Money weighs a ton !

Today I went to the bank with a rucksack FULL of 1p, 2p, 5p, 10p, and 20p coins ... all donated by several friends who had the odd jar or cake tin where they chucked small change.

"You can have it if you can be bothered to count it and take it to the bank" said one friend ... so I had it !    #3 daughter and I spend a couple of hours sitting on the floor surrounded by money, sorting and counting it all and it came to £57 !!    I was amazed !   So was the bank ... when I went in staggering under a rucksack full of small money. 

Boots, boots, boots ...

We have been told for health and safety reasons to wear steel toe cap boots on the building site, but I've been having problems finding some that aren't too expensive and will fit my wide but small feet !

Luckily daughter #3 had a pair of Docs which were small for her, and a bit big for me, but with thick cotton socks, they will do fine.  I can find someone to give them to there as she doesn't want them back !

So that's my feet sorted ... big, bov ver boy boots with steel toes !

Nice !

I got an information and advice email today from a health organisation we were recommended to join:- 

Bed bugs
‘Sleep tight, don’t let the bed bugs bite!’ is the nightly dictum of the traveller staying in budget accommodation. These oval brown fiends (5-10mm long) usually bite at night and leave a scattering or a line of intensely itchy bites on exposed skin. They can be prevented by choosing good quality accommodation. If you keep a light on at night they will be discouraged from biting, and sleeping under a well-tucked-in permethrin-impregnated bed net will stop them from reaching you. If you have been bitten, do not scratch the bites and take an oral antihistamine (e.g. chlorphenamine or loratidine). Bed bugs do not spread any disease and rarely cause any major harm.

Jiggers
These are sand fleas and are found in many parts of Africa, and in some parts of South America and the Caribbean. Jiggers burrow into the toes or feet, forming pea-size swellings that may ulcerate. The condition that develops is known as tungiasis. They can be easily prevented by wearing sturdy footwear when walking in areas where they occur. In addition, spray your footwear with DEET and inspect your feet periodically, as early removal can help to lessen the infection. If you have a jigger, ask an experienced member of the local community or a medical professional to extract it with a sterile needle and syringe kit. Apply antiseptic afterwards and seek medical advice if you develop redness, pain, pus or swelling. Jiggers pose a tetanus risk so ensure your tetanus boosters are up to date.

Tumbu flies
These live in tropical Africa and, less commonly, South America (also home to the similar bot-fly). Tumbu and bot-flies cause what is known as myiasis – the growth of their larvae in human skin. If you are in an area where these flies are present, watch out for painful boils and make sure there is no maggot inside – they can be identified by two small black dots or the head of a whitish larva. To prevent eggs being laid in your clothes, hot-iron all clothes left to dry outside, including all creases and seams in order to kill the eggs. Better still, dry clothes inside or on a clothes line in full sun. If you do have a larva in your skin, you can kill it by placing a drop of oil or Vaseline on the lesion overnight and then removing the maggot. It is better if a doctor removes it for you, but an experienced local resident may be able to. Ensure that equipment is sterile and that you treat the wound with antiseptic afterwards. Take antibiotics for seven days afterwards. If allergic to penicillin, take either flucloxacillin 500mg four times daily or erythromycin 500mg four times daily.

Ticks
Ticks attach themselves to the body, usually when walking in vegetation or in close proximity to animals. Ticks feed on blood until they enlarge and then fall off. In some cases, they can cause disease (e.g. tick-borne encephalitis, tick-bite fever, some forms of typhus, and Lyme disease). To prevent ticks attaching to you, spray DEET on your skin, or soak your trousers with 100% DEET or permethrin. Tuck your trousers into thick socks and wear sturdy footwear. You can remove ticks by grasping the head end with tweezers and gently pulling them to detach the head-parts. This requires some patience and you should not be tempted to squeeze the tick’s body. Upon removal, apply alcohol to your skin (any spirit will do) and keep an eye out for symptoms of any tick-borne illness occurring.


