Last night was a fun night, I went to a world famous restaurant called "Carnivore" for dinner with some friends that are leaving and some friends that are new.
http://www.tamarind.co.ke/carnivore/
The restaurant was like nothing else I've ever tried, and I ate more meat than I'd need in a whole month. I even ate ostrich meat balls and crocodile, which were very tender and delicious. This place was made famous not only for its atmosphere but also for the exotic meats they served like hippo, zebra, gazelle etc, but are no longer able to serve due to endangerment issues. Too bad, would have been neat to try that, but crocodile was very tasty! The way it works is you leave the flag on your table up as long as you want food to continue coming, and they come around with the meat on a huge sword looking thing, and carve it off with a huge masheti knife. Wow.
It was especially fun
because it was the inauguration of Obama last night, and the Kenyan people were so excited for this event, the thought Kibaki their President might even announce a national holiday today, but alas, we all had to work. Apparantly there was 1-3 day holidays all over Africa when Obama was elected. The excitement was really fun to watch. There is so much paraphanilia around for Obama, I think every Matatu (bus) has a sticker or sign or something.
Its been 24 hours of interesting local food, because today I was at a different clinic, one called Majengo, which researches sex trade workers who appear to be immune from HIV infection despite continued exposur
e. At the clinic the staff were SO welcoming an
d spent the day touring
me around the open air market just outside the clinic and feeding me local traditional foods from their tribes.I learned very quickly that pilli pilli means chilies and wow were they hot. The market is known as the clothing market and like mentioned previously, I saw piles and piles of shoes. All the shoes are perfectly clean, despite being used and donated from 1st world countries. The stall owners spend lots of time cleaning them spotless and hanging them in lines or stackign them up to sell them for a higher price. Or you can dig around in a huge bin and find a pair for significantly cheaper. I even got escorted by a staff member's brother to a "boutique" or clothing stall in the market to look for a shirt or two. After trying on many shirts with the help of like 6 Kenyans who even tried to do the buttons up for me on the shirts I tried on over my own shirt, I found two shirts, and purchased them for the equivalent of $8 a shirt, apparantly I got ripped off for being a Muzungu (white person) despite my bargaining for over 500 Kshillings off. These clearly used shirts, some even with the tag from Value Village, I guess I'll just consider it my donation to the biggest open air clothing market in the Nairobi slum. Next time I'll take a woman with me, who knows what the price should be.
They laughed at me lots trying to practice my Swahili but they were so impressed with my efforts to know their culture. I felt so welcomed there, maybe because they are not as busy as the other clinic I was at last week, they had more time to talk with me.
Despite what you might imagine to be a harder, crazier and sadder clinic when dealing with sex trade workers, I was sur
prised to see that the woman were of all ages, sizes and definitely did not look like typical sex trade workers at all. The sad truth is, prostitution is a very real economic trade here for women, because they are so desperate for money to feed their families, they'll use what they've got to survive. One patient even told me that she loved coming to the clinic because she recieved free health care, friendly caring support and was feeling healthier than ever. I was struck by this poster I saw hanging on the door, as it is so true and yet very underfunded. Nutrition is not a focus for funding the care of HIV patients, and it is such a complex problem, I don't even know where public health officials would start. Currently there is a huge shortage of maize, which is the most common staple food in Kenya. The shortage comes from two reasons, a drought this year which is affecting crops, and then a huge scandal where the corrupt government has stolen maize from the people and has been selling what maize there is to Sudan and keeping the profits from the people. Its all over the media here as certain officials are now being named and I assume prosecuted. The picture above actually features maize (corn) making up the HIV/AIDS ribbon. A poignant poster indeed.
I also got lots of food resource suggestions from the staff today, and I seem to be making lots of progress on my project. Its suprising how when I explain my project to them, they all seem so amazed by the idea, and supportive, but how could no one have thought of this before. It will be interesting to see how this project unfolds, and how much the staff
utilize the resource when helping clients. I even got to meet two "community leaders" (featured in photo left) from the local slum who offered to take me to their house and feed me and tour me around. It would be an amazing experience to have a guided tour, but not sure if I'm brave enough for that one just yet. Everyone was so pumped to have me take their picture, and they all want copies, I just need to figure out how to print them off. I guess we take for granted having a camera, I assume they don't have a camera or means to print pictures. These truly are the faces of the heroes of the community, who spend their lives trying to make a difference and improve the quality of their people.
I'm hopeful and can only trust that my little bit of effort can help in the grand scheme of HIV and the lives of the beautiful women I see everyday at the clinics. It sure is changing me, in a positive way and affecting how I veiw myself, my life and my blessings.
Now I'm heading home, and hoping that food I ate today and yesterday doesn't come back to bite me...hehe.
