dawn: adventures of a journeywoman

Life isn't all a downer in Kenya (I think I may have painted it that way in my last entry). In fact, this week things finally started to really get moving! The highlight of my week was (perhaps to many, very obvious) helping deliver my first baby. When I had come back to the clinic after my hour lunch break on Wednesday at 2pm, I was told a mother had come to deliver. I expected to be there for most of the night with the delivery but at 2:45 pm, the baby boy was born! I quickly learned that this is the Kenyan way-wait until the very last second and then travel (many times across a river) to a midwife or a clinic. The only problem is, when difficult cases arrive at the last second, the clinic has no means of doing C-sections and it's virtually impossible to transport them to the nearest hospital. The road to leave the village is long, uphill, and is so uneven that bicycles and buses generally won't go up it.
The other exciting news at the clinic was the arrival on Wednesday afternoon (Yes, it was a double delivery day) of a brand new WORKING refridgerator! It was perfect timing because we had just found out that a 5-day Measles vaccination and Vitamin A campaign starts this Saturday at 6am. And since vaccinations need to be kept cold (these at 2-8 degrees C), our old method was a 1.5 hour long walk to the nearest clinic at the beginning and end of every day with a freezer bag. This is expensive, time-consuming, and exhausting (especially for this 5-day long 6am-6pm campaign). See the picture of my excited colleagues and me.
I recently learned to cook ugali, the staple food of Western Kenya. We typically have ugali and lunch and dinner every day. If a Kenyan has a meal without ugali, they say they feel empty. This is because it is basically ground maize flour, boiled with water unitl it is a dense, solid white mixture. You tear off a hunk of it, mold it into a utensil without burning your fingers, and use it to scoop up the vegetable. We usually have ugali with either cabbage, kale greens (called skuma here, or the other greens called miro and sabebe(which are actually pumpkin leaves). When the nurses found out yesterday that we don't have ugali flour in the U.S., they were shocked. "What do you eat?" they asked. As I explained to them various foods I like in the U.S., they decided that they are loading my suitcase with ugali flour when I leave (I think because none of my food choices satisfied them as an acutal meal). My new favorite meal is tea time. Yes, Kenya was once a British colony so both breakfast and tea time (around 6 pm) we get "chai"-the actual Kiluyia name for tea- and bread with butter. Yes, dinner is late. I come inside with the kids around 7-7:30pm when it gets dark and dinner is around 8:30pm or 9pm. Then we head right to bed. Yes, there is a distinct stone in the stomach feeling with the heavy ugali right before bed, but there's not much to do when the kids fall asleep and there is no electricity. I try to stay awake with my flashright reading, but haven't lasted longer than a half hour. Earlier this week I convinced my mother to let me have an early supper, take a nap from 8pm-10pm and then go watch the World Cup games at the church until a little after midnight. Walking home betweeen the 6 foot high maize at night under the moonlight was magical. I think the final game on Sunday will air here at 11pm-so that will be a short night with the 6am vaccine call in the morning.
(By the way I'm pulling for Italy-that last game vs. Germany had a very satisfying ending). It's time to make my mad dash around town to gather fruits and vegetables from the market for my mother for dinner.