Health & Fitness
Pali Patch Blog: Starting From Scratch
Learning about HIV/AIDS in Kenya helped put my troubles at home into perspective. But a whole new set of challenges awaited my return.
Small town life can feel claustrophobic to a big city gal like me, so after six weeks in Loitokikok I was looking forward to our HIV/AIDS training in Taveta, about four hours away.
Sponsored by PEPFAR, the well-funded president’s emergency plan for AIDS relief, the training promised lively class discussions (what was worse, the alcohol and drug abuse that leads to risky sexual behavior, or the societal expectations and rites of passage, like circumcision and FGM, that hampered progress?), great food (fresh salads and real cheese!) and showers (albeit cold). The Challa Hotel, the combination disco-restaurant-sports bar-lodge, might be noisy, but I didn’t care. At least I wouldn’t be awakened every night by the sound of little feet.
Not Mama Patie’s kids – they were grown and out of the house. I meant the little feet of my other Kenyan family, Mama Rat and her brood of hungry beasts. I’m not sure what drew them to my mama’s house - her maize garden, the heaping garbage mound, the full water well in the midst of drought, or me, since they visited my bedroom nightly and seemed particularly fond of my underwear. But after dealing with the problem quietly since I’d arrived, their increasing boldness - roaming the house day and night, scratching through my things, leaving droppings throughout my room - forced me to ratchet up my concerns with both my Mama and Peace Corps officials.
Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
I understood that the whole “Peace Corps experience” meant living outside my comfort zone. But I didn’t expect that to include sleeping and eating with rodents. Couldn’t we get a cat and some rat poison? I tried to be diplomatic, yet firm.
Travel is great...when things are running smoothly. But even the smallest misunderstanding or problem can explode in unfamiliar territory. And in a small, proud town like Loitokitok, where appearances are everything and the income of many residents depend on Peace Corps’ continued presence there, I feared my concerns would be viewed as an attack. Not just on my home-stay family, but on the whole community and even Peace Corps itself.
Find out what's happening in Pacific Palisadeswith free, real-time updates from Patch.
I had worked hard to be accepted into all three and the thought of throwing it all away weighed heavily on my spirit.
Luckily, Taveta delivered: I delighted in watching the dance and musical performed by locals to help educate their neighbors about HIV/AIDS and de-stigmatize those affected by the disease, explored the main market with some of the other trainees, and visited a group home where residents demonstrated that living with HIV/AIDS did not have to mean living with fear and without joy. It helped put my problems back home in some perspective.
But like the AIDS epidemic and the rats themselves, my problems at home just grew while I was away. When I returned to Loitokitok a week later, I was an outsider again. And in some ways that was worse than living with rats.
