Public Health Teaching

 Mitsuaki Hirai, or as the locals have named him, Mwiti, is a young Japenese man who recieved his masters in Global Health in the United States at the University of California Los Angeles (UCLA.) The morning we arrived at the Village Hopecore International office, he ushered us into the land rover where the rest of his team was already prepared to go. But, before we could leave town, we had to stop and buy bananas and peanuts. This crew doesn't stop to eat lunch.

Mitusakin teaching the younger primary classes about handwashing.

 Mitsuaki is the Public Health Coordinator at Village Hopecore International in Chogoria, Kenya. The office is located on the third floor of an open air building located on a steep hill near the main road in Chogoria. Village Hopecore International was founded by Dr. K.K. Mugambi. Dr. K. K. attended primary school in Chogoria and then traveled to the United States, where he earned a law degree. Dr. K.K. took his knowledge and compassion for Kenya and created Village Hopecore to help the community in Chogoria by providing microloans and public health education.

 Mitsuaki was hired as the public health coordinator with a one year contract. He has implemented programs to teach children how to wash their hands, eat a balanced diet and recognize symptoms of ring worm, typhoid and malaria.

 When the public health team stepped out of the land rover, a group of kids was waiting there to welcome them. Mitsuaki walked over to the children and spoke a few words to the children who answered back in unison. As he stood in the group of children with their faces looking very seriously up at him, he touched heads and lifted stocking caps, examining the childrens heads. This initial check was the first look at how many children at the school are affected by ring worm.

 Mitsuaki explained that ring worm is one of the few diseases they have been able to actually see results with because it's symptom is visible and does not need a blood test to confirm. Anyone with ringworm is given a pill during lunch, and those with more severe cases are given cream to use on the affected area. "It is hard to explain what the cream does to the children, but it is easy for them to see where they need to put it," he said.

 During the day, the primary school is split up into two groups. The younger classes are sent to sit in the shade of a tree in the playing field between the school and the bathrooms that are located on the opposite hill. The children all sit and play and chatter with each other, but when a bucket of water is retrieved and the Mitsuaki stands in front of the group, they all stand and give him their attention. He leads them in a song they have learned before. The song he sings has actions and is used to show the correct way to wash their hands. "The song and words actually have no meaning," he said, "It was created by UNICEF Japan and is a song that uses words that are similar to sounds." He went on to say that Japanese pronunciation and Swahili pronunciacion is very similar, so the song was easy for the children to pick up as well as it was easy for him to pick up the local language.

 Up in the church, the older children listened to two nursing students who spoke about the importance of a healthy and nutricious diet. "An apple a day keeps the doctor away," they chant, as they connect a healthy diet to a strong immune system that fights away diseases. The next nursing student explains how AIDS takes away that immune system, no matter how well you eat.

 Village Hopecore International has created a public health program that is spreading knowledge as well as medication to the children and people who need it. Mitsuaki, who has only just started his career in global health, has already made an impact in a place that is benefiting from his knowledge.

Writing Something Worthwhile

As a part of our class we have been assigned a journal to write in as we go through the class and this experience. We handed our journals in during the last class period and frankly, I know mine has fallen short.

You can barely see Darla's hand journaling, but everyone must be in deep thought about the trip and the journey they will take. :)

 I used to journal all of the time, but lately I can always find something more important to do during that time. My goal for the day/week is to write more in my journal about my fears, apprehensions, excitements and goals for my trip to Africa.

I also have trouble simply writing down ideas for my media portion of the trip in my journal. Writing down goals for that is a good thing to do, but I need to put more in my journal about how I can relate that to my life and this journey to Chogoria we are all on.

We will see how my goal goes! I hope to start today and continue journaling about this experience as we go. I am also making a goal to journal more generally more often. This goal might start with a new blog I am toying with creating.

Look forward to a post about some of the music I am learning and will  be teaching to the rest of the class. Should be lots of fun!

Chogoria

Chogoria, Kenya is our destination this May and this evening I have spent some time learning about this place on Wikipedia and the interweb.

(I stole this photo from Ronnie, the journalism student before me.  Check out her blog: 

http://triptokenya.posterous.com/)

Chogira is actually HUGE! Chogoria has over 28,000 people in it. That is much more than I was expecting.

Chogoria is 140 miles away from Nairobi. Chris informed us that this relatively short journey will actually take up to three hours. Something about giant speed bumps?

Chogoria was created around the Clive Irvine Hospital. Some of our fellow travelers will be working in that hospital, including Cindy Ault who is very excited to check out some diseases.

Chogoria is an education hub. It houses public primary boarding schools, girls schools and secondary schools as well as private establishments. The town also has the Clive Irvine Nursing College.

Isn't all of that stuff neat? Chogoria is going to be a very neat place to visit and I can't wait to have that experience. :)

Look forward to a post about our last class where we sampled Kenyan foods and heard from Dr. Coyle who was very informed on Kenyan wildlife. All this time, I had never thought of Kenyan wildlife. How could I forget!

