Thursday, July 27.
Thursdays are antenatal clinic days. So there were many pregnant women coming in for a monthly check-up. For the first timers, PuiMeng gives tetanus vaccines, because Masai people prefer (or just tend) to give birth in their homes on their own. This leads to a high risk of infection during birth. She also checks their blood for syphilis. Syphilis is a sexually transmitted disease, and can cause blindness to children if they are infected during birth. I learned how to locate a fetus' heart. First, you feel for the head, then find the back, and the heart is along the back. I learned that you can estimate the length of gestation (how many months it's been since conception) by feeling for how big the uterus is. You'll have to guess because most Masai people don't have the concept of "months." They only know seven-day weeks. Walking too much during pregnancy can cause the legs to swell up. Pregnant women need to eat well for the fetus and for themselves. If they don't, they may not have enough breast milk. Also, low iron in the diet can lead to anemia, which sometimes causes miscarriage. Pretty interesting stuff. If I become a doctor in a developing country, these kinds of information will be helpful. Also if I get married and my wife gets pregnant, it would be useful as well.
There were a couple interesting cases today. A lady brought in her daughter, who is about 6 or 7, because the girl has some stuff stuck in her right ear. They came a few days ago, but the girl would cry and resist when PuiMeng tried to clean her ear. Even when PuiMeng tries to look into the ear with the hand-microscope (or whatever you call those magnifying glass with light and funnel), the girl starts crying really loudly, and would not stay still. So they came in again today, but again she would resist so hard that PuiMeng could not clean her ear. She was also too big to hold down. The girl's parents tried to convince her to get the ear cleaned, but she wouldn't listen, so they went back home again. Seeing a girl so afraid of something so small makes me wonder if she is being physically abused at home. She was so scared of a little q-tip! She seemed to be afraid of anything foreign to her. Actually, many of the kids were like her. They would start crying uncontrollably even when the assistant tries to put the thermometer under their armpit. Some of them stops crying immediately after they hear the "quack" of a rubber-ducky. It's interesting how some kids are so afraid of things they don't even know if it will harm them. I think they really need to be loved more.
So there was a boy, age of about 4 or 5, who also had a problem with his right ear. PuiMeng showed me the inside of his ear, and I saw two insect legs sticking out of his earwax deep down the ear. Apparently, it's quite common for flies to get stuck in children's ears, because they have so many flies around them, and they're used to having flies landing and walking all over their faces. The boy was small enough that we could hold him down while we cleaned his ear. We wrapped him in a sheet of cloth (almost like a straightjacket), and held him down as PuiMeng injected clean water into his ear to rinse out the wax. Two flies came out of his ear, and after that his ear was all nice and clean. The boy was crying so hard as PuiMeng washed his ear, but he was much better behaved than the girl.
After lunch, the pastor and I rode bicycles around the village and visited some church members. When I say "village" I don't mean a small area with a few rows of houses. Houses (or boma) are spread so far apart, so we had to travel a long distance to get to some houses. It was a really good exercise . At one place, I saw two girls dressed in black. These were the girls who were recently circumcised. Yes, they circumcise girls here. Such a terrible thing, but it's their culture, and so apparently the girls willingly (or are persuaded to) do it.It's socially unacceptable if they are not circumcised, so there's also the social pressure. Even the Kenyan government discourage female circumcision. I'm not sure why they do it in the first place, but according to Pastor (who is not from Masai), it's because they believe the females would not be able to satisfy the men's desires if they are not circumcised. My heart breaks for them when I hear things like this.
For dinner, we had chicken. Here in Kenya, chicken is actually more expensive than beef (per kilogram). It's because it's harder to keep the chicken alive in their environment, especially during rainy season when it gets cold. So I payed for the chicken, and Isaiah cooked for us. Pastor, PuiMeng, Isaiah, and I had a little feast tonight. Since I payed for the chicken (which is about Ksh300 or $4.20), I took some chicken first, but I realized the first thing I took was its head. I almost lost my appetite right then. I put back the head for the natives to eat, and ate the other parts. The meat was really tender. Nothing like a freshly killed chicken... also very naturally raised, unlike in LA.
Tomorrow, I'm going back to Nairobi for a few hours, but apparently I won't have time to go back to BCEA. PuiMeng says she's too busying doing stuff in town, and BCEA is too far off. I have so many things I need to bring (and I want to drop off my laptop because I could only use it for a few hours during the whole three weeks)... Oh well. I need to buy a little note book to keep my journal. I guess I'll have to type out everything once I get back to civilization.
It's been almost two weeks since I shaved. It's definitely the longest I've gone without shaving already, but still the hair is uneven. It's also not dense enough. I can feel my mustache every time I drink chai (which is at least 3 times a day).
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