running with kenyans: Neema and Tumaini: Grace and Hope

Man, so much has gone on in one week. The Sally Test center is absolutely amazing, I love getting to know the kids. The other day we were playing outside on the teeter totter. One of the kids wanted me to get on, so of course I did. Pretty soon we had a stack of kids on one end of it, and me on the other. It got to be a game to see how many kids I could hold up...crutches and wheelchairs flew, hilarity ensued. It's amazing to see what these kids know about the hard facts of life. We read the story of Sadako, the little Japanese girl that got leukemia from the atomic bombing by the US. It's a sad story: she's told that if she folds 1,000 paper cranes, she'll be granted a wish. Her wish was just to live. Sadly, she only folded 600 and some before she died of leukemia. One of the teachers asked me to follow up with some processing-ish questions and try to facilitate a discussion after we read the story. I could hardly believe the things these kids came up with, they have seen so much death in their short lives. I was explaining how lifetimes can be different lengths. I started with a mayfly, that only lives a day, then worked up through different plants and animals that live various amounts of time. I explained very frankly, that there are certain things that happen and not everyone gets to live as long as others. There comes a time when your body stops working and that's when you die. One of the kids raised his hand and said in kiswahili: You don't know when your time will come, noone knows. Some kids die, and some old people die, but everyone dies, so it's okay. Needless to say, it was really an eye-opening experience to discuss death with these kids.

I also went to Neema house and the Tumaini children's drop-in center this week. Tumaini means "hope" and neema means "grace". The Tumaini center is a place for street kids to come during the day. They provide some meals, and also do some schooling. They have activities and play games. It's a place for these kids who have noone and nothing. They can go and meet other people and have some security in their lives. They have a social worker that tries to connect them with family and get them back into homes and off the streets some how. These kids are mostly teenagers, and the world has been so cruel to them. They definitely didn't warm up to me the way the punkins at Sally Test did. They're very hardened, and rightfully so, skeptical. I'm sure I just look like another privileged white woman that's coming in to look at the poverty they live in and say, "Wow, that's bad. I had no idea." So it was definitely a long day. In one of the back rooms, they have beading projects for some of the teenagers to do. They were making Purdue colored pins to ship to the states before Purdue's homecoming game. Man. I sat down at the table, very aware of my differences. I introduced myself with the little swahili I know, and that of course, was greeted by some chuckles. There was one volunteer in the room that could help me translate, so that was really nice. I told them where I'm from, how I'm volunteering at the hospital, and how I use music. One of the girls said something in swahili, and the volunteer said, "They're asking that you sing something." Now, one thing I've learned, when trying to explain what music therapy is, is that it is helpful to just do something. Sing something. Anything. So I did. I just sang one of the kids songs in swahili, and butchered all the words, I'm sure, but it actually got me somewhere. I got a few smiles and some laughter. It was as if I was showing them my flawed, human side, and all the sudden we could all relate to one another. After that there was a lot of fast talking in swahili, and I could pick out words like, "America" and "mzungu," but that's about it. I asked one of the girls to show me how to work on the pin, and she did, hesitantly. It was an experience. I hope that if I keep showing up and taking interest in their lives they'll learn to trust me. I'll keep going back, it can only get easier!

Neema house is a home for kids that are HIV positive. The couple that started it began with a shelter for a few abandoned kids to go, and then realized that they needed teachers as well. These kids that are HIV positive were getting cast aside in the schools...there is such a stigma. So they've built this program up, and now there are over 40 kids, some that live there, some that come for the day. They deal with so many doses of medicine, food, clothing, schooling, everything. They're really giving these kids a chance. They were giving me a tour and I started to say hi to some of the kids. Once I said hi to one, they all started lining up to properly introduce themselves to me. I got hi-fives, hugs, hair touching (What IS it with the hair?!) They were just so sweet. Just normal little kids running around in uniforms, but sadly their lives will be so stunted and different than other kids'. We were walking around and all the sudden I was crying so hard. I took a minute to myself and the woman who owns it (terrible that I can't remember her name right now) came over and hugged me. She just held me like her own child while I sobbed uncontrollably. I just can't believe what they go through. How could someone abandon them? They're just left in dumpsters or on the street to die. I think all the emotion from everything that I've seen in the past week just came pouring out.

Moving on...I have lots of workout partners! This is exciting. Javan, who drives around Sarah Ellen and basically holds together lots of things having to do with AMPATH and the Referral Hospital, mentioned something about a gym when we were in the car. I decided to ask if I could go with him and he said of course. Now, Javan is huge. Billy Banks huge. He was Mr. Kenya a few years ago, I kid you not. He's such a nice guy, and obviously a good one to have on your team. He has this smile that lights up a room, you can tell he's a big teddy bear under all them muscles! So I went with him to this gym, expecting to just do my own thing with weights and whatever was available. This is not like a gym in the US, it's one small room, with several machines, free weights, and a common room. But it gets the job done. So I was starting to use the weights, and Javan tells me that he teaches a kickboxing class in the common room, starting in a few minutes. Of course I said I'd go!! It was GREAT. Imagine 20 Kenyans and me smushed into a tiny space doing freaking military jumping, kicking, punching, and plyometric drills. I kept thinking, "Kick?! You want us to kick? There's no ROOM to kick!" But somehow it worked, and I got a great workout. Sign me up, I'm there every Tuesday and Thursday, baby. I've also gone running with one of the guards, Joseph. He's great, he always greets everyone with a warm smile and asks how their day has been. To my surprise, I could actually keep up with him. Me?! Running with a Kenyan?! It maaaaaay have something to do with the fact that he's nursing a knee injury and has to go slow, but hey, I'll take it. Four miles with the elevation in Eldoret feels like 7 miles in the US, but my body and lungs are getting used to it. Maybe that's why Kenyans always win marathons...they train at an altitude and then they don't have to deal with the same elevation when they go and compete elsewhere.

This weekend I went with a group of med students to Hell's Gate and Lake Naivasha. It was about a 4 hour drive, in an IU-approved matatu (matatus are crazy, 10-12 person vans that are notorious for driving so so so badly around town. I signed a form stating that I will never get in one without an approved driver...probably so that I don't die.) We rented mountain bikes, with Javan as our guide, and hiked around these beautiful gorges. We went out in a boat on Lake Naivasha and saw hippos and tons of birds, then took a walking tour on Crescent Island and saw giraffes, zebras, and wildabeasts! I realized that this is the first time that I've taken out my camera, probably because it costs the same amount of money that a lot of people around Eldoret make in a handful of months. Anyway, below are a few pictures of my adventures this weekend: