the kathie report

2 months already since I left Kenya! And one month since I've been back in Canada. It's been good and strange. I don't know if anyone will still read this journal, but I kind of want to finish it.
It was wonderful to have Christmas in Aberdeen, to see everyone that I could, and to have Michael with me. It was great to go to Ottawa for New Year's Eve, and see Mom and Dad and Thomas.
But that was a whole lot of visiting and talking...I felt pretty peopled out.

When we came back to Toronto, I moved into the house Mike had been living at since I left. When he went back to work, I spent my first day all alone since I left Africa. It was pretty weird. I walked up to the Loblaws. It was a Sunday, so there were a lot of people. It totally overwhelmed me. I left and came home. There were a few moments like that when I first got back.

As I went and visited more friends and familiar places, I felt more like I was home...it was a time warp, going and visiting people I said bye to 6 months ago. Cause everything here is the same...but not quite.

I've been in touch with some friends I met in Kenya, which is really nice. I hope our friend Stella in Kikuyu manages to come over here....I can't imagine her culture shock!

The first time Little Christine came to see me in Toronto... it was funny...it was great to see her again, great to talk about our trip! I told her about Loblaws, and she told me she cried in a Wal-Mart. It's good to know she feels the same. We went for a walk here, on St.Clair, and the street car went past. It was one of those advertisement ones, painted all over. It was an ad for Amarula Cream... spirit of Africa. It had a huge heard of elephants. So here we are in downtown Toronto in our winter coats and toques, and a heard of elephants stampedes past us.

Yesterday on the news was the report that 2 American women were killed in a car-jacking in Nairobi. I just burst into tears. And with all the news of trouble in Somalia..I am so so glad to be home now....but I think about Kenya, and the people I met, every single day.

I applied for a bunch of nursing jobs, and got one right away.
I started orientation last week in a Long Term Care facility downtown, on the locked Dementia ward. It's great to be nursing again...but so strange. On the first shift, I needed to check someones vital signs. So I grabbed the machine and it did it all for me. It felt so strange, unfamiliar! Digital thermometer, BP, Heart Rate, and even O2 Saturation! Amazing!
The residents all have their own rooms and washrooms...bigger than houses whole families live in in Kenya. Geez, the shower room is bigger than some houses in Kenya.
I have to read all the policies and procedures put out by the Ministry of Health and Long Term Care. Sometimes I have to laugh, I don't know what else to do...
Reading about restraints and consent, and documentation of restraints, I think of the patient I helped tie to the bed with sheets....
Reading about skin care and bowel protocol, Residents have a choice of meals every day...It is great. I go into the treatment room and look at all those dressing supplies...I am happy to be a nurse here! I think of my colleagues in Kenya..I wish they could be so lucky too!

People always ask me "When will you go back?" I don't know what to say. You always read stories of people who went to Africa and "left their hearts behind" That's a little cheesy...but there is something to it. I don't know when or if I will go back. But, it's inside me, Africa is something special to me.

Thank you so much to everyone who read my journal, posted comments, thought about me and what I was doing in Kenya. Your thoughts and words meant a lot to me there, made me feel safe and loved. Thank you.
Love Catherine

it feels like so long ago already that we left kenya. but it still feels strange to not be there. today i accompanied my friend viara as she did her christmas shopping in helsinki. my brain was doing flip flops the whole time.

we finally left kenya on Dec. 1st, on kenya time of course. our driver was late to bring us to the airport, and i was sooooo wound up about it. the people we lived with were joking that we would have to stay in kenya afterall and get kenyan husbands. sheesh!!! christine and i kept joking about our impending "divorce" from one another. And then we were gone.
we arrived ridiculously early to heathrow, and prepared to wait 1 hour for Mike's flight from Toronto. I was just a little teeny bit excited. ok so really i paced the whole time and looked at every person that walked past and couldn't shut off my grin and my pulse was a little quick and just drove Christine nuts. then he got there and it was good. it is definately a wierd feeling t obe with him again, cause its kind of like a stranger who i know everything about. we spent the day just being jetlagged and zoned out and tired. we went to Kew Gardens, which was really nice, but a bit wasted on Mike cause of fatigue, and on me and Christine, cause we had just seen so many of the plants in their natural habitat!

what was so strange to me?
london smelled good
being anonymous
good cheese
tap water that i could drink (i drank so much of it cause it tasted good and was free)
being out at night--and there is a lot of night so far north!!
walking in a city bymyself
leaving stuff in my pockets
it was also kind of funny in a worlds-collide way to be in London again, but with Mike and Christine who have never been there.
the hostel beds were comfortable!
needing mittens and a heavy jacket....still nursing my sunburn, dumping beach sand out of my stuff.

we did some cheap touristy things in london, but mostly just relaxed and walked around. i guess walking around in london means shopping (window for us!!) i didn't really get blown away by this till Mike and I were in helsinki. it took a while to sink in i guess. we had a drink at a pub with our friend caroline, the english nursing student we stayed with in august. it was great to see her.
we went to camden town, and there was a guy with a kiosk selling kenyan batiks. we greeted him in kiswahilli, and talked about all the places we knew in kenya. it was funny and strange and made us smile.

then Mike and I said good bye to Christine, and left for Helsinki. It did seem a little weird, but not too much cause i was in travel mode. Mike and I had to sleep on the floor of stanstead airport. it was kindof fun, a sleepover picnic.

we arrived in tampere and got the bus to helsinki, 2 1/2 h away. first impression: i loved it. i got some wonderful cold tapwater for the busride, waited in the soft cold drizzle for Mike to get tickets. Driving to Helsinki we could have been driving through North Ontario. lots of evergreens. it was beautiful. the only strange thing was that at 1 in the afternoon it felt like 4 or 5 at home in Toronto. It gets dark very very early here. Completely dark by 4, not light til 10. very confussing! But i kind of like it because i get ot walk aroundin the dark alot and I have missed it so much.

We met up with Viara after she finished school, and came to her apartment which she shares with her Danish roomate Viki. It was great to see her after so many years.
When I woke up in hte morning, I was looking forward to going downstairs to see Little Christine to see what she thought of our first day in finland. Wait a minute.....there is no little christine in Finland.....strange......!!

So Mike and I have been hanging out in Helsinki, catching up with Viara, watching our money disappear magicallly. It is a very small, neat, clean, nice smelling, organized city. We can walk evrywhere, no worries about safety, the shops are all nicely tucked in around the apartment buldings. We went ot the Finnish national Museum. It was very cool, tons of stuff about the first people here many thousand years ago.

Mostly I have felt happy to be here, appreciating the cleanliness and beauty and safety of it. Today we shopped all day and it kind of blew my mind. We went into a neat shop selling recycled crafts this morning. some of the things there were a Massai marriage necklace, a Kiondoo woven basket, and sandals made of tires. all for sale at more than 10 times what i paid for them. very very strange.
i think all the christmas shopping crowds overwhelmed me today. as we were walking around, it was as though i had kenyan images juxtaposed in my eyes with what i was seeing in reality. The clown on stilts giving a kid a balloon toy to be lost in 5 minutes, melted in my vision with the kids playing soccer with a ball made of garbage. the craft kiosks of expensive pretty well made useless knicknacks mixed up with the women sitting in the dust cutting up sukuma wiki to sell, and roasting maize on a charcoal jikka at the side of the road. when we spent 10 euros at a market on a delicious homemade lunch that made me too full, i thought of the people at the clinic having their sugary tea and deepfried flour mandazi, to fill their bellies til bedtime.

