My last day at the clinic was a scorcher.
I was working in the antenatal area doing prenatal assessments and immunizations when we heard a piercing shriek from the other side of the health center. I looked up from my book work as the other nurses laughed at me and said "it's a delivery". Maternity being my favorite area of nursing I jumped at the opportunity to participate in a delivery. As I enter the labour room which consists of two bare stretchers, a broken incubator, an outdated suctioning system, an old rusty weigh scale and some other miscellaneous birthing supplies, they dress me in a heavy orange gown and get me to put on gloves. The mother is alone so another nurse volunteer from Australia and I try our best to be her support people with reassuring touch, eyes and words that she can not understand (oh how i wish I could speak Swahili). I will not go into the details as I think even though in Kenya, I shall maintain confidentiality. Let me just say Kenyan woman are remarkably strong. There are no pain killers used here for childbirth. I guess when you have no other option humans can endure a lot. The baby is born, dried, weighed and wrapped. I suggest skin to skin but the nurses don't seem too receptive. Maybe next time. My Aussie nurse friend leaves to get some air as the room is quite stuffy. I stay with the mother as the nurses finish caring for her. My friend comes back and but a few minutes later I feel heat crawling up from my toes and I start to leave the room and tell her I am feeling dizzy. She takes my gown off for me and tells me she was feeling the heat when she left the room too. I go outside and lean on a half wall, the grass below me is spinning. The next thing I know Sally is holding me up saying my name and trying to help me to the floor. I wake up and sit down against the wall. She tells me I had a little faint and goes off to get me a bottle of water. I sit there waiting thinking, how did that lady deliver a baby in this heat? I have never fainted before, it is a strange feeling leaving the world for a few seconds but you do feel much better when your body reboots itself. My water arrives and I drink it quite quickly. Sally sits beside be and goes: "well, at least you didn't pee yourself". We laugh. She said I looked so pretty and relaxed hanging over the half wall. I think for the next delivery I will leave the gown on the hook.
Saturday 30 April 2011
Monday 25 April 2011
Eyes Opened
After a whole day and a half of work in Kitengela, we are already off again to another community. This weekend we are taking part in Fadhili's outreach program that they try to run twice a month. These are the community's we visited:
The KCC slum. It has been nicknamed this as it is situated by the Kenyan Creamery Corporation. Here there is a New Zealander man named Marcus who was one of the original 5 volunteers who worked in this slum when Fadhili first started hosting volunteers. He has now returned and has been living at the KCC for almost two years. He seems to be well respected in the community. The slum is just as you would picture it. Large families living in small tin houses which they have built out of wood and corrugated metal. Resources are limited. There is no sewage system but a whole in the ground. Water is a long walk away and comes at a cost. You can only imagine the struggles and these are only a few of the issues with living in a slum. The main priority of most volunteer work in slums is education mainly for the children but they do try to hold some teaching sessions for adult also on pertinent issues. In the KCC the volunteers have built a school for the young children and are trying to register as an NGO so they can arrange for sponsors to send the children to primary and secondary school. They run a feeding program through the school so the children are sure to have at least one meal everyday. They have started encouraging the woman in the KCC to run small businesses to help sustain their families. We visited one woman who along with other women in the community makes jewelry out of recycled magazines. There has been discussion of establishing a water reservoir but the hope is that no slum is permanent so they try to build things that are temporary and movable. I understand the philosophy but when you here that these people have lived here for 31 years already I think I would be a yea sayer for the tank. Things do seem to be moving forward here though and the programs they have in place seem to be fairly well established. We enojoyed reading, foot racing, singing, dancing and playing games with the children and then we were on our way.
Hell's Gate: I am not sure why it is called this as it is actually quite beautiful as I imagine Hell would not be so. This wasn't apart of the outreach but more about seeing the Kenyan sites. It starts out with a 7km bike ride; we thought the roads were bumpy in a car...my bum is still numb; three days later I still have to sit a certain way. Plus the bikes well they weren't top quality. Half way to the Gorge we stopped to view Pride Rock where they tell us that the classic movie The Lion King was filmed. I loved their wording as Lion King is a cartoon. When we reached the gorge we had a slurp of H2O and started our hike. I love Tom's shoes but they are not the best for hiking on smooth rocks that in some places are wet. A beautiful hike though aside from the shoe choice. On the way back some rode in the Matatu and others biked. And of course for some insane reason I decided to bike. Although pain came with every bump there was a sense of achievement when we made it back. Plus it was astonishing to be so close aside the wildlife as they started coming out as the day cooled. We came face to face with Zebras and rode past warthogs, water buffalo and gazelles. I felt like Pocahontas but on a rickety bike.
