I Went to Kenya & I’m Forever Changed.

Karibu. 

In case you missed it, I just returned from Kenya and it was the trip of a lifetime. When FIGS invited me on their Impact Trip to Kenya in collaboration with Matibabu Foundation and Tiba Foundation, I was elated. I was ecstatic. I immediately told my program director about the opportunity and we worked to ensure I could carve out time in my schedule. I had so many expectations for this trip and they were all fulfilled…and then some.

The Work. First things first, FIGS collaborated with the community to provide a new operating theater for the Matibabu campus. The theater features multiple ORs and a PACU. The Matibabu clinicians are absolutely brilliant and I hope the new building makes their jobs just a little bit easier. The opening celebration was beautiful and absolutely a site to behold. I loved seeing the Matibabu campus flooded with community members, patients, clinicians, and Kenyan dignitaries all so excited about the hospital’s new addition. The sense of community pride was palpable. My colleagues and I were able to meet Ms. Dorothy Nyong’o–First Lady of Kisumu, Women’s Health advocate, and Lupita Nyong’o’s mom. It was so exciting to hear about the work she does surrounding cervical cancer screening knowing I am doing the work too. She was so regal and thanked us for our presence in Ukwala. So many kept thanking us. All I could do was thank them for welcoming us and including us in such significant and meaningful work.

I am so honored to have served as part of the first (external) women’s health team to come work at Matibabu. You all know how I feel about women’s health. To me, it is the epicenter of medicine. I am Family Medicine-trained, but I have hustled to get my procedural skills, m’kay?! I was so grateful to serve in this capacity, working at the Maternal Child Health clinic and on labor and delivery. I loved chatting with the staff to learn differences in child immunization schedules, family planning options, cultural context surrounding contraception, prenatal care visit intervals, fetal monitoring on labor and delivery, and so much more. I was so inspired to see how their staff served patients with creativity and innovation. There are no excuses there. They make their resources work. They do the work. When I saw my attending use a condom and a catheter to create a postpartum hemorrhage control device, my mind was blown. I also loved the “get in where you fit in” mentality. There was a day my attending let me know a patient needed an MVA for an incomplete abortion. I just so happened to be walking past her. I said, “Oh, I know how to do that.” Shout out to my clinic and Planned Parenthood for the training! Next thing I knew, I was in the OR doing the procedure. I just felt so purposeful there. I felt so useful. I’m so grateful to have my procedural skillset. I’m so grateful my FIGS family trusted me with that skillset. It would have been so easy to label me as a generalist and place me on inpatient wards. Instead, I was able to use what’s in my preferred toolbox. When the FIGS team handed me my name badge that read, ‘Women’s Health,’ I felt so validated. I felt seen. I can do a bit of everything as most Family Medicine doctors can, however, I do speak of myself as a women’s health practitioner. And so it is. 

The Culture. There is just something about being Black and visiting a Black country, y’all. It’s empowering. It’s inspirational. It’s aspirational. In fact, the only trips I’ve taken outside of the US have been to Black countries with the intention to serve communities of people who look like me. I love that for me. Research shows Black patients have better outcomes when they have Black doctors. That’s not conjecture. It’s science and I really take that to heart. Yet and still, Black doctors only comprise 5% of physicians in the US. Five. Percent. We have work to do. As I near the end of my final stage of medical training, I look forward to being there for my community both locally and abroad; helping to create more doctors along the way. 

While in Kenya, I felt so free, so light. Once I got comfortable with the Matibabu campus, I found myself just bopping around, basking in the sun, and grinning from ear to ear. I kid you not. I was free. When one of the nurses asked me if racism still exists in the US, I was so taken aback. She also imparted how being Black is not a risk factor for pre-eclampsia in Kenya, in any Black country really. Before that conversation, I had never even considered how we put Black women in the states on medication to decrease risk for a condition because of race…because of racism…and Black women in other parts of the world do not have to do that. Just for a moment, I closed my eyes and began to imagine a world where racism is not a part of my daily lived experience. I could not completely mentally get there. The confines of my experience in the states would not allow me, but it was so nice to dream a little. Kenya definitely allowed me to dream.

