Mid Week Karaoke Adventure

Let me paint a picture for you...you ride in a low-riding car that was factory made circa 1992, the car is pimped out (not by Xibit on MTV, but rather by a poorly trained mechanic probably in Nairobi) with internal strobe lights of various colors (excuse me, colours), and a muffler that hums ever so loudly, muffling the excess bass and moans of Elephant Man. You come to a screeching halt as you have reached your final destination on a Tuesday night...Karaoke night. The first club you go to, Club Streep was supposed to have karaoke, but they abandoned that venture and chose to have a ‘Single’s’ night, where the deal was 200KES for a milk chocolate bar, a rose, and a glass of champagne (brown in colour, no fizz, and a vinegary after taste…the younger girls in our crew bought them, and I tried it…vom city, ew). We aborted single’s night and headed to karaoke at Club Signature, about a block away. You stand, patiently, in the female line to get wanded by the female security guard. Being a mzungu, the female security guard looks at you, smiles and says "hallo, how are you?" as she prods you with the wand and gropes your underwire of your bra. The wand, which beeps with red flashing lights as it surveys your various body parts, you think to yourself, "what possibly could the red light mean? Red means bad, right?" nnnooppee...you're good...she shoves you forward to proceed down the stairs, where you hear the moaning of a drunk older man wailing a 1980's Lionel Richie song. Your heart races in anticipation for a) what a nightclub in Kenya looks like and b) your first ever karaoke experience. 

You enter the club, where more security guards simply stare at you as you walk in..."the wazungu have arrived" must be in the forefront of their thoughts. Our group of multiple med students and doctors finds a table in the crowded club, which is decorated with florescent blue lights, with music bumping, although one of the speakers seems to be having a bad day at is painfully rumbling through the treble of each song. Plasma screen tvs are situated all throughout the club, to portray the lyrics of the songs for the karaoke crowd, other tvs have Chelsea and Man U games on, where clusters of Kenyans sit attentively gazing at the fuzzy green of the soccer fields, only peeling their eyes away for a split second to see who has entered the club. Our wazungu crew finds a table and sit down. A mixed crew of males and females, we are immediately surrounded by ladies of the night, each one of them smiling at the males at our tables, winking occasionally. The waitress comes by and plops 3 Coca Colas and a bottle of Whiskey down at the table and puts her hand out for the money…”okay I guess we are drinking whiskey tonight!?!” I think to myself. The other members of my crew leave the table in search of the song list booklet to humorously pick songs from lists with titles such as “Street Life” (which Whitney Houston was on that list…I am not going to go into my dislike of this classification of Whitney, aka Nippy, but rather pretend like she was misplaced…still in denial).  Most of the Kenyans who were in the queue for karaoke chose 1980s ballads including “I’m all out of love” and Brian Adams, or the girls mostly sided with early 2000 R&B hits from Beyonce. Our wazungu crew sang some pretty hilarious renditions of Backstreet boys and Amy, my housemate, belted out My Humps (both the male and female rap portions!) and barely looked at the screen for lyrics help. I made a promise to one of the guys that next week I would sing R.Kelly’s Bump n Grind…I am hoping that they have the intro to this song, because that is obviously the best part.  

At the end of karaoke, the dancing started. We all got out there, mostly to cock block all of the men from an 18 year old who is in Eldoret and at AMPATH for a ‘gap’ year. Our protection dance circle was quite impressive, as we dance attacked anyone that broke through, scaring away the intruders with our sweaty faces and rosy cheeks. The ladies of the night sought out this opportunity to acquiesce our male friends, flirting with each one and trying to out-dirty-dance anyone else on the floor with more exaggerated pelvic thrusting. Didn’t work for our guys. They knew the game and scoffed at the flirtacious attempts; however, one girl was relentless and ripped a phone out of my friend Josh’s hands, quickly typing in her digits with the name “Liz” and saving in his contacts. His face was priceless as he ripped back his phone and walked away and ‘Liz’ grabbed his face and kissed his cheek. He was amused, only not to her liking to accept her proposition, but to laugh at the sheer fact that it was even happening to him.

A few men attempted a grind with us females, but I think years of dancing in clubs has prepared us all for nights like this. When one feels like the space behind you is no longer a comfortable ‘holy-spirit’ distance from a man’s genitals, you simply ‘dance-escape’ your way to one of your wingmen or wing-women and focus on conducting a non-sexual grind with a friend. If you dance escape from an individual and sexually grind with your wing man or woman, this will welcome the intruder to simply attack for a grinding dance train and you have thus trapped yourself between the wingman or woman and the attacker. Therefore, you must focus on the non-sexual dance escape! I think we nailed it at the end of the night, as most of the creeps molded back into their original spots in the corners of the dance floor. The lesson learned in this night of karaoke is to come in a pack that you trust, a 'ride or die' type of crew. We had an unspoken agreement of protection and it ended up being quite a fun night. I suppose I need to practice for next week's reveal of my inner R&B goddess and perfect my R. Kelly moves...no peeing though, don't know if I can give it the 100% Kelly in Kenya.  

