Doctor, doctor

Friday morning Brett helped preform a biopsy on little Eugene.
Needless to say the conditions were not exactly what US docs are used to.

Finding supplies was not easy.
After searching for a little while containers to hold biopsy samples were no where to be found.
So we walked over to the lab.
Once we got back, there was still nothing to sanitize the skin so I offered up my handy Target hand-sanitizer.

By late afternoon Eugene was doing great!

It's a small world after all...

I'm rather sensitive to smells (read the first blog entry for more!) It has been a comfort to put on clothes and be reminded of friends from home.  My packing plan was to bring clothes which I would leave here for people in the hospital, at the end of my stay.  So I asked friends if they had any items they would be willing to donate to the cause.  I received many options and am reminded of friends each time I put on an article of their clothing.  The scent of their house, or laundry detergent. stays with me all day as I walk through the streets and pass people who have not had the opportunity to bathe recently, much less launder their clothing.   Today will be my first day really in the hospital wards and I am forewarned the smell in there is more than overpowering.   

I can only imagine what the smell must be like if it were hot.  But it's not, it's chilly!  Who would have thought it would be cold in Africa!  It is very pleasant in the mornings when the sun is shinning.  Warms up to about 70F, but in the afternoons the rains start and it gets cold.  We have been able to see our breath the last two nights after dinner.

So far the food has been fine.  Breakfast is make your own toast or cereal, which suits me well, but poor Brett is suffering.  His normal hearty plate of leftovers is not an option and by 10am he's starting to get hungry.  By 1pm, when lunch is served, he's starved!  Lunch and dinner are prepared by local women in the IU House kitchen.  They seem to have a list of "American" foods they make.  The food has a bit of an American flare to it, but let's just say the pizza probably it's one you're going to want to order in for delivery.  Wednesday evenings everyone staying on the IU House campus goes out to dinner.  It was a wonderful way for us to meet everyone staying here and learn about all the projects taking place.  While at dinner I thought of what a small world we really do live in as I sat, eating Indian food, in Kenya, with a friend from Jr. High, who's parents live blocks from us in Indianapolis.

If only this small world had closer time zones!  It's after 5am local time and I've been awake for over two hours now.  I know it's normal to time adjustment issues, but it's starting to get annoying.  My normal insomnia remedy/bad habit of watching old 80's re-runs to fall asleep is not readily available.  And the internet connection is "ify" so watching something on the ipad isn't an option either.  

Luckily the internet connection is good enough I am able to chat online with my mom and get an update on the kiddos.  Both seem to be doing well and have enjoyed the times when we have been able to video chat, though the last conversation they seemed a bit distracted.  Might be because they were at the cupcake place for an after school snack!

Unlikely we'll video chat tomorrow/today, as we are leaving this afternoon for a weekend safari.  We are heading to Nakuru National Park, famous for it's pink flamingos.  We'll even be staying at the Pink Flamingo lodge.  Will post pictures and stories when we return!

It's getting closer to my bedtime in Indy, so I think I'll try to lay down again for a bit.

The Doctor is...out?

Department of Radiology

Our first main day at the hospital was Thursday, September 1. We were very disappointed to arrive at the hospital on Wednesday only to find out many were celebrating Eid, and out of the hospital.  Most Kenyans are not Muslim, so the fact this was a holiday was some what amusing.  It seems the radiologist are still on "holiday" today, but we were able to get in and greet many other members of the "department."  

It is taking me a bit of time to become more comfortable with photographing the hospital and the people there. I found after a few minutes walking around with a camera everyone wanted to be photographed! So I became a part-time portrait photographer this afternoon. Not my forte, but they all seemed thrilled.

If you have not ever had the necessity to visit the radiology department of your local hospital, the next time you are in you might notice the differences.

This is the main radiology office where everyone works and reads studies

Even if you have visited your local radiology department, you might not have ever met your radiologist.  They are there, just hiding.  Unfortunately, we're afraid the doctors in Kenya might not realize they were supposed to come in again after this February work schedule expired.

Notice the door leaning on the wall to the left.  The techs hold this up while they stand behind this wall to help shield themselves from the radiation.

Reports are hand written on the back of these request reports after studies are read.

Cashier's office to pay for your service

Back home again, in Indiana

****due to technical difficulties not all photos have loaded...will post more as able***

Welcome to IU House in Kenya!

Here's a quick tour of where we're staying. It's nothing fancy, but everything is very nice and clean.

Here is the gate from the main road, Michael is the day guard there.