We decided that no matter how much it was raining, we were going to the coast to see the Indian Ocean. We caught the Night bus from Nairobi last Wednesday, and drove the 500ish KM to Mombasa...taking 8 hours, lots of bumps and a few swerves.
After that sleepless night we arrived into hot humid and hectic Mombasa. In Nairobi we were wearing pants and sweatshirts and often raincoats. The coast was such a contrast..we pretty much went "commando" the whole time, it was so hot.
From Mombasa, we took a very short ferry ride, and 2 matatus, and just over an hour later we got to Diani beach.
We stayed in these little cabins that just had 2 beds and an antique fridge. We shared toilet, shower, and cooker facilities. The fancier cottages of the compound were right at the beach, but we just had to walk past them and there we were.
The first full day there we spent the wonderful hours of 10-3 on the beach or in the water. I am now a lovely shade of tomato, and still look like I am wearing a bathingsuit even when naked.
It was great. so so great. Diani is full of Germans and other Europeans, cause it is fairly inexpensive for them to fly there, and ridiculously cheap to stay. Our cabin cost us about 10$ a night, and food is pretty cheap too. If you ever have enough airmiles to pay for the flight(which is expensive), Diani is a great great place for a beach vacation.
We went for a camel ride one day. We arranged to be met at our cabins, and went for a 45min walk down the beach. Those guys are HUGE! And they are very pretty, I now feel very guilty for eating one that night at Carnivore.

We went swimming every day, the water was so warm and relaxing. There is a huge coral reef off the coast that protects Diani from all the gross sea creatures, like jelly fish and sharks. The tide went out every morning, and we could walk out so far and check out tide pools. Sea urchins, sea cucumbers, starfish and gross sea slugs, some little fishies.

There are always always beach boys around. Kenyan guys who spend their whole day at the beach chatting up tourists, trying to sell everything from boat trips, snorkel guides, kangas, jewellry, seashells, massages(!),offering themselves as boyfriends (you need Kenyan husband baby!). Some were just nice guys, some were really annoying. Most of them left us alone if we asked though.

Everything on the beach was ridiculously overpriced (Muzungu price). Stuff I bought in the rest of Kenya for 100Ksh was offered for 400. Crazy. Really good mangoes and pineapple though!! We ate at one 'expensive' restaurant, where the tables are right in the sand. It was fabulous, watching the stars and sand crabs and hearing the waves, digging my toes into the sand. But now that I think about it, I had a huge piece of fresh red snapper and a beer, in that atmosphere, and it cost me barely $10.

Most days we went for a swim in the late afternoon (I learned my sun lesson), as the tide started to come in we would go to our cabin and cook something small, then come back down to the beach after dark with a beer or 2 and just sit, watching the waves and stars and realxing in the salty breeze. The breeze kept mosquitoes away.

The last night we went for a swim to say goodbye to the Ocean. The tide was coming in stronger then, big waves. The sky was cloudy and we could not really see the horizon. So paddling around was kind of disorienting, and we couldn't see the waves coming. Then I noticed something sparkly in the water. At first I thought it was a reflection from the lights on the beach. But it wasnt. If we moved our arms around in the water, all of these greenish sparkly things apppeared, kind of like static sparks on pj's when you get into the blankets. Then we saw them sparkling in the incoming waves. It was very very cool. I only drank 2 beers, so I couldn't have imagined it!!!

One day we took a trip to Shimoni, out to Kisite Marine Park, and to Wasinini Island. It is way down the coast, near Tanzania. A dhow took us out to the marine park for snorkeling. I have never snorkeled before. I found it very difficult. Breathing underwater made me feel very claustrophobic. So I couldn't concentrate on breathing and swimming at the same time. Plus, my mask was too big, so I had to plug my nose with one hand. Luckily, one of the guides provided a "water taxi"--he swam through the park with a life buoy,so me and the other girl who couldn't swim hung on to it. She was hanging on for dear life, leaving me a bit of rope to hang on to. which was really all i needed. So finally, i got the hang of it, and stuck my head under. WOW! it was so so amazing. Floating along over the coral, seeing sooo many little creatures, bright colours, it was silent and calm and lovely. I saw lots of fish I recognized from when Mike and his friend had saltwater tanks at home. Just really really amazing. after a while noticed this spot in front of my nose. It was a teeny tiny little yellow fish with white stripes, about 2 inches long. He swam in front of my mask for 15 minutes. My mask and t-shirt were yellow, maybe he thought I was his mom. I wish I could describe better how cool it was. It felt like being in space (i imagine!)

After snorkeling we headed to Wasini Island for a seafood lunch. We had crab, which was interesting. I never had to smash open my lunch before! I got crab splatter all over my shirt. Then the waiter spilled coffee on my shoulder. I attract mess. We had Sea grass slime something on chapati, it was very lovely. And the main was coconut rice with fish. It was some kinda fried but not battered fish, and the whole thing was on my plate, head and all. But it was very tasty.

We wish we could have spent more time at the coast, it was relaxing and fun. We decided to take the day bus back to Nairobi, to see the country side. Unfortunately, that meant leaving at 6 am to catch the 830 am bus. It also included a bonus haggle over the price with the shuttle driver. When we finally arrived in Nairobi, it took the bus an hour to get to the bus station due to traffic, a walk that usually takes 25 minutes. Then the taxi took an hour to get out of the city. So the 600km trip took us 13 hours in the end.

Which I guess is practice for our trip tomorrow. We leave for the UK at 11pm. It feels weird to finally be leaving, a little surreal actually, I don't really feel like I am leaving tomorrow. I am sure that will change in a couple of hours when I go try to pack my bags. Ngai! That is gonna be tough...

This is how i prepared to hike Mt. Kenya: 5 days before start date i got a sore throat, spent the next 2 days in bed with a headache and sore muscles and joints, decided i had malaria, hauled myself to a clinic, found out it was pharyngitis not malaria, and spent the next 2 days in bed, and decided that i can hike in the cold in canada for the next 4 months, i'm going to the beach for a week instead. now i hear there is flooding on the coast....(it doesn't rain it pours....hahaha how ironic).

my last post was a downer, but nyeri was pretty fun too.

the family we lived with was very nice and very good at feeding us. however, the only spice used was salt, used very generously. every night, as soon as the last bite from my plate was in my mouth the mom would say "welcomme more food, eat" as i was still chewing. so one night i welcomed myself to some more chicken. it was chicken from the dad's farm, and i swear, is the toughest thing i have ever eaten. but i felt obligated, and since the chicken was the least salty, i gave it a try. i picked the meatiest looking hunk,(the mom said "eat it's a good!)and took a bite. all gristle or ???, so i took a good look at the hunk, to find the meat. (kenyans eat every last bit of meat of the bones, so i didn't want to offend by wasting) So i pick up this hunk and take a good look.....oh my god, the gristle was tail. I WAS EATING CHICKEN ASSHOLE...THE WHOLE PUCKERING THING!!!!!!!

we went to a restaurant in town quite a bit, Raybells, which we called RB's. they actually had good coffee. we escaped rain and boredom there, played cards. one time i decided i wanted a little dessert with my coffee. we were among the only customers there. i looked at the menu, i looked over at the 5 Kenyan male waiters and said "Do you have chocolate balls?" They all laughed at me, then i realised what i said. I turned a little pink. It was a good dessert though....

oh ya. we saw a car accident. we took a matatu to see a client just outside of town. then we walked back cause it was nice out. almost back to town, the very same matatu we had been in, got sideswiped by another car, about 20ft in front of us. no one was very badly hurt, but it was very scary...i am so so glad we walked!!!

So the plan is to leave here Dec.1 and arrive in Aberdeen Dec.17, via London,Helsini, and Liverpool. My wonderfully talented and organized boyfriend is arranging this. (Interesting, how his organization skills have improved dramatically in the last 4 months...)
I am soooo excited!!!!!!!

