a few things from my list of stuff to share...

1. i prayed at dinner the other night. i don't know if i've said this, but i really love when this family prays. part of it could be because just about every night they pray for my family and friends back home, but its also because i love exactly what they say. the girls (carol and faith) have been trying to get me to pray for a while now, but i don't really like to pray in front of anyone, let alone this whole family. the other night everyone was gone and it was just me and the girls for dinner, and they asked me to pray, so i did. i think it went pretty well. i'm glad i did it.

2. one day last week i saw the BIGGEST baby and the smallest baby! the big baby was more than double the average/healthy weight, and was enormous and adorable. the nurse had to explain to the mom about obesity. the little baby was only a week old and was born 2 months premature. needless to say she was teeny teeny tiny. that same day i also saw four different babies pee on their mom - they were all boys.

3. one of the most interesting cases i've seen since i've been there was a 1yr old baby that couldn't look straight. by that i mean, she could only see out of her peripheral vision. she couldn't look straight ahead, if she wanted to look at something right in front of her she would have to turn her head and looks to the side. (does that make any sense?). it was really very fascinating. also she was unable to stand on her own. the nurse didn't know what to do so she sent her to the daktari (doctor).

4. a couple of weekends ago, peter and i were on the matatu on our way home from the city, and there was a lot of traffic (as usual), and all of a sudden the men on our matatu were sticking their heads out the windows and yelling, and people were jumping out of their matatus and running by. it was pretty chaotic. come to find out one of the matatus in front of us was high-jacked and they were robbing everyone on the bus. it was kinda scary for minute. but the cool part was how everyone came together to help the one matatu that was in trouble. the men all got off and ran ahead to help. after the initial fear, it was exciting to see everyone working together.

5. besides when i get to give an injection, my favorite part of the day is the faces of the babies when they get the injection. i know that sounds cruel, but it's not. i'm talking about how the baby usually is pretty happy and looking around at the nurse like "oohhh... heeeyy... whats that shiny thing in your hand" just happy happy. and then they get stuck. and all of a sudden they realize that it hurts. and they just flash the saddest, most heart breaking look at the nurse and everyone in the room says "aaawww... poli poli poli" (aww... sorry sorry sorry). i'm not sure if this is really making any sense... but don't worry, i'll show you when i get home. it's adorable. and by the way, most of the babies stop crying pretty immediately after the injection is given.

6. ever since i volunteered to take the woman's blood pressure, i've kinda become the "blood pressure girl". it's probably just because they think i have a fancy bp cuff, but now not only do i take every patient's bp, but the staff comes looking for me just to take their bp! i'll be in the immunization room in the middle of diluting a hepatitis injection (one of my favorite things to do), and some one from the maternity ward will come in and say they have a friend back there whose bp they'd like me to take. the other day, they gave me a whole room to myself where i called the women in to take their medical history and bp. it was pretty great.

7. when i prepare the syringes for the nurses, after i fill them, i actually hold them up, flick it a few times to get the air bubbles out, and i even squirt a little out the end. it's so cool... and i gotta say, i'm gettin pretty good at it.

8. i worked with two nurses today. it was so great... we were totally a team. one nurse did all the paper work, i prepared the syringes and gave polio and vitamin a to the babies, and the other nurse gave the injections. we were like a well oiled machine. i can understand enough swahili now to know what each baby needs. it was so fun. then at the end of the day, the nurse asked how much longer i would be working there. i told her this was my last week. she said they would be sad to see me go, that i was "one of them now" and i told her how wonderful they have all been to me. we totally shared a moment.

