Tuesday, July 25.
There were almost no clouds all day, so the weather was really warm and nice. At night I could see so many stars. The Milky Way was so clear as well. I brought my computer outside and showed some of the workers (night security) my planetarium program. They were astonished. They are native Masai, and they probably have never seen a computer. But they got to see the world's current most advanced laptop computer. Anyway, now I'm back in my bedroom typing away on my journal.
Today was another long day. There weren't as many patients as yesterday, so the day was going a bit slow. So PuiMeng showed me around the clinic while she was free. We had another pregnancy test. The test only works if the last menstruation was 6 weeks ago or longer. This girl had come in a month ago and had the test saying the last menstruation was more than 6 weeks ago, and the test was negative. But this time she came in and said her last menstruation was three weeks before the last time she came in. Basically she was confused about how long ago she had her last menstruation. Masai people don't really have the sense of how many days have past or even how old they are. They don't even have birthdays, apparently. Many people have difficulty remembering how old they are. A lot of their life stages seem to be centered around the time of circumcision. I'll talk about that more later. Anyway, the girl was tested positive for pregnancy. When she heard the news, she didn't seem happy or sad. Not even surprised. She already has one baby, so maybe it's not because it's her first time being pregnant that she wasn't especially excited about it. PuiMeng told me that girls are treated really nicely by their families when they become pregnant. It doesn't matter if they are married or not. So I guess that's why the girl yesterday seemed so happy. She probably wasn't married either.
For lunch, I had some rice and potatoes. Isaiah cooks for both Pastor Stephen (his brother) and me, so Pastor Stephen and I ate together. They use a spoon to eat rice here, since it's so hot. After lunch Pastor Stephen showed me around the mission compound. I didn't get to see the secondary school because, according to Pastor Stephen, the principal would think we're doing some kind of business. Ever since the school was handed over to the government from the missionaries, the school has been doing a poor job. The principal is very greedy, and he wants to kick the missionaries out so that he can take over the clinic as well. So what happens usually is that missionaries come and build facilities such as schools and hospitals. When they finish building and have everything up and running, the natives kick out the missionaries and take over the facilities, thinking that they can run them themselves. But they end up running much less efficiently than the missionaries, and the would start asking for money from the missions. It's pretty sad and discouraging especially for the missionaries who spent so many years building and the people who've put so much money into them. After the missionaries leave (or get kicked out), everything goes to waste because of corruption.
The students are taking their final exams this week, so this afternoon at 4pm, I was going to help some students with their math. I waited for a little over an hour, but nobody showed up. So I went out with the pastor and he showed me around the village. We visited several houses, including some of the cow-dung huts (they call them boma). We visited one house where several ladies were making bead accessories that many of the Masai people wear. Many of them were church members, and the pastor talked briefly and we prayed together. They dressed up the pastor and me like they would their chief.
I want to write more, but I'm so tired... Maybe tomorrow, maybe not. Tomorrow is immunization day. I'm going to be talking to people about worms.
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