Just A Sunday

10/30/05

They were running all over, jumping up and down, trying to out shine each other. he girl who was near tears an hour before was smiling ear to ear.

Robert and I set out around 9am, we were walking to our first destination when Robert got a page from someone whose place we happened to be walking by, so we stopped in. It was a big homestead, the baba's house was two stories, it's the only two story house I've seen in Kenya. Baba's cousin was a high up official in the government, involved in some serious corruption, rumor has it he was poisoned by his cohorts so he wouldn't roll on them. Anyway, it was this baba's son that wanted to see Robert. We went down to his hut. He had just recently tested postitve for HIV, and then gone to Kisumu to try and get a CD4 count and start treatment. He was told (after he paid), that they were 'out of the chemicals' they needed for the test, which Robert explains is a code for 'give me a little pocket money and I can probably make the chemicals appear.' Terrible. Robert suggested to the guy that he go down to Migori (its much closer anyway) and visit the German NGO there. Its 800/= for the CD4 count and 300/= for registration to the ART program and 200/= for some lab test. That's $18.50 to start ART, which from there on out is free. All you have to come up with is the $2 every two weeks to go and pick up the drugs. Still, this would be way impossible for most people around. But we called in baba and explained the situation to him and he seemed a little hestitant at first but then agreed to cough up the money to get his son treatment. Then we talked for a bit, and he explained that even though he was living in a big house, he had retired a decade ago and didn't have a pension, and had the same problems as everyone else, namely too many grandkids needing school fees and too many sons that had died or were dying. Even trouble getting food. It was one of the revelatory moments for me, if this guy with the two story house doesn't have enough money to eat, no one here in Kanga village is safe.

We pushed on to our original destination, which was a homestead were the parents had both died and left three young daughters, the oldest is in 8th grade, the youngest is in nursery school. They are looked after by their older brother, a subsistence farmer, who has a young family of his own. It's another desperate situation. The girls talked about losing their parents, the middle girl was nearly in tears as she talked, and then the girls sang songs for us, which was really moving. Then they let me film them going about their domestic chores, cooking and cleaning and eating. The only problem was that these neighbors kept poking their heads in to see what was going on. Somehow, orphans taking care of themselves is less compelling when there are a dozen adults standing there watching. I did my best to frame them out. Afterwards, we were all just sort of sitting there in the main room, the kids were playing with an unripe tomato (the game is called, I believe, 'lets see who can get this unripe tomato to bounce highest.) I flipped the LCD screen around so they could see themselves and it was an instant riot. They were so excited. Pure joy. They were running all over, jumping up and down, trying to out shine each other. he girl who was near tears an hour before was smiling ear to ear. After that we interviewed the caretaker, he spoke in Ki'Luo so I need to translate it still.

Next we went to guy Kennedy's house, he wanted to give us some youth perspective. Then his cousin came over and asked us to come check out his orphan group's poultry farming project. Robert and I are interested in all things poultry, so we readily agreed. Well, it was another situation where I found myself wandering deep into footpaths, no idea where I was going or what is was going to be when I got there. Finally we got to this guy's homestead, and there were maybe 40 kids sitting there, a dozen adults, all sitting on the grass in front of a table that I was ushered to. So all of a sudden I'm sitting at a table in front of 50 people. I dislike when this happens, but I accept it. It turns out that this guy's grandfather was a chief and had 14 wives. They gave him 28 sons. Those 28 sons made hundreds of grandkids, Kennedy and this guy were two. A small percentage of the great grandkids were sitting in front of me. Of the 28 sons, 4 remain. Lots of the grandkids have died as well, leaving all these orphaned great grandchildren that were sitting in front of me. So this guy started a group to help sponsor the kids. They make monthly contributions and run a little poultry farm and a little tree nursery. But I was sitting there, feeling a little hijacked. There were literally hundreds of crackers in bowls in front of me, and I asked if they were planning on sharing them with the kids. When they realized I was serious they went and passed a few crackers to each of the kids, and then returned the still nearly full bowls to the table. I ate a few to be polite. Eventually we went to see their projects.

I wandered around at sunset and in the twilight, taking pictures on the ELPH. Venus was out in the East, and as I was hanging out, looking at the stars, Mars rose in the west. There was no moon up so the stars were bright, and I'm not sure I've ever seen Venus and Mars in the sky at the same time.

When I was brushing my teeth two bats came and started feeding on the bugs that were congregating around the light outside my door. They came swooshing down around my head and after a while just started hanging on a piece of wood just outside the door. I had never seen a bat in the light that close before. It was kind of cute.

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