a more sober update

Well, finally in an internet cafe so have some more time. Plus, you will be glad to hear, I have had no gin and tonics today.

At the moment, I am sending e-mails to all the contacts we made in Bamako during our seminars at the World Social Forum. The Tax Justice Network is planning to launch a network for Africa in 2007 and also is holding their annual research conference here before the WSF that will take place in January. So...I am hoping to check out the facilities that the University of Nairobi has on offer and also find some more contacts interested in participating.

It is good to be starting something that was part of the reason I came and also is something I have really been encouraged by over the last six months. I hope that our plans come to fruition-- the issues of capital flight and tax evasion really need to be talked about a whole lot more. Not that they are out of the limelight here in Kenya-- The Nation practically everyday has had a front page story concerning the tax evasion carried out by CharterHouse bank and Nakumatt, the biggest supermarket chain here (well, the only walmart style one actually with a tight grip on the market and expanding all over the place). Oh, and on the news yesterday, it was reported that another top Transparency International person quit...

Apart from that...yesterday we went to Thika, a drop-in centre that KENWA has about an hour outside the city proper. It is so good to be able to escape the pollution and drive through maize and tea fields. The centre at Thika had a nice feeling about it. There was ventilation in the kitchen for one so the whole place was not filled with smoke during cooking time, always a bonus when you have a building filled with people who have compromised immune systems and often TB infections.

First of all I watched the distribution of the ARV drugs--which are provided free to the government to those with CD4 counts below 200 and those who come regularly to pick them up. If people do not come every month or however often they are supposed to pick up their drugs, they are often struck off-- taking the drugs irregularly is the surest way to develop drug-resistant strains necessitating second or third line drugs.

Later we went out into the field. One particularly depressing case was a man in his late forties, paralysed on one half of his body and then with tumors constantly growing to block his vision, despite an operation back in February. He lives in a rented shack with his sister; god knows how they survive with neither of them regularly employed. When we arrived the front door was locked-- the community health worker escorting us told us that the sister was out. Whenever she leaves the house, which is most days, she padlocks all the doors from the outside, leaving her brother prisoner inside. We had to talk to him through a window, passing maize and medications in the same way. Crazy. It was so dark in that house!

Another house we visited was a little oasis of optimism-- sisters and brothers and other family members shared the bungalow, painted brightly and including one room which was filled with yellow armchairs around all four walls! One of the sisters was in bed, looking a bit wasted but apparently much healthier after having been on ARVs for a while. Her brother explained to me how they had found her at her husband's relatives house in a terrible condition and had brought her home to care for her. He said he had once also been in a similar condition-- he now looks so full of life. He bagged up some bananas and a pineapple for us to take as we left.

We also were given a huge sack of maize and bananas by an old lady who became HIV+ while nursing her younger daughter who died from the disease. I thought she would break carrying that huge sack! She only has two teeth on the top-- her canines. They look huge because all the other teeth have fallen out and her gums have shrunk. Ah, she had the best laugh.

I have been in this internet cafe far too long now though and am rather hungry...there is a nando's downstairs and a chic-inn (for all your greasy but tasty fried goods) as well as a pizza restaurant. yesterday we even treated ourselves to a visit to nairobi's exclusive coffee chain-- the nairobi java house. the mango juice is divine...