Kenya Part 5: School, Hospital & Nairobi

While in Kenya, I also did some work at a school called PCEA Rengata Learning Center.  Dr. Salvador (my colleague mentioned in an earlier post) donated a school to an area that suffers from extreme poverty.  Many of their families cannot provide more than one meal at home each day, so they receive meals at school.  With their donated uniforms and clothes, you wouldn't know that the students are impoverished.  But even without those gifts, their happiness outshines their humble circumstances.  They are grateful for the blessing it is to be at school and to be healthy and for all of the simple things that we take for granted.

I love the "Quote of the Week" hanging on the exterior of the school wall, "There is light at the end of the tunnel."  What an appropriate quote for these children who look forward to a brighter future.  Ironically, you'll notice how dark the inside of the classroom is because they cannot afford to have electricity.

I wish I could post more of the beautiful faces full of light that I met, but here is a sample....

If you notice winter hats and warm clothes in these photos, that's because it was a frigid 80 degrees outside. That's right, I was warm and other people were cold.  That never happens.  But I admit, it is one of the reasons that I love Africa - I am not the only cold one in the room on a sunny day.  The children were bundled in all of the clothes they owned, including ski caps and warm coats (who knew there was a market for those on the equator?) and I was warm in short sleeves.  

While I was with the school children, Jason was busy operating.  He learned a lot (and hopefully taught a little) in a completely different system.  I admit, I was a little worried about how he would do working at a hospital in a developing country.  At his hospital in the States, there is nothing that bothers him more than inefficiency and things are not exactly defined as efficient at any hospital I have ever been to in Africa.  But, he adjusted the moment we stepped foot on the grounds and didn't complain once.  Husband Africa Test #3: Have patience, patience, patience and undertand that all relationships take priority over work.  He passed all three Africa tests with flying colors.  I love that man!!  (Jason.  Not the man in the photo below.  Although I am sure he is a great person, too.)

I would share more of Jason's photos, but I sent him with a camera one day and he came back with four photos, none of which included him.  I will share two random stories about Kikuyu Hospital to give you an idea of what he was working with:

• Jason saw a lot of bizarre old injuries because people do not have access to medicine and therefore take too long to seek help.  In Kenya, there are 7,143 patients for every one doctor, with most of those doctors located in Nairobi.  (In the US, there are 390 patients for every one doctor.)  One man came in for a leg that was injured 50 years ago and has been draining the entire time.  He had to have it amputated, but he was happy to finally be pain free (even though he talked about his missing leg still itching).
• The hospital has a rule that you cannot leave until you pay your bill.  Even with the cost of care highly subsidized by the church who founded it and organizations like CMMB who support it, some people just don't have a penny to pay.  If they can't leave, they can't earn money to pay the bill and if they can't pay the bill they can't leave.  So there are people who end up living there for months and sometimes years following their treatment.

Our last day, we left the hospital where we were staying, and headed into Nairobi for the last time.  Due to some unavoidable (and completely unnecessary) delays, we missed our chance at the David Sheldrick Elephant & Rhino Orphanage that apparently is a must-see.  We then had extra time before our flight home, so we did some touristy things in the city.  

We went to the Nairobi Animal Orphanage (basically a zoo), which was rather anticlimactic after our fresh experience in the wild.  To the school groups on field trips, we were a main attraction.  We heard "mzungu! mzungu!" (white person! white person!) everywhere we walked.  At one point, two girls came up and asked if they could have a picture with me, pointing at my camera.  I told them, "Sure," thinking they wanted to see what they looked like in the view finder afterward.  Then one girl asked, "How much?"  Hmmm.... Were we paying her or was she paying us??  Awkward.  Then she started to reach into her pocket for some money to answer the look of bewilderment on my face.  I explained that she didn't have to pay us.  I am still not sure what really happened there, but at least I got this free photo!

We saw more interesting animals roaming outside the zoo than inside the zoo:

We also went to Bomas of Kenya, which is cultural center.  They had a show with many tribal dances and had examples of different tribal huts, but we still preferred the indigenous people and huts that we had just returned from.  What was entertaining was an acrobatic show that one group put on.  The photo below is of a man who just did the limbo under a burning stick, the height of the two small water bottles holding it up.  His pants were literally on fire afterward, but he made it!  Jason would work on that one at home, but his chest is wider than a water bottle, which poses a slight problem.  Otherwise, he and his flexible self would be up there performing with them.

The only friends I seem to consistently bring home with me from Africa are my parasite friends, who made sure I suffered just about as much as if I had brought my two children on the flight home with me.  If I ate even as much as a peanut, I would get horribly sick, so I ate nothing for the entire 30+ hours of commuting home.  Never before has airplane cuisine smelled so tempting....

