Traveling through the Mountains

So we finally got everything together and made the rounds as planned. Since the truck was repaired, we took off around 9am heading into the mountains to visit 4 more clinic locations. It was such a beautiful drive, the mountains, rivers, stones and villages. We went through several police roadblocks and got stopped only twice. The first time, we had to either give the police a lift into town or give them money. We opted for the lift, so they clambered into the back of the truck with me and stared me down. I felt really uncomfortable with those guys ogling me for the next hour of our trip. UGH but what are we to do?

We finally made it to our destination; first stop Stand Kisii, which is inside the Kakamega forest. It was gorgeous, and had plenty of monkeys running around. I learned that that clinic had been very busy with the MUE procedure, and they had (luckily) been keeping good records knowing they didn’t have any of the record keeping documents yet. I guess the doc is used to the system in Kenya and knew what to expect. So now he has to transfer all his notes on his patients to the documents I provided him. Second stop, Bungoma where I learned that the doctor there was administering the drug under improper protocols because he heard about a “trick” that you could use Misoprostol on women with gestations longer than 9 weeks (9 weeks is the max gestation that we and Planned Parenthood had instructed them to use miso on), by just giving them one pill every 4-6 hours until basically she delivers her fetus. He had been performing them up to 26 weeks! WOW, that’s something to make sure and report about, but the doctor said as long as it is working then he would do it.

We moved on to Kitale where we saw an OB/GYN whose practice was so incredibly busy. I couldn’t believe how packed the waiting room was, which is a good thing I guess. It is great that women are seeking prenatal and antenatal care. We traveled to the district hospital after that because part of our objectives of this trip was to get some contraceptives from the district hospital and drive around distributing it at other lower clinics and facilities, but guess what? The district hospital only had depo provera, no pills, condoms, IUD’s, emergency contraceptive, or Norplant. I have realized what the underlying problem is behind unsafe abortion, lack of family planning supplies. How can we stop these women from becoming pregnant in the first place if they do not have regular access to contraceptives, there is a severe problem somewhere and when I asked the guy in charge of the supply closet, he said he didn’t know where the problem was, so not only a supply problem, but a communication problem. Hmmmm……

On the way home, my driver decided to buy a machete because we would be traveling for a short distance after dark. He said you just never know when a group of street kids were going to try and carjack you, and if for some reason the truck broke down, then we would be finished, so he bought a machete “to kill them before they kill us”. WOW, but don’t worry, nothing happened. It was a nice trip home, and I even got to see a double rainbow over the mountains. That’s got to be pretty rare.

Since returning, I have been diligently trying to create an Excel spreadsheet to keep track of all the data I will be beginning to collect monthly. It’s coming along pole pole.

3 of our SFC girls got chosen to attend an HIV workshop on Monday and Tuesday of this week. It was quite an honor for them to sit alongside doctors, nurses, and other health workers to learn about the issues that are facing health professionals in the provision of ARV therapy and Nevirapine for prevention of mother to child transmission. The girls had never been to a hotel as nice as that, and asked if “that food is for us – WOW its so much food”. I think they enjoyed the food the most, but really they learned so much and even got a certificate at the end of it. Today, as appreciation for all the girls in SFC, and for those 3 girls to relay the information they learned at the workshop, we took them all to Hippo Point and had a picnic. It was nice, and many of those girls had never even seen the lake. Living on the other side of town and not ever having transportation or money to get out there kept them from seeing such a beautiful sight right there in their own city. About half of them decided to strip down naked and jump in (not me – bilharzia and schistosomiasis is a real threat in that lake) and they had a blast.

So now, back at the office, working on the excel spreadsheet (well actually taking a break to blog at the moment) and heading out soon. Kristen and I are hitting up Simba Club again tonight for the all you can eat Indian buffet. We can’t get enough and since it is only open to the public on Fridays, we have to take full advantage.

More later