I'm Tired

Hey folks, yesterday i thought about this blog and it occurred to me that a lot of what i write is kind of happy and people could get the impression that the life i'm living is soooo happy and cool and all that jazz. well it is in some respects but i do also get rather cranky. that has been me this week as the 5 months away has begun to wear on me. don't get me wrong, i'm loving the places i have been and those that i will be going to in the next week. the people i have been meeting are cool and amazing. i'm very glad i met everyone of them. but ....... man, i'm tired. i really just want to go home. i crave the routine of home, of going to church, looking after my bub, going to school seeing my friends, even working... if you can believe that. i miss earning money.....lol...so yea i think i really pushed it with the 5 months, but i know that i will look back on this time and really really cherish it. that is why i am doing everything i have ever wanted to do if i got to Africa. i have no idea when i will be able to get here again, i would hate to leave here and have regrets. i guess u can get a sense of my mood, but despite that, im still going on safari tomorrow..... i'm gonna milk this trip for all its worth, and hopefully i get to come back.... maybe a big group of us, and we can do it all over again, but better..........

My Hair- the Phenomena

so, it has amazed me how shocked people are here when they find out that all the hair on my head is mine, all natural. even to the point of when they introduce me they say something like...' hey, this is Ruth-Ann, she is a medical student from Jamaica via Australia and that's her real hair.'.... lol. i know its crazy. yesterday i went to get my hair washed and can i tell you it was like they didn't know what to do with me. they had not seen anyone come in with natural hair that long and that nuff. it took around 3 hours to wash and blow dry my hair. yep. the guy said i gave the chick that was doing it a challenge. you could so tell that they weren't used to dealing with hair like mine. i love my hair and they did too, but i still couldn't believe that it seemed to be such an anomaly. ahh well..... they did it for me, and i am now walking around with clean hair. its brilliant. all i have to do now is re twist it....thats another funny thing, they didn't know how to twist without putting extensions in.....lol... i was like its ok, i'll do it myself......

The Orphans

hey peeps, so this weekend was a very good one for me. i got to chill with my friends, read, watch movies and do nothing. it was excellent. on sat i went with beautiful Shaz and her sis Annie to the Daphne Sheldrick elephant orphanage. they take care of orphaned elephants up till they reach the age of 2 years. then they take them to another national park as the Nairobi national park is too small for elephants, so there are no elephants there. at this other national park they interact with other older elephants and learn to be elephants and do the things that elephants do. it is amazing what they do there. i didn't realize that elephants were so much like humans. they mature at the same rate as humans and so are considered adults when we would consider ourselves adults. so the ones i saw were all babies. i got videos as well as pictures but i don't think i can get the videos on here, i'll see what i can do. neways.... it was really amazing to learn about them and how they become surrogate mothers to the orphans. they also have rhino's there as well but they get released to the national park cause they are wild there. the process of getting the elephants completely into the wild can take years and years as it is the elephant that decides when it is ready to leave the safety of the park and truly live with the other elephants . it was very cool.

then we went to eat Ethiopian food. it was my first time and was pretty good. they use a lot of lemon in their cooking and eat a lot with their fingers. it was good and so filling. after that Shaz and i went to see a play, Sylvia Valentine. Brilliant. it was there that i met Mugambi....... here is where i say a huge thanks to Mr. M. he took really good care of me. getting me the internet, food and a ride to where i was staying. he was great company. thanks Shaz, he's a keeper.....lol....

Neways... Kangai and i spent the night at Atemi's house, which was simply brilliant. she has books and DVDs. and you all know how i love my books and movies. so i skipped church, yes the lord and i fellowshiped by watching 300 and reading. and that is what i did alllllll day. oh, Mugambi also brought us food from Kenyatta Market, so we didn't have to go anywhere. i'm telling u i never got out of my pjs, which i will tell u was not the revealing kind. it was just scrubs.....lol.....it was brilliant, such a relaxing day.

so the weekend was a huge success... oh and people, if u want to know a great B-day present for me????? it would be the collectors edition of the 300 DVD.... i want it... may 31st.... take note....lol

Giraffe Continued

ok so here is the complete story..... on tuesday i met up with my friend Njoki who took me to her friend Milka's house. Milka lives down the road from the giraffe center, where u get to feed the giraffes. meeting Milka was just great, and her house is simply beautiful. lots of stone and wood with a huge garden where the birds just abound. we just sat and drank tea after the park, and i was just so entertained with the birds all at the feeders and flying around having the best time. she has chameleons in her garden, a family that just had a little baby chameleon. they are naturally occurring. can you believe that. it was so cool. so the pics are of Njoki and Milka feeding the giraffe and of Milka's garden.....



