Archive: November 6, 2007

with Kemto outside the hospital

Through the first two days at Mama Tunza's. A little background...Mama Tunza is an actual woman, who runs the orphanage. There's over 50 kids here and another 10 or so who come for school. Recently she got electricity and running water installed at the orphanage.

Yesterday I got the tour, then spent the morning with Hannah, another volunteer who has been there for 3 weeks. We are trying to organize for the orphans to visit the animal orphanage. They get in for free (being orphans), we just have to pay for the bus to take them there. This should be great as the kids don't get many chances to get out of Kibera.

In the afternoon we went to the hospital with Humphrey, a Kenyan who works at the orphanage, to get Mama Tunza out. She has been having some stomach issues. We also took little Kemto, who is two and a half, to get a cough checked out.

The hospital was very basic with two women crammed in each bed. Some of them even looked like they were dying. But it was quite clean and seemed pretty well staffed. Mama Tunza couldn't wait to get out of there and I don't blame her. We got Kemto's cough looked at and then headed back to Kibera. Once we were there we visited the chemist and I bought Kemto's medicine, which he'll take for another 2 weeks.

Today I went in and played with the really little ones. One girl takes care of about 10 kids under the age of 2, so I figured she could use some help. The older kids are in school and well taken care of, but these little ones don't seem to get much stimulation or attention. I had them all crawling all over me. One little girl, Michelle, came in crying and headed straight to me for a cuddle...so sweet. It will be hard not to try and take them all home.

One thing I'm super impressed with in Kibera is the sense of community you get here. I feel very safe walking around here during the day (thought night time would be totally different and something I won't attempt). It seems like people help each other out as much as they can and are very cooperative.