We eventually made it home to our excited children, who had spent one week with my mom and one week with Jason's parents.  (We LOVE you, grandparents!!!)  The kids had such a great time without us that they shed tears when we left the grandparents behind.  But we missed them and they seemed happy to be with us again, so we'll count it as a bonding experience for all involved.

We still miss the children of Kenya, but we plan to return again and look forward to that day.

Kenya Part 4: Touch a Life Africa Mission

Many may still be wondering what my role was in Kenya.  I am on the Board of Directors of Touch a Life Africa Mission (TALAM), a non-profit organization which aims to improve the lives of orphans and vulnerable children by providing them with means to quality healthcare and education in Africa.  I also fulfill the role of a public health consultant for the organization.  It is a relatively new organization which lacks the means to demonstrate the good they are doing and part of my purpose on this trip was to document the work that TALAM is doing, advise for future work and to make it more publicly recognized.

The specific project I was working on is a donation of something that seems inconsequential to someone in the US, but for a family in a Kenyan village it brings hope for future generations and an escape from absolute poverty.  It is a simple $25 solar-powered LED lamp.  Pictured on the left is a kerosene lamp, that is typically used for light in rural Kenya; on the right is the donated solar-powered lamp.

The small charging panel rests on the roof of the hut.

 But why is the lamp so important to these recipients, like Lydia, second from the left?

Lydia has 10 brothers and sisters.  Her parents (pictured below) realize that education is the road out of poverty, but the family currently lives on about $1 per day.  They have no electricity and the kerosene purchased for their lamp to provide light for studying costs about $6 per month (that is almost a week's wages).  On the other hand, the bright solar-powered lamp, in addition to eliminating the health & fire hazards of the kerosene, is completely free.  To be accepted to a secondary school (high school) and eventually compete for a job, Lydia must be able to study in the evening and now she can.

In another village, John, left, shows me the light that he used to study with.  He was a well-deserving lamp candidate, not only because of his impoverished circumstances, but also because of his hard work in school.  What often goes overlooked is that these children are in school from 6:30am - 5:00pm.  After the long walk home, they have to do chores like collecting a bucket of water from a distance or preparing dinner over a fire.  By the time they are finished, it is dark and they have no light with which to study.

The teacher, left, explained to us that the three recipients shown here have all improved their class rank since receiving the solar lamps.  There is no doubt in any of their minds that their improvements are due to the lamps.

 These sweet children sang to us when we arrived.

The Monday after Easter, the hospital was still on holiday, so Jason was able to join me that day.  When I went to the airport for my flight to Eldoret, in Western Kenya, they informed me that, they were sorry, but they gave my ticket to someone else on accident and all flights to Eldoret that day were full.  Suddenly, I had no way to get to my destination.  Instead, we asked our driver to drive us the distance, which we were informed would be about a 3-hour drive.  It turned out to be a 5+ hour drive each way.  Remember my love of being in a car in Kenya?  My method of coping was to act like a deer in headlights.  Jason's method was to sleep in ignorance.  I don't know how in the world he was capable of sleeping through his approaching death.  My method seemed much more logical.  Perhaps by sheer will in that last split-second, my wide-eyed stare of disbelief combined with an "Ah!" in some other language would save us.  Looking back retrospectively, I suppose his method ruptured fewer brain cells.  

In the end, the drive was totally worth it - it led us to these precious children.

These three recipients had to come such a distance to see us that a young man drove all three of them on a motorcycle with him (I think I remember it being an hour ride for them).

Father Moriasi was so kind to show us the amazing work being done in his area.  I wonder if he'll ever really understand what an impact he is making through his lifelong service and love.  That is another thing that I appreciate about my line of work - I am able to meet and work side-by-side with such inspiring and selfless individuals.

Father Moriasi had us plant a tree on his property so that each time we return we can see how much we've grown.  Reflecting back on the trip, even with the 10 hours we spent in the death cab, Jason considered it his favorite day of the trip.  It was mine, too.  Husband Africa Test #2: Ability to adapt when things don't go as planned and to recognize only the positive.  Passed.

Note:  Some of you have asked how you can help.  If you would like to donate $25 for a solar lamp (or many lamps!) you can do so here.  If you do donate and want to know the progress of the project, let me know and I will keep you updated from time to time.

