Cows on a Ferry...almost as scary as Snakes on a Plane?

I finally had my first solo adventure!

Ana-Claire, my boss, returned to Nairobi on Friday, so for the first time I was left to my own devices in Africa! I spent a long afternoon/evening at the office/lab on Friday preparing for our first patient who was supposed to come to our rural field site for treatment on the following Monday. On Saturday I broke my less-than-5-hours-of-sleep-for 2+ weeks streak by sleeping until almost 11, and then went for my first completely unchaperoned outing: apartment stocking/grocery shopping!

The field "shuttle"

While not exactly worth writing home about, I found most of the things I might need for the next few weeks, picked up a pretty sweet oscillating fan (for the rip-off price of $65 US dollars, yikes), and noted a lot of items that I couldn't find anywhere. Most convenience foods don't exist here, so I ended up making my own huge batch of pasta sauce and buying a lot of peanut butter, nutella, jelly and bread until I figure out a list of recipes I can make with the limited ingredients available in Kisumu.

But there were lots of fresh fruits and veggies, and enough rice and beans to last me decades, so I stocked up on a few essentials and came home to cook (in front of my new fan :)!

 I had a quiet evening at home, and packed up....I was headed back out to the rural clinic in Suba on Sunday evening so I would be there for our patient's arrival early Monday morning. On Sunday, I got up, got myself prepared for another long travel session, and headed to the clinic to meet up with my driver. I took a communal vehicle that goes from Kisumu to the neighboring district (Suba) every Sunday. Many of the local fieldworkers go out to rural communities all week, then come home to Kisumu to be with their families on the weekend. Because of this, there is basically a "shuttle" back and forth on Fridays and Sundays.

I hitched a ride with a bunch of very friendly fieldworkers who spent the 1.5 hour drive trying to teach me their language (Luo) and trying to come up with a Swahili or Luo name for me. By the end it was down to something that meant "Angel" and something else that meant "Born in the evening," but nobody could agree, so I'll have to try again next time :P

We arrived to the ferry as the sun was setting into Lake Victoria - this region really has some awesome sunsets! I spent a few minutes wandering down by the shore checking out the smaller canoes and fishing boats. All the fishermen were super friendly and kept clamoring for me to climb into their boats for a picture, so I finally caved and had a few taken.

The ferry ride over was uneventful....and I actually had headed out to the middle of nowhere without any solid sleeping arrangements. All my super-nice new fieldworker friends helped me find a place to stay, which actually ended up being at a huge Insect research facility located in Mbita. The International Centre of Insect Physiology and Ecology (icipe) has a few sleeping options, but I went the cheap route and stayed in their dorm-type rooms. My little room was rather cell-like, so I went down to the lobby, got the last serving from their dinner buffet, and ended up being the last person in the dining room at the late hour of 8:30 when the power went out....

Sunrise and Lake Victoria - the view from my room!

Luckily I had my iPhone on hand and I wandered back to the room with the built in flashlight. My second floor room was stifling, so I took a chance and opened up the windows even though the screen had a few sizeable holes. I made sure the mosquito nets were good, and went to sleep safe-and-sound in my net!

Monday was an incredibly long day - I woke up before sunrise, checked out of the room, and started coordinating the team by phone from a lawn chair on the shore of the lake :) I have 4 people on my team for each site, and everyone had questions since this was our first patient!!

My view from my "mobile office"

I spent until about 9:30 just calling around and making sure everyone was ready, where they were supposed to be, and doing everything in the right order. Ana-Claire was actually flying in from Nairobi to Kisumu, but upon her arrival was having car trouble getting out of Kisumu.

She eventually found a vehicle and made the 2.5 hour drive and made it in time to consent our patient and do a spinal tap! We were really lucky that our patient was super cooperative and agreed to all the parts of the study, so we had lots of samples to process.

My team outside the clinic in Suba

I spent the rest of the day in the lab - it was a little odd putting on gloves again! But I got all suited up, lab coat and all, and helped our lab tech process blood, urine, and spinal fluid from our HIV infected patient....all in 90 degree heat (and sandals, I totally forgot real shoes, whoops!). It was a very long afternoon in the very very warm lab, and we had enough time between procedures to scarf a quick roadside meal of flatbread, beans and a Coke and then get back to work.

Everything went really well, and at the end of the day Ana-Claire collected me from the lab and we headed out to Rusinga Island to sleep at the eco lodge again! I love the place, and it was perfect at the end of the day to be in the middle of nowhere with crickets chirping and millions of stars overhead.

The view from a rickety water tower next to my clinic in Suba

The lodge kitten trying
to come with us!

The woman who runs and owns the eco lodge is a really fun lady, and she and her staff make excellent food! We had another great meal of perfectly fried fish from the lake, rice, veggies, and even a ratatouille she baked in her solar oven! Dinner is served in a gazebo and it was cool to watch bats swoop in and snag the bugs above our heads that were attracted by our dinner candles.

The Suba Team!!

I was exhausted after the long day, a full meal and a beer. I took a very quick "shower" (the electricity was surprisingly working, but the water from the electric shower head was so scalding all I could accomplish was splashing a bit of water on me).

I was actually sharing a room with Ana-Claire - I'm relatively sure I would never have voluntarily agreed to ever sleep in the same place with any of my previous bosses, but AC is very easy-going and easy to get along with, and I was out like a light within about 30 seconds of crawling into my bed net.

Lake Victoria tilapia

The next day we did a team debriefing about the first patient enrollment, discussed where to improve next time, then had a celebratory lunch at Icipe (the insect research facility). We were offered the options of steak or fish, and we all chose fish....and about 1.5 hours later were all presented with individual, whole fried fish :)

Cows on a Ferry...

It was another really good meal, and after stuffing ourselves AC and I headed back to the ferry to get home to Kisumu before dark. I was very entertained by the herd of cattle that got loaded onto the ferry after our SUV: it looked like quite the effort to convince the stubborn cows up the ramp, but after a lot of yelling, cow-butt-slapping, and a few whippings, the herd was loaded onto the boat.

It was another beautiful ferry ride, and we made it to the Kisumu side as the sun was again sinking behind the lake. I thought it was a really great trip, and I felt pretty accomplished after my first solo 48 hours, getting a room without advanced arrangements, and our first successful patient enrollment!!

More pics: https://kristynspictures.shutterfly.com/9793