More on the African culture...

I thought the training went really well this morning. There were some really good questions asked; Can you write a paper with descriptive statistics only or do you need inferential statistics also. Also, if my sample size should be 342, but 1000 patients were screened and participated, should I only use 342 in the analysis? So the class had a really good discussion around these two points.

Here I am teaching

I finally spoke to the Prof today about the Run for Good in Eldoret. He's not keen on raising money for Vitamin Angels, and wants to have the discussion with the Global Network team about who we raise money for. He felt we should focus on the community needs; for example, buying bicycles, or an ambulance.

One of my colleagues went home with suspected malaria. Another colleague's brother has gone missing. He had gone to take an exam in Uganda at the weekend, and was due back on Sunday evening, however, there was no sign of him. My colleague spent most of her day trying to find out what had happened. She called the university, but couldn't get through.

One of the Professors had come into our office and was talking about Politics as Ruto heads to the Hague to attend the confirmation of charges hearing at the International Criminal Court. He is defending himself, along with 6 others implicated as key perpetrators of the 2007/2008 post-election violence in Kenya. I was finding it hard to follow the discussions as they kept switching between Swahili and English. The conversation changed direction, and they started discussing family planning in Kenya, and I was able to pick up on some of the discussion; which went something like this:.

The Professor explained that “..people were told you use contraceptives because you didn’t want children. In Africa, everyone wants children – it’s the culture here. If a woman doesn’t want children, she is considered a witch.” Families tend to be large, because it’s a sign of the families prosperity and also, the parents know they will loose some of the children due to disease. I’m wondering if these opinions will ever change in terms of the size of the family reflecting prosperity? I’ve discovered that if a community/tribe have a particular belief, then it is difficult to change this. For example, FGM (Female Genital Mutilation) still goes on in many of the villages in Kenya. Despite efforts from International and local human rights groups, the women in the tribal communities protest against these groups, because they believe that the men won’t want them unless they are circumcised. I have to admit, this shocked me, but then I can understand that if it's been part of the culture and is a long, old tradition here, then it’s hard to change a mindset. Although, it might be an old tradition, but if it leaves the women with chronic infections, infertility, the spread of HIV and severe bleeding being just some of the side effects, I struggle to see the arguments for it. In the Masai community, female and male circumcision occurs when they reach adulthood. It is a sign of the change in their status’. It seems this is changing however, as the communities learn the risks and the side effects of such practices on women.

Things are so different to back home, it made me realise how we are two worlds apart in terms of culture and beliefs.

I'm getting messages from back home, as people are worried about me. They've heard on the news about the British man murdered and his wife kidnapped on 11^th September. It's sad and devastating news.