It’s been some weeks now and we’ve spent most of our time here in Kijabe working at the hospital. Some of us have some training in some areas like physical and speech therapy and counseling and they have helped out in those respective areas. Me, I’ve been getting to work in the kitchen. First day we just jumped right in, they handed me off to one of the guys there named Joseph who has now become my best friend there; he’s been working at the hospital for about fifteen years now, speaks seven different languages, English and the rest different tribal ones. There are about fifty or more tribes in Kenya, one were they can’t have more than a hundred people in their tribe.
Working in the hospital has been fun, all the staff knows English so I’ve been able to talk with and get to know them, they love having us working with them there; always giving us food and chai and wanting us to stay for lunch so we could stay with them longer which I’ve done on more than one occasion. I’ve gotten to go through the process of washing dishes, cutting vegetables, sifting through rice and beans, buttering bread, sorting and placing dishes throughout the hospital and then getting to serve chai and food to the patients. We’ll wheel out the chai on carts full of cups with two to three kettles of chai one without sugar for the diabetics and then we’ll sometimes have porridge as well. Then the same with the food, we’ll have food without salt for the diabetics and sometimes it will get a little confusing trying to figure out what exactly they want, luckily I’ll go with one of the kitchen staff so if I need to they’re able to translate. During that time I’ll get to talk with some of the patients and one time I got to meet a woman named Milka, a Kikuyu and she was over a hundred years old. She told me how she was there before the hospital was built and when the missionaries came to Kijabe and helped build the hospital and then the rest of the place. She even said she knew Simon our contact who is the main pastor there and is pretty well known throughout the area, back when he was a little kid.
Then we also got to go to Nairobi for some time off to relax and have fun. We got to visit the supermarkets that pretty much make you feel like your back in America, taking the city happa’s for only as little as thirty bob, around twenty-five cents, way cheaper than a taxi or matatu. They will try and rip you off and not only them, the people selling their wares in the markets as well. We got to visit and check out some of the markets, a whole bunch of paintings, jewelry, cloths, and souvenirs been sold. I had a nice little time negotiating with a guy on a shirt, but the dude would not lower enough for me to end up buying it. I was able to get it lowered from 2,800 to 1,000 shillings but I said I would only spend 500 at the most. I just think the guys was too used to selling to tourists and being able to get as much as he was asking for since the tourists don’t really know any better.
Now we are heading off to the next tribe Turkana and will be spending five days with them. I’m looking forward to spending time in Rare (you roll the r and it sounds like Rar-e) and getting to know the people there and exploring the area.