There are security shacks at the end of the

driveway, here's a sign for Elliott on top of this one!

The mud is incredible right now, so we leave shoes at the door, helps keep the place clean!

Haven't seen many/any masquitos yet, but we have the netting just in case. I'm sure we sleep better without the bugs, if only the netting could drown out the barking dogs.

Right behind out bed is the emergency button. This button is to be pressed in case anyone gets through the two cement walls with barbed-wire, past the guards at all the gates, through the double set of locked doors and into our room. Pressing the button immediately calls for 30 armed guards to swarm the compound. In the past 12 years this has only been activated once, by a sleep walker. Said sleep-walker will be questioned upon our return.

We've had hot water for every shower so far!

We eat meals in a different building across the street. (and I don't have to cook or clean up after--love it!)

This mixer photo is up for my mixer-loving friend, you would be able to survive in Africa!

The grounds around the IU Houses.

Leavin' on a jet plane

August 29 - 30 2011

Our journey from Indianapolis to Kenya was a short 31 hours door to door.

Here are a few highlights:

Indianapolis United baggage check-in gets a 1 on a scale of 1-10 for promptness and customer service. 45 minutes to check less than 15 passengers does not seem acceptable, for US standards.

Brett went through TSA three times, his record for this trip. Luckily, the TSA agent had a good sense of humor at 5:30am when Brett said I "snuck his water bottle into his bag!"

Dulles airport wins the prize for best airport this round. Comfy seats, free wifi, Ben & Jerry's in the terminal, what more could I want?

Ethiopian Air was a pleasant surprise. New, clean air craft, personal interactive tv's, good food. It's lucky for us we're not big movie buffs so we were able to "enjoy" many new-to-us movies throughout the flight.

Addis Ababa airport claims to be one of the leading airports in Africa. Needless to say, they do not seem to be using google stats, like Dulles, to check for consumer behavior. There were many surprises/eye openers for us during our three hour layover:

• As many may or may not know, I am not a fan of the smoking laws in Indianapolis. You can imagine my disgust when the man sitting next to us lit up in the airport!




• Thanks to a tip from a friend, I brought along my own TP for the trip. I was not expecting to use it in the airport when ALL THREE STALLS were out!
  
  


• My favorite was seeing the posting regarding boarding times.
  

Our next flight on Ethiopian was not quite the same level of quality, especially in regards to cuisine, which on this flight, was far more local.

My second use of traveling tips came out this flight: bring along a pleasantly scented lotion to place under your nose and on your hands if smells get overwhelming. My hands were well hydrated after the little girl behind me found the food and turbulence did not mix well.

Nairobi airport has separate buildings for international and domestic flights. After obtaining our visas we were thrilled to see all of our checked baggage arrived! We gathered our bags and walked across the street to the domestic "terminal." This gave Brett another chance to prove his adeptness with security. He only went through twice this time, thanks to my quick reminder to remove his shoes right before he walked through the metal detector. What I did not see, with his shirt untucked, was his belt. So he had to go through once again.

Security did question the chest tubes and biopsy needles, but once they saw everything was sealed they let us go.

We wanted to acquire minutes for our Safaricom cell phones during our four hour layover. In order to do this we had leave the secured area and go to the "pharmacy." The whole store/closet is about as big as the children's vitamin section at our local CVS. But they had the mobile minutes and even loaded them onto my phone for me. Which is good because I don't know how I could have done that since I can barely figure out how to text on this thing!

On our third and final trip through airport security one would have hoped Brett would have made it through on his first trip. Sadly, he forgot the cell phone charger in his pocket and had to go through again.

Thanks to a very concerned woman,who woke me from a very sound sleep, we did not miss the flight to Mombasa. I did let Brett sleep through boarding of that flight and did not wake him until our flight to Eldoret was called. And I do mean called, the ticket taker simply stood by the doors and called out "all passengers to Eldoret may now board." So we walked out to our plane.

We were a bit rattled on board when the flight attendant announced we were headed to Kisumu! Had we walked to the wrong plane? Luckily another passenger confirmed we would be heading to Eldoret after a short stop. So we flew over the flooded Rift Valley to Kisumu, the third largest city in Kenya, which sits on Lake Victoria. Pretty sure I saw a croc in the murky green waters near the shore as we were landing.

Kisumu airport

After only 20 minutes, and one more round of lavender lotion, we finally landed in Eldoret!

A driver was waiting for us when we exited. Lucky for me I was too tired to be scared driving through traffic to get to IU House. Not sure if that will continue on our next car ride.

We are now settled in and ready for the next adventure!