Today I spent the day tromping through Chamakoa and yesterday I was in Kombe. Both are HUGE areas – I am totally wiped! And, of course, yesterday I had my camera but forgot to take pictures and then today I forgot to bring my camera all together! So I will do my best to describe what it looked like. Honestly, many of them look the same – there are few trees, a lot of brush, thorn bushes with huge thorns (like 2 or 3 inches long – got one stuck through my shoe and it JUST missed my foot), cacti and other desert-like plants. Kombe is spread out over this huge hill – it is about 1.5 kilometers wide. We met the CHW, Catherine, at the center, which is on the main road, and then proceeded to walk all over the place! I had some great interviews – talked to one woman who belongs to the “Roho” religious sect – I guess they are part of the Legions, but I’m not sure who they are. Anyway, their baby isn’t allowed to leave the house, or have anyone touch it except its mother, until 1 month when the elders come and take it outside. Isn’t that crazy? I also heard a couple of disturbing stories about Mbita maternity center. One woman said she came there with only 200 shillings. The nurse who received her said they needed at least 350 shillings in order to get the supplies they needed to take care of her. She said, according to the woman, “200 ksh is not enough. You can go lie in that bed there, but we will not attend to you.” Then she took the 200 shillings and didn’t come back! That poor woman delivered all by herself in the hospital and said that the nurse didn’t come until it was time to cut the cord. Not cool. Oh, and she wasn’t allowed to leave until she had paid 700 more shillings, which her husband had to go out and borrow in order for her to be able to leave.
Today, the most interesting thing I learned was that the women believe that you should drink Coca Cola after having sex when you are pregnant in order to “wash the baby.” Isn’t that crazy? One woman said you could also drink Tusker. Hmmm. If you don’t, the baby will be born with a lot of “mucus” on their head that you can’t wash off. Then everyone will see it and know that you didn’t “wash” your baby properly and no one will touch the baby. Chamakoa was also HUGE – we walked and walked and walked! At least it feels like that – it probably just feels bigger because it is hot, but seriously, we started at 10 and didn’t finish until 5. I spoke with 5 women, so we probably walked an average of about 3 hours. Which is about how it is every day.
I forgot to tell you about breakfast at Millie’s. So, I’m used to white bread being the staple breakfast food – not my first choice, but no problem. Saturday morning, we bought eggs for breakfast and Millie fried them up. She then proceeded to butter one piece of bread, put another on top, butter that one too, then put the egg on it and then a third piece of bread on top! Oh my – that just seems to be the norm though. It’s pretty much the norm, at one meal, to eat 5 or 6 pieces of bread.
She also has this cat (and you all know how I feel about cats – blecchhh) and when I was asleep at night, I all of a sudden felt these claws land on my leg. I jumped up and Millie goes “Oh, it’s just the cat – he jumps at night.” Oh really? At first I thought it was actually on top of me, but the net was up, so I had that between me and the cat (which is really nothing, but it made me feel better). The cat did not stay – I kicked it off. It stayed away from me the rest of the time. J
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