dawn: adventures of a journeywoman

I am now operating at warp speed. The amount of projects I want to complete/accomplish before I leave keeps multiplying somehow instead of decreasing. In my last entry, I told of the pain of watching caretakers of AIDS orphans in Shikokho who needed mosquito nets also be denied a new latrine. Although I know (but still keep learning) that I cannot fix everything, on Monday at least one problem could be solved. The 30 caretakers of the orphans who don't have a net came to the clinic on Monday afternoon as we demonstrated proper usage and distributed them. But once again word got out that I'm the "net lady" and all week people came to the clinic to tell me their sob story and beg for a net. (I didn't give in because many stories don't turn out to be true, so I explained the way the receivers of the nets were chosen: registered orphans who lacked a net at their home visit).
In Kenya, the school year begins in January and ends at the end of November with 3 terms. This week was the last week of the 2nd term and the electricity of excitement from the kids in the community was extremely palpable. Last week, both the primary and secondary students had their final exams and this week was marking. Basically that means that the kids come to school and grade papers and the children come to school to see how much trouble they can get into without adult supervision. Sometimes it's amusing, but sometimes it gets annoying as the boredom got so high that we had at least 30-40 secondary students come to the clinic to "play patient" (ie act sick and see what free drugs they can get. However, this game is quickly solved by asking them to drop their pants so I can give them an injection with a large needle). But on the last day of the term, the teachers gather at a "head table" outside facing hundreds of students as the marks/grades are announced. The top three students from each class are asked to stand before the school in order of their rank. The exams are written by the Kenyan government and the pace that the teachers must go to cover all the material for the exams is grueling to say the least. Most of the teachers have resorted to the "see/hear it all once" method instead of the comprehension method out of neccessity. So out of a possible 600 points, the highest grade in the whole school was 505, with most students scorind around 200. I was asked to attend as a guest and ended up giving three impromptu speeches on the importance of hard work in studies (the imputus was forced, not self-directed). But I singled out my hard-working class 7 and 8 health students and presented a first aid kit to the school. (Although the teachers and now the eldest students have the training, the school did not possess any bandages, much less a semblance of a kit. Picture the havoc of 800 primary students at recess where there are no balls so bricks or stones are used as a substitute. Yes, bandages are very neccessary).
Now that it is August, it is starting to get chilly in the evenings. (I'm slightly below the equator, so it's actually winter). But it is supposed to stop raining. However, for the last week we have had nothing BUT rain. And at unusual times. Rain in Shikokho always starts around 5pm and lasts until 7pm. But lately it has been raining throughout the night, in the morning, and afternoons. This is very bad because people have started harvesting the maize (see picture). When the maize is harvested, it needs to dry out quickly to make the ugali flour or else it all spoils. With the amazing amount of humidity from the constant rain, I'm lucky if I don't ring out a liter of water from my shirt at the end of the day, so I doubt the maize is losing any moisture. It is such a different life than what I'm used to. How much of my life can truly be disturbed by or depends on the weather? If it rains in the morning, I take an umbrella. If it unbearably hot outside, I turn up the AC. But this doesn't directly affect whether I will be able to eat, have money to pay rent, etc. Once again, I feel William Carlos Williams expressed it better than I:
"so much depends
upon

a red wheel
barrow

glazed with rain
water

beside the white
chickens."