Illin

One thing that is certainly not taken for granted here it seems, is good health. In a way I am reminded of historical letters written in the U.S. in the 1800s, which when read by calm narrators in a Ken Burns type documentary film, always mention health first thing: Dear Wilfred, I hope this letter finds you in good health. It has been a hard winter…  The long greeting when one sees someone one knows here often includes “how is your family”, “how is your place”- Habari ya famalia? Habari ya kuako? I also try to not take good health for granted. I have been increasingly cognizant of health and illness since studying and working in health care. Never before have I been as thankful as now. I think an incident when I had with a high fever last July in Minneapolis and ended up admitted to Abbott NW helped to expand my thankfulness. Here it is full bloom.

A few Saturdays ago I woke up, had some water, and started my day with a run. I had decided to run into town to the place where Tumiani holds some outreach activities- mainly a game of soccer for the streetboys followed by some food. The run to the field where the game is held is probably 5 or 6 miles from the house in Kenmosa. After some time to stretch I was able to join in on the game for a bit. Then I walked into the central part of the town, got a huge bottle of water and walked to meet Deb for a late lunch. I continued to drink a copious amount of fluid that whole afternoon. We arrived back in Kenmosa to the house at 5ish. I began shivering and feeling week almost immediately. Later my fever shot up to 102 or so. For the next three days my temp would begin the day near 99 and later go as high as 102.8. Thankfully our group of friends includes many doctors here and one happened to be staying at the house in Kenmosa also. He, after 3 days of fever recommended to start the course of malaria meds (with a clear head now I should probably have gotten the simple test to confirm- but was willing to do anything at the time). Next I was hit with nasty GI stuff (I’ll refrain from details…)and I was left dehydrated and weak.  The illness seemed to run its course and I spend a week mostly prone, in bed. Once I was feeling normal, it still took a few days to have to energy to carry on with days tasks and not feel exhausted. When Deb came down with a fever a few days later, it seemed to be confirmed- just a nasty virus.  Deb seemed to fight it off a bit better and didn’t seem quite as debilitated. When the illness first started and it was a mystery I felt a bit of concern that may not be present when back in the U.S. It makes me think about health differently and the excellent health care infrastructure in the U.S.

To Health!

Nyumba Mpya Yetu

So, after lots of looking and those types of adventures… We have found a new house to live in.  We have decided to rent it with another couple and another friend who is here until June. There is give and take when comparing it to the house we stayed at for our first 3 ½ months. Here are the things we like about it: We got to choose it- thus it feels like we can create the feel of our home, It is much closer to things, It is a bit more simple- it matches us, It is more economical. We will miss the garden at the last house and living with Billy, but will not miss the feeling of being so far out. The new house is near some other friends’ houses and there is a restaurant and a little fruit vendor within minutes of walking. We are meeting out neighbors here too, which is fun.  It has been a bit stressful to have to get some of the basic household items (the house was not furnished), but we have what we need to take care of basics.  Maybe some chairs for the sitting room soon. Here are some pics.

 

 

 

The Outside (it's the dry season)

Our Bedroom

The front room

Kitchen from the front room (this used to be a wall before we requested some work was done to open up the little kitchen)

Sink (in hallway), toilet, and shower room.

Front Room (not quite as Orange as it appears in the photo)

Holiday Travel Photos

Deb, relaxin'

Deb walking at low tide

View up the beach

Local fishing boat

After some snorkeling on the glass bottom boat

Twiga

Buffalo

Pumba

Near harbor in Mombasa

Holiday Travel

It has been too long since the last update.  Much has occurred during the last few weeks and I will try to give a bit of those happenings here.

Vacation

Deb was able to take time off from work around the Christmas holiday.  As a project supervisor she does not have a very flexible schedule, but near the Christmas holiday the is much vacation time taken my all.  We used the break to travel a bit farther than we had previously. Our destination was the beaches south of Mombasa on the Kenyan coast. We began our journey by traveling by car to Nairobi. By coincidence, a friend of ours was driving to the exact location on the coast as us. (He was traveling with his 3 year old daughter and picking up his father, who was arriving in Nairobi from the U.S., on the way).  We had already booked a short flight from Nairobi to Mombasa to save on time, but were grateful to make a quick 5 hr trip to Nairobi. We stayed in a guesthouse for a night in Nairobi, getting to eat at our new favorite Ethiopian restaurant (in fact the only restaurant we have tried for dinner in our 3 opportunities there). Our flight was early the next morning and soon we walked out of the plane into the Mombasa heat and humidity. We picked up our rental car, a basic sedan (sedans are called “saloon cars” in Kenya) and we were graced to get through the madness of Mombasa traffic unscathed in my first ever foreign driving experience (discounting driving a bus in Canada). After a short trip down a fairly calm and well maintained coastal road, we arrived to the white sands and sea breezes at Twiga Lodge Resort.  

