lights out!

My computer has been all sorts of wonky recently so I haven't been able to post as regularly. It seems to only accept power from a single outlet downstairs. I mean, I know particular, but this is quite out of the ordinary, even for me. Anyway, the power is totally off in our neighborhood and for some reason, apparently the generator's wires also got crossed so needless to say, we're going out! Right after Jess takes a French shower with our drinking water.

A brief update:
 Today was fascinating--we had a site visit to the Round Table clinic in Bagara this morning, where D-tree staff met with community health workers (CHWs) to monitor their progress with the new phone systems they've been using. Of course we didn't understand anything since it was in Swahili but Joachim translated about some of the key problems these women (and men!!) face:

• Their clients want help--supplies, treatment, money--that the CHWs are neither equipped nor in some cases allowed to give. It is not so much that the NGOs need to monitor the CHWs work with the phones; the CHWs are just limited in what they can do without referring to a clinic and this is incredibly frustrating.
• The phones are both a blessing and a curse in terms of interaction and stigma. In some ways, they are great because they reinforce the status of the CHWs and are less obvious than the books they carried before, which made some clients and villagers uneasy (a show of sickness, so to speak). At the same time they are not really able to be used during the visits, when the real purpose is to counsel, educate, and talk to clients to make sure they are doing ok, taking their medications, etc. So the real time data entry and protocol stuff is sometimes barely used.
• These CHWs are passionate about their clients and their work--they really want to help and value their position in society. It's just not totally clear to me that we're best helping them do their jobs right now. Still, they like the phones and seem to want to keep using them.

We then had 4 hour+ interviews back to back in the sweatiest of sweaty no aircon/fan Dar. I think we deserve to go out to the Sweet Eazy!!

More photos and Kenya stories tomorrow, when hopefully power is restored.