My First Month in Kenya
My name is Natasha Abadilla, and I am one of two Global Public Health Fellows working with Village HopeCore International this year. I first learned about HopeCore through a database hosted by the Haas Center for Public Service at Stanford, where I got my Bachelor’s Degree in Human Biology. Dr. Phil Rasori, HopeCore’s medical director and one of its board members, came to guest lecture at the Stanford Medical School one day, and we met to discuss HopeCore and how I could possibly become a Global Public Health Fellow. I’ve always been interested in public health, especially in the developing world, and I have gone on public health trips to Guatemala and the Philippines during summers in college. When I met Dr. Phil in December, I knew that I wanted to take some time off before applying to medical school, and after speaking more with him in about HopeCore, I was extremely interested in being part of such a great organization. On July 7th at 5:00am(!), I landed in Nairobi and took my first steps on African soil.
As I rode to Chogoria with Anne, the other Global Public Health Fellow who had already been in Chogoria for two months and had traveled to Kenya to work with other NGOs many times before, I couldn’t help but be reminded of home. While Kenya is definitely still a developing nation, and my island of Kauai in the state of Hawaii is not, the red dirt .and miles and miles of lush green vegetation definitely made me feel less homesick. Also, the view from my bedroom window in my apartment – which is located within the Chogoria Hospital compound and right next to Chogoria Girls Boarding School (definitely close enough for me to hear the 4:30 am wake-up bell and listen to them singing every morning before work) – looks almost identical to my neighbor’s backyard at home.
On top of all of that, I get to sleep under a mosquito net (as malaria is still a big problem in parts of Kenya), which turns my bed into a princess canopy bed, something I’d always wished for but never got until now! Not even an hour after we got to Chogoria, Anne and I walked over to the HopeCore office from our apartment (about a five-minute walk) to attend the Monday morning briefing with the entire HopeCore staff. I soon found out that they had been waiting for almost an hour for us to arrive to start the meeting, which I obviously felt badly about, but everyone was so quick and kind to .welcome me into the HopeCore family.
I couldn’t help but think about how angry people would be back home if I showed up to my first day of work having kept everyone waiting for an hour! From day one, even though I was exhausted and jet-lagged after my 25+ hours either on a plane or in an airport, I knew I was gonna like it in Chogoria. The next four weeks have flown by so quickly. When we were at a public health meeting and Anne suggested that I write the next blog for the HopeCore website about my first month in Kenya, I was genuinely surprised to realize that I have been here for that long. While I know I’ve already learned a lot and feel comfortable in Chogoria, it still definitely feels like I’ve just arrived.
Instead of trying to go back and remember what I did week-by-week, I’ll just make a list of things that make me feel lucky and thankful to be here in Chogoria as a part of HopeCore…1) The public health team projects definitely do make a difference and are rewarding to be a part of. There was a viral article about the countless American aid organizations that go into developing nations with good intentions but end up doing more harm than good because their work is not sustainable, and HopeCore is definitely not one of those organizations. Anne and I are presently the only foreign staff members – the other 16 or so are Kenyan and from the area – and while its Board of Directors members are mostly from California, HopeCore is based in Chogoria and was founded by Dr. KK, who is from Chogoria and spent years in the United States going through high school, college, then law school. Below are a few photos from the various HopeCore public health projects and an infographic that shows just how many people we reach in the Chogoria community. After a month here, I am finding my niche in the organization, and work is getting busier and busier, which is actually a pretty good feeling.2) The staff here has been so welcoming and sweet. I can definitely tell that they care about each other, and now that I’m part of the HopeCore family, they care about me.
Meetings are run a bit differently here than back home, and everything moves a little more slowly, which isn’t always the best for an organization’s efficiency, but the staff is always in good spirits – which is nice to know before walking into the office every morning. 3) I’m eating healthier here than I ever have in my entire life. This is partly because I’m afraid to trust myself to properly cook the meat sold at the butcheries here, and partly because like back home, the fruits and vegetables are all so fresh and delicious, but unlike back home, they’re all sold really cheaply in the market, which is on my way home from work. You can also get beans, lentils, corn, and just about anything you need to make a good meal there. I’ve always loved experimenting in the kitchen, and I’ve cooked some of my most surprisingly tasty dishes here.
Another thing I’m grateful for, food-wise, is that we get tea served in the office every day. The tea is always accompanied by a snack (for example, we always have samosas – my favorite – on Thursdays, and chapati – very similar to Native American frybread – on Tuesdays), which I always enjoy. (Anyone who knows me back home knows that I love to snack.) 4) Work-life balance is really good. I’ve been able to meet new friends and meet up with old friends from Stanford who live in Nairobi over the weekends, as well as do all the touristy things that I want to get around to doing while I’m in Kenya for the year. 5) As I said earlier, Chogoria is absolutely beautiful.
I’ve been able to see quite a bit of it from the back of a motorbike or through the window of a Land Cruiser as we’ve gone out as a public health team to mobile clinics, distribute mosquito nets, and monitor water tanks, and I’m always taken aback by the long stretches of tea fields and lots and lots of green everywhere. It reminds me of an unpolluted, more simple, and pure version of home. And in a nutshell, those are my stories from my first month here in Chogoria! I’m so happy and thankful to be here, and I’m looking forward to the rest of my time here.
Written by Natasha Abadilla, global public health fellow