9. last week I worked in the clinic weighing babies, and all morning i was working with this well-spoken, very kind, pretty woman named sally. she told me she was also a volunteer and that she normally works at the larger hospital as an HIV educator and counselor. she told me about what a hard time they have convincing people to get tested and what kind of challenges they face with educating people, and how there is such a terrible stigma attached that even when people find out they are HIV+ many of them refuse to believe it and go into denial and won't get any treatment for it. i spent the whole morning talking to her. in the afternoon when we were taking tea i told her that i just got my degree in psychology and originally wanted to persue counseling, but had decided to go into nursing instead, and she said i could stop by the hospital and see how she works and shadow her for a day or a week or as long as i wanted. she was so kind to me the whole day. it wasn't until after we exchanged numbers and just before we had said good bye, she told me she was HIV+ and had been for 5 years now. i was totally caught off gaurd. this of course opened a whole new can of questions. she was of course more than happy to answer all of them. she's not the first HIV+ person i've come across since i've been here, but i'll be completely honest, i was a little uncomfortable and uneasy around the patients that i knew were positive, but she completely changed the way i felt about it. the nursed do that too. they don't act the least bit different. at first i thought that maybe wasn't the best idea - for obvious health concerns - but after meeting this woman and talking with her, and watching these nurses work, i realize now what i believe makes someone a great nurse... the ability to care for a person as an individual. by that i mean, even though much of their day is routine and they end up doing the same thing over and over, they always seem to give each baby and each child exactly the personal attention they need. nursing is so much more than taking care of someone's physical needs. whether its giving a baby an immunization and realizing they have a rash and talking to the mother about what to do about it, or talking to a woman in family planning about the right kind of birth control, or counseling a mother in the ante-natal clinic that just found out she is HIV+ and helping her move forward... these nurses seem to care so deeply and fully for every single patient in every single situation. more often then not they are speaking in swahili and i only understand bits and pieces of what they are saying; but i can fully understand their caring tones, and warm body language, and the relief the patient feels at the end of the conversation. it's incredible.
i can't wait to be a nurse.

anyone need a tetanus shot? cause i can do it!

AH!! It happened!! i knew it would happen!

i gave my very first injection today! i gave a tetanus shot to a pregnant mother in the ante-natal clinic today!! she was the last patient, so i only got to do one, but hopefully that will open the door. now, the next time a nurse asks me if i've given an injection i can say "yep. mm-hmm. sure have. want me to do it?"
this is such a great feeling. nursing school here i come!

darling sharon and lovey jo jo

sweet sweet brian. he's warming up to me a little.











this is joe, brian's older brother. he plays soccer with his older brother tony almost everyday with a completely deflated volley ball; their actually pretty good.

joe, jojo and me havin fun

me and jojo.

The kind of day that makes me think I could stay forever...

I had the most incredible day today! I worked in the Ante-Natal Clinic (for pregnant mothers). I helped check all the women in, took their height, weight, temperature and blood pressure, and filled the syringes for the injections. I was in there with the nurse, and we would take in two patients at a time and each take one. i had my own patients!! aahh!! after i got their history an took their vitals, the nurse checked them out - gave them a physical. She let me palpate the breast for lumps, measure the baby in their belly, then listen to the fetal heart beat! it was sooooo great!! i felt like i was really contributing today. after tea, i went with the same nurse to the PMTCT room (prevention of mother to child transmission), where they take blood from the mothers to see if they are HIV+, then counsel them either way. evey day they let me do a little more. although, i think they might be figuring out i don't have any real medical training, (even though i kinda told them i was a nursing student, oops). my goal before i leave the clinic to give at least one injection. i can't make any promises, but i sure am gonna try my hardest!

after the PMTCT room, i went up front to help with booking as they were short staffed. the first week i worked there i was sooo nervous to take the names and check the people in cause i was having a really hard time understanding them, and they sure couldn't understand me. but now i can do it all on my own! it's the greatest feeling. even though i still don't really know swahili, you'd think i did if you saw me have pseudo-conversations with the patients. its wonderful.

right before i left, i went to the back to get my water bottle, and decided to stop by the maternity ward for a quick second, and right when i poked my head in... a baby was poking her head out!! eww... awesome!! the woman delivered her baby right then, so i threw some gloves on and after she cut the cord, the nurse let me take the baby and weigh it and then clean it off and wrap it up. it was soooooo awesome!!! soooooo awesome!!!

it is quite common for goats and sheep to be wandering the streets or to be tied up to something. today i passed a sheep that was really tangled bad, the rope was wrapped around it's leg several times, and stuck around its neck and it could barely move. now, i have been told that even if there's no one around for miles and it looks like the sheep/goat is alone, it's not; and if you touch the sheep/goat the owner will jump out of nowhere and yell at you for trying to steel it! well, lucky for the sheep i was having one of the best days since i've been here, and was feeling somewhat invincible, so i decided to walk over to it and untangle it. i walked up to it and said "look sheep. i'm gonna help you out, but you gotta help me help you, and not bite me. we cool?" it was totally cooperative. i untangled it, it kept eating grass and smelling just as nasty as ever, and i went on my way. it was wonderful.