Second Week and Kakamega Rainforest

In my second week of work, I feel like I am learning the ropes. Colin has done a great job transitioning me into the role of field coordinator and I am starting to have good rapport with the Research Assistants and other team members.

On Monday, we traveled to Mosoriot, a clinic that is on the same road as the Eldoret Airport. It was quite funny to arrive at Mosoriot, to meet 2 other Carols that work as RAs/Counselors. Carol or Caro Sabul is the counselor, and Carol Kerich is an RA. We joked that this clinic would be my favorite since I will be surrounded by so many with my own name (I fear a cluster of confusion in future emails, but I think we verified that we will call each other appropriately Sabul, Kerich, and Carole). On Thursday, we traveled to Kitale, a clinic that is about 1.5 hours away that has a rough road for travel. The views were beautiful, as Kitale sits atop a hill, we were climbing the hill, ever so slowly as to avoid rupturing the tires with the ginormous potholes and protruding chards of rock that drape the road. The day was very clear and you could see Mount Elgon in the distance, with hills of tea leaves and various crops glistening in the morning sunlight. Rachel, my boss, and Megan, a peds resident from IU/Riley, both joined Colin, myself, and the SAFI RAs to the clinic site. SAFI is a project that Rachel is spearheading that seeks to better understand the influence of HIV related stigma on pediatric clinical and psycho-social outcomes. Basically, we are going to conduct Focus Group Discussions with parents/caregivers and children (separately) to discuss ways that HIV stigma influence their daily decisions, including taking their medications. It is a much needed research arm for this disclosure and adherence work, since we deduced from the previous disclosure focus group discussions that were conducted last year, stigma related to HIV seems to have a grave influence on family, psychological, and social functioning and HIV care.

At the Kitale clinic, a control site (and therefore no individual or group counseling offered to participants), there was a 12 year old boy who refused to take his medications. Masila, the Research Assistant called Colin and me into the room in order to give the child a stern talking to (which is completely out of our job description, as we are white, we can only talk to patients who are willing to discuss HIV and other items with us, we cannot force any child into talking to us, let alone at a control site). Each visit, we collect MEMS bottle cap information. MEMS are a type of medicine bottle that digitally records each time it is opened. Therefore, physicians can track how many times and at what times bottles are opened, and thus relating to the frequency of medicinal intake. This particular child is orphaned, by the death of his mother to HIV/AIDS, and has a father, living in the same house, who is HIV positive. The father, himself, refuses to take ARVs or anti-retroviral medicines that basically help put the virus in a standstill and stops it from progressing and diminishing all of the body's white blood cells that fight infections. The father seems to have a stubborn attitude toward the medications, stating that the medicines aren't actually useful and that the clinic just wants money, thus telling his own HIV+ children to stop their own medications. The aunt, who takes the children to and from clinic, was completely defeated in her attempts to provide care for the children. Her body language was slumped over and she faced away from the wazungu (Colin and me), seeming annoyed and frustrated. Masila asked us to talk to the child and tell him the importance of his medications. This seems like an easy task, however, many children, although they state that they are disclosed and know their status, actually don't know and have not heard the explanations about soldier cells or white blood cells and the influence of the virus on their health. So, you can't just jump into a conversation with a child, even if he or she has told you that he/she knows why they are taking medicines! Colin tried to speak Kiswahili to the child, and he refused to answer any questions, so we thought it best to bypass the intervention that Masila was hoping for, and chose to refer the child to Dr. Vreeman, who would be able to assess what is best for the patient's care. This was quite a frustrating incident. I have always had a dream of conducting psychological counseling to diverse populations and to be culturally respectful, but was thwarted in this attempt by several factors a) being white can actually deter a productive patient-counselor rapport, b) ethics of patient care vs. the study's goals, and c) the adolescent did not care for any sort of intervention, and had adopted the belief system of his father, which will eventually lead to his demise. Without medications, the virus will take over the immune system, and opportunistic infections will eventually team up and kill this little kiddo. Cases like this make me want to become a clinician and help, and hopefully there will be a cultural shift in the influence of a mzungu providing mental health care. One can hope!

I was thankful that wine night at Laura Ruhl's (a pediatrician that lives two doors down from me in a servant's quarter) took place on Thursday night. The evening was great...tons of wine..tons of people...and tons of homemade hummus! I probably overstayed my welcome as there were three of us still lingering around teh half empty bottles at about 7:30, but the conversation was enchanting and the wine, although sub-par according to McAteer standards, made for a great evening to unwind from the challenges at Kitale clinic that day.