so on the giraffe center, there are 3 types of giraffes: the rothchild giraffe (that is the type at the center. its the only place that has them. they are endangered), the massai giraffe (those are the ones i will be seeing when i go on safari, they are the most common) and the Reticulated giraffe (these are found in the dry and dessert countries, they are rare also). they are so beautiful. so i got to feed them with my hands and as you guys have already seen with my mouth. it was amazing. the center had the females on one side and has had to separate the oldest male, Jack, from the herd, because he bullies the younger males. so the pic of the lone giraffe is he. there were also wort hogs and hyenas at the center. i had a great time...... i can't believe i got to be that close to giraffes...... brilliant.!!!




later that week i went to the Nairobi national park, which is bout 20 something Km in the middle of the city pretty much. all the animals there are wild, so it was so cool seeing giraffes in their natural habitat. i also so impalas, zebras, ostrich, cranes, cousins of the gazelle and the smallest antelope called a dick dick. i went with Milka, and we just drove around looking out for the animals and we got lucky. the thing is that we were spotting all the grazing animals which meant that no lions were about at that time. lions, leopard, and rhinos are naturally occurring in the park as well as baboons . it was very cool. the pic is of impala just lounging around.

folks i gots to go, i have lots more pics to post, but as u well know..... ahhhh the net.... i'll try and get on soon. heaps of love.....

Kissed by a Giraffe

So the rest of this story is coming soon. i don't have long online today, but yes folks i have been kissed by a giraffe.... lots more to come...

The Week in Review

ok, so this past week end was EASTER.... it was pretty cool to do it here in the mother land....lol. for a lot of it i did nothing, which most of you will know is one of my favorite things to do.


ok, lets start of with the friday. .... on friday i went golfing with my friend's friend, now my friend as well, M. it was his first golf lesson, and ended up being my first as well. i was just there sitting enjoying the golf course with Njoki (sounds like Jokee), M's friend, when the Pro that was teaching M, said that i could hit some balls. i was like, but i have on slippers... he then said on the practice range its not a big deal but on the golf course it would be. well folks, i ended up hitting some balls. it was great. i really like it. all that time watching Tiger, i just channeled him and got some good swings and drives in there. so if i can play golf again i definitely would. after that the three of us sat in the garden and chatted all afternoon. we drank tea, then wine, ate food then had hot chocolate. it was simply a really great day and fun to hear all about the culture of the golf club. very cool.

ok so saturday, had two things going on, nothing in the morning, then dinner in the evening at carnivore, the restaurant where u can eat exotic meats. Thanks to M for taking me, yea u know that i twisted his arm, threatened him etc...lollolol... joke... no such thing, i truly kid u. he has kindly offered his services as my friend to show me around as much as his busy schedule will allow. .... i must say that the eveneing ended up being very cool after a rocky start cause i was in a bad mood and there was a 'service incident' at the restaurant....i won't expound on that, but the food was amazing and company was great too. you know that i love great food. first impressions are very important to me and the restaurant didn't make a great one with the incident and all, but man the food saved their ass. i mean it was just magnificent. it was all you could eat, set menu... and u know they could have gotten me from that, friends forever with all you can eat joints...Neways.... we started off with this thing called ugali fritters served with a tomato chutney. that was superb, and i can't even describe what ugali tastes like, but the way they did it was very good. then they served the carrot and celery soup, that was great as well. they then brought out an assortment of salads and sauces to eat with the various meats that they would come around and serve.

ok so on the regular meat menu was chicken, pork (ribs, sausage, steak), lamb (cutlets and meat), beef (sausages and steak) and then on the exotics was crocodile and also ostrich meatballs. they usually serve game meat but the government has restricted it. so alas, no gazelle, or wilder beast for me. maybe if i get to go to the Masai Mara, then i can get to try that. for those of u who are interested crocodile tastes like fish, very strongly, with a slight texture of chicken or a white meat fish that was cooked very dryly (pic is of me and cooked crocodile). it was very good. everything was very good. i didn't like the desert that i chose but other than that, i would go eat there again. i had as much as i could, i tried pretty much everything. the ostrich meatballs were nice as well.....

Sunday and Monday were pretty chill. church on Sunday and relax on Sunday evening and Monday. so all is well i started Cardiothoracic surgery this week. i have seen some cool stuff so far, like a one year old with a congenital cardiac abnormality of only one ventricle. we were trying to shunt him cause he has very hypoplastic (small) pulmonary arteries, but he started to crash on the table, so we had to abandon the procedure and wait for a bypass machine to become available. seriously the issue here is not expertise but funding for equipment. i think there are only 2 functional by-pass machines in the hospital. neways, it was amazing to see the heart pumping away, or like today to feel someone's lungs expand in ur hand. ok enough...

later....

