Mbakalo

I came home this evening to find my host mother, Mama Anne in the outdoor kitchen (a traditional round Kenyan mud hut with thatched roof) cooking chapattis. Lately she’s been finding any excuse to use my headlamp, so when she told me there was no gas to be purchased in Webuwye (the closest town of any kind) and she would be cooking the whole meal outside over a fire, I rushed to grab it. Seeing my little round Anne with the headlamp secured around her headscarf, squinting into the smoke over a pan of sizzling chapos was positively heart-warming.

Anne with her granddaughter Lavinda, 7 mos.

I am in SVH-Mbakalo and loving it.

Besides no gas in Webuwye, there has been no rain when it should have been raining all month, so the fields lay plowed but not planted, and there are hardly vegetables or fruits to be had. A strong reminder that living as a Kenyan, I am no longer immune to the difficulties of climate change and global food shortages, as I have been living in the USA. But even this fact is a welcome challenge among the many of living in the rural interior of Kenya.

Everyday I walk about ½ mile to the Dispensary, a very successful example of SOTENI’s work. I feel unbelievably fortunate to spend the entire day among people I like. There is a collective sense of commitment amongst the staff, some of whom are making far below what they are worth in order to support this facility.

ABD Henry Mwami with the daughter of one of his clients - her name is Violet.

Simon is the SOTENI coordinator, an over-worked but optimistic pastor who is trying to learn to ride a motorbike, an endless source of entertainment for the rest of us; Wycliffe Mttaki is chair of the Local Management Committee, and has the most charming and musical accent I’ve ever heard, courtesy of four years spent earning his degree in the UK; Victor is the Dispensary Accounts Clerk, a 29-year-old single father, completely committed to SOTENI’s work and very articulate and friendly; Henry the night watchmen and one of six ABDs (AIDS Barefoot Doctors), a good-natured and eternally positive man who also believes in the life-changing impact SOTENI has had on this community here; Isaac is the laboratory technologist (yes, this is actually his title), one of over 30 children, and is extremely intelligent, actually one of the top scorers on the national exam for his field; Japheth is the Nurse in Charge, and also happens to be trained in dentistry, which is a first for the dispensary and very exciting; Jane is the doer of all things – making tea, cleaning the facilities, doing the laundry, and though limited in her English abilities, she is ready with smiles and blessings whenever there is a need.

Me & Victor with one of my favorite babies in Mbakalo - Japheth.

Everything is Poa :-)