World Malaria Day

Today in Kenya, 72 children will die of a Malaria infection.

In America we don’t learn much about Malaria because it was eradicated in the 1950s. The disease is caused by a parasite, Plasmodium Falciparum, and it is passed to humans through a mosquito. At my clinic almost half of the patients who are under the age of five come to be treated for malaria infections. I have seen children who are lying listless on a hospital bed that don’t even flinch when an IV line is inserted and can hardly open their eyes.  When I heard of World Malaria Day on April 25^th, I knew it was something I wanted to celebrate and bring awareness to the people of my village.

I started with my high school health club. I asked them what they wanted to do and we started to organize an original song about malaria, a dance, and a drama. I then spoke with the sisters to get their support and to help mobilize the community. We spent weeks going around to different community groups and leader to tell them about the even we were planning. Next I needed funding for some chairs, a tent, and to set up a PA system the day of the event. I got help from the district officials to fund my event and instead of hosting it at the district headquarters I was able to convince them to make my tiny village the official host of the World Malaria Day event for the entire district!

Over 500 people from my community and from the district offices came on the day of the event. We set up our tents and chairs in the soccer field across from the clinic and my health club provided dancing and entertainment throughout the day. I had my health club students assist me with translating a few phrases into the local dialect to put on posters for the event. Unfortunately as I was transferring those phrases onto the posterboard, I had difficulty deciphering which letters were which and a community member had to tell me that instead of writing “to prevent malaria in Pregnancy” I had written “to prevent malaria in a sexually transmitted disease.”

We offered free testing and treatment for Malaria and people were lined up outside the clinic doors for hours to be seen.  We gave out over 80 mosquito nets to pregnant mothers and children as well as encouraged people to allow their homes to be sprayed in the next following days to kill mosquitos. It was a great opportunity to bring awareness to this disease and to work together as a community in measures of prevention.

At the end of the day one of my health club members turned to me and asked “Is there a World AIDs Day?” Yes Bilha, there is…

Waduto wariw lwedo watiek tuo mar malaria

Culture is a Funny Thing

I recently met a Kenyan girl who is the same age as me and lives in my village. We have started to form a friendship and I enjoy walking to her house to sit down for coffee and talk about culture. She is just as curious of my American traditions as I am of hers. One day she was walking me home and we could hear a thunderstorm in the distance. She asked me if I was afraid of the thunder. I said no, but asked her what there was to be afraid of. She went on to explain that the Luo tribe believes that thunder isn’t just a noise, but it takes the physical shape of a giant rooster the size of a house that can attack you or set your house on fire. She also worried about me as I walked the rest of the way home because I was wearing my ONLY rain jacket which ironically happens to be red. She told me that lightning would strike me if I was wearing red.  Luckily I made it home safely without being struck by lightning or meeting the thunder along my way.

Another day we bought pears in the market and after washing them I started eating mine right away. My friend Julianne turned to me and asked if I was afraid someone would see me. Worried that I had mistakenly done something culturally inappropriate I asked her what was wrong with eating fruits or foods in general in public. She told me that some people are witches and if they see you eating they will curse your food, your stomach will start to swell and you could get very sick. Glad that I hadn’t outright offended anyone, I told her I didn’t believe in witches and finished my pear on the way back home.  I haven’t been cursed yet…

Another day I was on my way to one of our youth group meetings with Sister Tina, which is always a terrifying experience. Sister Tina is a 5 foot nothing nun who can’t drive in reverse and who stalls the car at least twice each time we are out driving. Every Saturday we venture out to a different rural youth group which generally means me and Tina off-roading in the tiny car for at least 45 minutes on “roads” (or should I say hiking trails) that were not made for cars.  At this particular youth group last week we were fielding questions about puberty when a small girl asked “is it ok for me to slaughter a chicken before my period is about to start?” How do you answer that question!?!? We asked one of the adults to explain and the belief is that if a girl or womans’ period is about to start in the next day or so, if she slaughters a chicken the blood will start to flow out of her lady parts like the blood flowing out of the slaughtered chicken’s neck.  What a terrifying image!

Culture can be a funny thing and it definitely keeps my life interesting.

A truly amazing day

I have had many amazing experiences in Kenya, but today tops them all.

Let me start from the beginning. I have been working really closely with the nurse midwifes at my clinic and learning the ropes of conducting a delivery.  Since I previously worked at a veteran’s hospital, mother and child care was the farthest thing from my repertoire.  It seems each delivery I have assisted with has been interesting in its own way.

My first delivery I was a bit bewildered as I was being clung to by the 15 year old girl delivering her first baby. It would be putting it modestly if I said this girl was grabbing onto me like the Jaws of Life.

Another delivery I was standing next to the woman who was so silent through her labor that we weren’t sure how soon the baby would come. The next thing we know, this woman laying on her side, lifted her leg and simultaneously gave birth while her water broke.

I spent another long night as one of the nurses from the clinic gave birth to her first child. The whole staff was there until the birth around 2:30 in the morning and I felt like a real birth attendant helping her with her contractions and staying by her side through the whole thing.

I suppose there have been a few relatively non-eventful births at our clinic and today seemed like any other day. I was packing my bag to go visit my friend Julianne for lunch when a woman came in to the clinic. I asked how many centimeters she was dilated and nurse Phoebe said she was fully dilated and could deliver any minute. I decided to postpone my lunch and stick around. About an hour later Phoebe was telling me to just go and come back later, this woman was not progressing and it could be many more hours before the baby came. Again, I told her I was patient enough and would wait, just in case she needed my help. This woman was only 20 years old and giving birth to her fourth child, so nothing indicated this would be anything other than a normal delivery. However, she was having trouble pushing and the baby was not advancing for a dangerously long time. When the baby boy finally came out he was not breathing and the color of an ash tray. While Phoebe cut the cord and attended to the mother, I took the newborn baby and tried to clear his airway and use a resuscitation bag to get some air into him. Eventually he was able to take a few weak breaths but it wasn’t until an hour later that we heard his first cry.

I have been in emergency situations before in my nursing career, but it was comfortable knowing I could just call a code if any of my patients were struggling. Being in a remote clinic with just nurse Phoebe and myself, it was a bit terrifying yet exhilarating to know we pulled together to save this little ones’ life.  I couldn’t ask for anything more right now and I’m so glad I postponed my lunch date.