Internally Displaced People Camp. This is the home of many people who fled their homes and farms after the post-election violence in 2008. A community of people got together and bought a plot of land, subdivided it into plots and had to start a new life completely from scratch. There is more work to do here but the community seems to truly live together and help one another. Some live in tents made out of cloth materials such as recycled rice bags; the homes have been patched over many a times but still leak when it rains. And oh the heat. You can escape the sun but not the heat. Some have now ungraded in the past year and have houses made of mud with corrugated metal roofs, the are much cooler and spacious. Volunteers have encouraged people to start making things to sell to generate some income. There are a variety of things you can buy form different people: bags, bracelets, ornaments. They do seem to rely quite heavily though on volunteers buying the items more so than locals. A lot of work has been done here both by locals and volunteers in the past year. A school has been built along with a feeding program. Every child gets a cup of Ugi everyday (a sweet porridge made of flour, water, ground nuts and soybeans). The older children must walk 30-45mins everyday into a near by town to go to school. The most recent project was done by volunteers who donated money to buy piping to tap into the government water supply and have a holding tank for water for the days when there is no government water. The volunteers hired locals to do the piping work and building of the tank. The tank is almost completed and then the people will have a constant supply of water not only just to drink but will also help them be able to grow a wider variety of vegetables for consumption and selling. Although they are doing better each day they still rely on the outreach every two weeks as we hand out flour and vegetable fat. We also gave the children some of the balls we had collected from Carpenter High and Jonas back home. It is amazing how a simple ball can make the children flock. We were really touched by the hope and hard work of this communtity. We wish we could have stayed longer to ask people their stories.
Garbage Slum: The home of this community is self explanatory. They live on a garbage dump. You could imagine how pleasantly all of our senses were stimulated. The smell of rotten food. The tickling of 50 flies legs crawling all over your body. The sight of garbage (ironically with a beautiful view of lake Nakuru straight across the way). The sound of children laughing and playing seems unfitting but this is their home. Their livelihood depends on what the people of Nakuru dispose of. Along side the biggest, most viscous looking bird scavengers they collect food, bottles, clothing, grocery bags which they disinfect and weave into beautiful bags to sell, and any other items that hold value. For the bottles they have to collect 1kg worth to earn a mere 1 shilling (one banana costs 5 shillings). A volunteer bought some pigs one year that have multiplied but because of the pigs diet they can not sell them to any of the large company due to heath regulations so they are bought by small buyers for about 1,500 shillings (a pig is usually worth 15,000). There was a school built by volunteers at one time but it is now in shambles so volunteers are now teaching the children in a near by open field. This has it's challenges as it is hard to keep attention in an open field the children just want to run and play. They are hoping to rebuild a school soon as well as organize sponsorship for children to go to boarding school. If you are interested in sponsoring a child we can give you the information to do so. I think it is something like $700 a year. They have 20 children sponsored thus far. It is tough to know what to write about this place and it's people. The challenges of the people and the people trying to work with them are astounding, I can not list them all. The circumstance is shocking but more so is their joy. They were so grateful when we helped bandage a few people's wounds and handed out food. They sang and danced a thank-you song.
The outreach weekend was in a nutshell eye-opening. We did small things like food relief and playing with the children but we felt a little strange; like tourists of peoples homes. We have seen the main struggles and needs that people can face here in Kenya. Now we are eager to get our hands dirty. Hopefully now we will not only be able to see but also respond as our stay in Kenya continues.
I apologize for any typing mistakes. I did not have the time to read it over. Cheers.
The KCC slum. It has been nicknamed this as it is situated by the Kenyan Creamery Corporation. Here there is a New Zealander man named Marcus who was one of the original 5 volunteers who worked in this slum when Fadhili first started hosting volunteers. He has now returned and has been living at the KCC for almost two years. He seems to be well respected in the community. The slum is just as you would picture it. Large families living in small tin houses which they have built out of wood and corrugated metal. Resources are limited. There is no sewage system but a whole in the ground. Water is a long walk away and comes at a cost. You can only imagine the struggles and these are only a few of the issues with living in a slum. The main priority of most volunteer work in slums is education mainly for the children but they do try to hold some teaching sessions for adult also on pertinent issues. In the KCC the volunteers have built a school for the young children and are trying to register as an NGO so they can arrange for sponsors to send the children to primary and secondary school. They run a feeding program through the school so the children are sure to have at least one meal everyday. They have started encouraging the woman in the KCC to run small businesses to help sustain their families. We visited one woman who along with other women in the community makes jewelry out of recycled magazines. There has been discussion of establishing a water reservoir but the hope is that no slum is permanent so they try to build things that are temporary and movable. I understand the philosophy but when you here that these people have lived here for 31 years already I think I would be a yea sayer for the tank. Things do seem to be moving forward here though and the programs they have in place seem to be fairly well established. We enojoyed reading, foot racing, singing, dancing and playing games with the children and then we were on our way.
