Monday, January 10, 2011

Starting a month of research

It is good to be back in Kenya. It truly feels like a second home.

Our trip here was great. All of the flights were smooth. All of our connections were easy. All of our bags arrived with us. All of our reservations (flights, cars, hotel, house, etc...) were ready upon our arrival. We had no trouble with customs, visas, or any other legal technicalities. We had a day-long layover in istanbul that was marvelous, and a day and a half in Nairobi that was very restful. This is our first international trip with Senya and it couldn't possibly be going any better.

Being here with Senya has been a very special experience. This place feels like a part of us, and it has been magical to share it with her. She loves the warm weather (no more bundling up like Ralphie from A Christmas Story). She is enthralled by the leaves on the banana trees and the vibrant flowers everywhere. We took her swimming in the ocean (as warm as bath water this time of year) for the first time and she never stopped laughing and squealing with delight.


After making our our epic journey here, taking care of all of the practicalities of living somewhere else for a month, and resting up for a bit, we were ready to dive into a month of intense work.

We drove up to Kwale (ohhh how nice it is to have a car here!!!) to meet with Terry and Paul, our partners and project managers here on the ground in Kenya. It was so good to see them. Of course we always keep in touch, but there is nothing like meeting face to face and getting to be introduced to new babies for the first time. Their son, David has grown into a very cute little boy and their daughter, Pendo is a beautiful baby. It is cute to imagine Senya having familiar friends and playmates here as she grows up.

We spent the day plotting the course of the next month. Every day promises to be packed to capacity. For example, tomorrow we will meet at Pamoja Center in the morning and then spend the day visiting primary schools in several villages distributing and explaining consent and ascent forms for students to participate in our HIV/AIDS study.

We are hoping to have about 300+ participants. Our 50 lb. suitcase filled with nothing but forms and questionnaires speaks to the volume of data we are hoping to gather. After the forms are distributed, we will return to conduct interviews, focus groups, and have students fill out questionnaires.

Amid our busy research schedule, we are planning times to visit all of the previously established projects. We are excited to hear reports of progress made, see new projects that were nothing more than dreams the last time we were here, and visit with the wonderful people who manage and participate in these projects. We can't wait for this aspect of the trip to unfold.

This promises to be a busy month, but we will try to update this blog periodically so that our friends and family members back home can keep up to speed with what we are doing here.

Thank you for reading and for helping to make these dreams a reality.

3 comments:

Em Keev said...

Wheewwwwwwwwwwwww, sounds busy. And you're going to find time to update a blog in the middle of all that?!

Glad you got there safe... looking forward to reading about it all!

Collin and Lindsay: said...

Thanks Em! We are busy, but we like keeping the blog when we can. It not only keeps us in touch with everyone at home, but it helps us to process our experiences here in a different way. We love it.

Anonymous said...

Hey guys! I'm so happy that everything is going so beautifully. God is most certainly with you on this! I'd love to swim with Senya in that warm water!