Update!!

On campus here in Jamestown, we are all hurrying to prepare for the many midterms and projects due before Spring Break. This means that we are now only a semester from leaving for Kenya, which means, this blog is about to get a lot more regular.

The goal right now is two posts a week, a reflection from the Wednesday before and pictures from that week's class. Since last week, I didn't take any pictures, we will have this informational post and then a guest reflection from Jacie Fabro, one of the students who is also going to Kenya.

If there are any questions you wish to have answered on the blog, feel free to ask them in the comments.

ALSO: look forward to

• video blogs
• a post about Villiage Hopecore International
• AND a slideshow to show you all of what we have done

Thanks for following this blog and experiencing this journey with us.
I know I speak for the whole class when I say that it is nice to know there are people who are following us as we prepare.

HAPPY LEAP YEAR!!

--Beth

Women in Kenya--Jacie

Over the past few weeks of learning in our Kenya course we have focused primarily on the lives on women in the culture.  Women in Kenya make up the backbone of society doing both the manual labor in the field as well as raising their families.  The culture overall however is still a patriarchy and women have little no rights at all. 

            In class this past week we viewed an emotionally heavy film on FGM (female genital mutilation) and early marriage in Kenya.  Although both were made illegal in 2001, these rituals/traditions are still practiced in the rural/bush areas of the country.  I am sitting here trying to find the right words to express to you how emotionally charged this film was… but I’m not sure I can find the words to do justice to how terrible of a practice these two traditions are.

            The film featured several interviews with young women who had been victims of both FGM and early marriage. One girl in particular had her story followed from the day she realized she was being given away in marriage to her ultimate rescue. The girls (most of the time they are younger than 14) who are given away in an exchange for—get this, cows—are not told that they are being given away until the day of.  The FGM and marriage rituals begin with the elderly women shaving the young girl’s hair completely off… this is how the girls know that their father has sold them to another, always much older, man. In the film, the man that this young girl had been promised to was old enough to be her grandfather. Watching the young girl walk down the “aisle” absolutely sobbing while her family simply looked on was overwhelming. I wanted to scream at the family, all the while wondering how someone could do that to their child.

            I realize that the above paragraphs are a little jumbled and do not flow very well, but something that needs to be realized is how hard it is to put these emotions into words. It’s very hard for me to express the heartbreak I felt while watching this film and hearing the words from these young girls.

            There is hope though! Thankfully, education has created a change of mind in the younger generations. Families are beginning to understand the value of education for both their sons and daughters.  Girls are staying in school rather than getting married off at such a young age, they are beginning to value their own education… My prayer is that the older generations in Kenya will also begin to realize the importance of education.  It has given freedom to the women in Kenya and even with the young men. Perhaps, if education is stressed even more prominently, the boys who grow up to be men in the Kenya society will also begin to value the women by whom they are surrounded.    

--Jacie

"Good job, team."

Working on the letter in a conference room.

Sunday, the group got together to work on the letter we will be using for our fundraising campaign. It was only a matter of time until we started to come together, but while editing the letter, I think we all got more of a sense of our roles in the group.

The letter was a bit of a challenge. Asking for money is no easy task, and the wording was especially difficult because we were all so concerned about how we wanted to sound.

The most difficult part of the letter was deciding what we wanted to ask for. Of course, we are all looking for monetary donations, but what about things that aren't material. Thoughts, encouragements and prayer are sometimes more important to people than figuring out how much more money they need to fly overseas. We had to eventually decide who the letter was going to be sent to and made our decision based on that.

Even though fundraising is a big concern for us right now, it is really the smallest part of this trip. We have so much to learn this next semester and we haven't even begun to think about what May is going to bring.


How exciting!

First things first....

Hello readers, whoever you may be, 
My name is Beth Ryan. I am a freshman mass communications major at Jamestown College in Jamestown, North Dakota, and I have exciting news...I am going to Africa.

Well, not just me. A group from this college is making the trip to Chogoria, Kenya in May of 2012. I have been given the job of the journalist for this group. Starting today, December 2nd, I will be telling the story of our trip and bringing everyone out there reading along for the ride.

 I will be posting pictures, writing update, making videos and sharing stories of our Journey to Chogoria. 

After Christmas break, I and my fellow travelers will be starting a night class to help us prepare for the trip. 
That class will teach us a lot about where we are going, what we are doing, what could happen and who we could meet.  
Our guide and main leader is Chris Hoke. Chris has already been to Africa, so he knows his way around the place and makes us all feel a little bit more comfortable about starting this journey. We will also be accompanied by Cindy Ault, a science professor here at Jamestown College. 

On this journey we will grow closer to one another, learn a lot about ourselves and each other, experience other cultures and learn more about the world around us.

Next week, the other girls and I will be meeting to put together a letter to send out. This letter will be sent out to our families and friends as part of our fundraising to pay for the trip.

Hopefully soon I will be able to post a picture of the group and tell you a little more about the people I will be traveling with.


Have a happy weekend!