My #1 daughter got a jigger in her hand when she was at the crawling stage ... it didn't hurt her while it was in her hand, but she didn't like it being removed, for then it did hurt ... the insect produces some sort of anasthetic which numbs the hole they make while it is in situ !

Update on the Kisumu weather

You can see that now the rainy season has ended, and the weather is steady ... sun all day, temperatures in the low to mid 80's, dropping to a pleasant temperature at night !    Lovely ... and snow is forecast here for tomorrow !

Compare this to the weather chart I put up earlier ...

http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2010/10/weather-its-rains-now-in-kisumu.html

People are so kind, so very generous

I'm amazed and almost over-whelmed virtually every day at people's generosity towards the project in Kenya; especially the reasons friends give for donating ... in memory of a certain person, or using some of their winter heating allowance.   Two more Christmas cards today from friends I haven't seen in years, enclosing cheques ...

I knew in my innermost being that I would be able to raise the necessary money somehow ... Christian faith, maybe ?   But I had no idea when I started how it was going to come.    This week in our church study group (known rather rudely by its members as 'The God Squad' !) ... we read the story of the poor widow ...

"Jesus saw the rich putting their gifts into the temple coffers.  He also saw a poor widow put in two very small coins.  'I tell you the truth,' he said, 'this poor widow has put in more than all the others.  They gave out of their wealth, but she out of her poverty put in all she had to live on.' "

It is certainly my experience that this is so with giving to charitable causes ...

You know who you are ... thank you, my friends, for your generosity, from the bottom of my heart.   All your giving, large or small, has been most gratefully received, and will be used wisely in Kenya.

Want a laugh ? Thank you George for this ...

A friend who reads my blog and is good at manipulating photo's thought I might have this sort of bathing arrangement in Kisumu !

Sorry George ... these ladies are Maasai ...

(And oh ! to be that young still !)

The silent day

I managed it !

I attended the coffee morning wearing a placard round my neck saying I wasn't speaking as I had been sponsored to be silent for 24 hours ... and later on, I also attended an evening put on by N., the leader of our group, who had booked the New Rope String Band ... they were fantastic !   Do go and see them if you ever get the chance ... good musicians, comics, story-tellers, clowns, players of odd instruments ... they were all of these ! 

http://www.newropestringband.co.uk/index.html

Thank goodness laughing wasn't in the silence remit !


Being silent, and making it obvious I couldn't speak by wearing a notice had an odd effect on several of the people I met.  It had made me 'disabled' and thus I was out of many peoples experience.   Some read the notice when I pointed it out and behaved very oddly ... these weren't total strangers, but people I have known, in some instances, for 30 years !   One friend decided she had to crouch and whisper at me, like to someone mentally handicapped or in a wheel-chair.  A second person  felt it necessary to raise her voice and speak very simply, like talking to a child.  Another couple of people decided it was easiest to ignore me totally, not even catching my glance.   Having lived the first 21 years of my life with two moderately physically disabled parents, and observed and been angered by the way they were treated all their lives ... I was still startled to see something of the same behaviour given to me !      People are strange ...


Another odd experience I had today was meeting someone in the supermarket, who said she admired what I was doing, but hadn't I thought it might be a good idea to support Amnesty International ?    That got me thinking ...

People who become prisoners of conscience, have actually made a conscious decision to protest about political injustice in their countries, and in making that decision, surely they must have been aware of the risk of imprisonment ?   But youngsters living and dying in absolute poverty on the streets of third world countries haven't made a decision to do so for fun or political reasons !   They are trapped in a situation not of their own making ... and so for me, they deserve much more help and support than political prisoners  ...


... and yes, I do support Amnesty and have written the letters ...


1 comment:

Charlotte said...

Good on you . What you are doing is wonderful. Yes, your analysis of the difference between prisoners of conscience and those who are caught in poverty and ignorance is helpful and perceptive.

