Sunday, September 21, 2014

"Meet my leader he is a great man"

Friday was my second day at my internship with the Makina Community Development Project. I got there a bit early, so was able to hang around the clinic for a few minutes before my guide and teacher Audrey arrived. She told me we were going to meet with Mike who helps run MACODEPs Home Based Care Program. It was an interesting walk, through a part of Kibera and Makina I had not seen before. We made it and started meeting. Throughout this time many more people walked in the room and by the end there were 7 of us in a small office, in a trailer, all talking about the Ministry of Health, and the home based care programs.

This conversation was incredibly interesting because recently in Community Health we have been exploring tools to gather vital data on households, to not only assist the household but to perform a household or community level diagnosis. During this meeting I had the opportunity to look through some of the Ministry of Health documents, and learn more about the structure of Community Health Workers (CHWs), Advisory Counsels, Community Health Extension Workers, and the Ministry of Health. Learning how these pieces fit together was incredibly interesting, but the part of the conversation that was even more interesting was looking through the documents CHWs are required to complete for each member of each household they serve. These cover everything from maternal care, to recent ailments, to immunizations, to household conditions. We talk a lot in my Community Health class about the different factors we would want to look at when we want to evaluate the status of a community or household so seeing what the Ministry of Health has determined to be important factors was a huge boost to my classroom learning.

Next week, I will have the opportunity to go out with a CHW to homes and see the households they serve. I look forward to writing about this experience.

Walking through Kibera is an experience in and of itself, but this is where I often get stared at the most. This time was like every other time, until I was approached by a man who was already acting quite weird. He introduced himself to Audrey and I, and started having a conversation with me. I knew I was in for a roller coaster when he said if I were to give him 25 cows, I could marry his sister. I thanked him for the offer, but said no thanks.

He continued walking alongside us talking about what he does, where he is from, and how he will call me sir out of respect. He even apologized for his English, which was actually quite good. As we are walking at one point another man starts following us. The first man introduced us to him as his “leader”, said he was a great man, and said we should shake his hand. We did. Walked another block and then we split off. Audrey asked me if I was scared, I responded no. I really wasn’t. I have no problem being nice to people and it was clear to me that as long as I continued to be polite with this guy, he would be polite back. In fact, I can’t help but think this interaction will help because he seemed to enjoy the conversation which means he is likely to remember me as a nice white kid, a reputation that isn’t bad to have. Friends in unfamiliar environments are never something I want to pass up.

I am still confused on who his leader was, and what that interaction was about but it all went smooth.

It was almost time for me to get picked-up. Earlier Victor had said we would get picked up at a certain time, but then texted asking if I could get picked up earlier. It worked out fine, and when I got in the car there were two of my classmates already there. Turns out they were asked to be picked up earlier for safety reasons.

We later found out President Uhuru Kenyatta had visited Kibera and local politicians were unaware. Because of this some people were quite upset and they were worried that the tone of the crowd could continue getting more and more frustrated. They wanted us out of there incase anything did happen.


I am excited to continue having a whirlwind of experiences at MACODEP, and am particularly excited for when I begin working full time.

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