A VISIT TO THE CHILDREN'S HOME

Today was our entire teams first day of service. The intent behind these service days are to give a little back to the local community and develop a deeper understanding of the challenges they face.

Our team went to the Nyumbani Childrens Home, which is Kenya's first and largest facility for HIV+ orphans. Nyumbani ("home" in Swahili) was founded in 1992 by Father Angela D’Agostino who was a physician, psychiatrist and Jesuit priest.

UNAIDS, a Joint United Nations HIV/AIDS program, estimates that as many as 1,300,000 Kenyan children have been orphaned due to AIDS. In the face of these daunting statistics, Father D’Agostino envisioned building self-sustaining villages that can house two groups adversely affected by HIV/AIDS – orphans and the elderly.

Our team visited the home and met with the children, who were very excited to see us. We played with them and talked about their school work and they sang songs for us.

It was a very rewarding experience, and even though HIV is dropping significantly due to education and other programs, homes like these are still needed to help the youngest effected.

MISC THOUGHTS & PHOTO'S

I've been taking some photo's with my high tech camera (not really, it's my Droid phone). I thought I would unload a few...

A nice find at the local grocery store, aka Nakumatt. Seems to be cod liver oil...

I thought these small carts were for children, but they were used by the adults

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Not that much different than home

Typical scene driving to our clients office

A visitor one evening. Reminds me of a plastic fishing bait I have at home in my takle box

We've seen carpenters making amazing furniture totally by hand. There are pile of wood shavings from planing and they use only hand tools. Here's some raw wood material for their crafts

KFC delivery - not in Cincinnati

Typical traffic on the route to the office

"Sony" Driving school

More handmade wares

OiLibya...

Where we've held several interviews here

RECENT ACTIVITIES

I've lost count of the days, so here's a brief summary of the recent activities.

I missed Ava's 3rd birthday Monday, but managed to skype just after her party. She was so cute in her birthday dress and she really liked her scooter. Now, she'll be able to keep with the others. I miss my wife and kids a ton, and can't wait to get home to give them all hugs.

My Mom and Dad took Olivia, Amanda and John Paul to a Reds game last week. It looks like they all had a great time. Also, just a reminder for those who didn't know, my Dad received a new lung via transplant last autumn. He's looking and feeling great.

Our sub team working with the Ministry of Health has been attending interview sessions with a variety of stakeholders, including members of the World Health Organization, Kenya Ministry of Health - Division of Reproductive Health, those responsible for Kenya's Health Management Information Systems and consultants working with the Centers for Disease Control (CDC).

These interviews are designed to help our team gather critical information about our areas of focus. Those being interviewed have been most generous with their insight and time. Like I mentioned before, there is passion in all they do.

After the data collection period, we'll have a small window to analyze the data and develop our preliminary recommendations, which we will socialize with the stakeholders to validate for our final presentation.

Approaching about two weeks to go...

SO, THIS IS WHAT A REAL SAFARI IS...

I had the great fortune of visiting the Amboseli National Park last weekend for a wildlife safari. Amboseli is about 237km south from where we are staying in Karen, and just north of Mt. Kilimanjaro and the Tanzania border. Our tour driver, George, picked us up Friday and drove us to the park. We mostly drove on Kenya's main highway between Nairobi and the port town of Mombasa. It was a pretty decent road, but crowded with trucks hauling containers. The trucks use the road because the only train tracks between the cities were built by the British in the late 1800's and cannot manage the weight. There is a plan in place for a new rail system, which is all set to go pending government funding.

One interesting item about the drive was, the trucks move very slow and most of the highway is only one lane in each direction. If you get stuck behind a slow truck, you play chicken and move into the other lane to pass him. Now, in the US you can manage this pretty easily due to the power most vehicles have, but in Kenya, most engines are small and do not accelerate quickly. Needless to say, there were a few close calls, but George had everything under control.

Now, back to Amboseli. We stayed in the Ol Tukai Lodge which was very nice. We were able to see three of Kenya's "Big 5" animals, including elephants, cape buffalo's and lions. Additionally, we saw cheetahs, wildebeests, hippos, a puff adder, gazelles, antelopes, baboons, and other monkeys. The "Big 5" refers to the African lion, leopard, rhino, elephant and Cape buffalo. The term "big five" was actually coined by big game hunters and it refers to the difficulty in bagging these large animals, mostly due to their ferocity when cornered and shot at.

Enjoy the photos...

He's waiting to get into his room...

One of the Big 5

A Cheetah for my son John Paul

One of the Big 5

 

 

 

One of the Big 5