11 December 2010,  09:57

Motivation

I've been asked several times lately WHY I'm doing this ... one person even added 'at your age' !!    I wrote my thoughts about this when I started this blog, but it never hurts to re-visit thoughts and ideas, to see if one still thinks the same.

Yesterday, I visited a school in Hereford to see a nativity play.   The children were delightful, the school was warm, clean, well-equipped, comfortable.  The children were obviously well cared for and happy, and appeared to have everything a child could want to eventually grow into a well rounded and carefree young adult.

Children in Kisumu who had all that the Hereford children had would definitely be in a small minority, from very priviledged families, maybe with parents who were government ministers or well paid surgeons.   There are a huge number of AIDS/HIV orphans in Kisumu, either totally family-less, or cast out onto the streets by the remaining relatives they do have, for lack of money, housing, clothes, and the ability to care for them.    Maybe an extended African family has lost all working adults and only very frail grandparents are left, with perhaps 20 children to look after.  How can they ?  So children as young as four or five have to manage to survive on the streets.

When I see and think about my own priviledged grand-children, this knowledge of Kisumu children touches me deeply.   What can I do ?  Well, in the long term, perhaps nothing ... but this project WILL help just a few of them, some of the teenagers anyway, to learn a simple trade which will ultimately get them off the streets and into employment.   My father, himself a disabled orphan,  had to work hard to be able to buy carpentry tools, which earned him money, so his tools will be going to Kenya with me, to give to the carpentry workshop for the boys to use.  And I will tell them the story of the tools and my father ... that they CAN make their lives better ...

Remember the story of the starfish I related here at the end of this entry ...

http://luolaughter.blogspot.com/2010/07/little-about-geography-and-its-effect.html

I doubt that being a Christian makes much difference to my motivation ... many, many good people feel like I do about third world issues and the problems that AIDS/HIV has brought to developing countries ... but I do have to admit that my faith does have something to do with my motives.   Perhaps its that which made me get off my backside and DO something to help ... or perhaps if I'm honest its also the fact that I know Kisumu and the Luo people and something of the language.   I never thought I'd go back to Africa again, so when this opportunity came up, I grabbed it; it seemed like it was meant to be ... that the project was in the part of Africa that I love so much. 

Catch up

Goodness !   Its eight days since I up-dated this.

I've been busy writing Christmas cards, and am sending most people that I haven't seen or spoken to this year, information about the charity ... in the hope I'll get a few more sponsors !

My dear #3 daughter has sponsored me NOT to speak for a whole day on 9th December ... when a friend is holding another coffee morning for my funds ... and I've got to be there, to explain about the charity, where it is, what is it, etc ... all in sign language !    Could be interesting !   I've decided to at the very least wear a sign round my neck, saying

I'm being sponsored

not to speak ...

but I can talk in gestures !

Welcome; come in, have some coffee

and a cake or two !

The rest I'll have to work out gestures for ... and I'll take photos and a map and some info to give out.  At least I can pour the coffee !   And wash the dishes afterwards.

######

I continue with the injections ... last Hepatitus B one this week, plus first of the 3 rabies shots which cost £50 per shot, three in total ... and the vaccine is purple, like meths !  The Hep B jabs have made my arm ache for a couple of weeks; the rabies just itches !   And I've bought a large box of anti-malarials ... I'll be a walking chemists by the time I leave UK !

######

Bilharzia (or schistosomiasis) ...

I was going to write about another nasty African disease, when I mentioned that certain storks eat the snails which act as a host for the parasites. 

Lake Victoria, and all the fresh-water lakes of central Africa harbour these snails, which in turn harbour the parasite causing this disease.   The life cycle is human waste containing the parasite eggs >> into water >> into snails >> from the snails to water again in a mature form >> into human, where the parasite enters the body through the skin or by drinking the water ... and the parasites travel through the body to the liver and spleen ... etc etc. 

It is not at first fatal; treatment is effective, but prevention is far better by not going into or drinking water from the lakes.   Children with bilharzia are often recognisable by their distended stomachs ...

