orange feet and 7 cups of tea

The dust here gets everywhere and living in a mud hut it's hard to keep your feet clean. Consequently my feet constantly have this orange hue. I thought they drank a lot of tea in Ongata Rongai. I've counted and it usually adds up to about 7 cups of chai (water and milk boiled with a few tea leaves) a day. (It's almost 3pm and I've had 4 cups already).

My friend Michelle asked me about the weather. So here's the answer (for everyone): As in the States it depends a bit on where in Kemya one is. Parts of Kenya are known for being particularly cold (probably meaning the temperature there ranges from high 40s-70s), Mombasa on the coast is supposed to be particularly hot and humid. But since Kenya is much smaller than the U.S. the variance is less and most of the places I've been are fairly similar. Somewhat dry (certainly not the humidity of NYC in the summer) and hot. Where I am now, it is quite cool in the evening and in the morning (cool enough to see my breath sometimes when I first wake up at 6am) and it reliably gets hotter as the morning wears on. By the afternoon it's about 90F and starting at 5pm it gradually gets cooler. Even by 7pm it's nice to have long sleeves, pants on. January and February are the hottest and driest months (as I understand it) so I'm seeing the hot end of it and it's really quite comfortable as long as you can manage shade at the hottest hours of the day. July and August are their coldest months when it gets to around 40F at night and maybe only warms up to 60 during the day. I haven't been in a heated nor air-conditioned room yet.

So back to what I'm doing lately. Well, as it turns out my first day at the Red Cross was fairly representative of how it is. We do a lot of food distribution for displaced families. As the food is distributed and when we've finished there's usually time to talk to the displaced people and hear their stories, hear their concerns, hopes etc... It's amazing how strong people can be. It's also really nice to be useful. The other day the father from the family in Ongata Rongai came to visit and give me a "break" by taking me around Nyeri (this area). It ended up being really nice and I saw a lot of sites and talked to a lot of interesting people but it was really the opposite of a break for me. Living out in the boonies (from the Tagalog word for mountain- bundok), reading and studying Swahili or playing cards with the kids at the shamba, working for the Red Cross, having lots of time to myself as I walk home from work, actually doing concrete, physical tasks- THAT is what feels great. Getting in the car and driving places, meeting lots of people (which calls for a formality that's sometimes a bit akward- feeling as if people are stopping what they're doing to meet you because you're a mazungu- of 'European descent'), having the same conversations over and over again about politics makes me more exhausted. But again- it was nice of him to show me around and I had a couple of interesting conversations with a nun at one of the schools we visited about adoption and mental illness.

Adoption- people often end up informally adopting their relatives' children when the parents die and sometimes strangers will help out by paying school fees for older children but formal adoption of unrelated children is strange. When I was explaining that I had cousins that are adopted but that are absolutely my cousins she thought that was neat but assumed that they hadn't been told they were adopted. She was really interested in the topic and I learned some more about adoption here. I think part of the reason that formal adoption isn't as common is that children spend so much time at school, many board at the school (this is true even at public schools and parents pay just for room and board, not the education) so the relationship between the parents and children is not as constant as it is in the States.
Mental Illness- as in the States, the idea that mentally ill people are dangerous prevails and when people find out that I work with the mentally ill their eyes grow wide. That said, I've met 3 women who were mentally ill living with their families so depending on the severity, it seems that they're not always considered dangerous- I don't know but I'd be willing to bet that women with mental illness are more often cared for by families than men. The head nurse at the clinic in Ongata Rongai explained to me that it's not uncommon to have someone (or their family member) come in and complain of stress or confusion. It's generally considered a temporary illness and many people are advised to rest or giving an injection. (People get injections for everything here- antibiotics, vitamins etc...) so getting an injection doesn't seem to be as scary here). I see a few people on the street and there is also a hospital for the mentally ill in Nairobi but from what I can tell many people with mental illness survive with the support of the family network.

As usual I meant to write so much more but I best be on my way...
Dara- my sore throat was terrible again this morning but it feels better so I'm hoping I'm on the upswing.