My Last Week in Bungoma

I didn't realize that it had been so long since I left and entry in the blog. The last week here in Bungoma has been going by so quickly. If anything, the final impression is that I should never complain as some people here have problems so much worse than mine.

On Wednesday Shayna and I went to visit a group of HIV+ individuals that live in what we would describe as a sub-division of Bungoma. Richard, or translator and Reuben's brother, set the meeting up as he is also a counselor for people with HIV. The section of town is a very poor area. We met in the village elders home which was just two rooms that were maybe 15x15. The other homes were in several long buildings that were divided into one room "apartments." There were 18 HIV+ individuals just within that tiny community.

The stories were heartbreaking. The village elder was probably about my age or maybe a bit younger. He had already lost his wife and was caring for the children with the help of his mother. ALso living with him was his sister who had lost her husband and also had children.

Another young woman had lost her husband, had a seven year old and 3 year old twins. She was afraid to get any of them tested because she said she woulod feel so guilty if she had passed the virus on to them. Another woman's husband refused to get tested even though she was positive.

We spent some time talking about HIV and I shared experiences with them as they questioned me about how long I had been postive, how healthy was I, etc. Some of them are in medical care but others are too afraid to go back to the doctor. And, many of them have not had their children tested.

One of the fun things of the day was this one little boy that was there watching me. I was the first white person he had seen and so he wasn't sure what to make of me. After a while he did come up to me to touch my skin to see if it was real. He tried to rub it to see if the white came off. In time he was playing with me and showing me his toys which were all made out of leftover parts from soe sort of machine.

Tomorrow we have been invited back to the technical school for a celebration of some sort for giving them the embroidery machine. It will end up being an all day affair. They already told us that it was going to be 10AM to Noon East African Time. That means that it will likely start at 11 or 11:30 and go on until whenever. I'm not sure what they are plannning but it will likely be big.

On Sunday morning we head back to Nairobi in the morning. We are taking the Easy Coach which is a nice bus that only makes limited stops in the 2 main cities. It'll be about an 8-9 hour ride. After one night in Nairobi we'll head out to the Masai Mara for a safari.