Chapatis

Happy Tuesday!!

Today Jess and I went back to CPGH and this week we are working in the “CCC”-Comprehensive Care Clinic. This is where all of the patients who have been diagnosed with HIV come to receive their treatments. Care varies in this clinic from medical treatment to education in maintaining a life with HIV. The patients can come here to get condoms, medications, questions answered, or counseling. I was really nervous before coming to the CCC because in American there is a stigma on patients with HIV. In Africa it is so common and seen so often, it is treated just as meningitis or TB. Which are both very serious illnesses, but they don’t come along with such a terrible stigma. I sat in with a doctor today who was seeing patients who were having complaints of sicknesses other than HIV. The doctor was very interesting to work with and was continually teaching me. She was really nice too. I feel like in America HIV has such a bad stigma and is rarely talked about—therefor it is hard to learn about. After the hospital today we came home and relaxed for a bit. I helped my house mother wash the sheets and then she taught us how to make CHAPATIS! Which is easily one of my favorite foods over here. They are a mix between sweetness and a tortilla shell.

Yesterday after I typed for the blog, Aijah, Jess and I took the dogs for a walk to the beach. This was quite comical as the dogs have never been outside of the compound. They are both just 6 months old and being trained on a collar. They actually did really well—until we got to the ocean. They weren’t fans of that one bit—understandable.I am really trying to spend as much time with my new friends, which are more like family, before I leave. I can’t believe what a great relationship I have formed with everyone I have met over here, I am going to miss them terribly. One of the night guards, Frank, has been having some really serious health problems over the past 4 weeks. I’ve been consistently asking him how he is doing (and he always says fine) but everyone else says hes very sick. A couple of weeks ago he was telling me about how he had to come and get a loan from his check so he could afford his medications for his stomach ulcers. Well over the past week it has gotten worse and he is vomiting up blood and seeing blood in his stools. He went to the doctor and they said they wanted to do some testing (a barium enema to be exact…for you medical people) but he can’t afford it. It has been getting worse the past couple days he told me tonight. I asked him when he gets paid if he will be able to get it done and he said probably not since he already got money from his check early and he has to pay rent and bills. Frank comes to work every night at 630 and doesn’t have to be here until 7. He has been sick the last 2 months…very sick actually, and has the biggest, warmest, friendliest smile I have ever seen. Tonight I asked him how much his test costs him and he told me 5000 kenya shillings which is like 60 USD. Jess and I talked and we are going to get him a card with the money for the test tomorrow. So I need you guys to say a couple prayers for Frank that this tests has good news and we are able to figure out what is causing the bleeding!  Tomorrow we are going back to the HIV clinic. I hope to learn more (which I know I will)…and I will be able to share more with you on the HIV topic. I am not quite confident enough to share what I learned today…because while it is very educational sometimes information gets lost in translation. I have written down questions and facts to be sure I am accurate…because I definitely don’t want to be giving you guys false information! So enjoy the pictures…and be prepared to hear all about HIV tomorrow J

XoXo,

Dog walking with Aijah!!

"Pre" chapati making

Ignore the fact that I look evil...but please look at Jess really into rolling the Chapati

Abigail

Do I really have to leave in four days!? :(

Happy Memorial Day!

Happy Memorial Day!-well sort of! I wrote this up last night but I didn't have internet until late this afternoon!

So I haven’t blogged in FOREVER and I apologize. I have been away from my computer since Thursday and just got back to Mombasa late last night.

