The internet is going to kick me off before I think of a witty title. Medical supplies. Read it.

Ok, so, we finally have a full list of requested supplies for the hospital and orphanage, which is very exciting - my parents' visit is creeping closer, less than six weeks now! I hope they realize that they aren't ACTUALLY going to have space for, you know, clothes or other luxuries - too much important stuff to bring. If anyone out there has or knows someone who might have access to any of these items, please let me know as soon as possible - this is going to be a huge group effort to try to drastically increase the capacity of the hospital to provide care through a few well packed suitcases. Go team go!

General supplies

Used laptops of any description or vintage

Stethoscopes, preferably Litmanns 

Digital thermometers and disposable plastic covers (LOTS of covers)

Children's vitamins with iron and Vitamin D (My recommendation: Schiff's Multivitamins, $8.18 for 180 tabs, which will last the orphanage approx. 2 weeks)

Blood pressure cuffs, preferably digital

Medications - particularly diabetes, hypertension, and antibiotics

Braces, particularly ankle and knee

Lab supplies

Microscope

Colorimeter

Glucometer and other diabetic testing supplies

Reagents for culture and sensitivity

Water bath machine

Specialized supplies

Delivery kit

D/C kit

Dental kit

Hand drill/electric drill

Min orthopedic fragment set

Small orthopedic fragment set

Kuntcher orthopedic nail set

Sign orthopedic nail set

I know it's a lot to ask, and I know we won't get everything, but I'm really counting on help connecting with the various people and organizations who can make these things happen. Also, please look around your house and see if you have any salvageable old laptops, as they really will make a huge difference.

On an unrelated and less needy note, things are going really well here - the water has been consistently on and functional for over a week with not a single hiccup, a huge accomplishment for Tanzania! Possibly even more impressive, my immune system appears to have returned from whatever vacation it was on, and it's been a full two weeks since my last inexplicable fever - hooray for the bare minimums of basic good health! The kids are all healthy, not a single case of malaria (today), which is downright thrilling, and weight checks show that they're all gaining weight - even Z, who has almost doubled now from 4.5 kilos when I arrived to a full 8 now. Next stop: thunder thighs. Working on it.

Chickens are, um, chickeny, and Tweety appears to be roostering the hens, meaning we may have an excess rooster in the person of Yosemite Sam, meaning the kids will be snacking on drumsticks soon. Hopefully that doesn't destroy the whole, you know, compassionate and responsible vibe we've been trying to cultivate with the care of smaller creatures thing. Eh, at least they'll get protein in exchange for their trauma. As my friend Peter says, "They're not throwing rocks to hurt them, they're just trying to tenderize them!" In a month or two we'll have home grown veggies to accompany Chicken a la Childhood Trauma, as the garden is now irrigated, bedded (?), and ready for planting. There are dirty jokes to be made there but I will refrain, as I'm a responsible adult admitted to graduate school now. Or something.

Right. So. Let's go medical supplies! Woo hoo! Pretending this is exciting! Please help me not look like a total fool with empty bags in April!

Inspiration

Z said my name about five times today, which felt ALMOST as good as getting my LSE letter! Also this  happened, and having watched it about ten times, it just keeps getting better. There is nothing in the world that compares to happy baby faces. They are the reason I want to do this work, to give them a better life than their mothers had. And I can't and won't let them down.

And yet somehow, despite it all...

There are many things I am not good at. I cannot cook - I would like to submit exhibit A for your approval, the result of an attempt to heat up a chapati this morning. A chapati from four days ago, that someone else made, because since then I've either eaten in the cafeteria or eaten peanut butter. No, not straight from the jar, don't be RIDICULOUS. I put it on a plate and mixed it with brown sugar first!

Ladies and gentlemen of the jury... I plead guilty.

I also have negative sense of direction, as evidenced by my complete inability, after four months, to turn the right way upon exiting my house, or to navigate anywhere in the greater Arusha area that requires walking more than ten feet from the dalla dalla stop. I gauge everything in relation to its proximity to the Computerized Zebra Eye Clinic sign, without which I'm not sure I'd recognize I was even in the city. I am similarly impaired with objects - I once lost my keys in the refrigerator for two weeks. Talent.

As far as I am concerned, this is all there is to Arusha. The rest is a vague, very dirty haze.

I also excel at injuring myself in frankly unlikely ways. I am constantly covered with inexplicable bruises and regularly cause strangers free amusement by my tripping over my own feet. In my first week, I took off the majority of my pinky toe on a pumice rock while running to unlock the gate. In the first month, I bruised my big toe so badly on the dalla that it required extensive (and kind of fun) mini-surgery with a candle and safety pin, which I of course undertook myself, sticking myself in the finger in the process. I can barely feel my hands after many years of burning, filing, sanding, sawing, and otherwise subjecting them to the hazards of a jeweler's life. I get diseases nobody can diagnose and catch malaria even while taking anti-malarial tablets daily. I'm kind of a mess.

