Halloween in Kenya

Subtitle: How Cian spent his first Halloween in a Nairobi bar dressed as a fish...

This weekend had two very different parties...one was a lovely dinner at the Fairview Hotel in honour of my friend (and quasi-boss) Lisa leaving Nairobi for a few European adventures before going home to Winnipeg and the other was the crazy "boys night" with my Kenyan "bosses" Dr. Khisa, Dr. Kagema and friends. What a crazy weekend to dichotimize the differences between an expat evening and a Kenyan evening - both lovely but very very different.

On Friday night we went to the Fairview Hotel which is like this little pocket of oasis in the middle of Nairobi. You enter the gate and are immediately transported with lush gardens and the sounds of a man playing classical music on a beautiful grand piano. It was dark when we arrived so the gardens were back-lit with lanterns and the pool-side restaurant was humming with people enjoying a beautiful tropical evening. It was our family, Lisa, Anna, Marnie, Mike, and Dr. Khisa and his wife and Lisa treated us all (because she is crazy generous) to a lovely dinner (I had bruschetta and red wine) and classy conversation and in general a beautiful and classy evening. Mrs. Khisa held Cian 99% of the time as they are becoming fast friends. Keith said we were hysterical to watch because you could totally tell the cultural differences between mothers in Canada and mothers in Kenya. Mrs. Khisa has 3 children (the oldest is 15) and had no problem taking care of Cian all night (in fact she INSISTED on this) even when he wanted to grab her face or her necklace or her hair. I kept apologizing and saying I could take him back at any point (the typical Canadian mother not wanting her child to be a bother) and Mrs. Khisa kept looking at me like "I've raised 3 children I can handle this" - all good-natured but funny to see the differnces. Dr and Mrs Khisa drove us home, with Mrs. Khisa only giving me Cian at the last possible second. They thought it was hilarious that Cian was still so awake that late at night (around 9pm) and that he was watching Dr Khisa drive so intently. In fact, the next day Mrs. Khisa told me that Dr. Khisa's new name for Cian is "Amanda's Obama".
On Saturday I worked for half a day doing a laparotomy on a patient that had a connection between her bladder and her uterus. She'd had three previous C-sections and her belly was a MESS (just in case you think C-sections are benign - they aren't). Then Dr. Khisa went to work in his private clinic and said he'd call us to come out after work. Dr Kagema had asked if Cian would be dressed up as it was Halloween (even though they don't really celebrate it in Kenya) so all I had to dress him in was his towel shirt that has a hood that looks like a fish so he went as a fish - it was very cute. Around 430pm he called and told us to walk one block toward the clinic and cross the street and call him from there and he would direct us. We did this and we were standing at an office building with an alley beside it (it was light outside people so don't start freaking out). He told us to walk to the end of the alley and he would meet us there. So we walked down the alley with Cian in the stroller and suddenly the alley opened up to reveal this huge square with hundreds of people and different little curio stands. It was the Kenyan version of Diagon Alley hidden away behind Argwigs Khodeck (the main street). Dr Khisa and Dr Kagema were sitting at the edge of this restaurant and waved us over to sit with them. Tusker beers immediately appeared before us as well as the Kenyan delicacy of "Mbuzi" (Goat) ribs. Then came the Peri-peri chicken and the ugali (the maize porridge which is traditional all over East Africa) and the "traditional" which is like mashed potatoes and veggies in ugali form (this I liked a lot better than ugali). There was SO much food (and this is coming from a Mennonite) and we were required to eat and eat and eat. Keith had to eat the gizzard of the chicken because that is what the favoured men do - and he was very favoured that night - these guys wanted him to join their "group" - I foresee a lot of "man dates" in his future. During this time of meat and beer there my little 9 month old was with alternating goat ribs and chicken drumsticks in his mouth (there was no meat on them) - the newest teething rings perhaps? Just imagine Cian sitting on Dr. Kagema's lap dressed as a fish with a goat rib in his mouth at "boys night" watching football on TV in a sea of black faces. It was quite the sight. We were the only white people in the whole compound and he was for sure the only white baby who had ever been there as it quickly turned into a bar as day turned into night. (Note: We did not take our 9 month old to the bar KNOWING it was a bar - it just developed into that and there was no getting out of there until our Kenyan hosts had sufficiently treated us - we tried - it just wasn't happening) And the drinks kept coming with the phrase "after work" said with every round. I had to beg them to stop giving me beers but Keith was in no such luck as they wanted him to feel "very welcome" and probably also felt bad for him that he had to stay at home with the baby while I worked so they wanted to show him an exceptionally good time. Then the African sausage came out and I have no idea what was in it but I tried it because it was a requirement and it would help with keeping things "dry up here" and "wet down here" I think implying it would help with the hangover from all the beer that they were giving Keith. Then suddenly I had another beer in front of me and I asked "who's beer is this?" and almost dropped it and it splashed causing the entire table to erupt in cheers (and the entire bar as one of the teams scored a goal at the same time). I worked valiantly at finishing that beer and then the "soup" came out. The soup was I believe a mix of goat broth, peri-peri and some other spices. It wasn't bad soup but it was piping hot and after beers I thought I was going to die. The boys were all saying that it was good for me and it would make everything "crystal clear" again pointing to the head and I promised I would go home and drink water. They said it was good for my bones and my heart and every other organ there is and I said I would pay for someone to drink my soup because if I could finish the beer it would be a miracle. This was hilarious to all concerned. We tried to pay for the soup, the beer, the food, any of it and there was NO HAVING THAT. Massive uproars at the table that we were not to pay for anything as we were their guests. Finally once I convinced Dr Kagema that I really had to take the baby home and that one day we would certainly go dancing the Khisas drove us home. It felt like 2am and when we checked the clock it was 9pm! It was such a great night and people were so hospitable and it felt like we really had an evening to experience a real Kenyan Saturday night but I think Keith is going to have to rest up for those future man-dates because both the boys went immediately to bed when we got home.

