AND SO IT BEGINS

Saturday Oct 1/ 2, 2010

Flight from Philly to Detroit was uneventful.

Before the sleep aid….I laughed my way ½ way across the Atlantic watching Joan Rivers get roasted and The Informant. Thanks Jared.

Met Mary Lee in Amsterdam 2 hours after I landed. She is a hoot from N. Carolina. A physician’s assistant who works for a plastic surgeon. At the gate for our final flight to Nairobi and I was stopped to check my bag…nope, I talked my way out of that some how. It was a 747! The bins are huge…After I was seated on the plane I realized I left my fleece where Mary and I had coffee. I was bummed, but o’well.

Arrived in Nairobi at 7:30 pm pretty tired. We found our way to the visa line then found the exit. I spot a familiar face holding a sign, ‘Maxine & Mary,” Dr Geoff Williams, Majog Judith, an anesthesiologist, Jenny 23 an RN and Flor also an RN or has worked w him for 3yrs, were waiting for us.

We all get into a van and stop at a market, to pick up a few things. I grabbed a couple of bananas, water bottles, and granola bars. Mary and I share a room. Well, it was pretty basic to say the least. When I saw the mosquito nets hanging and Mary told me she saw a flea in her bed I was skeeved! Mary told me to apply deet on before I go to sleep, really? So I did. Wore long sleeves, pants and socks to bed and didn’t pull the bed spread down. Got under the net, Mary said,” don’t let the net touch you.” Placing shoes on the corners to kept the net raised I didn’t move a muscle for the 5 hours until we had to get up to catch the plane to Kisumu.

Showered, grateful I remembered to bring my flip flops and rushed to meet up with the group at 6:30am. All the bags fit and we were off to JKIA for our 8:00 flight to Kisumu. We were picked up by a beat up 1970’s ambulance and a car. I chose to ride in the car. The bumpiest ride with pot holes the size of craters that the car had to dive off rode. The 2 hour ride provided me my first real views of Kenya and its people. Many women walking with jugs and other types of items for daily life being carried on their heads, bike riders, kids without shoes, big markets with bright colored clothes. Houses made of mud with tin roofs and cows and chickens milling around. We pulled over so the drivers could show us the Crying Stone. Four small boys all brothers, crossed the street to check us out. The eldest was 11 and told us the story his grandfather told him about the Crying Stone. It was magical.

We arrive at the Bishop Nicholas Stam Pastoral & Animation Center, Diocese of Kakamega guest house . We all had our own rooms that were adequate, ( I use this word loosely ) with a mosquito net. It is an oasis behind huge gates in the middle of complete poverty. ($22 / night ) The facility is huge with conference rooms, chapels, 160 can board, multi purpose halls….lush greenery and scary dogs that howl in the night that I thought there were coyotes.

Off to the Provincial General Hospital to meet the director . We sat in a room set up to be a board room. I us the word board room very very loosely. Had our initial welcome and intros, saw the patients for tomorrow and gave the children stuffed animals and dolls.

Dinner was a blur but I was conscious enough to stick to the veggies.. I can’t bring myself to eat any meat served as I see the chickens and emaciated cows on the streets. I have tried some interesting vegetables, ugali ( maze meal w water – white ball ) sukuma wiki ( green veg

Mom called after I was a snug as a bug in my net! It was pitch black in my room; the phone was charging and hanging from an outlet in the bathroom. I nearly strangled in the net as I didn’t want to miss the call, you see the mosquito net hangs from the ceiling and drapes all around the bed to the floor! I had to use tape to patch the holes in the net….all I kept thinking was I would wake up and there would be little critters stuck to the tape!!

Monday Oct 4, 2010

Ahhhhh migraine at 4:30 am…took my meds and by the time my alarm went off at 6:15 I was my old self. I finally felt on the correct time zone. It took almost 2 days. Breakfast at 7:00 and Willie was there smiling with a beautiful table set. I asked her for coffee expecting rich Kenyan coffee like Starbucks only to get a pot of boiling water and instant Nescafe- Columbian.

I was so charged for our first day. I was assigned the recovery room. I was actually happy with that as Flor mentioned he has gotten slower and a cleft lip is now about 3 hrs. We didn’t get started until 12:00. Well I really shouldn’t say we. Since the USB wi-fi was not working I went into the town and tried to get that fixed. Justice, a porter, and I couldn’t find my driver he suggested we go by motor cycle, I declined. He found another driver and off we went. There I was the only and I mean the only white female for miles and I did not feel it for one second.