I am good at playing peekaboo, carrying multiple babies at one time, having political arguments, dealing with customer service, chicken husbandry (who knew?), using power tools, making jewelry, and writing somewhat arbtruse and specialized feminist socio-political commentary.

Me and my chicken. Er, rooster.

And APPARENTLY,  those wonderful but inexplicable admissions people over at the London School of Economics' Masters of Public Affairs program in International Development (phew, a mouthful!) are looking for EXACTLY that combination of skills for their class of September 2011-July 2013!!!

(I wonder if they'll let me keep chickens in the dorm room)

Waving not drowning. I think.

I know in my head that realistically, everything is going well, but I've been really struggling the last week - between kinks in the water delivery system and the complete disappearance of the responsible technician, to getting lists of requested supplies to bring over in April, to getting seriously into the huge task that is the vegetable garden, I'm feeling overwhelmed and exhausted. For what it's worth, I've started and will continue to add to a Wish List in the "Help" section, and if any of you happen to have any of the items, I would be endlessly grateful.

Old laptops for the hospital (currently functioning with a grand total of three old desktops)

Children's vitamins with iron and Vitamin D (My recommendation: Schiff's Multivitamins, $8.18 for 180 tabs, which will last the orphanage approx. 2 weeks)

Thermometers and thermometer covers (Many many covers!)

Stethoscopes (preferably Littmann)

Blood Pressure Cuffs (preferably digital)

Diabetic testing supplies

Medicines for hypertension, diabetes, antibiotics

Orthopedic supplies including braces

The old laptops and children's vitamins are particularly relevant here, since many of us have older laptops lying around that could do a lot of good in the hospital environment, and the vitamins are cheap, have free shipping, and we need a LOT of them as each box of 180 tablets will last only about 2 weeks. If you have the opportunity to help, donations can be sent to:

Nkoaranga Orphanage c/o Ross Russell Family

23 Montowese Trail

Wallingford, CT 06492

Thanks, guys.

Cheesecake Factory, Chilis, and what might have been

 Ok, so things are a little too complicated right now for a full post, and I have a stomach bug, but I feel bad that I've been slacking, so... lets talk about chickens.

Apparently the chicken industry is serious business here - there are local chickens, which you see and can get anywhere, and then there are special layer chickens who, when they grow, produce 2 eggs per dayand can be bought. Except usually people buy, like, 500 at a time. So this company agreed to make an exception for the orphanage and sell us ten... little did I know how intense the pickup would be!


Each box holds 100 chicks, and people were walking up and buying five or ten boxes at a time - crazy! Also very, VERY loud - that many tiny peeps adds up pretty fast.

Mama kuku with her expanded brood

Anyway, we eventually got our little brood of ten, and they threw in one extra for good luck - and they are just so stinking cute it hurts. Also makes me realize how big our other chicks have gotten in only a week! Mama kuku has taken them under her wing , literally, and is dealing very well with having an additional 11 kids thrust upon her, better than I would, I must say.

So all is well in the world of chickens. Water is continuing to be an issue, one that will hopefully be resolve dimminently and won't require any further insane stress on my part. Also I'd really like it if Tanzania would stop throwing ailments at me, as if to test me - "Do you want to go home yet? Do you want to go home yet? How about now?" Today would in fact have been my original travel home date, and I'm 85% happy I'm staying, and 15% bummed it'll be another two months before a hot bath and reliable electricity. Also I keep having these awful dreams - last night I was home and slept in and we were discussing whether it was better to go to Cheesecake Factory or Chilis for a leisurely lunch. I actually woke myself up saying "NO!" as the dream started to slip away, because that just sounds luxurious beyond words right now.

Two more months. And my babies. It IS worth it, it IS. If only Chilis delivered internationally...

Cows and goats and sheep, oh my! Or: Maasai Land Or: Why my boots will never be clean again

So I am literally minutes off the bus returning from Oldonyo Sambu, which is a Maasai village near the Kenyan border where my friend Peter has been living and working, building desks for the local school. The Maasai are a very ancient tribe, one of the only tribes in the area that is not of the dominant Banutu racial group, and also some of the last true nomads in the world. They used to survive almost entirely off of cow's milk and blood, taken from the still living cow, as they didn't stay in one place long enough to plant crops. Things have changed somewhat, but Maasai children still herd cows, goats, and sheep, and cows are still the most prized possession for most families - no birth, death, circumcision or marriage is complete without some level of sacrifice. Also their jewelry is amazing. And the kids are hysterical. 

