Canada Day!

It's day 5 of our trip, and things are 'poa kchizi kama ndizi' (as cool as a crazy banana)!

We had our first official meeting with Dr. Mhando and his family - his wife Mama Mhando, his children Nema and Thomas, and Thomas' wife Fidis. They were all very friendly, hospitable and helped us get started, contacting the appropriate people at the institutions we will be working at. They have all been working with MedOutreach for so many years that is has become a family affair. As Thomas mentioned, he's celebrated every birthday (his birthday is in July) with MedOutreach since his preteen years! To Aaron's delight, Dr. Mhando gave us one of his gigantic avocados that grow in his garden, which later on served as a small meal for our whole group!

Yesterday we made our way down to Nkoaranga hospital, which is about 45 minutes away. We will be working there for 10 days as of Monday, and we will be moving to the area on Sunday night. It seems like a pretty sweet place, and after all the organizination and preparation that we have been doing all year, we're all excited to start working in the hospital.

We are starting to be known in our town - and by that, I mean we have less people coming up to us trying to sell us stuff :). There is a wonderful Maasai market about a five minute walk from Centre House, where they have beautiful arts, crafts, and clothing. One of these days we will buy marimbas and bongo drums and start a band! Until then, Centre House will have peace and quiet.

We have also made some friends at Centre House - Diema (sorry if I've spelled that wrong!) who lives in the same house as us, is from an organization called HEAL, and Amy, Lindsay and T live at the main house; they are medical students from the University of Oregon. Paul also made an extra special friend - a pakya kubwa sana!! (a giant rat!). He woke up with a scream in the middle of the night when it jumped on him while he was sleeping! We're still not entirely sure if it was a real rat or a figment of his imagination, but my bets are that it is real and that it has friends!

Yesterday was an important day for our group - Canada Day! We dressed up most patriotically and made our way down to the local watering hole to celebrate in true Canadian style! We were pleased to see numerous other patriotic Canadians (one was easily spotted by the Canadian flag tattooed on his face), and we even met two girls - Emily and Marta - from Western Heads East, another organization based out of the University of Western Ontario, which we've had some contact with (and who just met Dr. Mhando the other day!). It's a small world!

We will probably not have internet while in Nkoaranga, so there may be a long gap in blog updates after Sunday. But we will make up for it and fill you in afterwards on all the exciting things that have happened!

Asante sana!

Kasia