I was accepted for a special Reproductive Health Training Seminar put on by MSF (doctors without borders) in Nairobi for the last 2 weeks of October. Unfortunately I was informed after we had already bought our tickets home so instead of staying in Germany a bit longer and flying from there I had to fly from El Paso - a flight that took me over 24 hours. So we had just been in the US for about 3 weeks before I had to fly back - once i finally got over the jet lag of coming from Europe to here, i had to force my body back into it. Kenya is 9 hours ahead of NM, so it took me about 5 days to get into it, i was there for 2 weeks and then had to do it all over again once i got home. uck. fortunately i won't be on a plane for a long long time and we'll be travelling at a much more manageable pace!
So, the day i left for the airport i had to drop Swen off as he headed out on his own American adventure. there is nothing worse than dropping your boyfriend off at the side of the road hoping and praying that he'll get picked up quickly by people who aren't crazy murderers or freakish backwoods folk that would confirm all the nasty stereotypes of Americans. thankfully he emailed after a couple of days and told me of the great luck he had been having so far (see his blog post).
Anyway, the training was interesting. The first week was basically classroom lectures on family planning techniques, methods, counselling. We had some practice with dummies and then were put into some local clinics to work for the last week doing consultations, family planning counselling and implementation, and some other clinical procedures. I assisted in a tubal ligation - i nearly puked. really. i got all sweaty - i was dripping and not because it was hot, it wasn't. i had to leave the room as the doctor was finishing sewing up his incision because i seriously thought i would pass out. it was kinda like how i felt the first time i saw a woman being sutured after tearing horribly after a birth but way worse. maybe in Africa the doctors there have other ways of preforming this "simple procedure" but seeing a woman's intestines get pulled out of a 2 inch cut in her lower abdomen while she was awake and grimacing, asking for more anesthesia (local not general was used) as the doctor was looking for the fallopian tubes is not really my cup of tea. so better to get your men get snipped in a waaaayyyy easier and less freaky procedure than put yourself through this. Or maybe don't go to Africa for it.
The rest of the training was interesting, thought provoking and mostly good. It was nice to be around other midwives working with doctors without borders. I met the midwife who is replacing my replacement in CAR. We had dinner together in the evenings, discussing our past missions and experiences in the clinics of Nairobi over a few beers at an Ethiopian restaurant, laughing and joking and reminiscing about life in MSF, working as midwives at home in Europe or North America... It was nice, i hadn't been around other midwives for sooo long. We all shared funny or strange birth stories, discussed what we have done for certain complications that come up in the bush with our limited resources. We had a weekend off so went to the Nairobi National Park, just outside of town, which was basically like a big zoo. But the animals were interesting. We went to an elephant orphanage where baby elephants as little as 6 weeks old were being cared for for a few years before being sent back to the wild. The babies were found by their dead mothers who had been killed for their tusks, trying to sucke, or had fallen into wells, etc. Very cute. And we went to a giraffe park and got to feed giraffes, also some baby giraffes....
Then all of a sudden the 2 weeks were over and it was time to make the really long trip back home! Swen and my brother Mike picked me up at the airport and we all - Swen, me, and my family - shared all of the excitement of the past few weeks. Now the countdown has begun for the big trip - the final preparations are being made, getting the bikes and gear in order and details like travel insurance, spare parts, planning the route for the first few weeks.... so many details! it's good swen has more patience than i do for this stuff or we'd have left a few weeks ago and found out in mexico city that we didn't have maps or something! Only kidding! I'm not such a flake about preparing things, so don't worry! We'll be fine and probably have too much stuff for "just in case". But i have decided to leave the dresses and extra clothing options out, unfortunately - i don't think we'll be going out dancing too often, but if so i'll have to make do with what i have! It is a hard lesson to learn - i tend to pack too heavy and never use half of the stuff i bring. but now it is the bare essentials - i tried to put it all in but it was too heavy and i don't want to have to lug around 15 extra pounds of useless stuff!
so, next stop: california. we leave tomorrow with mom and anna to see cristina and the kids in san diego and ami in LA. a week later and we'll be on the road in mexico!
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