Kenya Public Health Field Practicum Summer 2009

2009-08-13T04:15:00.002-07:00

The whole SFS research team.

2009-08-13T04:15:00.001-07:00

My overall experience with the School for Field Studies has been more than I ever expected. I feel privileged to have been so up close and personal with the Maasai tribe – they are truly unique and beautiful people. It is rare in today’s world to encounter a culture so true to ancient traditions in such a changing and developing world. I never felt uncomfortable or threatened in Kenya – which is often the stigma with African countries – but instead felt an overwhelming sense of welcome and happiness from the people. To see how happy the community members truly were with earthen homes, no shoes, and nothing but cabbage and maize to eat makes you really appreciate all that you have and take for granted.

I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to learn from this culture and hope that the work that we did will somehow make a difference. It will take time, but little by little I think programs like this and others can help to save and preserve the ancient tribal cultures of Africa.

2009-08-13T04:13:00.000-07:00

Monica Opiyo (Moi University) sharing resutls during the community presentation with the aid of a Maasai translator.

2009-08-13T04:12:00.000-07:00

First of all I would like to apologize for leaving anyone hanging – the hours and days after our final presentation have flown by and I am now on my three day journey back to the states.

The presentation couldn’t have gone better. We had about 80 people attend – so many that the students had to stand outside so everyone would fit in the chumba (our main classroom at the SFS site). Each of the five groups gave separate presentations which took about three hours and was followed by a free lunch for all who attended. Each presentation ended with recommendations to the community based off the findings of our survey and research – and was followed with questions and discussions. (The whole presentation was translated into Maasai tribal language).

My group (water source and collection) found that the main source of water utilized in the group ranch was the Kimana Pipeline, a system that draws water from a protected spring fed by Mt. Kilamonjaro. The water is treated at the source but then travels over 20 km through leaky unprotected pipes to withdrawl points. The local clinic has tested this water and found it to be contaminated at some points. We had reports of spraying and watering livestock, mixing pesticides, washing laundry, bathing and toileting at all of the water sources used and 75% of respondents did not treat their water. Our recommendations were to separate these activities from the water sources and we stressed that all drinking water needs to be treated, regardless of the source. Due to drought conditions we also recommended seeking alternate water sources such as rainwater harvesting during the wet season and groundwater exploration.

The community was very receptive of our recommendations and surprised to learn that the pipeline water could be contaminated. Many had the conception that clear water coming from a pipe must be clean and only 1 in every 10 pipeline users actually treated the water before drinking. The recommendations for alternate water sources also sparked a lot of conversation but also frustrations. Government interaction is needed to invest in rainwater harvesting and to drill and test for useable groundwater. This need is stronger now than ever with the current drought, however the government is not stepping in. The health workers that attended our presentation there said they would bring these concerns to government officials but there is no telling what will happen.

The reactions towards all of the group presentations were great and we often had to cut short on discussions to keep track with time. To see the community appreciate and take concern in all of the work we had done over the past five weeks was very special. It felt great to know our recommendations were being heard and that the community was so interested in ways to improve their lifestyles.

If even just one person takes our advice, I will be happy. It only takes one person to be a leader in the community and I hope that we were able to reach out in some way and promote positive change. Professor Rotich from Moi University Kenya made the closing remarks to our presentation and he couldn’t have said it better:

“From this study I have learned that our cultures are similar and so, I consider myself your brother. As your brother, I am telling you that we must change. Hold on to your traditions – they are you identity. But if we do not change – positive change – we will not survive, the Maasai will disappear.”

2009-08-08T10:03:00.000-07:00

Working at the mobile clinic.

2009-08-08T09:58:00.000-07:00

Two girls at the clinic trying on our sunglasses :)

2009-08-08T09:52:00.000-07:00

We used a hanging scale to weigh children at the mobile clinic today. Their weight is recorded on immunizations cards to evaluate whether they are over or underweight for their age. A majority of the children we weighed today were within a normal weight range.

