Mombassa

Now, I’ll tell you a bit about Mombassa. I apologize for the writing quality of these entries, but my language skills are steadily decreasing as the time goes on. Mombassa is an absolutely stunning city located on the coast of Kenya. Basically, it is a huge island with old architecture and a huge Arab influence. Immediately upon entering the city, you can tell it is old and has a lot more history than Nairobi. We stayed in hostels near the SIT Office, which is located in the Old Town area. It was pretty touristy, but gorgeous and beautiful, overlooking the water and Fort Jesus (built by the Portuguese).

We were given a lot of free time to explore while in Mombassa, which was nice, because they have pretty cool shopping areas. There was one street that had little tiny shops and tailors on the street and we spent a lot of time there (think something along the lines of China Town or Devon Ave. with more stores, a narrower unpaved street, and fifty times more people). I realized that I have a fabric problem because I wanted to buy everything. However, I restrained myself and never bought anything that I couldn’t haggle down to less than 250 shillings (about $4). A nice thing about Mombassa was that we could walk around at night, something we are highly discouraged from doing in Nairobi. On Wednesday night, a group of us went to Salambo Discotheque and danced all night long. At first, they only played American techno music, but then we requested Kenyan music and it got much better.

While in Mombassa, we visited many places and attended many interesting lectures. One place we went to was KEMRI, the Kenyan Medical Research Institute. When we entered the compound, I instantly felt transported to the United States. The landscaping was beautiful, they had air conditioning, and the conference room we went into had furniture that looked like it came from Target. The labs even smelled like the USA. KEMRI was formed through an act of Parliament however most of their funding comes from foreign investors. In the facility we visited, they mostly conducted clinical studies involving Malaria, HIV, and respiratory tract infections and were attached to the local hospital. We toured both the KEMRI labs and the pediatric wing of the hospital and the difference between the facilities were painstakingly obvious. The KEMRI labs had air conditioning, state-of-the-art machines, clean water, florescent lighting, and an endless supply of gloves. It was nicer than some of the labs I’ve seen at Strong Hospital. Literally, it was the most “modern” place I’ve seen in Kenya so far. The hospital, located no less than one hundred yards away, had no windows in some of the areas and would not have passed any health codes in the United States. In the pediatric wing, the rooms had ten to fifteen beds each with virtually no separation between patients. Mothers were everywhere—eating, washing clothing in buckets, and just holding their children. I did not see one heart rate monitor or drip feed in the entire unit. One of the wings was designated specifically for malnourished children, and the doctors brought us up to different patients and pointed out the distended stomachs and listed off their various ailments (HIPPA is obviously nonexistent). All of the beds contained clipboards, but not one of them had anything written on them. Then, they took us to the intensive care unit, where patients for KEMRI received care. This unit was much more up to date with IVs, bedding, and heart-rate monitors, but still not up to any standards we would recognize. There were nine beds in the ICU and they had fourteen patients when we visited--newborns being placed two to a bed. I had a hard time grappling with the difference between the KEMRI lab facilities and the hospital. My first thoughts were, “Why aren’t the patients in the gorgeous, clean facility and the researchers in the non-air conditioned (I know, I’m stuck on the air conditioning, but it was HOT), mediocre facility?” Then, I began to think about it and the donor’s priorities are research, not the actual patients. I definitely see the benefits of research, because we need to find out more about diseases and it helps people immensely, and what KEMRI does is really cool (they let us look at live malaria under a microscope). The difference between the facilities was so large, though, that I had a hard time understanding how the people doing research could continue sitting in their sterile labs while people were dying because of unclean facilities only a few steps away (I guess, I understand, but it makes me sad…) I guess the allocation of resources seemed a little skewed to me. Also, compared to Kenyatta Hospital in Nairobi (where I did the dropoff), the hospital near KEMRI was at least fifty times nicer. I cannot even imagine what the hospital would be like if the research facility was not there. In all, it was a cool experience but one that I am still a bit frustrated with.

I will write more about some of the other interesting lectures we had at a later time, so I don’t bore you with all my thoughts at one time!

Other things from Bodo:

-The sky was incredibly clear and you could see the Milky Way every night. I have never seen so many stars in my life and wished Malaria wasn’t so prevalent so I could sleep outside every night.

-One day, my one one-year old sister took out a white baby doll to play with. At first, I was surprised that a white plastic doll would find its way to a rural Kenyan village. When I went to get gifts for my family, I looked for an African doll both on the street and at Nakumatt (the Walmart of Kenya) and could not find one. How crazy is it that in Africa, finding a doll that resembles the majority of the population is virtually impossible?

-On my first day, I was sitting on a mat outside and a monkey climbed out of a tree and walked into my house. My mom chased it out, but monkeys are like squirrels, found in many of the trees.

-In Bodo, there was no electricity or running water (which was wonderful!) but there was full cell phone reception and one small store that sold Fantas. I think it is interesting to see which parts of “Westernization” make their way into different communities and in what order.