oh, and the other really great thing that happened today...
yesterday morning i was weighing babies. the first baby i put on the scale was crying (as most of them do when the mom puts them down on the cold scale and steps away), so i did what i normally do - used my pen to distract him, give him something to look at. well, this little sneaky baby grabbed the top of my pen and never gave it back. i didn't realize it til the little perp was long gone. now mind you, this would have been no big deal, except it was my favorite pen! why do i use my favorite pen you might ask? well... it's my Chapel Hill nursing school pen. it's kind of like inspiration. anyway... i'm embarassed to admit that i was a little sad for the rest of the day cause my pen was gonna dry up and i couldn't use it anymore. well, just before i left the clinic today, a woman came up to the window and handed me the top to my pen! she said she found it when she got home yesterday, and came all the way back today just to give it to me! is that incredible or what? she is gonna have some seriously good karma!

sounds like a pretty great day, huh? it was!

Kahawa Health Center

the first two pictures are the immunization room. the close up is the cart with the syringes i fill for the nurse and the polio vaccines i give to the babies. the bottom two pictures are the maternity ward. the picture on the left is of everything they get together when preparing for the baby. the little black thing to the left of the scale is what they use to listen to the baby's heart beat. crazy. and the last picture is the bed where the women give birth. thats it... no sheets, no pillow, no technology, no nothin!

Waskom School

theses pictures are from the school that my host family own. their son daniel teaches at it and faith is a student. this is early in the morning when the kids first started to arrive.

Living Quarters

my shelf. it makes me feel at home
looking out from the front door. they live in a little mini-village. its so fun. the white truck is sitting right in front of sharon and jojo's house.

Gettin my hurr done.

carol is braiding my hair while faith and rebecca teach me swahili.
they thought my hair was sooo interesting. they couldn't stop touching it. i'm smiling in the picture, but it hurt.

carol (the "house girl") wanted to braid my hair. and rebecca (in front of me) is a sweet sweet girl that lives down the street, but has come by every day since i met her.

on my way home from work
jojo on the left, sharon in the middle

jojo

“We Can All Dance”

 

Allow me to clarify.  This was a statement made by a kenyan friend of mine, brian. And when he says “we” he of course means all Kenyans, not all people.  This was in response to peter telling me he wasn’t a good dancer. Yeah right.  I went with my host brothers peter and daniel to SPA fest (Stomping Performing Arts festival) last night.

 

It.

Was.

AWESOME.

 

I have never been more jealous of every single person in the room in my life. dancing is just a piece of them, a part of who they are; dancing, and being good at it is like blinking – they always have done it, they always will do it, and it takes no effort to do it.  We left for the festival at 2:45 pm on Sunday, and we got back to the house at 7:30 am Monday. 

The festival is a competition for dance groups from churches in the surrounding area.  I went with our home church presbyterian church of east africa – kahawa farmers district.  The dance group was “the ignitaz”, the returning champs.  In fact, they have won the last two years in a row. Needless to say, they won again. They were awesome.  I’ll post a video of it.  I’ll I’m saying is… amras here I come!! I can’t wait to get back and show off my new snazzy dance moves.

The dancing was great, but that wasn’t even the best part.  That night changed my heart.  I met some of the most amazing people.  In a crowd of over 2,000 people I saw another muzungu (white person) so I decided to talk to her.  Turns out she is from Michigan and is in Kenya for the summer doing research for her nonprofit organization – Redeeming Africa’s Hope.  She introduced me to her sister who is moving to charlotte in the fall to go to nursing school!! Of course we immediately hit it off and exchanged numbers.  It was great to meet another foreigner, someone who is going through the same things I am, but the best part was how she changed my heart about Kenya.  As stated in the previous post, I have been a little bit homesick and still feeling out of place; I just haven’t quite settled in yet.  These girls, who have been here for a month already, totally comforted me, explaining that they felt the same way at first, and that it takes time but before I know it I’ll be running the joint and won’t want to leave.  Sound familiar kendall?

I was having a good night, enjoying the people I was with, loving the dancing, but after talking to those girls, I was having a great night!  My heart was open, and instead of enjoying myself but still missing everyone in a sad way, I was enjoying myself and being in the moment.  it was like a switch was flipped,  I could see all the greatness all around me.  I was seeing everyone with different eyes.  This new way of being in the moment and loving every part of it, gave me the opportunity to have one of the most amazing spiritual conversations.  Richard, who lives down the street from my host family, is in school at the University of Nairobi playing on the soccer team and studying psychology, shared with me his experience with Christianity.  Uh-may-zing. 

 

My journey has just begun.

 sharon.  my favorite
 statue of the first president 
brian is on my lap.  not so happy.  jojo on the far right.
 menasi and brian.

