I spent Sunday in the raging metropolis of Kisumu, which is situated on the eastern edge of Lake Victoria. It's a nice city with not very many tourists, so the prices are good for the mzungus when it's shopping time! I went down with my friend Davis to feed the street boys on the beach. He has started doing this every Sunday, with what started out with around 15 boys. Now that word has gotten out about him and they know that he is reliable and WILL show up every week, they've gotten more each time. Last Sunday we set the record with 50 boys. They were all sitting around waiting for us as we walked along the road to the beach. We had quite a crowd by the time we got to our spot. These boys range in age from five to almost adults. A good number of them never removed the glue bottles from under their noses at any point while they were standing in line and from my immediate observation I would say that most of them were drugged up. I've seen a lot of things but I've never seen a drugged out seven year old and it didn't sit well with me.
There are a lot of street men in Kisumu who are now 30 and have been on the streets since they were little. Davis and Pastor Tom from the US have been giving the older ones 200 shillings worth of product to sell. When they've been stealing and sniffing glue for the last 20 years, giving out money to try to help someone is probably the worst way to go about it. They have an ingrained lifestyle they need to break away from, and few people will be able to fight off all of the temptations of the things they could get with that quick cash. So instead, they get books or candy or something they can sell along the street for a profit. This entails them cleaning themselves up to make themselves presentable and putting in an honest days work. They have just begun this, but only yesterday Davis stopped to look at a few books and didn't even realize that it was one of his guys selling them, he was so clean and put together. A very very good sign that this guy will be able to make it out of the cycle that has trapped him for so long.
I spent a day at the Comprehensive Care Center at the hospital where all of the HIV patients come for monthly checkups and to pick up their anti retroviral medication. The only reason we have these ARVs is through a grant from the Global Fund. The majority of Africa has no access to these meds, which everyone with HIV in a developed country is automatically put on. These are the only things that can really prolong life. I spent hours listening to the coughing in the waiting room that they all seem to have, even down to the smallest child. It is a deep, phlegmy cough that comes from somewhere deep inside of them, and I will never forget the sound of it. It is one of the most tell tale signs of someone wasting away from AIDS.
On another day I went on home visits, walking on foot trails through the bush to visit participants of the orphan program at their houses to see if they had any food, were sick, etc. We found one boy who was 16 and living by himself. His little sister sleeps at the neighbor's house, but he still has to feed her, so a lot of the time they just don't eat. He was only there that day because it was a special day and there was no school. We found him in the yard working in his immaculate maize fields. The inside of the house was spotless, he himself was very clean, and his English was absolutely perfect. We were all blown away that he was taking care of himself, farming, going to school, and doing it all so well. He has no one helping him, and he has no money to finish school. He is now a sophomore and has two more years to go. This means he needs to come up with the equivalent of several hundred US dollars a year for the fees, uniforms, and books that are all required. He has no one to pay it for him and he can't even afford food for himself on a daily basis. I am thinking strongly that I will be footing the bill for him for the next two years. This kid is obviously incredibly bright, and very responsible and disciplined to be living as well as he does on his own. I asked him what he wanted to do after school and he said he wanted to be a doctor. That isn't very realistic, but if we can get him through high school, his chances of getting job that will take him out of a subsistance lifestyle are slightly better in this country of no jobs, and if we can get him into a technical school or something where he could learn a trade, he should be fairly secure by Kenyan standards. This is still dirt poor by American standards - no flush toilet, maize every day, but it is living a good secure life here. He deserves at least that.
During my free time I talk to the monkeys around the seminary (one jumped right over my head - I'm talking inches - from a tree to a rooftop yesterday and I assure you that EVERYONE heard my scream) and talking to the seminary students and staff. There is supposed to be another young American woman coming today, so it will be nice to have her to spread out some of the attention. There hasn't been a young white lady around here for quite a while, so I'm really getting a lot more attention than anyone could ever need.
All in all life here is good.
Look closely to see who's watching you. They are everywhere around the seminary campus and at the hospital. Davis swears they are agents of the devil. One day he had a mango plop down on the ground right next to him and looked up into the tree above him in time to see a monkey taking aim to drop a mango squarely on his head. It broke his glasses.
This one is kind of hard to see but there is a ginormous green lizard coming out of the hole in the tree. I took this out my bedroom window. The sucker is at least a foot long.
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