Gong show day

So at 5 am today I caught a bus going from Arusha, Tanzania to Mbeya, Tanzania (north to south). It is a 16 hour trip.

About half an hour in I went to grab my camera out of the bottom of my bag, and could not find it. I then proceded to empty out the entire contents of my bag- still no camera.

So I had to find someone to interpret to the conductor that I needed to get off the bus and go back to Arusha to find my camera.

Got off without a hitch, and quickly caught a mini-bus heading back to Arusha.

Good right?... until a passing mini-bus collided into the side of our bus. No biggie, kept on driving.

All the sudden, at the next stop the conductors of these two buses got out, and started a huge fist fight! All the passengers got out screaming and shooting in what is normally a sleepy little town. The villiagers all come running.

Ten minutes later it stops just as it had begun, everyone got excitedly back in the buses.

Good now, right?...

The buses proceded to having a pissing match over passing each other. Passengers yelling like it was a sport. All the way until the next town when they were pulled over by the police and brought to the police station.

Caught another ride back to Arusha, but my cemera is gone. One of the cleaning staff must of stolen it as it never left my room. :(

Greeting Cards for Sale

Hello Everyone,
As part of my work in Kenya, with Kenya Network of Women with AIDS (KENWA), I have been working on "Focus for Change," a photography project documenting the lives of those living positively, as well as those children whose lives are affected by AIDS. Locally, a photo exhibition will be taking place to mark World AIDS Day on Decemeber 1st. The aim of this documentary photography project is to raise funds for orphaned and vulnerable children who receive support from KENWA. Samples of the photographs can currently be viewed on this blog
and will be uploaded to http://www.kenwafosterchildren.org/ very shortly. This website speaks about many of the children Focus for Change is aiming to support.

The cards have been printed in Vancouver, BC and can be mailed out to interested parties. They are presently being sold as Craft Fairs in the Vancouver vicinity. Proceeds from these sales will go directly towards the care of children being supported by KENWA.

The cost is $2.50 for 1 card + shipping if applicable
$10.00 for 5 cards + shipping if applicable

Each card tells the personal story of the person featured in the photograph.Attached is a brief description of the project. If interesting in purchasing cards, or sending a donation to please contact myself at samrkaplan@gmail.com

Thank-you for your time,
Sam Kaplan
HIV/AIDS Advocacy and Education Officer
Canadian International Development Agency
College of the Rockies

Ok so I'm a bit slow on the update!

I just came back from an amazing week travelling to Uganda (due to the need to renew my visa for Kenya). i somehow got stuck in the oh so lovely town of Jinja, Uganda. Went white water rafting on the Nile River 3 times (an escaped with only a few bruises), quading in the countryside, and a bit too much late night partying at the hostel. It was fantastic! If you are on facebook you can see photos there.

In more work related news I am working on a couple of websites for 2 orphanages- one being for the orphanage in Murang'a that Kenya Network of Women with AIDS runs. they currently have 30 children in their care who range in age from 2 months to 13 years.

Also have compiled a list of 20 orphan and vulnerabel youth who would like to attend secondary school but lack the means to pay the school fees. Some of you should be receiving information about this shortly.

Anyways all is well!
xo Sam

Hey There,

So I'm obviously not much of a writer, but wanted to let everyone know that things are ging great. I've been really busy, doing lots of workshops, and trying to get two websites up for orphanages but internet is sloowwwwwwwww here!

Anyways here is just one picture, Ayub and me with a guilty addiction- Fanta!

Masai Mara National Park

I just came back from a 3 day in the Masai Mara. It was absolutely amazing- better than I could have ever dreamed of. Anyways here are some of the 500+ photos I took. It is the annual wilder beast migration where a couple of million wilder beast migrate through the park along with many other animals.





















These ostriches did everything in unison!





















Do I have something in my teeth?















Lion cubs!















Hippos are huge and EVIL. They wade around in the water waiting for some poor innocent animal to come along so that they can kill it. Once dead they just let it go- the joy is in the kill and much later chomping down on some rotten meat.














A hawk post kill (has something in its' talons)














Giraffes are such sweet, curious creatures. They are also very awkward looking (much like you Carter!)














This lone elephant came stampeding towards us. He was not happy to have the company.














Mama cheetah and baby.

I will post more photos later as it takes a long time to upload them!

KENWA- Starring Maureen and Ayub

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Two of my favorite kids! Both are orphans who spend a lot of time at KENWA.

1. 

The kids at KENWA

114 kids came to KENWA last Saturday for support and fun. All of them are affected or infected with HIV. We did face-painting, made a hand print banner, and sang songs. Then they ate lots of food and learned some basics about HIV/AIDS.

Anyways all is well here, and I will try to upload more photos tomorrow. Below is Marua. He is 7 months old and lives at KENWA as his mom passed away the day after he was born. He is so easy-going and very sweet.

Rafiki

Rafiki means friend in Kiswahili

This pup and two other dogs, likely her parents, were trying to cross a busy road when she got hit by a car. We happened to be walking to work along the same road and came upon this scene as a man kicked Rafiki across the road, bunting her 5 feet into the air as she screamed. When we got up to the scene it was obvious that the car accident had broken her leg at the very least.


We carried her to two different vet establishments where the vets were not equipped to deal with her, and then took a cab to the 3rd vet. We thought that she would make it once her leg was fixed, she was so feisty.


As soon as he checked out her eyes and gums I knew that she was not going to live- she was bleeding out internally and the emergency vet treatment that might have been able to save her life in Canada is not available here.


