Getting down to business... kind of

This has been a busy couple days for me (finally). Yesterday I met the head of Aphia II for the North Eastern Province. Aphia II is one of our partner organizations who we do a lot of our outreach work with. He is really friendly and turned out to have been at Peace Corps volunteer many years back in Nairobi. Dan (the other PCV here) and I are going to have lunch with him on Saturday to talk more. This guy looks exactly like Ian will when he’s 50, by the way. I was also invited to a party last night to celebrate the launch of Aphia II’s new HIV awareness and prevention campaign. It was about two hours long and consisted mainly of speeches (in Kiswahili or Somali) that I couldn’t understand much of. There were some good presentations of data and a video though that were nice. The event was held at one of the nicest hotels in the city and was a fairly fancy affair (to which I wore my pillow case gown since that’s what my supervisor told me would be appropriate). The two hours was broken up towards the end when they came around with juice and snacks. The snacks were delicious but heavy considering it was 9 by that time… they had a sweet bread that tasted like biscotti, a doughnut, a samosa, some egg roll type thing, and camel meat sausage. That was my second time - that I know of - that I’ve eaten camel meat since being here and its fairly tasty. I imagine some of the samosas I eat have camel meat in them too.

Today was my first chance to do outreach with SIMAHO. We went to a small area called Dololowyne that was a 45min drive outside Garissa town. The area out there is very sandy and there is mainly desert scrub, though there are more trees near the river (its your stereotypical oasis in the desert situation). I saw tons of camels, an impala, some dik diks and another deer-like animal that I’m not sure the name of. It is still really exciting for me when I see camels (and its my goal to ride one some time in my two years if at all possible). The outreach wasn’t exactly what I imagined, but then again, I don’t know what I was expecting. We went to a building that wasn’t being used at the time and set up a mat and two tables on the porch. On the mat sat two nurses who set up all the medications and vitamins around them in an array so that everything was at arms reach (like I set up when I scrapbook for those of you who have seen that). Then at the tables were my supervisor and another nurse to check in patients and prescribe medications. The patients then brought papers to the mat and crowded around until they got the proper medication. My role in all of this was to give all the kids a deforming pill and vitamin A. It went better than I would have thought, in that only a few kids were too frightened of me to come near or let me put something into their mouths. Unfortunately, almost none of the people in the outlying regions speak Kiswahili so my language skills were no help in reassuring the children or trying to talk with the parents. Dan and I are going to be starting Somali lessons soon though so hopefully in a couple months time I’ll at least be able to communicate the rough idea of what I’m doing. Next week I will be doing outreach Monday through Thursday and I’m really looking forward to seeing more of the surrounding areas. It looks like I have always imagined Africa looks, the way I pictured my Peace Corps experience would be and it really drives home for me the fact that I’m living in Africa… like REALLY living here.

And, just for fun, here is a poem a fellow PCV wrote for our host family celebration in Loitokitok. First ,you should understand that I don’t get to eat cheese unless I’m in Nairobi or some other town where its easily accessible… We went two whole months without any cheese during training and now I’ll be going three months without it until IST. They have it in the supermarket here, but its in full blocks and I have no way to store it so it just sits in the fridge at the store and taunts me. In all likelihood, one of these days I’ll probably break down and just eat the whole chunk in one day out of desperation, but until then this poem is so true. Here is the poem (Majie, you’ll appreciate this):

ODE to CHEESE:
Mozzarella, Parmesan, and Cheddar,
If only I had thought to know you better
Than to think you’d be around all the time
Now I curse and toast you with this rhyme
Ricotta and Cottage and Brie
Whatever have I done to thee?
So what if I used you each day?
‘Twas done in the most loving way
I remember before my departure
The Cheddar was sharp as an archer
The Swiss was as holy as matrimony
And reverently covered the macaroni
Pro-va-lone, I should have known
Now I stand alone with narry a calzone
A roasted Sammie with cheese
Makes me weak in the knees
Or a cream cheese christened bagel
With coffee if I could finagle
If Kenya would do as I say so
Beans would be covered in Queso
Chapati accompany Munster
Ugali go get in a dumpster
So I’m begging you please to come back
My Colby my sweet Pepper Jack
Be it shredded or sliced or cubed
Or molten and straight from a tube
I hope you can find your way here
This week, this month, this year
-Nik Schuetz

PS. yes, Marilyn, one of the dresses is mostly pink with flowers :)