Baby Jillian

It has been a fairly eventful week in Kenya- although I am sure no one is surprised about that. This week, Kenyans voted on a new constitution. The last time that Kenyans voted, violence broke out in certain parts of the country. Over 1000 people died, and thousands of people were displaced. Many people were worried that the same the same thing would happen this time around. Fortunately, there has not been any reported violence as a result of the referendum. Because of the potential for violence, however, we were instructed not to travel outside of the hospital compound for a few days. Instead of doing HIV outreach on Thursday, we worked at the hospital. It proved to be a good choice. I scrubbed in on my first cesarean with Dr. Erick. It was pretty exciting. I kinda want to be a surgeon now! When you are standing in the OR with your hand supporting a woman’s uterus while the surgeon stitches it up, it is hard not to love your life!! Erick let me stitch her muscles, which may have been the most exciting moment of my life. Seriously. Two of my favorite things- crafts and anatomy- coming together in perfect harmony. Umm… just kidding. My hands were a little shaky for the first stitch, and it was difficult to maneuver the instruments correctly, but I quickly got the hang of it. By the third stitch, Erick said I was using the instruments correctly and that I was St. Theresa’s newest surgeon! And then! The mother was discussing names with the other people in the room. The baby was a girl, and the mom told Allison to name it. Allison didn’t really want to take on that responsibility, so people were suggesting names. Erick suggested Stephanie, but since Steph already has a baby named after her, we all yelled NO!! Amy’s name was suggested, and so was Allison’s. The mom asked what my name was and Amy said “Julian! I mean… Jillian!” So the mom decided to name her baby Jillian! That obviously increased my level of excitement. Immediately after that cesarean, there was another emergency cesarean. Allison scrubbed in for that one. Then we saw part of a total hip replacement, which was pretty cool. The patient was wide awake the whole time… yikes. That one was taking forever, so we skipped over to the next operating room to see a 6-year-old boy having a surgery on poor little private parts. He, thankfully, was not wide awake. He was under general anesthesia and Sister Agnes, the nurse anesthetist extraordinaire, told me to squeeze the oxygen bag while she tended to the patient having the hip surgery. That was a feeling of power and control that I did not feel entirely comfortable with!!



Another update on the girl with the burns. On Monday, she is going for skin graft surgery. Until then, she has to have a wet-to-dry dressing change done twice a day. I will not describe what that entails. We have been making progress in our relationship with her. The other day, we went to peek into her room to say hello, but the room was full of visitors, so we left. A few minutes later, we saw her across the hall, peeking around the corner at us. She was playing with us!! We approached her and shook her hand. We stuck out our tongues at her, and she did it back. I winked at her, and she blinked back. I crossed my eyes and she giggled. We puffed up our cheeks with air and then poked them so them so that the air would rush out and make a funny noise. She laughed, and then hid her head under her shawl and we heard her make the fart-like sound with her mouth. It was probably the cutest thing ever. Then we proceeded to list all of the Kiswahili words that we know. In English, it would have sounded something like this: “Hello. How are you? Very fine. Please. Thank you. It’s ok. Slowly slowly. Where? Baby. Sorry. Where are the toilets? Push. Lay down. Good night. Get out.” She looked at us as though we were crazy- and so did everyone else who happened to walk by. As we were leaving, she followed us out of the hospital and watched us walk home. Later in the evening, we walked over to see if there were any women in labour. Her call bell was ringing, so we went to see what she wanted. We were the last people that she expected to see. Her dressing had just been changed so her bed was all wet and she wanted her sheets changed. So we did that. We said Lala salama to her, which means good night, or lay down good, and she said “Bye!” We were so excited!! She has spoken to us before in this quiet little voice, but this time, she spoke in English, and loud enough so that we could hear! Another of the most exciting moments of our lives.


