Free or Expensive

Early this month, I had to give up my post as Editor-in-chief of Ehsamu. I also had to give up hope of an ordinary COBES flitting past.

I am currently at my COBES station experiencing a lot of firsts. The handling of government officials, using a motorbike to work every morning, sharing a kitchen with men who cook and clean, trying not to stick around at the back during conversations, trying to keep my emotions in check... there are a lot of things I am trying which were never done, or which I have never had to regulate.

Everyone thinks that finishing school is a glamorous affair. For us, however, blood and guts get a literal translation. We handle so many gruesome details people foregone, omit, or ignore to keep the health of the community at large in optimum condition.

We have, me and my mates, been involved in a number of activities that have left us staring in shock at the audacity of some of the residents sometimes. They seem to forget that their health is their wealth. Their drains are clogged with paper bags, their round about populated by open defaecation and they don't seem bothered by the state of their town's dilapidated waste management systems.

It hangs above them like a hangman's noose. When the rain comes, people in Kitale town will be in a lot of trouble.

Yes, the extra experience is exactly what I paid for. Someone somewhere is enjoying my free labour as I collect data for them.

And someone somewhere thinks it is cheaper to dump their trash along the road. When the rain comes, they'll go to a hospital seeking medical help.

Hmmph!