A Little Excitement

Hey friends and family,

We had a little excitement yesterday, I enclosed the link to the article below. The initial report was over 100 people killed, I'm glad it is now only 12.

BBC article

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/7345960.stm

Yesterday was the first day of our training, it is going well so far. We are in a huge round room that has a round stairway leading up to a door that we aren't sure where it goes....but we had a huge rat yesterday that came down the stairs and ran across the room right under our screen in front of everyone. The Kenyans are too polite to say anything though everyone noticed. Then about an hour later, the rat ran back across the room and back up the stairs and out the door. I am planning on keeping a tally of the number of times that rat runs across the room over the course of the week...

The grounds here are beautiful and filled with lots of birds, I've seen multiple finches of all colors and some that have gorgeous long tails. It rained yesterday and last night as well but is a little muggy today. I heard that it was 80 degrees on Saturday in Seattle, it has been cool here and we have had to wear long shirts and pants. Of course it would get nice in Seattle when I leave!

Some statistics that are always a good reminder to me why I do what I do-

33 million people living with HIV in the world today

22.5 million of those are people living in Africa

60% of new infections are in women worldwide

For every 1 person that starts on HIV treatment, 4 more people are infected. Meaning that treatment alone will not curb this epidemic but prevention and treatment together.

Kenya

5% prevalence in 2006 down from 14% in the mid 90's

9% of women who go to antenatal care clinics are HIV positive

700,000 discordant couples in Kenya (one person is HIV positive, one is HIV negative)

I hope everyone is doing well, I will write more when I can.

Hugs,

Meighan