So we have spent the week at KENWA being bored, amused, saddened and frustrated. We are not busy, but I have kind of figured out the that "volunteer" means observer and money giver.
KENWA is in kind of a slum area of town, its like the slum is in a giant ditch at the edge of town. Everyone there is HIV+. We heve helped with food preparation, which means separating the good beans/rice/lentils/corn, from the bad. This is the job they give us when we look bored. Then the person doing it doesn't have to. There are several rescue beds at thhis place, where bed ridden clients stay when they are not hospitalized, or there family won't keep them. The first woman we saw, we were told needed daily dressing changes to a hip bedsore, but their nurse clinician was away for a week. So this weeping sore was left unchanged for 4 days when we saw it. What kind of nurse leaves that? without even teaching someone else to do it??? so we tended to it, and her roomate told us she had another on her foot. Necrotic bedsore on her heel. we did what we could, and told the director she needed surgical treatment, or she'd lose the foot. He was incredulous, like he couldn't get that paying for it now would save money and limb soon. I am planning to make a few posters and do a few lessons in basic wound care.
There is a baby there, she lives there now cause her mom was a client and she died. the kid is a year old, but looks like 2 months. she is negative, but sooooo undernourished. she needs lotsa lotsa love. i don't think she will get what she needs to make it to adulthood.
kids and adults come here a few times a week for self help sessions. The first day we watched the adult group meet. They get together and talk. It was really tough to see. emotional for me. 30 adults, who are all positive, have lost their families, are each others only friends, and know exactly why they are going to die, and how painful it will be. They were singing and laughing and talking and smiling, and I was biting my tongue to hide my tears. I even am now while i write this.
Throughout the week, orphan kids, kids with sick parents come for lunches. Dirty kids, skinny kids, kids with "clothes" i wouldn't even keep for rags.
We have gone on a few home visits, where we meet a client at home, ask them how they are, and give them some maize and flour. I am not helping anyone, except by listening to their stories. Which are hard to hear. I know that no matter what happens in this life, I can count on the love of my family. Most of these people don't have that, are turned out, shunned by the community. They die slowly and painfully, leaving their kids behind, or knowing they have given the same sentence to their wife, to their children.
There are tons of TV commercials for condoms. The 4 yr old reverends son knows them by heart. The 2 yr old here dances to them. at first I thought this was strange, but now i know it is good and nescessary.
We have been to see some clients in the local government hospital. If I was placed in a government hospital rather than the private one i was, I would have cracked.
The beds are 6 inches apart, the linen is sparse and dirty, some beds hold 2 patients, the hospital smells like blood and vomit and death. No one is clean. The patient we did wound care for was admitted, we went to see her. The dressing was not changed, we went to change it. I lifted the sheets, she was very soiled. From hours and hours ago. The nurses laughed when we asked it to be changed. I just pulled the solids out of the bed, and we had to leave her, naked, in the dirty bed with dirty dressings.
We returned the next day. The dressing had not been changed, nor the linen. We demanded linen, changed the bed. Her catheter was caked in feces. The foot dressing was caked in feces. We cleaned her up, and left her crying.

I have a request. For Christmas, or the holidays, or whatever, consider sponsoring a child somehow. Not in Africa specifically, anywhere. I am sure that education is the best we can do to help. Even if you can't sponsor a far away kid to go to school, give some families at home presents, like books, not presents that will be garbage soon. Or decide that for New Years resolution you will do something in your community that doesn't cost money, just some time, like Scouts or Guides or Big Brother/Big Sister. I don't even know what I will do, but I am pretty sure that this is the best we can do.

Love to all. -Catherine

We have left Kikuyu for Nyeri, about 3 hours norht of Nairobi. It was sad to leave the hospital, we met many nice people there. I hope our friend Stella can come to canada once she completes her BScN.

One day last week it rained. The reverend drove us to work. On the very lumpy muddy roads. It was like driving in a sleet blizzard, but you could see what you were about to hit. We went around a corner widely to avoid an old lady, and kept on sliding right into the bushes. It was scary and funny.

we stayed in Nairobi for a few nights on our way to Nyeri, and met some cool new volunteers, who we are trying to convince to climb mount kenya with us. We are going to do it on the 17th- 21st. So hopefully some time on the 20th, if you think of me, I will be sitting on top of the 2nd highest mountain in africa. Keep your fingers crossed for us please!

On the way here we drove past fields and fields of pineapples and the delmonte factory. big pineapples here are about 50cents!!! last week we ate one form here, and it was the best pineapple i have ever had! no more canned for me!!!

We now live with a family with 2 kids, in a nice apartment. shower and flush toilet!!!!!!no fridge or stove though. cook on charcoal. we will be volunteering with KENWA (kenya network of women with aids, check website) for 2 weeks.
and i cant believe i have allergies!!! it is spring here, and i am more allergic than i am at home!

that's all for now, we are off to explore the markets of nyeri. i am struggling ot not buy anymore fabric. O ya, the countdown is on! we are leaving December first for London. So if anyone has any thing they want to know about here, ask me now on my journal, so i can get the right answer before i leave.
Love to all.
-catherine
ps: things i miss right now: my vaccuum cleaner, my jeans, and a stove.

Yesterday I went out to the squat shitter when I got up. Geez, I thought, the stupid goat is very loud today. (I can't remember if I've mentioned this goat. It hates me. It rears at me and looks right at me and pees. It has rammed the door knowing that its just me standing inside.) So I looked at the goat...It has a gerry can stuck to its head!!! There is one can with the top cut half off, that we use for garbage...it stuck its little head in to eat garbage, and its long horn came out the little round pouring hole!!!! I laughed and laughed at the silly goat, laughed all the way back inside for my camera. Then, finally, I started to feel a little bad. So I told the goat (her name is Harriah) to relax, and I took the can off. It baah-ed, looked at me, and pissed. I hate that goat.

This week we played a little hooky from work. If I worked here, my paycheque would be 10 000 Ksh/ month. Thats about $150 dollars. No overtime.
We went to theatre again, and folded more gauze. And saw some very cool surgeries. Plating of a broken femur...it was broken several months ago, improperly set, and the patient was focussing on his other broken bones..tib/fib, and humerus. So they cut into his leg on Wednesday ( a muzungu doctor from south carolina), and re-broke the femur!!!! His muscles were a little shrunken and tight so they had to heave and pull and wrench the bone into alignment, then screwed a HUGE plate onto it.
Then we saw my favourite name for a surgery. Bologna amputation. ok ok its really below-knee amputation. (It looks more like roast beef than bologna)And another very interesting procedure that day..ectopic pregnancy. We got to see Fallopian tubes.
Yesterday we saw more ortho surgery. Broken femur, resulting from jumping from a moving vehicle. Never found out why he jumped though. The surgeon opens the leg, and drills straight up the bone!!! Like, a good 18 inches of bone drilled out!!!! Christine and I were standing at the foot of the operating table, and a HUGE chunk of bone flew over our heads..like a 2" piece of bone! While they were trying to align this, the leg is bending at all kinds of weird angles, and I'm holding onto the patient under the armpits for dearlife so they don't pull him off the table. The anaesthetic for this is a spinal..so the patient is awake and can feel everything from the waist up. That would be sooo scary.

When we got home from work yesterday, we started to make our lunch (white rice! again! mmmmmm!). Christine went into the kitchen. She screamed. Omygodcomehere! There was a chicken in the house! It looked kinda injured....shit, how am i gonna get an inured chicken out? Then we looked closely...it's legs were tied together. OMYGODITSDINNER! So we pretended it wasn't there. Then the reverend came home and told us to heat some water. And we waited. I sat beside the poor condemned birdy. He was definitely tachycardic. Finally, after dark, the reverend said it was time. I apologized to the birdy, and took its picture. Reverend picked up the chicken and the knife (the one I couldn't cut through a tomato with earlier) and went outside. I followed with my camera, Christine went to the 'shower'. So he held onto the bird's head and body with one hand and sliced the neck with the other. The bird squawked and jumped, so the knife only went half through, and he stepped on it breaking its wing. Nothing like fresh chicken blood glistening on the grass under the light of a crescent moon, with the light scent of squat shitter hanging in the air.
Then I got another chicken anatomy lesson, and the wife fried'er up. It was pretty good. I again left the head and legs floating in the stew. Don't want to be greedy, its nice to leave the good bits for someone else. I had to settle for breast and leg.

