Return

The gate to the staff compound.

The town of Lodwar. the single town within hundreds of km of the camp and where my plane landed. It reminded me of the bandit town in the desert of the first star wars, as brutally nerdy as that is.

The landscape

Some of the rare homes of the locals, the Turkana.

the furthest edge of the camp, it extended down the road 10km

Some refugee housing

Inside the compound, staging area for the staff and to distribute materials.

An odd sight, the river of the area just without water. It's that hot and dry here.

The landing strip of the camp.

Typical housing, huts made of plastic sheets from the U.N.

The best picture I've taken so far. A view of the evening soccer matches.

I'm back from the camp, earlier than intended for a variety of reasons. If you watch the news Kenya's war with the Somali terrorist group, Al-Shabaab made life at the camp difficult and possibly much shorter. Alot happened, most of it bad but some good. If you want to hear everything we'll have to sit down for a drink. I guess a picture is worth a thousand words so I'll let these do most of the talking.

Leaving For Camp

Tomorrow I leave Migori for Kakuma refugee camp in northern Kenya. I originally was meant to go to Dadaab however due to security I was transferred to Kakuma. I will be staying there for 3 weeks and will be working with the WHO on treating malnutrition and malaria. This camp is very secluded so communication for the next couple weeks will be difficult so please bear with me if you need to contact me. I have a phone now for emergencies so if anyone needs to contact me I can be reached at +254 706 365 737. I ironically have been reading the book "What is the What" by Dave Eggars, about a Sudanese lost boy who lands in Kakuma for 5 years. The book is amazing and if you want a look at what life is like there, it's a great place to go. I miss everyone. This will be very hard and it makes me a little nervous but I'm excited to help where I can, even if its small amount. 

Few Photos

 

The local barber shop

A burned down building just a ways down the road from my house.

This is the entrance to the hospital. The sign I think is funny because during a funeral people crowd the entrance and sing, cry, yell, hoot I guess you would call it. It's a really large event and no one gives a crap about the sign.

The van on the right is a Matatu which is the basic private bus system here. The drivers are insane and bribe the police to let traffic violations occur, like this gentleman allowing a couple guys to just hang off the side. Also notice traffic etiquette doesn't really apply here, you pass when and where you want.

This is a view of Kisii.

A couple kids walking in the no mans land between Kenya and Tanzania i.e. It's not very well patrolled

This is almost like a grill on the side of the road. People here just set up fires everywhere and sell cooked food almost anywhere.

Most shops and towns look exactly like this.

A soccer team getting warmed up. they were practicing meters from the Tanzanian border. I just thought that was an odd place to put a practice field. caption

The Tanzanian flag right as you enter the country.

This is my favorite. The sign saying you've entered Tanzania, but it's almost comically overrun by advertisements you barely know it's there.

This week at the hospital has been a nice return since being sick. I’ve been training in the medical ward now and have learned a great deal about malaria. Getting it certainly helped the learning process, as unfortunate as that was. I’ll have some really good pictures of cases soon, I feel bad taking photos of patients but I’ve made some friends who have agreed to it. I’ve also started a good amount of training on extreme malnutrition management which will be very helpful when I leave for the refugee camp later this month.

These pictures aren’t really hospital related but are really cool glimpse of the area. Some are of the town of Migori, some of major city about an hour from Migori called Kisi (We travel there occasionally for supplies). Finally some are of the Tanzanian border, I traveled there one afternoon basically on a whim, and to add another country to the list.