Porridge and Bananas

Today, Wiley went to the hospital around 8am to work in internal medicine ward. He is working on the male ward which consists of 20 beds in a long rectangular room with 1 to 2 patients per bed. So far Wiley has seen some very interesting cases – cryptococcal meningitis, an extra pulmonary TB involving the spine (POTTS disease), and metastastic esophageal carcinoma with a huge cervical lymphnode. I know this is a bunch of medical jargon, but I figured some people might find it interesting. Wiley’s day begins with a morning medical conference at 8am with all of the American and Kenyan doctors where a different doctor will get up and discuss an interesting case or topic of choice. Wiley will then pre-round for an hour, have chai (they have tea everyday at 10am here) and then round with the doctors. At 1pm, he either comes to the guesthouse for lunch or eats with a missionary family. After lunch, he goes to clinic and will admit and treat patients all afternoon. I think that that will pretty much be his schedule during the week while he is here - at least on this rotation. Today, Monday, I went with the Community Health Services out into the community to set up a prenatal and infant vaccination clinic. Carolyn, a public health major from Johns Hopkins, went with me. We only traveled about 20 kilometers, but the roads were so rough that it took us a while to get to the church that we would be setting up the clinic in. After everything was set up, there were about 30 or 40 mothers that came into the clinic with their infants. We prayed with them and then we were asked to introduce ourselves. They wanted to know what our names were, where we came from, how long we would be in Kenya, and if we were married or single. I thought it was funny that one of the few things they wanted to know about us was our relationship status. My first job was to help weigh the babies. This basically consisted of hanging them from a scale that was attached to a tree limb. I should have taken pictures so that you would know what I was talking about. While I was helping weigh the babies, one of the mothers pointed over at the fence and said, “they have come to see you”. I looked over at the fence and there were probably 40 school children staring at me. I am guessing that most of them haven’t seen too many Americans in their lives. I went over to them and said one of the few Swahili words that I know, “habari” which means “how are you?”. “Nziri”, they all chimbed back – “Fine”. That was basically the extent of our conversation. I asked if any of them knew English and one child said “how are you?”. We had already covered that topic so I realized we weren’t really going to get to know each other. Feeling a little desperate, I decided I would go with the handshake next. I didn’t realize that all 40 kids were going to want a handshake though! They were absolutely precious and I wish I could have played with them all day. After all of the babies had been weighed, I went back into the church and was given the job of administering the polio vaccine to the infants present. It basically just consisted of putting two drops into the babies’ mouths. That job didn’t take very long, so I went back outside and ended up talking to a woman named Jaqueline that knew English. She asked me how long I had been married and if I had any children. I told her 3 years and that I did not have any children, but I definitely wanted to have children one day. I think that she thought it was strange that I had been married for so long and had not had a baby, so she started to comfort me and tell me that God will provide and that I need to trust in His timing. I was confused at first, because I wasn’t sure if she had misunderstood what I had said, but quickly realized what she meant. Jaqueline had to leave for a little while and I began talking to another lady close by named Caroline. She had a 3 month old son with her named Kevin. As I was talking to Caroline, she asked me if I wanted some porridge. I said that I was fine, but she asked me again a few minutes later. I finally conceded and she brought me some along with a banana. I was very nervous about trying the porridge, but I could not say no to her offer for lunch. She brought it to me in a cup and it reminded me a little bit of watered down grits. I drank a few sips of it and it honestly didn’t taste bad, it was just a little bland. Caroline then told me something about how it was fermented and then I was thinking….there is no way that I can finish this. I knew I couldn’t pour it out, so I just took very small sips every once in a while. She asked me about having children and again was comforting me that God would provide. Jaqueline came back and Caroline said, "I have to go home now, Jacqueline is back so you have someone to talk to". I realized then that she had stayed around and probably eaten lunch with me rather than at her house so that I would not be alone and would have someone to talk to. I am always humbled on these trips, when I think I am the one going to serve and it turns out that the people I am there to serve end up serving and being a blessing to me. It was such a wonderful day to be able to meet some of the women of the Bomet community and to minister to and be ministered to by these women. We were basically at the clinic all afternoon and left around 4pm. We got back to Tenwek in time to eat dinner with everyone else at the guesthouse. My computer is about to die....so that is it for now. I will update more tomorrow!