My First Day

Sunday evening, i did something for the first time in Kenya....i rode a matatu.  never heard of them or seen them in Asia or Europe, but in Africa (and Latin America) its the only way to get around.  picture a small minivan crammed with as many seats as possible (about 14) and then it operates like a citybus, except that each one is individual and the drivers usually pimp them out with flashy lights and loud music.  oh and they drive like maniacs racing each other to get the next passenger fare.  

anyways, today i went to work....bright eyed and bushy tailed..yeah..maybe more like blurry eyed (left at 7am) and uhh...well...don't have a tail, but after 8 months in africa who knows what i'll come back with...wait...that didn't come out right...

so i arrived at the Community Health Department on the campus of the Aga Khan Hospital.  unfortunately, the coordinator who i was chatting with while i was home is no longer with  CHD, but thats ok...we'll figure it out.

i know first day's usually consist of nothing, but today i did less than nothing.  the first chair i sat down on was broken.  when i started to look around for another chair, i was told to take the chair beside me.  after mentionning that i thought it belonged to someone else (namely the person who's desk it was) i was told to "look after myself first, and let others figure themselves out".  lesson learned.  

ok..bad first impression, but the people are actually nice.  there's 2 main proposals being worked on right now, one is from the rockefeller foundation looking at communicable disease in rural villages, and the other is looking at water sanitation.  the rockefeller project is CHD's focus right now, however that will be wrapping up in sept. the water sanitation only funded 2 staff people, so i'm not sure if succession planning has taken place.  i was asking people what happens after the rockefeller project ends..there were a lot of shoulder shrugs.  when i asked how people would be paid after this grant ended...again shoulder shrugs.....soooo...side note: i found out, that some people at CHD make about 12,000 shillings/month.  thats about $200/month, or about $2400/year.  compare that to some of our highly admired professional athletes who would probably make $2400 in the time it takes to readjust their jock strap...how can there be such a discrepancy?!?!?!?  

pace is slow.  definetely a far cry from UHN pace...but that was expected.  i went from an organization with 12000 staff and a $1.5 billion budget to an org. with 20 staff and $1.5 million in grants...  i'm meeting with the director tmrw morning and hopefully will get some type of marching order.  during lunch, i took a trek to a local cafe where i tried to order a chicken philly cheese sandwich, but ended up with something much different...still chicken though...i think...

while at this (busy) cafe, i stepped outside to make a quick phone call on my cell phone.  i was standing in the middle of the street with my phone in my hand searching for the phone number and felt like there were eyes watching me.  when i looked up, i realized they weren't watching me...they were watching my phone!...cell phone back in pocket...lesson learned.

after work, while walking to the matatu stand to go home, i was told to keep a close eye on my backpack as people would try to open up the zipper and steal stuff...being the smart big-city torontonian i thought "ha! just try it...i'm so aware of my surroundings!"....when i hopped in the matatu i realized that my bag had indeed been open, and my sunglasses were gone....(no bigge...they were a cheap pair i bought in thailand for like $3)..., ok..i'm in africa..not toronto...lesson learned. (but the wierd thing is that i have yet to see a kenyan wearing sunglasses)

so...tomorrow's another day...hoping it will be better than today...it really wasnt' a bad day...it was actually pretty neat when i think about it, i came to a different side of the world, so it would only make sense to expect a world of difference...i'll be better prepared tomorrow...

just a lot of stuff to get used to.  in time........