We are not in Mombassa as planned. Raining lots there. So we will have to go in November.
Happy Halloween. Carve a pumpkin for me.
Happy Birthday Thomas! Hope you have a good one, drink a cold beer for me.

WOW! Thank you soooo much Abby and Ashley for the great drawings you sent me, I just got them today! They are very pretty. When I go home, I will put them all up on my bedroom wall!!

Gee, it has been a while....I will start with some nursing stories...
Christine got to scrub in for a "surgical toilet" ....???? turns out toilet means debridment. Guy had a bullet go through his leg. We asked what happened...the answer was: These things happen. Christine got to stick her finger right in the hole. it was pretty cool.
I got to assist with another debridement..a 90 something year old lady was napping in the yard. Her grandaughter drove over her legs. Amazingly, they didn't break! The skin was all flapping, like the tires skidded it up. The sutures done in caualty didn't take and all the skin flaps were dead, so we removed them. She would need skin grafts. I asked the surgeon: isn't she too fragile to be a self donor? He said yes, and she'd need a donor. He asked if I would donate. HA! can you picture a 90 year old lady waking up and finding her legs were now muzungu legs!!!!
We folded a lot more gauze this week, did a lot of cleaning in theatre. Then the cooooolest thing ever....I got to scrub in for a C-section!!!!!! I had my hands right in her abdomen as the surgeon sliced, and I was pulling her abdominal muscles apart and was holding her open when he dliced the uterus and the amniotic fluid gushed all over...they tried to tease me that they nicked the bladder, but i knew that was not so. And he pulled the fresh shiny new baby out...and I was soo enthralled and involved in what the surgeon was doing, that once I heard the infant cry, i forgot it was there..first birth i have seen i have not cried!! when she was still open i got to feel iside her uterus and checked her cervix for any dilation....it was soooooooo cooooollll...i F@#*ing love anatomy. and I helped him stitch her up....he was asking me what the stitches were called...i said Ummm if i was sewing it'd be a blanket stitch? "no, it's a subcutaneous stitch" Duh. I LOVE OR.

Last weekend we went with our friend stella to visit her mom, in Kakamega, and 8hr bus ride west. we caught the night bus at 9, and didn't reallly sleep. The bus got in at 5 am..Christine and I got up to get off, but no one moved. It is too dangerous to get out of the bus til daylight so we had to sit there til 630, then got a matatu to her house.
The place is beautiful. we just relaxed that day...there is a small garden with bananas arrowroot sugar cane, squash, cowpeas. There were 3 geese, 2 turkeys, come chickens and 2 cows. One night we had chicken for dinner. We walked into the kitchen and there was a mostly roasted chiken on the counter....a complete chicken, head legs guts and all!!! We both had a girly little shriek, and i ran for my camera. Stella's mom then gave us a complete chicken anatomy and disection lesson....gotta get out the bile sack, and intestines without rpturing them. the esophagus is very coool feeling, and the little thik that holds all the gravel they eat was cool too. this would never ever happen at home: her 9 yr old sister took the intestines and carefully washed them..she likes to eat that part. So after anatomy, the chicken got cooked. We came to the table for dinner, and i stirred the stew before taking some.....and up popped the whole chicken head, just floating around in the stew...mmmmmm. The 9yr old sister likes to eat the comb...she said it tastes like chicken. No way was i trying that part; it looks like labia. Although....I did eat the sperm sac while we were disecting. tastes like chicken; feels like butter. It was worth eating it just to gross christine out.

We went to Kakamega to hike in the forest. So we headed out early saturday. It was about 10 or 15 km away, so we took boda bodas there. They are bicycles that carry passengers on the back, like a motorcycle...like a motorcycle on african roads, with no jacket and no helmet!!! Stella laughed at us the whole time..said we looked stressed out and tense...we were holding on for dear life...and she was casuallly sitting there, not even holding on!!! as we went down the road, people were callling out and pointing..."wazungu boda-boda! wazungu boda-boda!" it was pretty funny.
The forest was really nice. lots of flowers and plants that we only have as house plants, or that i have never heard of. lots of butterflies, a bunch of monkeys and an old donkey. he was very old and our guide told us that sometimes people abandon their worn out donkies in the forest rather that have them pt down. He was still standing in the same spot when we returned many hours later. We hiked a huge hill, from which we could see Mt Elgon in Uganda. There is an old man made cave, about 100 feet into the hill, left from when someone tried to mine gold there years ago. It was very full of bats. I got a couple really cool photos of the bats. The funniest part is christine standing there yelling "they're pooing on me they're pooing on me", and stella running out of the cave screaming, with the flashlight.
We hiked to the Yala river. on the way we passed through a few groves of guavas..we were picking them and eating them like we do apples at home..it was very cool! The river was very rapidy, and we just sat around and ate lunch and relaxed under the trees. On the way home we stopped at Rondo Resort to thank the man who organised the trip for us..what a swank resort, it was soooo beatiful, really nice gardens, so many great flowers. He even got us cake and a pop (it feels good to say pop indstead of soda), so we got to feel like the rich guests briefly.

On Monday, we took the day bus home so that we could see the country side, and it was a good idea. Saw fields and fields and fields of tea. Saw Lake Victoria shimmering in the distance. Saw the "weeping stone"..a really huge rock with a round boulder at top that looks like someone with hunched shoulders...apparently there is always water running from it, like it is crying. It was a great trip.

Back at the Reverends house.... I have woken up the last few days with major itches. and bites all over, mostly my legs. Went to see stella...she says it's bed bugs. BED BUGS!!!! my turn to scream like a girl. GROSSSSSSS.
And we ate so many ants this week...they got into the bread, which we had to eat cause thats all there is for breakfast.

What I miss this week:
1)fridges
2)maple syrup
3)apple cider
4)vaccuum cleaners

K, my fingers are tired. will try to post again this weekend...we may go to mombassa, but are unsure because of the weather...have heard there are floods there, but can't confirm.

We spent a couple of days in Maternity this week, and a couple in Theatre...it was pretty neat. Maternity was fairly slow, we missed all the deliverys. 2 women were labouring while we were there, one experienced, one first timer. The experienced woman readily accepted my offer top rub her back during contractions. The young first timer, when I asked her how she was doing, kept saying, "i am ok except for the pain". I brought her lunch in the room right as a contraction started and she just shook her head at me and looked really grossed out. The nurse laughed when I told her the patient refused my offer to rub her back during contractions. She said it was cause she was new, and she would really appreciate it for her next delivery. I was talking to the patient when another contraction started, and I said please, let me rub for you, it will really help, I know you have pain, and I put my hand at her back. Then the contraction must have increased 'cause she SCREAMED : DONT TOUCH ME!!!!!!. I left the room and never went back. The Woman I mentioned last time, whose child did not make it, is still in maternity. She can't afford the bil, so she can't be discharged. Isn't that cruel? She is on the ward with all these other moms, her other kids are at home.
We spent a couple of days in Theatre (OR), one day absolutely no surgeries happened. so we folded a HUGE amount of gauze to be sterilized in dressing packs for the ward. At the end of that long dusty day, I had 2 big blisters on my fingers from cuttign sooo much gauze. The charge nurse thanked us as we were leaving. It is good, she told us, you have helped us so much with this gauze, we need to ready a very big supply for November, for the Circumcision.
What?
All the boys in the same age set have their coming of age circumcision done together. So over 2 days in November, about 2000 12 yr old boys will be circumcised. The theatre tech told us they need to hose the place down after because there is so much blood.
Now, as creepy as this sounds, it is good because these boys are being circumcised at the hospital, instead of the traditional way, with a Special Guy who cuts with a Special Knife, and they all get cut with the same knife, cause that mixes blood, synbolizing their brotherhood.
NURSING DETAIL WARNING:
We walked into the theatre Friday morning, ready to scrub the place down, to find a patient already on the table. She had just delivered twins (vaginally), and had hemorrhaged. The doctor had all these clamps and forceps and gauze sticking out of her...I had a hard time identifying what he was doing. When he was done, there was a nice shiny pink cervix, where an hour befoe had been....??? ground beef??....Sorry, I know that is really gross, but I did not know that cervixes could rip apart during labour. Ouch. The 2nd twin was breach, that is why she was injured. Ouch. Ouch.
We saw a guy come in for a supposedly small excision of a fistula in his buttock. They sliced, and the pocket of bad tissue was pretty much his entire buttock. Unbelievable. He had been kicked some time before, and the damaged tissue had healed improperly, causing this.
NURSING WARNING OVER< SAFE TO READ AHEAD!!!>