2009-08-06T03:44:00.000-07:00

Our final paper and presentation is finally completed! We will be meeting with translators tomorrow to rehearse our powerpoints and practice for Sunday’s event. Saturday will be our last community service day and we will spend the morning assisting with a mobile clinic. The clinic is run by a local hospital and opens about once a month in residential areas so that people do not have to travel (all services are free). They offer both vaccination and nutritional services and include lectures on different health topics. We will be weighing children and measuring their arms to evaluate malnutrition while also organizing and distributing vitamins and other nutritional supplements.

2009-08-06T01:20:00.000-07:00

This picture was taken a couple of weeks ago at a Maasai welcome ceremony. You may have noticed from some pictures that many of the Maasai are missing one or two front teeth - it became tradiation during a time when tetanus was prevalent to remove these teeth at a young age, that way if lock jaw occured they would still be able to eat.

2009-08-06T01:11:00.000-07:00

Here is an example of a traditional Maasai household interviewed in our study.

2009-08-06T01:01:00.000-07:00

We found that in 95% of households surveyed, the woman is the primary water collector - and the average time to reach a water source was 45 minutes. That means that the Maasai women in our study area spend 1.5 hours, at least once each day collecting water for their families.

2009-08-05T01:38:00.000-07:00

We had another free day on Tuesday and spent the morning hiking. I'm not sure of the name of this hill but the view from the top was gorgeous!

2009-08-03T06:04:00.000-07:00

After nearly a week full of 8 hour days with nothing but data analysis and report writing, the first draft of our report is finally competed! Each of the five subject groups writes their own report and analysis and after the program the reports will be combined into one paper. Our first draft is a little over 15 pages including 5 different data tables.

Here are a few statistics from our report:

Total population studied – 909

67% of female and 82% of male heads of the household have received no education

Main source of income – pastoralist

Main source of water – pipeline (streams are second most utilized source)

73% do not treat their water

75% believe that they have access to adequate water sources

85% believe that their water is safe to drink

5% of those using the stream as their main water source said they also toilet in the source

The pipeline is a government project created and managed by the Pipeline Corporation of Kenya and draws water from a protected spring fed by Mount Kilimanjaro. While this water is a protected source and does not suffer from the same contamination as open sources such as streams, it receives no water treatment. The biggest problem we have identified is that people believe that because the water is coming from a pipe it is treated. The high percentage of people who believe that their water is safe and do not treat their water are mainly a representation of the majority that is using the pipeline. We are currently tracking down water testing results from the local clinic to see what kind of condition the pipeline water, and also the stream water is in.

We found an elevated risk of enteric illness associated with households that use a stream as their primary source of water. Because of the drought there is now competition between agriculture, livestock and human use and the mixture is likely causing serious contamination problems. A few people even reported that animals are dying because of the drought and their carcasses are being found near or in water sources.

The Mbirikani Health Clinic provides the public with water treatment options however, there is an issue convincing people to actually use them. We now know that part of this issue is because a large portion of people think they are drinking water that is already treated. Cultural boundaries also pose a lot of opposition.

There are between 60-70 people expected to come to our presentation this Sunday and this number includes government officials, community members and health leaders. We have the rest of the week to finalize our report and create our presentation which we will rehearse with translators Friday afternoon.

Tomorrow we have our last free day and will be doing another hike in the morning, then spending the evening at the market and “Club Kimana.”

2009-08-03T05:35:00.000-07:00

A day at the market

2009-07-30T11:18:00.000-07:00

There are conveniently four native Ohioans on the trip! This was taken on our hike to Tanzania.

2009-07-30T10:44:00.000-07:00

With the completion of our field research there has been a bit of a change of pace around camp. Instead of being out in the field every day and traveling to clinics and hospitals we’ve been spending a lot more time at camp working on data analysis and beginning to write our reports. The camp is a fenced-in one mile radius so sometimes we feel a bit “caged in.” (Literally – little kids come up to the fence and stick their arms through at us when we are out walking around). But it always seems that as soon as we start to get stir crazy something fun and creative always comes up to save the day.