Yesterday was spent mostly wandering the market, which is apparently the biggest in the country - Maasai travel for days to participate in it. There were no other mzungus there - this is really not a tourist spot. The wares were mostly vegetables, traditional cloth for clothing or blankets, beads, and then a huge area of live animal sales. The entire area is so dry and windy that small twisters erupt everywhere, sometimes developing into funnels that touch the sky - which is both very cool and very intimidating to be close to!

Live animal sales, cow section

The market with a small twister overhead, which blew through the market moments after this was taken.

Thankfully, it was less powerful than this sucker, which would be downright painful.

 I stayed for the weekend in Peter's boma, or mud hut, which he has to himself but usually sleeps a family of seven or eight, plus several animals, depending on the weather. The animals still wander in and out. 

The outside of the bomas, subdivided within into several areas

The entrance to Peter's "room"

My "room"

Ahem. So that was wonderful for one night but I cannot imagine sharing that space with my six theoretical Maasai brothers and sisters. And a fire, and some goats, and a cow or two, and a bunch of chickens. Of course. Anyway, we spent most of the time between the market and dinner being amused by the kids, who are absolutely hysterical in any language. Below is a video of them performing and a bunch of general pictures of them - also check the photo gallery for some artsier shots.

I'm told the (goat) kids are used to this! Their panicked baaas would tend to belie that...

Kids and kids

Daniel (5)

Then the apocalypse came. Seriously, it was insane - it went from mild, sunny, beautiful weather to aggressive rain (the first of the season!), howling wind, encroaching darkness, and just general pain for anyone unlucky enough to be outside.

As the skies darkened behind them...

A VERY inadequate representation of the insanity that was unleashed, but the best I could do.

Yeah. A good time to have dinner with Peter's host family and turn in for the night, I think! This morning, we went to see a traditional healer, which was fascinating - this woman took over from her husband, who died last year, and showed us various traditional remedies stored in calabashes, or dried gourds, and described the rituals used with them. Some of them were pretty close to Western meds - i.e. charcoal ground up and used to cleanse the kidneys. Others I would pass on, particularly the face-paint-herb-love-potion. No thank you!

Our medicine woman

The entire experience was incredible and gorgeous and deeply, deeply African, no frills, hiking the two miles to the market and back like everyone else. Which leads me to why my boots will never be the same.

They were black once.

Eh. Worth it.

Mysterious African Fever and underwear-based head adornment

First and foremost, ladies and gentlemen, WE HAVE WATER. We are waiting for the results of the quality testing to see if it needs to be boiled before drinking, but even if I drop dead of mysterious African fever this minute, it's ok because the kids will have water and chickens. Chicken water. That is my legacy. My parents must be so proud?

On a related note, I think I'm less likely to drop dead of mysterious African fever than I was before since I seem like I might be recovering (shhh, don't tell my body because whenever I say this it retaliates with swift and mighty vengeance) - of the last four days I've had two very low grade fevers that only lasted for a few hours, and other than that I seem to be reasonably functional. I mean, for me, that is.

Also in the wake of the Great Tree Fiasco of 2011, the hospital has gone a little crazy with cutting down trees that MIGHT conceivably be dangerous. Of course, they do this with teenagers with chainsaws and ropes cutting down 300 foot high ancient trees mere feet from my house. So yesterday was interestingly punctuated with assorted crashes, booms, and bangs as the young gentleman pictured below dismantled one of the largest trees I've ever encountered. While multitasking!

Why yes, he IS texting while dismantling a tree mere meters from my bedroom.

 For those of you who worry about your kids texting and driving... Welcome to Africa.

However, to prove that wherever you go kids are fundamentally the same, I'm going to share another delicious tidbit from yesterday, which fully, fully made up for any unpleasant crashing sounds or, I don't know, four full days with no water, little power, and no showers.

Simoni

That'll do, pig, that'll do.

Bits and pieces

Today is a much needed organization and consolidation day, so most of what you will notice is changes to the format and a complete redo of the renamed help page, plus the addition of a new photo gallery page so that you don't have to stare at them every time I get a shot I'm particularly proud of. The biggest change is a new project - yes, already - since the water project is within an electrical hookup and a water quality test of being finished (YAY!). I'll copy what I wrote already, since, as we have already established, sometimes I am lazy.

I am hoping to raise money to hire a staff manager and hospital liason, to reduce the already incredibly intense workload on Mama Pendo and to have someone whose entire focus is making sure policies are followed (i.e. mosquito nets are used daily and in good repair, vitamins are administered and sick children are given their medicine in a timely manner, each child eats from an individual bowl and spoon to avoid illness). They would compile this information into weekly reports to quantify progress on these goals. They would additionally serve as a liason with the hospital and make sure the hospital is fully aware of the needs and problems of the orphanage. Through conversations with the hospital administration, it appears that it would be possible to find and hire an appropriate candidate with a degree in social welfare or similar for about $3000 USD per year.

