Coke Zero

Sodas are overwhelmingly from the Coca Cola family and in reusable glass bottles with a deposit. As Coke consumption gets displaced by diet coke, they have simply added a "without sugar" stamp on old coke bottles. At a glance, it's hard to notice, especially when the bottle is full.

Lake Baringo

We were driven to the shores of Lake Baringo, boarded a boat to the island, but right by the shore (not the island) was a crocodile. Yikes!

Equal opportunity

Here are the Campbells' cats with a close-up of Milo.

Going separate ways

Our first week is over. Kazim, Jesse, and Bharat could only stay for one week, so they are making their way back to Nairobi with a stopover at Lake Nakuru for a brief safari. Here's a picture they sent us.

The rest of us are going to Lake Baringo for the weekend, returning tomorrow (Sunday).

Our dogs

We received pictures of our three dogs from their sitter overnight. Glad to get a report that they are doing well. Top photo includes one of their dogs (dark Chihuahua in middle) along with Malaika (top), Rudy (lowe left), and Moshi (right).

Indiana ties

Here's the subset of our group with Indiana ties posing in the operating theatre hall yesterday.

Susan, Kyle, Avi, Diana, Mohan, & Kazim

Who loves a mall?

Emily is excited to be in the Rupa Mall last night. Too bad for her, all stores were already closed when we made it to a restaurant there.

Bharat's gallery

Bharat found his gallery in the Rupa Mall when we went to dinner last night.

Teaching medical students

In addition to our residents giving lectures (as shown in photos with Kazim), they also taught suturing to the students and provided a hands-on workshop. I don't have any photos, but they made a long slice down an unpeeled banana and then stitched it up.

Water

One upgrade at IU House over the last year is this water filtration system near the dining room in building  #2. The bottom two pictures are from previous years where they used to boil water and put it in big urns. Now you can get your water for drinking and tooth brushing right out of the tap. We reuse plastic bottles and take them to our room.

Ingenuity

Check this out. Bicycle modified to power a grinder.

Student lecture

The residents in our group often give lectures to medical students. Here, Jesse is starting a presentation.

Dukas

There are little shops, or dukas (Swahili), along the roads just outside the downtown area near the hospital. They sell milk, sodas, fruit, bread, candy, etc.

Every day is laundry day

Every day is laundry day at the hospital as patient's families wash their laundry with soap and water in their plastic basins and hang to dry. They used to lay laundry all over the bushes to dry. Now there are clothes lines.

Motorcycle taxis

Waiting for customers. They're busier during rush hour taking people to and from work.

The easy way to carry

I'm always impressed how Kenyans (always women?) can balance and carry things on their head. This woman is looking at a piece of paper as she walks. I suspect she's making a delivery and looking for the address.

Pay toilet, 10 cents

No thanks!

Glasses repair

Susan's reading glasses fell apart and a screw was lost. Easy enough to find an optical shop who replaced the screw and put them back together for 50 cents.

Road construction, part 2

Here's the guy placing rocks by hand. There is a taught reference string he's using to place them all at the same level.

Commemorative hats

We always bring gifts to our Kenyan hosts. This tradition has grown over the years and we now include pretty much everyone that has interaction with our group. Bruce and Kathi brought 100(?) reusable shopping bags they designed and ordered, and they also designed and ordered 50 or 60 of these hats for those helping in the Operating rooms. And for us. Those were shipped from the manufacturer to Diana to bring. the hats are here while the shopping bags remain in the luggage still held by customs in Nairobi.

We broke out the hats after pizza last night. Here's Emily, Bharat, Avi, and Kazim trying them on.

ENT Residents

Here are the ENT Residents on our team:

Emily (UCSD), Jesse (UCSD), Bharat (UCSD), Kazim (IU)

For my mom and others, UCSD= University of California, San Diego.

Pizza delivery

The delivery app notified me when the delivery motorcycle departed the restaurant. It also provided live tracking but stated that the driver's GPS signal was weak, so that part didn't really work. But he showed up when expected. We all enjoyed our pizzas and some of us had some South African Merlot and Tuskers.

Internet age

Don't even think Kenya is behind the times with internet technology. The surgery team will be working late tonight. It's after 8pm and they have two surgeries well under way with one more shorter case to follow.

I decided to order a bunch of pizzas from a place I've ordered from before that offers delivery to IU House. This time I had to download an app and order through it.

"The basket weaver has been relocated"

I've been seeing the basket weaver along the road to the hospital for years.  Here's a story about him: https://hivisasa.com/posts/1155-meet-samson-charles-the-weaver

Now there is an official sign at his spot.  The county relocated him. Here's a story on that: https://hivisasa.com/posts/67387634-charles-the-weaver-who-was-evicted-by-county-askaris-gets-an-alternative-place

Sent from Kyle's iPhone

Road construction

This was always a dirt road that is now being paved. When they pave a road here, they start with a base of rocks that are (1) broken from bigger rocks by men using sledge hammers and (2) are crammed next to each other by hand. They are packed in tight. Smaller rocks and gravel will then be spread and eventually topped with asphalt placed by machine. It's a long process but a strong road.

In the second, zoomed-in photo, the rock in the background has been broken to size and placed while the rocks in the foreground still need to be broken into smaller pieces still.

Impeachment on TV news

Nope. Not President Trump. A governor in Kenya.

Prize winning photo?

Diana carrying a child in the hall, outside the Operating rooms before surgery.

Seeing a photo like this makes me a bit emotional. I'm blaming the jetlag.

Surgeries

Some random photos from theatre Tuesday

Brief update

Tuesday morning here in Kenya. The gang is in the "Operating Theatre" today.

Mohan arrived yesterday morning and joined the clinic fray and brought more supplies.

"More supplies" is good because our 8 pieces of luggage that didn't make it with us are now being held by customs In Nairobi. It can be very difficult to deal with bureaucracy here. There's always another form or papers requested and taxes or other fees. Government agencies do not care about us or the people we are helping. They just want their forms and whatever fees they can collect. It feels like the reason there are these boxes everywhere (photo) is because it all feels like everyone is on the take. But in full disclosure, nobody has explicitly or implicitly asked for a bribe.

We are working multiple avenues to get our luggage released. Our travel agent is working her contacts. The IU team is trying to push the hospital here to be more supportive. But there seems to be a power struggle between hospital administration and IU. And finally, Kazim on our team is originally from Tanzania and knows the culture better and speaks Swahili. He's made many phone calls that have gotten us heard by perhaps the right people. But for now, we are missing a lot of supplies the team would love to have.

Clinic

Clinic is underway. There are multiple "stations" working, staffed with our surgeons and local surgeons.

ready for clinic day

Here's the gang (Except Mohan who is on his way from Nairobi), ready to head to the ENT clinic.

The local clinicians have pre-screened patients over the last few months.

The goal today is to examine those patients, probably 100+, and determine who will have surgery and on what day, typically about 40 total.

Those not getting surgery by the team may need more tests, may need a simpler surgery that can be performed after we leave, may not have a surgical problem, or may simply not make the cut due to our limited time and resources.

L to R: Emily, Jesse, Bruce, Kathy, Bharat, Kazim, Avi, Diana, and Susan.

Siam Chinese restaurant

Late lunch at my favorite restaurant

"Indiana House"

We have arrived at Indiana House in Eldoret.

Menu

Hmmm. Here's a small part of the restaurant menu at the hotel last night. By the way, a nice Four Points Sheraton...

Jambojet

Our plane