Learning to live with my temporary handicap

So, maybe over time I'll get better at being lazy, but so far I've been a restless recovering patient. Feeling good, though! Here's my track record so far:

Day 1:

I didn't go under the knife until the early afternoon, so I took a nice, long commemorative run around Barts Field before consigning myself to immobility. It was delightful.

I'm always amazed (after the fact, of course) at how fast anesthesia knocks me out (all two times I've experienced it, that is). The anesthesiologist was good to me: after the surgery, my feet were completely numb for the rest of the day. I was in a semi-groggy stupor until bedtime. I'm pretty sure I provided some quality entertainment to anyone and everyone in my vicinity.

Of course, the doc was good to me, too. I asked him how my new and improved feet looked, and he said they were perfect. He's good like that. I'm guessing he took a little extra time to make things just right, since he'll have to look at his handiwork for the rest of his life. And also because he loves me. :) He says they usually try to set records for how fast they perform this particular procedure. In my case, I may have broken the record for the longest ever.

Day 2:

* Woke up at 4:00am to take some pain meds. Dad says this will be the worst day of all. Thank you, modern medicine, for such goodness as Hydrocodone - despite the fun side effects I know are coming.

* Had a lovely conversation with my favorite International Strategic Sourcing Manager.

* Got breakfast in bed because my mom is AWESOME.

* Sewed Kenya and Tanzania patches onto my backpack.

* "Worked out" as best I could with my feet elevated using my blessed borrowed stretchy band

* Had a long chat with a good friend I haven't talked to since before Kenya.

* Took some goofy pics of what it's like to be immobile.

* Took a field trip to Winger's to get out of the house (thanks, mom!).

* Caught up on some school-related emails I've been neglecting all summer.

* Got in touch with some Yehu constituents I've needed to contact post-internship.

* Took some more goofy pics of my awesome half-platform post-op shoes. I think I could start a fad with these hot shoes. Don't you agree?

* Figured out my entire class schedule for this coming Fall and Spring.

* Tried to start a document I promised to create for Yehu after I left...and failed. Better luck tomorrow. Or Monday. Or not.

*Updated my Kogod Yehu blog with an entry that looks a lot like one I already gave you here...just with a little bit more business talk added in for good measure.

*Cleaned out my email box. It's actually empty.

I'm running out of "to do" items, and it's only one day in. Fortunately, I've got some good books to keep boredom from setting in over the next couple weeks. And I guess I could always watch TV...is it odd that I didn't once think to turn on the TV all day?

Pocatello friends: Come visit! Pander to me! Please!

Wapi wewe?

On the count of three, everyone breathe a sigh of relief. 1, 2, 3.....

Ahhhhhhhh, Abby is back in America.

The return trip was a little more eventful than I would have liked, but I'm back safe and sound. Simon says, stop worrying about Abby. You know who you are.

From American soil, I bring you one final installment of life in Kenya...besides my other more differenter "greatest hits" installment that will be coming soon.

This is a big one for me. It's close to my heart. I'm going to tell you about the one thing I felt I needed to do while I was there. If I could go back and do Kenya over again, I would insist upon repeating this experience as much as possible. I wouldn't save it until my last full day in the country.

But I did, and when all is said and done, I still got to do it.

That's enough for me.

I attended some center meetings in Yehu's Kisauni Branch. For those of you that don't speak microfinance (or maybe you just don't speak Yehu), these are the meetings where all the clients gather in their groups to make payments, apply for new loans, or discuss anything of importance to the group. This is the very base level of the organization, where all the most important exchanges take place. This is where the real people are.

These are the frontlines.

Kisauni is a unique branch for Yehu. The bank itself is unique in that it is mostly focused on serving the rural poor, but Kisauni is actually right outside of Mombasa. Most of Kisauni's clients are urban, or as Yehu likes to call it, "peri-urban." It was easier for us, because a few of them spoke English and could keep us up on what was happening.

At Yehu, their ladies organize themselves into groups of five. Once a group is formed, they can apply for loans. If anyone in the group ever misses a payment, the rest of the group is responsible for picking it up. No one in the group can apply for a new loan until all missed payments are taken care of. This has a lot of advantages - it keeps the default rate very low, it is self-reinforcing because the ladies will keep track of each other and will feel the pressure of being responsible for their own payments, and it encourages them to only find responsible people to be in their group. The downside is that this concept probably sounds okay when you're told in the beginning, but when you're waiting several months to apply for a loan because of a delinquent group member and you have to pay off her loan, it can be very frustrating.

At this particular meeting, two groups paid off loans of delinquent group members that had been in arrears since January, so they could finally move forward with their plans. It was an exciting day. I particularly enjoyed seeing these strong women speaking out and voicing their opinions - even if it was in frustration. I could see the progression, from those who were waiting to apply for their first loan to those who were paying off their third loan. They've all been enabled and empowered by the opportunities Yehu has offered them. I imagine most of them were not always so confident as they are now.

