Sunday, April 22, 2012
On our way home!
Hello everyone!
After a wonderful weekend at Maasai Mara Game Park, with very exciting game drives we are in the Amsterdam airport waiting to board our flight to Minneapolis! It is very bittersweet leaving Kenya but we are all excited to get home and see loved ones and friends! See you all soon!
Thursday, April 19, 2012
Happy Birthday Carissa!
Hello everyone!
First of all Happy Birthday to Carissa!
Yesterday we spent the morning at Nyumbani Orphanage and it was wonderful. The orphanage takes in abandoned and orphaned children who are HIV+ and fully supports them to provide holistic services including: education, nutrition, medication, counseling, and housing. All of the children were so adorable and it was really a beautiful center. We were able to spend time talking to Sister Mary, who helped found the center, and she was really great at answering all of our questions and sharing her vision with us. It was amazing to see how far the treatment of HIV and AIDS has come for the children in Kenya, but yet to see how much more there is that can be done.
Then we headed off to lunch at Karen Blixen Tea Garden with Dr. Wambugu, the dentist at the Kikuyu Dental Clinic. After lunch we headed to the giraffe center and it was so awesome! We got to feed the giraffes and even get giraffe kisses if we put food in between our lips. We all thoroughly enjoyed being up close and personal with the giraffes and we learned a lot about the different types of giraffes in Kensy, which will come in handy this weekend at the Masai Mara!
Today was another busy day that started at the Kikuyu Hospital. Sharon took us to see the Dental Clinic that was supported by the work of Sharon Secor and her Presbytery partners, and it is now fully supported by the Kikuyu Hospital staff. The tour of the hospital was great and we were able to see our first ICU and ventilator. It was good to learn more about the differences between rural and urban health care settings.
Next we headed off to the Dagoretti Children's Centre and we were all in awe of the work they were doing there. The centre is a part of Feed the Children, and they serve the mentally, physically and developmentally challenged children along with HIV+ children. They also serve children who are not being taken care of at home, while also educating the parents to help provide better care. The centre was beautiful and all of the children welcomed us with open arms. It was really neat that the therapy center provides free services to the community twice a week and the program also provides food to all of the schools in Nariobi and the surrounding area that do not have food programs. All of the children were wearing TOMS shoes because every time a pair of TOMS are bought, a pair is donated to children like these!
Tonight we celebrated Carissa's birthday by surprising her with a delicious cake from a local bakery! It was a good way to spend our last night in Nairobi! Thanks for reading! We won't be able to update while we are at the Masai Mara! We will see you all soon!
Tuesday, April 17, 2012
Zebras, giraffes and rhinos... oh my!
Hello again!
We have had quite the eventful past three days. Sunday morning he headed off with our awesome driver Steven to Lake Nakuru Game Lodge! We first stopped along the way at an overlook of the Great Rift Valley, which is also known as the "food basket" because of how productive it is. For the first time on the trip we all got to bargain with the locals for some beautiful souvenirs, and we will all agree that it is slightly stressful, fortunately they were all very nice and treated us well. The road that we were traveling on was built by Italian Prisoners of War during WWII! We learned that Nakuru town is the fastest growing city in all of Africa, which is really great! We finally arrived at Lake Nakuru Game Lodge and were greeted by lots of baboons, they are very entertaining animals to watch! Over the next two days we went on four different game drives and they offered their own adventure. One of them was beautiful and sunny, one was rainy, another was at sunrise and finally we had an incident. We were blessed to be able to see all of the different animals that we did including: flamingos, a hippo (which is rare because they do not live in alkaline lakes usually), zebras, rhinos (and a baby rhino), giraffes, cape buffalo, water buck, thompson gazelles, impalas, lions, hyenas, warthogs, elands, silverback jackels, and many different birds. It is completely true when they say it is a bird watchers paradise. The rooms we got to stay in were phenomenal! Our backyard was 20 feet from the fence that kept the animals in and we had zebras grazing and a black rhino browsing! It was awesome! Steven is a great tour guide and helped us to identify many animals and answers any and all questions that we had! It was really fun to just be on the lookout for the animals. On our last game drive out of the park we were on a lion hunt and came across a rather large mud hole, in which our safari van got stuck! So we all piled out of the car bravely and after 45 minutes of pushing and shoving we finally got the van unstuck! Brooke even got to take a turn at driving the manual safari van so Steven could help push! It was quite the adventure but we all enjoyed it!