Last night we had a formal dance in the chumba after dinner. Our student affairs manager Molly cleared away all of the tables and chairs and decorated the walls with cloths bought at the market. She surprised us with sodas and brownies and a disco ball hanging from the ceiling (our soccer ball covered in masking tape and foil). We started off with some African music then switched to some American tunes – it was fun to teach the staff the YMCA.

For tonight’s entertainment we are hooking up the projector and making popcorn over the stove for a movie night. On Saturday we have split up into teams for an iron chef desert cook-off (Dad – my team is doing Black Magic Cake J). It has been fun to be creative with our time and enjoy each other’s company during our last couple of weeks. We will have all of our bivariate and multivariate analysis completed by this weekend and will begin writing our final report on Monday. Each group is responsible for writing their own portion that will be presented to the community and the final version of that is due next Friday.

I have plenty of great pictures that I keep trying to post but the internet connection hasn’t been strong enough – I’ll keep trying though!

2009-07-28T10:42:00.000-07:00

Our field surveying and data entry are finally completed! Yesterday was my last day in the field and I think it was my favorite. It was a gorgeous day, hot sun but cool breeze and everyone we encountered was very friendly. I also had a great translator which added to the experience. At the end of each interview the translator gave the participants an opportunity to ask us questions and express their concerns. One woman asked us what issues we had uncovered thus far with our surveying and we were able to tell her that water availability seemed to be one of the biggest problems.
We also had the rare opportunity to talk with a man of the household – the men are usually out tending to livestock during the day so for the most part we have been interviewing the wives. In this particular case however, the man of the boma returned during one of our surveys. Once we had finished our survey he had plenty of questions to ask, mostly about health issues; for example if one of his family members contracted TB how would they keep from spreading it, if his children were malnourished what should he do if he can’t afford enough food and even if the Maasai traditional treatment for chicken pox and measles (hot goat oil) was really a good cure. We answered his questions the best that we could and referred him to the local clinic for more guidance.
A lot of the people that we interviewed expressed interest in our results and were invited to our final presentation on August 9. The presentation will go over all of our findings and recommendations based off our results. Along with community members, local health leaders and government officials will also be in attendance. SFS is arranging for transportation for any community members that wish to attend so that everyone has a chance to be here.
Now that all of our data is collected and entered we will spend the next week doing single and bi-variable analysis and creating charts and graphs with Epi Info. We will use the following week to write up our final report and prepare our presentation for August 9th.
Tomorrow is our last free day of the program and we are planning on hiking to Tanzania! We will hike from Loitokitok which is about an hour drive from SFS and into a river gorge along the border. The hike should take a few hours and we will be accompanied by armed wildlife guides in case we have any close encounters with wildlife. After the hike we will go back into town for lunch and shopping at the market

2009-07-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

I took this on the way back from field surveying today. Our driver stopped and let us get out of the car at this point so I took this picture on-foot!

2009-07-24T08:33:00.000-07:00

We have been through 2 of our 4 field days and so far both have proved to be two very different experiences. The group is split up into teams of two that each have a translator and we take out four different cars to split up and cover more area. The first day I was assigned to Chulu hills, which is about an hour drive from camp and in a more remote area. In the Chulu hills there is no water source and the inhabitants have to pay to have barrels of water trucked in each week. The people living there were pastoralist so they also have to purchase extra water for their livestock. Most of the bomas we had planned on surveying were abandoned, people had moved on because of the drought. We also encounter a few who refused to participate because they wanted money in exchange for their time. The people in the Chulu hills were really struggling which made it a hard day. All of the kids seemed inactive, many of them were sick. People told us that they didn’t have enough money to pay for all the water they needed and most of the people could only afford to eat once a day; their meal consisted of only porridge or ugali (corn meal and water).

