As we first enter the compound, you drive down into the courtyard. There are usually patients milling around as well as a few chickens and goats. Surrounding the courtyard are the immaculately kept admin. and medical buildings. Also, a few accessory building; education room, maize storage, and bike/goat room. Past the clinic is the “soccer field” where the staff children play on the weekends. They have made goals from branches and old fishing nets. I’m not sure if there are any rules, but it seems like a free-for-all to me.
Past that is our ex-pat housing. We have two houses and one tukul (a traditional house with a thatched roof). Our houses have solar lights and cold running water. Both are great luxuries here. We also have the most important building; our cook house. This serves as our living room, board room, kitchen, and dining room. Joyce does a lot of the cooking, which is wonderful. It seems to be her goal to make Matt and I be the first people to move to Africa and gain weight. There is this cake dish that somehow magically produces another kind of cake as soon as it is empty. We have made a few forays into the kitchen with varying levels of success. Tacos: excellent, brunch: amazing, beef butchery: not so much. Apparently it is good I didn’t go into surgery.
The most wonderful aspect of our compound is the view. We are surrounded by a “living fence” with just enough gaps that the people walking along the shore can marvel at our game of frisbee and the kids can yell “mazungu” (white person) to get our attention. Beyond the fence is Lake Victoria. The waves lap the shores and the traditional sail boats pass all day. There are islands a kilometer or so out and hilly peninsulas on both sides. And the sunsets we watch from outside my house every night look like something out of a Hawaiian postcard. If only it weren’t for the Schistosoma, which makes swimming unwise this would be paradise.
About a mile up the shore is the Ongoro children’s home where 40 orphans live with four Mamas. Nearly all of them lost their parents to HIV and 7 of them are HIV positive themselves. Yet, they are some of the sweetest, most well behaved, most well-adjusted children I have ever encountered. They truly are a giant family. The kids were a little shy at first, but very quickly got over that. The best game for the little kids is playing with our hands. If you push our skin it changes color! After an afternoon of tag, soccer, and duck-duck-goose Matt and I decided that Ongoro will be our weekend workout routine. It’s not easy to keep up with 40 kids.
So, that is my home in Matoso. Karibu! (welcome)
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