Reminders, Fulfillment, and Adventuring

Hello again! My life since last updating you all has been a mix of consistency in my daily work and having some fun adventures in my free time.

My everyday work at the clinic has fallen back into normalcy after the medical camp and the doctor I work with being away for a few weeks. While most of our patients continue to be run-of-the-mill cases of infections and chronic illness, we have had quite a few more complicated cases over the past few weeks. As I become more comfortable in this community and have formed relationships with some of our regular patients, these difficult cases have become more poignant examples of the struggles faced by people living in Kibera. I am only becoming more aware of how certain socioeconomic and environmental barriers present here affect the daily lives and healthcare access of the people we treat in the clinic. Every day we treat people with H. pylori who will take their antibiotics as directed only to be reinfected in a few short weeks or are not helped by them regardless due to antibiotic resistance. Or we see children with asthma and chronic respiratory infections whose lungs cannot heal because of the poor air quality. Then, of course, there are also thousands of people in Kibera living with noncommunicable “lifestyle” diseases who have no access to make the lifestyle changes necessary to adequately control and prevent such illnesses. The list could go on but, all this to say the impact of these society-level issues has become all the more evident to me as I put them in the context of the people that have been so kind, welcoming, and friendly to me over these past few months.

With all this being said, seeing patients every day and having those relationships with them and getting to see them improve from the care we provide continues to be so fulfilling. A patient who first came in nearly a month ago for an infected c-section incision came back this week to finally have her stitches removed and will recover well. The young man with fatty liver disease and rheumatic heart disease has been coming back for regular check-ups and has recovered exponentially since we first saw him in September. We had a female patient who needed an EKG and felt uncomfortable getting undressed in front of the male doctor, so she asked me to run the test instead of him. While I know that any woman would have been a comfort to her in that moment, I can’t describe how fulfilling it was to know that I was a comfort and safe space to her when she was feeling a lot of stress over having the test. I could go on and on.

In my free time these past few weeks, I have had the joy of spending time exploring the city and surrounding area with a fellow volunteer, Brigitte. I have shown her the places I have come to love about Nairobi and we have discovered a few new favorites as well. She enjoys being in nature and taking walks nearly as much as I do and it’s so refreshing to have someone here who I have that in common with. We have taken walks around the Nairobi Arboretum and took a day trip to visit Hell’s Gate and Lake Naivasha. Hell’s Gate is the inspiration for the landscape in The Lion King and is considered “Kenya’s Grand Canyon.” We saw the rock that inspired Pride Rock in the movie and took a long walk through the gorge of the canyon. On a boat safari around Lake Naivasha we were able to see many hippos and other animals living on the island in the lake that is nearly untouched by humans. Today, we visited a coffee farm. Coffee is one of the largest exports in Kenya and it was so cool to see the process behind the beverage I enjoy each day, from seedling to cup. All in all, after taking a few weeks off from enjoying the more touristy parts of the city, I have enjoyed taking these adventures and having someone here to do them with.

Enjoy these few photos from the past few weeks!