We attended an inservice, where we were told that by having very tight control of blood sugars, diabetics can greatly decrease complications. We were like, YA AND? But apparently this is still new info to some people. We found out though that the cost of a glucometer is about a hundred dollars, and lancets about $50 a month, not to mention the cost of insulin. 56% of Kenyans live on 74ksh/ day. That's 1US$. I guess that explains why tight control of blood sugars in diabetics is still news. If all you get to eat is maize meal or white bread, and the odd cup of tea, I guess you're gonna put sugar in it.

Our living situation is pretty good, we are happy there.
I miss fridges. I don't really use the kitchen, cause i dont want to know how long the food i eat has been out, or what's in it. I have thrown out food several times because I found bird turds in it. We no longer care if there are ants in our tea or dinner. There is an infestation of some kind of ant that eats the house. I heard a scratching sound, like a mouse in the wall. it was ants. We have found 2 giant black and yellow beetles.
We were sitting outside yesterday, knitting the wool we spun in August. A chicken sneaked past us (there are 4 chickend in the yard), into the kitchen. Christine went in, and hollered at me to come in. The chicken was up on the stove. I tried to chase it with a broom. it flew into the window, which was open, but covered in bars. Mr. Rooster heard his lady squawking, and flew at the window from outside, so they both were squawking. I went at it with a broom, it flopped right into our pot of milk (the pot that sits in the sun all day til we take tea at night, the pot of milk we drank later anyhow), Knocked over the sugar and sat on the chair. I pushed it out to the door, and finally shooed it out with the broom. The washing lady came in to see what all the fuss was. She looked like she thought we were nuts.

On Wednesday, I went out to use the pit latrine (AKA squat shitter) after lunch. I stepped out and was very surprised to see 3 kenyan schoolgirls in the yard. They were very surprised to see a muzungu in the Reverend' s latrine. I tried to talk to them, but they were very shy. I kinda figured out they wanted some water cause they had a jug. "Maji? Ok i will get some for you", and I tepped towards them to get the jug. Their eyes got HUGE, and they screamed and ran away.
The next day after lunch, there was a knock at the door. "Hodi?" a voice called. so I opened the door, and there were 10 small kenyan schoolgirls at the door holding water jugs. So we kinda talked some swahili/english, and i started pouring water for them. I crouched down to talk to them. they all tried to touch my nose ring, and all of them shook my hand, and touched my arm. It was prety funny. a bunch of them were touching me and giggling, they thought my white skin was soooo strange. then one pulled up my shirtsleeve. I have a pretty good farmer tan now, and when they saw how white my upper arm was they were shocked! They couldn't believe it. They wanted to see my belly too, but i wouldn't let them see the belly button ring or tattoo, cause that would really freak 'em out!
They were pretty nice little girls.

We are getting pretty good at ignoring the kid, or telling him to leave us alone. It's not like we are jerks, we play with him too. He goes to his neighbours when there is no one home. Yesterday i told him we would be leaving soon to bring him there, so we could go out. I noticed 10 minutes later it was pretty quiet. Kid gone. searched compound, no kid. went to church. nice lady brought me to neighbours. kid there. resumed breathing. I made the kid promise not to do that again, but I bet he will.

Yesterday we went to our friend's house, she is an RN student at the hopital we are at. She made us a bunch of Kenyan food and we made her banana muffins. mmmmmm. She has invited us to go with her to visit her mom at Kakamega. We are excited because it is a very cool forest with lots of rare stuff, and wildflowers are in bloom now!!! It is an 8 hour bus ride, we will go next weekend.
That's all for now. Christine and I are treating ourselves to a restaurant lunch for Thanksgiving. We were gonna cook one for our family, but the ants and bird poop changed our mind.
Happy Thanksgiving, love to all.
--Catherine
PS: Congratulations Louise and Niall, my love to baby Burgess!!!!

White Rabbits. ! -cmw

After I wrote last weekend we returned to Kikuyu. Between monday and Tuesday, 'someone' stole around 70$ from our room. We are supposed to be able to leave valuables there, cause the hosts are 'checked out' and it would be silly to bring that stuff to hospital. So we were pretty upset. Some other stuff was bugging us at that house too.....
So we called the volunteer office and they rescued us. Despite the good pastor (?) agreeing to repay Christine the money and give us the key to the lock on our door(what? there ws a key?), we felt it would be uncomfortable to continue there..but we are enjoying the hospital. So we have moved. Into a reverend's house. (Out of the frying pan???).

Top things I miss about Canada today:
-electricity
-water
-coffee (not instant. ya it grows here, but who drinks it?)
-good public transit (even the TTC)
-vehicle emissions testing and safety certificates

We went with a nice guy from the office on Thursday to meet our new host. We waited for him at a cafe with...our old host! Awkward!!
He lives about a half hour walk from the hopital, but we drove in his car. The windscreen is so smashed you can feel a breexe through it when driving. Christine sat in front. The house is next to a HUGE nice new presbyterian church. He said we could teach sunday school....we will have to chat about that.
He has a wife and 3 kids, 2 are at boarding school, the wife is at University for Theology so is only home weekends, & there is a 4 yr old cutie/monster boy. (African child discipline is not present. The kid hit me and told me to shut up, his dad laughed. But the kid is fun,when he is not bratty)
The house is pretty big and nice, still no oven, but a gas stovetop. NO running water. And the electricity has not worked since we got there. Outdoor squat toilet. chikens goats small garden. Pretty nice.
They have no fridge, so keeping stuff, even milk and meat and fresh eggs on the counter and eating them fresh outta the sunshine is no problem (??). So far no belly troubles. Yay peanut butter and porridge oats!! (yes, sometimes together).
Last night we met the wife, and eveything was cool. We were invited to a friend of the Rev.s for dinner. It was great, a huge feast, mokimo, rice, cabbage, chicken, tomatoes, goat and pea, watermelon. We felt a little like the little kids, cause they all talked kikuyu and we were left out. Then the Rev said something about praying before going home. We were happy cause it ws late. The wife started singing, everyone sang along, the woman had differnt parts than the men. it was very pretty. Then one of the men broke away and was talking..i guess praying...his voice got very very fast....the woman next to us stood and prayed super fast with lots of OHGODOHGODSINREPENTGODPRAYSINSIN
The wife got on her knees in the prayer position and cried. The Rev started praying VERY loudly in a strange kind of monotone/ fake british accent/ stange lulling rythm. With his hands in the air, waving around. Christine and I were very freaked out. Aren't presbyterians usually the old ladies who have craft sales? Then we went outside so the Rev could lay his hands on the new vehicle of the family. Then we went home. Whew.

