Thursday

             So today was a pretty uneventful day. We got up early to attend a CME lecture by one of the doctors we shadow, but when we got to the hospital a little bit before 7am, no one was in the conference room. We thought that maybe no one was there yet, but we could hear Dr. Shirley’s voice coming from the room next door. It sounded like he hadn’t just started his lecture, but was somewhere in the middle of it. After waiting a few minutes, we decided to stick our heads in and see if it was where we were supposed to be. Well, we were definitely wrong. No one even said anything to us when we stuck our heads in. A few minutes later, Dr. Mireille showed up and did the same thing. Apparently there had been some miscommunication concerning where the lecture would be and who would be attending. I have learned that you really can’t count on anything going exactly as planned before 8am in Kenya.

            At 7:45 we went to chapel. This week is spiritual emphasis week at Kijabe Hospital. At the beginning of chapel, we sang songs and at the end of each song, the chorus was sung in Swahili. I obviously couldn’t join in, but it sounded cool!  

Kijabe's Chapel

After chapel we did rounds and saw most of the same patients we saw the day before. One patient had actually been discharged, but because her family could not pay her hospital bill, she was still in her bed. After rounds we had tea with Dr. Shirley. He told us about how national health insurance in Kenya is only equivalent to about $8 a year, but that hardly anyone purchases it. He also told us how some patients are abandoned by their families when their hospital bills get too high for them to pay. At that point the hospital must absorb the fees. It’s really sad especially since Kijabe Hospital is one of the nicer hospitals around with a relatively wealthier patient population.

The only other interesting thing from today was that the power went out twice during my shower tonight. That was fun. Luckily it came back on pretty quickly both times. We are used to the lights flickering, but they usually don’t go all the way out!

Tomorrow, we will only be in the hospital until noon and in the afternoon we will be taking a little trip to Hell’s Gate National Park. It is near Kijabe and from there we will head to House of Hope to meet up with our friends for the weekend.