Western Kenya

The first thing that struck me on this trip is that these trips are my lifeblood. It's truly the thing that keeps me going. This trip was to Western Kenya. I flew into Nyanza and the flight was late so they said the road wasn't good enough to travel at night (with all the potholes and bandits) so quickly changed my hotel reservation to make one in Kisumu. I realized that I've become quickly spoiled by really nice hotels, as this one - The Imperial - was just fine but didn't meet my stupid high standards:) Kisumu is on Lake Victoria (which also borders Uganda and Tanzania) and I wanted to get out and see it but wasn't there during daylight hours so sadly didn't. Next time.

So early the next morning we drove the hour and a half to Kakamega, which is the capital of the Western Region of Kenya. Unlike other regions I've been to in Kenya, this area didn't seem so great for farming and we mainly saw subsistance farming. After a brief stop at the office we drove to Luanda, a small town. Luanda happens to be about 30km from Kogelo, which is where Obama's family is from. Some of the small shops would have pictures of the Prime Minister (who is Luo like them and Obama), the President (who is Kikuyu) and Obama!!

I spent the first day visiting womens groups telling them about a free clinic day the next day. The women would often start off by dancing and singing. The first group gave me and my colleagues garlands, which was very reminiscint of my india days! During the first group I also awkwardly clapped and swayed and felt very white. Therefore I vowed that the next time I would get more enthusiastic. However, the next group that was singing and dancing I happened to be taking photos. So I put the camera down and ran over to start dancing and the song ended! But they noticed so sang it again especially for me:)

The next day was the free family planning clinic day, which was fairly standard. The thing that struck me though was the nuns who kept coming in for IUDs. I wondered if maybe nuns here don't do the celibacy thing. I finally asked someone if they were indeed nuns and it was explained that they were not nuns but born again Christians. Sawa. I also got to go fetch lunch by myself during the day as all my colleauges are crazy busy on these days. I rarely am allowed to walk around freely in these small towns and it was really nice. I can see how pleasant it would be to just live there and have a simple life - just a few shops and most people know each other.

Maybe someday.....first I really need to learn Swahili