My 30th birthday

So today was my 30th birthday and it was definitely memorable. I went to work this morning and performed a C-section with Dr. Khisa. We joked in the office with the mom that if it was a girl she should name it Amanda but luckily for her it was a boy, although Dr. Khisa still thought she should name him Omanda in my honour. He tried to pass this off as a traditional African name but I have my doubts.
Tonight we went to Mediterreano at Nakumatt Junction for my birthday. It was our family, Lisa Avery, Marnie and Kristen (from last weekend) and some more American friends (Damian, Anna and Mike) from Washington State who picked us up in the "party bus taxi". It was a beautiful Italian restaurant and we had incredible food and wine. A wonderful birthday meal for a fraction of what it would have cost in North America. The best part of the evening though was the dessert. Keith had wanted to buy me a birthday cake but being the last-minute guy that he is had gone today to the Yaya centre to buy one and they couldn't make it in time. So he bought a cake mix and a cake pan and all other things you need to bake a cake and made one before dinner to bring to the restaurant. He did mention while making it that it was the first cake he had ever made "for a girl". He wanted to make chocolate icing and bought icing sugar and baker's chocolate and did concoct something that looked sort of like icing but it was a far cry from gourmet (I love Keith and I loved the cake but it's true - he would say that too). So anyway, the restaurant took the cake and after they found out it was my birthday they put on a show. They dimmed the house lights in the whole restaurant and came out with the cake. The newly improved cake - dusted with icing sugar, with sparklers and trick candles and a mound of whip cream on the side. They came into the restaurant en masse singing a mixture of Swahili celebratory music and Happy Birthday with mamas thrown in where my name should be (although they did say my actual name on the second round). There was clapping and stomping and it was AWESOME. We were all blown away including the people who've been living in Kenya for quite some time. Then I got to cut my cake with a knife that resembled a machete (they do not believe in small knives here). Meanwhile Cian was asleep on Lisa having decided to get so comfortable that he copped a feel (let us all remember this is one of my ATTENDINGS - however someone did point out better your son do it then your husband :P). After crying for almost an hour before we left for the restaurant he was a perfect gentleman during dinner - behaving well in his high chair and playing with the waiters. It was an incredible night and the best way to start off this new decade of my life. Asanti sana Kenya!