The Boda Girls. I don’t think I’ve ever been this moved by a community initiative before. The Boda Girls’ mission and efforts really touched me. These amazing women have created their own taxi businesses; allowing them to provide for themselves and their families. We were able to hear from several of the Boda Girls about how this opportunity changed their financial trajectory and their esteem. They absolutely brought on the tears. In addition to uplifting themselves and each other, the Boda Girls serve their communities by ensuring women safely travel to and from doctor appointments. Safety is key here because unfortunately some of the male boda drivers are known to *trigger warning* take advantage of female passengers. The Boda Girls are literally offering a service that saves lives. It’s because of the Boda Girls that Matibabu has seen a significant uptick in the number of women who make it to the hospital for prenatal care, labor and delivery, and family planning. The Boda Girls also assist with postpartum home visits. I was able to attend and the experiences were absolutely beautiful. I love the idea of bringing services to the community instead of always making them come to us. (If you are in my residency program, please understand this is not the same as (im)mobile crisis unit for several reasons. Face your front lol). It was also so beautiful to see the sustainability in everything Matibabu does. Namely during postpartum visits, the Boda Girls help plant a garden with 10 different vegetables so the family has access to healthy nutrition. One of the Boda Girls was kind enough to give me a ride back to clinic after a home visit. Let me tell you viewing Kenya in all its splendor is so magical when you’re outside the confines of car windows. I absolutely stand in support of the Boda Girls and I’m so excited to continue to follow their progress. I look forward to supporting their efforts and seeing all the amazing things they do. Tap here to learn more and support these impactful women!

The Vibe. Kenya is that girl. Whether in the city or the country, beauty abounds. I’m so grateful we carved out just a little time to take it all in. We were able to go on a safari at Nairobi National Park and see Kenya’s beautiful wildlife. Chile, I even slept in a tent for the first time ever in life. I was definitely timid about being in the elements with animals roaming about at night, but the tent was fortified and, God be glorified, we were alright. We played with elephants at Sheldrick Wildlife Trust which was such a once in a lifetime experience. I still cannot believe I was in such close proximity to beings I’ve only seen in books. I even got close enough to touch them. I know. Who am I?! Even walking up to the elephants was magical. They were grazing on this beautiful grassy knoll on a hill. The scene was like something out of a movie. We dined at Boho Eatery and 45 Degrees Kitchen. Let me tell you, the food in Kenya is so fresh. I cannot eat a full plate of anything in the states without feeling bloated. Not so in my girl, Kenya. Not so in most countries outside of the US lol. I really enjoyed using some of our downtime to explore. We spent the bulk of our time in rural Kenya. I definitely want to go back and see more of Nairobi one day.

The Time. Y’all know I am going to make my schedule do what it do and work for me. I asked for the impact trip to count as elective time so I could still go and stay on track to graduate. I have plans. I have goals. After a lot of paperwork lol, my program approved this experience to count toward residency hours. The FIGS, Matibabu, and Tiba teams were so incredibly kind in assisting with this effort. They signed off on my paperwork; even signing more than once when my program sent me new updated drafts of documents. I’m so grateful. I thanked them in person and I thank them now. Life does not stop just because you are in residency. Residents, life does not stop just because you are in residency. This was a once in a lifetime experience and I’m so glad I had people in my corner to not only support my participation, but also ensure it counted toward my education. As always, what do you learn from me? Ask for what you want.

This was my first mission trip where I was in a position to actually practice medicine. That is the crux of why this trip was so very special to me. In 2011, I went to Ghana as an MPH student. In 2016, I went to Haiti as a med student. Kenya hit different. Kenya was different. I found it so meaningful to collaborate with such a brilliant group of clinicians to do exactly what we should all do as health care professionals: SERVE. After a week back in the states, I can genuinely say I am missing my Kenyan experience already. I gained so much perspective on the type of medicine I want to practice; on the modality in which I must practice. I am now even more intentional about keeping the fire burning when it comes to medicine and doing what I am passionate about. Especially as a non-traditional pre-med turned post-bac student turned grad student turned med student turned gap year student turned resident…it’s so easy to burn out. Doing what you’re passionate about, what makes you smile, what makes you excited to get up and go to work in the morning really does help ward off those feelings of wanting to step back or step off. In life and in your career, it can be so easy to settle for what’s expected of you; to settle for what’s demanded of you. I want to encourage all clinicians to keep the fire burning. Get creative and practice the medicine you’re passionate about, even if that means traipsing the globe a bit; especially if that means traipsing the globe a bit. For me, the practice of medicine must be meaningful. It must be impactful. To me that looks like serving my community and using my hands to impart the skills God placed in my heart to develop. I so look forward to my next impact trip, but I must say it will be hard for any experience to top the one I had in Kenya.

Many thanks to FIGS, Matibabu Foundation, and Tiba Foundation for inviting me to be one of your clinicians. I hope to return soon!

xx,