The second day had a whole different tone to it and the surveying was really enjoyable. We were welcomed at all of the bomas and the people we interviewed were more lively, especially the children. During one of the interviews there were about 5 kids, all under 7 years of age, sitting around our feet. After staring at me for a good 20 minutes a couple of the little ones finally built up the courage to touch my skin. The area we are surveying in doesn’t get tourists passing through so the children have not seen many “mzungu” or white people (this word has become very familiar to me over the past couple of days). The little girl put her hand on my arm and her sister followed – then the two put their hands up to their faces and smelled. They did this a couple of times before finally grabbing my arm and taking a big whiff. This was followed by smiles and giggles from the girls and a reprimand from their mother, but I thought it was adorable.

My group has met our goal of 6 surveys both days and from what I’ve been hearing most of the groups have as well (this is about 45-50 surveys per day as a group). We will take the day off tomorrow to volunteer with a nutritionist and then complete our data collection on Sunday and Monday. Each day there are also four students that stay behind to enter survey data from the previous outing, so it is our goal to have all data collected and entered by Tuesday.

Our entire survey area is pretty remote and home to a lot of wildlife. We take “roads” which are really just paths through the brush but have also got to part-take in some off-roading experiences. We’ve had to stop a few times to let giraffes, monkeys and ostrich cross the road and have seen everything from warthogs to water buck.

2009-07-21T12:30:00.001-07:00

Hakuna Matata. Tonight we had a special treat from the staff and professors. After dinner one of the students played some African dance music from her laptop and two of our Kenyan professors, a few staff members and even the head chef Arthur came out and started dancing. Now this wasn’t an organized tribal dance or anything like that, but a true African dance party. Arthur had cut the sleeves off of his shirt and was wearing one around his head. It was hilarious, and fun to see our professors loosen up and show off their dance moves. After a few songs we turned off the music and four of the staff lined up and sang us one of their traditional tribal songs in Kiswahili. At the end, the lights went off and Arthur reappeared with a cake and burning candles. Everyone was singing a Kenyan welcome song which ended with:
Kenya yetu, hakuna matata
Kenya nchi nezuri hakuna matata
Nchi ya kypendeza hakuna matata
Which means Kenya greets you, no worries, Kenya is a good country, no worries, everything is lovely hakuna matata. A much needed relief from such a hectic schedule and definitely my most memorable night here so far!

2009-07-21T08:49:00.000-07:00

Our view of Mt. Kilimonjaro - I admire this every morning as I'm brushing my teethe :)

2009-07-21T08:47:00.001-07:00

Today was a very long day but rewarding in the end when got to do our first field visit. We started at 8AM by going over our completed survey with the nine translators that will be working with us in the field. There are five different focus groups: water source and collection – water storage, use and agriculture – household sanitation – food preparation – and hand hygiene. Each group was responsible for their own part of the survey, challenged to break down all of the information they wanted into about 10 questions.

The survey we went over today was a combination of all five group’s questions with an additional section on basic demographics such as age, sex and education. It took about 6 hours to go through the entire survey with the translators who speak both Kiswahili and Maasia tribal language. The wording of a lot of our questions did not translate well into these two languages so it took time to communicate exactly what our questions were focused on through the translations.

Once the translation of the survey was complete we split the group of 20 students into 8 groups of 2-3, with one translator each (we have an extra translator as a substitute). We then went to the “KuKu Ranch” area in Kimana to do a test run of our now completed survey. The ranch area we tested in today is different from where our main study will be focused – and the results will not be used. Today was just to time the questionnaire and see if any problems came up during the interview.

