.
..............(Click Photos to Enlarge)
Hi Susie, Meghan & Hunter and all the rest of you!
.
I'm in Africa! What an amazing and humbling trip it has been so far. I'll try my best to leave a message each day to journal my trip. There is only one computer on the grounds and it is used by all the visiting clinicians here at Tenwek, and it's dial up so we only have limited access to the computer each day. I'll do my best to steal some time away each day to send emails.
.
The cardiac team from Vanderbilt are all wonderful Christian people. This is a first for me, after 25 years of perfusion to be working with Christians in my daily professional life. We left Nashville for Detroit last Wed 11-5-08. Of course there were administrative issues at Vanderbilt that I spent every minute of my 4.5 hour layover on the phone trying to reconcile prior to departing from Detroit to Amsterdam where my main objective was to "disappear" and become completely "unplugged" from my life and responsbilities in the States and to be completely focused on our work in Kenya. The flight to Amsterdam was 7 hrs and 18 minutes and was fairly comfortable. The flight was not full so I had empty seats around me. Around midnight by my central time zone body-clock when we were trying to get settled in for some sleep, the lights came on and they began serving breakfast and we were all so excited that we couldn't sleep.
.
We landed in Amsterdam and had another 4 hour layover so the team just hung out and talked. We have non-operating room personnel with us which I haven't worked directly with before, so it gave us some time to get to know each other. Our Vanderbilt team is coming over in 2 waves. I was in the first group with 2 cardiologists, an intensivist, an ICU nurse and a cardiac anesthesiologist. It was very cool being in Amsterdam. It definitely had that European feel to the airport that I remembered from my last trip to Europe in 1978. The funniest thing about the whole airport (to us guys anyway) was that there was a fly painted in each urinal, I guess as a target!?! Go figure...
.
The flight to Nairobi was even longer than the trans-Atlantic flight. It lasted over 8 hours and, of course, it was full. The plane was smaller and I was packed in like a sardine against the window, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As we passed over the Sahara Desert, it was absolutely spectacular. It was the biggest sand-box I've ever seen. There was a sand storm that went thousands of feet into the air that we could see from the plane, and at sunset the sky was the most beautiful purple that I'd ever seen. The pilot said that they sometimes have to fly at a higher altitude just to fly over the sand storms. This whole experience has been so incredible and spiritual at every turn.
.
When we landed in Nairobi the military presence was not as apparent as it was in January during the civil unrest, but the security was obviously present. We were advised upon exiting the plane NOT to take any pictures of the inside of the airport, or of any security personnel. It took us over an hour to get through the VISA line (more time to talk and get to know each other). It was noticeably humid in the airport going through the VISA lines, but once we got downstairs to baggage claim and customs it was nice and cool and raining very lightly outside. The temp was probably about 50 degrees which felt great - especially since none of us had showered or cleaned up in about 48 hours. We got out of the airport without incident. My Customs officer (of course) had to see what was in my luggage. You can imagine trying to explain what an oxygenator holder for the heart-lung machine was doing in my bag along with other surgical supplies and hundreds of bottles of medication.
.
Our driver from Samaritan's Purse was waiting for us; Gerald a 24 y/o Kipsigis native. I told him he would do well in LA the way he was driving. The only difference was that they drive on the "wrong" side of the road and the roads are in such disrepair I think we lost the rear axle soon after leaving the airport. About 5 minutes after leaving the airport, in total amazement at everything around us, I told Gerald I had a stupid question, but wanted to know if we would see zebra or giraffe or some exotic animals walking along the roads like we see deer in Nashville. Of course everyone was having a good laugh at the stupid white boy in the back seat until one of the cardiologists yelled that there was a giraffe walking down the ditch next to our van! It looked about 5 stories tall (OK, maybe not but I had been up for 48 hours without any sleep). Totally cool, totally amazing, totally African!
.
