Hospital grounds

The interior hospital grounds are quite beautiful. There are open air covered walkways connecting the buildings together.

Downtown Eldoret

Downtown Eldoret is...
Loud
Colorful
Crowded
Energetic
Odiferous
Dusty
And interesting every time I visit.

Kenyan money

I'm rich! Below is a 1,000ksh bill. The "ksh" refers to Kenyan Shillings, or Shilingi. Other abbreviations or notations that mean the same thing are "KES" and "/=". All bills have the same picture on the front (see the 100ksh bill) but different depictions on the back.

Note that the physical size of the bill varies with its relative value. The 1,000 is larger than the 200 and so on.

This 50ksh bill looks darker. Why? It's simply old and well-worn. And probably a little dirty.

Quiz for school kids:
Today's exchange rate is 85.95ksh per $1. How much money, in dollars, is shown in the picture?

Happy girl

Diana gets a 2 liter "Coke Light".

Back to school

Todd and I are taking Swahili lessons from 8:00 to 9:00 every morning. Here is Todd with Wycliffe, our mwalimu (teacher).

Thursday sunrise

Here's the early morning view from our window that looks out beyond the IU housing complex.

Here, near the equator, days and nights are about 12 hours each, year round. Sunrise is around 6:30am and sunset around 6:30pm. I remember when we had Kenyan visitors in the summertime in Indiana and it was quite a shock to them that the sun didn't set until nearly 10:00pm with our long days and daylight savings time.

End of day Wednesday

The team finished a little earlier on Wednesday. Bryan and Marisa finished their day by seeing more potential surgery patients back in the ENT clinic. Others finished in the theatre and completed rounds. All was complete about 8:00.

Afterwards, we had dinner at Sanjeel Indian restaurant.

All in all a successful day.

Quiz for Hart girls

Here's a quiz for the girls that live next door to us.

We discovered that this plastic bag is leaking a clear liquid. It's all wet on the outside. Should we throw the whole bag away?

Cell phones

We all now have working Kenya cell phones. Having them is important to us as communication is really necessary throughout the day. Everyone ends up dispersing some during the day and we all seem to need to call and/or text each other. Even the surgeons end up all over the place. They may start the day in the theatre but eventually one goes to see patients in the ENT clinic and someone else goes to the ward to round on earlier surgery patients but they inevitably have questions for each other. They also call me. For anything and everything. From "I need you to find the nasal packing back at IU House and bring it immediately" to "can you bring some cokes?" to "where are we going for dinner?"

So one of my jobs is to get a phone for everyone. We've collected some phones over the years that work here. We brought 6 with us and have now collected 4 more. Since I'm a phone snob, I'm using an iPhone 4 from home that I recently replaced with a new iPhone 5. I'm using it to call, text, and post blog entries. I have a good 3G data connection here as we'll as wifi at IU house.  Most of the phones we use here are very simple talk/text phones as shown in the photo.

It used to be very easy to get cell service in Kenya.  The 4 cell companies happily gave away SIM cards and phone numbers to anyone who would take them, hoping that the user would buy pre-paid air time from them. But recently the Kenyan government enacted legislation requiring that all phone lines be "registered" in a bid to combat crime. (www.bbc.co.uk/news/10366235)

To make a long story a little shorter, after 4 visits to an Airtel store, I finally have all our numbers registered and the phones working. Unfortunately, these lines will automatically be shut off after going 3 months without being used. So when we return next, I'll have to get new SIM cards and phone numbers and register them again. The good news is after my 4 visits to the store, I now know that I can register all the phones with my passport (and don't really need to register them to each user) AND I now know the codes that the employees send via the phone to initiate the registration process, so in the future, I can buy the SIM cards and airtime and register them myself. 

I mentioned they are pre-paid phone lines (as are the vast majority here.)  You buy airtime by purchasing a "scratch card" for your carrier from any shop, scratch off the gray coating (like in a scratch-off lottery ticket) and use your phone to send the code, which then adds the money amount to your phone number. Then after each call that you make or text you send, you get a message telling you what it cost and what your balance is. It costs nothing to receive a call or text, only to call or send. The lower picture is an example of how the message appears on my iPhone. This result is from a 2 minute call that I made. If you convert the Kenyan schillings to $US, my call cost $0.08 and my remaining balance is $3.80. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Diana's secret

Diana admits she is in a position of power in the theatre. But she reveals the source of her power. She has the keys to the storage areas for our supplies, and she has the bottle opener for the cokes that Todd and I bring in.

Friends and family, 2013

Friends and family members always seem to request a consult when we are here. Sometimes they lead to surgery. This time, no. Susan broke scrub for a quick lunch when one of the hospital anesthetists showed up with his son who has had a history of sore throats and thought maybe his tonsils were giving him trouble. His tonsils looked fine but he is suffering from a virus. Just like back home, the cold and flu viruses seem to be pretty popular here, too.

Lunch

Lunch is brought in daily for the "ENT surgical camp". This is a typical Kenyan lunch. a piece of fried chicken, rice, cabbage, and a chapati.

(Homework assignment for school kids: what is a chapati?)

Wednesday surgeries

There are 5 surgeries scheduled for today. In one room there will be a large tumor removal that will take all day. The other 4 cases will be in the other room.

Diana runs the show

...from her perch between the two operating rooms.

