Kisumu, Keyna: Tilapia for Lunch

The humanitarian field does have its moments of subtle reward.

I began this blog from the Tilapia Beach Resort in Kisumu, Kenya. The Tilapia Beach isn't your typical resort. You won't find it in any travel magazines and good luck finding a web site for it, that would require electricity.

I'm taking a lunch break from hospital assessments in Kisumu. I've already been to Siaya and Yala Hospitals, which support clusters of villages. These hospitals have become a part of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals for Africa, an ambitious effort to wipe out extreme poverty by 2025. Bono (of U2) is the mouth piece and renown economist Jeffery Sachs from the Earth Institute at Colombia University in New York is the architect of the plan. General Electric has signed on to fund the Hospital refurbishment and Assist International has been enlisted to provide logistics and project management.

This is where I come in. It's my job to travel for 36 hours to places barely on the map, crawl through the attics of hospitals looking at infrastructure and photograph tons of hospital equipment new and old in an effort to see how they can be helped to reach the next level of care. In a few hours I will meet my subcontractors at Nyanza Referral Hospital, known to the locals as "Russian" Hospital because they built it several decades ago.

While I wait for that meeting I have decided to ask a "Took Took" driver for a restaurant recommendation. A took took, is a three wheeled sardine can with a canvas lid, powered by a vespa motor from yesteryear, which doubles as a taxi cab for those who can't afford an actual taxi. The took took driver, who probably hasn't ever had the money to go to a restaurant, especially one frequented my "muzungu's" (White people) suggests the Tilapia Beach Resort.

Resort? Now that sounds nice.

Ten minutes ago the road ran out of black top and the hotels turned to bamboo walled, dirt floored huts sans doors. Sans every amenity actually. Each hut has a wooden sign with the words "hotel" painted on it. Still my faith holds out because hidden gems sometimes lie at the end of a hard road. At least this is what I tell myself.

The Tilapia Beach consists of nine thatch roofed cabana's on the banks of Lake Victoria, set back just far enough that a crocodile can't bum rush you from the bull rushes. My first mistake upon settling into my plastic chair was to ask for a menu. The waiter laughed and I realized this was the second sign of "I ain't from around these parts is I".

"Menu?!" He asked quizzically. Yes, I respond, so I can see what you have to eat today. Again he laughs and says follow me. Dutifully I fall in behind the waiter who takes me to an open grill piled high with, guess what? The only thing on their menu, Tilapia. (Tilapia is the common name for many species of cichlid fish, like those shown above)

It's projects like this where medical equipment, otherwise out of reach to local hospitals, is provided through Assist International that makes gruelling travel and questionable accommodations well worth it. Whether the project is funded by a major corporation in conjunction with the United Nations, or by a local church or service club like Rotary, putting the tools to save the lives of women and children who would otherwise die or be physically impaired for the rest of their lives is a great feeling.

I wish I could take all of you along some time to see exactly what it is you accomplish when you team up with Assist International to care for those who can not care for themselves. Maybe, I humbly submit, I can help take you there through the blogs, until you can free yourself up to come along.

No matter the case, thanks for your consistent support of Assist International and our medical and orphan child projects. Without you it just couldn't happen. With you and God, there are no limits.

Until next time,

Tim