Life in Nairobi

Nairobi bustles with activity Monday morning. The traffic proceeds in British Commonwealth fashion (on the “wrong side”). Nobody rides bicycles and motorcyclists tend to wear helmets. Even the typical developing world dust is not so bad. There are only a few half finished buildings with rebar sticking out. All in all, the parts of Nairobi I’ve seen are quite livable, although I have not seen the shanty town of Kibera, where over a million people live in corrugated metal shacks.

I laid low yesterday in my funky little flat. Bought some food and made sandwiches and an attempt at coffee. Not sure how they do it here, as there was neither a coffee pot nor any sort of drip cone system. I tried pouring it through a blue face mask till I realized the point of a mask to to keep liquids from passing through them! Some medical professional…

I Ubered across town to the National Museum and learned about Kenyan natural history. The day before I’d connected with friends of a friend. A former medical colleague from 30 years ago, Dr Pom Collins, lives in Montana. His friend also lives there but his fiancé is Kenyan, and they’ve been going back and forth, against all odds. Ah, love…

Anyway we enjoyed an incredible cultural experience called The Bomas of Kenya, which included spectacular traditional dancers, musicians and even some acrobats. Afterwards we toured an exhibition of traditional village huts. 


Today is the last day before my volunteer partner arrives, so I thought I'd get in work mode by checking out a program that I'd read about, which by coincidence, happened to be a couple of blocks away.  The Gender Violence Recovery Centre, which is located in Nairobi Women's Hospital, provides physical and psychological care to women, men and children who have been victims of sexual violence.  In addition to forensic exams and counseling, they also do outreach with schools, medical providers, churches, law enforcement. Advocacy also extends to work with men in a "One Million Fathers" campaign. Apparently there are some hospitals in the rural areas that are affiliated, so I need to find out where the closest one to my post might be. I spoke with one of the psychologists for over an hour and was heartened by the good work being done there. For more information on their program, check:
https://gvrc.or.ke/ 


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