Some September Happenings

Hm, so what has been going on over here in Kenya? Honestly, that answer depends on the day. And many times the hour.  Now that we have entered the month of September though, I have been starting to do some work here and there, and getting started on my Community Needs Assessment (CNA). The first three months at site this is mostly what I will be doing, getting to know my community, integrating myself, and learning as much as I can in order to best help the needs of the area I am placed in. I have been meeting with several local and district officials, which usually consists of me going with my counterpart or supervisor, introducing myself, and telling them a bit about Peace Corps and what our philosophy is as volunteers and the sector I will be working with, which is Public Health. This is important step for me to take and information for them to know because any large projects I embark on it is always a good idea to include them and inform them of what you are doing. It also clearly gets across that we are here as agents of change, and will be building capacity within the community for healthier living, and are not here as individual donors. After this five to ten minute conversation, I usually have to sign a visitor’s book, which I have now done more times than I can count. This initial meeting often helps because the officials now recognize you and know where you are working and staying. It is important to have good relations with them, because they may be able to aid you in your work later on, or help you find information you need to complete your CNA.

I have been learning a great deal about my community at the dispensary, meeting people who come in for clinic, as well as being shown the facility. The dispensary also goes on outreaches or mobile clinics, every Thursday that I have been attending. We travel to the more remote areas of our sublocation in order to bring services to those who would otherwise be unable to travel to the facility and be seen, especially children who need immunizations and those who need to be tested for HIV. The community health workers are used to mobilize the areas that these clinics are going on, and they encourage mothers to bring their children and those who want to be tested for HIV as well. Children of all ages are also brought in because we distribute deworming medication to those who do not receive it in their schools. On one of the outreaches I got to do all of the recording and books, which was nice because even though I am not allowed to perform medical services, I got to feel productive. I also had good conversations with our community health workers and the mothers who attended the clinics.

Here are some pictures from the outreach:

The books we fill out. Nothing fancy, but as long as your accurate it does its job. Our facility has electricity, so the possibility of going electronic is not out of the question. Just something that may take a great deal of time to advance to. 

A baby being weighed. This is a very important thing to keep track of here because malnutrition is unfortunately something that runs rampant in this area, because of the lack of nutritional value in things like maize and the lack of variety in diets. It is also important for these mothers to be exclusively breastfeeding for the first six months of life, and sometimes this does not happen. We usually discuss this with them on the outreaches as well as during clinic to explain to them the benefits of this form of feeding.

A bunch of the kids we dewormed! They were so excited to get their picture taken! And they all sang a song for the outreach to begin. It was pretty awesome.

The outreach pictured was from a week or so ago. After this I have just been attending several meetings with important officials. I have met the District Commissioner, District Public Health Officer, chiefs, assistant chiefs and village elders. I was also officially introduced to the congregation at church last weekend. Instead of using my American name though, I have officially been dubbed Nafula. This is a Kibukusu word, which is our mother tongue in the area, and it means “comes with the rain.” I was born in July, which is during the rainy season here, and showed up to this community during the tail end of the rains so I now have this name. I actually really like it, I think it really helps me become part of the community, and it sounds really nice.  Anyways, I’m telling you this part now, because I have also been introduced BY the District Officer to a large number of people in my area because I attended the public baraza held by the District Commissioner. This is where people come together to address the concerns of the community, and having the DC there is a very big deal because he is an important figurehead of the community and a very busy person. I was introduced to them using my new name, and got the chance to explain what I was doing in the community very briefly in what little Kiswahili I know.

Here is a picture of the DC speaking on the current issues of food security, schools, and practicing peace in the upcoming months to the community.

This is just one shot of the people who attended the baraza. They sat me in the front because I was being introduced. The woman on the left of the photo with the orange outfit on is Ann, she is my counterpart =)

Other than that, not too much has been going on over my neck of the woods, just been continuing to meet people and work on my Community Needs Assessment. I will be able to meet my community health workers as a group officially tomorrow, which will be great! Everything here goes slowly, but I’ve been doing my best to adapt to life, and gone through my fair share of books and episodes of 30 Rock already haha! I hope that everyone is doing well at home I miss you all greatly! Keep me updated, I love snail mail, and promise to respond if you send me something! sending lots of love! amani.