NURSING: We spent Wed and Fri in the OR...The OT for the british and kenyans. I LOVE it. Being an anal neat freak is a Great thing in the OR. We cleaned and watched. A emerg.C-section for hemorrage...i held a brand spanking new beautiful kenyan boy!! Then an emerg section for eclampsia...baby not fine. I cried at the birth of the live baby, like I usually do, but not the one that didn't make it. So I guess I cry at babies cause they are beautiful magic. Not that the other wasn't sad, but I felt more worried for the mom.
We helped in the sterilization Dept. It was good experience...helps us appreciate all the help we have from other dept's when we are on the ward. I was pretty impressed with the sterility in the OR, most of the time. We hope to spend some time in Maternity next week.

I guess that is all for now. Love to all. Catherine

So here we are in nairobi again for the internet...we have access at a place in Kikuyu, but it sucks. TOOOOOO frustrating.....i guess this means I have yet to accept the concept of africa time.
NURSING:
It's the end of our second week at the hospital and we have been trying to keep busy. It's like being a student all over again, to learn nursing like a Kenyan. The nurses here are great, really friendly, and very good at what they do. It is very hard for me to accept the way things are done here though. It's so hard for me to understand that they are doing the best they can with what they've got, when I know I could do it better, make the patient better, in Canada. It's not that I am a better nurse, at all, I'm just luckier.
All wounds are dressed with gauze. Which adheres so nicely to tissue that's trying it's best to heal. Then i come along and rip it off (as gently as possible, soaking with saline). And even if I had the materials, no patient could afford to pay for it. We have a fairly healthy man on our unit right now, who has been there for 4 months. He will not be discharged until his bill is paid. So he remains here not working, while his bill accumulates at the rate of 600Ksh per day, about 10 bucks. There is a woman in maternity whose baby was born Aug 10. She can't leave either. When this happens, families stop visiting, out of embarrassment, or fear of being held accountable for the bill. It is soooooo frustrating!!!!! I also realllly miss soap in hospitals. And I would miss my digital vital sign instruments, except that these manual ones take so long, it helps to fill my day.
Christine and I are planning to do a presentation next week on how to make a bed with a patient in it (hint: lifting him up by the knees is not the right way), and also on Best Practice Guidelines for Wound Care.
Yesterday I found a used syringe at a bedside, I showed the nurse I worked with, and disposed of it. Today while looking for non-existent soap for the same patient (i gave him a pillow case to wash and dry with), I found a dozen used syringes in his drawer!!!!!!! I Brought this to the attention of the manager, and she said "Yes, we save them so he can use the when he goes home. He cannot afford syringes, and if we do not do that he will be readmitted for failing to take his insulin." I could not hide my shock, I would probably be fired for that at home. Same situation occurred with the patient in the next bed. Only his used syringes (yes, with needles attached!!!) were just thrown haphazard into his table, mixed in with his bananas and oranges. I at least told him that was unsafe, and provided a K-basin for him.
We wish we were more busy though. We begin at 0730, and are done at 1300.

Then we go for a walk around the neighbourhood and talk about what we would be eating in Canada right now. Top of the list are apples, cheese, orange juice, salads, and anything that's not Beige; o, and REAL corn, the sweet juicy yellow yummy kind, not the white starchy dry bland maize. We are still eating a lot of beige. I can't wait to come home and cook it for all of you. Yes, you have to come.
Yesterday our toilet was being repaired. Since we got here, every flush sends a huge spray of water out the back of it. We got home from work, bursting, to find no toilet..no worries though..there's an outhouse!! With a hole to squat over!! The biggest aiming problem is velocity control...don't want pee on your socks. Christine however was more troubled by the resident giant slug. And the flies. I thought it was kinda fun...made it more of a game than a chore...

What's the best way to help? I'm learning..how lucky I am. Yes, I am helping the nurses, and the patients..but I can't help pay their bills, which is what they need. But I also know that if we all gave what we could etc etc, some bills would be paid, and that would make life easier..til the next bill. Really, how do we help? It can't be money or donations...if you give to someone small, it's just a temporary help, if you give to someone big, chances are your money is buying them a Mercedes. Kenyans are kind, know how to work, are generous, resourceful, strong people. Why does their country suck so much to live in???? I know why they all want to come to my country, but what is the real problem with theirs? I want to understand.

Love to all, Catherine.

We are in Nairobi today to do some errands so i took an extra internet day!
We started at the hopital yesterday..Kikuyu Mission Hospital.
We will be on the male ward (medical/surgical) for the first week or 2. then we may stay put, or try other wards.
The hospital is pretty huge. This ward has 35ish beds, half full yesterday. every item a patient uses is itemized and the pt is charged. Bed baths are pretty similar, save that they get one wash cloth, to reuse tomorrow, compared to the 5 at a time i am used to. the beds are all stationary, no head or feet cranks, no changing the height of the bed. So for all those who have told me "save your back, watch your back", sorry, no can do. most beds are lower than ideal for providing care.
I encountered one patient with a head injury due to assault (!) who was literally tied to the bed, with sheets, gowns and rags, by his ankles and wrists. Because he was only semi conscius, and could fall out, or rip out his IV.
Another pt had a very serious burn at work, possibly caused by hot/molten metal. His left leg was soooooo deeply burned, it looked like i was looking into a watermelon. which is good, really, that it was so red and clean. This impressed me because the dressing was not what I would have used. It was covered with saline soaked gauze, but only one layer. The same cream applicator had been reused for days (thankfully only on 1 pt)for the superficial burns. Which were left uncovered. But at least he was in an "isolation room" for his own protection..but he could come and go at will.
I will say that Kenyans are damn strong people.
The other rather interesting/frightening/ shocking thing we saw was a bullet wound, which i have obviously never seen before (ya ya i lived in toronto, but it wasn't like that when i was there). It was a teeny tiny exit wound in R thigh, a lot of bruising (it's more difficult to see bruising on black skin), entry wound top of R buttock. It fractured his femur, he was in traction. I was surpised by the small size of the wounds. When flushing the wound, sooooo much fluid could go in. The nurse didn't check to see how much fluid was returned. Also, she didn't even realise there was an entry wound...it was 'cause Christine and I asked so many q's that the pt told us it was there. He said no nurse had cleansed it in the days he'd been there. thankfully it was clean..but?...if you were looking at a bullet exit wound, wouldn't you wanna know where it came from????? SO, why'd this guy have a bullet in his leg???? Wrong place wrong time. he was walking home, there was some altercation between people on a matatu, shots fired, he was in the way. At least that's what we understand. This happened in the next town over, maybe 20 minutes, if that. It has reminded us of the dangers of going out at night. It is a little easier to go out at night here than in Nairobi, but we still don't go out alone, and never later than 7, really. Just to walk home from our "kenyan Grandparents" house..our host, James, parents' house, a 20 minute walk in a small village. We always walk with men, with sticks.
Please go outside tonight and look at the stars for me, breath the air that doesn't smell, and be happy. We are lucky.
Love Catherine

So this week we moved to Kikuyu. We were to meet with the matron and arrange our volunteering at the kikuyu mission hospital. true to kenyan style, it should have bben arranged the week before, we arrived late, we rescheduled appointments and finally heard on Wed. eve that we could start on Monday. we wil work 730 to 430, no idea yet in what capacity. We hope it's good. the hospital itself looks fantastic. smells like bleach. has sinks with soap. it looks good!
We have been settling in with our hosts. They have a 4 year old son who spends most of his time with grandma and grandpa. we live in a 2 bedroom one story town house. its pretty nice. there is a flush toilet and cold shower, but we can heat water for bucket baths whenever we want. there is running water. there is a fridge, no stove. we cook at a gas cooker, or with charcoal, the charcoal is only used outside, at my request. We have spent the week exploring. We live in a village.it is a half hour walk to the town, which we have done a couple of times, for the bank and psot office etc. it is very green and beautiful here. still garbage and pollution from cars, but much much nicer than nairobi.
James, our host, is pastor at the local church, Church of the Torch, scots built presbyterian church. his parents live a 20 minute walk from us. we walk down there to visit 2 other volunteers currently there. we are going to today to learn to make mokimo (sp?)--mashed potatoes/beans/greens/maize. they have chickens and cows. a few days ago I helped shuck a little of the maize harvest that they will bring to be milled into flour (to make ugali with). The cows are milked every day, and the milk is waiting for us when we wake up.
We have discovered some new fruits:tree tomato, some kinda wierd green 'tree banana' (not banana at all), and Miu. Miu is sooooo good. it is apricot colour and cherry size, with smooth pits in it. it is like apricot/cherry/tomato it is very very good. also the street vendors sell macadamia nuts. we bought some after sampling, but have yet to find a rock to smash them open with..we don't have a nutcracker!!

