To my friends and family: We have been planning this trip for many months now and the time is finally here. Our group will spend the first few days in Frankfurt, Germany more or less just for fun! We will then travel to Mombasa, Kenya where the real work begins. We will volunteer in the local hospital as well as spend many hours with the children of the orphanage in Mombasa. I will do my best to post at least once a day to keep you up to date on happenings and pictures. I hope you enjoy!
I am still absolutely in awe that my trip is coming to an
end. I woke up unusually early this morning. I think I am just anxious about
the next 20 hours I get to spend in a plane. We are going to get ready and make
sure the bags are all packed and under that 50lb limit. The vans will be here
to get us at 12:30 this afternoon and then the journey back home begins. I am
excited to see my family and get a Big Mac, but there is so much here that I am
going to miss as well. I feel like I have done so much and experienced more
than I could have even imagined.
The Lion King has been a common
theme this whole trip, and the words from the song “The Circle of Life” seem
fitting as I pack my bags to leave.
“There's more to see than can ever
be seen More to do than can ever be done. There's far too much to take in here More to find than can ever be found.”
Friday was more or less a day of bonding for us. While
leaving the hospital and Kenya will be hard, leaving these wonderful people
will be the hardest. For the last month we eat, work, and sleep right next to
the same group of people, and it will be hard to go back to the busy life we
all have back home. We will certainly do our best to keep in touch with each other.
So Friday we spent much of the morning and early afternoon hanging out by the
pool and reminiscing about all the things we have done and seen together while
we have been here. I wanted to get a head start on packing since I knew I would
be mad at myself if I left it all to do Saturday morning. It took me a while,
but I got most of it back in the suitcases and they zipped! We made dinner
plans at one of the best seafood restaurants in Mombasa. The food was
absolutely amazing! Once again, we spent most of the meal talking about how
hard it is to believe that our time here is done.
After
dinner a group of us took off for the hospital, for one last go around. Luckily
it was a slow evening in casualty. We spent most of the time taking vitals of
patients waiting to see the doctor. We went up to Main Theatre to see if there
was anything going on, but we had just missed the surgery and they were just
closing up. Before we left we gave all of our scrubs to the nurses there and
they were very grateful for them. It was a little after midnight when we made
it back to the compound. We discussed plans for Saturday, and headed to bed. It
would be my last nights sleep in Kenya.
This morning was kind of a sad realization that this was our
last morning at the hospital. Thursdays and Fridays are the days that surgeons
from around the world come to Coast General, so first thing this morning a
group of us headed up to main theater to check out the surgery list. We didn’t
really care what the surgery was so we just jumped in on the first one that
started. The patient was a man with esophageal cancer. The surgeon operating
was a cardiothoracic surgeon, and his plan was to open up the man’s abdomen and
attempt to reach the part of the esophagus that needed to be removed by going
up through the diaphragm and into the chest cavity. After nearly two hours of
searching, the surgeon said that he was unable to find the section of the
esophagus and they were going to close him up. That wasn’t the end, however. He
was going to keep trying. They stitched up the abdomen and rotated the man so
that the surgeon could then attempt to reach the esophagus by going through the
side of the chest cavity in between the man’s ribs on his right side. As much
as I wanted to see them open up the chest cavity, we had told our driver to be
there to pick us up at noon so we had to leave.
As
we are getting ready to walk out the door, Alexa tells me to go peak into
casualty. The night before there had been a massacre in Tana River just up the
coast from Mombasa. There had been a feud between two tribes over pastureland
and water. Warriors attacked the unsuspecting villagers in the early morning
hours on Wednesday. In total, they reported that the warriors killed 31 women,
11 children, and 6 men. When I walked into casualty, the doctors were
unwrapping the wounds on a woman lying on the bed. Words can’t tell you how
horrified I was by what I was about to see. Keep in mind, at this point, nearly
a day and a half has gone by since this woman was attacked. She was originally
taken to a hospital in Malindi, further north up the coast. She was then
transferred here because they didn’t have the medical capabilities to treat
her. Not that Coast General is much further ahead. They unwrapped the woman’s
head to reveal a four-inch gash on the top of her skull, still wide open, but
no longer bleeding. Her entire head seemed lopsided due to the massive swelling
around the gash. The doctors continued and my stomach clenched. The woman had
been sliced with a machete across her face. From her right ear diagonally
across her face, above her lips, to the lower portion of her left cheek. Her
upper left jawbone had been broken so badly that it was upside down and her top
left molar teeth were sticking out of her face upside down. It was difficult to
even make sense of what body parts were supposed to be where. Her lips were
intact, but located in the lower left corner of her face now. I just stood
there in awe, trying to hold back the tears. Next they went to her right arm
and hand, which were also bandaged up. At this point, I was ready for almost
anything. She had been sliced open on the inside of her forearm so deep that
muscles, tendons, and even bone were showing. Even though they had given her
some pain medication, she winced and mumbled as the doctors attempted to pull
the bandage out of her wound. It was painful to watch her try to speak because
her lips would move, but her mangled jawbone and exposed teeth remained still.