So for volunteers going to central Africa, the answer is 'keep out of fresh-water lakes and slow moving streams'

I hope I haven't put you off your supper !



Packing ... and pricing up anti-malarials

I bought myself an enormous suitcase with wheels in a charity shop for a few pounds, meaning to leave it behind when I come home.  (My personal stuff goes in my rucksack).  As I've got heaps of stuff for Kenya all around the house, it suddenly occured to me that I could tidy up a bit by sticking it into the case !   (I'm a slow learner !)

So in it all goes, childrens clothes, bra's (!); wood working tools; my new tin mug (its on the list we were given ... to use when cleaning teeth with bottled water); a ball of string and a roll of duct tape (doesn't everyone travel the world with those two essential items ?); tin opener, sharp knife, basic cutlery;  all those tubes and bottles of insect repellant, sun cream, diarrhoea pills that I bought when they were cheap at the end of summer; mosquito net ...

* * * * *

We have to take anti-malarial drugs for a week before we go, while we are there, and for a month on our return.   I've opted for doxyclycline, but you can't just get it free from the doctor !  He will give a 'private patient' prescription for it, cost £10.   I can take this to a chemist and buy the drugs ... BUT they vary in price at different chemists !   Alternately, if the doctor orders the drugs for me through their own dispensary, I don't have to pay the £10 !   So I've been shopping around, working out what it'll cost  and where its cheapest !

As a follow on from the last posting ...

... I've found this picture of one of the butchers in Pandipieri.



Contrast the water suppliers, and the butchers in a corrugated iron shack, with this ...

... that's the new pentecostal church.    As a Christian, I have no objection to the supporters giving money and building a fine new church ... and they may well be providing facilities in the shanty town, I don't know ... but I do know from experience in other countries that its very often the case that raising money for the big church comes first, and the local problems of homelessness, hunger, poor water supply, ill health, work for those that have none ... come a very poor second.   Ever was it thus ... the early missionaries did exactly the same ... the beautiful building for the church came first, the building of the health centres and the schools came second.    That, in my opinion, is wrong ... people and their needs should come first.

Water ...

I was searching Google maps, and found there are also pictures !     This is some of the Pandipieri district water supply ...


I think we will buy bottled drinking water !

Euros, and more fund raising ...

I've today been sent 30 euros by a friend abroad !  I must find a calculator to see how much that is, and also whether or not to change it into pounds before I pay it in to our treasurer !

A good friend of mine is holding a coffee morning for me in two weeks, and then I'm doing an austerity lunch after Christmas, so people can have a meal that counteracts the gluttony of Christmas !   I'm planning to make several pots of home made veg soups, home made breads, and fruit for pud !

Donations are still coming in ... which is good.  People are infinitely kind and generous; and I keep emphasizing the fact that money donated to HATW goes straight to the project; unlike, perhaps money donated to some other third world schemes where an amount is sent out to a third world country, and only half of it ever reaches the project.  

Time for another picture ...  these are fascinating birds seen around Kisumu ... open billed storks.  They live around the lake and nest in tree, and the gap in the bill, even when its closed, means they can pick up and eat water snails.   Very useful as the snails are hosts to another nasty disease ... bilharzia ... more of that later !



The dirty water disease ... cholera !

Cholera is all in the foreign news nowadays, as Haiti is trying to tackle an outbreak.  Haiti is truly suffering; they had a massive earthquake just about a year ago, and a large part of the population is still living in unsanitary tent cities; then a month ago a hurricane swept through; now there is cholera.   In Kenya, cholera pops up now and again, but I don't recall such an epidemic of it as in Haiti.   We did have one outbreak while I was there; no vaccine was available, so I just ensured strict hygiene practices, of hand washing for the man who worked for me, and I cooked all our food myself, and boiled all our water.