 It seems there are many more fancier/touristy/package resorts a bit farther near a place called Diani Beach. Not that there weren’t tourists at Twiga Lodge (we are tourists of sorts ourselves, albeit tourists who live in country), but it was very laid back and it seemed to draw families and people interested it camping on the beach.  There were also many Kenyans who seemed to go there to spend their Christmas relaxing at the ocean. I had never been to the ocean without it being frigid temps and I can see why people enjoy sitting on the beach under palm trees gazing at a turquoise ocean. It is hard to describe what we did there beyond relax. I guess we swam, applied and reapplied sun screen, talked with some of the local people selling crafts and food on the beach, and even tried snorkeling. We spent hours having lazy and simple meals at the Lodge’s restaurant. We made a few trips to Diani beach- one was to take a boat out to a good spot to snorkel, and the other was to get some delicious Italian food.

Having a rental saloon, we felt a bit of freedom and decided to drive to a very small national park, which was close to Twiga Lodge.  We brought our borrowed tent and continued to camp that night. After paying the equivalent of 3 U.S. dollars each to camp at the beach, the park seemed expensive, but looking back it was worth it. We spent most of the 1^st day there driving our saloon car on fairly accessible dirt roads around the park looking for animals. Early on it seemed the heat of midday made sightings rare, but later we saw giraffes, a few types of antelope, warthogs, and a small group of buffalo up close. Then next morning we went on a hike to a place by a waterfall that is supposedly a good place to see elephants. We missed the elephants this time, but it was a nice walk. No surprise we didn’t see them, as the group was probably nearly 30 and many of them we talking away in various European languages the whole time.

We returned to the inviting beach for one last night before we traveled back to Mombasa. It was this night we got news of a scary health emergency for a close friend in Minneapolis. We spent the evening and night trying to harness the spotty 3G connection to make calls back to find out more information. We were able to hear a few more details though it didn’t help take away the feeling of immense distance between us and our community of friends back there. We tried to think positive thoughts, had a toast to our friend, and waited to hear more sometime in the future.

Mombasa greeted us again with it’s busy winding streets and we drove back in and searched for our hotel. We stayed in a pretty simple place (though it did have a/c) on the 8^th floor which granted us a cool view of the city and particularly the mosque across the street. 

Mombasa has a bit of a different feel to it for a number of reasons (read up here: XXXXX). It was a great city to walk around it and we even has a few clouds that day to temper the sweltering heat even a little bit.  We walked in an area called “Old Town” past many gift shops, open markets, the spice market, the harbor, and also had some good food.  We ate at a local place, trying some food from Swahili culture, which has much more use of spices and flavors than “upcountry” Kenya. We got ice cream cones from a little place on the corner and walked some more.  We stopped later, during the hottest part of the day in a cool coffee/tea house. The places’ décor was seemingly aiming for a mid-east flair and it also served as a kind of a youth community and discussion center.  We had strong, rich, coffee while relaxing on pillows/mats and enjoying the coolness of the old building. Our next adventure was to peruse the gift shops. Deb enjoys the somewhat foreword banter that many of the proprietors of these shops employ. It makes me a little anxious, but together I think we do well. We found a few neat treasures, including a gift for the friend who was in the hospital in MN. Many of the shop keepers were happy to hear that we lived in Kenya and of the work we were doing. One was particularly generous when he learned we were looking for gifts for a friend who was ill. We returned to our hotel to rest and recoup before undertaking a drive in the dark to dinner in another part of the city. The destination was a fancy place which guidebooks described as worth their cost, but when we arrived we were informed there was a special event and tables were booked.  We were able to eat at another place which was somewhat associated with the original place. We sat near the water and enjoyed good service and a very nice meal.

We woke at 3:30 am the next morning to ensure our arrival at the airport for a 5 am flight. Just before leaving our room we were able to hear the call to prayer which blanketed the city, still dark, with a peaceful beauty. Then long travel ensued. We flew from Mombasa back to Nairobi, made a quick exchange of the tent with a friend departing to Zanzibar and hopped in her taxi. The taxi dropped us at a bus station in the capitol where we booked tickets and waited to board. At roughly 9 am we were rolling through central Nairobi on our way back to Eldoret. Luckily the bus was only 1/3 filled and we had room to stretch out and sleep a bit as we were transported though cities and towns and countryside. The drive was slow, at times a bit hot, and of course bumpy, but all in all not bad.  We were dropped off bleary eyed in central Eldoret at around 4:30. We were tired and a bit sunburned, but happy to have made the trip to the coast.