Kenya Part 3: Easter Sunday

On Easter Sunday, a colleague and friend of mine, Father Thomas, invited us to his mother's home for dinner.  Father Thomas wouldn't be there himself as he lives in the States, but Kenyans are very hospitable and we were excited to meet his family.  So after attending the friendly Mountview Ward of the LDS church in Nairobi, Father Thomas' brother, Joseph, and his family picked us up and began driving us to the homestead, two hours away from the city.  About half-an-hour out, the car was unable to accelerate and we had to return to the city for another car.  (Note: an African adventure is never complete without a car breaking down multiple times, so this was par for the course.)  In a friend's smaller car, we shoved six of us in and began driving again.

This seems like an appropriate time to tell you that every moment of time that I spent in a car in Kenya, I literally assumed that it would be my last moment of life.  I have never before been so assured that my death was imminent.  Here are some factors that contributed to my fear:

• Although technically Kenyans are supposed to drive on the left hand side of the road, this is only done about 40% of the time.  The majority of the time is spent passing another vehicle.  And even if you aren't overtaking another vehicle, you will probably want to eventually, so you might as well drive on the right hand side for convenience.
• If you are passing another vehicle and a car is approaching you head on, you don't need to move back into your lane until it is 1 to 5 feet away from colliding with you.
• If there are any speed limits posted, don't waste your time reading them.  You must drive as fast as your car can go at all times.
• Since you are supposed to drive fast, huge unmarked speed bumps will appear out of nowhere to let you know if there is a town up ahead at some point.
• Due to CONSTANT potholes everywhere outside of the city, you must zig-zag back and forth across the road to avoid the biggest ones.  Even though the traffic coming the opposite direction is doing the same thing, do not slow down or show fear to the oncoming cars.  It does not matter if you are on "their" side of the road, just focus on the next big hole.
• At night, you must turn on your brights at all times, since there are no street lamps.  Also because the others are blinding you from seeing anything ahead, you might as well blind them, too.
• Signal with your right and left blinkers at least every two minutes, even if you don't know why you are doing it.
• Do not worry about the fact that there is a constant stream of pedestrians on the "side" of the road at all times, even in the middle of nowhere.  You can't see them at night and they can't see you (thanks to the brights), so you might as well pretend that they aren't there until you feel a bump (although you'll probably just assume that bump was another pothole).
• If your gas/"petrol" light comes on, it really isn't that urgent.  It doesn't matter if the next gas station is more than an hour away or that that very station is out of petrol and the following one is another 30 minutes drive from there.  Surely, one of the pedestrians you almost hit will be willing to help you out for the night.  The constant threat of carjackings certainly shouldn't sway you to fill your tank before a long journey.
• Due to some current issues with Somalia, you encounter police road blocks every 20-30 minutes to inspect your car and send you through a zig-zag of barricades just for fun. 
• Not only does Kenya make the Top 20 list of countries with the highest traffic death rates, but traffic accidents are the leading cause of death for tourists visiting Kenya.

Okay, sorry for the long list, but it was quite therapeutic to type that out.  I think I am now over the trauma I experienced... and I am alive!  Now, all that being said, I am not referring specifically to our driver this day.  He was just driving like everyone else there and actually the most stressful drive was the next day with a different driver, but that's for another post.  Back to Easter Sunday....

Once we made it to Mama Joseph's house, Father Thomas' two brothers showed us the beautiful property that was recently purchased for Touch a Life Africa Mission, not far from the homestead.  This is the road right next to the property.

This photo was taken after the car got stuck on the side of the road, but before the front driver's door was bent all the way backward!  When trying to get the car out of the ditch, the open door got stuck while the car kept moving backward.  It was a full-on Tommy Boy gas station scene and we can't believe the door didn't fall all the way off!

Upon our return to the homestead, we exchanged gifts (notice my lovely wrap skirt and Jason's handsome Kenyan attire).  We ate a delicious dinner and sat in the dark room talking for hours.  Actually, I should say listening, since we didn't understand most of the Kikuyu being spoken.  As awkward as that should have been, Jason and I both savored every moment of the culture we were enveloped in.  In fact, that day was our 6th anniversary - very romantic to be in a room of strangers that don't speak your language, right?  But Jason passed Husband Africa Test #1 (Appreciate culture and people, even when it puts you out of your comfort zone) and he enjoyed it as much as I did.  I always knew we were meant to be together.  :)

Kenya Part 2: A Maasai Village

Before heading back to the Nairobi area, we visited a Maasai village.  The lovely women shown above greeted us in song as we arrived.  It was the song that they greet their husbands with each time they return.  (The women basically run the village year-round while the men take the cattle out to graze for months at a time.)

This is Mama William with her grandson.

