my new community

Nyaoga.

my new community:

Nyaoga is a small community consisting of a couple sub-villages, one-room school houses, and a medical dispensary in the South Nyanza province of Kenya. It's inhabitants make up the majority of the Luo tribe. Luo's pride themselves on their fishing skills and pride itself. Nyaoga is located in between Mount Homa (a cluster of about 5 hills with the peak at 1753 meters - very fun to hike) and Lake Victoria in a small peninsula near Kendubay. (don’t get too excited, Lake Victoria is not a swim-able body of water) It’s very hot and even though I apply SPF 70 everyday I still managed to get burned to the point of peeling. At first, the nights were unbearable, but you get used to it. (A donor visited our compound and brought a thermometer and I looked at it once when I found it to be a very cool morning and it was 82 degrees farenheit.) Ps - There is no plumbing or electricity throughout any of Nyaoga.


my new job:

The Dispensary (which is basically a clinic) is owned by 'The Board', a group of local older mama’s. They chose to create this place when an American woman, Mary, decided to donate through an organization called Give Us Wings (Mary is the founder). The purpose was to 'give wings' to the community so that it can 'fly' on it's own. But, this community is experiencing trouble. The goal was to establish a clinic that was able to give free healthcare to The Board and provide them with an additional profit. But, the clinic isn’t making money and Give Us Wings is still supporting a good portion of the costs to run it. And, I believe, that’s why I’m here: to help the clinic become self sustainable.

A unique component to Nyaoga is that it has a primary school, the Lake Victoria Michelle Obama Academy/Adult Education, that allows mothers to attend class with their infants. Normally these women would go without any education and would stay at home with their children. Give Us Wings provided the funding necessary to build a school house and establish a system to allow these mothers to pursue an education.

Another feature of this area is the dependence on rain. They survive on a water catchment system, which accrues rainwater from the gutters of a building into a very large reservoir. No rain means no water. (Though, you can always attain the cholera and giardia infested water of Lake Victoria.) My first week here I wasn’t able to bathe or flush our indoor latrine because of the drought. (And to think, a couple months ago I was irritated about not having running water) The community had started a 5-year long water project to assure a constant supply of water, but it was sabotaged and now the whole thing needs to be re-done.

my new personal life:

I have two and a half roommates. Rosalyn, who just turned 23, is the head Clinical Officer of the only health facility for the. Diana is turning 28 soon and has an adorable year and a half old baby girl, Tamalia. She is the ring-leader of this complex, which is no easy feat (I’m referring to Diana, not Tamalia). We spend our evenings watching cheesy Hispanic soap operas (that have been dubbed over in English) until the battery of our solar panel runs out. Yes, even I have become addicted to Soy Tu Dueña. (I can hardly wait to find out if Valentina will give in and stop fighting her desire to be with her next door neighbor, San Migel, who saved her life by sucking out the rattlesnake venom in her leg that her evil cousin planted in her bathroom in an attempt to kill Valentina so that she would get all of her money and the estate.)