the start of something great

Oyaore (good morning) from Lwala! Its been about a week since I left the US for this beautiful country that has held a big piece of my heart for the past 4 or so years. Its incredible to me that in just 4 flights and about 24 hrs, anyone can be tossed from the US with electriicity, toilets, being the majority, variety in food, fast food, highways, cold drinks, computers, etc... To a place with no electricity, a rectangle in the floor to use as a toilet, no refrigeration, and basically everything you would see in a national geographic magazine. I've been to Kenya before but I think I was probably the most culture shocked this time... Maybe because after spending the last 3 years in school working for a development project in Kneya (very close to where I am now) and taking classes on public health, global issues, etc, I feel overwhelmed by the size of it all. That being said, there is a palpable feeling in Kenya of strength in mind and body yet a light-spiritness, and tremendous joy (furaha) yet calm contentment. These things can't be pictured in a photostory and they're the aspects of Kenya that I think will create the change in Kenya that Kenyans want. This week has been a blur! Its been incredible. The beginning of the week I spent meeting people in the village (its very rural here) and learning some of the language and helping out in the clinic wheereever I was needed. Elizabeth, the water sanitation and hygiene expert Austin and I are working with arrived Friday and we've spent every second since planning our education and research program (to start monday!) We'll be working at 8-10 schools doing a survey on current resources and practices and following it with a series of a 4-day, all-day training program where we'll train 10 reps from each school (each representing a different community). We'll have about 20 participants at each training (2 schools/communities at a time) and we'll be doing a participatory type of education where they, the participants, design the program based on what the feel is most feasible and preferable for their community. We'll be ending each training by starting a health club at each school where they can make handsoap, tippytaps, latrine patrol, etc and mobilize their school to create changes for themsel
ves. We might also do a training of the trainers type thing so certain ppl who are really excited and motivated can train others in the future. I'm also trying to think of some kind of business that can work here and in the US to empower the impverished in both places and provide a means to make more capital in both : ) its important to say, I am incredibly impressed by Lwala Community Alliance. The clinic and the work they've done for the community is beautiful. They serve about 1200 patients a month and there are no other clinics for these people. The brothers, Fred and Milton Ochieng, are so compassionate, intelligent, and loyal to their home community of Lwala. Only Kenyan staff are employed in Kenya, and the very few people who lead the group commit themselvees fully to their work... They do a lot with a little! The clinic is expanding to add a maternity ward (there have been 5 births in the past week and a half!) And you should look into helping them out financially! Lwalacommunityalliance.org! Finally, I have the overwhelming feeling of how blessed I am... In a narrow sense, blessed that I am here and enjoying it so much and that I have a community in the US that I love and appreciate and where I am loved, and further that I can communicate with them bc technology is so amazing that I'm living in a house without electricity, with a hole in the ground to use as a toilet, and I'm online on my blackberry. But more then all that, I feel so grateful for everything I have... Guilty maybe sometimes, but incredibly grateful that I was born in the US and that my day to day reality is soooo different from that of anywhere here. I can get on a plane and leave at any time and return to my life with hot showers and crepes and salad and equal rights with men and quality affordable education, but for all the people I meet here, this is their life, this is their escape. Not only does it make me feel thankful and blessed, it motivates me to spend all my time and thoughts on changing their reality (the way they want it to change) because they have just as much grace and blessing but are somehow stuck in this reality. Don't get me wrong, kenya is beautiful and the people are so intelligent and kind and vibrant... but some of their reality is completely unjust. Keep thinking of ways to inspire big change in the sheer poverty in kenya : )