Welcome Back

Large signs and friendly faces welcomed me back to Eldoret.  

I arrived back in Eldoret, Kenya this morning and received a warm welcome from my housemates.  There is much to be thankful for with my dad recovering well from surgery and having an opportunity to return to work here.  This month is filled with lots of exciting projects, which will keep me incredibly busy.   I have two students coming this month (a Tulane MPH student and a US med student) who will be working on my research over the next year.  In addition to my two Kenyan medical students on the project, I will spend a good portion of the month teaching them about research and getting them to a point where they can run the project in my absence.   I am very excited to have their help, allowing me to free up some time to focus on education and clinical responsibilities.  Also, one of our IU EM/Peds residents is coming to spend her elective with me over the next 6 weeks.  It will be another milestone for our program as I develop a formal international emergency medicine elective for the residents at IU.  I look forward to this new adventure with the residents and seeing this experience through their eyes. With my clinical shifts, several lectures and BLS classes for the Kenyans, research, and resident education, this should be a crazy month at the hospital.

But, who likes to work all the time?  Not me, that's why I went into Emergency Medicine.  We have a few parties planned, a girls weekend get-away, and a weekend of camel racing this month.  Apparently there is also camel polo the weekend before the races that we might attend as well.  Who would have thought there could be so many activities surrounding camels?  I've been thinking we should look into having a pet camel here at Hilltop for such festivities.  Thoughts on a good camel name?  Spit? Humpty?

Anyhow, all this to say it should be a good month.  And Kenya is always full of surprises, adding to the adventure.  Good to be back.