On Friday, we had a team building day at Kolol retreat center, about 20 minutes outside of Eldoret. The retreat center was located right along a dam and a riverbed, which was gorgeous. The weather was absolutely beautiful, with the sun beating down on us wazungu, each of us leaving the day with a bit of red on our noses and cheeks. Sabul and Caroline Watiri (yes, another Carol), were the leading RAs that put together team building games. Although there were several minutes between games of us waiting for instructions for the next game, quarrels about how to conduct the game best, and others who were not paying attention, all in all it was a great day, full of laughs. Lunch was provided, with nyama choma (we shipped a goat to the restaurant, alive, that apparently rode tied in the boot of a car, pissing the whole way...can't blame him!).

Friday night, I attended yet another happy hour, but this happy hour took place at Katie's. She works on a psycho-social project with Eve Puffer from Duke. The happy hour was short, but a great time, none the less and my Trader Joe's Spicy Thai chili cashews were a hit!

Saturday morning, I woke up at 5:30AM to head down the hill to catch a ride to Kakamega rain forest and Rondo retreat center. The rain forest, according to the brochure and description, boasts tons of flowers, monkeys, birds, frogs, and plants. The retreat center was absolutely gorgeous with clipped grass and surrounded by giant palm trees and banana leaf plants. A few Colobus monkeys sat in the tall trees above us, I am sure laughing at the tons of tired wazungu with our backpacks and hats.  We had a travel guide/hike guide named Ben (who apparently hit the sauce a bit too hard the night before, thus making for a lackadaisical guide). The smells of the fresh greenery and the sounds of the various chirping birds was phenomenal. We started our hike at about 8:25AM and hiked until lunch stop along a river at about 12:45PM. We then had about another 2 hours of hiking until we reached the Rondo retreat center, again. Toward the end of the hike, as we were all pretty sweaty and breathing pretty heavily with the altitude, the tour guide stopped the troupe of 9 people along the trail. He then pointed to the ground at an ant hill under my feet, and exclaimed to the group, "you see these ants? these are safari fire ants, and they bite!" Meanwhile, Chris (a med student) and I had several ants creeping up our legs inside our pants, chomping away at our sweaty limbs. I was severely irritated with the guide. How do you stop an entire group standing directly over the ant hill? RUDE! Even though we had a ton of uncomfortable bites, we walked away laughing that we could now say that we have had "ants in our pants." Although it was quite a sweaty adventure, it was definitely a beautiful hike and one that I think I will do again! I think this location would be perfect for a weekend away and definitely a McAteer family dream location!

Below are some pictures from our hike.

(beautiful flower outside of Rondo retreat center)

(two monkeys chilling in a tree above a villa in the retreat center)

(beautiful flowers along the roadside of Rondo retreat)

(a pathway in the rainforest)

(a view atop the hill overlooking the rainforest)

(another view of the hill top)

(panorama view)

(vine along a tree)

(huge banana palm plant along our hike)

(lunch at a waterway)

(another pic of the river)

(a villa at the Rondo retreat center)

(a view from one of the villas at Rondo retreat center)

Sunday was my first day driving in town in Eldoret and surprisingly I didn't hit anyone! 

My First Week at Work

On Monday, I began my first week of work at AMPATH/IU as a field study coordinator for a project called HADITHI. Mainly, the project focuses on promoting disclosure of HIV status to children aged 10-14 years. Believe it or not, more than half of the adolescent population with HIV do not know that they are HIV positive. Many parents fear disclosing to children for many reasons including, HIV stigma (which can include discrimination and shunning from neighbors and fellow villagers), fear of the child committing suicide, and fear of the child blaming the parents for their status. Overall, the HADITHI project has created culturally sensitive tools to explore the concept of disclosure and how knowing your status can influence your adherence to medicines as well as psycho-social interactions with peers and family members. Many of the interventions that we are providing for some of the clinics include videos of stories about HIV, individual counseling, and group counseling sessions. We hope that the interventions that we provide promote positive psycho-social responses to learning one's status and that this cohort of children can help us understand what is the most useful support that we can provide for other adolescents.

On Monday, I met with Josephine and Judy, the field coordinator and the deputy coordinator of the project. I will be working with them, side by side, in the near future. Josephine took me to all of the main AMPATH offices and introduced me to just about everyone (I must say I forget about 90% of the names, but if I were to guess it would be a "Carol" or "Judy" for a girl and a "Benjamin" or "Koech" for a guy...so I think I will be okay).

Below are some pictures of my walk around my compound...

(just outside my bedroom window)

(Beautiful flowers along the compound)

(the walk home, up the hill I go!)

