Day 10 - Clicking on all cylinders... or well more anyway

I think I am finally understanding that my role within the health system here is more of an observer of a different system and to learn the different way in which things are done here. I had expectation that I would be able to do a lot because the area was so resource poor. I mistakenly understood resource poor to also imply workforce poor, which isn’t the case. Certainly, the training to become a medical professional isn’t as extensive in Kenya as it is in the US, but it doesn’t mean that they are lacking health care professionals (at least not in the hospital system). So, I have become more content to watch the goings-on of the hospital and do a comparison of how things would be back home.

Today, I got to participate in 2 SVDs after rounds in the maternity ward when we got to see a cervical tear. The cervical tear was a bloody mess and something that I hadn't see yet. Of the deliveries, the first woman was a primagravida. Undoubtedly even primas take shorter to deliver here than in the US. I also think great lengths are taken to ensure that the woman delivering is as comfortable and calm as possible in the US. Here, they are pretty much left in a room (these actually have walls between them with a curtain for a door) to get through the 1^st stage of labor alone. No pain meds. No real explanation of what is going on (even for the primagravida). Undisturbed save for a vaginal exam or 2 to monitor their progress. C-sections are similar save for a few key differences. However, vaginal deliveries seem to be a whole different cup of tea and are very different than the process I am used to in the US.

For a country and culture that prizes modesty so much, I am still surprised despite several days of maternity wards that Caroline and I are the only ones who seem to make much of an effort to close the curtains when we enter a leave a room. The woman sits on the bed mostly or completely naked and has strangers parade in, the least I can do is make sure the curtain is closed after I enter and exit.

After we left the hospital, all of us (Sid, Gaurav, Caroline, Charley and I) ate at one of Sid's favorite Chinese food places - Kenyan style, of course. We just let him order a bunch of food for the table and then ate family style so we could try a little bit of everything. It was AMAZING! (No pictures of the food, sorry! I am trying to get better at taking pictures of the food I'm eating but usually by the time the food hits the table my first thought is "eat," not "picture time.")

After Chinese food, I had a lazy evening where the girls (Caroline and Charley) came over to the house I’m staying in and we read by the pool since we had had a whirlwind kind of evening the night before. The beach in Nyali (very close to the house here) has incredibly fine sand so even a little bit of wind is enough to start turning us into a little sand dune as the sand starts to build up around you. So, we decided to take a break from the sand and give the pool a shot today. It was a nice change to not leave the beach covered in a fine dusting of sand.