Instead she was humanely put to sleep.

Well I finally found a computer that will upload pictures!

Here are some photos of KENWA, where I work. The 2nd floor of this building is where KENWA is located.











I am working with a group of HIV + women who are making bags to help support their families. If you would like to buy one let me know. The cost is $6 a bag plus a couple of dollars for shipping and handling. They are great for getting groceries, etc.















This is not where we had lunch:
















Here are some of their designs.







































Nyeri KENWA helps support about 40 orphans. Two of them live at KENWA full-time (Marowa and Joki) so I get to play with them quite a bit. Others, such as Marowa's two older sisters stay at school, and many others live with relatives. KENWA provides one meal a day for these kids (as well as adults in need) and covers their uniform and school fees.

This is Marowa, his older sister Maureen, and Joki:
















Marowa post food- this kid is awesome!



















Another of Maureen- she loves my camera

Pictures from Nairobi National Park

This giraffe was such a ham for the camera, posing in all different directions for us. Apparently he has watched too much America's Next Top Model.




























See the ostrich in the foreground? A male ostrich was chasing her trying to mate, she ran off, scaring the giraffes!
Also, look in the background and you can see how close the city is to the park!
















Zebra's and a rhino
































And finally, the random child on the bus we fought over window space with :)

So what am I doing here?

I am going to post some pictures later on, I just have to get to a computer with an available USB outlet first.

So 3 us of us found a 3 bedroom house to live in, and moved in lastnight. I have a bunkbed! There is passion fruit growing in out backyard, and a cement front yard perfect for frisbee.

We went to Nairobi National Park on the weekend so I'll post picturesof that shortly too! We saw giraffes, and zebras, a baboon's back end (before running of), and a black rhino!!! It was stellar.

In other news, here are my project plans over the next couple of months:

Will meet with Francis every Friday morning to report and update


1) Assessment of strengths and needs for those KENWA clients supported by home-care.
-25 Community Health Workers (CHW) are employed through KENWA. Each CHW supports 15 bed-ridden clients through-out the Nyeri district. Will visit 5 clients per CHW, equating to a total of 125 homes to visit. Will create individual profiles for each home. Homes will vary in size and dynamic aiming to gathering a general census on KENWA's home-based clients, with the potential of funding application for assessed needs.
Will collect the following data:
-Family profile: members, ages, employment/schooling, health.
-Health history for HIV+ clients, primarily around date of most recent CD4 test (100 KSH), and liver function test (200KSH)- assessing whether costs of tests are inhibiting regular screening, and need for applying for funding for testing. Also looking at number of clients on AVT, and further need.
-Current and potential Income Generating Activities (IGA). Looking at networking clients in order to create groups that can apply for loans through organizations such as KEEF

2) Population Service International has trained a youth group on educational performances and KENWA has HIV at the workplace advocates that are both facilitating educational programs on HIV/AIDS. Work with these groups to plan out possible forums for their training service, as well as possible further educational needs of the groups.

3) Youth training and education on HIV/AIDS and STI's. KENWA targets to have educational sessions during the 3rd and 4th week of August when schools are closed. Work with the youth group and potentially Kettie to organize the workshops. Youth week begins August 6th. PSI's youth group to participate in activities. Will attend to gather information.

4) Visit the Children's Home in Murang'a which houses 14 children who are orphans. Profile and assess strengths and needs of these children and the Children's Home. Look at possible fundraising strategies and possibilities for expansion since KENWA aims for all of their orphans, who do not have relatives able to care for them, to eventually live at this facility. Nyeri KENWA currently has 2 orphans that live full-time at their facility, and supports about 40 others who live with relatives.

5) Learn about and update the KENWA website.

6) Visit the Thika KENWA for two days in September to gather information about their programs and services.

7) Agriculture Show takes place in Nyeri for one week around September 12th. Work at the table during this time.

8) Continue the work of past volunteers supporting the women making bags to get their products out in the public.

9) Aug. 13-18- attending Trauma Counseling training at KENWA, through the Amani Institute

Hey Folks,
I don't have much time as I am just on my way to work, but all is fine. Kenya is beautiful. After a couple of days of sun, it is currently raining Vancouver style. We are currently working on finding housing and will hopefully have somewhere to live by this weekend. I got to view a fantastic public education performance put on by a youth group that is part of KENWA. It was about remaining safe and using protection. Even though I do not yet know the language the message and humour was very apparent. I think that part of my job will be visiting HIV+ folks in the Nyeri district (an area of about 40 kms) and looking at risk factors, needs, etc. I'm sure I'll be finding out more and learning so much over the next few weeks. I'll post pictures and more info soon!

Sam

Off to Kenya

Hi Everyone,
I fly out of Canada later today. I am going to Kenya, for 6 months, through an internship with CIDA and College of the Rockies. I will be living in Nyeri and working with KENWA (Kenya Network of Women with AIDS). Here are a couple of links for more info about KENWA:

KENWA

Another site about KENWA

KENWA is a grassroots organization started by 5 HIV positive woman who lost their family and social support network upon learning about their positive status. It now supports about 5500 adults and 1700 children- supplying food and shelter to those in need, ARV drug therapy for about 850 people, counselling and dissemination of information about HIV/AIDS, among many of activities. Basically they do great work.

This Blog is a means of keeping in touch with as many folks updated as are interested in reading and seeing photos.

See many of you in 6 months!
Cheers,
Sam