The drive out to the ranch we were studying at took about 20 minutes and ended unexpectedly. It seemed like we were in the middle of nowhere but the jeep stopped and our translator jumped out, so reluctantly my partner Annie and I followed. After climbing a giant hill with nothing but red dust, rocks and acacia trees we finally spotted the boma or Maasi home. The boma was home to three women; a mother and two of her children with about 12 little grandchildren running around. The women were reluctant to participate at first, wanting money or some sort of compensation for their time, but eventually our translator Joseph got them to give in. The women gave us wooden benches to sit on as we asked our questions – Joseph translating and myself writing down the answers and filling out the charts within our questionnaire. The entire time I was writing, the children were all gathered around us, sitting quietly giggling and smiling. The answers that we got even though they were not for our final project were already interesting and I am excited to begin collecting data from our study area.

Here are a few sample questions from our survey just to give you an idea of what we are working with:

What is your primary source of water?
Do you treat your water, and if yes how?
Is their a farm adjacent to your water source?
Do you use pesticides?
Have you been trained on informed on how to use pesticides?
How do you dispose of your garbage?
Where do people usually help themselves at home (toileting practices)?
Have you ever seen someone helping themselves at a water source?
What do you usually wash your hands with?
When cooking inside, are children under the age of 5 present? (smoke inhalation issue)
Do you think that food, water, or evil spirits cause disease/illness?
Where do you go when you are sick?
Do you think your water is safe to drink?

2009-07-18T10:31:00.000-07:00

Today was another one of our free days :) We spent the morning at an orphanage in Kimana playing with the kids. The orphange is home to 20 children and has no funding. The couple that runs the orphange makes money with a tailoring shop and from a few dairy cows that they own, but relies mostly on donations and deals on food and clothing from the community. It was a fun morning and nice to take time off from the classroom to play soccer and "net ball" (basketball) with the kids. Our free day continued with a visit to the market where I finally found myself a pair of tire shoes! They were only 250 shillings (~$3) and are made completed out of old tires - they even adjust them when you buy them so that they fit your feet just right! We finished our day at "Club-Kimana" where we all shared some Tusker Beer and roasted goat leg. Sounds like an odd combination but it was delicious! Tusker is an East African Brew that stands for Tanzania, Uganda, Somalia, Kenya, Ethiopia, and Rwanda.

2009-07-17T08:55:00.000-07:00

Today was an adventure – probably the most intense manual labor I’ve ever done (I’m sore already) - but regardless it was a great experience. We took the day off from academics and helped out with the Kimana Water Project. The project is working to build barriers and fences to protect springs (sources of stream water) and also to transport some of the spring water to storage tanks in dry regions. The group split up into teams of 6-7 and worked at three different locations. My job for the day was to continue construction on a furrow which was basically a 10in wide cement ditch. Once completed, the trough will be 7km (about 4 miles) and will be able to transport water from the spring to a storage tank to supply water to communities far from the source. The building materials for the furrow are funded in part by the School for Field Studies and other private donors but all of the work is done for free. The Kenyans that we worked with today work 6 days a week, at least 8 hours each day for free – in anticipation of being able to use the water source once it is completed.

We were on our own to work with the Kenyans all day – no SFS staff or translator which got interesting. There was one project leader present that spoke a good amount of English so he was our go-to-guy for the day. We started by building a frame for the cement walls (the cement base had been poured and set the previous day) by nailing together and stabilizing wooden boards. Then with four shovels and two wheel barrels, we transported piles of gravel and bags of cement mix to the frames. For water to mix the cement, we had to release the dammed areas of the already completed trough to transfer water from the spring down to where we were working. We removed about ten barrier areas, which were old cement bags filled with dirt and rocks, then Daniel (the English speaking worker) told Barbra (another SFS student) and myself to run down to the others and tell them the water was coming.