Next they moved to her hand wound. Her entire palm had been sliced open on her
right hand. From between her thumb and index finger, all the way to the outer
corner of her wrist. When they opened it up I could see the bone from her
forearm sticking out through the wound. Every tendon in her had had been
severed and were visible through the gash. The cut caused her to lose all
function of her fingers on that hand. It looked as though she had attempted to
grab the blade of the knife. While, it was painful to even look at, it was
amazing that the woman was still alive. The doctor informed us that her entire
family had been killed in the attack and a stranger had taken her to the
hospital.
I had seen about all I could
handle, and our ride was waiting outside. All of us made the assumption that
they would clean her wounds and then send her for emergency surgery right away.
Chris, one of the guys with our group, wants to go into reconstructive dental
surgery so he stayed with the hopes that he would get to watch her surgery.
Later that afternoon, Chris came
back to the compound frustrated. The doctors had sutured together the wounds
that they could, and that was it. She didn’t have money to pay for the surgery
so she wouldn’t get it. The surgery costs 6000 Kenyan Shillings: about 71 USD.
Omar, one of the doctors we have been working with here, said they would most likely
put in a feeding tube since she is unable to eat with the damage to her face.
I apologize for the graphic detail,
but even now, as I type it out, the image of this innocent woman lying there
burns in my mind. There is nothing more frustrating to me than to have to sit back
and watch as absolutely nothing is done to help her. Most of us had a hard time
ignoring the fact that it was bothering us that evening.
After
leaving the hospital that afternoon, a group of us wanted to make one more trip
to Old Town to enjoy the tourist area of Mombasa once more before we leave. We
spent a few hours there before heading back to the compound for dinner. We had
a get-together planned for the evening as kind of a going away party. We
invited Omar, the doctor from the hospital and the staff from the compound. We
had fun sitting around the pool playing cards and talking about how we weren’t quite ready to
leave Kenya.
Once again, this morning was spent at the hospital. One of
the last things I wanted to see while at Coast General Hospital was a live
natural birth, so I started off in maternity. There were two women in labor one
of which was expected to deliver naturally and the other was having some
complications and would most likely be taken up to have a C-section. We hung
out for a while (patience is key in this ward) and eventually the nurse came to
tell us that she was ready to push. The whole experience was almost exactly
what I would have expected, with one exception. The mothers don’t receive any
medication while in labor and I have yet to hear one scream. They just act like
it is no big deal. The natural birth completed my list of things I wanted to
witness, and now the adoption route is looking much more enticing.
The
delivery process took a while, so it was noon before I left the maternity ward.
A few of us girls had been planning to get some authentic henna tattoos. We
were admiring one of the doctor’s tattoos and she referred us to her aunt to do
them for us. Megan and I walked over there when we left the hospital and for
only 200 shillings I got a tattoo on my arm and my foot! I love it!
After the henna dries, you scratch off the paste and it leaves a temporary stain on your skin
After
lunch a few of us enjoyed one more day at the beach in the sun. When the tide
came in and the shade covered our towels, we went back to the compound for
dinner. We utilized the free WiFi at Café Mocha this evening, but I plan to
call it an early evening tonight now that my blog is up to date once again!
Sorry for the delay!
