At 5:40 AM on Saturday we had a successful summit on Kilimanjaro's highest peak at 5895 m! The hike was beautiful and not too strenuous until the summit day. It was really incredible to experience altitudes like that and their effects on your body - your lungs feel enormous, but you move like a snail.
At the moment Steph and I are in Dar es Salaam, en route to Zanzibar tomorrow morning to join Dan and the other girls from school. I promise I will try to post pictures from there as descriptions won't do the hike justice!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Monday, July 20, 2009
Gone to Kili
Hello. Sorry to be MIA for the last while. We have not had access to internet and I barely have time today to update you since I am off to Kilimanjaro! We had a wonderful 3 day safari in the Masai Mara and saw the wildabeest migration, giraffes, lions, elephants, buffalo, hippos, crocs... With a brief stop in Nairobi I am now in Moshi about to set out on Kilimanjaro for the next six days. Dan has headed to the coast to Mombosa and Lamu and we will meet in Dar es Saleem or Zanzibar. I'm give a proper update when I get down from our hike!
Saturday, July 11, 2009
I now own a goat...
This past week we were forunate enough to have two days of clinic visits at Kombewa District Hospital. It was a really interesting experience to visit the HIV clinic, the mother and child clinic and the outpatient clinic. There is a lot of malaria, some malnutrition and a lot of poverty here -life in rural Kenya is not easy. We also had several productive meetings about the sustainable livlihood options we are interested in working on for the project next summer.
Dan's birthday was on Thursday and for a celebration we had a big party at the home we are staying at. Dan bought a goat which was later BBQed along with many other tasty dishes. We invited our friends from GIVE Kenya (a group also from UBC) who live down the road and the family invited several friends as well. We ended the night by camping on the rocks across the street and I was kept up for much of the night by the cries of hyenas!
The following day we went back to the goat market and bought a 4 goats who will live at Vicent's house, where we are staying. Goats are considered an asset and we thought it would be a nice thank you for the family. The market was really fun and we had to leave before we came home with a whole herd of fuzzy creatures. We purchased female goats so that they can be bred and thus there will be more goats. I have named mine Leslie, in honour of my lovely twin sis whom I miss!
Anyways, we are involved in some survey training for the last few days in Kit-Mikayi. On Thursday morning we head to the Masai Mara for a 3 day safari and I am supposed to be climbing Kilimanjaro on the 21st. Dan will be heading to Mombasa and Lamu while I am hiking and then we will meet up and head to Zanzibar for a week.
That is all for today as I am feeling under the weather. Wish my GI system a little luck today (nothing serious, just a little upset). Miss you all!!!
Dan's birthday was on Thursday and for a celebration we had a big party at the home we are staying at. Dan bought a goat which was later BBQed along with many other tasty dishes. We invited our friends from GIVE Kenya (a group also from UBC) who live down the road and the family invited several friends as well. We ended the night by camping on the rocks across the street and I was kept up for much of the night by the cries of hyenas!
The following day we went back to the goat market and bought a 4 goats who will live at Vicent's house, where we are staying. Goats are considered an asset and we thought it would be a nice thank you for the family. The market was really fun and we had to leave before we came home with a whole herd of fuzzy creatures. We purchased female goats so that they can be bred and thus there will be more goats. I have named mine Leslie, in honour of my lovely twin sis whom I miss!
Anyways, we are involved in some survey training for the last few days in Kit-Mikayi. On Thursday morning we head to the Masai Mara for a 3 day safari and I am supposed to be climbing Kilimanjaro on the 21st. Dan will be heading to Mombasa and Lamu while I am hiking and then we will meet up and head to Zanzibar for a week.
That is all for today as I am feeling under the weather. Wish my GI system a little luck today (nothing serious, just a little upset). Miss you all!!!
