Time to learn Swahili and sample the East African food!

I've been going to the swimming pool in town. The pool attendant started teaching me a few Swahili words. So I said to her I didn't know how to thank her. She explained that actually there was a way I could help. Her daughter wants to learn French, and wondered whether I’d be able to teach her? I'm not an expert, and explained this to her, but I could teach her some basic vocabulary and phrases.  This sounded like a good deal, I'd teach her French, and she could teach me Swahili. (In the back of my mind, I'm hoping that it doesn't turn into another Chepkemoi situation!)

My day was spent discussing sample size calculations for 2 students, both studying malaria; the first looking at HIV and its impact on diagnosis of malaria (since some medics can make “presumptive diagnosis” that a fever implies malaria, however, HIV also causes fever, so she was looking at the proportion of misdiagnosed cases). The second student was also looking at those malaria cases in children which had been misdiagnosed. He would look at the treatment given, and compare it to the results of the blood slides. He wanted to compare the proportion of subjects with a positive blood slides who had been diagnosed correctly, and treated with anti-malarials versus those with a negative blood slide who had been misdiagnosed, and treated with anti-malarials.  It is clear that the majority of the endeavour here is aimed at identifying drastic beneficial changes in the control of massive problems. I have yet to observe the real situation on the ground but from anecdotal information the struggle is immense. 

Myself, Mira and Mike were invited to dinner at our landlady's.  I'm loving the East African food . For an appetizer, we had ndazi's (fried dough). Incredibly unhealthy, but amazingly delicious! For starters, we had pumpkin soup. Main was millet, ugali (the staple food here – cornmeal porridge), vegetables from their vegetable patch, mince, chicken and chapatis. There was a power cut (I would learn this to be a regular occurrence), so we sat in candle light. There were a couple of other guests over from Oklahoma University. One of these, Randy had been over doing mission work and had lived previously in Kenya for around 10 years. He'd set up his own NGO (Non-Governmental Organisation), and was fluent in Swahili. It was interesting to hear about his experiences and the challenges he faced setting up the NGO. 

 

I'm learning a bit about the culture here for example, my landlady, a career driven woman, had house helpers and cooks, and rather than preparing the dishes herself, she would instruct the home helps on what to do. People are surprised that I'm not married with my own family at my age. In certain tribes, you must marry, otherwise it brings shame on your family. It is common in Kenya to marry young, and to have many children, particularly in the villages, the parents encourage their daughters to marry, so they can obtain a dowry to pay for their sons' education. Even one of my colleagues said that I should have children to help me with the cleaning and the washing!! It seems I have little chance of being a Kenyan wife here though, since I cannot cook – my boyfriend stands a better chance than me!