The Good , The Bad and the Really, Really Ugly

30 May 2009
We went back to KMET to visit their nutrition center and another few women who were benefitting from the micro-finance work they were doing. The most intriguing woman was an elderly lady with large sagging breasts, and few teeth. However she was the Warren Buffet of the slums. She was on her fifth loan with KMET. She had a tailoring business, a small shop, she grew vegetables on a tiny plot of land in the slums. But the coolest thing was the pond she had dug with help from KMET. There she was growing small fish called omina. Over the pond she had built a chicken coop with the chicken droppings going directly into the pond. That way the chickens fed the fish and she only had to feed the chickens. Totally one of the smartest and coolest ideas I’d ever seen. And all this for a couple hundred dollars!

I won’t detail all that we saw, suffice it to say it was exhilarating and I felt as if I had found a true partner and sister in the fight. We returned to KMET for me to do an AIDS training which I always like doing. At first people are reluctant when they hear it is 2 or 3 hours, but it is such an effective tool and people have so much fun with the games (the condom relay race is always hysterical) that in the end there is laughter and learning and everyone feels better for being together.
We finished the day with a frustrating time trying to use their internet. It is so much a part of Kenya that their internet is used with satellite and cell phones, that it is not truly wireless. It is true that I am well plugged into the electric teat, but not as badly as Brett, so he really had a tough time.

We finished and went out in a group for dinner. We were meeting my beloved Daniel a young man who has counseled me, watched over me, taught me and I have watched grow. He is now assistant bureau chief of the Nation and I was most anxious to see him again. I was also anxious that the Bretts and others from KMET meet him. The best part of the evening is that he agreed to come to Nambale and cover our partnership with KMET and the passing of the baton. And it will be featured in the Nation. Sweeeeet!
The young’uns were going dancing. That would have been everyone but me, so Francis returned me to the hotel and he went off to join the revelry. Now this white girl had gone 2 nights without air conditioning in the hottest part of Kenya. I had traipsed through fly infested slums, shaken hundreds of children’s hands and allowed them to touch my hair (always a fascination for them). I was hot, dirty and looking forward to writing this journal and watching Dexter. Aha, no.

They had changed my room, but the air conditioning didn’t work in the second room, nor the 3rd or the 4th. Ok..Watch out now, here comes the Bitch. I had had it. I try not to get American nasty but by the time I finished with them, I was threatening to destroy them on the internet if they didn’t get me a room with BOTH air conditioning and hot water. 1 hour later, this ugly, hot, tired bitch had a cold shower and set down to write this blog. At least there is air conditioning and a cold shower I can deal with. Tomorrow we have a blessed day off before we take off for Nambale.
As I reflect on this time with KMET, I feel incredibly lucky and blessed that I get to do the work I do. Keep the faith y'all