Yesteday we went to visit Lois' shosho (grandma) she lives on a small shamba (farm) (i don't know which words are kikuyu and which are kiswahili). she was very excited to see us and made us eat..we had a huge bowl of potatoes and rice and avocado, that grew in her yard, and this was all prepared in her smoke kitchen...like a campfire with a shack around it. we sat with her at the fire and drank the creamiest creamy milk i have ever had, that just came out of the cows (yes we boiled it. but my malaria pill also treats Brucellosis (SP?)). Then we had tea. She has chickens and rabbits and goats and cows. We walked back through the property, through her small corn field ..to a MIU TREE! I was so excited. we picked bags full..well we had help...I climbed the tree a bit, but was nothing compared to the guys helping us pick...i want tree climbing lessons..biceps or triceps might help too.

Our kikuyu names were given to us by someone we met at the church. Christine is Nyambura because the minister is Christine Nyambura, and he thought that was funny. I don't know why I am Mumbe. There are very few Kikuyu names..i think 7 male and 7 female, these are the original people of the tribe in the creation story (that interestingly very easily reconciles itself with the christian creation story). Nyambura means rain. Mumbe is the Kikuyu version of Eve. Cool eh? (ah soo nice to say eh and not be pointed out!!!)

We are going back to Nairobi, we hope, on Tuesday to see a friend and climb Ngong hills again. I will post agoin next weekend..probably saturday now, as internet is not open sundays. Thank you to everyone who leaves comments, I'm sorry I don't relply to more, but I do love to hear from everyone, it makes me miss home less!
Love to all ....Catherine, Little Cathy, Mumbe. etc.

Not much to report today.
Moving to Kikuyu tomorrow. The pastor we will live with has given us Kikuyu names, Christine is Nyambura, and I am Mumbe.
I took my braids out cause they were driving me freaking nuts. soooooo itchy, they lasted a whole 11 days. o well.
mmmmm...i can't think of anyuthing else. sorry to disappoint!
o--i learned to make ugali! my goal is to learn to make everything i eat hear, and have everyone over to my/momanddads house for a big kenya feast when i come home! paaaarty!
so i will post more next week when we've seen this new place some more.
lots of love to all! -- catherine

WEDNESDAY:
Christine and I got our hair braided. A guy we know said he knew a place, really good, right price etc. so he takes me walkign through the alleys of Kibera, and we stop at a house. a few women are gathered. they are talking kiswahili. all of a sudden all these people are touching my hair, and all of my earrings.muzungu hair is new to them. so Joy starts braiding. says it will take an hour. im sitting on a little wooden stool, next to a sewage ditch. which is totally normal for kibera. It took 3 tortuous hours to complete. it looks pretty nice. i even have a braid mullet in the back! a white friend had the same style done and it cost her 350 ksh (6$), so i figured thats what i would pay. she asked for 1000. no wonder we didn't discuss price before hand ...i did try, but no one answered. her kid was patting my hair the whole time. whit people hair is really soft i guess! so i gave her everything in my wallet, only about 10 bucks, so still a pretty good price. Meanwhile christine was at an actual "saloon" up the road, still in kibera. she got extensions, the works...she looks great. she was told 3 hours...and dragged herself home 7 hours later!!!

this is unbelievable and tough to admit. I ATE MEAT! We went to carnivore restaurant, a very famous "nyama choma" restaurant (barbecue). I wanted to try the wierdo meats, but since its a fixed price, I wanted to get my money's worth (I am so my father's daughter, o my god) so i ate meat for 3 hours. chicken (yuck) beef (ok) lamb (mmmm) camel (not bad) ostrich (really good) crocodile (delicious) gizzard (so so) pork (so so) sausage (yuck).
i didn't even feel sick. it was great. so that's that. i'm still vegetarian though! don't expect me to eat meat next time you see me! i will show you the photos though.

FRIDAY: we went to a giraffe centre, and got to feed giraffes. their tongues feel a little like cat tongues, but they are bluish and HUGE. they eat thorns, and their tongues don't get hurt, and the tongues hve built in sunscreen. and we went to an ethiopian restaurant...i ate soooooo much, for about 4$...we will be going back.

SATURDAY: I milked a cow! i kind of suck at it....you reallyyyy need to apply pressure, and i think i was having sympathy for the poor lady cow, and i didn't wanna pull so hard..but i think i was just tickling and annoying her. the cow lives at our friend's house, so we will go back again, and drink some this time....it's tough though, becouse if we go for the evening milk, we have to rush to get home before dark..the neighbourhood ain't so hot.


hmmmm. sooo it seems i didn't volunteer very much this week....well no..there are 10 volunteers at the clinic right now. so we might move. we are checking out a new place on tuesday....the only worry there is that the hopital is run by church people who seem quite extreemly religious....im not sure that i would feel comfortable living with them...not because of my views, but because i think they might have poor views of me.
we will see how it goes.

I went on a safari this weekend!!! i took a zilllliiiion photos! we left on friday and drove alll day to get to masai mara. we would have gone on an evening game drive on arrival, but we got a flat on the way. NO big deal there was a spare. oh wait, the spare was flat too. ohhhh, kenya. so the other van had to drive an hour back to town to get another tire. but we made it. saw a giraffe and antelopes on the way to camp. went into park in the morning...saw masai people selling us stuff right away. everything in kenya is for sale. then we saw wildebeest, zebra, then elephants, giraffe, zebra zebra zebra buffalo buffalo WILDEBEAST WILDEBEAST WILDEBEASTWILDEBEASTWILDEBEASTWILDEBEAST...the migration is happening,....there were sooooo many of them. we were 7 people in a van where the roof goes up..im covered in bruises from being jostled. we saw more elephants, hippos, a croc, monkeys, cheetah, lions. on sunday we saw a priode of lions that had just finished eating a zebra, and vultures were finishing up. the lions started to chase some buffalo. it was very cool (the lions missed the buffalo that time.) we also went to lake nakuru, and saw tons of white rhino, baboons, other monkeys, millions of flamingo, pelicans, maribou storks, giraffes, zebra (even some mating!!!)
the night sky in masai mara was fannnnnnnnttttastic..the stars were sooo bright..but it is a strange feeling to look at the sjy and not recognize the stars.

i ate so much dirt this weeekend. the roads to the park are terrrrible, bumpy, dusty. on the way from masai mara to nakuru, the elevation increases a lot, so it got very greeen and nince...it also rained and turned the dirt roads to slipppppery slippery...as bad as winter driving. we were going quite slowly, and all these guys were following. the driver said it was because they wanted to be paid to push us out if we ditched. we ditched. they pushed. the driver floored it. 3 jumped on the bumper and held on all the way down hill, about 300 metres. we paid them 1000 ksh. (16 bucks)

volunteering is still frustrating, as we are not very busy, and when we are busy, nursing here is strange. today i "dressed" a burn by putting ointment and sending the guy home....no coverign at all...this is kibera, kenya. i know that about 2 minutes after he left, the wound was covered in red dirt. it will be infected. they will prescribe more and more antibiotics. today a woman miscarried at 20 weeks, and was left to lie on the birth table with the the fully formed infant lying in a K basin at her feet. no wonder she was upset.
i did help at antenatal clinic which is cool....i like feeling the babies inside. we will try to get our kenya nursing licenses, and hope for the best.
more next time. hope all is well with everyone!

