Sept 19 - Cleaning the Hospital and then some

     When we were making our plans to return to Kenya this September, I’d told our hosts some of the things we wanted to do, places we wanted to see. There was, however, never a formulated plan. Each evening, our host, Marta, would say something like, maybe tomorrow you can do such and such. And we were like, sounds good, but we’d go to bed not knowing really what we were going to do or where we were going to go or who with, not even what time any of this might happen. And this was no one’s fault; that is just how they roll in Africa. And I’ve been there enough to know that I had to roll that way as well.

 The morning of our second day there, Thursday, after we’d gotten dressed, eaten breakfast and felt ready for the day, Marta asked us if we wanted to go to the hospital in Kikuyu to clean with some of the other volunteers. And could we meet them at the main drag in 45 minutes? Of course, my partner for the trip, Denise, and I got ourselves together and after a much longer than necessary hike out of our burg to the main road (I should have taken pictures), we arrived at the designated location with time to spare.

 Two matatu rides later, our group arrived at the Gichuru Dispensary in Kikuyu.

 Not what any of us in the US would think of as a hospital – a series of dusty cement block and tin-sided buildings, with peeling paint, screenless windows hanging open and random garbage laying around.

 We washed the windows,

 Picked up garbage,

 And gave it our best effort at making the grounds presentable.

 Until the male volunteers devised a curling match along one side of one of the buildings.

 You gotta have fun sometimes, right?

 Or at least make sure you come to the clinic dressed properly.

 When we had done everything we could, we took a matatu back to Kikuyu town and several of us walked to Crave restaurant for lunch.. 

 Let me zoom in to show you some of the menu. Choma is roasted meat and 1,000 KSH equals about $10. 

 After eating, we parted ways, so that Denise and I could get some cash at the ATM and some food supplies at Selfridges store.

 Guess I'll show you a closeup of Selfridges too. It's a three-story Walmart, only with very narrow aisles and not a huge selection of brands, but it's adequate for anything we needed. 

 Didn’t go shopping in the Kikuyu market though. I’ve been into that market before and just – don’t know – rather shop in a real store.

 We walked back to our neighborhood of Kidfarmaco and I once again got us lost. I just needed a short rest.

 It was, I believe, the last day that we got lost, though, so I don’t think we did too bad.