 |
| A baby in a bucket. Content as can be. |
 |
| Where there is a muzungu and a kenyan child, there is a hand being held. |
 |
| Singing, dancing and playing games. |
 |
| Showing off his guns. Made of pure Ugali power. |
 |
| Food for give-away. |
Hell's Gate: I am not sure why it is called this as it is actually quite beautiful as I imagine Hell would not be so. This wasn't apart of the outreach but more about seeing the Kenyan sites. It starts out with a 7km bike ride; we thought the roads were bumpy in a car...my bum is still numb; three days later I still have to sit a certain way. Plus the bikes well they weren't top quality. Half way to the Gorge we stopped to view Pride Rock where they tell us that the classic movie The Lion King was filmed. I loved their wording as Lion King is a cartoon. When we reached the gorge we had a slurp of H2O and started our hike. I love Tom's shoes but they are not the best for hiking on smooth rocks that in some places are wet. A beautiful hike though aside from the shoe choice. On the way back some rode in the Matatu and others biked. And of course for some insane reason I decided to bike. Although pain came with every bump there was a sense of achievement when we made it back. Plus it was astonishing to be so close aside the wildlife as they started coming out as the day cooled. We came face to face with Zebras and rode past warthogs, water buffalo and gazelles. I felt like Pocahontas but on a rickety bike.
 |
| People kept laughing at my hat. I am not sure why but passing one guy I heard some utterances of "circus". |
Internally Displaced People Camp. This is the home of many people who fled their homes and farms after the post-election violence in 2008. A community of people got together and bought a plot of land, subdivided it into plots and had to start a new life completely from scratch. There is more work to do here but the community seems to truly live together and help one another. Some live in tents made out of cloth materials such as recycled rice bags; the homes have been patched over many a times but still leak when it rains. And oh the heat. You can escape the sun but not the heat. Some have now ungraded in the past year and have houses made of mud with corrugated metal roofs, the are much cooler and spacious. Volunteers have encouraged people to start making things to sell to generate some income. There are a variety of things you can buy form different people: bags, bracelets, ornaments. They do seem to rely quite heavily though on volunteers buying the items more so than locals. A lot of work has been done here both by locals and volunteers in the past year. A school has been built along with a feeding program. Every child gets a cup of Ugi everyday (a sweet porridge made of flour, water, ground nuts and soybeans). The older children must walk 30-45mins everyday into a near by town to go to school. The most recent project was done by volunteers who donated money to buy piping to tap into the government water supply and have a holding tank for water for the days when there is no government water. The volunteers hired locals to do the piping work and building of the tank. The tank is almost completed and then the people will have a constant supply of water not only just to drink but will also help them be able to grow a wider variety of vegetables for consumption and selling. Although they are doing better each day they still rely on the outreach every two weeks as we hand out flour and vegetable fat. We also gave the children some of the balls we had collected from Carpenter High and Jonas back home. It is amazing how a simple ball can make the children flock. We were really touched by the hope and hard work of this communtity. We wish we could have stayed longer to ask people their stories.
 |
| A typical IDP tent. |
 |
| A JSJH volleyball. |
Garbage Slum: The home of this community is self explanatory. They live on a garbage dump. You could imagine how pleasantly all of our senses were stimulated. The smell of rotten food. The tickling of 50 flies legs crawling all over your body. The sight of garbage (ironically with a beautiful view of lake Nakuru straight across the way). The sound of children laughing and playing seems unfitting but this is their home. Their livelihood depends on what the people of Nakuru dispose of. Along side the biggest, most viscous looking bird scavengers they collect food, bottles, clothing, grocery bags which they disinfect and weave into beautiful bags to sell, and any other items that hold value. For the bottles they have to collect 1kg worth to earn a mere 1 shilling (one banana costs 5 shillings). A volunteer bought some pigs one year that have multiplied but because of the pigs diet they can not sell them to any of the large company due to heath regulations so they are bought by small buyers for about 1,500 shillings (a pig is usually worth 15,000). There was a school built by volunteers at one time but it is now in shambles so volunteers are now teaching the children in a near by open field. This has it's challenges as it is hard to keep attention in an open field the children just want to run and play. They are hoping to rebuild a school soon as well as organize sponsorship for children to go to boarding school. If you are interested in sponsoring a child we can give you the information to do so. I think it is something like $700 a year. They have 20 children sponsored thus far. It is tough to know what to write about this place and it's people. The challenges of the people and the people trying to work with them are astounding, I can not list them all. The circumstance is shocking but more so is their joy. They were so grateful when we helped bandage a few people's wounds and handed out food. They sang and danced a thank-you song.