Top things i miss about Canada right now:
1)Michael's cooking
2)clean beautiful free flushing public toilets
3)going outside at night
4)not being scared of being pickpocketed at all times
5)being anonymous (when you are the only muzungu around, people look)
6)used book stores
7)being alone

I have to go pee reallllllly badly right now, so this might be short (see #2 above)

This week I went to Ngong hills, about 45 minutes from where i live. I went with a bunch of other volunteers who were taking their class there. It is a National park, the path is 7 hills long, then back. It is pretty steep. It is also at a high eleveation. I was the only volunteer with a sweater and raincoat. It was cold and wet. We made it halfway. I will definitely go back, It must be sooooo beutiful without fog...apparetnly you can seee the whole Rift Valley....the hillls and fog and vegetation did remind me of Scotland!
I am scared of cows. at home, cows are always behind fences...here cows have horns, are hungry and have no fences. I was walking through this fog, can only see 10 feet ahead, and hear these ghost cowbells...then a killer cow emerges from the fog, ready to eat us......
I know i know..quit laughing at me.

My birthday was great! Christine prepared me a mango for breakfast (mmmmmm I love mango...if I was at home, Michael would have done that for me too!), and made me a great card, and my roomates made me spaghetti, and a huge great cake! Mom, everyone loves your wacky cake recipe!!!

We may apply to volunteer at Kenyatta National Hospital. That was the best hopital in africa 40 years ago. now it is not. we will not be permitted to work as nurses, but we think it will be good to get the africa hospital experience anyhow..we may apply to children's ward, or help with feedings.

The clinic we work at is still pretty slow, we hope it picks up when the new HIV ward opens (it was due open last month?)

Friday and Saturday Christine and I went again to learn spinning. It is MUCH harder than i imagined! I did really enjoy it though. We now have 5kg of wool to use up. But knitting needles......I have an emergency set of chopsticks in my backpack, and I will sharpen some pencils for Christine....we will be warm to hike mount kenya in January!

I hear it has been cool....here, the Winter is ending, and the weather getting hot...lots of sunscreen is giving me some wierd forehead rash...I kind of look like a teenager....geeeee whiz.

Baby elephants!!!!!!!! google David Sheldrick Trust at the Kenya Wildlife Service to see where I went today. They allow visitors for 1 hour a day, to see the elephants get fed. WOW elephants are soooooooo beautiful, their eyes are very human, they are very nimble (dextrous?)!!!! I got to pet them!! AAAAGH it was soooooooo cooooool.....they feel like a big tree, like a walnut tree rough, and have wiry hairs alll over (that feel like my legs now that I am not shaving....) I would love to stay at that place for the rest of my time in Kenya and play with the elephants. They are sooooo smart. Mom, Mike, can I bring home an elephant? I took a gazillion photos.
We got a little messed up on the way there, the matatu took us to the wrong gate...and when us wazungu WALKED in, instead of being driven, the gaurd was a little suspicious. he had a big gun. he demanded our "papers"? so i showed him a copy of my passport, and that was good enough for him to let us in. A gaurd walked us up to the right entrance....there were baboons everywhere! I am scared of those too! I asked the gaurd if they would bite us...he said no, they would accompany us also!!!!

gotta go, out of money, bladder bursting....
We are going on Safari next weekend, to masai mara and lake nakuru...i will telll you allllll about it...

Well, it has been quite the week....trying to remember it feels like such a long week....
MONDAY:
We went to clinic with our new roomie Caroline, and all the other volunteers have gone home! So Christine and I did the injections (mostly Christine...making the little watoto cry makes me want to cry!) We were giving DPT, BCG, Measles, and oral polio. I'm so glad we get to feel like we are doing stuff now!

TUESDAY:
We did not go to clinic, as I had a touch of the runs, possibly due to dodgy chinese at the weekend. I took a gravol and slept for what seeemed like ages, but it was an hour. Our coordinator asked us to come to the orientation for the new volunteers, so we went, only to get the free lunch at the swank Karen Blixen coffeee garden.

WEDNESDAY:

WOW!!!!!!!!!!! TODAY I HELPED DELIVER 2 BRAND NEW SHINY PRETTY LITTLE BABIES!!!!!!!!! Christine and I were paired with the 2 doctors, to learn the ropes. And the "daktari" i had, his 2nd pt was a momma, fully dilated ready to go! It was her first baby. I prepped the ergortamine and lidacaine and not so sterile gauze, and the receiving blanket (which she brought from home, of questionable cleanliness)
She was having a little trouble pushing it out (Sukuma mama, sukuma! (push momma push)so the daktari did an episiotomy (which is the only nursing thing to date to give me the squidgies) pulled and i pushed on her belly, and out popped a fantastic baby girly, who screamed right away. Daktari cut the cord, and i scooped up this beautiful warm slippery wonderful baby and held her close, and popped her on the scale...3.75 kg. then i wrapped her up very tight, and brought her out to the bed and covered her over, where she waits alone for momma! Momma didn't even get to cuddle her yet!
then i helped suture her, and i helped her to bed. When I picked up the baby, I got blood all over my labcoat.

then we saw another couple of pt, and the next mom was ready to go. It was her 3rd baby, and she just flew right out. Repeat cord cut baby weigh, (3.5 kg), me hiding tears, blood on coat. Oh ya, and carrying the placenta out to the hole in the back and throwing it down. yuck.

The cleaning lady ( who also catches babies and preps syringes!!!) chastised me for bloodying 2 labcoats! she said I should get 3 deliveries from one jacket!!!!

I took photos of the mamas, and will try to give them to them at the baby clinic.

WARNING This story is a little gross:
We saw a 21 year old today whose finger had been crushed at work 5 days previous. He went to hopital and had it "treated" ---Compound fracture, dressed and given antibiotics, told to come to us in 5 days for dressing change. Why would anyone want to leave a dressing on for FIVE days without changing it, given that it was still bleeding???? It took christine 10 or 15 minutes to remove the dressing. All the layers of gauze were soaked with blood, and when we got to the finger it was white. He is a black guy. Yikes. we called for help, the doctors were unconcerned, and told us to dressit with iodine soaked gauze. They only prescribed pain killers (only paracetemol) at christine's insistence. I am sure he will lose the finger.

THURSDAY:
Baby injection day today. this time i did more cause christine made me. I HATE making the babies cry!!! This is how you say: Kid needs an injection today: Mtoto sidano leo.

FRIDAY: We skipped clinic again. We went to Ayany womens centre, and spent 4 hours carding fleece, to prep it for spinning. I borrowed the carders and will try to card a bunch today. Hopefully I can card enough to spin next friday! I am very excited, because I love doing this.

SATURDAY: We went by matatu to a town 1 hour away with our roomie Caroline, to see an orphanage her brother helped start 5 years ago. The guy in charge was great, very nice. The kids were excited to have visitors, but shy. They shared lunch with us....kidney beans and rice. I was very very happy to have beans!

The situation with our housegirl has been remedied...she still can't cook well, but she no longer buys the food...we now always have avocado, banana, mango, passion fruit. ....plenty!

I think that's all for now.
Oh ya..Thanks for the card, Cassie clan! It made my day yesterday!!!