A typical day last week:

 

8:02 -  my egg shaped, multi-colored alarm clock goes off – always making me think of mom.  I can hear the neighbors animals sounding off – the most obnoxious cow moo, and the most cliché donkey heeeee-haaaaaw you can imagine!

 

8:32 -  I finally get up out of bed, get dressed, fill my pack for the day, eat some breakfast (usually a flattened pancake with red plum spread), and head out the door just before 9.  It’s about a 15-minute walk to the main road, where I hop onto a matatu.  The after a 10-minute matatu ride, it drops me off somewhere in kahawa west.  When I get off the bus, it’s another short 15-minute walk to the health center.  Depending on how long it takes to get a bus, and where it decides to drop me off, I get to the health center anywhere between 9:30 and 10:00

 

9:30-10:00 -  when I first get to the health center I say hello to janet and sicily the women at reception who were slow to receive me, but seem to like me more by the day.  Then I go to the clinic side of the health center, which is specifically for the children under the age of 5.  I help check in the babies, weigh them and take their temperature. 

 

11:00-11:30 -  when things start to slow down in front a little, I head to the back to the immunizations.  This week I have been shadowing a woman by the name of Miriam.  She is a wonderful, soft-spoken little woman that moves very slowly and seems exhausted, but when it comes to the mothers and babies she works with, she is so sweet.  She has really taken me on as something of an apprentice.  Although she was slow to talk to me at first, I think she really likes teaching me now.  She is a great teacher, and when I can understand what she is saying, I really learn a lot.  I went from standing in the corner watching, to writing the paper work, marking the books, to now giving the polio vaccines to the babies, and preparing the syringes for the DPT/Hepatitis, measles and tetanus vaccines. This is my favorite part of the day!

 

3:00-3:30 -  I leave work, and begin my walk back.  I usually stop at an internet café where an hour and 15 minutes costs about $1. 

 

When I get home I play with Faith and a few of the kids that live close by.  There is a little group of kids that play outside, but there are three kids that I usually play with.  Jojo is a sweet little 5 yr old girl that always wants to touch me, but just barely; she timidly holds my hand or sits just close enough to be touching me.   She doesn’t entirely understand me when I talk to her, but she tries really hard.  Brian is 2 yrs old and seems to always be a little out of it.  He just stares with big beautiful eyes, and loves to be held.  He is the neighborhood baby, they just pass him around.  He is still figuring out whether or not he wants to be my friend.  And my favorite little darling girl is Sharon (pronounced shalone).  She is 3 yrs old and has no clue what I’m saying when I talk to her, but just smiles at me anyway.  I have never seen such a melting smile in my life.  She is precious.  There are two older boys that play soccer outside, and she runs in there to play with them, and then runs back to give me a hug when I cheer for her.  She ‘s not afraid to hug me.  From the first day she has never had any hesitations about me, she’s just happy to be my friend.  

When it starts to get dark, I go inside where the rest of the family is usually watching some ridiculous tv show i.e. “that’s so raven, wwf wrestling, sebastion & catalina (an Italian soap opera), or strong medicine.  I will either watch with them, or pick up one of the four books I’m currently reading.  We usually eat dinner around 8:00 and talk about our day.  I love sharing about my day with the family.  They tease me that everyday I come home I say, “this was the best day so far”. 

 

Slowly everyone trickles off to bed. It’s usually me and the boys left up watching tv.  There are a couple of shelves in my room that I am slowly filling with my things – books, papers, my clock, and other miscellaneous items.  The more I do this, the more the room feels like my own.  I usually read and then watch something on my computer.  Despite the bed feeling like a board, and the pillow being about as thick as a vhs tape, and about as comfortable as one too, I always seem to get a good nights sleep.