For Aunt Mary Beth

Happy July everyone! It’s hard to believe that I’ve been here for over a month or that I am leaving in less than a month.

I guess it’s been a while. And I thought I was posting regularly. But suddenly, two weeks after the last post I have worried aunts messaging me to check to see if I am still alive (Love you). But I guess it is time for an update anyway. 

look closely to see the mangoes

As a part of the Heston program, each intern is give $200 to use as a grant towards a program we encounter. I really would like to do something with food sustainability or food security. Lots of projects are available that not only could use a grant, but would also be sustainable afterwards. So two Wednesday s ago I went to visit Tom. Tom is basically KMET’s guinea pig for their food security projects, and he was awesome. He has maybe half an acre of land which contains his house, two fish farms, maize, mangoes, bananas, three chicken coups, a goat pen, a couple of cows, and multiple gardens. Him and his wife manage all of it. One of his favorite lines was “It’s all organic”, which, unlike certified organic food in the US, it actually is. The project he was most excited about was his breeding of chickens. In really simple genetics, he crossed a bigger, “exotic” (his words) chicken with a local, small, but more durable chicken. This is the result:

Tank chicken

I left with plenty of ideas for the grant, but I haven’t finalized it yet. Just have to wait for the next post for that.

That Friday, KMET had a huge outreach to a local school. I was assigned to deworm kids again. Like normal kids, they don’t want to take their medicine.They try all sorts of tricks to get out of taking it. It's like a game- how quickly can the escape before I said "tafuna kwanza" (chew first). I managed to get most of them. A team of four managed to deworm over 1000 kids.

See how enthused he is?

Also, I have begun going to the pertiatric malnutrition ward at Kisumu Distric Hospital once a week for some in-patient experience. This is where the children end up after the community health workers refer them. I went last Tuesday and mostly just observed and learned the different types of severe malnutrition. Marasmus is the kind we usually think of- babies with wide eyes and stick legs to support a body of ribs. Kwashiorkor is when the child bloats. They look fat, but it is really edema fluid flooding their limbs and organs. Kwashiorkor is actually the more serious of the two, expecially since one of the symptoms is complete lose of appetite. How do you cure a malnourished child who refuses to eat?

The treatment plans are actually very simple. They use therapeutic food, starting with a milk supplement to stabilize the child. Once the child is able to keep food down, they begin the Plump Nut regimen. Plumpy Nut is an adorably named therapeutic food similar to peanut butter with a goal to solve a not-so-cute issue. The results of Plumpy Nut are clearly visible as most children are discharged after two weeks.   

Many of the children I saw the first day were almost ready to be discharged, minus Eliot, a clearly marasmus 2 month old baby. When I went back today, I saw his bed was occupied by another healthier looking child. I was impressed that they had managed to discharge Eliot so quickly, but my optimism was quickly squashed when I enquired further. Eliot passed away on Friday.

There’s not much more I can say about that. It sucks.

Over the weekend I met the head of the CDC AIDs initiative in Africa. I went to her house to play apples to apples. Very normal for an extraordinary person. On Sunday I took Wendy, Junior, and three of the other kids who hang around our house to the pool. Most of them went there not knowing how to swim, but at least left knowing how to hold their breath under water. The next two weekends we will be traveling, first to Nairobi, then to Maasi Mara. Expect some more interesting stories and pictures.