Wiki Sita

I guess it’s true what they say… one step forward and two steps back. Now I’m being a little dramatic, but the pace of the week was drastically reduced from that of last and I endured a few minor set backs. I woke up early Monday morning with vicious stomach issues. To save the gory details, I will just say I have been acquainted with a WHE favorite, the amoeba. I did not quite understand the wrath of this bug until I over ambitiously tried to continue on with my daily Monday morning activities. It only took me an hour at NIMR to realize that this ailment requires that you not be far from home. Needless to say, I did not move very much for the rest of the day on Monday and spent the better half of Tuesday in the same way. By the time the evening rolled around I accomplished my first task for the week- I kept 1L of water in my body-imagine the satisfaction!

By Wednesday morning I had enough and I had to get out of the apartment. I set off to City Council to meet with the TASAF coordinator so that we could finish signing the papers required for the Tukwamuane women to take ownership of the land in Nyamhongolo. Over the course of four hours I travelled back and forth to the bank three times to change the name on the issued check. Oh, it felt very productive. After the name had been finalized I was asked to wait outside the office for a few minutes. So I did the math; a few minutes multiplied by the definition of “a few minutes” in Tanzania and I quite accurately estimated the one hour wait. By 3pm I left City Council and had accomplished one thing for the day. I went directly to Mabatini to give an English lesson and was able to deliver the good news of their new ownership. In the evening my amoeba and I hung out and called it a night quite early.

On Thursday morning I was still feeling a little under the weather so I skipped the bike ride to Starehe and decided that the dala dala would be a better option. I sat beside a goat most of the way. I arrived at the orphanage around 6:15am and spent the day following a group of five year old children. I have now successfully compiled all of the data for the most time consuming part of study number one of three. While I was at Starehe I realized my camera had been MIA for a few days. I am still on the hunt for it, and do apologize for the lack of color in this weeks journal entry.

On Friday morning I had a meeting scheduled at Kivulini to complete a discussion that I had began last week. Unfortunately, the meeting was cancelled so I went home to begin the exhilarating task of data entry for my study. I travelled to City Council so that I could provide the TASAF coordinators with a few documents that was requested, and was delighted to learn that this meeting had been cancelled as well. I came to the apartment to pick up the English tests for the day and set off to meet the Yogurt Mama’s. I went to Forever Angles in the evening to deliver yogurt and spend some time with the cuties. I was able to see one of the boys take his first steps- wow it was incredible. He knew what he had done and was so proud, it was adorable! In the evening I met some friends for dinner and saw some really good live music for the first time since my arrival.

I spent quite a bit of time on the weekend on the computer completing several random tasks and continuing on with data entry. I spent Sunday at the baby home and ended the week with a good book.

For the sake of the reader, I hope to report more exciting events and pictures next week!