Entasopia Village: Clinic Day II Wednesday, June 5, 2013

On the second day of clinic we decided to move locations because our first location was so remote it would be very hard for many people to travel to get there. After a 2 hour drive we arrived at a local school in the middle of no where. It is really crazy out here because it feels like you drive in circles but always end up somewhere different. Also, it is extremely dusty and we have the top of the safari van open to see animals and because we are the second van dust practically rains on us. According to the local people though, this is not very dusty as it is the rainy season and it had just rained recently. It is also “cold” because many of the locals are wearing sweaters and pants. I feel like I am going to melt in the heat. We are very close to the Tanzania border as well.

Anyways we wake up very early because we decide we cannot stay in Shompole another night and after the clinic we will drive directly back to Nairobi since there is no roads that directly connect Masai Mara to Shompole even though we are very close. This clinic is set up so that pharmacy is behind the doctors stations and we dispense the medication through a gated window. Our translator this day is much much better than the last day. We see many more patients than we did in Shompole. There is a huge line of children we give clotrimazole to because most of them have fungal rashes. Almost every patient was dressed in their Masai clothing and spoke Masai which is different from Kiswahili. They also didn’t have any concept of age. A mother had 3 children all clearly different ages but stated they were all one. The hard part about today was we had no scale to weigh the children with and had to guess their weight for dosing meds. One baby had one blue eye and one brown eye. She was very pretty. Many of the children would also reach out to touch our skin because we were so white.

I don’t even know what time it is and we are all starving. No lunch, small breakfast at 7:00 am and a 6 hour drive before dinner. Omg I didn’t know if I could make it. Fortunately we had a few cliff bars in our backpack and trail mix to munch on.

The clinic ended and we started our journey. Before we climbed into the vans the village wanted to sing for us. Fred started dancing with them and then convinced me to join. Thankfully mike joined me but next thing we knew he was doing to the marriage dance with the locals. He was officially accepted into their tribe. We leave in a rush because we need to leave and get home before the sun sets.

First stop to see giraffes. We changed not some cooler clothes because it was so so so hot. We chased the giraffes on foot while a team member accidentally peed on themselves while we tried to improve toilet out in a bush. As we are driving we see a waterfall. Then we are driving along a lake and see so many flamingos! We stopped to take pictures then all of a sudden our driver says hold on, and we go at a 90 degree angle upwards a hill. Practically off roading. We finally reach the bottle making factory for some drinks. I was told this is Lake Magadi.

We stop and have a delicious soda because we are all very thirsty and hungry. As we wait we decide to get a beer. Next thing we know it is time to go. We want to bring the beer with us but the bar tender come out looking for the bottles because they are worth money. Because we are genius we pour the remainder into an empty water bottle.

We finally arrive to Nairobi and it is a tie between food, sleep, and shower. Since our van arrives first I shower and go to eat. We are all craving pizza and order papa johns pizza delivery. Since this is Kenya naturally it takes Kevin longer than expected to pick it up because he drops Fred off at home. It arrives and it is so good. Greg spills Italian water on the floor, Millie almost sits on her baby after using him for leg exercises, and we blow the fuse to the power in the house. It was a good night and we all go to bed in the darkness to get ready for tomorrow.