The outreach weekend was in a nutshell eye-opening. We did small things like food relief and playing with the children but we felt a little strange; like tourists of peoples homes. We have seen the main struggles and needs that people can face here in Kenya. Now we are eager to get our hands dirty. Hopefully now we will not only be able to see but also respond as our stay in Kenya continues.
I apologize for any typing mistakes. I did not have the time to read it over. Cheers.
The First Day
Well I have officially had my first day at work and it was an experience to say the least. The morning started off as usual, Lucy our host mom blaring here Elephant Man Rasta music at six thirty. But waking up that early always has some benefits, Fresh Chai tea and locally picked bananas. After breakfast me and another volunteer named Dave Bruce took the thirty minute walk to work where we were greeted by the headteacher Jackson. He invited us in to sit down in the staff room and insisted that we take Mandazi's(form of a doughnut) and pineapple Fanta whilst conversing with the other three teachers employed at the school. After thirty minutes of sharing stories and theologies on teaching I decided to take a walk around the school and meet some of the kids. As I walked out the door of the office my eyes were immediately drawn to the soccer game happening on the huge soccer pitch behind the school. It was a game between the grade seven class and the grade eight class. I was informed that this was a huge rivalry and that I should appreciate the opportunity to play in this match. As the game went on I was distracted and asked a grade seven boy what his name was, before he could reply I heard a mess of kids yelling in Swahili. I ran over the group of boys to find a young man laying on the ground laughing and seemed to be in a bit of discomfort. So I reached to the young mans arm to help him up and found that right in the middle of his forearm there was a massive break. He had tripped and as he was falling he attempted to brace himself with his arm and completely shattered the bone in his forearm. This boy was laughing and telling jokes the entire time as I walked him to the principals office, I thought it was for sure shock until the day went on and I found that this was not shock but just the toughest boy I had ever seen. So I walked him down to the clinic where Kristinn was working and I paid for his clinic fee to see a physician. The doctor saw us very quickly and told us that we needed to go to another hospital to get an x-ray before they could cast the arm. So Christopher and I started the journey to the other hospital which is on the other side of the city. Along the way we ran into his mother. She seemed a little upset but the same as Chris, was happy and smiling the entire time. It ended up that Chris had broken his Radius and his Ulnar and needed to have his arm reset and plastered. So we started the massive trek back to the clinic where we originally came from and when we arrived the doctor said that she "could not plaster because they need to pay for the plaster and x-ray". I told the doctor that I would pay for the hospital bill and she began to start the plastering procedure.
Like I had said before this boy is the toughest person I had ever met. The doctor grabbed the boys arm which he had not been given painkillers or a sedative to numb the pain and began to pull his hand away from his elbow to realign the bones. The boy did not cry or yell but just humbly sat in the chair as he knew this would help him in the long run. After all the plastering was done and the bills were paid I walked the boy back to his home which was just a ten minute walk from the clinic. Right before we had walked into the home he began to cry, I had asked what was wrong(thinking that the pain was finally setting in) and he replied "I had to miss an entire day of school". Hearing a thirteen year old boy cry because he had to miss a day of school was very moving and touching so after the very tough battle to fight the tears back I reassured him that I would catch him up with his studies and not to worry. So I walked home and reflected on my first day at school.
So this was my first day at school and if this is a sign of what is to come I am excited and anxious to help kids who truly need it. I will be teaching them classes that will help them go on and advance in a very competitive school system. As I laid in mosquito ridden bed that night I had one final thought before I went to sleep. If only kids back home would appreciate the power of an education.
Like I had said before this boy is the toughest person I had ever met. The doctor grabbed the boys arm which he had not been given painkillers or a sedative to numb the pain and began to pull his hand away from his elbow to realign the bones. The boy did not cry or yell but just humbly sat in the chair as he knew this would help him in the long run. After all the plastering was done and the bills were paid I walked the boy back to his home which was just a ten minute walk from the clinic. Right before we had walked into the home he began to cry, I had asked what was wrong(thinking that the pain was finally setting in) and he replied "I had to miss an entire day of school". Hearing a thirteen year old boy cry because he had to miss a day of school was very moving and touching so after the very tough battle to fight the tears back I reassured him that I would catch him up with his studies and not to worry. So I walked home and reflected on my first day at school.