It is the role of the Maasai woman to build the house.  This is the house that Mama William built.  It is a process that takes several months.  They use sticks and mud, then they add manure to keep the termites away.  There are no windows, but just a few holes, since the darkness keeps the masses of flies out.  They make everything out of the stick and mud material, including their bed, which they cover with a cow hide for comfort.  An item that Kenyan village women aspire to own is a cupboard to store dishes in.  Mama William just made her own built-in shelves, as seen in the bottom left corner. 

Some friendly children from the village.

Saying our farewells to sweet Mama William.

(Feel free to contact me for tips on how to style your hair like mine below.  Hot, I know.)

It was another good day in Kenya.

We certainly felt the contrast of the rural versus urban that is so extreme in Kenya as we returned.  Not to dwell on the negative (Nairobi really is an amazing and relatively well-developed city), but the statistics on this slum we flew over,  Kibera, are just shocking.  Kibera is roughly the same size as New York City's Central Park, but with a population density estimated at 800 people per acre.  The average makeshift home is less than 10ft x 10ft, most housing an average of five people.  Two in every three residents must defecate in the open and the waste runs straight into the dam which is used for swimming, bathing and laundry.  And the part that really pulls at my public health heart-strings: there are more than 50,000 AIDS orphans in this one slum.  The safari was over and it was time to get back to work!

Kenya Part 1: Safari in the Masai Mara

I consider Africa my second home and last month Jason and I were finally able to share an experience there together!  One of my former colleagues is the Senior Medical Advisor & Regional Coordinator for Africa at CMMB and he was kind enough to set Jason up to volunteer at a hospital just outside of Nairobi.  Meanwhile, I did some volunteer work for Touch a Life Africa Mission.  Of course, no pre-travel plans have ever remained the same in Africa and upon our arrival we discovered that no operations would take place at the hospital over the Easter weekend.  We promptly switched our safari plans and after only two days of work, we were seeing the untouched parts of Kenya.  It was a once-in-a-lifetime experience, not to mention an incredible anniversary weekend!

Our tiny plane shoved about a dozen people into an extremely tight space.  This was my view.

As we landed, we were able to see some views of the local villages.

We saw innumerable exotic animals just on the drive from the airstrip to our camp.  You can see how huge these ostriches are by the size of the gazelles in the background.

Before you look below, let me tell you that we stayed at a tented camp, called "Ol Seki".  It had no fences to keep the animals away.  We were roughing it in the wild.

Okay, so our tent in the wild was no where near roughing it.  It was definitely the nicest we stayed while we were in Kenya and possibly the nicest place we've stayed since our honeymoon.  Hard to believe it is a tent in the middle of nowhere, right?

Then off we went on our safari!  We saw more animals than I can even post, but here are some.

Topis, a warthog, lions (we ran into a pride of 7 male lions, which is rare), and a baby giraffe.

We saw zebras everywhere we went, this baboon I captured from our tent (we found a group of them about a foot from our tent one time), a hyaena who just finished eating its kill, and a group of buffalo.

An eagle, hippopotamuses and elephants.  What we didn't see were people.  We were on a huge conservation where only one other camp was allowed to drive people around on the land, so we didn't see anyone else - it was just me, Jason, our two guides and the animals.

After our safari, we were able to relax and shower before dinner.  As you can see, Jason fit right in with nature. Sometimes I accidentally took pictures of him, thinking I was seeing another strange animal.

Below are the library tent and the dining tent.  There was only one other family staying there at the same time as us and we ate meals at one table with them and the Kenyan manager, who answered all of our cultural questions.  It was perfect.

That evening, we did a "sundowner" - a night drive, where we stopped for drinks to watch the sunset.  We were able to see and hear many of the nocturnal animals.

Everywhere we looked was a picture waiting to be taken.

The next morning, we did a sunrise drive.  We saw many large groups of animals, like elephants.

And giraffes.  There are seven of them in this one photo.

But the most exciting adventure of the day came when the impala and the lion met.

We were watching a lioness and her two cubs when our amazing guide could tell that they were hungry and ready for a kill.  And then it happened - the lion suddenly sprinted after two impalas!  The mother impala escaped, but the baby was caught by the female cub.  Then the three lions fought over the small kill, with the male cub getting the bulk of it (lions are not so different from humans, I see).  It was amazing to watch the circle of life happen right before our eyes!  A baby impala is not anywhere near enough food for three lions, but since it was the end of dry season, they would take anything they could get.  Here is a video of the process, if you can stomach it.  In case you are wondering, it is not easy to video while standing up in an off-roading vehicle.

If you didn't think you could handle the video, here is a sneak peak of what you missed out on.  Crazy, right?

With our new perspective, we counted this zebra with a bite out of its leg as lucky.

It was hard to believe that all this was happening within view of our tent.  Certainly an unforgettable trip.  And that was just the beginning....