Lake Naivasha

This weekend was our first trip out of Nairobi and it was amazing. Lisa Avery is my supervisor on this elective and she is in town this week and graciously took us out to Lake Naivasha about an hour outside of Nairobi with her friends Marnie and Ronnie and a University of Washington PhD student Kristin. We packed up the big six-seater Jeep and Ronnie heroically drove us out of Nairobi traffic into the beautiful Great Rift Valley. After almost a 3-hour tour (mostly due to Nairobi traffic) we arrived at Twiga House (Twiga is Swahili for giraffe) which is this stunning 3 bedroom oasis right on the sister lake to Naivasha. It's this old blue-grey stone and inside felt like a mix between Africa and the owner's obvious Scandanavian heritage. Nothing was missing from the big dining room table to the gorgeous fireplace - a beautiful weekend retreat. We had spaghetti that night and sat and drank wine and got to know one another before heading off to bed.
The next morning we awoke and I looked out the window (finally able to see our surroundings as we had arrived in the dark) and the beach of the lake was pink with flamingos. Cian and I went downstairs and sat on the back porch where we were greeted by extremely extroverted monkeys, colourful birds and a very friendly sheep named Blanket. Lisa, Cian and I sat out on the back deck and chatted with Charles and Marie the caretakers of the house. We had a delicious breakfast (which only had one minor hiccup when one of those tropical birds flew into the house and panickedly tried to find its way out pooping on Cian's head in the interim- he's ok) and then we headed off to Hell's Gate National Park.
We arrived at the park our guide Simon greeted us in the car and said "Welcome to Hell". He showed us the geothermal energy plants as we headed off into the Gorge site for our hike. (Keith kept saying how everything was GORGE-ous - groan). We arrived at the Gorge and I figured that Cian and I could handle a small hike as he is a pretty easy-going kid and I have a reasonable amount of hiking experience. *It's possible that for their own protection the grandparents might want to gloss over this part.* About 2 minutes into the hike there was a significant drop-off point where Simon asked if we wanted to take the "gentler" way. Lisa thought that would be a good idea because we had the baby. It was "gentler" for about 5 minutes when more "obstatcles" kept appearing on what proved to be a hike that would require wet suits, helmets and belaying equipment in Canada. All the pictures in the slideshow of small waterfalls are areas that we climbed through - sometimes I would keep Cian on my back and sometimes we thought it safer and easier to pass him down person-to-person in what seemed to be a giant team-building exercise. He thought this was great fun. I kept asking Simon if this was okay with a baby and he assured me it was "no problem" and since he is Kenyan and I am not I believed him and we were no worse for wear. In fact a fantastic time was had by all. The pictures prove that it was an incredible time and Simon is convinced that Cian will be an avid hiker when he grows up. After the hike we went on a short game drive seeing water buffalo, zebra, kudu, gazelles and sprinbok. It's called Hell's Gate because of the natural hot springs and the old volcanoes that split the rift valley and left these crazy rock faces that look like gates as you traverse alone the bottom of the valley. The landscape alone was worth the drive.
After our big adventurous day we came back to Twiga House for cocktails and snacks. The monkeys came to watch us eat and at one point I looked around because Charles had mentioned that sometimes you could see giraffes in the evening and there they were in the distance of our backyard. So we threw on some shoes and headed off to go take a closer look and saw giraffes, zebra, hippos (in the distance in the water) and the flamingos closer up. The giraffes and zebra were part of a private park so we couldn't get too close but that actually proved not to be too big of a problem because about 30 minutes later they came to us and were right behind our back gate. It was surreal. However, there was a little Kenyan boy on the shoreline that didn't like the giraffes coming that close to where he was playing so he started THROWING ROCKS AT THEM. There we are watching this boy who was maybe 5 or 6 and who was barely knee-high to these gentle giants throw rocks and shoo them down the banks of the lake and they were running away in front of him. Craziness. That night we had another lovely dinner (chicken roasted on beer cans) to top off an eventful and memorable day.
That night Cian woke up twice because he is getting his top front teeth (he has 4 now!) and so none of us got a fully restful sleep and were up at 7am with a baby that had decided his day would now start. Him and I went out to the back porch again having had such a nice time the day before. This time however there were more monkeys than humans and I soon felt like I would rather be inside. I took Cian, his bottle and my coffee mug inside and closed the door behind us. As I went to open the door to get his toys and my book the papa monkey jumped out from his hiding place to stand in front of the door which I quickly shut in his face. So there we are staring at each other through the glass door - him on one side me on the other - he had a monkey sidekick and I had Cian (who in a monkey showdown is truly not the best sidekick as he mostly laughs and waves at the monkeys). I put Cian down on the couch and tried to go around to the other door to shoo them away because at this point the monkeys are heading towards Cian's toys and paging through my novel. Then Cian so enthralled with all the action leans too far forward on the couch, falls off and starts screaming. So I head back to the couch now with 2 unlocked (but closed) doors and a screaming baby and more monkeys have come to see what all the commotion is about and I start feeling like we are the ones at the zoo. Charles and Marie then came to the rescue and all was well - we had a lovely pancake breakfast (inside), watched the monkeys put on their show and then headed back to Nairobi on a lazy Sunday afternoon drive through the Rift Valley. It was a wonderful weekend and a big thank you to Lisa for her generous hospitality - if there was an award for coolest attending-resident weekend we would have totally won.

