Tuesday, February 26, 2008

rafiki zangu

it never ceases to amaze me. that it takes moving 10,000km and multiple time zones away for me to truly appreciate my friends. i wait until i move to another continent to ask for prayer, when i really needed it right there in calgary. it took me moving to a small african village to realize that the same problems exist around the world and we are all working towards eliminating them, but help appears in different forms.

take my friend amy. she huddles in the back of a van with prostitutes and drug addicts, teaching them, testing them, listening to them, and above all, caring for them. she laughs at my lame stories and encourages my "rogue" activities to include the "c" portion of ABC! (okay, not your sesame street alphabet - "c" stands for condom. another blog, another day). i miss sitting together in kensington coffee shops drinking fancy coffees. i can tell her anything, or just sit in silence and feel like we had a heart-to-heart.

then there is elise, monitoring a plethora of IV lines snaking their way into her patient in ICU. she hums and sings in a melodic voice to her unconscious patient, comforting them, caring for them. and doing it all while wearing stylish pink crocs. she has introduced me to "dressing like a girl" and the mantra "I am smart, I am beautiful" to be repeated on a frequent basis, especially before exams.

you will find that patti moved from a nice, quiet area in her german town, to the inner city filled with drunks and drug addicts, so that she can minister to children desperate for a loving touch. i see her every few years but it feels as though no time has passed at all. we reminisce about days of old while she takes me on adventures to german villages and christmas markets to drink warm wine and eat fat sausages.

cindy has a heart for teenagers with big problems. she offers them refuge from unstable situations to bask in unconditional love. her passion for her friends is unbeatable. i will never be as good a letter writer or encourager as she. she has traveled to unbelievable places but finds contentment and a "mission" in small town alberta. her adventure has sent her head over handlebars on mountain biking trips and camping with a 6 month old. her energy never ceases to amaze me.

neda runs off her feet at work, but never neglects to make sure her patients have received a warm, comforting bath and are turned to face the beautiful view of the mountains from their hospital window. i miss our sewing sessions in my calgary living room and going to persian restaurants to try new food. i even miss administering her weekly needle in the med room at work!

i have so many incredible friends. it would take days to write about them. Karen, who sends me constant letters of encouragement, whether i live in calgary or kenya. Janice, who prepared a care package with some of my favourite things, to arrive on a frustrating day. Roula, who gave me a book about how to flirt and takes me to salsa lessons. Joe, who gives me tips on not what to talk about in front of cute boys (BM...W, i got it joe). Magda, who shared many cups of tea and frustration with me back in the dutch days, and still keeps in touch no matter where i go.

i could not be who i am without my friends. if i have any good qualities, it is not that i was born with them. i have been molded and shaped by the goodness of those kind enough to nuture me with their unconditional love and patience.

rafiki zangu. my friends.
asante sana. thank you so much.

Monday, February 18, 2008

finally something funny...

i have this black skirt that i bought at superstore last summer for $8. it is a stretchy cotton skirt that is versatile enough to wear as a tube top dress(haven't tried that yet!), or folds downs to be a normal skirt. i have grown to love it because it is easy to move in. especially when we do home visits. i usually have to climb over, under, or through wooden or barbed wire fences.

it has caused me some embarrassment however. last november i was up in kitale, kenya with the relief team on a food distribution. we were eating at a restaurant and i was heading into the main building. i stepped over a stone barrier, but the bottom of my sandal caught the back hem of my skirt. when i put my foot on the ground, it took my black stretchy skirt with it, fully flashing my big white butt! thank goodness, the restaurant was empty and no one was temporarily blinded.

the men at the supermarket were not so fortunate last week (or maybe they thought they were fortunate). i went to a place called Tuskys supermarket in downtown Eldoret to waste some time while my key was being cut. I decided to use their bathroom before I set out on my journey back home. all was fine until i walked out of the bathroom and back into the supermarket. I had a coffee mug hanging off my bag and I felt like it was leaking coffee on my butt even though it was empty. I moved it twice before I heard a low, short whistle from behind the blanket counter. Things were feeling a bit airy so I put my hand on my behind and discovered the hem of my skirt was stuck in the waistband. yup, flashing my double half moons at several supermarket workers.at least i had nice pink underpants on.

probably the first and last time they will see a white girls bum. needless to say i was a tad bit embarrassed, fixed my skirt, and ran out of the store. i spent the next two days holding the back of any skirt down over my butt should i cause further temporary blindness in kenya. the hospitals are full enough!!!

