Today was a big day....

I have an undeniable story in the title of this email, but today was a big day! So I'll have to explain that later. Today was the biggest meeting YET for Nuru in Nyametaburu!

See, I'm doing - well what I explained in the title box of this blog - and doing it with a non-profit called Nuru International! I'm a part of the first foundation team, and that rocks my life! For a long time - as in YEARS - I've been trying to figure out "what will I be doing? how can all my passions come together? how can I live my job as a life of service?, etc." More about THAT whole thing in another blog too, but basically - it resulted in this. So ... back to today! 

I worked from our dirt floor living room/office/kitchen/dining room/entertainment center ;) area this am for several hours. Pouring over the questions I have to find out about the community. A lot having to do with specifics about their infrastructure relative to healthcare, but also questions relating to the cultural aspects of health and education to address prevention of disease. 

Nicole (one of my awesome team mates) and I left at 10am to walk to get a Boda Boda (motorcycle) to drive us down the long, windy, hilly, dusty road to Nyametaburu community. We live in Isebania, which is maybe 5-7 km from Nyametaburu. Nicole and I walk about 30 minutes talking about our ideas for the day - what we hope to achieve, observe, etc. We get to the road to Nyametaburu, and the slew of Boda Bodas waiting for business, and ask one driver how much will he charge? He says 200 shillings per person, but this is NOT our first Boda Boda ride, so we KNOW they usually charge 150 shillings. We tell him so, and he agrees to take Nicole and I both for 300 shillings. Sowa Sowa (ok). 

It's a fun ride. INCREDIBLY beautiful! Nicole and I and our back packs are on one Boda Boda going down this road. And we arrive to Nyametaburu. I'm off to the dispensary to shadow Nellie, and Nicole is off to Eunice's house to observe and ask many questions about water and sanitation. 

My entire day from 11 - 3pm is spent in a chair next to Nellie behind her desk as she sees and treats MANY patients. I saw mothers bringing babies for vaccinations; mothers coming in for their first anti-natal exam; men and women with respiratory track infections, malaria, pains from past surgeries; children with malaria; a boy with an infected wound that had to be drained; and more. Nellie had people in her office NON-STOP! and she was pleasant to all of them. We left only for 10-15 minutes Tops to go get chai and chipatis. 

MANY things are different from what I'm used to - 

1. Privacy - for one, I was in the room - a Mzungu just there next to the nurse. Not that I understand what they are saying, bc they are speaking Kiswahili, but still. And they were fine with me being there. Also, other patients will just stroll right in to the office while the nurse is assisting someone else. The nurses 3 girls came in a couple times, sitting and waiting, bringing the baby girl to be breast-fed by Nellie - the Nurse on duty - and she breast-fed while she continued to work. Incredible dedication, and keep in mind it's just more culturally accepted. Not strange at all. 
2. Assistance - it was just Nellie. All day! Just her! She did everything - intake, examination, record keeping, payments/receipts, pharmaceuticals, injections, education, scheduling.
3. Availability - 1 woman mentioned she sleeps under a net, but it's not been treated with pesticides. The tablets to treat nets are in Isebania town. Not available at the dispensary or in the community there. 2 women were sent away to go buy notebooks before Nellie would see them. The notebooks (envision 20 pieces of paper folded with a slightly thicker piece of paper around it and stapled) are then torn in half to create 2 smaller notebooks. The people are responsible for their own records. Oh...
4. Record keeping - all hand written. Nellie had a problem getting a pen that worked - I just gave her mine. The people keep their own records. The nurse or whoever sees them writes the explanation of their symptoms, the impression (what the nurse thinks they have) and the treatment. Mothers have a yellow booklet which is filled out prior to giving birth with their health info (during pregnancy) and then the babies info after birth. (Oh, every child I saw today was born at home - most likely with a Traditional Birth Attendant.) And Nellie keeps data on pregnant mothers and children in big notebooks given by the Ministry of Health.

 Nellie was gracious, explaining many things to me, and asking questions that I was interested in regarding patients - but I couldn't help but feel a little worthless. I'm taking notes, and she's treating a zillion patients. Wow!

I did observe some things that might lend to possible solutions or "points of intervention" as I'd like to call them. One being - the people wait to be seen for so long - one man was there when I arrived a little before 11am, and he didn't get seen until 1:15pm. I really think that there could be some education going on right there for people to learn about disease prevention, identification, treatment, etc.

At 3pm I walked out of the clinic to meet up with Nicole and Jake (affectionately called "Jake Nuru" as he is the CEO of Nuru and Co-founder - another awesome teammate). This meeting was the first of it's kind. We've been meeting with community leaders, elders, ministry directors, chief/sub-chiefs/assistant chiefs, and church leaders over the past 2 weeks. We've been explaining the vision of Nuru (www.nuruinternational.org) and explaining the plan to help their community by them partnering with us. We asked in ALL of those meetings - "invite people to come Wednesday at 3pm to learn more." That was today - and about 130 people showed up!!!! about 45 women, and 85 men. 

Jake did AWESOME! We had the counselor of the community translating for us, and he is an animated and serious motivator. The Chief was present, as was our great rafiki (friend) and Community Development Committee Chairman - Philip! It was a great meeting. Many good questions about the plan for training, farm inputs, loans, group formation, etc. The people are so excited we are there. They buy into the partnership model, knowing that this is not a hand out, that they have to work to be involved in the program, and they are willing. -- Granted, now everyone thinks I'm a doctor - which I'm not - but that'll be sorted out somehow ;) -- They want their lives to change. :) For many of them (especially the kids) this is the first time in their lives they have ever seen Mzungus (translated as Europeans - but it means white person). But they are very thankful we are here. They invite us to come to their homes, to come "greet them", to eat with them, etc. They are lovely people. And so far, we have everyone's support that we have met. ;) God is so good!!!

We are only just beginning, but today was a big day! 140 people!!!! That's big...

More to come. ;) Thanks for reading!