Working Girl

**Warning: This post includes medical terminology and goes into some detail regarding the nature of my work so therefore people who are a) squeamish about medical things; b) prudish regarding talk of the female reproductive system; c) annoyed by women who talk about gender health issues or d) annoyed with people who use medical terminology to people who aren't medical maybe you should skip this post. Peace and Love, Amanda (P.S. Feel bad for Keith cause I can tend to bring this information up at inopportune times like dinner parties for example)**

So I am actually working while I'm here although I haven't really mentioned it in previous posts. I wrote a pretty scathing post about feminist issues while at the conference but decided it was maybe a bit too divisive and thought I would keep it to myself for now. As for work here in Nairobi things are going very well and I've already learned an incredible amount and seen pathology that I would never see back home.
Last Tuesday was the first VVF (Vesicovaginal Fistula) clinic (try this website for further information about fistulas http://www.fistulafoundation.org/) and although I feel I've seen a lot already in my short career thus far I was amazed at the things I saw just that afternoon. A young girl (she said she was 17 but I'm sure she was younger) came for her post-op visit with a catheter bag under her dress. She had laboured for days with her first baby that died after an urgent C-section when she did finally get to hospital leaving her with a hole between her bladder and vagina constantly leaking urine. This was so close to the closing mechanism of the urethra that there was some concern that her function even post-surgery would be compromised. We tested her repair using a substance called methylene blue (we use it in Canada as well) and she no longer had a fistula in her vagina which made her smile (she didn't speak English or Swahili) but when we removed the catheter urine poured out of her like a river. She'll go to physiotherapy (yes they do have physio for this) and hopefully regain some continence otherwise she will be doomed to a life of constantly leaking urine wherever she goes. She will smell, get skin infections, most likely be divorced by her husband and will become a social outcast....and she's not even 18.
That day I also saw a woman from a Somalian refugee camp that had been sent for fistula repair. She had given birth to six previous babies but this one was 4.5kg and more than her tiny, emaciated body could handle. Again with days of labour she gave birth to a stillbirth after a large episiotomy to try to expediate things once she got to medical attention. When she arrived to the clinic in Kenya it had been a few weeks from delivery and her episiotomy wound was completely open and when I examined her there was an abyss on the anterior (upper) aspect of her vagina and I could feel her pubic bone (something you should not be able to feel from the outside). She was so emaciated and weak she couldn't walk and had foot drop which is another complication of obstructed labour (and a bad sign) because the fetal head not only presses on the bladder causing that tissue to die and connect to surrounding structures but it also causes nerve damage and makes it difficult to walk. Also these women can end up with contractures and be severely dehydrated and malnourished because they think if they don't eat or drink the urine won't leak and if they don't move no one will be able to tell. It is heartbreaking.
Another patient we saw that day had skin infections from the concentrated urine ever-present on her inner thighs and we ended up being able to do her surgery the following day. It was an incredibly easy surgery (at least this particular case) and now this woman's life is completely transformed. It was amazing to watch.
I have had incredible experiences in the OR here already wearing scrubs and galoshes (they actually wear white galoshes on their feet). I was assisting on a myomectomy for large fibroids when the power went out in the hospital (thank God for generators). It was in an OR where there was 1 door between the OR and the outside world and the 2 theatres there had no door between them (sterile? really?). To operate here I had to change in a coat closet. We also did two laparoscopic ovarian drillings that day. It boggles my mind that they are doing laparoscopic surgery in a place where the electricity isn't always reliable (and this was a private hospital :))
Today I rounded with the acute gyne team. They seperate their gyne wards into acute cases and chronic conditions. On the acute side there were 5 large rooms with 12-14 people in a room and 10 beds (yup - do the math that means they are sharing beds - head to toe). There were a few sparse curtains in the room which were never used. We saw 60 patients this morning all with acute gyne problems - an entire room full to the brim with ectopic pregnancy patients - all of them had waited until they were on death's door to come in so all of them had had emergency life-saving surgery. There was a girl who hadn't graduated high school yet who bled to a hemoglobin of 15 (normal is 120-140), in that same room was a woman with choriocarcinoma with brain metastases, coma and hemiparesis (placenta cancer that left her with paralysis of one side of her body). There was another woman in the next room who was induced for a stillbirth and had been sick the whole pregnancy - turned out she had a tuberculoma in her brain. There are so many women here dying of cervical cancer that the senior resident told the admitting residents to not admit women who would survive in the community or who would die within the next day - only to admit women that they could maybe turn around in a couple of days because that's all the room there is. There is ONE place to do radiation oncology in Nairobi and it is constantly booked. These are women in their prime, emaciated and dying in inhumane ways. So someone tell me again why it's so horrible that the medical community has encouraged cervical cancer vaccinations? (http://www.macleans.ca/science/health/article.jsp?content=20070827_108312_108312) And don't fool yourself into thinking this is only something that happens in Kenya because even in my residency I have seen women dying of cervical cancer in our own country - the numbers are just more impressive here - they are begging for the vaccine here and it's just as expensive in this country which means it's out of reach for most African people. For those of you who know me you know I'm being circumspect on my opinions on this issue. I recently made a room full of women nauseous on this topic when asked about it over drinks at the Jahns residence (sorry Jo). I just think that, especially as women, we have to be informed (and outraged) about what other women in our world are going through and we need to stop being so fucking blind and stupid (and this, again, is me being restrained).

