Mombasa

I went to Mombasa. HEART has a WEEP center there, we spent a day at the WEEP center and then played tourist for two days. Vickie really wanted to visit the Mombasa WEEP ladies, a women from the program died recently. Sarah (the woman who died) left behind two children. Her children will be cared for by her family. This is not an uncommon phenomenon, more than half of the women in the WEEP program take care of not only their own children, but the children of dead relatives as well. I got the impression that it is pretty rare for a woman in the program to die; with ARVs and proper nutrition most of the women are healthy. The women at the Mombasa WEEP are fairly traumatized and it was really important that Vickie visit them.
I really bonded with a woman named Janet, she didn't speak much English but she taught me Swahili. I am terrible at Swahili, I mean absolutely terrible! I need to see a word before I learn it, I'm not an auditory learner. Janet had quite a bit of fun at my expense.
After we visited the center we spent two days playing in Mombasa. Mombasa is beautiful, it is right on the Indian Ocean. Mombasa is also significantly hotter than Nairobi, Nairobi is high in the mountains and not nearly as humid. Whenever I would comment on the heat a local would give me a puzzled look and inform me that it was, in fact, quite cold. It is their winter, it was easily eighty five degrees with eighty percent humidity. I cannot imagine how hot the summers are!
We had a ton of fun, I rode a camel named Mr. George, swam in the ocean, and took several naps under palm trees. We stayed at a beautiful hotel, the owner is a friend of HEART so we got a really great rate. We also did quite a bit of shopping on the beach. One of the pictures shows another intern and me wearing various scarves and wraps we bought from beach vendors.
I am going upcountry to Meru for the next three days. Meru is a really rural area in the mountains. We are putting on a fun day for school children, doing health education, HIV testing, and opening an office for the HEART Kids for School program. I'll post an account and pictures once I get back.