A few weeks ago, one of the nurses, Chris, asked us if we would attend his graduation ceremony. We were hesitant because it was only two days after the referendum and we did not know if it would be safe or not. Also, let’s face it: graduations (at least in Canada) are super boring. So we told him that we would let him know. For the following two weeks, everywhere we went, people asked us if we were going. I met another nurse, Fredrick, on Monday or Tuesday. He works in the medical unit and I had never met him before. He was also graduating and asked if we would be attending. He seemed very excited, even though I was a complete stranger to him. So, we decided that we would go. I am very happy about our decision. It was really an honor to be there. We took a bus to Maua, a town about 2 hours away. The bus was PACKED with Fredrick’s friends and family and staff from the hospital. Chris’s family lives near Maua, so they were already there. The white girls all sat at the back of the bus, which I couldn’t help but chuckle about. We arrived just in time for the ceremony. Since we have been in Kenya, we have felt a bit like a circus act, because we kind of stand out a little bit. Walking into the chapel where the ceremony was held was no exception. I felt a little strange, going to see someone graduate, and having everyone staring at me. Anyway…. Chris and Fredrick looked very handsome in their suits and graduation gowns. The ceremony was really nice- except for the photographers that didn’t mind standing directly in front of the audience. One of the speakers spoke about how nurses are special because they have heart, and that if you don’t have heart, you cannot be a nurse. He also spoke about the need for improvements in maternity care, which I thought was really nice. He asked how many men in the audience accompanied their wives to the hospital when they gave birth. I don’t think anyone raised their hands. He asked how many women had been accompanied by their husbands… I think there was one woman who raised her hand. The speaker said that this is something that has to change, and change starts with nurses.



After the ceremony, we all headed back to the bus. As we were pushing our way through the crowd, Amy and I became separated from the rest of the group. Suddenly, I heard this sound, and when I looked towards it, I saw Chris, flying through the crowd with the hugest smile on his face. He gave us the biggest hugs. He was so proud to have his Canadian friends at his graduation, and I felt incredibly honored. He grabbed our hands and pulled us through the crowd to meet his family. His mom hugged me and his father shook our hands. Pretty sure that we were front and center in all of their family pictures. Then we saw Fredrick and went to congratulate him. More handshakes, hugs and pictures. Everyone gives graduates these Christmas garland necklaces. All the graduates were sparkling! Chris and Fredrick took us on a tour of the hospital- which was huge- and then we ate some Kenyan food- which was delicious! Soon it was time to go. We all piled on the bus and headed to the church that Fredrick attended while in school. There was a huge celebration with more food, plus speeches, singing and dancing. Fredrick submitted a list of people that he wanted to speak. Josephine, the nurse that we do outreach with, was on the list. And of course…. So were the Canadian nursing students. I hardly knew Fredrick, so I didn’t want to get up, even though Josephine was pretty much pushing me off of my chair! Finally, Steph got up and did a wonderful job, telling the crowd (who did not understand a word she said) that Fredrick is a wonderful man who welcomed her to the medical unit and showed her what to do when she was unsure. The staff from St. Theresa’s got up to sing and dance- and we had to as well. It was fairly embarrassing. Belton, one of the cooks was trying to show us how to dance, but really… there was no use. Later, when people got up to dance again, Belton tried to get us up. Amy gave me a look that I thought said: “If you go, I’ll go,” but really, what she meant was: “I’ll pretend I’m getting up, and then when you get up, I will sit back down, and you will look like an idiot all by yourself! Afterwards, I said to the girls that I felt like all eyes were on me- the horrible white dancer- even though really, everyone was probably watching Fredrick. Steph happily told me that nope… everyone was laughing at me. Awesome. Then it was time to cut the cake. Fredrick and some other nursing students from his school got up to cut it, and then he cut up a piece into smaller pieces and fed it to each student that helped him cut it. He fed a piece to his parents, and to some other special guests. Then, the MC realized that we were also student nurses, and decided that Fredrick should also feed us cake. What a hilariously awkward moment! Anyway, it was a really fun day. I am so happy that Chris and Fredrick included us in their special day. We felt so welcomed by their families. We’re only sad that we were unable to make it to the celebration that Chris’s family held for him after the graduation.


Today, we are off. It’s been a while since we’ve had a day off. We just walked the “Leonard Loop” and stopped in at the hospital to give Baby Jillian a blanket that I crocheted, and took her picture. We saw Leonard and invited him over to watch a movie with us tonight. Now… we’re going to lie out in the African sun and relax. I really love my life!