Every Day Brings Something New

My clinic has over 560 clients enrolled in the HIV/AIDs treatment program. That means that they come once a month to get their drugs, see a doctor, get blood tests, and find out when various support groups are meeting. I spend the first part of every morning taking vital signs and screening the patients before they meet with the doctor. Once a month I meet with the children for ‘Kids Club.’ That’s the support group for HIV positive children, but mostly it is a lot of game playing, dancing, and snack eating.  All of this was my motivation to celebrate World AIDs Day at my site.

On December 1^st we had over 120 people from the community gather together at the clinic for the event. My health club students came to help me run the raffle table and perform a dance and a short drama. We had the community health workers make a presentation as well as had an HIV positive member of the community speak about living positively and reducing stigma. We tested over 70 people for HIV this day! It felt great to see people come together and talk about something affecting their community.

Just when I think things will quiet down, Kenya has another curve ball for me. Today, a motorbike pulled up to the clinic and a young man carried a semi-conscious teenage girl into the clinic. She had vomit all over her and the man explained she tried to poison herself. I rushed in with Dominic, one of our doctors, to get an IV started and NG tube inserted (that’s a tube that goes in through the nose down to the stomach).  We pumped out the contents of her stomach until there was nothing left and she regained consciousness.  I spent some time washing her face and cleaning her up and then talking to her about what happened.  Sister Tina, one of our social workers, joined me and called in the girls four mothers (She comes from a polygamist family).  After a long detailed conversation, Sister Tina finally asked her why she chose to poison herself. As I strained to listen to the conversation in Swahili I picked out that the girl felt she had no happy day at home.  I know young girls all around the world have trials and tribulations, but for this one I just wanted to wrap my arms around her and tell her she is beautiful.

Saturdays with Sister Tina

Saturdays with Sister Tina are always an adventure and yesterday was no exception. There are about 24 churches that are connected with Ang’iya parish. Most of those churches consist of a small mud or brick building where people gather on Sunday and Father Lucas brings communion when he can. What Sister Tina and I “officially” do is meet with a different group each Saturday and teach lessons on life skills and behavior change. Unofficially we take the car off-roading through cornfields, kill black Mambas, and get ourselves into strange and sometimes sticky situations.

Let me start by explaining that Sister Tina is a 5 foot tall spitfire who can barely see over the steering wheel when she drives.  Half of the fun of youth group Saturdays with her is the ride there. Although watching her beat a Black Mamba to death wasn’t too bad either. Yesterday the car had broken down and we needed to take a taxi to the site. To sum it up, it took us over an hour to drive 15km (approximately 9 miles) we stopped the first time where the rain had washed away the road and some locals had to pile up rocks for us to make it across the ravine.  Then there was a sugarcane truck in the middle of the road and our taxi driver got out, hopped in the giant truck and drove it off the side of the road so we could pass. After that we got stuck and had to have some locals push the car out of a ditch.

 

This was followed by a landslide that washed a bunch of dirt and roots into the road, so we had to get out and manually remove the brush. Finally, the road turned into a river and we couldn’t continue by car. We then walked 30 minutes the rest of the way to reach the church. It was so muddy that Sister Tina just took her shoes off and walked barefoot half of the way.

We had a great meeting with over 40 youth members. We then made our way back to meet our taxi and start the journey back home. As we were passing through town, Sister Tina decided she needed to get her hair done. I then spent the next hour in a local salon watching a lot of braiding, weaving, and straightening going on. It made me happy to have the hair that I have where I can just wash it and go, but also amazed at the things these women could do to their hair. They can completely transform their look in a matter of hours.

On the way home the taxi driver dropped Tina at the convent first and then proceeded to the clinic where I live. In the short span of approximately 2 minutes between the convent and clinic our driver managed to ask me if I was married… Saturdays with Sister Tina are always an adventure.

