today we went to Imani Workshop for a tour and, of course, shopping. Imani is a workshop for HIV positive AMPATH clients that, much like Kazuri Beads, is an effort to provide income and training to those in need. The ladies there are all so friendly and we’re both thrilled that they agreed to specially make skirts for Annie and I. Yay!
We then did some farming. You know, the usual for Annie and I. Those who know us know how skilled we are at the manual labor stuff, especially when it comes to yardwork. We weeded with a man named David at a local AMPATH farm. The farm gives vegetables to AMPATH clients in need of food security. The AMPATH farms now feed almost 40,000 people. We did our small part taking out weeds (and only a couple plants on accident) and ‘scratching’ which is basically hoeing.
Then it was time for some Neema House fun. Annie and I entered the mob of children at about 4 and didn’t escape until around 9 for dinner. Even after those 5 short hours, where we weren’t even doing our full jobs yet, we were exhausted. We understand the need for a day off and regular rest times. However, we love being with the kids and can’t wait for our full internship to start on Friday.
We both love it here and are so excited for the next 3 and a half months. Please keep emailing (Callie: calliedanielshowell@gmail.com and Annie: scissors246@aol.com) and commenting on the posts, we love hearing from you!
Tutaonana!
Callie