This is probably going to be a long term project, and I'm currently looking into the implications and procedures for putting together a nonprofit for the purpose when I get back to the US. Of course, if by some miracle LSE decides to accept me, that would put a slight crimp in those plans. So part of the problems involves the (always interminable) acceptance decision wait.

Keeping it short and sweet today. Looking forward to that water!

Cohesive narrative is overrated. Also, I went to art school.

GOOD NEWS: The cannula of death has been removed for the last time, leaving both hands comprehensively and quite colorfully bruised but otherwise unharmed.

BAD NEWS: That's because after five days of twice daily injections, it doesn't actually appear to be WORKING, so I have some form of mysterious African fever virus rather than mysterious African fever bacteria. Which is nice to know but, really, I would just like it gone and that doesn't appear to currently be an option.

GOOD NEWS: The pump arrived from Dar es Salaam and is being installed, the pipes are in, and so it's just a matter of running out electricity until we have sweet, sweet water available all the time.

BAD NEWS:The cannula in my hand has prevented me from really teaching jewelry this week, so my students might not actually remember what I look like (hint: I'm the pale one).

GOOD NEWS: The old students and about seven new students are doing really well and producing a LOT of work, I just need to find some way to sell it without further overcommitting myself. So maybe that's bad news. Eh, whatever.

Sometimes I take pictures in black and white. That totally justifies thousands of dollars on art school.

Grumplestiltskin, killer trees, and Africa is still out to get me.

Ohhh, where to start with the last week or so of my life? Lets start with the not so fun stuff - my fever started spiking again, after disappearing for a few days (silly me! Thinking Africa would let me off so easily!).I went to the hospital and they decided that the best course of action is to drown my body in hardcore antibiotics so that on the off chance that, despite everything, this is some kind of lingering bacterial infection, it will DIE. Thus, I have a beautiful hand accessory, seen below, which the kids seem to think is a portal to fun-land aka the most fun they've ever experienced. So THAT'S an adventure.

 

However, the moderate up-side of the twice-daily injections is that I've moved up to the house on the hospital property, which is beautiful and right next door to the orphanage, convenient for brief visits when I miss them after all of two hours. Seriously, I have a problem.

It's wonderful being so close to the kids, who can occasionally be distracted from my cannula for whole minutes by the newest additions to our orphanage family, five baby chicks - the black one is named Sylvester, the mama is Bugs, and the others are still too indistinct to name. The four dwarves? ANYWAY. It's an excellent bribe to keep the kids behaving, because they are PSYCHED about getting to come anywhere NEAR the vifaranga, since, obviously, they are kept at as far a distance as possible most of the time. Fences within fences.

 Zawadi especially needs lots of distracting because at sixteen months she is (FINALLY!) teething. She has earned the nickname of Grumplestiltskin, until that horrible wailing noise goes away any time... well, all the time. This was the reaction to my heinous action of trying to get her to smile to show her teeth. I'm awful. Also she's apparently decided to condense all her milestones into one very busy month, since she's now fully crawling, not just wiggle-worming, and pulling up to standing - she even walks with hands to help her, although, like everything else in the world, that currently makes her cry.

I am Grumplestiltskin! Hear me ROAR!

So yesterday, after finally taking a day to rest to attempt to recover from the hell that is this illness, I decided to check up on the orphanage quickly before heading down to the hospital for my daily injection. This is what I found. 

Yeah. That's a tree that was previously leaning OVER the orphanage, and apparently one of the mamas observed it leaning and the ground cracking above the roots - it literally was minutes from crushing the entire main room of the orphanage with most of the kids inside - and they managed to shoo the kids to the other end of the building and get some workers to come and fell the tree in the OTHER direction, across the playground and completely obliterating the fence. The kids were freaked but excited, with the exception of poor Simoni who I found wandering the halls, pantsless, muttering to himself about the big tree and DANGEROUS and bad tree, where is the fence? Poor munchkin then tried and failed to put his pants on becuase he was so distracted and upset, and started crying because really, what else adds insult to injury like being unable to put on pants? So we cuddled and eventually went outside and touched the tree and verified that no one was hurt and the tree wasn't going to hurt him now. 

Sigh. My poor little scraps. Still working on conceptualizing the whole "leaving" thing - pretty sure it just can't happen. We shall see. 

PS: Pump is on its way from Dar es Salaam, pipes are installed, and we are at most a week away from GLORIOUS WATER! Woo hoo!