 

Kenya through my mother's eyes

Describing my experiences in Kenya can sometimes leave me without words. The best feeling in the world is knowing that someone else has seen it and experienced it with me. I was so happy to welcome my parents to my life and my village and here are a few words from my mother:

 

When we returned from our very first international travel experience to Kenya, we could not put into words to summarize our experience.  Upon reflection, here are a few:

 

Amazeing.  It was amazing that we could find our way around the rural fields on a foot wide maze of dirt paths from the clinic to the secondary school 45 min away.  I couldn’t take my eyes off the path so as not to stumble on the ruts or rocks or loose gravel 

 

 Awesome.  Our safari was filled with awesome sights, from the never ending plains to the land of zebras surrounding us 360 degrees to the herd of giraffes making their way across the plains like sock puppets to the gentle mother and child elephants ripping grass up by curling it around their trunks to the wildebeest migration.

 

Unnerving.  When you are two tall white people standing alone amongst a sea of Kenyan faces waiting for your taxi driver to arrive, nothing you can do will help you blend in.

 

Uncomfortable.  When you meet a class of students and all they can do is smile and stare like you are a celebrity, all you can do is smile back and say hello. 

 

Confusing.  Although most people spoke English, the thick British accent was hard to cut through. 

Reduce. Reuse. Recycle.   Not a real concept here.  We drove by a stately Christian church complex which included a school, and in the far corner of the property, a trash burning site.  

 

Genuine.   Everyone we came in contact with or met were kind and helpful and so willing to share their country with us Americans.  And they wanted to know if we were going to re-elect Obama.

We thought this would be our one and only international trip, but before the end of our stay in Kenya, we were already talking about our return.  So like the sign at the airport…

 

 

Stomp Out Malaria Bootcamp: Thies, Senegal

I was chosen to be one of three Public Health volunteers in Kenya to become a Malaria volunteer. This means I would stay in my village, but would have additional responsibilities throughout my province in connecting resources with volunteers as well as assisting in Malaria based projects.  To manage this, I attended a two-week long boot camp training in Senegal. With almost 30 volunteers from 14 different countries, we sat together day after day learning how we can improve the Malaria epidemic within our countries and within Africa.

When I refer to this training as “Boot camp,” I mean that in the most literal sense. We were up for breakfast by 7AM each morning, attended class all day, had a one hour break between 6 and 7PM where we had to cram in a study session and read up on whatever case study was assigned. This was all followed by dinner, then a group discussion on our case study and finally we were free again after 9PM. This isn’t to say we didn’t squeeze in an hour or two of socializing followed by an angry and painfully early alarm clock the next morning.

So what did we do with our long days? These were filled with skype conferences with some of the big wigs at the Center for Disease Control (CDC), USAID, the Presidents Malaria Initiative (PMI), and some doctors and researchers from around the world. We visited local communities, hospitals, clinics and a research center studying mosquito biting behavior. Then we sat in lectures about behavior change and the epidemiology of Malaria in all of our respective countries. Basically everything I didn’t know that I didn’t know about Malaria, I learned in two weeks. 

I was able to brush up on my French and sweat out of pores that I didn’t even know existed in the daily 109 degree heat. I ate some amazing food and met some great new friends. But before I could go back to my village life and get back to work, I arrived in Nairobi at 5:30AM and went to meet my parents for their first trip out of America (Canada doesn’t count) just in time to make our 10AM flight to the Maasai Mara Game Reserve.

The Sweet Life

Camp GLOW was such an amazing experience. It was great to see the girls from different parts of the country making friends and trying new things. Some of the girls were deaf and at the beginning of camp they gave an introduction lesson on deaf culture and sign language. It was great to see the girls mixing together and watch the hearing girls practice their newly learned sign language skills. One of my students was so excited about it that she took a sign language poster home to teach the other kids back at school. We spent a day at the Impala sanctuary in Kisumu and another one of my students looked at me with wide eyes and said this was the first time she had seen Lake Victoria (her home is only 45 minutes by public transportation from the lake).

After almost 3 weeks away from my village I was on the main road to my house and the children were flocking to the side of the road yelling “Sister!” It always feels so great to be welcomed home like hero or celebrity or something. It truly felt like I was home as I was standing at my front door in the clinic. As I walked into my house I noticed that all my furniture was rearranged. I thought hmmmm, this is strange. Then as I walked a little further in I realized the sisters had installed a new solar powered electricity system and a full size fridge! Some of us volunteers joke about people being in the “posh corps” instead of the peace corps and I think the new electricity system and ability to store COLD things has sent me over the edge. I may still be 12 kilometers from the nearest paved road, bank, or supermarket, but life is pretty sweet right now.

