Merry Christmas week!

Hello and Merry (early) Christmas! The holiday season is in full swing here in Nairobi. While decorating and celebrating the holiday isn’t quite as common as it is at home, shopping malls and restaurants have become adorned with Christmas trees and pop music has been traded for carols on the radio. This is my first Christmas away from home and I am incredibly grateful to experience this season in a culture other than my own. However, I must say, I never would have guessed how much the weather has impacted my “Christmas spirit.” It doesn’t quite feel like Christmas time when it’s 75 and sunny everyday hahaha.

Holiday reflections aside, my past couple of weeks in the clinic have been full of the same busy routine. While the majority of our patients are being seen for routine ailments, we have had quite a few minor surgical procedures in the past few weeks. On procedure in particular involved removing a nearly 1-pound lipoma from a man’s back. I was able to assist the doctor with this procedure and my role included helping him control bleeding, grabbing instruments, medications, and supplies he needed, and even removing part of the mass. It was fascinating!

I enjoy days when we have out-of-the-ordinary cases like that, I always learn something from them, and it always adds some unexpected excitement to the week. I do always, however, have the tendency to compare how such procedures are handled here to how they would be handled in the U.S. While lipoma removals are out-patient clinical procedures in the U.S. as well, there are obvious differences in how the procedure is carried out and most of those differences are related to variances in access to medical care and equipment. For example, there are vast discrepancies here in sterility, particularly when comparing it to the strict adherence to sterile procedure you would see in the U.S. To overcome such an issue here, the doctor will prescribe a variety of antibiotics for the patient to take before and after the procedure to, hopefully, circumvent the added risk of infection. With all this being said, I always hesitate to point out such comparisons because I recognize the privilege in them. But, a large part of my reasoning for being here is to learn from these things so that I may be more sensitive to them in my future career.

Outside of my day-to-day, I had the opportunity to visit an artisans market last weekend. I went to a similar event put on by the same company in September and loved it so, I knew it would be a great way to spend my Saturday when I heard they were putting on another market. I spent hours walking through the 100ish booths and taking in the nice weather and environment. I came away from the market with lots of gifts, dark chocolate, and a beautiful handmade bag made from upcycled leather clothing (pictured below).

All in all, I am continuing to love and appreciate my time here and am excited for all this is to come as I enter my last month here. Talk to you next year!