Hey Family, Friends and Supporters...

Today is day kumi na moja. Kumi stands for ten and moja is one. The 'na' part translates to 'plus'. So ten plus one. ELEVEN. I am still in good spirits, healthy as can be, a bit Canada sick and OF COURSE, missing everyone back home (and other places).

The clinic has never been busier. Today was the Mom and Babe clinic as well as the antenatal clinic, on top of the regular patients who come on a day-to-day basis for treatment. Even with a full staff, a first since arriving, we were dragging our butts. The doctor appeared at a decent hour for once, in addition to two nurses, the Kenyan Public Health student volunteer and myself.

I had the Kenyan volunteer help out the nurse running the Mom and Babe room so that when patients needed injections or treatments I could help out there. Many of the Moms and Babes solely speak Swahili so it is hard for me to run a room on my own. Today was perhaps the first day that I felt frustrated because of this. I am completely qualified to do what they are doing with the Moms and Babes and even the antenatal room, yet the language barrier is just that - a barrier. I know that dispensing the medications and running the treatment room is a big help - or else the patients would have to wait until a nurse could leave their respective rooms and look after them - so I had to remind myself of this. It is just really hard to see how strained the nurses are and want to help out even more than I already am.

Shortly after feeling annoyed and frustrated, I decided to get the Kenyan volunteer who speaks perfect English to teach me some more Swahili. I needed to up my game. By the end of the day I was able to tell the patients the exact frequency in which to take their medications, how to tell the patients if the medications needed to be bought elsewhere, and was able to tell the Moms to bring back the baby medication bottles for recycle. Rightfully so, at the end of the day I was able to pat myself on the back.

One interesting patient I saw today in the treatment room - to spice things up - was a 18 year old boy with a spider bite on his foot. I thought the severed thumb was bad until I saw the pus draining out the open wound on the surface of his foot. Barf. I had to drain out some of the pus, clean out the wound and dress it for him. Gosh, now that I know the havoc some of the spiders can cause, I am a little more freaked out by them.

Speaking of insects, lets discuss the mosquitoes here. In the last two days I have been a buffet for these blood draining suckers, literally. I have about ten mosquito bites right now. Thankfully, I am taking my anti-malarial pills like clock work. The travel doctor in Ontario told me how Nairobi isn't that high of a risk for malaria, yet every fourth patient that comes into our clinic is being treated for malaria due to their signs and symptoms. Only every so often will the doctor write a script for a blood side for the Malaria Parasite. Most of the cases blindly treated are small children, who perhaps are more prone to catching malaria? Who knows?

In fact, the doctor wants the nurses to pick-up on the lack of health talks each morning (not one health talk has happened since my arrival, most likely because the nurses here pull the doctors weight BIG TIME). He compiled a list of topics that he wanted them to cover. The nurses are to teach the patients who congregate out front of the clinic for the first ten minutes of the day. Out of all the topics, the one I was least familiar with was malaria. So I volunteered myself to take on this topic and, with a translator, I will teach the patients about malaria next Tuesday. This will be the perfect opportunity for me to learn more about this prevalent disease in Kenya and further increase my ability to help the patients in the clinic - thus accomplishing the goal I set out to conquer.

I had a comment from a dear friend of mine, Ingrid, about the immense contrast in yesterdays pictures between the Westgate Mall and the Kabete clinic. I wanted to elaborate on this because it raises an interesting point. The mall where I frequent almost daily, as it is beside the internet cafe I use, is of grandeur for Nairobi standards. It is owned by non-Kenyans, perhaps Arabics or South Asians. Regardless, most of the people shopping in the mall are also non-Kenyans. When I walked in it for the first time I felt like I walked through a time-space continuum and was back in Toronto at the Eaton Centre. Sadly, most of the local Kenyans are not benefiting from the fruits of this isolated gem.

It is typical for a country such as Kenya, to have these pockets of wealth within minutes of pure, sad poverty. Of course, this mall provides employment to local Kenyans, but I am sure only English speaking Kenyans get the jobs and, if so, are most likely earning a meager wage.

Another friend of mine questioned my dietary and nutritional health since being here. I am eating well - I haven't lost any weight and perhaps have even gained a pound or two. I am not exercising here. Sad face. I do walk to and from my volunteer placement, which is about a 20 minute walk each way. To be honest, I would love to go on runs but I am afraid of venturing too far from the known. This is my comfort zone and it is quite literally a zone of maybe 10 km in one direction along a single road. Maybe I will start to do sit ups or push-ups in the volunteer house. Skeptical face.

My bowels have been holding up fairly well. I remember assessing one patient in the clinic last week who presented with diarrhea and abdominal pain (as many do) and asking the patient how long she had the diarrhea for. The doctor stopped me and told me that in Kenya most people don't have a constant, long lasting 'norm' for their bowels. In fact, diarrhea could be normal for a few days without really being infected with anything. It is fairly sporadic depending on what the meals consist of and what they can afford to eat. So personally, I would have to agree and say, although I am not in pain or having problems, my bowels have been all over the map.

Well, I must stop here and venture home before I turn into a pumpkin (that is code for: get the f&$* home before dark).

Kwaherini

Jake