The home stretch

This is my last full week in the Kenya! I was able to upload a pic of us working on our project in the great outdoors of the Kilimanjaro Base Camp. We do a lot of discussions outside because these Kenyan winters are so mild and lovely during the day. In the background you can see a set of bandas, the little huts where we live. I tried to upload a picture of the inside of my banda but it wouldn't go through. It's not that exciting though, I have a bed, a mosquito net, and a little shelf. Anyhow, can't believe I have one more week of cozying up with nature before I return to some modern convenience and comfort.

The past few days have been devoted to some intense data analysis and paper writing. We have the first draft of our paper done so we'll spend the rest of the week revising that and then preparing for our community presentation on Saturday. I think the week will fly by given the amount of work we have left to do. 

Over the weekend we had our last community service day and it was a major improvement over picking up trash. We partnered with the district hospital to do community outreach and provide some basic health care services in a very rural area. Basically, we set up a clinic on the side of the road, which included physician consultations, vaccinations, maternal and child health, and a makeshift pharmacy. I started the day in maternal and child health with some baby weighing and it was so awesome. Basically we hung a scale from a tree branch and put babies in a little swing seat to weigh them. We weighed over 80 babies and surprisingly, only 3 were underweight/malnourished. I also did MUAC (mid upper arm circumference) measurements and we charted the info to determine normal growth and development. I absolutely loved being with the babies and kiddos. I'm a little worried that I picked up more bacteria from all those germy bundles of joy but I can deal. Helping in the pharmacy was less fun, just counted out pills and put them in baggies for people. Overall, it was a rewarding day and very eye opening to see the setting in which many people get medical services. Some of them walk for miles to the outreach areas, and supposedly, the turnout was even higher that day because people heard the muzungus (foreigners) would be there. I was also surprised to see the number of unaccompanied kids who showed up to get weighed, get vitamins and vaccines, and get dewormed. 

I'm a little exhausted from tonight's birthday celebration for my friend Diana. We ate well and destroyed a homemade giraffe shaped pinata so I think it's bedtime. Hope to have some exciting updates for you, but the next few days may be uneventful Get excited about yours truly coming home soon!