Thursday, July 12, 2012

To Oyugis and Back

Sorry it's been so long since I've posted, for some reason I couldn't sign onto my blog but I've figured it out, which is a good thing because sooo much has been happening! First of all, all the work to get the kitchen/ lab area up to snuff is almost completed; the wiring is in, the electric company is coming on Friday to hook it up, the partition is up, the water tank is raised, the tables are made, and the glass has been fitted into the windows. Of course someone bought a batch of expired putty to fit the window tiles so some of them are coming out, which means we will have to put in some more hours to refit them with proper putty ourselves, but it's a small sacrifice to make sure the windows are well done- and by the end maybe I'll have learned a new skill! We are also currently painting the space blue, which should be finished today, onto which Isaac will be able to paint a mural on the back wall for us. It's starting to finally look like a kitchen! Of course this means that the space is almost ready for our lab and kitchen equipment, which still has to be purchased. We have had quite a bit of trouble looking for an inexpensive incubator for the space and have contacted just about everyone from KEMRI to local universities to see if anyone has one we could purchase. So far we haven't had much luck but we have one more source to check out and then we'll just have to order one from the company we are purchasing the rest of our equipment from (hopefully at a discount). Our goal is to have the lab equipment ordered by Tuesday so that we can then go and get our kitchen equipment- finally some shopping, my favorite part!

As well, last week we took some of the Mama's to Oyugis for yogurt training at the Orande kitchen. This trip marked our half way point in our time here and we were excited to finally get the participate in some of the WHE activities. We took two mama's named Florence and Eddy and a staff member at the Muungano school named Violet. Another intern named Ellissa has been in Oyugis for the past few weeks to see what's going on in the two kitchens located there, so we were able to join up with her and stay at her hotel at a small discount and she accompanied us around the town during training. The Mama's in Oyugis first showed our Mama's how to make the yogurt, then they were able to do it themselves and we were able to take some of the yogurt back with us to give to the rest of the women's group. When the training was finished, Ellissa came back with us to North Maragoli to see our kitchen and another part of Kenya. The next day Louise and her friend Marg, the treasurer of Muungano, came to join us as well, so our house was quite full- very different than what we've been used to! Unfortunately we ran into a bit of a problem when we went to ration out the yogurt we bought at training for the Mama's, as we realized not all the yogurt had made it back with us. We asked Violet what had happened to the rest of it, and she told us that the last batch we had made hadn't been ready so we hadn't taken it. Of course Ellissa asked her Mama's in Oyugis about this and they admitted that Florence, Eddy, and Violet had taken the yogurt in containers and then called Mama Diana in Oyugis to ask her not to tell us. I was so upset by this, not only because WHE had covered all their accommodation, food, and travel, but more importantly because they had deprived the rest of the women's group of getting yogurt. We figured out that Violet was the instigator of all this, and since she is not part of the women's group we are talking to her this week to make sure she knows that she isn't to have anymore involvement with the yogurt project and that both her and the other Mama's need to apologize to the women's group for what they did. Louise also approved taking the money for the yogurt out of her paycheck at the school so that we can buy more milk and make some yogurt for the Mama's ourselves so that they can get to try some. We are definitely starting to learn a lot about who you can trust and who you can't here.

Painting the Kitchen Space


Florence making yogurt

Mama Diani, Mama Eddy, Mama Florence, and Violet
But another exciting thing coming up is our safari! Blake and I were looking into safaris for a while, but felt a little uncomfortable traveling alone, so we emailed Louise to see if we would be able to join in on her safari that she is taking with Marg. It turns out she had booked a car to take them from Kisumu to the Masai Mara, but since it wasn't on a regular pick up day for the company they had to pay for all seven seats in the car even though it was only the two of them traveling. When we asked Louise if we could come with them, she was gracious enough to let us travel in the car for free since it was already paid for, and as anyone who does a safari knows, the transport is often the most costly part of the trip. We had also met up with Ellissa again in Kisumu as she was staying with a friend she met at Kenyatta University named Frank, and they were eager to go to the Masai Mara as well, so we found a cheap tented hotel for the four of us and will be departing with Louise and Marg this Friday morning! I am so excited to get to see the animals and promise to take lots of pictures!

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