So this was my first day at school and if this is a sign of what is to come I am excited and anxious to help kids who truly need it. I will be teaching them classes that will help them go on and advance in a very competitive school system. As I laid in mosquito ridden bed that night I had one final thought before I went to sleep. If only kids back home would appreciate the power of an education.
Saturday 16 April 2011
Everyday Something New
After a few tireless days, we are finally starting to feel a bit rested. We arrived in Nairobi after a more than long flight and although I caught a few zzz's Kale slept but a few winks. Happy to be greeted by Chomlee's friendly face, which we had only seen in photos, we were happy to be informed that he would be taking us to Pastor Regina's house (who Andrea and Kyle stayed with and raved about). We were glad to be in the passenger seats while weaving through the hectic rush hour traffic. It is hard to describe the traffic and unique driving styles here, but it is something to be experienced. After having our ears reminded of the sweet rap tunes of the 1990's we arrived safely at the house.Unfortunately the house was quiet and Pastor Regina and the girls were gone for the week visiting their grandmother. So with a quiet house at our disposal we spent our first Kenyan day sleeping.
Our wakeup call came the next morning not by any electrical device yet by nature's own cockadoodledoo. As I tried to sleep through the crowing Kale sat on the front step to do some journaling, he felt extremely close to home when he was in company of two mangy kittens. When Kale came to wake his greasy haired sleeping beauty it was easy to rise to the smell of sweet Kenyan Chai tea and pancakes in the air.
At the covenant house, we had our orientation along with about 14 other volunteers. The Fadhili staff was still raving about the Carpenter High School group that came just over a year ago. Apparently they were a pretty good crew. After some pertinent how to live in Kenya information; alas, the news we had been waiting for...Where are we going? Answer: Kitengela.
Kitengela is a smaller community (about 8000ppl), but quickly growing. We've been told it is the fastest growing city in Africa. Close enough to the city (about 45 mins) and known to be on the safer side that some areas of Nairobi. We are staying with a young woman named Lucy in her apartment with a few other volunteers. Today it is the weekend so we are walking around trying to get to know the city. As we walk around it is just as it has been described to us. The kids come out of the wood work cheerfully asking "how are you" and wanting to shake your hand. We are still not sure what our life is truly going to look like here but this week we will start working so it should give us a better idea. Tomorrow we will be leaving to Nairobi to participate in a Medical Camp in another community. It will be our first Matatu experience (Kenyan taxi van's - known to be the quickest mode of transport but also the most careless). Everyday is new.
Our wakeup call came the next morning not by any electrical device yet by nature's own cockadoodledoo. As I tried to sleep through the crowing Kale sat on the front step to do some journaling, he felt extremely close to home when he was in company of two mangy kittens. When Kale came to wake his greasy haired sleeping beauty it was easy to rise to the smell of sweet Kenyan Chai tea and pancakes in the air.
At the covenant house, we had our orientation along with about 14 other volunteers. The Fadhili staff was still raving about the Carpenter High School group that came just over a year ago. Apparently they were a pretty good crew. After some pertinent how to live in Kenya information; alas, the news we had been waiting for...Where are we going? Answer: Kitengela.
Kitengela is a smaller community (about 8000ppl), but quickly growing. We've been told it is the fastest growing city in Africa. Close enough to the city (about 45 mins) and known to be on the safer side that some areas of Nairobi. We are staying with a young woman named Lucy in her apartment with a few other volunteers. Today it is the weekend so we are walking around trying to get to know the city. As we walk around it is just as it has been described to us. The kids come out of the wood work cheerfully asking "how are you" and wanting to shake your hand. We are still not sure what our life is truly going to look like here but this week we will start working so it should give us a better idea. Tomorrow we will be leaving to Nairobi to participate in a Medical Camp in another community. It will be our first Matatu experience (Kenyan taxi van's - known to be the quickest mode of transport but also the most careless). Everyday is new.
Tuesday 12 April 2011
Patiently Awaited For
It's a strange thing to patiently await something. When the time comes, the happenings almost feel surreal. We knew that the trip would come relatively quick but the last few days have gone by quicker than we could say "I do". Well, not quite, we did manage to save a precious moment for those everlasting words. After spending a meaningful weekend with our family, it is odd to think that in 19 hours we will be leaving on a journey of uncharted territory to us. Nothing like taking life changes by the horns. We are trying to go in without expectations but do anticipate a multitude of Kenyan experiences as we presently know only as stories that our family and friends have shared. We are going into this journey somewhat blind but with eyes yearning to be opened.
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