So Thursday we were originally supposed to get on a 9 hour bus ride at 9:30 in the morning to head to Nairobi, Kenya. Well…after finding out that on Friday (after arriving in Nairobi) morning we would be getting on another bus to go to the Masai Mara, where the safari is. Well…being the typical Amerians we are we decided that for $125.00 (round trip) we could skip the whole 18 hour bus ride and hop on a 50 minute flight—we opted for that choice needless to say. So we left our compound at 12:00 in Mombasa, went to the airport, and before we knew it we were in Nairobi at 2:45 (we would of still had 3 hours on a bus). We got to Nairobi and checked into a hotel and relaxed for a couple of hours. Then we went to dinner  with one of our friends from Mombasa (Phares, who works for the program—I have mentioned him before) girlfriend. She is 8 months pregnant and aaaallll belly! She is a super tiny lady and the cutest pregnant thing I have ever seen. We went to dinner with her and her cousin and got back to the hotel around 10 that evening. We took WARM, HOT, AMAZING, and wonderful water pressured showers at the hotel and it was blissful. I literally…couldn’t even get myself to get out of the shower. I was actually starting to get used to the cold shower, luke warm when you’re lucky, thing. We got up at 6 in Nairobi on Friday and went to a local breakfast shop to get something to eat before the van ride (and by van I mean old school van…that is actually a Safari van and the roof pops up, no cushion in the seats, dust all over) and by ride I mean (the first 2 hours were paved roads and the last 3 and a half were gravel roads with pot holes the size of my car-literally, driving 95 mph the entire time). Not that I’m complaining…but most of you…well maybe not most since I don’t know who all reads this, but my family knows that I get car sick traveling anywhere that takes longer than 45 minutes if I’m not sitting in the front seat. No worries… I was in the back seat the entire time. At one point Jess looks at me and questions whether I’m going to vom all over. We made it to the Safari (and I’m happy to report I didn’t  get sick…yet!). After arriving to Masai Mara we got a tour of our campsite (which was actually a lot better than I expected) and settled into our cabins (we arrived around 330). At 4:30 we had tea (such a traditional concept over here…the whole taking tea thing) and then went out for a 2 hour game drive. What I saw was absolutely beyond words and pictures or any kind of description I could ever offer would never give the beauty of the Masai Mara. After the two hour game drive Friday evening we came back to the campsite and had dinner. I met two really nice girls, Alice from England and Chelsea from New Zealand, during the 6 hour drive and the rest of the safari. They were both traveling from Nairobi and really sweet girls. Alice is in Africa working at a school because she is going to school to become a teacher and Chelsea is just traveling Africa for a month (must be nice!...she has been to over 20 countries!). She had just gotten though with climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro. We went back out early Saturday morning and spent the entire day out on Safari and then arrived back to the camp around 6 that evening. While at dinner our new friends and Jess and I were having some beers and eating dinner and I all of a sudden felt VERY sick. I ended up leaving dinner early and going back to the cabin to shower and…got sick all over the shower! I felt so bad for Jess as she had to clean up some of my vomit (good practice for being a nurse, right!? HA) because I was so miserable I couldn’t do anything. I literally thought I was going to throw up my insides that night. I ended up not going out for the 2 hour Safari Sunday morning because I felt so awful….and of course I missed the Cheetahs! We drove back to Nairobi on Sunday and then hopped on our flight and arrived in Mombasa around 8 yesterday evening (and it felt so good to be “home”!) It was such a good weekend and I had a great time.

Today instead of visiting Coast Province General Hospital we got to get a tour and observe for a bit in Mombasa Private Hospital…and thank goodness for that! It was such a different environment compared to CPGH. There was actually a fetal heart monitor on the labor floor—I think I was beginning to forget they even existed. We went around the whole hospital and everything was pretty close in comparison to what our hospitals are like in American, on a smaller scale of course. Oh…and all the charting is still done on paper—no computers! Everyone was so nice at the hospital (which isn’t surprising to me because I think everyone I have met has been quite fantastic) and I actually got to do an entire admittance of a patient that came in during labor—which was a good experience. This afternoon I just did some last minute laundry that needed to be done to last me through the week. (I AM LEAVING IN LESS THAN A WEEK!!!!---ahhh L)

Enjoy the pictures of the Safari!!

Xxoo!

Abigail