That’s me! My new KiLuyah name is Nekesa. It means the harvest. They gave me the name Nekesa because I came to Kenya around the time of the harvest. Most children are named after the season or time of day they are born. I was born in January and that name means “hunger” or something so I told them I’d prefer to be named after the time I was born a Kenyan. So here I am, Nekesa, just a typical village girl who baths in a bucket, hand washes her clothes and catches her water from the rain. Yup, that’s me now haha. I’m getting use to it and life is very calming here. I have so much time to reflect on myself and who I am, what my values are, who I want to be, what demons I need to face…it really has been a personal journey more than anything else. It’s not always easy being in my mind, but when there’s not much else to do I might as well take the time to reflect I suppose.
The last week has been overall good. Besides the usual malaria sessions I perform with Pembe Tatu, I was able to go see the World Food Program hand out food to those most vulnerable in a local village. The community members vote on the people in their village who are most in need of the food and then those people get to come once a month and collect corn, beans and cooking oil. WFP has sponsors from all over the world and each bag of food is printed with the country donor that sponsored it. It’s good to see America’s flag on a number of the bags. It shows people we really do care. I’m not necessarily for handouts, but I think it’s better than going to bed hungry.
I got in a pretty bad bicycle accident the other day. Don’t worry, I’m ok, but it defiantly gave me a reality shock and I may not be riding my bike for awhile. I live on a main highway, but people bike on it all the time too. So I was following another biker when out of no where a huge bus came by, hit me on the side and I went flying off the side of the road! They didn’t even stop to see if I was ok! Luckily some of the villagers ran to my rescue. I got the wind knocked out of me so I couldn’t even speak. They threw me into their car and rushed me to the Health Center (the same one I work at, which was a little embarrassing). By the time I got there, I was fine except my hand was really messed up. It’s been swollen for about a week now and badly bruised, but honestly I was lucky I just wasn’t more hurt. I really feel like God is watching over me here.
Life is hard here, much more difficult than the typical Americans. I went to a house the other day to pass my condolences on to some parents who had lost their 3 day old baby. I saw the baby’s lifeless little body. It was so hard not to cry right there and then. The parents didn’t know why she had even died. I couldn’t help but think that if this was America, this might not have happened. People don’t have access to the same medical luxuries here. When I got in my accident all they did was put iodine on my scratches and feel my hand to make sure it wasn’t broken. They don’t even have access to x-ray. Anyway, the father said to me, “Everybody says this is all a part of God’s plan, but I don’t understand why God would take my child from me. She didn’t even get to know I exist.” It was truly tragic.
Speaking of the medical system, I went to help deliver a baby the other day and was so excited, but the mother was having trouble dilating (they don’t have drugs to induce that here or even pain medication), so she had to be referred to the nearest city. They didn’t have a personal vehicle so they had to take the local transport! The matatu is the local transport and it’s so crowded there are people sitting on top of one another, the drivers drive like they are high on glue and it always smells like armpit and fish in there…I can’t imagine being in labor on one. Anyway, I don’t want to hear any complaining out of American mothers in labor ever again…just imagine giving birth in Africa. There’s one labor room and a bunk room for the new mothers. The babies don’t even have cribs!
So on the bright side I have began plans to start my Health Club at the local girls boarding high school and I’m really excited! The Guidance Counselor there is going to help me. Next week I’m going in to promote the club and hopefully girls will sign up. I’ll be teaching them everything from HIV/AIDS and STI awareness to the importance of having self-esteem, goal setting, time management, relationships, reproductive health and many more important topics. I’m planning on doing a lot of creative learning through art and theater because they don’t get a lot of that in school. Schools here are very exam centered and they don’t get anytime to do any fun activities. This is also where I’m hoping to start my soccer team. I think it will be a good way to have fun and also incorporate health. I’m really looking forward to this because I think it will give me something to do that will hopefully really make a difference in these girls lives.
Anywhoooo, miss you all back home! Thank you to all of you who have been reading my blog. I also want to say to my Cousin Logan, congratulations again! Love and miss you!
Sincerely,
Nekesa
xo
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