Situated right on the Equator, Ramula is a colorful, little, rural Kenyan trading centre that I love to wander around and take photos. So much character. Friendly people living what appears to be simple lives but that are really quite complex given the challenges they face getting from day to day.
Here some photos of some of the shops that operate in this rural Kenyan “shopping centre.
This dilapidated van has been sitting here for the last five years, looking like this. In front of the “Palace” kinyozi (barber) hardware and beauty salon.
This fellow makes wooden tables, doors and cabinets using all hand tools. I contracted him to make a crib out of cyoress wood for little Heather Maddie at a cost of 6000KES ( $80 Can)
I asked these guys who were the other nine of the top ten. There were no others. Guess that makes this one number one.
The fellow hidden in this kiosk cage also can make deposits and give money from your Equity Bank account. In his spare time he does construction and cuts hair.
This is where the fellow above gives haircuts. The little sticker in the upper corner says “Trust in God”. Advice for clients who may not feel his skills are up to par?
And for the ladies…
The Place Pub, complete with smoking zone outside.
Kingston Ontario’s history includes a cholera epidemic that, between 1932 and 1934, killed ten percent of the city’s population. Kingston residents are all familiar with the downtown McBurney Park ( known locally as Skeleton Park}, now home to an annual summer arts festival, where many of the victims of this epidemic were buried 180 years ago. Kingston’s popular home-town band, The Tragically Hip, even have a song that references the outbreak. The Hip Museum website has a great summary of the cholera epidemic that basically closed down all the stores in town with the exception of lumber outlets to make coffins.
Cholera was then, and remains now, a serious consequence of inadequate sanitation and clean water. It was not until John Snow traced an outbreak in London to a water pump on Broad Street that we understood that the disease was spread through water exposed to fecal contamination from other infected people.
In Canada today, 99 percent of the population has access to improved sanitation and clean water. Cholera is a disease of the past. But for communities in developing world countries, including those in East Africa, where, by comparison, only 60 percent of people have access to improved sanitation, it remains a serious threat.
Just last week I received an email from Dr. Karen Yeates, a Kingston nephrologist who is currently with her family in Tanzania. She writes: “I just managed a cholera epidemic over Christmas at the little hospital I am doing some part time consulting at. I never thought I would see it in my lifetime as a physician…..its incredible that we have the ability to do everything we can in this world with technology and medicine but, the poor and disadvantaged in sub-Saharan Africa struggle with diseases of more than a century ago. We have had over 30 cases but no deaths thankfully. We traced it to lack of toilets and clean water in the three communities where it came from. They had stopped boiling water due to lack of ability to afford wood for their fires…its a choice of make food or boiling water but not enough wood for both. Inflation is high here right now due to the strong US dollar and everything has become more expensive for families here. I was thinking about CAN-ASSIST and how many toilets you have built over the years….we can’t forget about these simple things…..:).
Keep doing what you all do so well. “
The CanAssist African Relief Trust continues to work to improve water and sanitation for schools and communities in East Africa. This week we are starting a latrine project at a school on Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria. In 2015 we installed clean water supply and toilets in ten different schools, clinics or lakeside villages.
There is little specific treatment for Cholera other than aggressive fluid and electrolyte replacement. Prevention through sanitation, protection of water supplies and hand-washing remains the key. This YouTube video is in Swahili and aimed at instructing African people about the importance of these prevention measures. It is simply presented and without knowing a word of the language it is easy to understand the message.
Meet Josephine. She is over 100 years old and lives in Teso District in Northeastern Uganda.
She remembers when Africans in her community wore no clothes. She lived through Idi Amin. She survived the Lord’s Resistance Army. She lives alone in a traditional hut, getting some food from neighbours who watch out for her. Last week I watched her walk into a windy oncoming storm to get home. She said, the next morning that she just made it.
It was an incredible privilege to have met her last week.
My last blog about the Monarch Butterfly and Africa got me looking through photos I have taken of Butterflies in Africa. Good segue into this one which will only be butterfly photos – give you a reading break. I have enjoyed chasing butterflies all over Kenya and Uganda to get their pictures – more challenging than photographing giraffes. Butterflies don’t stay still for long.
I even wrote a children’s book for my grandchildren based on butterflies in Kibale Forest, Uganda. Some of these photos were taken on Poinsettia bushes in Kenya, others on the forest floor in Western Uganda. The one against the bricks is called a Christmas butterfly. I hope you enjoy them. Happy New Year.
johnageddes 
