Hamjambo!

Hamjambo!

After just a week in Kenya, I’m already starting to get more confident and comfortable. My Swahili, while still not good enough to have a meaningful conversation with anyone, is decent for a friendly greeting with locals in the market. Today I even talked to a guy about Bush and Romney. Then he sold me some carrots. They were delicious. There was also a baby crying because a herd of white people were walking by. 

The most stressful part about going into a market place is the Maasai Mamas, who sell their intricate handmade beadwork and tend to flock, surround and overwhelm the unsuspecting white visitors. All you can do is tell them “no thank you please” (Habana Asante), but that usually does nothing, and when others see, they move in for the kill. I feel rude telling fragile old women to back off. but seriously. Give me some space.  

On a more serious note, today was our first day off from class and we went to visit the VCT. It was a center for women with HIV/AIDS, and they help spread awareness to reduce the stigma surround the disease in the country. We met four women that told us some truly heartbreaking stories about their experience with diagnoses, the struggle they faced at home and finding and receiving treatment. All but one of the women were abandoned by their family because of the stigma, and left to care for multiple children while seeking treatment for a debilitating disease. In a country like Kenya, where finding transportation to major city centers like Nairobi is difficult, it becomes exponentially harder when you lack resources like money and childcare.

Looking around at the group, I could see everyone felt the same as me. Disheartened. Sorry. But also we all realized how brave they were to tell these incredibly personal stories to educate others. 

The most heartwrenching story was from a Maasai women who had received HIV unknowingly and given it to her mentally challenged son through the sharing of a razor blade. The pain, suffering and guilt must have been unbearable, but because of the lack of testing resources and education on the disease, there was no way for her to know until it was too late. It really put a lot of things into perspective for me.