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.

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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