A bit of a summary...

It's Sunday, MR 21 and Louise just left tonight. We've had the most amazing 5 weeks together - I will definitely miss her! Now, I have to wait and see what new adventures lie ahead of me in the next 8 weeks!
We spent 4 days in Mombasa (Diani Beach), toured a coffee plantation, worked at an orphanage one day... but I will detail these in future blogs. Hopefully I can catch up a bit on my blog-writing now that I won't have to share the computer with Louise! For now I figured I should recap what I've been working on the past few weeks (volunteering? - oh yes - that's why I'm here!!)
Well, 3 weeks ago, we finally got to meet Adam - the past-volunteer who has now started up UMaY. He agreed that we may be a little early for volunteering with them, but that we could get involved in sharing ideas and proposing new programs. UMaY has not really kicked off anything yet. He has also left our schedules totally open to us, which allows me to explore other placements and opportunities to try over the next 2 months
Right now, we will continue doing home visits once per week with MMAAK and running the women's group on Wednesdays. This Wednesday meeting is quite successful!! We spoke to 7 women at the first meeting about the importance of using condoms. We handed out male condoms, and demonstrated how to use female condoms. The women asked about family planning options too.
At the end of the meeting, they asked if we could come back the following week and discuss Nutrition - for that session, we had 15 women show up! A definite sign that they are enjoying and learning from the sessions and spreading the word around Korogocho slum.
Talking nutrition was very good, because the 2 main foods that people here in Kenya eat are "sucuma wiki" (kale) and cabbage - both of which contain practically all vitamins and minerals a body needs - and they are both CHEAP (i.e. approx. 15 shillings (20 cents) for a MASSIVE head of cabbage).
They also eat a lot of different beans and lentils (also cheap) which are great protein replacements (meat is expensive in comparison).
This session also gave us the opportunity to discuss the necessity to cook with and consume "clean water" - something I feel should be repeated and repeated.
Last Wednesday, we were asked to speak to cervical cancer, breast cancer and STI's. We discussed prevention; receiving regular medical exams and proper screening. We explained how to perform a self breast exam, and highlighted risk factors. 23 women attended!!
This past Wednesday, Louise was asked to examine the breasts of 2 women who had been in our meeting and were concerned about what they found. We had a bit of a chuckle about this, but were also pleased that the women were really listening to what we were saying. Now, that "Nurse Louise" is gone - I'm concerned they will be looking to me for this assistance!!
Our meeting had another great turnout. The topics were HIV, oppportunistic infections, tuberculosis and STI's. We handed out more condoms and information booklets on these subjects. Again, we were encouraged that this meeting was being talked about. We met another "mzungu" at a local restaurant and after talking about her work, we started to tell her what we were doing there. When we mentioned MAKWK clinic, she said she was hoping to go that afternoon to attend "an amazing women's meeting" she had heard about. Pretty cool, eh?!
Last week, we met UMaY in Nairobi and traveled to the Kibera slum. This is one of the largest slums (if not THE largest) with a population of 700,000 people. We didn't get a full tour because it had rained all morning and it was extremely muddy, and also, it's so big it would take 2-3 days to see everything. Although a huge slum, they are definitely ahead of Korogocho when it comes to housing, programs and NGO presence. One thing that is quite prevalent, is that the people we met are positive and eager to change, learn and improve - something that Korogocho residents are sadly lacking. Korogocho has very little publicity and attention. i.e. Kibera is where the "stars" go to visit. So many people came up to say "hi" and shake my hand - they obviously mistook me for Angelina!!!  :o)