Tuesday, I met with Prof Nyandiko, the PI for the project and Rachel Vreeman's co-PI on just about every project in Kenya. Prof was kind enough to let me go with him to clinic in MTRH, which was amazing. I witnessed the pediatrician in action and saw a plethora of cases. One 4 year old has CP and had the biggest smile and would point at everything followed by an "eh?". It seems that the mother took the child to a different clinic for an illness, and the Clinical officer put the child on a medication that could potentially further thwart cognitive functioning, so Prof put the child on a different medication and was satisfied with the child's health. Another patient was a girl of about 15 years. She had a CD4 count done in November 2013, which indicated low numbers of white blood cells (or soldier cells as the clinic likes to describe them to the pediatric patients). So, they ran some other tests and today was the day that prof Nyandiko disclosed to the orphaned adolescent that she indeed has HIV. The girl began to cry, having the burden of such a grave diagnosis. Prof explained to her, very carefully, that with medicines that are taken daily, that she will succeed and live a healthy life. After his positive reinforcement and encouraging words, the girl asked a few questions about how to handle the medications in front of other children. Many children and families fear other people finding out they have HIV and therefore hide their medications and keep them a secret. The girl was heading to boarding school in the next month and questioned the security and secrecy of her medications. Prof described three different options for the girl to keep the medicines a secret. He suggested that she hide them in her locker at boarding school, give the medicines to the matron who would then help dispense the medicines, or to forfeit going to boarding school and attend school near her home. The girl, who was orphaned by the death of her father, decided that she would discuss the options with her mother. She seemed very bright and her questions were intuitive of the future issues surrounding her new status. Other children that were seen in the clinic included adolescents up to 20 years who were not ready to transition into the adult clinics. At this particular clinic, which is located in the main AMPATH building, we have research assistants and counsellors there to offer our HADITHI intervention for disclosures and post-disclosure counseling. However, the space is quite tight and I imagine that some adolescents wouldn't want to discuss personal issues in a room full of other adults.

On Wednesday, Colin and I drove out to two clinics Webuye and Turbo. Webuye was about a 1.5 hour drive just west of Eldoret on Uganda-Nairobi road, toward Uganda. The road was well paved to the clinics, which is a rarity in rural Kenya. Along the roads, we saw a few people scattered between towns, walking along the roadside. Men with their cattle meandering along the grassy hillsides that lined the road. Both clinics were off set from the main roads. Both clinics were pretty sparse of any clinical materials that one would expect to be present in a health clinic. Wednesday, we had our final housemate join the group and Amy cooked Vietnamese spring rolls (pic below). They were absolutely delicious and certainly a filling vegetarian treat!

On Thursday, Colin and I visited the Burnt Forest Clinic, where apparently the prevalence of stigma is quite high. I foresee that this clinic will be visited often, as I will hopefully give advice to the counselors in helping individual psycho-social adolescents. The counselors there seem to be doing great work and pushing forward with offering individual counseling to the children. They also plan to use the video tools to help encourage parents to disclose to their children! So, it is exciting to see some of the interventions being put in the action plan at some clinics.

On Friday, the day was somewhat slow. Colin graciously took me to the travel agent so that I could pay for my flight to Eldoret and my stay in Nairobi. I was quite nervous when my new Chase credit card was declined 3 times, but after the agent turned it off and on again, the machine accepted my card (whew! that was ALOT of money!!!). Friday night, there was a happy hour at a Kelvin's, a Kenyan who works at AMPATH, apartment. Below is a picture of the sunset from his rooftop flat.

(a view of the sun setting beyond some construction)

(my housemate Amy and I on the rooftop)

After two or three drinks, we (me, Amy, a few "long-termers" or so they call us, who are here for more than two months, and some medical students or "short-termers") headed to an Indian restaurant for some food. The dynamic between "long-termers" and "short-termers" is quite interesting. Pharmacy students from Purdue, who are here for 6 weeks-8weeks, tend to ONLY talk amongst themselves and don't care to meet many people outside of their niche. Long-termers, or those who live up at Hilltop, where I live, also apparently do not like to mix with the "short-termers" or the medical students and residents who come on a 2 month trip. Amy, who is considered a long-termer has done a very good job of bridging the gap and socializing with whomever. I like her style and don't think I would want to segregate myself from other interesting people because of the length of stay. Apparently it is hard for some long-termers to befriend short-termers and have them leave and meet a whole new bunch time and time again, but I don't think that is a bad thing. I think we are all here for, generally, the same purpose, so we should all try to get along and mingle with as many people as we can! I hope to follow in Amy's footsteps and meet more people...guide me Obi-Wan-Amy!


On Saturday, Amy and I headed to the Nakumatt, or the grocery store, and I again, managed to spend about 80 USD, but I just keep telling myself that I am building my pantry, so I don't mind the large bills in the first few months. I need to decide how I want to cook/what I would like to cook and get used to those items being a staple in my pantry. I think I will mostly be making vegetarian options, as meat is quite expensive in the stores. Also, I don't know how my housemates would feel if I brought a chicken home for a kill (pic of the entrails from my chicken butchery skills in Athi River, 2011).

