Update from Kenya!

Blogging every day is proving to be a difficult task. We have been very busy since we arrived. I have the rest of the day off today, though, so I should be able to accomplish a blog post.
Thursday, we donned our sturdy sneakers and headed for the slums (the slums are no place for sandals- sturdy or not!). We met Josephine at the hospital and walked up to the Kiirua market to catch a mutatu (taxi) up the hill to Machaka. Josephine is a nurse at the hospital but also works doing HIV/AIDS outreach in various slum areas. We (all for students, Kim, and Josephine) piled into a little car and drove up the hill… an uncomfortable ride. Good thing we like each other! We weren’t sure what we were in for, but expected to see some desperate situations. First, we visited Agatha. She is HIV positive. She had a baby a few months ago, but the baby died of pneumonia in May. Her house was very small. There was a couch, table, and chair with barely enough room between to walk past. There was a curtain separating the sitting room from the sleeping area, and I can’t imagine that the sleeping area was very big. She had a thermos on the table and offered us tea. This was probably the tea that she had prepared for the day. It is difficult accepting things from people who have so little. Kim and Josephine both knew Agatha well, and they said that she looks much healthier now than the last time they saw her.
Next, we visited Doreen. She was born with HIV, and has been on medication her whole life. She is 18, and quite ill. She had a sore arm, and when Kim assessed it, she noticed a large lump. Doreen had been to the doctor who prescribed some antibiotics, but she couldn’t afford them. Because she is HIV positive and very sick, she cannot afford to miss taking medications. We gave her the money to go get the medication and to pay for transportation there and back. We made her promise that she would use the money for medication. I am sure it would be difficult for her to spend the money on medication when she could also use it to buy food.
After visiting Doreen, we headed to the Machaka Children’s Home area to pick up Denis, who is a lab tech that works at the dispensary there. He had a jar of de-worming pills to give out to everyone we saw along the way. They hand out the medication every three months. The outreach program was recently approved to do HIV testing door-to-door. Previously, people had to travel to the hospital to be tested, which they didn’t often do, because of the cost for transportation. So, we walked around the slums for 4 hours and handed out pills and tested people for HIV. It sounds depressing, but every that we tested was negative, which was wonderful. Also, we tested several men, which is wonderful. Often, from what I hear, men will not be tested and if their wives are tested and found to be positive, they will leave them. The outreach program is raising awareness and helping people receive treatment. We met one girl who was very scared to be tested, but did it anyway. She was so brave. Another girl walked by and said that she was too much of a coward to be tested. She said that if she tested positive, she knows that she would just die right away. We told her that treatment is free at the hospital if she is positive, and treatment will help her to live a healthier life. She still didn’t want to be tested. Maybe next time. Each Thursday, we will be joining Josephine and Denis to a different slum to do the same thing. Denis was happy that we are coming back. He said he wants to teach us how to cook Kenyan food. I think that both he and Josephine will be good friends. I think we’ll be making lots of good friends.
On Friday, we spent the morning at the hospital. I was on the maternity unit, Allison was in the CCC, and Amy and Steph were on the medical unit. I saw my first African baby being born. It was a boy. Maternity in Kenya is much different than maternity at the Prince County Hospital! The labour room has three beds- two for births, one for assessments. The two birthing beds were occupied and people mid-labour were walking in and out to be assessed in the third bed. I was in the room for about five or ten minutes and the mother in the first bed indicated that she needed to push. There was no doctor present- only the mother, the nurse (Pamela, pronounced pa-may-la), me, and another lady about to give birth. So… the baby came out and about 20 minutes later, the doctor came along. He asked me if I wanted to deliver the next baby. I am still sure whether or not he was joking. There were no more babies born while I was there, but, being that there are around 5 babies, born there each day, I will probably see lots! I stayed with the other patient until 11:30. Labour support is not a priority in Kenya, so women are often alone while they labour. I rubbed her back and tried to comfort her- a difficult task when you speak a different language. She spoke some English, so we were able to communicate a bit. She asked for an injection for some pain relief and the nurse kind of chuckled and commented that the patient feels sympathetic for herself. Very, very different from Canada. In Canada, it is often considered unacceptable to feel pain, however, here, pain is a part of life and people are expected to just deal with it. Everything is that way, here, I guess.
I felt the most homesick when I arrived at the hospital Friday morning. It was the first time we went anywhere without Kim, and it was the first time I was surrounded by people who were all speaking a different language. I was terrified for a few seconds and thought “What the hell am I doing here?” but then we started doing work and I felt a bit better. Once I get to know the staff a bit and learn a few more words in Kimeru and Swahili, I will be fine.
For the weekend, we went to Sweetwater Game Park. It was pretty amazing. I’m too tired now, though, to write about it, so maybe I will later. Or maybe I will just post pictures. Hope everyone at home is enjoying the nice weather that I hear you are having.