Tall Horses

Yesterday we went to the Giraffe Centre on the outskirts of Nairobi. Keith's favourite animal is the giraffe so when faced with a number of options of what to do on our first day off in Nairobi seeing the girrafes was at the top of the list. The Centre is a breeding sanctuary for a more endangered subset of giraffes - they keep a few adults of "good breeding" and when the babies get to be about 2 years old they release them out into the wild. The program is quite successful and they also have a school program where school children in Nairobi come to learn about giraffes. They have an area where you can feed the giraffes at eye level and they are stunningly beautiful animals up close. I've always been particularly fond of giraffes but to stand close enough to see them swallow was amazing. I thought Cian would be a bit more afraid of them because they are so big but he couldn't get enough he just smiled away at them and even touched "Kelly's" nose when I fed her. It was pretty incredible. If you want to learn more here's the website http://www.giraffecenter.org/
After the giraffe centre we went to Village Mall which was voted #1 on the top 20 things to do in Nairobi by TripAdvisor. I think that TripAdvisor contributors and I have different ideas because the mall was really nice but it was a mall and there are lots of cool things in Nairobi that don't remind me of home (giraffes spring to mind ;P) As malls go however it was very cool - mostly outdoors with stone ramps and fountains and an international food court with various restuarants. AND I finally got my cappuccino which was much appreciated since I didn't even get coffee that morning due to a faulty machine and bad milk (so I was pretty happy). We had tapas under this canopied restaurant and it was very decadent (it was Keith's first time having tapas!). They have a movie theatre there and maybe if we can find a babysitter we'll go there for a break. The cooler part of the Village Mall was that Francis took us the long way to get there and we went past all the embassies. Wow they were opulent - we can be proud though because even though the Canadian embassy was large it was not a fortress like the American one. It was ridiculous. It was especially funny to me because when we were going through the US passport control office in Winnipeg the guy at the Department of Homeland Security said that "Canadians were crazy and he wouldn't go to any of these places without the full force of the US Army". He would have been ok because it seems like they have a pretty substantial presence at the embassy. Of note, those more socialist among you will be proud of Cian that day because he kicked the sign of Department of Homeland Security as we went through. Mommy was so proud :P.