(post-kill with the de-feathered lil guy)

(results of a dull knife butchery job)

Saturday evening, there was a pitch in at the OBGYN's house, which is just up the Elgon Road. There were tons of AMPATH people, and dishes included nyama choma (roasted goat), tandoori style chicken, couscous (which I made), salads and other Indian options. It was delicious and was a wonderful afternoon meeting new people and being greeted by Joe and Sarah Ellen Mamlin. Dr. Hanke had sent Joe Mamlin an email saying to check in with me, and so Joe took the initiative to shake my hand and greet me with a warm smile, saying "we are your Kenyan parents, if you need ANYTHING please feel free to come to us." I certainly felt the love and was very excited to get to meet the people who started AMPATH with such a warm greeting. 

Today, Amy, Peter Kussin (a Pulmonary ICU physician from Duke), and I traveled to Iten, Kenya (map below). Iten sits right along the edge of the Great Rift Valley, and is the high altitude training center for world athletes and runners. Most Kenyan Olympians stay in Iten and train year round in the training camp. We met an Australian named Simon, who had traveled to Iten to train years ago, but abandoned running and adopted cycling, and he now runs a cycling team for professional cyclers. Apparently, you can rent a bicycle and ride all the way down the edge of the rift valley, which is absolutely gorgeous. 

There is a location called Kerio Valley or Kerio Overlook that sits right on the edge of the rift valley. There is a main lodge that has a restaurant with amazing views and then there are various lodges that people, mostly European wazungu stay, which is kind of like a resort setting! The scenery was absolutely breathe taking. We took a few pictures and ate lunch in a lodge that had huge windows facing the valley. Of course we sat closest to the edge! It was awesome, as we ate and chatted, the music of Paul Simon's Graceland cd were lingering in the background, creating the perfect backdrop to our lunch scene. 

(map, showing Iten sitting just North East of Eldoret)

Below are a few pictures of the scenery looking into the Great Rift Valley. The pictures certainly do not serve any justice for the scene in person! 

(view of Rift Valley from Kerio Lodge)

(looking up at Kerio Lodge, the great big windows where we ate lunch)

(Robert's Rock, which looks over the great rift valley)

(view from Robert's Rock)

(Holy Croc!!!)

After lunch, we decided to search for the old Stadium or running center. During the British colonization, the British ran a training center for long distance Kenyan runners and high altitude training, which is walking distance from these views, so we decided to bushwack and head toward the stadium (the description of the stadium in the menu/brochure described it as "delapidated" which was mostly correct). We meandered through various farmland and asked locals where the stadium was located in our broken Kiswahili "wapi stadium??". We decided to ask these two children on the side of the street and they gave us blank, scared stares...then I motioned "running" aka did the running man in front of them and kept saying "wapi stadium?" which they then proceeded to mock by repeating the same motions and cracking up...whatevs, man, whatevs! We followed the directions of an older gentleman, which led us to what seemed to be a dried up creek bed and was certainly the road less traveled.  An adolescent carrying water noticed we seemed to be out of place and asked where we were headed, so I told him and he decided to be our tour guide. He took us to the right spot! Once we got up to the stadium, I asked him, jokingly..."wanna race?" and we both smiled and took off for about a quarter of a lap. It was quite funny and we both were laughing (he obviously was a WAY better runner than I, but glad he had a sense of humor about it). As we walked back to the Kerio View where our car was located, Oliver, our 15 year old tour guide, and I struck up a nice conversation, both exchanging questions about our lives. He was very excited to hear that we had similar foods in the US. He hopes to be a professional runner and then take over his parent's farm. I told him he should get into the business of being a tour guide, since he was so personable...he smiled and accepted that as a compliment. I then gave him 200 KES for his hospitality and told him we would be back and call for Oliver. He was delighted to hear that and asked if I could watch him run...I sure hope that this lil guy makes it far with running (lol, puns!)...he was very nice! 

(the delapidated stadium and the track where I ran the shortest race of my life)

Rachel comes into town tomorrow, so we are all kind of getting things up to speed for work. Hopefully this week goes well, I wonder how it will be with the boss here!?! Tomorrow we head to the clinic called Mosoriot, hope the travel isn't much as I will be tired from watching the Bronco's game at 4:45AM at the Mamlin's house tomorrow morning. Go PEYTON!!!!! 

Arrival in Eldoret

On Saturday morning, after a restless sleep, I woke up around 4:30AM to shower and prepare for my flight to Eldoret, Kenya. The Nairobi airport had called me on Friday morning to inform me that they had found my lost luggage (whew!), so I wanted to go a bit early in case there were any adventures in finding the luggage in a giant room of suitcases (I imagined it would be like the end of Indiana Jones, where they are putting the lost ark into the abyss of boxes that stored historical items). However, once I arrived and checked into Kenya Airways, I was told that the baggage would indeed be on the plane with me. So, I didn't worry. TIA (This Is Africa) after all, so I was just going with the flow.