Once of the things I was thankful about leaving for this trip when I did was just to get away from the entire political scene now that the elections were over with. I figured, by the time I get back home everyone will have stopped talking about it and will have moved on with their lives. Well, little did I know that Kenya is Obama's homeland and they are all very proud of their native American President. His name and picture was all over the place, in the papers, signs on motorcycles, etc. It's the first thing people asked us, "Do you know Obama?". The whole country is celebrating his election, and in honor of our first day in Kenya, we were told that it was a Kenyan national holiday in honor of Obama! I think there would have been less fanfare in the States!
.
It's been explained to us that the way the tribes work in Kenya is that the tribes take care of their people. If someone is sick and requires hospitalization, the tribe pays for it. Now that Obama is president, EVERYONE in Kenya is trying to trace some kind of connection to his family. They are all celebrating because they all believe Obama is going to financially support the entire country. There is talk of expanding the size of the Kenyan airport because of all the expected trips Obama will be making back to his mother-land. On our 5 hour drive from Nairobi to Bomet where Tenwek hospital is located, we stopped in the Rift Valley at a "curio" store where it looked as if the people there hadn't seen anyone else in decades. As soon as we got out of the van, each of us was approached by one of the natives to sell us their wares. The tribesman that approached me was an albino gentleman with obviously non-existent dental care. The first thing he asked me was whether I knew Obama, and I couldn't help but wonder if he wouldn't want to meet Dr. Taylor, my Dentist!
.
I need to get to the hospital and sort through all the supplies. We are expecting about 9 children in the clinic today to have echo's done to diagnose their cardiac condition and we will begin operating on Monday.
.
Please continue to pray that all goes well and that we have 100% survival of our patient's and that the heart-lung machine I'll be operating will not shut off during bypass. I'll try to send more later tonight. Susie, can you fax these emails to Mom?
.
Love and miss you.
.
Tom (the camera guy)
.
I'm in Africa! What an amazing and humbling trip it has been so far. I'll try my best to leave a message each day to journal my trip. There is only one computer on the grounds and it is used by all the visiting clinicians here at Tenwek, and it's dial up so we only have limited access to the computer each day. I'll do my best to steal some time away each day to send emails..
The cardiac team from Vanderbilt are all wonderful Christian people. This is a first for me, after 25 years of perfusion to be working with Christians in my daily professional life. We left Nashville for Detroit last Wed 11-5-08. Of course there were administrative issues at Vanderbilt that I spent every minute of my 4.5 hour layover on the phone trying to reconcile prior to departing from Detroit to Amsterdam where my main objective was to "disappear" and become completely "unplugged" from my life and responsbilities in the States and to be completely focused on our work in Kenya. The flight to Amsterdam was 7 hrs and 18 minutes and was fairly comfortable. The flight was not full so I had empty seats around me. Around midnight by my central time zone body-clock when we were trying to get settled in for some sleep, the lights came on and they began serving breakfast and we were all so excited that we couldn't sleep.
.
We landed in Amsterdam and had another 4 hour layover so the team just hung out and talked. We have non-operating room personnel with us which I haven't worked directly with before, so it gave us some time to get to know each other. Our Vanderbilt team is coming over in 2 waves. I was in the first group with 2 cardiologists, an intensivist, an ICU nurse and a cardiac anesthesiologist. It was very cool being in Amsterdam. It definitely had that European feel to the airport that I remembered from my last trip to Europe in 1978. The funniest thing about the whole airport (to us guys anyway) was that there was a fly painted in each urinal, I guess as a target!?! Go figure....
The flight to Nairobi was even longer than the trans-Atlantic flight. It lasted over 8 hours and, of course, it was full. The plane was smaller and I was packed in like a sardine against the window, which turned out to be a blessing in disguise. As we passed over the Sahara Desert, it was absolutely spectacular. It was the biggest sand-box I've ever seen. There was a sand storm that went thousands of feet into the air that we could see from the plane, and at sunset the sky was the most beautiful purple that I'd ever seen. The pilot said that they sometimes have to fly at a higher altitude just to fly over the sand storms. This whole experience has been so incredible and spiritual at every turn.
