Mobile Testing

Last Friday our Ray Consortium youth went to do a mobile testing at an area known as Cabanas here just outside Nairobi. We had picked this location since it considered to be an area that is identified as a “MARP” (most at risk population). This is due to the fact that in this location there is no services offered that deal with HIV education, testing, or counselling. Since none of these services are readily available to the residents we offer it during our afternoon testing. We set up three tents that would offer testing and counselling. At my tent we had one trained and certified counsellor and two mobilizers, Edna and I, who focus on talking to people to get them informed and interested in being tested. Together we mobilized around twenty residents to come get tested. We answer their questions, give them the facts, and even offer to watch their little ones while they receive the counselling. When I first arrived in Kenya I didn’t have the confidence to just approach strangers and initiate a conversation with them to try and persuade them to get tested. Now I feel confident in doing so and have grown to really enjoy our mobile testing days.

This week there hasn’t been too much going on at the center so I have had lots of time at home to catch up with my Kenyan family and spend time with my house sisters. Beautiful and Solome are two teenage girls who live with us. Josh and Anena, the woman who we rent the house from, are considered their “parents”. They took them out of an orphanage two years ago and decided to put the girls in school and allow them to live in the house they purchased in the compound where we now live. Over the two years Anena and Josh have had lots of volunteers come and live with them and the girls love the company. I have enjoyed getting to know the girls better and better, and even had the opportunity to visit Solome’s relatives up country in December. Also living with us is “Mama Salima”. Anena had hired her as house help, to cook and clean, and she has grown to be part of the family. She makes sure we are all well fed and always shows great concern if we are not eating enough. When I first arrived in Kenya and was growing accustomed to the food, she always told me that her goal with me was to teach me to eat like an African, so I could grow big and strong. I have been told several times since my return to Kenya that I have “grown big” or “grown fat”. At first I was quite offended, but after much discussion you come to realize that here, this is a compliment. Not only does Salima make the most amazing food, but she has grown to be a great friend, and shows protectiveness over each and every one of us, hence the name “Mama Salima”. All of us can’t imagine life in Mlolongo without her.