The flight from Nairobi to Eldoret was about 30 minutes long. I had a window seat and basically stared in awe at the beautiful rifts, craters, hills, and farmland. The scenery was absolutely gorgeous. As we headed further north, the color of the dirt turned a deeper red/maroon, and the plants and farmland had a greener hue than in Nairobi.

Once I landed, I headed to baggage claim, where again I found myself staring into the entrance of the carousel as everyone had already gathered their luggage and left. I still, was missing two bags...so I peeked through the caution tape that blocked the gate to the unloading zone, where I found a gentleman and explained that I still had two bags missing. He pointed at a cart that had MY bags on it and said "no, those say rush order, not for you." These bags were clearly MY bags, as they still had the yellow ribbon bows that Maureen and I had previously tied to them on my departure day. I explained to him that the bags were lost in transit and that the last name should say McAteer. He nodded in disagreement, but saw my face of disbelief and sheer disappointment, and proceeded to read the name on the ticket. Yep, McAteer it is! He then grudgingly lifted the bags onto the carousel and passed them through. FINALLY, I was able to collect all of my belongings.

Colin, the current field study coordinator for HADITHI, picked me up from the airport in the IU HADITHI car, a giant blue Toyota SUV. We had a nice drive through the streets, heading toward IU house. I asked what the streets were named, and he shrugged and said "not sure, they don't really have names, you just call the street by where it goes to." So, I jokingly said "so this is airport road?" and he replied "Yep!" Looks like I will get the hang of things here...

Colin drove me through Eldoret, which only has two roundabouts in the entire town center. So, it is much smaller than Nairobi, however there are still tons of people that wander the streets. Each block is packed with street vendors selling Safaricom credits or fruits/vegetables or samosas. There are about 3 shops per block that sell cell phones and various electronics.

Once we drove past the busy streets of Eldoret, we continued on to the road(s) called Elgon Road that lead to IU House and Hilltop, where I will be staying. On the corner of Elgon Road there is a large Hindu temple, that is somewhat pink in color. The architecture is beautiful and certainly stands out compared to the concrete square buildings of AMPATH Centre and Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital. The IU House and Hilltop are secluded in a gated community off of Elgon Road. The man at the gate, who goes by Michael, is one of the most cheerful people I have ever met. He shook my hand and greeted me, never letting go of my hand after a good 20 seconds. Colin remarked, "if you ever have a bad day, just go talk to Michael and he will cheer you up." I may be needing his services some days while I stay in Eldoret.

Once we unloaded my things in Hilltop, house #1, Colin and I strolled down the flower lined walkway toward IU House, where the short term students and visitors stay. The IU House consists of 8 different houses in a U shape. House number 1 has a library in the common room, where Kiswahili lessons are taught. House 2 has the communal dining area where each Wednesday, a family meal is offered, which is a great way to socialize with all of the people involved with IU/AMPATH program. House 3 has a business office of Dunia Karama who basically runs this place and has all of the answers to any questions related to IU House or the program. The rest of the houses have long term families who live in them, mostly the residents or faculty who are the main clinical trainers and liaisons for medical students and residents.

After our stroll through IU House compound, Colin and I headed back up to Hilltop House #1, where Amy and Liz had prepared breakfast for us. The banana pancakes and eggs were certainly a delicious welcome into the home by my housemates. We had a leisurely breakfast where we sat and talked for about an hour after we finished eating, just getting to know one another. It was fantastic. Both of these girls are fun and laugh at my jokes. Both are also very personable and helpful, informing me of do's and don'ts for the house. I think this will be a good fit! There are two other housemates that have yet to arrive from holiday break. I am anxious to meet them as well, to see how the house dynamics will go.

After breakfast, I unpacked my belongings and noted what items I would need to purchase from the Nakumat (large grocery, kind of like a super Target). I decided to purchase the house a coffee grinder, so that we can all have some fresh grounds in the mornings, a much appreciated purchase as noted by my housemates. Amy and I decided to walk to the large Nakumat, which was great to see town and walk around for a bit, to get some sort of exercise! She and I avoided many cat calls from men and it seems like we both have a similar attitude toward walking down the street: keep your sunglasses on, furrow your brow as to look non-approachable, and ignore any sort of 'mzungu' or 'ah pretty lady' comments that may come your way. She and I had a great talk as we were walking and shared a few laughs here and there.  I managed to spend about 120 USD at the store, with the 30 dollar coffee grinder, and other essentials such as bread, eggs, rice, and some fresh fruits and vegetables. I even bought two bottles of wine! We shall see what the taste value is, but I think I should have no problem accessing some vino for the year (funny, since I kind of went on a wine binge for the last two months in the states, assuming life would be similar to Athi River, where drinking was basically prohibited). Amy also mentioned that she had pregamed and gone to the clubs with some med students, so it seems like there are some social opportunities that aren't too different from Indy! I will just have to make sure it is a safe (somewhat) venture and will abide by the safety by numbers rules!


