Aga Khan

This morning, we continued our visits to local hospitals, but today's was infinitely better... Not even comparable to yesterday's experience. Lourine, Sean, and I spent the morning at Aga Kahn, a private hospital which hosts a wide variety of physicians. Again, there is the issue of affordability, but for the ones who can afford it, it is the best of the best. They pride themselves more specifically in their pediatric ward which we spent the morning doing rounds in with 2 of the doctors. We actually got to watch a Renal Biobsy!!! Of course I couldn't actually watch because I was already feeling queasy from watching the nurses try to put an IV in the baby's hands, feet, arms, legs, and then finally, her head. She had a kidney problem that was causing her whole body to swell to the point where no one could find a vein to put the needle in. I felt so bad, she must've only been a year old. Finally they had to resort to the vein in her head and then the mom brought her into the ultra sound room where the nephrologist did the biopsy. I watched the ultra sound instead of the needle because by that point, after watching her be poked with needles for an hour, I was starting to get clamy and lightheaded. This whole being deathly afraid of needles thing is proving to be a bit of an issue!
After rounds, we met with the head of the pediatric ward, Dr. M. He discussed with us the issues facing the hospitals in the country and also, the progress being made. He was able to. Compare our experiences yesterday at Kenyatta with today's because he was a pediatrician there before he came to Aga Khan. The main problem, aside from the many obvious issues, is keeping doctors around. We learned in Africa studies this semester about "brain drain" which is a huge problem all over Africa (and many other developing countries). Once the students become doctors, they generally leave the hospital to find better work at private hospitals or just leave the continent all together and travel to the states or India. And who can blame them? Who would want to work in a hospital where there's not even running water? The problem is not an easy one to solve, to say the least. It is one that will take decades to solve, but considering the fact that most countries in Africa didn't gain independence until the mid to late 90's, there's really not much of a basis to judge from. And every time I find myself thinking how terrible the living conditions are here compared to home, I just remember that. Kenya is still a baby, they'll get there one day, and when they do, the whole continent will flourish.
The ride home with Njau was one f the best yet. He is by far one of my favorite people I have met here! He took us the long way home because he wanted to show us the country side..... and because he likes to go fast haha! The other group got stuck in a traffic jam and we ended up beating them home, even though we ended up in a bit of a traffic jam ourselves.... See for yourself:)

The traffic before we ditched the others... not happening

So cute! I had no idea he was even there until after I took the picture!