The Lwala's End

The end to an amazing visit in Lwala...A spring is opened, the homestead welcomes a new goat (Bambi), and Wednesday afternoon was filled with wooden man pieces and condom demonstrations. The last week in Lwala has been crazy, crazy. This week was full of visitors and good culminations to an amazing visit. Monday was my last day at the school teaching full time. They really are a bright group of kids and it kills me to think that, for most of them, this is the end of their education. Secondary school is not free in Kenya (high school) and can be anywhere from 400-600 USD a year. Some kids cannot even afford the uniform that is required to attend Primary School (around 300 shillings or 4 or 5 dollars). They all have amazing spirit. One of my favorite things to see at the school was every Monday and Friday morning the whole school gathers from 8:30 to 8:00 to clean the grounds and sweep and then from 8:00 to 8:20 to have Ceremony. All years assemble around the wooden flag pole and it begins with an 8 year calling the drill presenting team. The stand 3 by 5 and turn, left right, left right…yet almost every person turns a different way as the direction is called so that by the end of the drill they are facing 15 different ways. After the flag is raised the whole school stands at attention singing the Kenyan national anthem at the prompting of the 8 year who was previously calling the drill. After 8:20 then the upper and lower primary split and have 35 minutes of praise…which upon hearing about this I thought...oh good a 30 minute of silence to pray and have silence in the school….boy was I wrong. Praise in Lwala is something I only wish I could have the guts to join in on. Singing and dancing for 30 minutes straight, probably 200 students in one room…no one leading this but themselves. Praise and worship is the center of this community, not only in the schools but in everyday life for these Luos. SDA (seventh day Adventist) or Catholic, the people of this village find amazing strength to deal with things that most cannot explain otherwise, like HIV/AIDS. Our last week in Lwala gave us insight into part of the village that we had not seen and that few, even villagers, never see. Despite the leaps and bounds in this area for HIV testing and awareness there is a taboo that hangs over the village. Those who know are shunned for being promiscuous and dirty, while those who do not know and do not want to know are risking their lives as well as their families and those who come in contact with them. Testing is rare and treatment is even more difficult to obtain. ARV drugs are free from the government in government run facilities, but if they cannot get to a facility is no point. Families in Lwala who know they are HIV positive are 10 K from the nearest government center if they can make it. If they do have the strength to make the walk then that day the garden goes unattended and the family does not eat. If they do not have the strength or health to make the walk then they go without drugs and probably do not have the strength to tend to the garden either. It is a vicious circle that HIV/AIDS inflicts on people in this and many other Kenya villages. On Wednesday we met with I Choose Life and Kenya University based organization that established Peer Educators with knowledge of HIV/AIDS and ways to spread the knowledge of prevention and treatment. This group of 3 students from Kisumu met with us and the Kimedgi/Lwala HIV support group of about 50 women and a few men to discuss condom use…and brought along their wooden demonstration pieces. Despite the giggling and laughing the demonstration was settled under, I feel like the message both our group and the support group away was that knowledge is contagious, and once you spread the word to one or two people that it can only have a positive effect on the situation to come. A family that we have gotten very close to over the last 3 weeks is one such family that lives with the burden of HIV. The father and at least two of the three co-wives are HIV positive and they have 6 children total to date. We are fairly certain that the 25 year old co-wife Mintoby (who already has 5 children, oldest 14 years) is pregnant again. This is another circle that involves the HIV virus. With some pre-natal care, the transmission of the virus to the baby via the mother is slight…but what substantially increases this risk is breast-feeding, but in Lwala if a baby does not breast feed…it starves. It just seems like there is no way to break this circle and the women I have seen fighting the battle against HIV and seemingly their husband at the same time are so strong. The culture that one wants to see here is beautiful from any angle, but there are parts that 3 weeks of visiting can barely begin to scrape the surface. The long cheek bones and slender statures of women are all around and I can only imagine what they have faced in their lives compared to mine. There is no comparison. I do not know how these women work so hard and endure so much in a lifetime while they look 28 years at 50 and even younger at 60. It is an amazing strength you feel when you sit with the women’s group and although only a few women speak English their smiles and laughter speak volumes. The spring is now open as of Friday and fenced off. It is amazing the work that got done by pure manual labor and 6 days. I spent one day with the women hauling rocks and I was exhausted. They would place the rocks on their heads and with no hands walk gracefully to the pile and without stopping return for more rocks. Amazing. Amazing. Yesterday was our last day in the clinic and I helped everyone from Josh in the pharmacy, Rose in the observation, and fred in the lab. It was a nice end to the clinic. Hopefully I will be able to come back with more knowledge than I have now and do so much more for the community. Last night was probably the latest I have stayed up in two months…We started cooking Abbie’s birthday cake at around 5…and at 1:30 it was still not done, but we soldiered on and woke her up to a rousing round of happy birthday at 1:30 where she thought it was totally a dream. I hope she had a good birthday in Lwala! There is so much more that I could put in this e-mail. Like about the baby goat that I have been playing with for three days. Or how each patient in the clinic had the most amazing heart wrenching story. Or about the photo session that random took place as Dani and I were leaving the clinic one day where we took pictures with almost every employee that the clinic has. There is not enough time to type now enough time left in Lwala to spend it on a computer. We are so excited to be going on our safari and we know it will be such an awesome experience…but it is so sad to be leaving Lwala. I want to go home, but I don’t want to face the paperwork that awaits me…I do not want to go home because I do not want to leave Lwala so soon…oh the story of my life. This has been the most amazing summer though and I cannot wait to come back to Lwala and share the experience all over again. Home in 5 days. Love you all and I cannot wait to share my pictures or experiences in person!