Tuesday
morning my sinus infection had settled to my lungs and every breath was
painfully accompanied by a cough. Regardless, I was back to my normal routine
and off to the hospital at 8am. I spent most of the day in Minor Theatre. I
removed my first stitches. A man had been cut in four different places with a
knife and had about 25 stitches to be removed. He was quite a character and
spoke very limited English. Next, I was confronted with a very sad case, which
I won’t soon forget. A woman, about 35 years old, came in for a dressing
change. As she undressed, I could see the massive tumors in each of her
armpits. I removed the bandage that covered the scar from having both of her
breasts removed due to cancer. When the bandage was off I could see more
tumors. Where the scar was, new tumors had begun to grow like little mountains
of skin out through the opening. The cancer was eating her body alive. The
doctor explained that the chemotherapy and radiation they have here is rather
ineffective and outrageously expensive. After her surgery to remove the
original breast cancer, she hadn’t been able to afford the therapy and the
cancer had grown out of control. The doctor had me redress the tumors and
gaping holes in her chest, and sent her to oncology. When she was gone the
doctor confirmed what I had already suspected; she was sent to oncology for
them to tell her that it was late stage wide spread cancer and she wasn’t going
to receive much help. It was a really hard concept for me to accept. A few more
wound dressings and a pretty insane debridement (removal of the infection and
dead tissue) of a man’s foot ended my day in Minor.
That
afternoon we all headed to the beach for a drink and some sand time. Even
though we have spent many days at the beach, every time I catch a view of the
ocean down that path, it takes my breath away. It’s so naturally beautiful.
Oh,
by the way….I finally got to ride the camel!
We
headed home for dinner, and then off to Cafesserie for dessert. Since the café
is in the City Mall, a few of us wandered the stores for a while. The City Mall
is one of the most modern places I’ve been while here in Mombasa. It has
escalators and four floors (even though each floor consists of only one small
circle around the escalator – 3 or 4 stores). Our walk around the mall ties
with the Dark Knight Movie going experience for “most American experiences”
while in Kenya.
Monday
morning came too soon, and we packed up once again to load the bus back to
Nairobi at 9 am. The trip was long and to top things off, I had woken up with
what felt like a horrible sinus infection. I couldn’t breath and felt like my
eyeballs were literally going to pop out of my face. Even with sleeping pills,
it was impossible for me to sleep or even get comfortable for that matter. We
rolled back into Mombasa bus station around 6:30 pm where our drivers picked us
up and took us back to the compound. A few people took off for the café that
evening, but I was headed straight to bed.
Sunday morning we were instructed to be up for a cup of tea
or coffee and then in the vans before the sun rose. We headed out to the park
and were among the zebras and wildebeest when the sun peaked over the
mountains. Absolutely one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.
The sun
was up when we found a lioness feasting on her latest kill, a wildebeest. She
was absolutely content to let us watch her and take pictures. When she was full
she got up and wandered off as if we weren’t even there.
We saw all our
favorites one more time: lion, zebras, elephants, and giraffes before we headed
back to camp for a full breakfast, shower, and packed up. We were back in the vans
to tackle that awful two-hour stretch of road once again. When we finally
cleared the gravel and were lifted onto pavement we broke out in cheers! We
still had a two hour drive to get back to the same hostel we had stayed at
Thursday night in Nairobi. When we finally made it there, most of us took a short nap
since we had been up since 5:30 am and then got ready for our dinner
reservations. That evening we ate at the world renown best restaurant in Kenya,
“Carnivore”. We were all really excited to have some real meat after all the
noodles, rice, and bread we had been eating since we arrived in Kenya.
The
restaurant was all you can eat, and as we walk in the door, we see a huge fire
pit with tens of swords with huge slabs of meat cooking over the fire. We sat
down and ordered a drink before we were served, bread, mini corncobs, and mini
pizza as an appetizer. Then the salad showed up. Then rotating trays of special
dipping sauces and salsas. Then the real fun began. The waiters flooded our
table carrying swords of huge chunks of meat. They would set the tip of the
sword on your plate and use their machete to slice you a section. We were
served, pork sausages, roast beef, lamb, pork loin, pork ribs, crocodile, prime
rib, ostrich meat, fried chicken, ox testicles (yes, I tried them), ostrich
meatballs, chicken wings, and turkey. Since the meal was all you can eat, the
rounds kept coming. I had had all I could take. There was a white flag on the
table and when no one could eat any thing else, we waved the white flag in
surrender. They cleared our plates and brought us the dessert menu. I topped
off the night with a wonderful piece of cheesecake covered in passion fruit
sauce. DELICIOUS.
The circle fire pit where all the meat is cooked
We
headed back to our hostel and once again sat around the fire pit in the bar playing
cards and talking. It was a great ending to an amazing safari.