.
When we landed in Nairobi the military presence was not as apparent as it was in January during the civil unrest, but the security was obviously present. We were advised upon exiting the plane NOT to take any pictures of the inside of the airport, or of any security personnel. It took us over an hour to get through the VISA line (more time to talk and get to know each other). It was noticeably humid in the airport going through the VISA lines, but once we got downstairs to baggage claim and customs it was nice and cool and raining very lightly outside. The temp was probably about 50 degrees which felt great - especially since none of us had showered or cleaned up in about 48 hours. We got out of the airport without incident. My Customs officer (of course) had to see what was in my luggage. You can imagine trying to explain what an oxygenator holder for the heart-lung machine was doing in my bag along with other surgical supplies and hundreds of bottles of medication.
.
Our driver from Samaritan's Purse was waiting for us; Gerald a 24 y/o Kipsigis native. I told him he would do well in LA the way he was driving. The only difference was that they drive on the "wrong" side of the road and the roads are in such disrepair I think we lost the rear axle soon after leaving the airport. About 5 minutes after leaving the airport, in total amazement at everything around us, I told Gerald I had a stupid question, but wanted to know if we would see zebra or giraffe or some exotic animals walking along the roads like we see deer in Nashville. Of course everyone was having a good laugh at the stupid white boy in the back seat until one of the cardiologists yelled that there was a giraffe walking down the ditch next to our van! It looked about 5 stories tall (OK, maybe not but I had been up for 48 hours without any sleep). Totally cool, totally amazing, totally African!.
Once of the things I was thankful about leaving for this trip when I did was just to get away from the entire political scene now that the elections were over with. I figured, by the time I get back home everyone will have stopped talking about it and will have moved on with their lives. Well, little did I know that Kenya is Obama's homeland and they are all very proud of their native American President. His name and picture was all over the place, in the papers, signs on motorcycles, etc. It's the first thing people asked us, "Do you know Obama?". The whole country is celebrating his election, and in honor of our first day in Kenya, we were told that it was a Kenyan national holiday in honor of Obama! I think there would have been less fanfare in the States!
.
It's been explained to us that the way the tribes work in Kenya is that the tribes take care of their people. If someone is sick and requires hospitalization, the tribe pays for it. Now that Obama is president, EVERYONE in Kenya is trying to trace some kind of connection to his family. They are all celebrating because they all believe Obama is going to financially support the entire country. There is talk of expanding the size of the Kenyan airport because of all the expected trips Obama will be making back to his mother-land. On our 5 hour drive from Nairobi to Bomet where Tenwek hospital is located, we stopped in the Rift Valley at a "curio" store where it looked as if the people there hadn't seen anyone else in decades. As soon as we got out of the van, each of us was approached by one of the natives to sell us their wares. The tribesman that approached me was an albino gentleman with obviously non-existent dental care. The first thing he asked me was whether I knew Obama, and I couldn't help but wonder if he wouldn't want to meet Dr. Taylor, my Dentist!.
I need to get to the hospital and sort through all the supplies. We are expecting about 9 children in the clinic today to have echo's done to diagnose their cardiac condition and we will begin operating on Monday.
.
Please continue to pray that all goes well and that we have 100% survival of our patient's and that the heart-lung machine I'll be operating will not shut off during bypass. I'll try to send more later tonight. Susie, can you fax these emails to Mom?
.
Love and miss you.
.
Tom (the camera guy)
3 comments:
SOO cool how you put all the obama newspapers together like that!
love it.
love you.
the end.
hey, whats the deal?! why haven't you posted in like 25852937894 years? huh?
what is going on?
have you lost all your creative energy?
blog, man!!
Post a Comment