Kibera

Today was the absolute longest day, by far. This morning, we went back to Kenyatta Hospital, but this time, we went to the Fistula Clinic (http://www.amrefusa.org/resource-centre/photo-gallery/free-fistula-clinic-at-kenyatta-hospital/). In Kenya, so many conditions are stigmatized, fistula being one of them. Not only that, but women face so many problems in terms of maternal health care that medical conditions are rampant across the country. Most women will deliver upwards of 8 children, in their homes with little or no help at all. This often leads to death of either the mother, child, or both. We were given a rundown of the clinic by Dr. Zahida Qureshi, an OBGYN who has devoted her entire life to educating the community about maternal healthcare and promoting its accessibility and affordability. She and other community volunteers advocate for the importance of maternal, neonatal, and child healthcare in the hopes that more women will feel empowered to come together and seek help. The clinic is a free clinic and it is set up so that as women come in, they are accessed, admitted, and operated on to correct the tears and holes. After the surgery, the women remained in the hospital for a few days where they were educated about their condition and about how to move forward with it. Some could leave within a few days (and then followed up on) while others less fortunate had to remain for 2 weeks until they were healed because they did not have access to water at home. In order to prevent infection, they needed to have a constant supply of it to filter through their systems until the wounds were healed. One women's condition was so extreme, she had holes in both her bladder and rectum and was walking around with 3 catheter bags in her hand. It was so upsetting because this is such a preventable condition, but access to and affordability of proper healthcare is a major challenge in preventing it. However, as depressing as it was to see, it was very uplifting to know that not only are there people who truly care about educating the community about the problem, but who are actually getting out there and doing something about it. The clinic is a wonderful opportunity for a new life and a ray of hope for women of all ages, struggling with the healthcare deficit.
After visiting the clinic (which, at this point, literally felt like it was yesterday), we made our way to Kibera. As I mentioned yesterday, Kibera is the largest slum in Nairobi and the second largest urban slum in all of Africa. It has been featured in several films, including The Constant Gardener, which we watched a few nights ago. I've seen plenty of pictures and we've driven by the outskirts of it several times in the last week, but when you're in it... and I mean really in it... you can't even imagine that people actually live there. We stepped out of the car and were walking on open sewage... literally, walking through feces mixed with garbage and urine. As we made our way to the AMREF clinic, where we were going for a healthcare seminar, little kids popped out of their "homes" to say, "HOW ARE YOUUUUU?" and then run away laughing. Chickens and goats walked through the narrow "streets" eating garbage out of the sewers. Mothers sang to their babies. Men played pool and drank beer. Dogs slept in puddles under broken down vans. Carcases of meat hang from the doorways of "butcher's shops". It was like a little village in itself, only there were hundreds of thousands of people living in inhumane conditions and there was very little food and water to go around. In speaking with the AMREF volunteers (http://www.amref.org/), we were made aware of problems I never even considered, as my main concern was the sanitation issue after watching little kids playing in feces. In this community, there are rows and rows of little shacks built into each other with mud walls and scrap metal roofs. For one, there are probably about an average of 8 people living in each shack, so sanitation, and comfort are not at the forefront. Second, the paths between the rows of shacks are barely wide enough to get a single car through with the hundreds of people walking on either side. That in mind, how would an ambulance ever get through in case of an emergency? Instead, people must walk miles and miles to get to the nearest healthcare provider, which does not usually happen, so instead they suffer or die. The crime/violence rate is also very high in the area, especially at night. For that reason, even if an individual did want to find help, it was out of the question at night. It is for this reason that an AMREF clinic was opened in 2003 directly in the center of Kibera. We were taken on a tour of the building and told about their services; the clinic has pediatricians, OBGYN, nutritionists, pharmacists, several nurse practitioners and plenty of community volunteers. We actually got to speak directly with the volunteers which I thought was an incredible opportunity because they shared stories with us about how they came to volunteer with AMREF. Many of them had been diagnosed with HIV several years ago and didn't not have proper assistance or access to healthcare. When AMREF opened up in their community, they sought help and after being treated and given proper medication (all for free), they wanted to give back to the community by means of education and prevention and treatment of conditions. They had incredible stories and for the first time since I have been here, I actually felt hopeful about the future of Kenya; a weak country, struggling to develop.
When we left the clinic, we ran into 1 of 2 problems we faced on our journey home. Remember how I said the streets were barely big enough for one care? Try a van going one way and a petroleum truck going the other. I thought we were going to die, or else be stuck in Kibera for the night. That's why I was so shocked when everyone in the road and in the shacks/stores in the sides all pulled together like a family almost, to help our van pass the petroleum truck. Men were guiding both vehicles, women were moving their tables into the shacks, and everyone was working together to get us out. It was actually really amazing to see, and again, gave me hope for this country, even in the most unfortunate of life situations.
Once we were out of the slums, we found ourselves in the middle of a HUGE traffic jam. Even Njau's shortcuts were obsolete, so we were forced to sit in THREE HOURS of traffic. I have been getting used to how bad the traffic is here, but usually, we're talking an hour tops. This was unreal. We finally get home at 7 pm, got ready for dinner, and went to an adorable little italian restaurant called "L'arena" where we met up with Wairimu's nephew, Duncan, and friend, Brian. We had delicious brick oven pizzas that we got to watch being made, and had really nice conversations with Brian and Duncan. It was nice to finally interact with people our own age in Kenya and really understand their lives here. We compared sports preferences, education, taste in music, favorite pastimes, etc. They were so much fun to talk to! It turns out that we have more similar than we thought we would. We listen to a lot of the same music (even though we get it first... "Call Me Maybe" is just getting popular here!). The boys found plenty to talk about in terms of sports. We discussed nightlife, which seems to be a bitttt crazier here haha. And the funniest part, I thought, was that today was one of the nicer days we've had here and they thought it was "freezing" haha! It had to have been about 65 degrees or so this morning and they said they couldn't even get out of bed it was so cold. We tried to describe the north country to them, to no avail. They just couldn't fathom cold like that! They were precious and it was a really perfect end to the night. Better yet, this weekend we finally get to relax a little and do whatever we want to do together, so until tomorrow!

AMREF/Kibera

Dr. Diva yoooo

L'arena