Kenya

I believe in Eleanor Roosevelt's famous quote/advice, "Do one thing everyday that scares you."
In my life, this could be as easy as opening up the front door to see what Edgar has destroyed this time. However, I think she was referring to something deeper.

One of the reasons Indy seemed attractive was its affiliation with the Moi Teaching & Referral Hospital in Eldoret, Kenya. Residents get a chance to rotate there for two months, families highly encouraged to go with them. This week we found out, we were selected for March/April of 2008.

We've talked about going for a couple of years and in fact, J has gone to the orientation meetings in the past to really see what its about. I was quite impressed he was even considering this as this is a man who hesitates taking 200 mg of Tylenol because of all of the liver failure patients he treats. Its Tylenol, for Christ's sake. Thinking about the immunizations alone could send him over the edge. Malaria, typhoid, yellow fever, etc. Not to mention the extremely high rate of HIV, TB, and Hepatitis. However, I shall stop going on and on about this as I know our families are trepidatious to say the least and I'm not soothing any one's fears.

At the wedding, our Moms spent a lot of the time dancing with each other. My MIL decided it was a good time to hijack the conversation and enlist my mother in the crusade against Africa. I think she was more or less obsessing about what if we were pregnant and in Africa. J and I do not plan on having kids until after this happens, believe me, the man has done his research just in case things don't go according to plan and what meds are bad for buns in the oven. Again, not the plan. However, on the other hand Angelina Jolie did just fine. Even with all of the scary things out there, its just like the USA as car crashes are the number one cause of fatality in Kenya.

I was the only spouse to attend the orientation meeting this year; J joined me mid-way as he was on call. I asked about the option to practice social work. The program director began to list all of the programs and I began to salivate. Grief groups for kids who lost their parents, rural health clinics at the tribes homestead, HIV clinic, maternal programs, intensive family reunification, etc.. Its a social worker's dream. The director went on to say that the psychological impact can be difficult. That is my only fear given my tendency for depression although I would have my #1 support system with me which bodes in my favor.

I was forwarded a few emails from the current chief:

" Mostly we see patients w/ malaria, pneumonia, meningitis,malnutrition (had an 8kg 4-year old the other day), gastroenteritis and dehydration, TB, and quite a few are HIV+. There are also children w/cancer, sickle cell, diabetes, nephrotic syndrome, CP, Down syndrome,congenital and rheumatic heart disease, measles, you name it. There are not really any specialists here, although some of the pediatric faculty have areas that they "have an interest in".
Despite this being a national referral hospital the resources are limited and what tests and treatments that are available to patients are severely limited by what they are able to afford. A CT scan only costs about7000 Kenyan shillings ($100) but most Kenyans only make about a dollar a day. Luckily children are quite resilient and most of them actually get better and go home (despite the fact that we often don't know what the diagnosis really was). The days on the wards are often frustrating for a variety of reasons - children die of diseases that are treatable (malaria,dehydration, meningitis) due to lack of medicines or other resources, or inappropriate diagnosis or many other complex reasons. There are currently 2 children who have been sitting on the ward for almost 2 months with hydrocephalus secondary to meningitis waiting for a simple shunt. Both are unresponsive and being NG fed and their brains being compressed as they wait. There is 1 neurosurgeon(although sometimes there is 2?) who is impossible to reach and the patients can only get their surgery if the family buys the shunt down at the local drug store first."

Given this current prospect, I'd say Eleanor would be proud.

Linus's Syndrome

It took me years, but I finally left my old server. When email began and AOL was the only game in town, my brother gave me my screen name. I couldn't think of anything better, really. Some people called me Alex, others called me Ali. Seemed logical.

As time progressed, chat rooms and im'ing came into fashion. I found I got a lot of really strange questions regarding my screen name. Was I a transvestite? Did I swing both ways? Did I have gender identity issues? You could imagine that I was "To Catch A Predator's" dream. I'm certain that if my parents knew these were the types of questions getting raised to their 15 year old daughter, they would have thrown a fit. However, by then, my friends were all used to my email address, and again, I couldn't think of anything better.

Thanks to my cousin's role modeling, I began my blog a couple of years ago. I read blogs and think some names are really creative. Lucy's Spleen? Just take your dog's name and an obscure organ. "Edgar's Pancreas" just doesn't have the same ring. Dooce? "Dude" transformed. "Guurrl" sounds terrible. Anna Dilemna? Sounds like a really good advice column who has a sense of humor about life. "Al's Pals" sounds like a sleazy dive bar. Me? I couldn't think of anything better. I wasn't a big Seinfeld fan, but my dad was and had most of the re-runs memorized. Yadda Yadda Yadda was just a quick social cliche that everyone seemed to know. Didn't describe anything but details that people usually skip over when they are avoiding the issue. Seemed like a good description for a blog.

I kept paying the ransom AOL was charging me just to keep my screen name and blog active. It was like they were blackmailing me for my own thoughts and long term contacts. Ridiculous, really. Which is why I finally dumped the security blanket and ventured out on my own. I thought of changing my blog's name to something more catchy, but again I couldn't think of anything better and why change when something is working for you?