At this time – the water really was flowing, so Barbra and I had to literally run to stay ahead of it and tell the others. When we got there and announced that the water was coming, we got a lot of confused looks due to the language barrier – I now know that the Swahili translation is for water is “mangie.” Finally with a combination of our hand motions and the now visible water coming our way the message got through. This created a frenzy of having to now replace all of the barriers and Barbra and I along with all of the men and women working on the project began running back to replace the bags of dirt. It was a hilarious – the men were all yelling instructions at Barbra and I, throwing bags to be filled with dirt and picking up rocks to put in the trough. The women were working right along our sides, laughing at Barbra and I as we frantically were trying to help while at the same time trying to figure out exactly what we were supposed to be doing.

Everything worked out in the end, and we used the water source Barbra and I had so diligently worked to create, to mix the cement and fill the frames we had built this morning. It was really impressive to see the Kenyan women working along side the men. One did all of the shoveling and carried heavy water buckets with a baby on her back the whole time. It was a hard but enjoyable day and despite the language barrier it was a lot of fun to work side by side with the Kenyans, and rewarding to have been able to help with the project.

2009-07-15T10:14:00.000-07:00

Beautiful African sunset! The sun rises around 6:30AM and sets around 6:30PM. The stars at night are amazing, you can even see the Milky Way :) Tonight we are having a campfire; there are two large cement fire pits on the camp. We have to ask the azaris (guards) in the morning if we can have a fire that night so they can collect the wood for us - there are differnt species around here that release toxins when burned so you have to know what you're doing!

2009-07-15T10:12:00.000-07:00

Today we interviewed key informants to further aid in the development of our questionnaires. We have done a literature review to collect background information on our respective topics but today was our chance to interview individuals working first hand in the field with the issues we will be exploring. Among the informants were an environmental worker, public health clinic workers and riders that go out into the community, a Maasi midwife, an herbalist and others. It was great to get to talk to these individuals to confirm what we have heard or maybe assumed and also to learn more about the current situations.

We learned that the rule for crop development around a water source is a boundary area that is the width of the stream; for example if the stream is 10 feet wide, crops can be formed 10 feet away from the streams edge. I spent about one hour talking to an environmental worker named James who talked a lot about agricultural practices. He said that the crops are normally formed perpendicular to the streams, which are used for drinking water, so that runoff from the crops containing pesticides and fertilizers runs directly into the water source. He also said it is not uncommon for people to mix their pesticide treatments in a plastic jug, rinse the jug out once, and then fill it with water for drinking. I asked James if there was any groundwater available in the area and if any of the villages had tried using groundwater as a drinking source, and he wasn’t sure. He said that the option hasn’t been researched because there was still water available on the surface. Our main assumption was confirmed today by a number of sources and that is that people use the same water for drinking as they do for bathing and washing of dishes and laundry. The lack of latrines also results in human waste right along the stream banks that gets washed into the water during floods from the rainy season.

We asked a lot of the same questions to different key informants and received a lot of conflicting answers; the results of our survey should be very interesting and we can finally set some of these issues straight! The first draft of our questionnaire is due on Friday and the second draft is due Sunday night. We will do a trial run of our survey on Monday surveying a smaller ranch before making final adjustments. We’ve been busy, but there are only about 4 weeks left to complete the whole project!

Tomorrow we will take a day off from academics and volunteer with the Kimana Water Project building fences and pouring cement to protect spring areas, should be a lot of fun!

2009-07-14T12:25:00.000-07:00

To answer a couple of questions:

The weather here fluctuates a lot. At night it is cooler, around the 60s but during the day it usually gets pretty warm, probably around 80-90. On a warm day sitting in the shade or even when the clouds cover the sun it can be a bit chilly. At nighttime when the temperature is in the 60s the Kenyans are wearing sweaters and winter coats – sometimes I will just have a T-shirt on, no jacket, and they think I am crazy!

The research we will be doing will be to evaluate water source, sanitation, disease prevalence, agricultural practices and hand washing. We are doing a baseline study – no one has ever researched or collected data of this sort from the specific population we will be looking at and we are actually writing the questionnaire and research plan in our respective groups (my group is water source and collection). We have been working with our primary professor from Boston University School of Public Health on proper survey techniques and will be completing our questionnaires by the end of the week! Field research starts sometime the following week.

