so this morning I woke up and decided I hate Kenya. I hate the heat...I hate have a constant stomach ache...I hate being called mzungu all day...I hate being expected to pay for everything...in short. I hate kenya.

It took alot of effort for me to pull myself out of the puddle of sweat in my bed and get into my cold shower only to realize we had no electricity (which could explain why the fan was turned off and I was sweating more than I thought humanly possible). so. I took a shower in the dark. had a good cry and tried to convince myself that the day was going to get better. got on a matatu..got ripped off. got on another matatu...refused to get ripped off ending in some verbal abuse. got on a ferry...tried not to get robbed (success) and then got on another matatu to finally reach my health center internship for the first time... only to realize i didn't really have to take a matatu because it was a 5 minute walk away....i got totally ripped off...like outragous ripped off. I was basically about to break down and cry by the time I walked into the clinic.

Thankfully Mama Grace (one of my SOAN supervisors) was there to greet me. She put me straight to work as the local pharmisist. All morning I basically filled little bags with different types of drugs. Not exactly what I was looking to do with my time...so the beginning of the day was pretty miserable.

after my slave labor was over me, grace and rukia (my other supervisor with SOAN) all sat down to come up with a work plan. We discussed the book we are going to be writing and when and how it is going to get accomplished. the more we talked...the more excited i got about the project. 3 days a week I will be going out into the field and interviewing different people living with HIV so they can have their story told. we are also talking about bring a video camera along so that we can possible make a DVD documentary as well. I found out that Amina (my head supervisor of my internship as a whole), grace and rukia are all HIV positive. we talked for a long while about what it means to live positivly and the ways of going about doing that while living in absolute poverty. The modern medicine for HIV requires that it be taken with food...but there are sooo many people who just cannot afford both (or either for that matter) in the Likoni area where the clinic is located. It was a really hard but inspiring talk and I know I am going to learn so much from working with these amazing women.

Rukia really encourages patients to use herbal remedies before turning to modern medicine, so we went to the organic farm where they are growing some of the herbs. we spent the afternoon just sitting around eating fresh papayas and coconuts and talking about ourselves. Rukia kept finding different plants and telling me what they cured...its amazing...I know I am going to come back from this trip with plenty of herbal remedies!

OK. so I might have started the day off hating Kenya (and I still do hate alot of things)...but the work I am doing here makes all the things I hate seem so futile. The work I am doing now will keep me coming back for years to come I'm sure. Here I have so many opportunities I would never have back in the US. I got to be a pharmasist for the day! i mean...it wasn't that exciting...but thats kinda cool. I get to write a book that could possible be published. also very cool. I get to work with some of the most passionate and selfless people I have ever met in my life. amazing. The experience I am gaining here is more than I could have ever asked for or expected...and I only hope that I am able to give back something to the people who have changed my life here.

in closing. I still hate matatus and being called mzungu...but at the end of the day...I know it's all worth it.