This past weekend Sister Tina and I organized a youth seminar at Ang’iya church. We had almost 100 youth from age 10-21! I taught lessons on male and female anatomy, reproductive health, sexually transmitted diseases, healthy relationships, and peer pressure. The more I work with young people, the more I realize that they truly are the future of Kenya. I’m so proud to be a part of it and when I think of how I will never forget these kids, I’m sure the feeling is mutual.

 

 

 

When it rains, it pours!

I spent the last week on the beautiful island of Zanzibar to celebrate my birthday and relax after a busy month.  Zanzibar is a traditionally Muslim island and we were traveling through during the month of Ramadan (a very religious holiday where Muslims fast throughout the day among other things…). Natalie and I flew into Stonetown and prepared ourselves by wrapping our heads and covering ourselves from head to toe out of respect. We went to a beautiful fabric shop and toured the spice and seafood markets before having a drink and watching the sun go down.  It was a week of complete relaxation next to some of the most beautiful turquoise waters I have ever seen. I went on a snorkeling tour on my birthday and saw dolphins and other tropical fish.  The sand was like powdered sugar and I’m sure I will be shaking it out of my clothes for the next month.

Speaking of the next month, I am putting together the last minute touches to my lessons for camp GLOW (Girls Leading Our World). I was chosen to be one of the facilitators of the camp and it is going to be a week long camp for 60 high school age girl to learn about women’s empowerment, health, and opportunities for their future. I am the designated nurse for the camp, but I am also teaching lessons on female anatomy and reproductive health etc. I am so excited and proud to be bringing two of my health club girls with me!

The following week after camp I will be attending a Peace Corps funded conference on HIV/AIDs and community development. I will be taking a young woman from my community, Soila, who is a social worker student interning at the dispensary. This will be the second time she has ever left the village and I’m happy she will have the experience and can help me with some of my future projects.

Following that and my yearly medical exam in Nairobi, I will be flying out to Senegal for training to become one of the three chosen Stomp Out Malaria Volunteers. I will still be living and working in my village, but will also take on further responsibilities in major Malaria projects in Kenya, as well as working with some of the district offices and assisting other volunteers with Malaria based resources and funding.  I guess as they say, when it rains, it pours. I have a feeling my last year in Kenya is going to flash before my eyes.

Also, Check out a short clip on my life and work at the clinic!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MAF-HB41GGg

Kendwa Beach, Zanzibar

Paje Area, Zanzibar

First Aid, Village Style

I have been enjoying my new roommate, a Public Health graduate student from Seattle University. We have kept ourselves supremely busy with, among countless other things, outreach clinics and teaching first aid lessons to my health club students. It has been a great joy to see these students genuinely interested in knowing how to help fellow students or community members in the event of an emergency. It has been interesting trying to adapt American first aid curriculum to village life. For example, calling 911 or “waiting for help to arrive” doesn’t really apply when you are 12km from the nearest paved road.

We try to bring up a lot of discussion during the lessons to find out what the students already know and to answer questions about traditional or local remedies that they may have seen. In a lesson about fainting I asked anyone in the class if they have experienced fainting or witnessed someone faint. One of my very dear students admitted that she had fainted but did not want to share her story. Another girl piped in that she had seen it happen and was willing to share the story. She began to explain… “Bilha was being caned by one of our teachers, and suddenly went limp and fell to the ground.” For those of you who do not know what “caning” is, it is a harsh form of corporal punishment where teachers use a large stick or ruler to beat the students. I have been lucky enough to not have witnessed this, but I absolutely crumbled to pieces inside imagining my sweet student being beat to the point of losing consciousness.

Natalie and I spent yesterday organizing the clinic’s supply room and ended up stocking the treatment rooms with missing items. It was a good thing that we did because despite being a very slow day, we had two interesting wound cases. I sometimes feel like MacGyver trying to turn saline, iodine, and gauze into a magical wound healing dressing. I guess that’s just life in the village.

Community outreach in my village