Meat is very expensive here, so I may be sticking to mainly a vegetarian diet! Last night, Amy kindly made some pasta with broccoli in a cashew cream sauce, which tasted much like a mac-n-cheese, only healthy and with protein. I may have to get the recipe and try it out! This morning, I made myself some scrambled eggs, a piece of toast, which were both heavily coated in some Sriracha (which I will be requesting refills frequently from my parents for delivery to Eldoret).

So far, it has been a quiet Sunday morning. Luckily there aren't the loud moans of pastors that jolt you from your sleep on Sunday mornings (like in Athi River, the pastors would screech and yell into the microphone and then moan for about two hours each Sunday morning). The only noise that was startling were the dogs growling and barking, but my jet lag made sure I slept through most of it. Tomorrow, I begin orientation and will get to meet the Kenyan field coordinators! I am excited to meet everyone this week!

Below are some pictures of my house that I will be living in for the next year!

(living room and family room)

(kitchen)

(view outside the front door)

(our gated street with Hilltop House 1 and Hilltop House 2)

(my bed, with the mosquito net)

(the desk)

(my closets)

Arrival in Nairobi

My travels to Kenya were thwarted on Sunday, Jan 5th due to the epic Snow Vortex or Snowpocalypse of the midwest. The morning of my proposed departure was full of sad good-byes to my brother and my sister's boyfriend, and a quick scarf down of a nice brunch prepared by my mom. The snow began to fall around 10AM, just the time for us to start heading to the airport! After about an hour in the car, driving ever-so-slowly to the airport, mom, dad, Maureen and I unloaded by luggage and I checked into Delta.

(the road conditions on our way to the airport, before the severe weather...eek!)

Once in the airport, we began to notice the fatigued and irritated travelers that surrounded us. Each person with a look of despair on their faces. Several flights had been delayed or cancelled due to the snowfall. I hurried to the nearest digital display and studied the flight arrival/departure board only to see that my flight was the ONLY flight that had not yet been delayed or cancelled due to the weather. So, we waited until there was about an hour before my flight, for me to enter the security line. Five minutes before my venture to the security line, my family and I had a long group hug, with several tears following. As I said my final good-byes, we looked at the digital board....DELTA FLIGHT DELAYED...so, we returned back to our seats, wiping off the fresh tears from our cheeks and began to laugh, as we realized we were going to spend another two hours together in the lobby of the airport.

(delayed and cancelled flight times...eventually the entire board was red)

Dad, and I took a nice stroll around the perimeter of the lobby, and took in the sights of some interesting people watching. When we returned to where Maureen and Mom were seated, we hugged and cried one more time. As I was walking toward the security line, we noticed the flight had been delayed, yet again. Thus, I would have missed my connecting flight in Detroit. So, we again, dried our fresh tears from our cheeks, and laughed as we headed, together, to the Delta desk to re-plan my departure. The next flight available out of Indianapolis to Nairobi was for Wednesday, January 08. So, we collected my bags, and took another 1 hour journey home at about 20 mph on 465 in the blizzardous weather.

(a lonesome plane at a gate, covered in snow) 

Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday were spent in the house with my family. Work and school were cancelled for my parents and my sister due to the hazardous weather, and bone chilling negative temperatures. Our days and nights were spent with wine and catching up on Dexter season 4. I somewhat wished I could have seen more friends in those two extra days, but understand the emotional drainage of saying good-byes.

(Gabe and Bluedog enjoying some of the snowfall, before the temperatures dropped to the negatives)

(on our street, the beautiful sun amongst the snow covered trees)

Wednesday, I completed some final packing and adding some random items to my luggage. Maureen rushed home after her morning courses and brought home Wendy's spicy chicken sandwiches for Gabe, Maureen, and me. Normally, I do not eat fast food, but this delectable treat for some reason was what I craved most when I was in Kenya last. So, it was a wonderful departing meal.

