Standstill

I'm officially past the halfway point of my 10 weeks in Kenya and I'm not quite sure how to explain how I'm feeling right now. It took me about 2 1/2 weeks to get properly adjusted to life here and the daily activities. Then I felt like I was getting the hang of it and things were going good for another couple of weeks. But now I have only a week and a half left of volunteering since my last few weeks will be spent travelling around, and I'm not quite sure what I've accomplished. I had intentions of helping Josh out with setting up an income generating program for HIV positive people who attend the support group, but that never really got past the brainstorming stage. And with about 10 days left to dedicate to the centre, there isn't much time to get something going.

Part of that is because things here take time. And as an outsider only here for a short period of time, we need to make sure the things we try to implement will be carried out by the youth who are here long after we leave. There are a lot of good ideas thrown around by the youth and some of them have plans in their head that they've been working on for a while. But as with many non-profit organizations, it all comes down to money.

It's been interesting working on this grant proposal because a lot of ideas were laid out before we started writing. One idea that came about was an annual or twice-annual community sporting/cultural event where there would be football matches and games like tug-of-war and potato-sack races. At the same time, there would be HIV testing and skits to educate about HIV/AIDS. One of the youth started to talk about how expensive it would be because we would need to purchase jerseys for all the players and all these other expenses that were not really necessary. It was like he had an image in his head of this perfect football match and people would not come out to play unless it was organized in such a way. In a country where people get by with so little and have to use what they already have, it's interesting to see how they think they need all these things to get people to participate in what they're doing.

At one of our meetings, we were talking about having weekly sporting activities on Saturdays at the centre. Meghan was talking about how the youth are all role models and just being an older person and playing with kids will inspire a lot of them and make more local kids want to come out and play. Oscar, one of the youth, said he wasn't a trained role model. We couldn't help but laugh and explain to him that a role model doesn't need to be trained. Just being a positive individual and reaching out to these kids makes him a role model. It's almost like they don't recognize their own skills and abilities if they don't have a piece of paper to certify it.

Our proposal is almost finished and Meghan and I are heading into the centre soon so the rest of the group can have a look at it.

An update on mommy Lynda and baby Cedric. They are back home and doing well. Milanne, Katie, and Debra went to visit her earlier this week. Lynda, the baby, and her sister Karen live in a one room "house" about 10' x 15'. The walls are sheet metal and there is one small window. They have no electricity or running water, there are toilets at end of the row of houses, but it is just a shack with a hole in the ground. All three of them sleep on a few blankets on the ground with a mosquito netting overtop. They pay 1,000 a month for this place ($13 Canadian). If any of you want to help her out, I'm sure she would greatly appreciate any baby clothes, blankets, cloth diapers, bottles, baby wipes, etc. Get in touch with me and I can arrange to have them sent out with Katie's mom who gets out here mid-March.