Monday was another successful dessert night. I find myself looking forward to the fellowship with the old volunteers and meeting the new volunteers that are arriving weekly. It has become a Monday night routine and I am realizing how attached I have become to these people and how hard it is going to be to leave this place at the end of next week.
This week was my last week in the outpatient pediatric clinic. Debra my clinical officer (CO) is absolutely amazing. She has taught me so much the past two weeks and I am extremely sad to be leaving her service. She always makes me take chai even though she knows I don’t like it. I think she thinks I will eventually start liking it, but it has been three weeks and I still don’t like the chai. We had another really busy week in the clinic. There were too many patients to try to recall everything I saw this week, but I was able to see my first encephalocele.
During my time here I’ve made friends with another medical student, Ashely Parkk and the pathologist, Jose Mantilla. We have been doing most of our weekend activities as a group and started having family dinners last week and this week. Jose does most of the cooking and Ashley and I do most of the eating, but its nice to have some company and get together for dinner and good conversation.
Saturday, I set up a pottery class with a local artisan, Obadiah. Ashley, Ashley’s host family, Julia, and I took a taxi to Naivasha and attempted to make a bowl, mug, cup, ect. The potter pretty much helped us all, so that our pieces didn’t look like something made by a 4 year old. I had a lot of trouble throwing my clay on the wheel to where it wouldn’t fall off. My particular slab of clay fell off the wheel four times before I could finally get a mug made. I commend these men for their talents and artistry and hope to take some pottery classes when I return to the states. If you’re reading this and you decide to come to Kijabe make sure to check out Fired Earth pottery. Obadiah is one of the sweetest men I have met and welcomes anyone into his shop for classes or just to buy hand made pottery to take home! Sunday, Ashley and I took a taxi into Nairobi and went to an Ethiopian restaurant for lunch. It was phenomenal! We then decided to go to the local Maasai market. We shopped, we bargained, and definitely had a successful day out.