Days 1 and 2: St. Marg., MMAAK, EAC

As I sit typing this, a small lizard is crawling on the wall in front

of me. We're in Mombasa, Kenya and it's Tuesday evening, the end of

our second full day.

Our first visit was with St. Margarita's. (That's the group on the

shore of Lake Victoria, and we bought them tractors and pumps to work

their idle fields.) We met with four of them (at the hotel rather than

on site, unfortunately) and the discussion was quite informative. They

began in 1986. Sounds like their success has been contagious, and

neighboring communities are clamboring for the government to provide

what St. Margarita's has done.

Their focus is on the upcoming generation, not the present generation

of adults. Even though ARVs (anti-retroviral medicine) is becoming

available for free from the government, stigma has kept many adults

from even getting tested. Seems like tough love, but practical.

From a big picture standpoint, their focus is evolving from water

(success) to health (success) to education (the current focus), and

they're working to get kids from primary school into secondary school

and then even to college.

Later on Monday we met with the Movement of Men Against AIDS of Kenya.

This is a group that we *didn't* fund last time, and one new twist on

this trip is to see a few of these almost-but-not-quite groups.

We were quite impressed with this group also. Their focus is behavior

change in the HIV+ men (getting them to help with the nursing tasks of

relatives, reducing domestic violence, etc.), boosting their optimism,

and reducing the stigma. "Positive masculinity" is their motto, which

sounds odd to American ears, but seems to work here.

They work in 5 provinces and have a total of roughly 3000 clients

(either direct or indirect). They're loosly affiliated with similar

groups around the Lakes area (DRC, Burundi, Rwanda, Tanzania).

[Seen on the way to dinner last night: the Jesus is the Answer Dental

Clinic. (I don't think so, unless Jesus has a DDS degree...)]

Today (Tuesday) we flew to Mombasa, on the coast. We visited the East

Africa Center and Suzanne Jeneby showed us around. Their current

location is well used but cramped, and she showed us a new 6-acre plot

nearby. No buildings yet, but they have plans and are working on the

permits. They expect to break ground on the Pangea-funded clinic in

about a month. Suzanne is returning to Seattle to work on a Master's

program at UW, and she's eager to visit us at one of our meetings or

lectures. We met Francis and Kennedy, the two men who will be taking

over day-to-day operations. Looks like the EAC will be in good hands.

More soon!