My FIrst Class

Today was the first day of my Empowerment Class. It was actually the second day for the group. The class was near Kitale which is about an hour and a half from where we are staying. There were 16 students altogether. The topics today were the immune system, open communication and a condom demonstration. It seemed to go very well. I was able to share with them that stigma and disclosure is an issue in the United States as well. It's amazing that people travel from the surrounding area to attend the class. The church is down quite a long clay road. Afterwards one of the people next to the church made lunch for us. It was rice and a meat dish. Meat is very expensive for them so it was a sprecial treat indeed.

The trip back was a little bit of a challenge. We had to drive over to where the mobile clinic was being held so that we could give them some extra money because they were afraid they would not have gas to get home. Life in Kenya is quite different in terms of transportation and buying gas and supplies.

When I have more time, I woulod love to be able to write about our one boma-mate. She continues to be a challenge to the patience. Not just for me and Geri, but for most everyone on the farm. It will be interesting to see how it happens. I went to bed a little earlier and mentioned that I had not had my nap in the afternoon. She tried to tell me that naps weren't good and that I should just do 8 hours of sleep a night. When I explained that I did, but still got tired because of the HIV, she asked me to explain. I sad what do you mean. SHe gave some idiotic response. So I just replied that when you have millions of little HIV floating around in your system, you can get tired.

We have to get moving so we can get back to the farm as it is getting late. More to come later.