Saturday, July 4, 2009
The Remba Experience
Last week was spent on Remba Island in Lake Victoria and it was quite an experience! The whole point of going to Remba was to assist Pamoja with the scale up of their safe water project on the island. We were helping distribute personal and family water filters since the island has a very high rate of diarrheal illnesses due to the lack of safe water. Additionally, we were conducting a survey of families who were in the pilot project trying to determine the barriers to use of the filters.
To get to Remba, we had to take a matatu to Luanda (1.5 hrs), take a ferry to Mbeta (45 min), overnight in Mbeta, and then take a small boat out to the island (3 hrs). We arrived at Remba to to find a small rock in the middle of the lake covered in tiny tin homes. Over 5,000 people live on the island, most of whom are fisherman who come for work. The population is dynamic as people come and go with the fishing seasons but there are some permanent residents. Unfortunately, Remba is known for two things - firstly, a lack of safe water for drinking and secondly, a lot of prostitution leading to one of the highest HIV rates in the country.
The problem with Remba is that it doesn't really have any facilities. By facilities, I am referring to simple essentials such as pit latrines and a health care facility. We stayed in a guesthouse on the island which was basically a tiny tin shack, but it also contained the only pit latrine we could find on the island. As you can imagine, lack of basic sanitation contributes to the already unsafe waters of Lake Victoria which is the only source of water for the people on the island.
In addition to its dangerous water, Remba also does not have any health care facilities. There is a weekly mobile HIV clinic that comes to the island and we also had a chance to sit in and observe some clinic visits. We saw many patients with HIV opportunistic infections who were very ill and must face a 3 hour boat ride to the nearest hospital. There is also a lot of TB.
Although it was definitely a difficult trip, we are all glad that we went and saw what these people go through first hand. We met a lot of warm and welcoming people who were very thankful for Pamoja’s efforts.
Now we are back in Kit Mikayi. We had an amazing Indian buffet in town last night after returning from the island, spent the night camping under the stars on the rocks and went bouldering this morning. We only have two weeks left working with Pamoja and are starting to sort our travel plans for the back end of July.
To get to Remba, we had to take a matatu to Luanda (1.5 hrs), take a ferry to Mbeta (45 min), overnight in Mbeta, and then take a small boat out to the island (3 hrs). We arrived at Remba to to find a small rock in the middle of the lake covered in tiny tin homes. Over 5,000 people live on the island, most of whom are fisherman who come for work. The population is dynamic as people come and go with the fishing seasons but there are some permanent residents. Unfortunately, Remba is known for two things - firstly, a lack of safe water for drinking and secondly, a lot of prostitution leading to one of the highest HIV rates in the country.
The problem with Remba is that it doesn't really have any facilities. By facilities, I am referring to simple essentials such as pit latrines and a health care facility. We stayed in a guesthouse on the island which was basically a tiny tin shack, but it also contained the only pit latrine we could find on the island. As you can imagine, lack of basic sanitation contributes to the already unsafe waters of Lake Victoria which is the only source of water for the people on the island.
In addition to its dangerous water, Remba also does not have any health care facilities. There is a weekly mobile HIV clinic that comes to the island and we also had a chance to sit in and observe some clinic visits. We saw many patients with HIV opportunistic infections who were very ill and must face a 3 hour boat ride to the nearest hospital. There is also a lot of TB.
Although it was definitely a difficult trip, we are all glad that we went and saw what these people go through first hand. We met a lot of warm and welcoming people who were very thankful for Pamoja’s efforts.
Now we are back in Kit Mikayi. We had an amazing Indian buffet in town last night after returning from the island, spent the night camping under the stars on the rocks and went bouldering this morning. We only have two weeks left working with Pamoja and are starting to sort our travel plans for the back end of July.
Random Photos
For some reason, I've been having a great deal of trouble attaching photos to the blog. The internet connection in Kisumu must not be fast enough. Below are a few random shots of Kakamega forst, watching the sunrise from the rocks in Kit-Mikayi and Dan and I at the Victoria Nile after our rafting trip.
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