Settling in....

Not a whole lot exciting to report. We have settled into our project and are in the process of working as quickly as we can to ge things moving! 6 weeks really isn't a lot of time. After a lot of back and forth and being told I couldn't do a number of the projects that I was thinking about, we settled on looking at neonatal sepsis. For those who care to hear about medical stuff...read on...otherwise feel free to skip on by.

*****Medical interlude******Anyway, nearly 50% of deaths in kiddos under 5 years old occur in that first month of life. This is around a million newborns per year and likely even higher since upwards of 50-60% of moms in developing countries deliver at home and never present for care. The most common cause of death is infection which is both preventable with appropriate care and counseling and treatable if identified early enough. Anyway, we are looking at the practices in this community (such as applying cow dung to the umbilical cord, unsanitary delivery practices and feeding newborns herbs and other things) that lead to an increased prevalence of infection in the community. We actually just saw a little one with sepsis and neonatal tetanus (so sad) who was delivered at home and whose mom put both cow and lizard dung on her cord to dry it. When she started getting sick, she was given tea leaves. Sad thing is, when you ask mom, it becomes apparent that socioeconomic status and gender inequality were the true precipitating factors. Dad refused to pay for a hospital delivery (it's pay per service here) and refused to give money to take the baby to get health care when she started getting sick. It's funny to me how many people in the developed world perseverate on their birth plans and natural deliveries...This is what a natural delivery looks like in the real world. It's not all birthing tubs and Enya piped in in surround sound. But, I digress and to those of my friends who going for the natural birth...I support you... just please make sure that your midwife is certified and a hospital is close by in the event that, God forbid, anything go wrong.*************End of Medical Interlude*************

so other than the project, not much exciting though as I type this we are having our first big rain and thunder storm and incidentally, the transformer just blew and sparks just flew in front of my window...no power or internet...so not sure when I'll actually be able to post this.

The president came to visit yesterday to celebrate 100 years of the Catholic church in Kisii. He had lunch at where I'm staying (it's the Catholic Guesthouse) but I stayed out of the way. Watched the marching band and all the excitement but wasn't too sure about joining in at lunch. The funniest part has been that over the past week, in order to prepare for his visit they have re-painted every wall and gate, recovered chairs, and re-done all the side walks...looks great here now.

ok, that's about it for me...here's a few picts...