2009-07-13T12:43:00.001-07:00

Safari time! We took the tops off of our land cruisers and spent the entire day Sunday in Amboseli National Park. We saw plenty of elephants, giraffes, buffalo, water buck, zebras, baboons, a cheetah, and even a few lions!

2009-07-13T12:37:00.000-07:00

2009-07-13T12:14:00.000-07:00

2009-07-13T10:45:00.000-07:00

We watched this guy from a distance then he came right up to the vehicles. He laid down for about 10 minutes, then got back up and went back into the field to rejoin his companion.

2009-07-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

We recently visited another local health clinic called the Kimana Health clinic to get a different perspective. The clinic I wrote about before, Mbirikani Health Clinic, is funded and run by a donor from Chicago, while the Kimana Health Clinic is funded and run by the Kenyan government. The Mbirikani clinic is open and free to members of the Mbirikani group ranch area, and those living outside those boundaries go to the Kimana Health Clinic (which is still 100% free).

The difference between the two was astonishing. The Mbirkiani Clinic was staffed with four doctors, nurses, nurse practitioners, and other clinic workers in addition to medical counselors. The facility had electricity, a fully stocked pharmacy that spanned three separate rooms, nutritional materials, and a lab with state of the art equipment.

The Kimana Health Clinic was staffed by four nurses, one clinic worker and a few public health specialists (no doctors). The clinic had only a few old buildings, a couple of beds, storage closet pharmacy with limited medications, and a laboratory with a hand operated centrifuge and one microscope.

It’s hard to put into words the difference between the two; on a scale from 1 to 10, Mbirikani Clinic was an 8, Kimana Clinic was a 1. The issue isn’t necessarily funding – its government corruption. One of the first thing we learned is that the distribution of money throughout the country in terms of what programs get what money, is completely dependant on who is in office. Touring the Mbirkinai Clinic and speaking with the staff was really hopeful and wonderful to see that such good medical care was available. The Kimana Clinic was disheartening to see the care that a majority of Kenyans have access to and also to see the low priority of medical care in the government’s budget.

2009-07-10T09:41:00.000-07:00

African food!

2009-07-10T08:59:00.000-07:00

Student bandas where we sleep!

2009-07-10T08:50:00.001-07:00

Braclets purchased from the Maasi women

2009-07-10T08:38:00.000-07:00

This morning we visited a local health clinic, about one hour away from our camp where we will be doing our survey in a couple of weeks. Surprisingly, all clinics and hospitals in Kenya are free – some funded by the government, and some, like the one we visited today with private funding. The clinic we visited today was built and is funded by a nurse from Chicago who used to vacation in Kenya at Amboseli national park. The clinic is always stocked with food and medications, most of which comes from Nairobi, but some that comes from the aid programs in the United States and other countries.

The clinic is free, however many Kenyans trust their own medicinal practices and medications rather than the doctors that work at the clinic. I should mention that all of the doctors, nurse practitioners and nurses were from Kenya (for the most part I believe). The head doctor of the clinic told us that medical training in the country is very extensive; there are not specialties (OB, orthopedics, radiologists…) but instead each doctor needs to have the skills to perform from every area of medicine.

The director of the clinic was kind enough to give us a tour of the whole facility. The waiting area is outside under a covered pavilion, and there is currently one ward which holds up to 40 patients (this serves as a doctor’s office/clinic and overnight hospital). We got to walk through the pharmacy and stock rooms which were filled with prenatal vitamins, milk and formula to prevent the spread of HIV from mother to baby. High protein peanuts and other foods were also stored in the pharmacy and are given to the patients receiving medications to help speed their recovery. The laboratory had four technicians working a wide variety of lab equipment to do all of the necessary testing. All of the medical staff live at the clinic (their homes, dining hall, and shower houses are all right on site) and work 8 hour shifts 6 days a week. I was really impressed with all of the medical services the clinic is able to provide – especially free of charge, I would love to meet the women who fund this all! There are currently new buildings in construction that will hold an additional 40-50 patients. The pharmacy said they usually fill 500 prescriptions a day so more room seems necessary!

