A few weeks ago while standing at assembly (students announcement type of thing) in the morning, my principle informed everyone that a form 2 (sophomore) student had died earlier in the week. When she announced this, it was a very odd moment for me. I looked around at all of the faces of the students who just heard this information for the first time. There was no show of emotion. No tears. No... nothing. I do not want to think that Kenyans are heartless people. Far from that. But at this moment I realized just how much death is apart of everyones life here in Kenya. For all of the students, they have probably already lost a classmate during primary school, a sibling, a parent and so on. Death is so common here that when it occurs... its nothing new. The funeral was the following Monday. So all of the students started a money collection which would go to the family. They also prepared a dress for the girl since she did not have one to be buried in. The funeral was out in the village, but to my surprise when I arrived there were Catholic priests in their robes with their special cups giving a service. I don't really know what was said since most of it was in Luyha, but for a small bit it was interpreted into Kenyan Sign language, during which they just described how the girl died (diabetes). Once the service was over they moved to bury the girl.... which was quite interesting. The clan in the area the girl was from has a tradition to bury everyone sitting up. So they had a special coffin made in which 2 boards could be removed to reposition the coffin into sitting position. Apparently this started when the king of the area long ago died in a mud slide sitting up. Below I have a picture of this old mama who I just couldn't resist taking a picture of
and this is a picture of some kids at the funeral who just couldnt resist the Mzungu. They look happy don't they? (Kenyan just do not smile in pictures)
The weeks following the funeral have been very fulfilling. I travelled to Nairobi recently and not only get to eat good food, drink good beer, and hang out with good friends, but also got to get a project that I've been very excited about started. There is a group of Volunteers working to create a video that is deaf friendly showing the process of going to get tested for HIV. Along with this video I want to make a poster showing how to use a condom correctly and another showing what to do if you are HIV - or HIV +. So to say the least I'm very excited to get this project going.
I have also started a Health club at my school the past weeks with a fellow teacher. I taught them all how to do self breast exams. And today I just had a very successful meeting about the transmission of HIV/AIDS.
And here is a picture of my first health club meeting: self breast exams :)