My first surgery

ok folks, today i excised a keloid from a lady's face. yes me, i was a surgeon for 20 min...lol. here, i am with the plastics team and today i attended minor theater. Dr. Nyaga, the surgeon i was with let me assist with the first 2 and then he was like so which one are you doing? i was like 'lolololol' then he said you can't come here and not do anything, how will you be expected to do anything when you graduate if you don't do it now as a student. so i did it. ......lol.... the Keloid was on her right cheek, about 1x2x1 cms in size. so yep, i injected the lignocaine, cut and sutured it. it was cool. i really wouldn't mind being a surgeon.

on another note, every time i get around doctors i realized how much i either don't know or don't remember.....i'm working on it, but sometimes it feels like i don't make headway into the masses of things to know. and i know that that is how most med students feel but it can be a bit demoralizing to feel like no matter what you do, you still don't know. ahhh well, there is nothing left to do but keep at it.

since i am done for the day i find myself in the cyber cafe again, jumping online and hardly getting through with what i want to do due to the speed of the connection. but it does give me an opportunity to read from my store of e-books. today im focusing on wound healing and burns. yesterday was keloids and hypertrophic scars. i have to look up bilateral lymphoedema, since that will be the topic of grand rounds tomorrow. and you know that since the im with the team that is presenting, they just might ask me a question. man i hate that, but at least it forces me to do some work......

yesterday i got to see my friend Sharon, which was very cool, she hasn't changed and we cool just like before. it was great. so for my first week in Kenya, all has gone well. we have this fri and mon off cause of easter, so i am looking forward to that. i have no idea what my weekend will look like, but hopefully good.

NEWAYS.... that's it for now. catch you on the flip side....

In Kenya

So ladies and gents, I have left NYC and am currently in Nairobi, Kenya. It was an eventful day of travel. The trip over to London was ok. Thank the good lord that British Airways still accepts luggage that is 70lbs and under. So I didn’t have to pay any overweight charges. The flight was late leaving JFK but it was ok going over. I watched Dreamgirls, and that was good as well as slept. Then we get into Heathrow and would you know we are an hour late. we got in after 9 and my connection to Nairobi left just after 10, boarding closed at 10. so u know that I was booking it to get there on time. Then they decided to enforce the one hand luggage rule so I had to go check my little suitcase in. it’s a good thing I had to do that, cause they said that I had a seat change so the boarding pass I had was no good,.. basically, ‘you have to get a new one at the gate’. This is like 20 to 10 and it was such a friggin long way to the transfer. Neways I went through security and get to the ticket counter and would you know there was a line, so I spoke to an agent, told him the situation and he looked at the line and said, u better just go to BA info desk in the concourse and get the boarding pass there. So I went running upstairs, got to the desk and found out that I had been upgraded, so that was very cool and worth it. Then u should have seen me running through the airport to get to the gate. I did get there on time and boarded. But wouldn’t you know that the plane started to have trouble. They lost auxiliary power and so for a while we were in darkness and we had to wait till they fixed or semi-fixed the problem. Again the flight over was uneventful, thank the lord. But we had the same power problem once we landed and had to be towed in to the gate, after about 20-30 we finally disembarked. I got through immigration quick cause as a Jamaican I don’t need a visa for Kenya, so I didn’t have to join the long line to buy a visa for US$50. Then I waited for my luggage, and only my hand luggage came. So I was luggage-less, since the connection in London was so tight. Neways… that is all fixed now, I got my luggage 2 days later. It’s a good thing that I pack clothes and underwear in my hand luggage.

Ok so my impressions of Africa, Kenya specifically…… its cool. Very much like Jamaica. So much so its freaky. I mean vegetation, the trees and plants, the city, the dirt, amazing. Writing about it now I feel overwhelmed. It really gives me a sense that some part of me comes from here. And that some things that I love about my country originated here. Man god is amazing……tears just came to my eyes cause…. I can’t believe I am here. U all know that Africa is a place I had always wanted to visit, and to actually be here….. its just amazing. Neways.. for those of you who will understand, Nairobi has a feel of Mobay minus the beach…. In terms of the city centre itself, it doesn't feel as metropolitan as Kingston, the red dirt (very Bauxite), the buses and the people give you a feel of a very, very big country town like Ewarton, Linstead, May Pen etc. The faces of the People are mainly African in features, where as at home we will have a lot of mixed features due to our mixed heritage. There are whites, and lots of Indians in Kenya. I haven’t seen many orientals, though there are a few here…

the pics in this post (which i will upload later, it takes FOREVER) are of my friend'shouse, where I am staying. They literally have a farm on the property, and so grow most of what we eat, which I think is just amazing. They have all kinds of things, corn, broccoli, lots of bananas, onions, lettuce, all sorts of veggies and flowers. They also have chickens…there is a river running through the property and I saw some fruit that I had never seen before. They were tree tomatoes. So there is a pic of me trying them. They were ok, the taste is like a tomato but not, its was like a mixture of fruits, but I couldn’t pick the particular fruits that combined to give it its taste. It was weird not being able to pick them. so lets just say it tastes like itself….lol. The family are just simply lovely people. They are very impressive and I can see where my friend gets some of her traits, likes and dislikes from. Her sisterdoes some things just like she does. U can’t miss knowing that they are sisters. So I’ts cool to be staying with them.

