New calendar

New 2015 Rivatex calendar is on the wall at work. Rivatex is an Eldoret company that makes fabrics for a variety of uses. They start with bales of raw cotton and go from there. Every year we buy new cloth calendars as every year they feature a different animal (or bird). Funny thing is, they don't make them, or at least they aren't available in their store, until early February each year.

Home!

Home at last!

We have landed in Minneapolis

Brrr...

And for my Kenyan friends, this is -18c.

Amsterdam

You may see Starbucks and the golden arches of McDonald's, but we are at the Amsterdam airport.

Arrived Nairobi airport

We survived horrendous Nairobi traffic and made it to the airport. We checked in at the new terminal, which was built after the major fire they had a few years ago. The photo is of the Java House restaurant, all shiny, new, and expanded, now with full table service. The one thing the same is that's it's way too hot in here!

Nairobi traffic

Yuck!

Stopping to see a friend in Nairobi

We are working our way to the Nairobi airport and stopped to meet up with our friend, Lucy, who used to live in Eldoret but now lives in Nairobi and works for the UN.

Flowering cactus

Group photo at equator

Giraffe at the watering hole

Lilac-breasted roller

Lion kill

Lions killed a Cape buffalo sometime Wednesday night or in the wee hours Thursday morning. The first photo shows the lions on the kill Thursday morning with a jackal waiting in the foreground. The second shows the last lion abandoning the carcass Friday morning with jackals moving in. The third photo is nothing but jackals on the carcass. Patience pays off.

Striped hyena

Diana on the equator

Diana left for the US on Wednesday, but we brought her with us in our own way. Here she is at the equator.

Morning game drive

1,2: Giraffe, just after daybreak
3: Eland
4: Hooded Plover
5: Martial Eagle (with warthog below)
6: Rhino (young) with zebra in background
7: Giraffe in foreground with faint outline of Mount Kenya in the distance
8,9: Zebra and Eland at the watering hole at our resort

Sunset

Random safari photos

Waterbuck

This is a waterbuck. Can you also see the little baboon in the background? We saw these and a number of other animals between the airstrip and Sweetwaters, our home for the next two nights.

We have arrived at our safari camp

1. Susan and I in the plane
2. Aerial view of part of Eldoret
3. Flying over the leading edge of the great Rift Valley
4. Our plane on the local dirt airstrip

When landing, our pilot first buzzed the airstrip to scare away the zebras and antelope, then came around again and landed.

Leaving Eldoret

Time for our little charter flight to the Laikipia region for our safari.

Stoplight

Remnants of the one and only stoplight that Eldoret has had. Nobody obeyed it and therefore it actually caused more accidents and was quickly shut down.

Going away dinner

Presentation of gifts at our going away party.

Tuesday, last day of surgery

Here's the American ENT team ready for the last day of surgery. (Actually, Bruce and Kathi will come back after safari for a couple more weeks of surgeries before returning to Milwaukee, so it's not the last surgery day for them.)

Pictured: Diana, Kathi, Bruce, Aria, Kia, and Susan.

Three on a motorcycle

It's not uncommon to see three or even four on a motorcycle. In this photo, there are two passengers on a taxi motorcycle, so a total of three riders. The taxi motorcycle guys are always wearing a heavy coat even though it's 80-some degrees.

Time Clock

Here's the line at one of the hospital's time clocks at 5:10pm.

Thank you!

The team would like to thank the following for supporting this trip, helping the people of Kenya, and facilitating the ongoing relationship between the Kenyan and American ENT's:

In no particular order...
+Stryker, for sinus surgery supplies
+Smith & Nephew, for nasal packing
+Rubicon, for loan of a harmonic scalpel
+Covidien, for electrocautery electrode tips and grounding pads
+Checkpoint Surgical, for nerve simulators
+Ansell, for surgical gloves
+ Americares, for donating a variety of supplies
+ Greater indianapolis AORN for supporting Diana's participation
+Eskanazi, Riley, and Indiana University hospitals in Indianapolis, and Froedtert Hospital in Milwaukee, and their employees, for collecting and donating surplus surgical supplies
+Ukiah Valley Medical Center in Ukiah, California, for obtaining and donating specific, necessary supplies that the team otherwise couldn't get their hands on, in addition to collecting and donating surplus surgical supplies.

Sorry if I forgot anyone. So many helped!

Pictured: ENT's Henry, Susan, Owen, Sisenda, and Bruce.

Not pictured: Nurses Diana and Kathi, ENT Residents Kia & Aria, and yours truly.

Monday surgeries

Back to theatre on Monday for the surgical team. The getaway weekend is but a memory now. Tuesday will be the last day of surgeries for this trip.

Litter problem

Litter has been an obvious problem every year we've come to Kenya. It's not like there's house to house trash pick up like in the US. So you see litter everywhere along the streets. It often gets burned to get rid of it. It's not terribly unusual to see small trash fires along the side of the road and to smell burning plastic. The first and third photos show litter. The second shows dark spots that are the ash remains of small trash fires.

Environmental awareness has begun to reach the masses in Kenya. The fourth picture shows a sign in Nakumatt that wasn't there last year. I've also seen reusable bags for sale although I haven't seen anyone using them.