12/28

Many of the schoolchildren in the area near Ushirika do not have a place to gather. They are wandering streets every moment that they're not in school (which is mandatory only until 8th grade), and I wanted to do a little to change that. I went to a market and bought several reference books appropriate for primary school (1-8), as well as crayons and coloring books to keep the little ones entertained. There is an open space where children often gathered, and I got a bookshelf to place these books on.

In my work with kids I have always stressed the importance of reading for pleasure, and I therefore got several storybooks. Reading encourages imagination as well as original thought, and hones important skills indispensible to a productive life. To ignite their passion, I had storytime where I read a picturebook to them as they closed their eyes. When they opened them, I had them draw what they think is happening.

To engage the older children, I got several boardgames. Ludo is common here (takes as long as monopoly), and I got many sets of pieces and die.

In the second part of my day, I went to Kenyatta National Hospital. It is the largest hospital in Kenya and is considered to have the best doctors. It is also the busiest, and the wait time can exceed weeks for non-urgent matters. People often die while waiting to see a doctor.

I was unprepared for the sheer volume of patients I witnessed. Ushirika is very busy, but this was at a different level. There is standing room only throughout the (gigantic) hospital. Patients in the wards are on the floor because there are not enough beds. Weights are used in orthopedics to stabilize the patient. The average wait time upon admission to the emergency room is about 12 hours, even for more serious cases. If you think the ER TV shows on Discovery Health are exciting, the cases in this hospital were multiplied by a magnitude of 10.

Three patients I saw stood out to me in a manner that I will likely never forget. A gunshot victim with stab wounds was in the waiting room, bleeding profusely, for several minutes until hospital staff could take care of him. Another patient had been hit by a bus and his cranium had sunk in. A third patient is in the middle of the admittance floor screaming while throwing her legs in the air. I went over and thought it was a psychiatric issue. When I returned about 10 minutes later, there were giant (approx 4 in) rashes on both of her legs. When I informed the doctor about how quickly her symptoms were progressing, she was admitted. I unfortunately had to leave--there are safety issues in being out at night--before I learned the outcome.

I will return to Kenyatta at 8 AM tomorrow and will be able to scrub into trauma surgery. I have never witnessed a surgery before, and am looking forward to just being in the room!