From Kenya, with Love

I come from nearly as far away as possible from Kenya. I am from New Zealand, a tiny island nation neighboring the giant land mass of Australia. I went home for Christmas, and it is difficult to fully describe how demoralizing a 31-hour flight is. Living so far away from Africa, when I initially told some of my friends and relatives I was heading to Kenya, their primary concerns were:

• Ebola

• Terrorism

I reassured them that Africa was actually quite big, and the Ebola outbreak was located in another region of Africa entirely from where I was headed. I also discussed that Chogoria was a rural village one street long, and wasn’t likely a major terrorist target.

Prior to living in Chogoria, and working with Village HopeCore, my only experience of living or traveling in Africa was a 5-week elective placement at Tygerberg Hospital in Capetown, and then 1 week traveling and doing a canoe safari in Zambia. Hence I was slightly apprehensive about my commitment to spend a year living in rural Africa, in a country that I knew very little about. My journey to becoming a Clinical Fellow for Village HopeCore started when I was a pre-clinical medical student. During one of my university holidays, I and another medical student went traveling around India for 2 months. During this time we spent a week staying with a local family in a small town in the state of Kerela and spent about a week at the local hospital.

This experience starkly illustrated to me the discrepancy in access to health care in different settings. New Zealand has a public health care system, so all hospital-level care is free to access for our citizens. There are obviously disadvantages to any particular model of healthcare provision, but it is comforting as a clinician practicing in New Zealand to know that I can provide a very good quality of care for my patients without fear that they will face catastrophic medical costs. As a member of New Zealand society I am gratified in the knowledge that in case of emergency, any of our citizens are able to access emergency treatment, no matter what their economic status is.

This is how my interest and now passion (or obsession!)  for Global Health emerged. As a medical student, it continued to grow with my involvement in Global Health interest groups, attendance at relevant conferences, and placements in South Africa and Sri Lanka. Following the completion of my first two post-graduate years practicing as a doctor, I wanted a change from the hospital environment, so I completed a Diploma in Tropical Medicine and Hygiene at The Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine. I was very interested in testing this newly acquired knowledge and skills, so I did some Google-ing of various volunteer positions in Africa and ended up finding Village HopeCore International.

When I talk to people about volunteering in Kenya/Africa, many people say things like; ‘good on you’ or ‘God bless you’, phrases representing an attitude which I’m not comfortable with. I feel that as much as I hope I’ve positively contributed to Village HopeCore as an organization, I have gained so much, possibly much more from working at HopeCore than I could hope to give back.

Finding my passion

One of the key things I have really enjoyed whilst volunteering with Village HopeCore is the opportunity to try and develop the knowledge and skills of others, particularly locals in the community. My experience has taught me that I am passionate about capacity building in low-resource/developing settings. During my time here, I have attempted to design an education curriculum to enhance our health workers' ability to deliver our services to the community, as well as to allow them to feel confident in the acquisition of new skills such as growth monitoring and nutritional counseling. I’ve also tried to encourage an environment in which we foster the development of specific skills in our staff, for example, utilizing staff members’ previous qualifications, for example, a Diploma in Nutrition, to assist our program whilst also assisting them in their career development.

I have been so appreciative to the staff who come every week to my education sessions, and who let me hang around them whilst they are working, observing them, and discussing suggestions or different ways of doing things. I feel mostly they indulge me somewhat, as they often don’t really need my help! The other aspect I love about this kind of work is that it assists our program to be sustainable. These people will be working in their community long after I have left, and thus trying to develop their skills is a much more effective way of enhancing the health of the community than my practicing as a clinician. I am so grateful to have discovered this particular passion, and for the Village HopeCore staff who have allowed me to practice this with them.

Seeing the beauty

New Zealand is so far away from Africa, that many New Zealanders (including myself prior at one time!) have a perception of this amazing continent which is based on news reports; news reports that are often not very positive – TV screens flashing images of poverty, war/genocide, Ebola, terrorism, and corruption. My experience of Kenya has been very different from this. One of the words that primarily comes to mind when I describe Kenya is colorful; from the characters who live and work on the hospital compound where I live, to woman’s Kitenge prints, and even the small beads woven into the children’s braids. I love the fascinating diversity within Kenya, both culturally and in the landscape. I have seen small huts surrounded by shambas with coffee and tea plants in rural Kenya, experienced the congested (/infamous) traffic of Nairobi, felt the freezing cold of a night spent in a hut on Mount Kenya, and the plains of the Masai Mara dotted with acacia trees.

I appreciated the kindness I have experienced here, the warmth of my work colleagues, friendly strangers on the matatus offering me bananas, and people who would stop to tell me that I shouldn’t keep leaving the window open on Accra road (where the matatus from Nairobi to Chogoria leave from) as something would get stolen. NB. NZ is a pretty quiet, safe place, and no matter where I am there’s always a little bit of a trusting (possibly very naïve!) New Zealand girl within.

Admittedly it has not been all passion and beauty. There’s been a lot of frustration; sometimes in my work, waiting in traffic, waiting with my patients for a specialist appointment, and especially trying to get any customer service on the phone. As a city girl, the experience of living in rural Africa has been challenging at times, particularly given my love of nice cafes with good coffee. However, these experiences have taught me that I can be adaptable, and they’ve improved my patience infinitely. I’ve found out that I can tolerate many MANY hours of waiting in many varied settings (from outside Kenyatta Hospital at 6 am in the morning to waiting an hour for a matatu to fill up so we can leave) when prepared with a good book or Podcast.

This has been a formative experience for me, and I intend to continue working in low-resource settings in the future. I am intending to pursue my Masters of Public Health for Development at The London School of Tropical Medicine, and I look forward to improving my own skills and knowledge to bring greater benefit to future communities I am lucky enough to be involved with. I am full of appreciation and gratitude to all the staff at Village HopeCore International for allowing me to have spent this time with them.