The Agony and the Ecstasy: A Tale of Two Cities

This is what I remember. The dust that saturates the air that it seems to fall from the sky onto your clothes and coats the inside of your lungs. The heat that wraps around you and takes the breath the dust has left you. This is real Africa with the smells and constant sounds of birds and trucks - with random bits of North American music carried on the air mixed with shouts of a foreign language as you walk down the street.
We (my Kenyan colleagues and I) have been joking about how South Africa is like Europe with civilized traffic and clean streets where no one comes up to talk to you. There are lovely cappuccino bars and fancy restaurants. Now we are in Kenya where the streets are lined with mudpuddles and barbed-wire and people are selling shoes, belts, candy and Safaricom cell phone minutes out of shacks by the side of the road. What's funny is that the latter is oddly comforting to me. There are so many similarities between Kenya and Malawi which is so nice but we definitely had some culture shock coming from the beauty and opulence of Cape Town.
When we arrived in our fourth floor walk-up apartment in Nairobi in the middle of the night we were greeted by bright green furniture and 10-foot ceilings cascading light from minimalist incandescent lightbulbs. The furniture is reminiscent of something my grandparents would find vintage and the only decoration is a large poster of fruit that says "the ripest fruit first falls" - the type of poster that you would find in the recesses of a church basement. The bathrooms (there are two) are overwelmed with large toilets made of grey marble that look hilariously awkward and are as unreliable as I remember previous encounters with their kind. Cian's "crib" is possibly from 1920 and he loves it because the mosquito net is hysterical to him. Needless to say coming from our gorgeous apartment in Cape Town this was a bit of a shock but in the morning light things didn't seem to look as bad and although we looked around a bit the great thing about this apartment is that it's within walking distance to work for me and within walking distance to the shopping centre for Keith and it has internet which is a huge bonus. There are pictures on the slideshow of the apartment if people want to see them. So here we remain at Samra apartments http://www.samraapartments.com/.

Intra-African Travel : The Gong Show I Know and Love

Our last night in Cape Town I went out with three of the Winnipeg attendings to a restaurant named Pigalle. I cannot even describe to you how amazing this restaurant was – it was like we had suddenly been transported into the 1940s with big booths and a 3 piece band playing jazz all night. The lead singer played the bongo drums and wore a tuxedo with a white jacket and there were huge chandeliers from the ceiling. It was me, three staff physicians and a newly appointed judge - needless to say the conversation was top-notch – and the food was probably some of the best food I have ever had in my life. I am certainly going to show my Mennonite roots here and talk for a minute about the food. I had this incredible smoked salmon-citrus-avocado starter and tomoto crusted line fish on roasted red pepper and truffle mashed potatoes and chocolate cheesecake for dessert…and I had some fancy champagne drink that the doctors said I should get and the wine never stopped flowing and in general an incredible evening. Thank you to the newly appointed Lord for picking up the tab – it’s so much better being taken out for dinner in a foreign country where you have to calculate an exchange rate. It was the perfect way to end the conference and to say farewell to Cape Town (I’m sure we will visit again – what an amazing city).

Today was spent with the lovely South African Airways. They are my favourite airline: extremely courteous staff, real cutlery, consistent in-flight entertainment and good food. Those things did not disappoint but there was certainly more chaos than on our previous flights.
This morning Raymond (the driver who picked us up from the airport last Saturday) dropped us at international departures because, silly me, I thought that would be where we were checking in since we had an international flight today. We got there and it was deserted. No passengers, no ticket agents, just an information guy who told us that even though we were flying to Nairobi today that we were technically a domestic flight cause our first stop was Johannesburg. The domestic terminal was “just there, not far” so we walked with the stroller, 2 roller luggages and a backpack – more ambitious than we had anticipated. We got there and the South African Airways Economy Class All Departures lineup was the size of the domestic terminal. Good thing we had given ourselves plenty of the time at the airport and I had partially checked-in online. Finally we got to the front of the line and dropped our bags off. We proceeded to our “gate” which looked like a Greyhound bus station that was half outside with multiple lines for the different destinations flying out of Cape Town that morning. When we went through this queue we got on a bus (so I guess in that way it was kind of a bus station J ) which drove us to the plane. We handed our stroller off to the woman at the bottom of the stairs saying we wanted it in Johannesburg and she assured us it would be there. The flight to Johannesburg was pretty uneventful – Cian was pretty decent and we sat beside a man who vigorously wrote in Chinese through the entire flight. We departed the flight (with Cian getting lots of smiles and waves from the flight attendants and the captains) and knew we had a short stop-over in Jo-burg so we had to be quick about things. Get to the base of the stairs – no stroller. Luckily the flight staff were excellent and helped us out realizing that it was shipped all the way through to Nairobi. It was a good thing that I had kept my sling so Cian went in the sling and we walked briskly through the Jo-burg airport. Obviously in a hurry we rush up to the Passport Control window to the slowest passport officer I have ever seen in all my international travels. It was like he was trying to personally best himself at seeing how slowly someone could check a passport but these are people you don’t want to rush for fear they will take you into some back room for further interrogation so we just stood there fidgeting so bad we looked like we had to pee trying to be perfunctory and polite. Finally we got through, walked through what is essentially a shopping mall and finally to the same bus-like terminal (remember this is the international terminal) where we were taken to the next plane. At this point I need to acknowledge the African man on the transit bus who offered me his seat because I was carrying a 20 lb baby like a sack of potatoes – I don’t believe anyone has ever offered me their seat on public transportation when I was pregnant or with a baby so I feel he needs special acknowledgement. When we finally got to the plane behind us sat some obnoxious and extremely loud (I am well aware this is coming from me) American woman who I am assuming is an OB/GYN resident in Kenya (not in Nairobi) because she spent the entire flight loudly expressing her opinions and creating the call schedule for their program. Seriously, you think that one of the perks of being on off-elective would be that I wouldn’t have to worry about the call schedule and then I spend a 4 hour flight listening to someone halfway across the world complain about theirs!