We talked to some of the ladies afterward. This is Alice and Purity. Alice sells charcoal, Purity will use her first loan to open a fruit stand.

They expressed a very sincere interest in learning about properly running a business and managing their finances. They know the loan is a blessing and they really want to do everything right. It spoke to a deep desire I've had to conduct training for that very thing. Not only would the ladies benefit, but Yehu as well. I had hoped to do some of this training while I was here, but there is just so much to be done for this bank. It would take a completely separate internship - or more - to reach out to that need.

We also talked to Carol, who has been with Yehu for three years and was about to apply for her third (and biggest yet) loan. She sells secondhand clothing and has high hopes for growing her business. I could see the wisdom and confidence in her persona at having been around the microfinance block and learned some hard lessons along the way. I could see how she has grown.

Some of the ladies also brought children to distract me for just a few minutes. As usual, I was smitten.



Overall, the center meeting was a very powerful experience for me. In one fell swoop, it allowed me to connect everything together and gave my work more meaning and purpose than I could find anywhere else.

On my last day, Aaron asked me what my #1 favorite thing about Kenya was. Hands down, it was getting out to the villages and meeting the people. I wouldn't trade those experiences for anything in the world.

Calvary Zion

This is Jane. She is an angel.

Allow me to elaborate.

About 10 years ago, she started up an orphanage (which is run more like a foster home) in a neighborhood of Mombasa called Bamburi. She calls it Calvary Zion Children's Home, and all of the adopted kids consider her to be their mother and use the last name of Zion. They range from 1 to 18 years of age, and they've come at all different stages of life - the youngest, Jeremy, was one day old when Jane took him in. Over 10 years, she has probably taken in 50 children - and there are currently 39. These kids all have a roof over their heads, they're well-fed, they're given an education (six are currently in boarding school), and they seem to be emotionally healthy. Most importantly, they are loved. Considering what some of them came from, this is no small feat. In short, it is angelic.

Calvary Zion was a collaborative effort with six other ladies, including Rosemary, a co-worker of mine. They all worked together to get it up and running, and now Jane is holding down the fort. Rosemary had been telling us about the orphanage for some time, but sadly I didn't get a chance to pay them a visit until Sunday.

If I had more time, I would pay many more visits.

I'd like to make a few introductions.

This is Mercy. She's got spunk! She loved playing with my purse and making my watch glow.

This is Prince and Susan. (There is also a Princess.) Prince loves soccer. Susan's got lots of energy, and she gets attached fast.

This is my co-worker, Rosemary. Heart of gold, she has.

I can't remember all of the names - thus, why I wish I could go back more. But I won't forget the hope they made me feel.


I also got to play with some kids at church, and teach them to make some faces.



This was my last Sunday at the Changamwe Branch. I miss it already. I had one last chance to learn from my favorite Relief Society teacher and the most outspoken group of RS ladies I've ever known. We had a nice lesson about talents, and just for you, I'll share a highlight. We were going around the room, each of us saying what one of our talents was. One woman (who I believe is actually fairly new to the church) said, "I'm good at helping people," and the class immediately erupted into adamant declarations of "That's not a talent!!" Oh my. Fortunately, Andi raised her hand and commented that it actually could be considered a talent. Thank you, damage control.

Spending so much time with children over the past week has buoyed me up in ways I didn't expect. My days are flying by now in a major way, and I'm starting to feel a little nostalgia for this place. Isn't that not supposed to happen until after I'm gone?? I guess all I had to do was exactly what I expected to be doing since I got here: getting out to villages and spending time with people.

Think of the children in Africa!!

So here's why CHOICE is awesome. In particular, Bekah UT:

She comes up with kickin' excuses for us to get out of the office!!

This time, we visited a school in the village of Mulunguni to conduct an art project with the kids.

We asked them to draw whatever they wanted, which very consistently (and with no collaboration) tended to be huts, cars, trees, and people with frowny faces.

We took a little bio of each kid and snapped a photo of them with their art. CHOICE is going to frame the drawings and auction them off, in order to (a) get a little extra funding for the school, and (b) get a lot of extra exposure for what they do. I'm a fan of CHOICE, so I don't mind shamelessly promoting their awesomeness.

See that line of kids in the background here?

They're all getting lunch, courtesy of the USAID School Feeding Program. For some of these kids, this is their incentive to come to school. Pretty brilliant strategy, if you ask me.

School ended around the time we finished the project, and EVERYONE (several hundred kids) surrounded us, just watching and waiting for whatever form of entertainment we would provide. We played some games with them, they sang some songs for us, and of course we pulled out the ol' cameras and captured some dazzling shots.




I have a video of Nicole taking a picture of some kids, then all the kids crowding around to see it and cheering when they got to see themselves...it's priceless. Once I'm back in the land of high bandwidth, I promise I'll share.

For those of you counting down, the number is four.

Had enough yet? Yeah, me neither.

