Sosoni Clinic, Day 1

September 20, 2012

All of our travels to clinics is done by van.  I don't think the van has had working shock absorbers or struts in ten years, so travelling on the dirt roads that connect the villages is a long, rough ride:

The van

 The road to Sosoni today had a few ruts.  I love the red dirt, though!

 

The road to Sosoni

 

African Time really hit us hard this morning for the Sosoni Clinic.  African Time is like "island time" in Hawaii; everything runs late and everyone is waiting.  The van arrived, but then we were delayed while Marlene tried to straighten out a problem with email from the Malindi Rotary Club about a well drilling project in the villages.  We finally got on the road and stopped at Musifini to pick up the Kenyan volunteers.  We sat there for a long time, and eventually learned that the van needed oil which was taking a long time for some reason.  We'd been told that the drive to Sosoni was about 15 minutes from Musifini, but we didn't arrive until about 40 minutes after leaving Musifini.  Then we waited while the arrangements were completed for which classrooms at the Sosoni Primary School we would use.  No one seemed to know what we were waiting for much of the time. 

While waiting we took advantage of prime photo opportunities:

Phil and Diane at Sosoni Primary School

American volunteers with Jackson, Helen, and a bunch of Kenyan children at Sosoni

We eventually got set up and got the classes started. 

I hadn't planned to take photos today since I have taken so many on other days, but I loaded up my telephoto lens. That allowed me to get "stealth" close-ups, because I was so far away from people, they didn't realize I was taking their picture.  I have not been able to use my 24-105mm lens (my primary and favorite lens) because something has gone wrong in the electronics, and the camera gives me an error most of the time when I try to use it.  Major bummer!  So my choices are wide angle (17-40) or telephoto (70-300).  I've been using the wide angle since I am usually close to the people I am shooting, but today I played with the telephoto.  I got some good portraits, like these:

 

 

 

 

It's very common for people to not smile when you take their picture. If you show them the first picture, though, they break into a smile for the second one:

No smile for the first photo

 

Smile after seeing the first photo

Diane had an interesting experience in the clinic today.  After getting medicine for one woman, she looked down and started talking.  She got up and walked away.  Jackson explained that she was a devout Christian, and she had just said a prayer as a thank you for the service rendered to her.  Diane sent Jackson to find her and give her a picture of Christ holding an African child.

 

The devout woman who said a prayer as thank you