Now that our trip is coming to a close I have so many emotions, thoughts, and ideas running through my head. Sometimes putting life experiences into words for those who were not there to witness, smell, and take in all the emotions surrounding it is difficult. As I sit comfortably in the Shipole airport with a protein bar in hand, I struggle to put Kenya into words. What a month it has been. This trip far exceeded my expectations, challenged me, grew me, and opened up my perspective and heart in so many new ways.
I want to recap for you some of the amazing experiences we had last week. We put on two more medical camps last weekend, which were amazing. They both took place in large slum communities outside Nairobi. The first was the largest, serving roughly 300+ woman and children in the Kibera slum and the second was in a slum called Lenana and we served about 200 people. Kibera is the largest slum in Africa and one of the worst in the world.
The week at the hospital was full of mothers and babies at Kenyatta National. I was on the labor and delivery ward for two days and then a day in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit. I had the amazing opportunity to assist with six births! Are there epidurals in public African hospitals? Of course not. These women are amazing and so inspiring as far s child birth goes! They are so strong and I hope one day I can deliver my babies all natural the way they do, but not forced, simply by choice because its better for my baby and I in the long run. But the only thing I don't want is an episiotomy without any numbing! Oh baby that was not a pleasant sight, but it happens every day there! In an average 24 hour period the hospital delivers 45-50 babies!
I had a very unique learning experience as well and if you are easily upset by medical details skip this paragraph. I was a part of a birth with a young 22 year old first time mom who had undergone female genital mutilation (FGM) as a young girl. This procedure, though now illegal in Kenya, is still secretly practiced by some tribes, including Kenyan Somalis and the Maasi tribe. Having this done is seen as a right to womanhood in these tribes and is often all the woman know, but it has immense ramifications on the birth process and is a very prominent contributor to high infant and maternal mortality rates. And that was almost the case for the birth I was in. Her baby had been fully crowned and ready for birth for over two hours but due to the size of her vaginal opening resulting from FGM, her pushing was unproductive and the baby was stuck. After a large, lidocaine-free, episiotomy and complete tearing through the FGM area, exposing her urethra, her baby was born completely bluish/white, limp, and not breathing. She was resuscitated, but due to the length of birth asphyxia (time without oxygen) there will most likely be long-term brain damage. She was limp even after she began spontaneous breathing and never fully cried. I was so glad I was there because as the baby came out all the nurses left the mom alone on the bed, covered in blood, without even seeing her baby as the wisked her off to resuscitate. I stayed beside her, held her hand, and prayed over that baby with her as they were working on her. Little moments like that each day affirm why we are here in Kenya right when and where God wants us to be.
The last day was spent in the NICU, which was amazing for me because thats the unit I want to end up working on and specializing in. And boy is an African NICU different the ones in the US. They're nursery was built to accommodate 58 babies and they currently have 105, leaving 2-3 per incubator and oxygen supplementation only available to those who really really need it. The little ones, weighing 800-1300 grams on average, the smallest being 600 grams, simply had an NG tube and padded blankets. No monitors, no O2 saturations, and only supplemental O2 for those who appeared in respiratory distress. Only the sickest of the sickest had any type of continuous monitoring and that was only 5 babies. A good 75-80% of those babies would have been on full monitoring in the US and a few would have been intubated. However, against such odds, the nurses do so well with hat they have and babies do get well and go home. Really small ones have a very low survival rate, but I was amazed by how the nurses improvise with what they have. It was an amazing learning experience and definitely makes me appreciate the technology we have in the US and our ability to save even the tiniest little ones! 
This last weekend we spent on Safari on the Maasi Mara. How beautiful that place is! I was blown away and in awe of God'd creativity there! Pictures do not do it justice at all! We stayed two nights in a Safari Camp that was kinda like "glamping". Not quite as fancy, but we had beds and mosquito nets in out tents and they had cute little front porches. I, however, made a very poor choice while on safari and am still experiencing the ramifications of it! I didn't wear any sunscreen during our safari day at all and I'm on the antimalarial drug Doxycycline, which makes you photosensitive and I TOTALLY forgot....and to add I was in a tank top. So what resulted?? Second degree burns all over my back and chest that have now blistered over and began the intense peeling process. They were super painful initially the two days after, but are way better now! But because a second degree burn kills the epidermis completely and dermis layer partially peeling is unavoidable because the skin is just dead. SO yes, I learned a good lesson! But we saw amazing animals, all the Big 5 but a Rhino, 13 lions, zebra, elephant, crocodile, and also got to cross the boarder into Tanzania! And being me....I ran out into the bush of Tanzania and peed on the Mara. I just had to leave my DNA in yet another African country (:
The joinery continues and we board our next flight home soon, but I plan to blog about my last week of experiences on the flight (: Thank you all for your continuous support and prayers for us all! (:
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