After being in awe of the African wildlife we headed on our way back to Nairobi! We had our first experience in an African Supermarket where we all tried some new foods. We then stopped at Kazuri Beads and Pottery, which is a shop that was founded as opportunity for single women to learn the trade of bead and pottery making. The shop started with just a few women and now employs over 340 women, all of whom take part in every stage of making the beautiful hand crafted and painted jewelry and pottery. We were able to tour the facility and see the women completing each step in the process. At the end we got the opportunity to shop in the store and there were a lot of tough decisions that were made because all of the products are stunning!
Today we toured Nairobi Women's Hospital and learned so much from the wonderful people there. It was really neat to compare urban healthcare to the rural healthcare that we saw in Chogoria. We were able to talk with the general manager and director of nursing to get many of our questions answered! This afternoon we were able to do some more souvenir shopping at shops that support low-income individuals and it is always neat to see what they can make! Tonight we went out to eat with Salvador, one of Sharon's friends, at a delicious Indian restaurant and spent time talking about the health care system in Kenya! We all learned a lot and were grateful for the opportunity to spend time with him, since he has been a doctor here in Kenya for 16 years! Thanks for reading and we'll post again soon!
We have had quite the eventful past three days. Sunday morning he headed off with our awesome driver Steven to Lake Nakuru Game Lodge! We first stopped along the way at an overlook of the Great Rift Valley, which is also known as the "food basket" because of how productive it is. For the first time on the trip we all got to bargain with the locals for some beautiful souvenirs, and we will all agree that it is slightly stressful, fortunately they were all very nice and treated us well. The road that we were traveling on was built by Italian Prisoners of War during WWII! We learned that Nakuru town is the fastest growing city in all of Africa, which is really great! We finally arrived at Lake Nakuru Game Lodge and were greeted by lots of baboons, they are very entertaining animals to watch! Over the next two days we went on four different game drives and they offered their own adventure. One of them was beautiful and sunny, one was rainy, another was at sunrise and finally we had an incident. We were blessed to be able to see all of the different animals that we did including: flamingos, a hippo (which is rare because they do not live in alkaline lakes usually), zebras, rhinos (and a baby rhino), giraffes, cape buffalo, water buck, thompson gazelles, impalas, lions, hyenas, warthogs, elands, silverback jackels, and many different birds. It is completely true when they say it is a bird watchers paradise. The rooms we got to stay in were phenomenal! Our backyard was 20 feet from the fence that kept the animals in and we had zebras grazing and a black rhino browsing! It was awesome! Steven is a great tour guide and helped us to identify many animals and answers any and all questions that we had! It was really fun to just be on the lookout for the animals. On our last game drive out of the park we were on a lion hunt and came across a rather large mud hole, in which our safari van got stuck! So we all piled out of the car bravely and after 45 minutes of pushing and shoving we finally got the van unstuck! Brooke even got to take a turn at driving the manual safari van so Steven could help push! It was quite the adventure but we all enjoyed it!
After being in awe of the African wildlife we headed on our way back to Nairobi! We had our first experience in an African Supermarket where we all tried some new foods. We then stopped at Kazuri Beads and Pottery, which is a shop that was founded as opportunity for single women to learn the trade of bead and pottery making. The shop started with just a few women and now employs over 340 women, all of whom take part in every stage of making the beautiful hand crafted and painted jewelry and pottery. We were able to tour the facility and see the women completing each step in the process. At the end we got the opportunity to shop in the store and there were a lot of tough decisions that were made because all of the products are stunning!
Today we toured Nairobi Women's Hospital and learned so much from the wonderful people there. It was really neat to compare urban healthcare to the rural healthcare that we saw in Chogoria. We were able to talk with the general manager and director of nursing to get many of our questions answered! This afternoon we were able to do some more souvenir shopping at shops that support low-income individuals and it is always neat to see what they can make! Tonight we went out to eat with Salvador, one of Sharon's friends, at a delicious Indian restaurant and spent time talking about the health care system in Kenya! We all learned a lot and were grateful for the opportunity to spend time with him, since he has been a doctor here in Kenya for 16 years! Thanks for reading and we'll post again soon!
Saturday, April 14, 2012
Back In Nairobi
Hello everyone!