It is primarily a disease which proliferates in dirty water, unsanity latrines, and the lack of plentiful clean water for washing hands and preparing food.    When the population has to rely on dirty pools and rivers for their water, then the cholera bacteria, Vibrio cholerae, can easily increase in warm, filthy water.    Its symptoms are profuse watery diarrhoea and vomiting.  Dehydration is what causes death, so oral re-hydration salts are the first treatment, to replace lost liquid and salts/sugars from the body.   If that fails, then it is treatable with intravenous fluids and anti-biotics.   The anti-biotic we are taking against malaria, doxycycline, is also a treatment for cholera.

So for our team out in Kisumu, we have to ensure we eat only hot food, or fruit we have washed and peeled ourselves.  Salads and raw vegetables or things like ham are a definite no-no !!  Tea is safe ... as African tea with the milk and sugar added, is usually boiled to death, for a considerable period !   Drinking water we will have to buy, and this applies to teeth cleaning water too.    Water for washing ourselves or clothes can be the normal town supply, which may or may not be treated against water bourne diseases. 

We will all have had cholera immunisations ... I had my second dose yesterday !   Nowadays its two doses of Dukoral taken a week apart. 

G's fund raising night - 'Pamper and Pudding' !!

G., the other lady on our team arranged a 'Pudding and Pampering' evening at a nearby college of further education !   One 'treatment' and a pudding included in the ticket price, more available if wanted !   So I gathered up a carload of friends, and we went !

The treatments were done by girl students who were all in training for the beauty industry ... we were their guinea pigs !   They were all young and ambitious, and very smart, and competent at what they did, even though they are still in training.

I decided to have a pedicure, as I've never had one before ... I now have beautiful feet with gold painted toe nails !    Then a pudding ... wow, no calories spared there !   I managed to eat three ... chocolate surprise, pavlova and delicious fruit salad.    My friends had head massages, facials, manicures ... and one had a back massage, which sounded so relaxing, I decided to have one too !   The girl who did it was superb ... soft, soothing music, and her hands on my back were like a gentle ballet !!   She was good. 

One more pud and a cup of coffee, and we came home, pampered, relaxed and sweetly smelling !     It was an excellent evening.   I've suggested to G. that she does it again as an after Christmas special ...

A third traditional Luo story

"Nyiego en gimarach !"

Akelo and Akong'o were two women, both married to the same man.   (This is Nyanza, remember ... polygamy used to be common !)    Both women had borne their husband a daughter.  The problem was that Awino, the daughter of Akong'o, was more beautiful than Awiti, the daughter of Akelo.

Akelo was jealous, for young men kept coming to propose marriage to Awino, and Awiti was ignored.  Akelo decided she must kill her daughter's rival when she was asleep.  The girls slept in the siwindhe (the place where unmarried girls slept with an older woman, perhaps their own grandmother).  The girls who were the best of friends, shared a bed, each keeping to her own side.

Akelo asked her daughter which side she slept in; Awiti replied 'away from the door'.  But when Awino, the other girl heard this, she was suspicious, and begged her sister to change places.   So on the fateful night Awiti was nearest the door.

At the darkest hour, Akelo crept in to murder Awino, but instead slaughtered her own child, and crept out again.

Next morning when everyone saw what had happened, there was wailing and sorrow.  Akelo pretended to mourn with everyone else, for like others in the village, she had not seen the body, until she followed the mourners into the siwindhe where the girls had slept ... only to find it was her very own dear Awiti who lay there dead.  Here was a corpse she hadn't expected, and now she really was grief-stricken, wailing with greater sadness than the village folk had ever seen before.

So the moral of this story is:  Nyiego en gimarach !  Jealousy is a bad thing !

Malaria and HIV

A friend who read what I wrote yesterday, asked me if a mosquito bites someone with HIV, and then bites another person, can HIV be carried in that way ?

The answer is 'No' ... because although many nasty diseases are passed by a mosquito bite, HIV isn't one of them.  Any HIV that the mosquito sucks up, is digested by the mosquito's metabolism.  

If the virus changes one day ... it doesn't bear thinking about !