Later....
The restaurant was like nothing else I've ever tried, and I ate more meat than I'd need in a whole month. I even ate ostrich meat balls and crocodile, which were very tender and delicious. This place was made famous not only for its atmosphere but also for the exotic meats they served like hippo, zebra, gazelle etc, but are no longer able to serve due to endangerment issues. Too bad, would have been neat to try that, but crocodile was very tasty! The way it works is you leave the flag on your table up as long as you want food to continue coming, and they come around with the meat on a huge sword looking thing, and carve it off with a huge masheti knife. Wow.
It was especially fun 
because it was the inauguration of Obama last night, and the Kenyan people were so excited for this event, the thought Kibaki their President might even announce a national holiday today, but alas, we all had to work. Apparantly there was 1-3 day holidays all over Africa when Obama was elected. The excitement was really fun to watch. There is so much paraphanilia around for Obama, I think every Matatu (bus) has a sticker or sign or something.
Its been 24 hours of interesting local food, because today I was at a different clinic, one called Majengo, which researches sex trade workers who appear to be immune from HIV infection despite continued exposur
e. At the clinic the staff were SO welcoming an
d spent the day touring
me around the open air market just outside the clinic and feeding me local traditional foods from their tribes.I learned very quickly that pilli pilli means chilies and wow were they hot. The market is known as the clothing market and like mentioned previously, I saw piles and piles of shoes. All the shoes are perfectly clean, despite being used and donated from 1st world countries. The stall owners spend lots of time cleaning them spotless and hanging them in lines or stackign them up to sell them for a higher price. Or you can dig around in a huge bin and find a pair for significantly cheaper. I even got escorted by a staff member's brother to a "boutique" or clothing stall in the market to look for a shirt or two. After trying on many shirts with the help of like 6 Kenyans who even tried to do the buttons up for me on the shirts I tried on over my own shirt, I found two shirts, and purchased them for the equivalent of $8 a shirt, apparantly I got ripped off for being a Muzungu (white person) despite my bargaining for over 500 Kshillings off. These clearly used shirts, some even with the tag from Value Village, I guess I'll just consider it my donation to the biggest open air clothing market in the Nairobi slum. Next time I'll take a woman with me, who knows what the price should be.
They laughed at me lots trying to practice my Swahili but they were so impressed with my efforts to know their culture. I felt so welcomed there, maybe because they are not as busy as the other clinic I was at last week, they had more time to talk with me.
Despite what you might imagine to be a harder, crazier and sadder clinic when dealing with sex trade workers, I was sur
prised to see that the woman were of all ages, sizes and definitely did not look like typical sex trade workers at all. The sad truth is, prostitution is a very real economic trade here for women, because they are so desperate for money to feed their families, they'll use what they've got to survive. One patient even told me that she loved coming to the clinic because she recieved free health care, friendly caring support and was feeling healthier than ever. I was struck by this poster I saw hanging on the door, as it is so true and yet very underfunded. Nutrition is not a focus for funding the care of HIV patients, and it is such a complex problem, I don't even know where public health officials would start. Currently there is a huge shortage of maize, which is the most common staple food in Kenya. The shortage comes from two reasons, a drought this year which is affecting crops, and then a huge scandal where the corrupt government has stolen maize from the people and has been selling what maize there is to Sudan and keeping the profits from the people. Its all over the media here as certain officials are now being named and I assume prosecuted. The picture above actually features maize (corn) making up the HIV/AIDS ribbon. A poignant poster indeed.
I also got lots of food resource suggestions from the staff today, and I seem to be making lots of progress on my project. Its suprising how when I explain my project to them, they all seem so amazed by the idea, and supportive, but how could no one have thought of this before. It will be interesting to see how this project unfolds, and how much the staff 
utilize the resource when helping clients. I even got to meet two "community leaders" (featured in photo left) from the local slum who offered to take me to their house and feed me and tour me around. It would be an amazing experience to have a guided tour, but not sure if I'm brave enough for that one just yet. Everyone was so pumped to have me take their picture, and they all want copies, I just need to figure out how to print them off. I guess we take for granted having a camera, I assume they don't have a camera or means to print pictures. These truly are the faces of the heroes of the community, who spend their lives trying to make a difference and improve the quality of their people.
I'm hopeful and can only trust that my little bit of effort can help in the grand scheme of HIV and the lives of the beautiful women I see everyday at the clinics. It sure is changing me, in a positive way and affecting how I veiw myself, my life and my blessings.
Now I'm heading home, and hoping that food I ate today and yesterday doesn't come back to bite me...hehe.
Later....
The pictures make what you tell us soooo...real. You are so brave to try everything..I can only guess that Dad would starve in your place..he he
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