July 17, 2007

Last week was a fairly productive week at the clinic. I finally made some progress on a couple of the projects I have been working on, so hopefully I will have finished them before I leave. One thing that I am trying to initiate is a kids’ club for the HIV-positive children who visit the clinic. They are in and out of the clinic a lot, and often get sick, so I thought that it would be good for a bunch of them to get together for something a bit more positive and fun and go on small outings and field trips. I am trying to coordinate it with a pediatrician who seems quite interested in the idea, so hopefully we can find some funding and recruit some patients. I spent another afternoon on the pediatrics ward in the hospital, but this time more to spend some time with the kids than to do anything medical. I brought some crayons and paper and they had so much fun. There was this really sweet little girl who had her eye surgically removed, and was feeling kind of down, but she was easily distracted by the colouring. The kids only spoke Swahili, which was too bad for me because they were talking away to me and asking me questions, but I obviously couldn’t respond very well.

I had an amazing weekend in Masai Mara (it’s the northern continuation of the Serengeti). We were picked up on Friday morning and then drove for about 6 hours on the WORST road I have ever seen. For the most part we weren’t even on the road because there were so many potholes the size of kiddy pools. Instead, most of the cars drive on the dust shoulder. The drive was really interesting though because we passed through a lot of small towns that are pretty run down, and obviously quite different from Nairobi. During the second half of the drive we passed a bunch of Masai (a Kenyan tribe) villages. I had no idea that so many of them still lived so traditionally. I would look out the window and see a man wrapped in traditional cloth, with a handmade weapon, walking across a huge space of empty land with his herd of cattle. The men have earlobes that are stretched so that you could almost fit a hand in the hole- apparently they start to stretch them out as a sign of becoming a man. It is worth doing a quick google search to see what I am talking about. We also passed by some of their villages. They still live in mud huts, and sleep on the ground. The whole thing looked like a photo shoot from National Geographics.

We made it to the park in time for an evening drive, during which we saw some animals, and then we spent the night camping at our site. Our tent was a piece of crap, but it did the job. The campsite was right beside the park (which isn’t fenced) so there is always a risk of animals strolling on to the campsite. Luckily we had some Masai men as guards. One of them told us a story at the camp fire about how he has had to kill lions to protect his cattle. I felt pretty safe with them at the camp site, but when you wake up in the middle of the night and see the silhouette of a man with a spear, it can be a bit startling.

The rest of the safari was great- we saw the sun rise over the savannah, lots of animals (giraffe, elephants, lions, hyenas, impalas, hippos, buffalo, wildebeests, zebras etc.) , and I even got a video of a lion eating a zebra. It was nice to spend a few days outside of the city to see another part of Kenya, and actually be able to breathe!

July 19

There has been quite a bit of hype around here lately about a bunch of tremors that have been happening. I was lying in bed the other night and my room started to shake, and the stuff on my desk started hopping around. Apparently after that tremor, there was crank call into the media saying that everyone in a high rise should evacuate because a big earthquake was about to hit, so all of these people were grabbing their valuables and driving away in their cars to avoid disaster. Luckily I don’t have tv or radio here, so I was pretty oblivious to all the chaos, which is good since it turned out to be a scam.

I spent some more time on the pediatrics floor yesterday and saw a ton of stuff- neonatal sepsis and meningitis, jaundice, a boy with unexplained lower limb paralysis that couldn’t be investigated because his family couldn’t afford an MRI, a child with nephrotic syndrome (kidney problem) who had EXTREME edema and swelling- she almost couldn’t see out of her eyes they were so puffed up, another poor abandoned child- she was so sweet… I actually was thinking about how I could take her with me, which I know is irrational, but you look at these kids and just wish you could do something for them. It was a really interesting day, but it got to me a bit, more than other days have.. not as easy to shake off when I left the building.

In complete contrast I went to an extremely ritzy dinner party at night. A friend in my class did her undergraduate degree at McGill with a guy from Nairobi who she was quite good friends with. She gave him my contact info when she heard I was going to be in Nairobi, and he called and invited me to a dinner party he was hosting- which was really nice of him. He stays at his parents’ house, which is probably one of the most beautiful homes I have ever seen. They live in one of the nice suburbs outside of the city- their property was huge, full of elaborate gardens. They had a really nice outdoor dinner area- so much delicious food and about 10 people cooking, serving, and providing drinks from the bar. All of his friends were really friendly- most of them were born in Nairobi, but went to prep school in the UK, then to university in Europe or the states. There were a few other medical students, a guy who plays some big role in the Kenyan coffee trade (I learned what the best coffee in the world is… apparently it’s a specific Kenyan bean and brand, and he has worked in other countries with coffee so claimed not to be biased), a film producer and photographer who works with national geographics, and the survivor reality show, among other things. Overall, a very interesting crowd- but I found it hard not to feel a bit guilty having steak and wine and genuinely enjoying the luxurious surroundings, after seeing some pretty tough living conditions in the day.

Today I had a meeting with the pediatrician I am working with to develop a Kids’ club at the HIV clinic. I think we have figured out how we are going to try to make it work, so I spent the rest of afternoon/evening starting to write up a proposal so I can get it finished and hopefully distributed to some potential sponsors before I leave. I think the idea is really good, and I know the patients would really enjoy the program, but it’s hard to say much of the plan will materialize- especially if I’m not going to be around to follow up, and the funding is a bit of a challenge.

I am still feeling a bit restless at times- I miss being able to walk around on the streets and go for a run if I want to... so I went and bought a skipping rope today to alleviate some of the restlessness. It turns out that skipping is pretty boring… but depending on how things go I might have some pretty impressive tricks by the time I am done here.

fell in some dirt

July 20

I spent a really interesting day in the Kibera slum with some people from a clinic there who were distributing food to HIV patients on antiretrovirals who needed nutritional support. I feel like my back is almost broken after lugging all that food around though. The slum itself is massive- about a million people living there, all crammed together in these tiny little shacks amongst dogs, laundry, goats, children, shops, and garbage absolutely everywhere. It good to see though, since a lot of the patients who come into the clinic come from similar living situations. All of the children say "How are you?", and follow you around for a bit. I am exhausted now though, not just from the walking and food-carrying (and the early start), but I think more because the whole scene was very overwhelming. I stopped by the clinic after, and on my walk back on the dirt road beside a busy street I wiped out :( It was actually pretty funny because it's so dirty and dusty I literally got covered in dirt. I look like a wreck.. it was a bit embarrassing. So I am going to go home and clean up and hopefully have a bit of a nap before heading out for dinner tonight with some friends.

my backyard

home sweet home

little baby elephant at the orphanage..awww

me about to kiss a giraffe