Still on the move, it's hard to imagine that we only just this evening made it to our final destination.....but we did it!! Today we had a little bit of free time before our short flight. Some of the team took a lovely scenic drive out to Kobe Tough, a women centric program where 400 Masai women make hand rolled clay beads, paint and fire them in a kiln then make absolutely stunning jewellery. They also do traditional Masai beading on leather goods. Sales of their products support single mothers, orphans and widows in Kenya. They work together to nuture the artistic skills of these women, providing them an opportunity to earn a fair wage for their art. It is important to understand the roles of men and women in a society so that you can understand why disparities and inequalities may exist, our role here is NOT to attempt to make changes in social structure  but to understand how this can impact health for both men and women.

We had a great time learning all about the initiative and studio from our tour guide Carol, she was so passionate about what she was teaching us. The women sang a beautiful song for us noting that it was a welcome song, one of thanks and appreciation for our support. Check out the video below, they invited some of our team to sway along to the song with them. Powerful women doing a wonderful job.

Eventually we had to get moving so headed to the airport once again where we boarded a little twin propellor aircraft run by Jambojet to head from Nirobi airport to Kisumu airport. We were all fascinated by the high number of Maribou storks we saw in Nairobi, good old Google taught us that they are vultures who assist with cleaning up carcasses and prevent disease spreading in the eco system. Not to mention they are petty big birds.

We left the bustling alive city of Nairobi behind, traded it for a smaller town. Once we made it to Kisumu we then boarded a bus and drove for almost 2 hrs to our final guest house in Kakamega county at the beautifully welcoming Sheywe hotel.

Kisumu and Kakamega are 105km apart. Kakamega county is home to roughly 1,867,579 people and covers approx 3,000 sq km. It is a beautiful lush green tropical rainforest area, it is humid here. This area is well known as a regional center for agricultural activity in surrounding areas, it really plays a role in connecting the more rural towns with a more accessible service provider town. We see this in our clinics, we drive upwards of 1 hr out of Kakamega and it feels like a different world with respect to amenities. This is where we will call home for the next 14 days.

For tonight we are enjoying a meal together, getting settled in, making a plan of action for organization tomorrow and enjoying some downtime.

Exciting news, we also have our instagram account back up and running ....check that out for more photos of our adventure @canadiannursesforafrica1

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