Monday, July 24.
Today was a very long and draining day. We started out the day with a devotional at 7:30am. I had a cup of tea and a donut like bread for breakfast. Remember a few entries back when I said it would be so hard for me to start a day with just a cup of tea and a piece of bread? Well, it wasn't so bad actually. I wasn't hungry at all until lunch time came around. Then I was really hungry, but Isaiah, Pastor Stephen's brother, prepared some nice lunch for me. I wish I could just show pictures. I had some ugali with goat meat stew-ish thing. Ugali is the staple food of Kenya, just like rice is for most Asian countries. It's basically like rice cake except it's made of maize. I ate with my hands because that's what they do here... or because I wasn't given any utensils, and I didn't ask for one. It's an experience eating with your hands. I mean, you can eat hamburgers with your hands, but you wouldn't eat a stew with your hands. But I did. Anyhow it was a pretty good meal. Afterwards my hands got pretty oily, so I went back to my place and realized I forgot to bring my soap. So I used some laundry detergent. For dinner, Isaiah prepared for me some cooked cabbage and chapati. Chapati is much like nan, but it's round. Apparently it's also of Indian origin. It seems like people drink tea for almost every meal here. They would just drink tea (they call it chai, also of Indian origin) for breakfast, and also drink tea after dinner. Back at BCEA, we would drink chai and eat slices of bread after a fellowship or Lord's Day service. Anyway, enough about food now.
I spent most of the day at the clinic. The clinic opens at 8am, and closes past 5pm (depending on the number of patients). First thing at the clinic, PuiMeng delivered a baby. I didn't know when the clinic opened, so I just waited around my room for breakfast, and then took my time with breakfast, so I missed the delivery. But I heard the cry of the newborn baby from the outside. Of course I didn't know what was going inside, but somehow when I heard the cry, I thought it was a newborn. I guess they have a distinct sound when they cry. Later I got to see the placenta. PuiMeng showed me how to check the placenta and make sure no parts were missing. I had never seen the placenta before. It must really hurt when it detaches...
Since it was the first day, I was familiarized with the registration process. Then I sat in with the patients while PuiMeng examined them. On Mondays and Tuesdays, the clinic takes in general patients. On Wednesdays, they give immunization shots to the kids, and on Thursdays they have antenatal cares and tests.
One girl, probably about 15 or 16, came in to do a pregnancy test. She seemed very happy when she found out that she's pregnant. I wonder if she's married though. She came by herself, so I'm guessing not. But maybe she is because she seemed so happy. I don't know. Teenage girls in the US wouldn't be very happy if they found out that they are pregnant before marriage, and even after marriage for some cases. But since the culture here is different, maybe it doesn't matter if she's not married.
Today was just observing a lot of things, but I hope I can do some hands-on stuff tomorrow. I'm looking forward to taking a shower in the morning. I have to boil a pot of water and use buckets and dippers. Every exciting.
There are so many bugs here. One just landed on my shoulder, and another was crawling up over my throat. I hear some buzzing near the ceiling. But apparently now is the season we have the least number of bugs. There'll be even more in Lenkijape. At times you won't be able to eat out side because there are so many flies. I could talk more about flies, but I'll do that some other time... I'm so tired. And they've turned off the small generator already, so it's pitch dark. The only source of light is my laptop screen, keyboard backlight, and the mouse. Anyhow, it's time to sleep. The bugs are attracted to my laptop... Must shut it now.
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