*Warning: This section might have a little too much information and/or might make you consider me somewhat of a bad mother so if you can’t handle either of those things please skip ahead to the next asterick*

Also on the plane we had Cian and Mommy’s Excellent Adventure where I took Cian to the bathroom to change him because we had no time in the airport. We had done this before so I figured we would be ok but I also had to go to the bathroom so I figured since I am so excellent at multi-tasking I could accomplish both in one outing. So Cian and I are in the airplane bathroom and I decide in all my infinite wisdom to put Cian in the sink because a) he fit and b) he was kind of wedged in there so he couldn’t really squirm out. Then I’m going to the bathroom and he starts making these noises that seem like he is less than impressed with the situation and since he’s usually a pretty good-natured kid I figure something must be wrong and since we’re not a great distance apart I reach up to see if I can readjust him. So I sort of pick him up out of the sink and water cascades off his rear-end spraying out of the sink that his bum/diaper has turned on full-blast over me, the diaper bag and the floor of the bathroom. So there I am pants around my ankles in a room I can’t really manoeuvre around in hanging onto a soaking wet baby by the armpits as he looks at me unsure of what’s going on not able to put him on my lap because he’s soaked and not able to put him anywhere else because I was in an airplane bathroom and I had no pants on. I eventually figured this whole situation out and returned to Keith having to explain the whole story – which was made even funnier when later I went to the other bathroom at the back of the plane and it had a changing tray.
**
To top off this flight we showed Cian one of his Baby Einstein videos on the plane because he was a little antsy and the person sitting next to us was not completely baby-enamoured. At one point I turned my head and Cian managed to rip the CTRL key off the laptop. For those of you out there missing Keith jokes this is where Keith replied that this was a metaphor for how we were losing control. Grrrr….So we arrived in Nairobi safe and sound and our friend Lisa’s driver Francis picked us up. He helped us with our bags as we left the airport and said that hopefully we would be lucky because soon the rains would come…it was raining. I missed Africa.

Have Baby, Will Travel

Traveling with a baby was a great idea. I know there are still some of you that have your doubts, that think we're nuts for taking our 8 month old across mutiple latitude and longtitude to some of the areas of Africa most people consider "unsafe". I too thought this might have been one of my more ambitious international leaps of faith. However, my gut instinct seems to be working out. Cian is a huge hit over here - not just among African people but among the international delegate crowd as well. I'm well aware that he is too young to remember our first big adventure as a new family of three but I do think that exposing him to all sorts of different faces and for him to not be afraid of people that look different than he does will serve him well. Keith and Cian went on the "accompanying persons" Cape Town city tour on Tuesday and a group of Iranian women held him and played with him on the bus. They don't even speak the same language but it's amazing how far a distance a smile can travel. :) On Tuesday evening FIGO had an "Evening for All" with local food, wine, music and dance and people from Keith's tour kept coming up to me to tell me how they had been on the tour with him that morning and they'd all had their picture taken with him. Albeit, an obstetrical conference has a bit of a selection bias when it comes to kid-friendly environments but nonetheless it's so nice to see people my parents and grandparents' age get down to his stroller, hold his hand, pat his head or kiss his cheeks and for their faces to light up when he smiles his big, drooly grin at them.