Malaria ? Nothing to do with 'bad air' as thought in the past !

Several of my friends who are following my preparations and are getting interested in African travel and work, have asked me many questions about common diseases in African, Kenya in particular.   So I'll occasionally give blog-followers some information !

Malaria, as most people already know, is spread by the bite of a mosquito.  But its not so simple as that; Kenya has several species of mosquito, and it is only the female Anopheles mosquito that bites and spreads the parasite that causes malaria.   A true case of the female being more deadly than the male !

Once bitten, by an infected mosquito, the Plasmodium parasite enters the blood stream, where it travels to the liver and multiplies, and after several weeks, a bout of malaria ensues.  If a mosquito then bites the patient, it sucks up some of the parasite in its blood meal, and thus carries it to another person. 

Symptoms are very similar to British flu' ... sweating, headache, shivering ... but in a tropical country, malaria should always be tested for, and treated quickly. 

Prevention is always better than cure ... and to prevent malaria, precautions to prevent being bitten should be taken, such as using insecticide treated nets at night; 50% DEET insect repellant; and wearing long sleeves and trousers in the evenings.   Obviously, anti-malarial drugs are essential for volunteers or visitors to areas known to be the habitat of mosquitos ... such as shanty towns, the area around lakes, the Kenya coast.

So I've ordered Doxycycline tablets, to start before I go, and to continue a month after my return ...

If that makes you squeamish, I'll continue next time with another nasty !!

Holes in my arms ...

Hepatitis B in the right; typhoid in the left, and cholera juice straight down the throat !

Next week ... meningitis A & C, W & Y ... plus yellow fever ...

'And that'll be £117 please !'  


Good job I had my credit card ...


Now I've got two sore arms, and the glands under my arms are hurting ... think I'll go and curl up with a choc ice and watch a video !!

What 'Hands Around the World' has done ... so far !

BENIN:  
Refurbished a village health centre and staff house
Built 3 flood-proof classrooms on stilts
Started a sponsorship programme benefitting 30+ orphaned children


BRAZIL:
Refurbished 3 children's Homes
Built 2 new favela children's support centres

GHANA:
Built orphanage and school.
Supported programme with 65 children in care, 125 in school
Supported past HATW volunteers to set up a sponsorship programme for about 50 children

INDIA:
Built home for abandoned children
Built school for 130+, and vocational training centre
Started a sponsorship programme for children

KENYA:
Built a school dormitory and wheelchair-friendly dining facilities + kitchen, able to accommodate 60 children
Provided in-service training for various types of medical staff
Built 2 small schools, one urban and one rural
Built a carpentry training workshop for vulnerable youngsters (ongoing)
Built accommodation for children in care
Undertook training of bereavement counsellors (ongoing)
Built 2 houses each for 10 children in orphans' village, also classroom block for 60 children

RWANDA:
Building 4 classroom block ... current

SOUTH AFRICA:
Set up a rural hospital physiotherapy department and helped train staff at three hospitals
Developed a children's resource centre out of an old hospital building
Built a 'flying doctors' aircraft hangar

SWAZILAND:
Built classroom blocks at 2 primary schools

UGANDA:
Built a secondary school girls dormitory
Built teenagers' carpentry and tailoring training workshops
Helped develop the training programme with management support and advice, also tools and sewing machines
Started a young persons' sponsorship programme
Repaired and completed dilapidated primary school classrooms
Built 4 classrooms at a rural girls' secondary school

ZAMBIA:
Provided various staff in service training
Built pharmacy, laboratory and 2 ward extensions, and a small high-dependency nursing unit
Built classroom, office, storage, kitchen, toilet blocks, windmill water pump, staff and animal housing. Provided ongoing financial support with staff costs, also staff mentoring
Built 2 small schools, provided ongoing support for staff wages, furniture, books, equipment, land purchase and sports field
Started up a sponsorship programme for children
Helped build a school + vocational training centre including mains water and electricity installation