So, before Bekah DC left Kenya, she wanted to do it all, and I got to be the travel buddy! Which basically means I had a three-day break after my Tsavo excursion and then we were off again to the western part of the country, home of Maasai Mara, the Great Rift Valley, and Lake Nakuru.

There were some interesting adventures along the way. We rode the bus from Mombasa to Nairobi - on the highway commonly known as the best road in the country. Ironically, much of it was under construction, so our smooth ride was diverted to the bumpy dirt roads we've come to know and love. But no worries, we made it safely to our safari car and our old driver, Ombwayo. We've gotten to know him pretty well over the last week. He's really into politics and wants to be the mayor of Nairobi in 2012. And you know what? If I lived here, I'd probably vote for him. He says when he gets elected, he's going to send us an invitation to the Mayor's palace. We told him he should come to DC after he takes office and we'd give him a tour of our town.

Ombwayo proved his savvy on the ways of the world when our car broke down 3 different times. The first time was favorite - the engine is on the inside of the car in the middle console area, and at one point we literally had a geyser of water (?? I think it was water) spewing out, hitting the ceiling and the windshield. Who decided putting the engine on the inside was a good idea?? Luckily, we were in the middle of the hilly Rift Valley and he managed to jump start it. Such were our experiences, and thanks to them we also became quite familiar with the town of Narok and its friendly mechanics.

Q: How many Narok mechanics does it take to fix our safari car?
A: About 7, plus Ombwayo

In addition, these car troubles allowed us to make friends with a nice Australian couple living in England who was kind enough to share a couple of their game drives with us while our car was under repair. Such was our introduction to the savannah grassland wonder of Maasai Mara. Much more densely populated with animals than what we'd previously seen. The landscape and animal sightings really are as good as all the guide books say.



One morning, as we were leaving, a bat flew into our room. Ombwayo says that's good luck. The day before, a monkey had jumped in an open window of our car and stole the shiny wrapper that it probably thought was food. Turns out, it was laundry detergent. Sorry, little monkey. Let that be a lesson to you. I just wish I'd gotten to watch him "enjoy" the fruits of his thievery.

We happened to time our visit such that we got to see the wildebeest migration. You just cannot imagine the masses of these animals we saw running across the grassland. Thousands upon thousands of wildebeests crossing the plains and the Mara River. And the funny part is, these animals aren't too bright, so they may run in one direction for awhile, and then something could set them off and they'll all go tearing back the way they came. They hang with the zebras because their eyesight isn't so great...I can't imagine how the zebras tolerate it.

Among all the animals we saw, my favorite was the CHEETAH!! We saw a mama and three cubs. What a beautiful animal. I didn't even realize how bad I wanted to see a cheetah until I was staring at them.


Something we particularly loved was how many baby animals we saw - monkeys, babboons, hippos, giraffes, zebras, elephants...yes, it was love.




We even got to cross briefly into Tanzania and the Serengeti. Here we are, taking our token "I'm standing in two countries!" photo.

We had originally planned to take a hot air balloon ride, but later we backed out. You can imagine my surprise, then, when we woke up one morning and Bekah directed me to the Balloon Safaris vehicle waiting outside. Her attention to detail in keeping the surprise was intricate. (Have I mentioned before that I love surprises?) She even hid my watch so I wouldn't know what time it was - and she put together a playlist of music to listen to while we coasted above the Mara (it began with the opening theme song to Lion King. How perfect is that?!).

In a way, this fulfilled a dream of mine that I've had ever since my family used to go watch the balloon races in Driggs. Plus I got a bird's eye view of all the African wildlife running around beneath us. It was magical.


We also visited a Maasai village just outside of the park. They showed us their traditional dances (and made us participate) and how they make fire, and they gave us a tour of their village and of their school that has been built and is being run completely on funds they receive from the tour we had just paid to take.


It was interesting. Their lives seem to be centered on the cows they raise - they eat all parts of the cow and they drink their milk and blood. They also build the walls of their homes out of sticks and cow dung. This is their life, and they don't complain about it. They're happy. In many ways, they're actually a lot better off than other villages I've visited since I got here. I was actually okay with most of it - the only really difficult part was the masses of flies (remember - lots of cows) and how they seemed to especially enjoy swarming around the faces of the beautiful little children.

Our second leg of the safari was farther up the Rift Valley in Nakuru. I was a big fan of this place - it just felt so peaceful. Maybe it was all the Yellow Fever Acacia trees...maybe something else.

Aside from that, there are two big highlights to visiting Lake Nakuru: lots of rhinos...


...and a rampant abundance of flamingos. They literally fill this lake, and they're always around.



It was a great way to end the adventure, with an easygoing jaunt around the flamingo-filled lake, and then a short trip down to Nairobi so we could pay a visit to the Upper Hill Ward. I think I'll keep with the trend and take it easy for the next week. The rest of my time here will be spent in Mombasa - except when I get to visit villages for work.

I'm feeling the urge to take a poll. What is your favorite safari animal?