Sunday, August 11, 2013

The First Weekend

Mimi and I arrived safely in Nairobi after a few very smooth flights from San Francisco. The biggest unknown variable in the process was whether our arrival into the Nairobi airport was going to be delayed due to the fire at the international terminal. Thankfully, they were running things pretty smoothly out of tents, and we got from the landing strip to the car in only about two hours. We spent the night, Friday, at an apartment that has graciously been made available to us by one of our friends and partners in Kenya. The next morning we woke up bright and early due to the jet lag and headed back to the airport, seeing some humongous marabou storks chilling in the acacia trees lining the roads on the way (see below). A short 30 minute flight took us over the Rift Valley and into Nyanza provence. We circled around the large, hyacinth-choked Lake Victoria and landed smoothly into Kisumu, Kenya's third largest city after Nairobi and Mombasa. We met Fred, our Kenyan driver, who is more smile than mass, and he whisked us the hour northwest to Sagam village. The sleepy little village was bustling with a mega-medical camp that was being held to reach the people of the Sagam community, bringing members of parliament, dozens of doctors from around Kenya, and thousands of patients. It was quite the introduction/welcome back to Sagam for Mimi and me. In the evening, around the time that my body was telling me that I probably shouldn't still be awake, we headed off to catch a continuing medical education talk held between the Independent Medical Legal Unit of Kenya and the Kenyan Medical Association. It was a pretty interesting debate regarding the doctor's role in protecting human rights for their citizens. Sunday was the second day of the medical camp, and we saw patients at the hospital and performed some
ultrasound scans of patients that had been referred for imaging. Particularly interesting results included a gentleman with the biggest dilated bladder and kidneys I've ever seen due to an enlarged prostate that he must have been battling with for years, as well as a pre-teen boy with a very large heart due most likely to an infection that lead to rheumatic heart disease. We'll be working to help them and others out that were diagnosed in the medical camp. It's a little hard to believe that tomorrow is the start of the week!

2 comments:

elvezpablo said...

Great updates Jeff! I've been doing some catch up reading on the blog and the hospital stories are amazing. I shared them with the family at the dinner table and the kids promised to stay away from Triatix especially when angry. Glad you guys made it safe and keep the stories coming!

-paul

La Chinita said...

Happy to follow your blog again, Jefe, though we miss you here already on L&D! -Cindy