Travel to Nairobi was pretty uneventful. On my flight to Detroit, I sat next to a man from Mauritania, and after an hour long conversation, he invited me to visit him there...we will see....(I somehow have managed to have several flights where older men have given me their business cards and requested to meet up at a later juncture). My flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi, I sat next to an 83 year old nun. Her mannerisms reminded my of my grandmother, so it was comforting to sit next to her. Once in Nairobi, we were all shuffled into shuttles and through various rooms to collect visa information. I stood by the baggage carousel for about 2 hours, waiting for my luggage. I found one piece of luggage that had been checked in Indianapolis..."my other luggage MUST be there,"I thought. There were approximately 45 people with distraught looks of disbelief as we lustingly peered into the entrance of the carousel, waiting for our rogue bags....only no more bags appeared through the entrance. After waiting another 30 minutes in line to file paperwork to retrieve the bags, I slowly and somewhat somberly headed through customs and out toward the exit. I thought "surely, my driver has left me" since it took another 3 hours after my flight landed to exit the premises. But, my driver was there, waiting patiently in the front row with my name displayed!

I was extremely anxious to get to the hotel that night. Not only was I tired, and ready for a horizontal body position to drain my swollen and throbbing feet from the pooled blood after sitting for 20 hours...but I also had Willianne and her family staying in the room right next to mine. This greeting was long over due, as it had been 1.5 years since I had seen them. It was after midnight, Nairobi time, so I was expecting the children to be in bed. However, as soon as I walked into my room, the Mwendwa family was standing in the corridor, all with giant smiles on their faces! I gave each one a long hug as we laughed in excitement and relief of being reunited, at last.

(The excited Mwendwa family at 1AM, waiting up to greet their Mzungu Carole)

The Mwednwas and I stayed up for about another 2 hours, talking and catching up. Unfortunately, the majority of their presents were in the suitcases that somehow disappeared in transit, so I was not able to give the kids their harmonicas, recorders, books, stickers, and for Willianne, a smart phone. But, they didn't seem to care about the missing presents, they were just excited I was there with them and that I put them up in a nice hotel for the next two nights!

Friday morning, Willianne, Faith, Enock and I hit the continental breakfast, HARD! I was so hungry, at that time, so we smashed some food and made some plans to get some errands finished in Nairobi. I had to find an ATM in order to pay for various items throughout the day, and also get some cash for Eldoret, in case I needed to buy more items. After trying out several ATMS, which all had denied my card, we found one that worked! WHEW! I was scared that I would have no way of accessing Kenyan Shillings for the year, which would have been awful. We then headed to a couple of Safaricoms to find a micro SIM to fit my iphone, so that I would have an active Kenyan mobile line. None of them had the micro SIM, so we got into a taxi in front of our hotel, the Country Lodge, and headed to a nearby mall/Nakumat for a bigger Safaricom center. After successfully finding a SIM with Safaricom "The Better Option" (or so their logo says), Willianne and I decided to take the kids to the Giraffe Sanctuary in Karen district. Karen district is a beautiful oasis in Nairobi, it is situated just outside of Nairobi Center and is considered the art district, where plenty of wazungu (white people) live. The drive through Karen is beautiful, as each street is lined with large cement walls to protect compounds and houses, the plants have found a way to seep through cracks and fold over the tops of the compound walls, for a burst of sunlight and I think to welcome travelers along the road.

(The lush and beautiful trees and plants in Karen district)

At the giraffe sanctuary, Enock and Faith were so excited, they rushed toward the tree house where the giraffes lean their necks and heads through a window to have people feed them pellets. Once Enock got to the top of the steps and realized how close and how LARGE the giraffes were, he quickly turned back in fear and screamed for his mother. Willianne just laughed and picked him up and inched toward the giraffe, named Stacy. Enock was NOT having it! Faith was also a bit timid once we got to the top of the tree house to feed the giraffes, but eventually warmed up and tried feeding Stacy.

(The twigga, Stacy)

(Willianne and Enock, at the Giraffe sanctuary)

(Faith, Enock, and their mzungu)

(Enock and his mzungu)

(Stacy, the twigga...sup?)

After the giraffe sanctuary, Willianne and I had some time at the hotel to go over some computer basics. I gave my old Macbook to her to use for her computer courses she has been taking. Since Macs and PCs aren't always compatible, I hope this gift is useful and does not seem like a burden more than a help.

Friday night, Willianne's sister, Winnies, and Ben came to the hotel, with kuku stew (chicken stew) and chapati that they had made for me. The Mwendwas had purchased a chicken from when they were up country the week prior, and had been waiting to slaughter it and cook it for me (a HUGE gift from this family to me). We ate in the Mwednwa's family size room, and enjoyed watching a few minutes of Puss in Boots, a cartoon that had been on the television. We shared a few laughs and reminisced of my previous visit to their household and how I would always yell "HAPANA" (Go away!!! or F*&^ off!) to any man that was trying to solicit me in the streets of Mlolongo. Apparently, my assertiveness with the use of the word was hilarious to the whole family! After a couple more hours of laughing and talking, we decided to head to bed, as I had a driver coming at 5:30AM to pick me up for the airport so I could head to Eldoret in the morning. It was a sad goodbye, as our time together was so short, and we are not sure when we will see one another again, but I know we will make frequent visits to either Nairobi or Eldoret.