The Week in Ugenya

Hi Everyone.

Sorry it has been so long since I've posted, I've tried a couple of times but the internet has given me trouble. The connection is good today, so I might even try to do more than one post.

This week I've been living and working in Ugenya. This is a district in Nyanza province between to big cities called Busia and Kisumu (Kisumu is actually the thrid biggest city in Kenya). I've been staying at a hotel here called Camunya, its about a ten minute walk from Ugunja, one of the main towns in this district. Let me define "town." Its an area with a couple of resturants (which they call hotels), a chemistry or two (pharmacy), it also has other shops, many small convincience stores, places to buy tires for bikes, and lots of women and men selling shoes, fruit, and other things infront. Here in Ugunja there is also a VCT (volentary counseling and testing center) which is a place where Kenyans can get free testing and counseling that then refers them to hospitals where they can get free ARV's (thanks to PEPFAR and bill that granted funding from the US government, so its your tax dollars). In Ugunja there is also a place where the Matatus load up with people. (Matatus are the 14 person vans that travel along the main roads, they are the "public" transportation, a 15 minute ride basically costs 20-40 ksh (76ksh to a dollar). Also there are the boda bodas which are bikes that people pay someone else to pedal them around in. Along the main road there are other "towns" like this.

We have spent the week going to the various schools in the area, doing the first evaluation, an HIV/AIDS education program, and the second evaluation. Today Pat and I are spending in the hotel, inputting all of the data into the computer. I'm going to go do more of that right now, but I'll be back later today and I'll write more about the time in Ugenya.