Circle of Friends

Today at work we responded to emails, finalized the newsletter, and figured out a list of email contacts for Lucy! We also prepared for a meeting about Osiligi Village (a rescue center for girls that MGEF wants to start) that we have tomorrow. It was a busy and productive day! It is so weird to feel my days left in Kenya dwindling down. There is still so much to do and I do not want to leave this wonderful place!

Today I just felt surrounded by wonderful friends. I came to the Children’s Home and was playing hand games with Sunday, Econnette, Naserian, Joscelyn, and Helen. I walked into my room and had an amazing conversation with my roommate, Diana, and her friend. I went on facebook and talked to Caroline’s brother who I met when we were taking Caroline to the airport. I also talked to one of my best friends from home! I got a phone call from my friends in Kibera, and then I checked my email and had all these updates from my best friends from home. It was crazy…I felt surrounded my love. I am so thankful, so grateful for these amazing people in my life who now construct my circle of friends!

An interesting thing that happened today is that Lucy, Emily, and I walked into the office and found a huge pack of condoms in the bathroom. Emily found them and came back laughing hysterically, and then Lucy and I started laughing as well. We had no idea how they got there or what to do with them. Looking back at how we handled the situation, I understand on a much deeper level why HIV/AIDS work is complicated. All three of us reacted immediately in an embarrassed way. We didn’t want the condoms there because we didn’t want people to get the wrong impression about us. We removed the box, but later we found out that it was an HIV/AIDS awareness campaign that was distributing the boxes all over Kajiado. The point was to help prevent the spread of HIV/AIDS. We decided to give the box back to the organization, but we realized that by doing so we were limiting the access to condoms. It was an interesting situation that gave me a lot of perspective on the complexity of HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns.