All you need is love

I spent over 2 hours last night, taking the local Matatu to the grocery market and back in rush hour, lesson learned. With lots buzzing in my head from the day at the Maternity Hospital, no sooner did I sit down to eat my prepared dinner, than a friendly face pulled up in a taxi and popped right into my ground floor flat as the door was open. It was Lisa, an Obstetrician from Manitoba I had met on the first day. It was so nice to see someone friendly and interested in talking to me, she came right in and told me about her day. I've been finding the other girls on the compound very distant and they keep to themselves completely, and thought it was maybe something about me. Lisa explained it was her birthday and her and 2 Doctors from U of Washington who also live in my compound were going out for supper. They all arrived in my apartment and insisted I pack up the taco dinner I had prepared and come out with them, after we toasted her birthday with a bottle of wine I had bought at the Nakumat of course. I had a great evening with them, finally some genuinely friendly and inviting people. They said the same of me that finally I proved that not all Canadian girls are unfriendly, like the other girls in the compound. We had excellent discussion about health care in Kenya and current iniatives and their observations of the medical care. They planted a seed for an idea that sprouted into nutrition project for me to work on, I may it pitch to Joshua, the program head next week. Its amazing how renewed I feel after feeling that someone reached out to me in friendship. I woke up this morning with extra ambition, and spent the morning groundtesting my idea with the counselling staff at the clinic. They were so open to my nutrition project idea and had great input and ideas to share. I plan to attempt to create a directory of food resources in Nairobi, as I've noticed a big issue for the HIV patients is that they have severe food insecurity. Since you need to take your ARV's with food for them to be absorbed properly, it becomes an issue of medication compliance and can gravely affect their treatment. The counsellors each have a few resources they may suggest to a client, but like everything in Kenya, the resources are not catalogued or organized or utilized effectively. I figure I can do the foot work of researching local organizations and staff and patients and try to start a directory for use by the staff in the clinic. I've been thinking this week that I need to create a project for myself as the patient counselling seems to be impossible due to language barriers and lack of translators. I want to finish something during my 2 months here that will help the clinic far after I'm gone. The staff felt this was the biggest nutritional concern and the biggest gap for them as counsellors. So I've got a plan. I feel different today like I have a purpose and I've noticed changes in the staff at the clinic. I feel much more included and welcomed by their warmth and they are stopping to interpreter slowly for me. Its slowly coming together, and really, I've only been here a week! God truly has a plan, and I have to keep remembering that I am not in control anyways, so patience is the key! I hoping to do some touristy things this weekend, maybe with the two Newfoundland Med students who are leaving next week. Thanks for listening today...I feel like I'm having coffee with each of you when I sit to journal. What an experience so far.......we're not in Kansas anymore Totto!