Meeting our Sponsors and First Day in Migori

Yesterday, we met our sponsors at Jhpiego Kenya, Dr Lynn Kanyuuru and Dr. Mildred Mudany. Our team gave them a brief project overview at their headquarters and got ready to travel to Migori.

Our team at Jhpiego Kenya Headquarters!

The trip to Migori consisted of a one hour flight from Nairobi to Kisumu and then a 3 hour drive to Migori. The country-side drive was mainly on unpaved roads, which made for a bumpy ride! We arrived out our hotel, Grabo Dream Hotel, around 10:30PM and had dinner at the hotel.

The view from our hotel

Today, we met up with our county sponsors to talk to different stakeholders. We met with the Migori County Director of Health and the Migori County Clinical Coordinator. After sessions with both officials, we split into groups of two and travelled to different sub-counties to attend Integrated Community Case Management trainings. We had the chance to talk to Community Health Volunteers and a Community Health Extension Worker. It was a great learning experience and we were able to gain insights into the community health system.

After the long day of interviewing and learning, we headed back to Migori and had dinner at Bamboo. We got to eat authentic roasted goat with ugali vegetables. 3kgs of meat and a soda each between 9 people only cost 375 Kenyan shillings (~$3.75) per person!

Dinner getting roasted

 

First Weekend in Nairobi

Checking in!

Flying Ethiopian Air

On Friday morning, we flew out of Dulles airport to Nairobi with a layover in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. In Addis, we had a voucher to stay at the Bole Ambassador hotel for while we waited for our flight. We each got a free single room with two meals and had the chance to try some authentic injera bread! After our short venture into Ethiopia, we headed back to the airport for the second leg of our flight to Nairobi!

On Sunday, we went out to explore the city and run some errands. We started off the day by heading to Westgate Mall to purchase a soldering iron for our prototype. After the mall, we headed to the Giraffe Center, where we go to pet, feed, and even kiss a giraffe!

After our giraffe adventure, we headed to Maasai Market, a large outdoor market where we got to practice our bargaining skills for authentic African trinkets, clothes, and art. The market was vibrant and the people were extremely outgoing!

Maasai Market

The Hut Burger from Burger Hut

Working in the hotel room

We ended the day with delicious burgers at Burger Hut and finishing up our prototype in the hotel room! Tomorrow, we meet up with our sponsors at Jhpiego and then head out to Migori!

 

Pre-Trip Preparation

 

Brainstorming session

Arts and Crafts or Engineering?

Looks-like prototype on our NeoNatalie

Neonatal care lessons

Working on the respiration rate monitor

Before leaving for Kenya, our team spent the past week in the Johns Hopkins Biomedical Engineering Design Studio working on prototypes to bring to the field. From brainstorming to sewing to circuitry to learning neonatal care, we spent hours working to prepare ourselves for the upcoming 3 weeks!