Kenya has a large flower exporting industry. Did u know that over 50% of the flowers in Europe comes from Kenya. For that reason, flowers are cheap, cheap here. Cause they are on the equator the roses grow straight cause the light source stays pretty constant. They have optimal placement in terms of altitude and such. So it is a big industry and lots of research goes into it to get various combinations of colours etc. so it’s very cool. There is also a national park with all the wildlife in the middle of Nairobi. Its crazy, so I will be going there, as you all know that if I see animals then I’m happy. So I’ll keep you up to date with that.

In terms of what I will be doing here, I went to the hospital on Friday, I started today, Monday. I will be doing 2 weeks surgery and 2 weeks Paediatrics. I started with plastics today. I saw lots of burns, heaps. One young fella got burned running from a lion. Now seriously, where do you hear that. The plastics team is really a reconstructive team but they get over run with burns. So the week has started ok. We’ll see how it goes. It gets a bit difficult to get online here, so these blogs may be sporadic. Pray for me about how I get to the hospital etc….. that will be the real adventure. But the lady in the Deans office was very nice, so in that regard being a foreigner is an advantage here. On the street, its not an advantage. In NYC I fit in, but here, I look similar to other africans in a way but the moment i open my mouth and speak differently or better yet don't understand a word of what they are saying, its a dead give away. I’ll see how much of the language I can pick up…. It will be interesting…

So that is me, I am Here in Kenya… I’ll keep you posted… much love

Last week in NYC

This is a long one, so be prepared….

So my last week in NYC, it was busy, very busy. Not just packing but seeing the city with friends that came to visit me. That weekend I spent with my Aunt and my cousin Madeline (Maddy) and that Friday it snowed the whole day….. so let me just say that I have great snow pics, as you can see. My cousin is so cute, that Saturday was her B-day and she turned 4. she calls me Roofi- Ann. Yes people, my name has changed. She introduces me as such, it’s hilarious. Neways so here are pics of her, and me, and us cleaning the car off so that we can drive…. Lol.

That same week my friend Jan had come in from Australia, she had an eventful time getting to Canada that weekend, so she ended up coming back a day late to NYC. She came back on Tue and stayed till Sun. So she went all over the place, packed a lot of stuff into a short time and when I didn’t have class I went with her. My friend Sal was also in Town for some meetings that week as well so the week was packed. All three of us went to see my friends from the Poor Richards, sing in their a cappella Group called Duwende, which was soooo wicked. I’ve loved them for ages… visit them at http://www.duwende.com/ or www.myspace.com/duwende and if ever you are in the area when they are performing, it’s a must go see. Big up to my Duwende peeps, love you Abbey and Ed. So that was fun.

Then the rest of the week, we just went all over, the world trade center memorial, where I bawled my eyes out, couldn’t help it …. The Apple store on 5^th Ave, just beautiful. I love Macs …. Ok where else did we go, we just walked all over the place, 34^th street, central park, Harlem and the Bronx…lol. It was good times. Lots of fun. Thanks Guys for coming to visit me while I was there, it just added to my whole experience.

In terms of Medicine, it all went well, and I understand the Health care system sooo much better. So much so that I find myself asking questions like, how is the health care system in Kenya set up? Is there universal health care? Is it insurance based? How is it financed? How do people pay? Questions that before, I wouldn’t even have thought about. I would have just gone and treated people, not even thought about the cost. That is the disadvantage of studying in Australia where there is universal health care, as medical students the cost of health care is not impressed on us. But when you travel and see health working in other places, it brings it to the forefront of your mind. So all in all if I gained nothing else from going home to Jamaica, seeing medicine done there, then to the very different system of the US and now to Kenya, then I gained that consciousness. I know I will practice differently. I’m excited to see how my life will turn out, lol, how long I actually stay in medicine, what I eventually decide to specialise in… if I do specialise. Whether I stay in Australia, go back home or to the States…. Ahhh bway, decisions to make, but they are not for now. First things first….. enjoy and experience this elective in Kenya, get home to Aussie land and finish school……..that’s the focus now. Everything else can wait….