A typical day last week:

 

8:02 -  my egg shaped, multi-colored alarm clock goes off – always making me think of mom.  I can hear the neighbors animals sounding off – the most obnoxious cow moo, and the most cliché donkey heeeee-haaaaaw you can imagine!

 

8:32 -  I finally get up out of bed, get dressed, fill my pack for the day, eat some breakfast (usually a flattened pancake with red plum spread), and head out the door just before 9.  It’s about a 15-minute walk to the main road, where I hop onto a matatu.  The after a 10-minute matatu ride, it drops me off somewhere in kahawa west.  When I get off the bus, it’s another short 15-minute walk to the health center.  Depending on how long it takes to get a bus, and where it decides to drop me off, I get to the health center anywhere between 9:30 and 10:00

 

9:30-10:00 -  when I first get to the health center I say hello to janet and sicily the women at reception who were slow to receive me, but seem to like me more by the day.  Then I go to the clinic side of the health center, which is specifically for the children under the age of 5.  I help check in the babies, weigh them and take their temperature. 

 

11:00-11:30 -  when things start to slow down in front a little, I head to the back to the immunizations.  This week I have been shadowing a woman by the name of Miriam.  She is a wonderful, soft-spoken little woman that moves very slowly and seems exhausted, but when it comes to the mothers and babies she works with, she is so sweet.  She has really taken me on as something of an apprentice.  Although she was slow to talk to me at first, I think she really likes teaching me now.  She is a great teacher, and when I can understand what she is saying, I really learn a lot.  I went from standing in the corner watching, to writing the paper work, marking the books, to now giving the polio vaccines to the babies, and preparing the syringes for the DPT/Hepatitis, measles and tetanus vaccines. This is my favorite part of the day!

 

3:00-3:30 -  I leave work, and begin my walk back.  I usually stop at an internet café where an hour and 15 minutes costs about $1. 

 

When I get home I play with Faith and a few of the kids that live close by.  There is a little group of kids that play outside, but there are three kids that I usually play with.  Jojo is a sweet little 5 yr old girl that always wants to touch me, but just barely; she timidly holds my hand or sits just close enough to be touching me.   She doesn’t entirely understand me when I talk to her, but she tries really hard.  Brian is 2 yrs old and seems to always be a little out of it.  He just stares with big beautiful eyes, and loves to be held.  He is the neighborhood baby, they just pass him around.  He is still figuring out whether or not he wants to be my friend.  And my favorite little darling girl is Sharon (pronounced shalone).  She is 3 yrs old and has no clue what I’m saying when I talk to her, but just smiles at me anyway.  I have never seen such a melting smile in my life.  She is precious.  There are two older boys that play soccer outside, and she runs in there to play with them, and then runs back to give me a hug when I cheer for her.  She ‘s not afraid to hug me.  From the first day she has never had any hesitations about me, she’s just happy to be my friend.  

When it starts to get dark, I go inside where the rest of the family is usually watching some ridiculous tv show i.e. “that’s so raven, wwf wrestling, sebastion & catalina (an Italian soap opera), or strong medicine.  I will either watch with them, or pick up one of the four books I’m currently reading.  We usually eat dinner around 8:00 and talk about our day.  I love sharing about my day with the family.  They tease me that everyday I come home I say, “this was the best day so far”. 

 

Slowly everyone trickles off to bed. It’s usually me and the boys left up watching tv.  There are a couple of shelves in my room that I am slowly filling with my things – books, papers, my clock, and other miscellaneous items.  The more I do this, the more the room feels like my own.  I usually read and then watch something on my computer.  Despite the bed feeling like a board, and the pillow being about as thick as a vhs tape, and about as comfortable as one too, I always seem to get a good nights sleep.  

It's June already??

I WATCHED A LIVE BIRTH TODAY! i'm adopting.

i also observed some immunizations, and they said they would let me do more tomorrow!!

more to come....

Mother Theresa Quote

“May today be peace within. May you trust your highest power that you are exactly where you are meant to be... May you not forget the infinite possibilities that are born of faith. May you use those gifts that you have received, and pass on the love that has been given to you... May you be content knowing you are a child of God... Let this presence settle into your bones, and allow your soul the freedom to sing, dance, praise, and love. It is there for each and every one of you.”

i found this quote over a year ago, and typed it in a word document and kept it in a file on my computer. i haven't read it in probably 3 or 4 months. now i know why i found it. i read it everyday.