The clinic also had a public health department with outreach programs for clean water (water testing and distribution of PUR water packets), HIV/AIDS testing, education, and support groups, establishment of proper latrines, and health and nutrition services. The public health study that our group will be doing covers many of the areas which the clinic’s public health department promotes. They were very pleased to learn about our survey and are anxious to see the results and statistics to see how their programs are working.

Check out the website for PUR Water products to learn more about the packets used to purify water here in Kenya. There is a video you can watch to see how they work and you can also make a donation. $1 buys 10 packets!! J

2009-07-09T12:17:00.000-07:00

Today we had the privilage of being welcomed to and shown around a Maasi village - it was one of the most amazing experiences of my life. The Maasi women were the only ones present (other than their children) at the village as the men were all out tending the herds. Upon our arrival - the students and Maasi women each formed a line and shook hands ("sopa" is the Swahili term we used as a greeting). The women then welcomed us with a song and traditional dance - something I feel honored to have been a part of. We were then given a tour of one of the huts which was constructed from sticks and cow dung (which has no odor once it is dried!). The huts were very small - I am only 5'2" and I couldn't stand up! Surprisingly, this tiny little hut was home to a family of five. The women then set up a market area where they displayed their beadwork, wood carvings, and materials and we were able to repay their kindness with our buisness. Spending the afternoon with these women is something I will never forget.

Tomorrow morning we will visit a health clinic in the morning, then return to the SFS camp for more lectures on Kenyan culture and politics. We have recently met with our groups (my group is water source and collection) and we have a background/literature review paper due on Monday.

Also - there are monkey's everywhere. There is a small fence surrounding the area but the monekys and baboons have no problem with that! I have plenty of pictures I would love to post, just not a strong enough internet connection - I will keep trying though!

2009-07-08T10:52:00.000-07:00

I'm finally in Kenya! The journey here took a total of three days - 18 hours in the air, 12 hour layover in London (which was fun!), and a five hour car ride on dirt and paved roads from Nairobi to our field station in Kimana. Today is day two so I've had some time to rest up from the traveling and am finally getting some time to relax and settle in. The living conditions here are much more comfortable than I expected. I share a "banda" with three other students which consists of beds and shelves, and there are six separate flushable toliets and showers which have hot water a few hours at night.

The program and staff have all been wonderful and the Kenyas are very welcoming. Today we were given a tour of the whole camp which we are staying at and a few orientation presentations. Tomorrow we will visit a Massai home which I am very excited for! I have seen a ton of animals already (including a close enconter with a baboon!) especially on the drive. I am off to practice my Kiswahili for now - I will try to post a couple times a week to keep everyone updated!

2009-07-05T10:40:00.000-07:00

I'm finally off! I will be departing Pittsburgh at 3:24PM this afternoon, then traveling to New York, London...then finally on Tuesday morning I will arrive in Nairobi..which will be followed by a 5 hour drive to our field station! I was able to shove all of my belongings into two suitcases (with some careful rearranging to meet the weight limits) but have everything together and am excited to start this trip :)

2009-06-28T20:36:00.000-07:00

The journey begins July 5th! It has been a little over three months since I found out I was accepted into the program and I've been busy ever since getting things in order and preparing for this trip. I am so excited that the time is almost here - I've already finished packing! I'd like to say a special thanks to everyone who helped me in any way to be able to go on this trip - it truly is a wonderful opportunity and I appreciate all of the help and support! I hope you enjoy reading my blog; I'm not sure what to expect with Internet availability but my goal is to post at least once a week :)