Mohan arrived yesterday morning and joined the clinic fray and brought more supplies.
"More supplies" is good because our 8 pieces of luggage that didn't make it with us are now being held by customs In Nairobi. It can be very difficult to deal with bureaucracy here. There's always another form or papers requested and taxes or other fees. Government agencies do not care about us or the people we are helping. They just want their forms and whatever fees they can collect. It feels like the reason there are these boxes everywhere (photo) is because it all feels like everyone is on the take. But in full disclosure, nobody has explicitly or implicitly asked for a bribe.
We are working multiple avenues to get our luggage released. Our travel agent is working her contacts. The IU team is trying to push the hospital here to be more supportive. But there seems to be a power struggle between hospital administration and IU. And finally, Kazim on our team is originally from Tanzania and knows the culture better and speaks Swahili. He's made many phone calls that have gotten us heard by perhaps the right people. But for now, we are missing a lot of supplies the team would love to have.
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