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Health & Fitness

Dogs, Babies and Toilet Paper

Unsavory stories and other curiosities lurk behind everything in rural Kenya.

Much uncertainly surrounded my departure to Kenya. I wondered what challenges would I face, how I would respond, and what changes would take place at home in my absence. One thing was pretty certain though: my dog, Nyala (I named her for the gorgeous African antelopes I saw in South Africa, because she could move and jump like them) probably wouldn’t be around when I returned. At 16 ½ and 60 pounds, even a feisty dame like her wouldn’t hang on forever. I almost broke down at the airport thinking about the walks and tummy rubs I would no longer give her.

 

There were plenty of dogs in Kenya. But not the kind you call to go out for a walk; Kenyans don’t name their dogs and keep them outside. Or pet. They’re too diseased and wouldn’t trust or come near you anyway. Locals, including my own Kenyan family, keep them for security.

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Like Nyala, my home-stay mbwa (dog in Kiswahili) ran circles in the yard like a goofy racehorse doing warm-ups. They even looked alike (except for his bulging bad eye). Which made it all the worse that I couldn’t even touch, let alone pet him, when I missed Nyala. 

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Peace Corps training is filled with stories about the strange and often frightening “things-that-can-happen-here.” Like the young volunteer who appeared at a rural hospital with a mysterious illness, went into respiratory arrest, and died within hours. No one could determine the cause of death until the investigation turned up an entry in her diary that described being bitten by her new puppy, weeks before. Hearing that made it a lot easier to stay clear of our cute little mbwa.

 

Or the story of the volunteer who was looking for a  project for his assigned community, when he noticed that all the young mothers had distended bellies, though there was no famine. He also noted that whenever the mothers went down to the water hole with their young children the village dogs always followed close behind. Then one day he saw a young mother pull down the soiled pants of one infant and offer his behind to one of the dogs, who happily licked his and each of the other kids behinds clean. The volunteer quickly surmised that the dogs were passing disease (worms) to the babies who in turn were infecting their mothers, and thereupon selected his community project – introducing toilet paper to the region.

 

Thereafter I made sure no mbwas were near whenever I used the choo. And that I always had plenty of toilet paper.

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