Another fun part of traveling with Cian this week was our trip to the Two Oceans Aquarium on the V&A Waterfront. It's a wonderful aquarium with lots of variety and it completely blew his mind. It put the little fishtank at the Assiniboine Zoo to shame. We'll post some pictures but he was a particular fan on the clownfish tank, the giant turtles and the jellyfish. He jumped when he saw the solefish scuttle along the bottom of the sandy tank and mostly looked with wonder at all the tanks. He can also sort of stand holding on to things now so he likes sitting on all the ride-on toys.

Keith and I (we're here too!) are doing well. The conference has been interesting with lots of thought-provoking talks on topics I'm interested in (HIV, fistulas, FGM, human rights) and there have been nice evening receptions to take the family to (tonight there was one for the Canadian bid for FIGO 2015 and Joe Clark was there!). Keith has been doing a great job taking care of Cian and the apartment and teaching me things he's learning on his "spouse tours". All in all we're enjoying Cape Town immensely and if you ever have the chance to visit this beautiful city take it, with or without baby :).

We've Arrived (Safe and Sound)

We survived what some would classify as the impossible. We traveled for 24 hours on an airplane with an 8 month old and survived to tell the tale. In fact, he did extremely well. For anyone contemplating such a feat in the near future they have bassinets for international travel for babies that are less than 24 pounds (Cian barely made it) and they hang in front of your seats in the bulkhead (first row of the economy class). They are really great and allow your kid to stretch out and allow you to have a glass of complimentary red wine and give you a few hours of free lap time (which is incredible).

We arrived in Cape Town at about 9pm and after Cian's hysterical giggles in the passport line we were taken to our apartment on Long Street. It only took one step out of the airport, one breath of that air, and it was amazing how fast I was transported to 8 years ago. There are countless differences between South Africa and Malawi - it's almost like comparing North America to Malawi in some ways - but the smell of the night air, I wasn't expecting that to be so similar and in its own way, comforting. Comforting too was the blackness of the night - the night is thick in Africa, it's different than anywhere else I've been, and even with all the citylights of Cape Town that was unchanged. Our apartment is lovely and on the 11th floor with a beautiful view of Table Mountain. It has a cute little kitchen with a combination washer and dryer (why don't we have these in North America!?!), a huge bathroom, 2 bedrooms, WiFi...it's very different than any of my previous accomodations on this continent. We'll post pictures soon (once I figure out how to do that :P)

We spent Saturday mostly sleeping, doing laundry and finding groceries. That was really an all-day affair. I'm always amazed at the amount of laundry we have now considering that Cian constantly pukes on his own clothes, Keith's clothes, my clothes and anything he can hit within a 2 foot radius. It's amazing that he's getting so big considering how much emanates from him in cascading waves of fluid. We finally found some groceries at a small little hole-in-the wall store and then found a ... 7-11. We're serious it was actually called 7-11 and it had wine, chicken, rice, fruits and veggies and we made an entire stirfry dinner out of food we got at 7-11. Keith says it's fitting seeing as how we live in Slurpee-toba now. We had our first African casualty that day as well. We would like to take this moment to remember Mortimer. He was a good stuffed animal and was always there for Cian to prop up a bottle, to cuddle or to have his face/ear/tail chewed. Somewhere on the streets of downtown Cape Town he jumped out of the stroller and although I'm far more distraught about it then either of the boys Keith tells me to think that maybe he's making a nice South African boy happy now. (Note: If Auntie Francie has another Mortimer in her back pocket or wants to tell me how to get one I would be forever grateful). That night Karen and Andrew Suderman came over for drinks and it was nice to see them and here about their life thus far. You can buy a bottle of wine for about $5 so South Africa and I will get along just fine :).


Today (Sunday) we registered for the conference and did some errands. We stumbled into what we can only guess was a shoot for a South African commerical. It was awesome cause they did numerous takes of a group of over 100 people breaking into random dance at the mall. It was one of those random misadventures that make you smile. Tonight we went to the Opening Ceremony of the FIGO 2009 symposium and it was amazing to see all these people from every corner of the world descend upon this conference to support women's health. Cian's favourite were the Indian women in their brightly-coloured saris (trying to convince him not to touch them was another matter :P). I know I'm a giant nerd but I'm really excited about the conference and can't wait to tell you guys all about it (I'll try to mark the nerdy medical parts so people who don't want to read them can gloss over them to the parts about Cian).