Time Flies When You Are Having Fun!

Its funny to me know, that I had planned activities and brought books along with me to Africa in fear that I would be lonely, and/or bored. The truth is, I've met some incredible friends and had some amazing experiences. This weekend was no exception. There is yet, another new medical student named Rachel who arrived here from Vancouver last Tuesday. Its amazing really, how well we all get along, perhaps it takes a certain person to jump into this adventure in the first place, but I must say I hope to be remain in contact with each of the new friends long after I am home in Canada. We've taken to cooking dinner collectively and planning evening and weekend activities together, it sure makes for an enjoyable life. On Saturday we planned to check out some local Nairobi tourist attractions, the Elephant Orphanage and the Giraffe Center which is on the edge of Nairobi, in a suburb called Langata/Karen. It was really neat to see the animals so close up, as on Safari, they were in their natural habitat, but often quite far away, and hard to see their nuances and movements clearly. The elephant orphanage is a non-profit foundation that rescues baby or young elephants from the surrounding areas, and rehabilitates them, until they are fit to release back into the wild. It is only open daily for 1 hour, to try to reduce the animals' exposure and adaptability to humans so they can be successful in the wild when they are ready to return. Their most recent rescue was of a little baby elephant, who had obvious sun burns on his ears, from being trapped alone and dehydrated too long in a man-made well. There were lots of care-takers at the orphanage, and one fellow followed this little elephant around with a sun shading umbrella to protect his little ears. It was too cute! There was also an adorable little (and I mean little) baby rhino who, was only as tall as your calf or so. As he pranced around the crowd in his little red jacket, he stopped every so often to enjoy in the many pats and scratches given by the excited children. He was just their size! Then we went to the Giraffe center, where you can feed giraffes and even get a kiss from one if you desire. Lets be honest, I did not desire a wet one from a giraffe, regardless of the fact their saliva is antiseptic, I wasn't letting that big gray tongue anywhere near my face. Rachel did, and the photo in my web album will show you that she even enjoyed it. Giraffes are such interesting looking creatures, which huge heads I might add. It was fun to touch them, but the staff warned us several times, if you don't have food to give them, they will head butt you and hard. Adam and Barclay have been here since Aug 2008 and have a jeep which they use to go on safaris and adventures around town. It has been in the shop since they completely blew the engine after getting stuck in the mud repeatedly on safari a month and a half ago, but last week their little baby was all fixed up and rearing to go on another adventure. On Sunday, Adam took Rachel and I on an exciting kind of adventure, one of personal challenge, one of extreme oxygen deprivation, historical and geographical exploration...haha nah we simply just hiked up a volcano. The mountain is described as a "senile volcano" not an inactive one, because until a few years ago it was still spewing out steam jets around the crater rim, once a power plant started up nearby using the steam power, the steam jets have disappeared. So we hiked up the 600 meter climb to the top of Mount Longonot in about 2 hours. Rachel, who has a keen interest in animals, had eyes like a hawk and spotted 3 different families of giraffes grazing in the forest below the crater rim. There were zebras and buffalo also hanging out and enjoying the beautiful day with us. After 1 hour hiking up a dusty, volcanic ashy dirt trail (and I do mean UP) we reached the crater rim which revealed a incredible crater probably 2-3 km wide and maybe 150 meters deep. Only the tops of the trees below were visible, and amongst them a small tent pitched by one extreme camper. We then hiked around the rim to the summit peak, which took about another hour, and had lunch at the top, approximately 2700 meter above sea level. I was so grateful to have a "practice" or "training" hike at such a high elevation to get me ready for the fast approaching trek up Mt Kenya (on April 1). Its amazing how much of a difference it makes to be at such high elevation, or at least thats my excuse for puffing a bit, it surely couldn't be the ice cream I've been eating lately (yes they do have ice cream in Kenya). Mount Longonot is about 2 hours outside of Nairobi, near a city called Navisha and Lake Navisha, a beautiful fresh water lake in the rift valley, visible from the summit of the mountain. It was a great day all in all, spectacular views and it felt so good to push myself, my lungs and my quads. This week, I'm trying to finish up all the projects I started at the clinics, so I'm ready for Morgan to arrive in just 2 short weeks. I'm presenting a nutrition class to the community health workers of the MOCASO organization that I had visited in February (and blogged about). They have graciously invited me back and I'm excited to do some "train the trainer" activities so that nutrition doesn't get forgotten after I'm gone. I'm also trying to organize a session for the clinic staff of all 4 clinics next week, on nutrition and HIV, finish up my food security project, and if I have time, I want to make a DVD nutrition presentation to play in the waiting rooms of the clinics for patients waiting. It feels good to be finishing up tangible nutrition promotion activities and reflecting on the nutrition impact I have made here. I calculate the number of patients I have educated on nutrition in my time here, and its about 370. After my two staff presentations, the total will be about 425, and hopefully the staff will continue to spread nutrition education to future clients. I am also hoping to be able to volunteer with Kurtis' wife Carla at the Aids clinic in rural Tanzania when Morgan and I visit there in April for two weeks. I think it would be interesting to see a rural health care setting and also more of an inpatient HIV setting. Its hard to gauge just how much of an impact I've made on the patients without a formal measurement tool, but I know for sure that being here, and meeting these people, and working in this setting has made an overwhelming impact on me. I have learned so much about resource limited health care settings, government corruption, research in 3rd world, food security, HIV/Aids, Kenyan culture and foods as well as learned a lot about myself. Although I will be completing the volunteering portion of my trip, I know I will not stop learning and gathering information that will help me practice nutrition back home. The time has literally flown by, and I'm shocked to think I've been here for almost 9 weeks already! The adventures and learning experiences are plentiful, and I'm feeling so grateful to be having this experience.