How do they do it? Bananas in large baskets, sugar cane 4 feet long 15 at a time, 100 lb bags of four on their head!!!

The most memorable part of this day was when I showed my first patient, Faith, who is 7 yrs old, her repaired cleft lip in a mirror……this is why I am in Kenya.

Left the OR at 11:00 PM…long day…no dinner

Tues. Oct 5

Mary Lee knocked at 6:45 and we were the first to see Willie. I helped her get the breakfast things to the table. I followed her out back and was stunned by the primitive thatched 3 sided wooden structure with 2 large pots over hot coals containing boiling water and milk. Willie proceeded to dip a pitcher into theses pots and pour the liquids into the thermos.

We had 3 cases on the schedule. I scrubbed for the first cleft lip. ( 3 hrs ) I broke scrub ¾ into it talk to the director, Daniel Alushula MD, about getting more pts. It looks promising.

left the OR at 12:00 dinner was waiting in our lounge! wiped out!!!

Dry Run

....The carry on, will it fit in the overhead? I packed it last night and kept looking at it. It looked questionable, so I asked my son, Jared, to accompany me for a drive to the airport. He said in more than a few words that I was crazy.

This soft bag weighed about 40 lbs as I schlepped first to the initial check point inside the departure area. I asked a Delta rep and she said as she pointed to a sign with a metal rectangular shaped opening, place your bag in there. It was like trying to place Cinderella's slipper on the step sister's foot. I went up to the security area and spoke with, "Hazel." She advised me to unpack a few things and layer. Hazel said if she is at security when I go through she will let me go but there is another woman not as nice.

I have repacked 2 more times deleting more and more. I am down to 33 lbs and a bag that looks like it will fit. I would love to check a bag but with all the flights I am not sure it would actually arrive in Nairobi when I did. I can't believe I am going away for 3 week with a carry on!

Thomas Jefferson Travel Medicine Services

IF, yes IF, I was a "normal " person traveling to Africa and had spent the 2 hours with Dr. Marilyn Bradford at TJUH travel medicine sevices as I did, my trip would have been cancelled.

I am one who declines the flu shot each year, yeah yeah yeah, I know! No, I have not gotten the flu....yet.

The plan was to get the yellow fever vaccine and the malaria prophylaxis, done. I was going to get the tetanus at my primary Dr office later this month. Well, between the newspaper articles and the pictures of Kenyan people dragging their legs due to polio I opted for the booster..Then we moved on to contaminated food and water- yep, typhoid vaccine!! That one's oral, it was pretty funny as she gives me 2 stickers, one for the frig and one the bathroom mirror and then a bright orange rubber bracelet ( livstrong-type) as major reminders as it's an every other day capsule for 7 days.

Then Dr. B touches on Leishmaniasis disease. Acquired by a bite of an infected sand fly. Dengue fever a viral infection spread by the bite of the female Aedes mosquitoes. Then she continued on with the typical traveler's diarrhea, what to avoid, safety tips and what to take in my medicine kit. She was extremely informative. I asked her if she travels a lot. She answers, " no, my husband won't get on a plane!" Pretty ironic.

Facts

Africa, the planet's 2nd largest continent, includes (53) individual countries. It contains the Nile River, the world's longest, and the massive Sahara Desert, the world's largest. The continent's (highest point) is Mt. Kilimanjaro, in Tanzania, 19, 341ft (5, 895m), while the (lowest point) is Lac' Assal in the small country of Djibouti, 512 ft (156m) below sea level.

Friday the 13th - August, 2010

After days of research and speaking with various airline reps I decided today was the day to purchase my ticket with Ray, the rep from International Travel Network. I am booked!!! I really am going to Kenya....

Oct 1- Philly- 12:35pm arrive Detroit- 2:23
Detroit -4:10 arrive Amsterdam -5:55am ( Oct 2)
Oct 2 Amsterdam -10:25am Nairobi - 7:25 pm

Oct 3 Nairobi to Kisumu to Kakamega for a 6 day plastic surgery mission at the Bishop General Hospital. The typical day as the surgeon has informed is, arrive at the hospital at 8 AM and leave around 9 PM, 3 cases per day, from 2.5 - 3 hrs per case.