We had a day full of traveling from Chogoria back to Nairobi. Along the way we stopped at a lovely restaurant called Izaak Walton Inn and we enjoyed a delicious buffet meal followed by cinnamon cake! We enjoyed looking at the beautiful scenery along the way and watching the great people of Kenya work so hard in their fields. We are now settling into the CHAK guest house for the night before leaving for Lake Nakuru in the morning! Everyone is very excited to see the flamingos and other animals! Thanks for reading and we will update once we get back! Love from all of us here in Kenya!
We had a day full of traveling from Chogoria back to Nairobi. Along the way we stopped at a lovely restaurant called Izaak Walton Inn and we enjoyed a delicious buffet meal followed by cinnamon cake! We enjoyed looking at the beautiful scenery along the way and watching the great people of Kenya work so hard in their fields. We are now settling into the CHAK guest house for the night before leaving for Lake Nakuru in the morning! Everyone is very excited to see the flamingos and other animals! Thanks for reading and we will update once we get back! Love from all of us here in Kenya!
Friday, April 13, 2012
Tharaka Medical Camp
Hello everyone!
We are back from our trip in Tharaka where we helped with a medical camp. The trip out to Tharaka was very rough and we were all hot, tired and hungry by the time we got there. Thankfully, Douglas had made us delicious cake and packed us fruit which we all enjoyed under the whimsical Baobab tree! The lodge we stayed at was very nice and we had quite the animal noise orchestra at night to keep us company. After setting up the tents on Wednesday night, we ate dinner at the Baobab Lodge and all tasted goat for the first time. We woke up early on Thursday morning to eat breakfast at 6:30am with the rest of the staff and there were patients lined up who had arrived the night before. The medical camp offered free services including: blood pressure and blood sugar screening, malaria and other lab tests, eye screening, dental care, family planning, HIV testing, dressings, pharmacy and visiting with a clinician. We started seeing patients at 7:30am and we all got to participate in the different areas of the medical camp. It was the hottest weather any of us have ever been in, but thankfully it rained in the afternoon to cool it down a little bit. We served 894 patients throughout the day, and they presented with a wide variety of health needs. The patients that we saw had traveled as far as 80 kilometers (48 miles) by foot, bike, motorcycle and a few by public transportation. The Tharaka area is very arid and poverty stricken, and these patients were very grateful and happy to receive free medical care. After cleaning up the camp, the nurses welcomed us with open arms and hearts into their culture by teaching us traditional songs and dances. In return, we taught them the Cupid Shuffle as well as other songs. It was so much fun to be immersed in their culture and to share a bit of ours with them. The nurses loved learning the Cupid Shuffle and then we shared dinner with them to finish off the night. This morning we got up and had breakfast with the staff and then headed back to Chogoria. We spend the afternoon doing some laundry and saying goodbye to all of the special people we have met here in Chogoria. It is safe to say that this place will be missed greatly by us all. Tonight we are heading out to dinner with some friends and we will head to Nairobi tomorrow morning for a new adventure! Thanks for reading and we send our love!
We are back from our trip in Tharaka where we helped with a medical camp. The trip out to Tharaka was very rough and we were all hot, tired and hungry by the time we got there. Thankfully, Douglas had made us delicious cake and packed us fruit which we all enjoyed under the whimsical Baobab tree! The lodge we stayed at was very nice and we had quite the animal noise orchestra at night to keep us company. After setting up the tents on Wednesday night, we ate dinner at the Baobab Lodge and all tasted goat for the first time. We woke up early on Thursday morning to eat breakfast at 6:30am with the rest of the staff and there were patients lined up who had arrived the night before. The medical camp offered free services including: blood pressure and blood sugar screening, malaria and other lab tests, eye screening, dental care, family planning, HIV testing, dressings, pharmacy and visiting with a clinician. We started seeing patients at 7:30am and we all got to participate in the different areas of the medical camp. It was the hottest weather any of us have ever been in, but thankfully it rained in the afternoon to cool it down a little bit. We served 894 patients throughout the day, and they presented with a wide variety of health needs. The patients that we saw had traveled as far as 80 kilometers (48 miles) by foot, bike, motorcycle and a few by public transportation. The Tharaka area is very arid and poverty stricken, and these patients were very grateful and happy to receive free medical care. After cleaning up the camp, the nurses welcomed us with open arms and hearts into their culture by teaching us traditional songs and dances. In return, we taught them the Cupid Shuffle as well as other songs. It was so much fun to be immersed in their culture and to share a bit of ours with them. The nurses loved learning the Cupid Shuffle and then we shared dinner with them to finish off the night. This morning we got up and had breakfast with the staff and then headed back to Chogoria. We spend the afternoon doing some laundry and saying goodbye to all of the special people we have met here in Chogoria. It is safe to say that this place will be missed greatly by us all. Tonight we are heading out to dinner with some friends and we will head to Nairobi tomorrow morning for a new adventure! Thanks for reading and we send our love!
