soda, boogies, and plastic bags...

i am in kenya...yeah.

so, when i'm at hospitals, my main duty is to go out to the other areas surrounding the hospitals (anywhere from 1-6 hours away) and follow-up on patients that we have footage of from previous years. yesterday, we went to an area outside nairobi to talk to a patient named abigail. she had bilateral club foot and had many plasters and a small operation to fix it. she is 3 yrs old and can walk without any problems. it was a great story and a good day, but unfortunately, abby was extremely sick. every photo i got was her either crying or on the verge of tears. there are one or two where she is just solemn faced, hopefully those will work!!

anyway, after we got some shots of her and her momma at home, we went to a local government hospital to get abby some medication. on the way there, her momma hopped in the backseat with me and had a soda. sidenote: almost all sodas here are in glass bottles - i think we should do this in the states, it's waaaay cooler to drink things out of a glass, :). anyway, she looks at me and says, 'i am sooo thirsty' i smile and then gawk in amazement as she OPENS THE BOTTLETOP WITH HER TEETH! it was unreal. she just pops it off as if she didn't just bend metal WITH HER TEETH. i laughed and she giggled, but i have a feeling our amusement wasn't stemming from the same thing.

then we get to the hospital. we are waiting in a long line of mommas and babies. the kid across from me has a serious case of crusty nose. the boogs looked like they had been building up for days. the mommma reached down to scrape (more like chisel) off some of the build-up with her tissue and when that didn't work, proceeding to LICK THE SAME FINGER that she was just digging around in his nose with!! then she went right back to the task at hand. she licked that same finger multiple times until (most of) the crusties were gone.

while all this was going on, there was a child sitting next to the booger one who was having a greeeat time just chillen with a plastic bag. for some reason, kids with plasic bags always scare me. i know the chance of suffocation is quite small, but it's engrained in me to be nervous about it. i started playing peek a boo with the kid - big mistake. he mimicked the game back to me but instead of hiding behind his hands, he would shove his entire head inside the plastic bag for minutes at a time. alternating between laughing and freaking out, i tried to get him to stop. thankfully, both booger child and plastic head were both safe when i left the hospital.

oh, and one more thing that i found funny but probably shouldn't. we were driving through a little town and this girl was wearing a shirt that said, 'i'm a virgin, but this shirt is really old.' i know i shouldn't think that's funny, but, well, you laughed, didn't you??