Whew! A lot has happened this week!

The past couple of days, I have gotten to visit two different families and it has been great! Sunday, all 3 of us met up with Francis, Casey's workmate at MVP, and Samuel (also at MVP), to have dinner at Francis’s mom’s house. When we arrived by tuk tuk down a very bumpy dirt road, we entered a compound on foot and went into his grandma’s home. She did not speak English, and we know only a few words in Kiswahili (and practically none in Luo!), but that didn’t really matter. Years ago, Francis’s grandpa bought the land at a great price, and his family is set up nicely today. After the introductions, we went for a walk to the dams nearby, where kibokos (hippos) live. It was a little crazy to think we might come across one or more of these gigantic beasts, but we never saw more than just where one had stomped the grass down not too long before we arrived. It was a pretty place for a walk, flat, with lots of repetitions of the same types of vegetation (I wish I had a field guide!). I think I identified some sort of Achillea, and I definitely saw water hyacinth, which is an incredibly invasive species from South America that has caused huge problems for the fishing and shipping industries of Lake Victoria. I saw some plants that had yellow, honeysuckle-like flowers, and when you broke the stem there was milky latex. The fruits (non-edible), were like 2 oversized green cherries and evidently, kids use the dried out seeds to play jacks. Francis’s sisters were eager to tell me what they knew about the plants, and even more eager to hold Claire and play with her.
On our walk, I fielded many questions from Samuel about the United States and much more; he and Francis both made me feel at home and at ease by their outgoingness and interest in learning about us. As it turns out, Samuel is going to be training other health workers on phlebotomy, and asked if I would like to come and help teach! I’m looking forward to it, and although it has been a few years since I TA’ed stab lab, it will be good.
Once back, Francis’s guardian (his mother and father have both passed), had laid out quite a supper for us! There was chapatti, white rice (grown in Kenya), and fried rice, meat stew, lentils, bananas with peas, and passion fruit drink. It was delicious.
Monday, Lynne invited me to her sister’s home to meet her mom and brothers and sisters that were in town.


Lynne's sister's home and the next door neighbor. The houses are super tiny and there was no kitchen to speak of, but Lynne managed to make some amazing food despite this! There wasn't even a counter to chop the veg on.





It was a fun day of hanging out and once again, eating delicious food. Lynne prepared fish in a stew with ugali (maize dish used to scoop up the other foods), coleslaw and rice. Claire totally dug the ugali and stew!





Casey calls this picture "Claire in Africa." It was taken outside of Lynne's sister's home in Kisumu.






Tuesday—pretty boring. Laundry, washing and just chilling out at home.
Wednesday Casey, Claire, Lynne and I went to the Impala park that is across the street from our house. It was way more than I expected it to be, and at around $15 US per person, I would hope it was! They have lions, a leopard, impala, bushbok, African rhinos, guinea fowl, various monkeys, baboons, cheetahs, and zebras. The impala, some of the monkeys and the zebra were free roaming. We came at feeding time, which I thought was going to be cool, but turned out to be kinda boring. Lynne repeatedly mentioned how greedy the animals were to eat so much meat, and asked the man-with-meat-wheelbarrow if they ever cut any off to take home? He said no, they would get sacked if they did. Funny thing, Casey asked one of the caretakers at the park if there were too many impala, what they did with them? (As in, did they eat them?). The answer was the same. Casey also thought the guinea fowl looked fat (and tasty, perhaps?). I think both Lynne and Casey were seeing dinner at the impala park!
Today, Thursday, Claire and I went with Casey into the field. Whew, it was a long day, and I can see why Casey is tired at the end of his days. We traveled in a packed truck for around an hour out to Yala where the field office is, over pothole-ridden roads. We met up with Francis and Samuel there and hung out until we had transport to go to the health centers. Packing into yet another vehicle, we went out on bumpy, albeit in beautiful countryside, roads to the health centers. I’m glad I got to see Casey in action—the nurses seem excited about his project and how it will help close some gaps that were problematic for keeping mothers coming in to visits and on track with their meds amongst other features that will be built into the software, hopefully in the near future. When we finally got home (maybe I’m a bit tired tonight!), Kana and Yoshi cooked us Japanese curry, which was lovely, and we sat down for a family dinner with those two and Janet. I’m really enjoying our “family” here, and see a trip to Japan in the future! Janet wants to bring us to her home area as well, which sounds awesome. I think she lives amongst artists that do a lot of pottery, specifically making the little stoves that burn efficiently and don’t put smoke into the house.
Only in Africa----------------------->

Ok, that was a really long post. I’m exhausted, and going to curl up next to the already sleeping Claire. Good night!