(and, yes, i still do wear the skirt. it is just too comfortable and versatile to retire!)

Tuesday, February 05, 2008

lost

bbc africa radio reports one tragedy after the other. the current situations in chad with rebels storming the capital, and somalia, in which msf workers were killed, make kenya's troubles pale in comparison. still, there has been so much lost in this country in one short month. i can't speak to chad or somalia, but i have had a taste of the atrocities and the losses here in kenya.

kenya has lost its reputation for being a peaceful, stable country. a place known for its hospitable nature and safari tour companies, must now try to restore trust in the rest of the world that it will not spiral into a hateful, precarious state.

kenya has lost its tourists and therefore a major source of its "imported" income. this income provides a very large piece of the governments income. it has now migrated to other countries, much like the wildebeests making their pilgrimage to better places. one might think, oh big deal, a few tourists are gone. think of it this way. tens of thousands of jobs have been lost in that industry alone. it was stated in the paper, that for every person gainfully employed, 10 people are fed. 30,000 jobs lost in a matter of weeks= 300,000 people don't have food to eat.

billions of honestly earned dollars have been and will be lost. did you know that kenya is one of the major exporters of flowers and tea in the world? due to the dangerous road conditions, trucks have been unable to move the goods out of the country, dollars literally wilting, more job layoffs happening. and it is not just the big businesses hit. a local man was unable to ship his truckload of mangoes to nairobi - instead they rotted on the side of the road. other people's vegetables "confiscated" by the youth "protecting" the area. people's liviliehoods lost.

innocent people have lost their lives. over 1,000 people in 4 weeks. i know it is a drop in the bucket compared to rwanda's genocide, but each life lost impacts scores of family members and friends. the fact that 999 other people suffered the same fate does not lessen the pain.

hundreds of thousands of people have lost their homes. if they have not been torched by rowdy youth, they have been told that they are not welcome back, in no uncertain terms. church members in eldoret stated in an interview (on bbc) that their fellow parishioners who were of kikuyu origin cannot come back to live, work, or worship. despite the fact that they have been neighbours for 30 peaceful years. with their homes lost, the displaced people are not finding a welcome mat in any other part of the country either. habitats lost.

women and children have lost their innocence and dignity. it is reported daily that rape is out of control. men who leave their area to fight, leave women and children vulnerable to sick men preying on the sidelines. in the camps for the displaced, women lie in fear for being attacked and assaulted, raped by strangers taking advantage of the most vulnerable people. and the children are privy to this all. they watch their mothers and sisters being violated again and again. it is predicted that the HIV/AIDS fallout is going to be huge.

vulnerable people in the most destitute of circumstances have now lost the ability to access even the most basic health care. in the villages surrounding me, people with HIV/AIDS are terrified to leave their home to receive their ARV medications. the clinic workers have been going to camps looking for them, trying their best to protect the people they have come to love. immune systems will collapse, infections will take hold, and more victims of this chaos will go uncounted, simply because they had a virus.

students and teachers have lost a month of school. some students have lost their school altogether. a children's home and school near eldoret was recently torched because "foreigners managed it." families who have been on the run have nowhere to send their children to school. children have lost their teachers because of the teacher's tribal heritage.

trust has been lost by everyone in almost everything. even i don't trust what people tell me, i don't trust the "youth protecting me" , i don't trust an innocent person greeting me on the street. people don't trust their neighbours or people they have called friends for years.

if people do not lose their pride and anger, to gain peace and forgiveness, kenya will lose its future. that is a loss that no one can afford.