People

Day 29-Migori

This is Kate. I have been in Bware for the past 7 days while James was working in Migori.  I was thinking that most of our entries have been about the place-time, the dirt, the rain, Kenya-the place.  It's really about the people.  The people I meet every day, the folk we visit, the women I walk with, the family I live with, the students. So let me write a little about them.

Our host family's kids

James & the Oker family kids

Our home-stay family.

We stay in Bware with Benson Oker, his wife Domatilla, and five children--Ruth, Collins, Philis, Paris and Wilma.  Benson is the principal at Bware Primary School, a pastor at Gat (God's Mountain) Pentacostal Church and a farmer.  His father, at 82,  is also a elder at the church and an active farmer.  Domtila is a homemaker.  She runs  a spotless home, cooks on a wood stove, keeps a small shop, and tends the children.  It is a dawn-to-dusk job.  We spend convivial evenings over dinner (evening tea) chatting across our several language barriers (English-Kswahilli-Loa) about culture, politics, and geography.  Philis, a sweet little girl with a huge smile and quiet giggle, and I spend a fair amount of time happily drilling "Maths".  That game has gone much better since I found and washed 10 nuts to use as counters.

The Community Health Workers.

I walk with Marseline, Daphyn, Margarete, Linette, and Grace.  They each know their districts (there are 6, I haven't met Janet yet).  There are no street names, no addresses.  When we walk down the road to Endembe then turn down the hill to a cattle path to find a wattle home with 2 skinny cows and an unswept yard, we have used their mental map of their own area.  The Community Health Workers  remember each person's name and what is going on with them.  They know where the sister or daughter lives.  They know who is going to carry the water and who will most likely accompany the patient to the hospital.  They remember the phone number for the piki-piki driver who will be willing to tie the patient to himself for the ride to Migori.  No charts, no GPS, all very effective memory.
I do not know if I add very much to their team.  I do have a flashlight,  blood pressure cuff and a stethescope.  I add some weight to their recommendation--"the misungu says you need to go to the dispensary".  I write stuff down.

BUCHWA member, Linette, & James visiting a client

Kate with a client & her mother in their home

Today we are walking to make a survey of disabled folk of all ages in the Bware area.  I am recording it to make the survey more concrete.  Other duties of Community Health Workers include:  Checking- in on pregnant women the way Maternal-Child Workers do everywhere, completing immunization sweeps (maybe carrying polio vaccine to administer at home), and providing HIV education and support (think adherence).  These strong, knowledgeable women are experts about health and the situations people find themselves in.

The people we meet.

Then there are all the people we pass on the road, paths, and trails.  Lots.  There are people everywhere.  Walking, farming, carrying water, stopped at this kiosk or that home.  Most everyone smiles and waves--so I do too.  Many reach out for a handshake, so I shake hands, 50 or 100 every day.  "Habari", they say.  "Nzuri", I answer.  Or maybe it's "Jumbo" or for a child "Shikimo".  Down the red dird road I go slowly by slowly--"Jumbo", "Habari", "Shikimo"-ing along under the clear blue sky and hot hot sun of Kenya.

Kate with Marceline, Dafyne, & Linette crossing a stream to make home visits on the other side of the valley