Tuesday

On Tuesday, the team had their first day in the O.R., or the operating "theatre" as they say here. Seven surgeries were completed. I'm not sure what the cases were but know they included at least a thyroidectomy and parotidectomy. The last surgery ended around 9pm. Afterwards, we had our bus take us to dinner at Mama Mia, a favorite restaurant nearby. 

The nursing team spent a lot of time sorting through the supplies we brought and organizing them and the stock room that we use in the theatre area. Diana has negotiated that a smaller room be dedicated to ENT supplies. Todd and I will look at it today and see if we can work with the hospital buildings/construction people to build storage shelves. Hopefully if we pay for the materials they will obtain them and supply the labor. 

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Drinking water

We have abundant drinking (and tooth brushing) water at IU House. Every day water is filtered and then boiled in this giant pot over a propane burner. It is then poured into large urns from where we can refill our water bottles.

Weather forecast

With apologies to those back home suffering in the sub-freezing temperatures, here's our weather forecast. By the way, we also have low humidity and comfortable breezes...

Entrance to IU House complex

The picturesque entrance to the IU House complex.

Room at IU House

Here's our room at IU House. Kind of like a big dorm room. Basic but functional.

Guard dogs

The intimidating guard dogs at IU House.

Monday, end of day

Clinic ended around 9pm Monday. The team saw 60 patients. They signed up many for surgery. Others require CT scans or additional testing and will be reviewed again in clinic in the next few days.

After clinic, we had our bus take us to Siam, the Chinese restaurant. It was nice to finally kick back and relax a bit.

In these pictures, Kristina is taking a moment to teach a med student while seeing a patient in clinic, and Todd is feeling the effects of being jet-lagged and sleep deprived. We were all running on fumes by Monday evening.

Staff bus and luggage

We have been given use of a driver and the hospital's bus. The picture doesn't show the bus's age. It's rather old but functional.

Our luggage arrived in Eldoret about 6pm on Monday so Marisa, Todd, and I and our bus retrieved it. Wow, that's a lot of heavy luggage. It's hard to maneuver it through the narrow isle and onto seats.

Watch your step

Elgon View Road, outside of IU House. Watch your step as you begin your walk toward the hospital. Your shoes will get dirty enough without stepping in a "pie".

Monday clinic

Here are a couple of snapshots from Monday afternoon clinic. Note in upper photo, many med students are being instructed while the patient is being examined and "scoped".

Full house at Indiana House

This board shows who's staying at the complex. It's way past full. But this gives an idea of the scope of the IU-Kenya partnership and participation.

Indiana House

Ahhhh. We have safely arrived at Indiana House in Eldoret. We will have an orientation of the complex, then have lunch, and then head to the hospital and the medical people will conduct clinic.

Flight to Eldoret

Ready to board our turboprop to Eldoret. Row 9 for me. It's the last row of the plane!

Back to the airport

Time to rally and go back to the airport for our early flight to Eldoret. We had about 3 hours or so at the Fairview hotel. It's hard to imagine being so tired but hardly able to sleep because your body knows its 5pm back home and should be watching NFL playoff games.

Arriving in Nairobi

We arrived safely. Here we are rounding up our 22 pieces of checked luggage at the Nairobi airport.

Delayed in Amsterdam

We are delayed leaving Amsterdam due to a problem with the motor for one of the cargo doors. So far it's been 2 hours. Hopefully we will depart soon.

Sent from Kyle's AT&T iPhone

Arrived in Amsterdam

The JFK group has arrived in Amsterdam. Hopefully we will meet up with the others soon.

Heading to Amsterdam

We have boarded our flight to Amsterdam. We are at JFK. Others went through Detroit. And one couple is flying from Seattle. But we will all meet up in Amsterdam for the flight to Nairobi.

Who's on this trip and how many times will they have been to Kenya? (R)= rookie. 😄

Susan (8) and Kyle (6) Cordes
Ed (3) and Donna (3) Weisberger
Kristina Hart (R) and Todd Harder (R)
Bryan McRae (R)
Diana Sullivan (4)
Marisa Dunn (R)
Debra Rose (R)

Susan, Ed, and Kristina are ENT surgeons, Bryan is an ENT Resident. Diana, Marisa, and Debra are nurses. The others, us spouses, are "support staff".

Indy airport

Many of our group are at Harry & Izzy's enjoying our now traditional pre-flight lunch.

Departure day

Today we begin our journey back to Eldoret. The hardest thing for us is to leave Moshi behind. We will take him to his sitter's house In a couple of hours. It's tough to leave but we are anxious to get under way and to finally get there on Monday.

Our good friend and neighbor Larry Lazarz will haul us and an extreme amount of luggage to the airport. Susan is very good at maximizing the supplies we take by ensuring that we and all participants use their entire allotment of checked bags. We just discovered this week that Delta will allow Susan and I to each check three 50# bags, plus bring a carry-on. We can check three each because of our frequent flier status. It will be a relief when we get it all checked in and an even bigger relief when it is all in Eldoret.

Speaking of supplies and extreme amounts of luggage, we have made arrangements to have the bulk of our luggage sent by truck from Nairobi to Eldoret. It is too much to take on our Kenya Airways flight to Eldoret. We should arrive in Eldoret early Monday while our luggage should catch up with us late in the afternoon.