See what I saw

A picture is worth a thousand words as the saying goes. Right? Well, you can't experience what I did in the past few weeks, but you can at least see some of the things that I saw...
Camels were just about everywhere in Northeastern province. Interesting creatures, the way they kind of lope along. And the way they run when they're spooked by coming cars looks so awkward...like a gangly teenager.

It's funny how the birds build their nests in the thorny bare branches of what seem more like desert bush than trees in some areas here. There would be stretches of road with all these bush-trees as far as you could see on either side, and there would be nests in all of them. They remind me of ornament on Christmas trees...African Christmas trees.






Here's a typical bush bula (village) scene.





And here's a luxurious toilet in the bush...with a public health message. Actually, this is the typical pit latrine "house" for the health facilities in the bush, and they were pretty clean compared to other places I've been and seen.




Here's another public health message on the water catchment tank for the health facility. It's really interesting to see the influence of all the NGOs in this province and some of the benefits and support they bring, although that very support can produce a dependence that becomes problematic when they leave the area.




Kids were always curious whenever I came to their bula. The boys, especially, would follow me around, at a safe distance, of course.




Finally. I got a picture of a dikdik. They're so fast. Like jack rabbits. And they're so miniature and cute.








This jackal was just a bit too fast.

Here's a poster in one of the many health facilities I visited. It's advertizing the last national polio immunization campaign in Kenya. Catchy slogan.





Early morning on one of the campaign days. All the vaccinating teams mobilized to get out to the field.

And this is one of the places where they're headed. Not an easy job to find all those kids in the bush.

One of my responsibilities during the campaign was to monitor the process, meaning, among other things, visiting bulas, talking to mothers, checking kids for the marks on their fingers to indicate they'd been vaccinated, and checking the "houses" to see if they'd been marked to indicate teams had come by there. Can you imagine trying to find someplace to mark this house?

Occasionally, I'd be asked to help assess a potential measles case. The child in the picture was one such case (measles looks very different in Africans, by the way). Unfortunately, she passed a few days later, and her mother had refused for blood to be drawn, so we'll never know for certain what caused her illness, although there are others in the community with similar presentations...



I have to thank my security guards, pictured here sitting behind me in our Land Cruiser, Mohamed on the left and Billow on the right. They took good care of me and were fun to hang out with, too.


Some last few images from all the road trips to bulas and health facilities around this huge district known as Wajir. (No, we didn't purposely look for the animals. They were just all there. Pretty cool.)




Lots of odd looking things like this...gigantic termite hills.

More ostriches.

Maribou storks in Garissa.

Contrast to a flock of Ibis we saw and inadvertantly disturbed on the road.

Finally! A good picture of a gerenuk. See how it feeds by standing on its hind feet and stretching out its long neck? Pretty cool. They look very graceful, too, when they run.

Just a taste of the things I experienced.