Day 4 update...

Check out the link up top to get an idea of where we're working! Our accomodations are ridiculously posh, located on a postcard-worthy campus complete with a garden, mess hall, and scenic walk to work. Breakfast is served at 7am, and we mosey on to work around 9am. Currently, we've been split up - I'm in Maternity (surprise, surprise), where I do more pediatrics than Ob it seems, Meredith's in Peds where she seems to do more medicine than pediatrics, Geoff is (eventually) in the Eye Unit, Judith's in Surgury with our director, and Nancy's down the hill at the Ortho clinic, aka Femur-Fracture Central. Everyone seems to be getting out pretty early, except me, of course. But we rotate, so everyone will get to feel my pain eventually. Today I saw an emergency C-section performed by the intern (it was his FIFTH one ever) and the scrub nurse (who doubled as the attending surgeon). The Maternity Medical Officer (the real attending) would poke his head in occasionally whenever his newspaper got boring. The surgery was an absolute success, with the intern making it look like it was his 500th c-section. Honestly, I don't know whether to be amazed or horrified by what I saw...but you know what, it got the job done and both mother and baby boy are fine.

Tonight (Thursday) we've headed down to the suburb of Karen (named after Karen Blixen, the author of "Out of Africa") to run some errands and grab dinner at a highly recommended restaurant: The Rusty Nail (review to follow). We have to walk about 1/4 of a mile to get there from the center of town where I'm currently typing, and we have to do it before dark falls, so I'm signing off for now....Enjoy some pictures while you can!

The eagles have landed...

...and so far, no international incidents! We are well, our accomodations are outstanding, and everyone here is so nice and welcoming! Pictures to follow....hope all of you are well!

Meredith's Adventures in Kenya

Here is Meredith's blog!

Meredith's Adventures in Kenya

Meeting our boss....

Here's the Kenya-bound group meeting with Dr. Kavaludi, our boss and preceptor at PCEA Hospital, at Downstate on March 13th. Front row (L to R): Meredith, Nancy, Judith. Back Row (L to R): Me, Dr. Kavaludi, Dr. Imperato, and Geoff. I wonder if Geoff and I could win some money in two-on-two basketball pick-up games while we're over there... 

Where to begin?

Okay, so like most people in my age bracket, I had sworn off the whole "blog" phenomenon. I mean, seriously...did we really need one more version of an internet soapbox? Between chat rooms, message boards, myspace.com, and the endless number of personal websites dedicated to countless worlds of one, it makes you wonder whether people even had opinions prior to 1993 or so. When I was a kid, I remember trying to be as cool as Doogie Howser by starting a computerized diary on my Commodore 128. Now, I guess one just puts it on the internet, and it's a blog. How self-important of us.

(You're waiting for the part where I take back all I've said and embrace this fantastic new form of human communication, aren't you?)

Well, I guess it starts with Kenya. With my impending trip this Sunday with a group of fellow 4th year medical students to PCEA Kikuyu Hospital outside of Nairobi, I began brainstorming ways to keep in touch with a large group of folks without having to flood email boxes with photos and blabbering. Instead, people can just click a link and view my photos and read my blabbering without worrying themselves to death about disk space quotas, e-mail etiquette, and feeling pressure to reply knowing how fragile my ego is.

Perfect!

So I hope you enjoy your visits here. When I get back from Kenya, maybe this can turn into my own little residency diary full of baby-catching, sleep deprivation, and political musings....exciting, eh?