A Doctor's Kenyan Adventure 2005

I was both excited and apprehensive as I sat in the departure lounge at Heathrow Airport waiting for my flight to Nairobi, Kenya. I had just passed my medical school final exams, was officially a doctor and had 8 weeks of free time ahead of me before beginning my job as a Pre-Registration House Officer in February 2006. As such, I decided to use this time to gain valuable experience practising medicine in setting with extremely limited resources, in a country battling poverty, famine and the scourge of HIV/AIDS. As I have a special interest in immunology and HIV, travelling to Western Kenya, Nyanaza Province offered the perfect opportunity to widen my experience in this arena: Siaya District is particularly badly affected by HIV/AIDs with an estimated 50% of young people infected with the virus. Fifty percent of the population is under 9 years old and there are many orphans. I sorted out the trip last minute through a charity Moving Mountains and their sister company Adventure Alternative (AA).

I really had no idea what to expect when I got there but I was pleasantly surprised when I landed at Jomo Kenyatta Airport, Nairobi and was greeted by a bubbly and welcoming member of AA staff called Rosie. She immediately made me feel at home. I was very tired as I had hardly slept during the 8 hour journey as a result of all the nervous energy effervescing inside me as I anticipated the next 6 weeks in Kenya. Wide-eyed and exhausted, I was taken by Rosie and Gerard (the friendly taxi man) to the Kibera slums – the epicentre of Moving Mountains’ work in Kenya. It was a shocking and humbling experience as I met and talked with the former street kids about their lives and their work trying to get other children off the streets, building health clinics and orphanages throughout Kenya. The reason I had given up journalism and entered medicine was to try and make a real difference in people’s lives, to help in any small way I could. I found that this desire was slowly beaten out of me during medical school and a hard cynicism and selfish pragmatism had eaten into my very soul. Even on my first day in kenya, my soul was slowly being revived. The attitude and atmosphere in Kibera was infectiuosly positive – I was very happy!

I was then taken to the Giraffe Sanctuary where I met a very friendly and hungry giraffe – the giraffe hoovered food pellets from my hand with a Homer Simpson-like enthusiasm! We were supposed to take the overnight bus to Siaya but as the day wore on I realised I was becoming sick. In the end I decided it best to stay the night in a hotel in Nairobi and take the plane to Kisumu the next day after visiting Nairobi Hospital for some antibiotics. Kisumu is the 3rd largest city in Kenya, situated on the shores of Lake Victoria and 1 hour’s drive from the village of Wagai where the AA house is – my home for the next few weeks!

When I alighted the plane in Kisumu, the sun was setting over the beautiful green hills, the air was fresh and sweet compared to the stuffy polluted metropolis of Nairobi. Rosie and I took a matatu (crammed public transport vans) to Wagai. When we arrived in Wagai it was dark – v dark as there is only a couple of houses in Wagai with electricity! I met Helena and Fletch who were to be my fellow mzungu (white person) housemates for next few days. they were very welcoming giving us dinner and explaining how things work in the house and the village of Wagai. The house was very basic – no electricity and no running water! The toilet (a long drop) and shower (from a tank filled with river water) were in an outhouse! This was going to be an intersting experience! I went to bed with the sound of cockroaches scuttling about the place!

I awoke very early to the sound of roosters crowing and african music in the distance. I could tell most of the village was already up as i could hear chatter about the place. I decided to look around properly – our house backs onto a large maize field and we have two families as neighbours. As soon as I stepped out the door I was greeted by Maurice, Alice and the children that live around the place. Everywhere you walk around here you are greeted by “Mzungu , amosi (luo for how are you) or habari (swahili for how are you)”. The kids are particularly fascinated by mzungus – some even cry with fear as they have never seen a white skinned person before!

So much has happened since then but I don’t have time to fill in the rest of this blog until next week so you’ll have to make do with some pictures for now. I will tell all later! This is me closing a c-section at Siaya District Hospital and below is me with Phil (the aussie med student doing an elective at the same time as me – we are sharing the AA house now that Helena and Fletch have left – he is crazy – I will tell you more later!) with Dr. Ochieng and Dr. Phillip (our mentors). Below is also a picture of Rosie, Osman and I under the welcome to kisumu sign at the airport!

The other pictures are of us and our faithful driver Alfred during our trip to Kakamega Forest last weekend – we stayed in nice hotel and played golf – a far cry from Wagai! We saw many different types of monkeys and birds and had a good hike around the beautiful forest.

Finally – to my family and friends – sorry I can’t be with you to celebrate Xmas – have a great time – I miss you all!! ….Especially you (you know who you are!).