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| All of us before starting the medical camp! Thank you Sharon for taking pictures all day! |
Tuesday, April 10, 2012
Outpatient Experience
Hello to everyone!
Today we all had great experiences in different outpatient clinics after touring the school called Chogoria Complex. The students are all so well behaved and welcomed us into their classrooms with songs and poems. It amazes us how polite they are and the questions they asked us, some of which we did not know the answer to! The nursery children (4 years old) can spell three letter words, write the alphabet and put small sentences together. And the 8th grade children are learning about the anatomy and physiology of the kidneys, they were all so very bright!
Brooke and Leah spent the morning in the Well Child Clinic where the mothers bring in their children for immunizations and it serves as a walk-in clinic. It was very interesting to watch the nurses give the shots because they are very different than what we give in the U.S. The student nurses are amazed at that we did not have a Tuberculosis vaccination, and it is always interesting to hear their reactions to what nursing care is like in the U.S. Then after lunch we headed out with two public healths nurses to Mwimbi Primary School and educated Grades 4-8 about sexuality, HIV/AIDS and STIs. That was quite the experience because everything was in Kiswahili, but thankfully we had a student nurse who was able to translate for us. The students were all well behaved as always and had very good questions to ask and it was a great experience to be a part of.
Ashlie, Brittany and Carissa did a variety of things today. We witnessed an autopsy, which was a unique experience. The highlight was that Brittany and Carissa got to hold a human brain!!! We also visited the HIV/AIDS clinic and learned a lot about the disease and management. One clinical officer taught us about sexuality in Kenya and how this affects the transmission of HIV and other infections. The afternoon was spent in the operating room (surgery theatre). We saw a wound debridement, urethral cyst removal, and a rectal surgery. We learned a little about the anesthetics used and how they clean the room between patients. Surgery is VERY different in Kenya and we are learning a lot.
Then tonight for dinner we went out to eat at a new restaurant called Lenana and it was very good to get some authentic Kenyan food! We head out to help with the medical camp in the morning and we are excited to see a different part of Kenya! Thanks for reading, we all send our love!
Monday, April 9, 2012
Another Day at the Hospital
Hello everyone!
Today we all had a very intense and exciting day at the hospital. Carissa and Brittany spent the day in the maternity ward and also got to tour some different parts of the hospital. They were able to spend time with some mothers and newborns, see the morgue and the lab at the hospital, all of which were very interesting. They also got to play Badminton with some of the nursing students and they had such a blast doing that. Ashlie, Brooke and Leah spent the day on the Pediatrics unit and it was a very exhausting day. We were able to participate in patient rounds with the doctors and they helped us to better understand the diseases that are most prevalent on the ward. We also got to observe and help with infant CPR and we all learned a lot from that experience. It is always a joy to spend time with those children and their mothers, who love seeing us and getting their pictures taken! This morning, we all got to take a tour of the Chogoria Girls High School and it never ceases to amaze us how well behaved all of the students are. It was also really neat to see the farm on the campus where their food comes from, along with the bakery that supplies all of the bread! Overall, it was a very good day and we are excited to travel to Tharaka tomorrow for the medical camp!
Love from Kenya!
Today we all had a very intense and exciting day at the hospital. Carissa and Brittany spent the day in the maternity ward and also got to tour some different parts of the hospital. They were able to spend time with some mothers and newborns, see the morgue and the lab at the hospital, all of which were very interesting. They also got to play Badminton with some of the nursing students and they had such a blast doing that. Ashlie, Brooke and Leah spent the day on the Pediatrics unit and it was a very exhausting day. We were able to participate in patient rounds with the doctors and they helped us to better understand the diseases that are most prevalent on the ward. We also got to observe and help with infant CPR and we all learned a lot from that experience. It is always a joy to spend time with those children and their mothers, who love seeing us and getting their pictures taken! This morning, we all got to take a tour of the Chogoria Girls High School and it never ceases to amaze us how well behaved all of the students are. It was also really neat to see the farm on the campus where their food comes from, along with the bakery that supplies all of the bread! Overall, it was a very good day and we are excited to travel to Tharaka tomorrow for the medical camp!
Love from Kenya!
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