Rural Western Kenya

No our friendly blog reader, we haven't been ignoring you....we are just in western Kenya, where there is limited electricity and high speed internet is unheard of.

We've definitely become "dirty people" (this is also the land of cold water bucket bathing) but I'm resisting the temptation to change my hair style to the "weird white girl with African braids" look. Everything we do here is hilariously funny to the people here (especially when Dan goes running!).

Right now we are in Ukwala, as small town in the Ugenya District of rural western Kenya (the province where Barack Obama's father came from -- he was Lu'o, like the vast majority of the people who live here). How we got here is a long story.

On our second day in Nairobi, we decided to take a
tour of Kibera Slum (home to 1 million people) with Daniel Ogala. Dan Ogala -- is unbelievable -- he reminds me of an African James Koshiba....At the old age of 30 he runs Community Support Group (an NGO) and the Matibabu Foundation (Kenya and California)(matibabu.com). He is also the School Patron (a title
given to a distinguished member of the community) for his former school, Lifunga Primary School. He runs programs both in the Urban slum as well as in the poor community he is from.

So, as you can guess Dan Ogala easily convinced us to come and check out the health programs, school and HIV prevention programs he is running in his hometown of Ukwala.

For you public health dorks -- the HIV+ rate is 40%. Malaria rates are very high and most of the community is unable to meet basic food needs. A bunch of Califonia Kaiser Perm. docs helped to set up a clinic here. Check out http://www.matibabu.com. I've been helping with some program planning and evaluation (can't escape logic models. And we've both been helping train staff on computer skills like powerpoint.

We have been staying at the Doctor's house (he sounds just like James Earl Jones) and even he doesn't have running water.

I have a bunch of great photos (which I'll upload once I have a better internet connection).

Here's some of Dan's thoughts on the primary school here.
Out of 350 students, I saw about 4 with shoes. The school has just started a feeding program to offer lunch (corn and beans) to 7th and 8th graders (because they have to take exams to determine whether they can attend
secondary school, so the school has focused on those students to help them succeed on those exams) -- the rest of the kids don't eat at all during the school
day (or before or after school, for that matter).

There are many children in the community who don't attend school at all because they can't afford school uniforms, books, etc. (something less than $60/year).
Tuition is free for primary school (paid for by the government), but tuition for secondary school --is around $200/year

Next post -- our safari and on-going journey to sample Kenyan food


Oh, and if you're looking for some good airplane reading, I'd recommend this month's issue of Vanity Fair, which is all about Africa (there's a great
article by a Harvard economist regarding the eradication of poverty worldwide -- he argues that with $250 billion a year (half what we're spending
annually on Iraq) for five years the world could end poverty in developing nations (hunger, malaria,cholera, etc.).