Advertisement
This past week, I believe I experienced reality for the first time. It was the first time in my life, where I felt uncontrollably helpless. We had a mother and her child come into the clinic for some help. The mother had no money, tattered clothes and was pregnant. She was already a mother of five, and the child that she brought in was 15 months old and severely malnourished. The child could barely move, and was too weak to even blink a fly off of her face. She suffered from PEM, protein energy malnourishment. The mother came in begging for some help, any help. Sister Flora called Kasey and I into a room with the mother and child and asked to see what we could do. I was confused at first because Sister Flora said there was nothing they usually do for cases like this. The Kenyan government does not have a welfare system like the United States, so millions go hungry with no other options. And Sr Flora also mentioned that this mother had come before asking for money, spent it on her other five children, and come back the next day. But How can you say no to a child, especially when they are asking for food money? You can't. Or at least I couldn't. So we walked up to the nearest supermarket and bought five months worth of porridge, with vitamin/immune boosters and told the mother to come to the clinic everyday and we will give her the food for the child, and also so we can monitor the child. But the next day she didnt come, and later we found out that another worker had given her an entire bag (which should last a month). We assume that she will use the bag to feed her other children, but I can't be upset. What would you do? I just hope that she will be giving the child with PEM enough of the food. The staff at the clinic saw how upset I was over this family, and their reassurance was slim because it happens so often. I don't know if I could handle another case like that, my respect for anyone who works in a third world country is enormous. Life is hard, and that's all there is to say.
Later that day we also had a patient who came in with multiple seizures, in fact he literally walked in the door, and immediately fell to the ground, seizing. The staff just kind of stood there, watching him. He seized in and out for about an hour, he had suffered a head injury from a previous seizure earlier that day and was urinating on himself so there was blood and urine everywhere. We couldn't move him until he stopped seizing but I was so angry that everyone just stood there watching him. Frustration is a daily occurrence for me, especially in the clinic. You have to watch what you say and do at all times because you don't want to push your values onto someone, or offend anyone but at the same time you have to push them because you are trying to save their life. The family of the seizure client also had no money, and again I coudn't say no to not helping them but fortunately we were able to transfer him to a hospital, and get his fees covered free of charge. We had to wait over an hour for the ambulance, which was a regular run-down taxi and driver. By then the day was too much for me, and I cried the whole way home. You try and leave things like that at the clinic but every time I see my own food or money, I see them. It's haunting. That was our roughest day thus far at the clinic.
But in other news, I got a new roommate. Our Russian roommate decided to leave for personal reasons and was replaced with Magda, a 25 yr old Polish girl who lives in the UK. We got along with her right away, but she may be moving to Mombasa later this week so it may be us Americans alone in the house.
Speaking of America.....
Yesterday, on the fourth of July we decided to show Kenya how we americans celebrate our independence, so we threw a killer party for about 15 people. I cooked hot dogs and hamburgers which I fried on a frying pan, made some fruit salad, bought some chocolate chip cookies, and of course we supplied our guests with some beer and liquor. One of our friends brought an American flag, and another brought some fireworks (which are illegal in Kenya) so we definetly celebrated to the best of our ability.
It was weird being away from home on the fourth,( Ill always prefer to celebrate the day-chicago style) but I definetly made up for it. I felt very american all day but Kasey and I both agreed that without the fireworks, it wouldn't have felt like the fourth. We played music and Kenyan poker (which is similar to Uno but a bit more complicated) until the morning and it's safe to say that we showed everybody a great time. Ironically I went to bed feeling more helpful than I ever have to the clinic.
Well I'm off to start another week in Kenya. Take care America.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.098s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 13; qc: 51; dbt: 0.0565s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
nikki sinnott
non-member comment
MISS YOU
i miss u soooooooooo much, lisa. i hope, and know, u r having the time of u're life. its cool to have a sister that does awesome things u do. its sweet that u took time to do all the things u've done the past years. miss u and hope u're having fun. :)