Thumb spica anyone?

Today my splinting skills (or lack thereof) were put to the test. Fortunately there were no clients involved. Elvis and I honestly spent a good 3-4 hours today working on making templates for a thumb spica hand splint for a kid we have coming in on Monday! It was terrible considering we both were trained on how to do this. I also realized how reliant I am on the internet, because as home I would have just googled it, not spent 30 minutes trying to draw one only to finally realize when I did get online that I had the shape entirely wrong. We did eventually get it and made a really nice template for future reference!

I had a few more babies today with motor delays. I've learned that toys for children and especially babies are very uncommon here in Kenya. No rattles to teach hand grasp, etc. So when trying to give parents strategies on how to get their baby to turn its head to the other side, or position their thumb correctly, is a challenge. I thought getting parents to do "tummy time" at home was hard! Here, I think the babies are carried for the first year of their life at least. Its no wonder their motor milestones are delayed. I did have one really cute little guy who was talking up a storm and he isn't walking independently yet. Its fairly common here to put children (no matter what age) into the parallel bars to promote walking. I was in charge of this kid and I was staying far away from the parallel bars, but that was all he was interested in. He was going back and forth in them like no bodies business! He wouldn't walk anywhere else but in there! It was kind of funny.

We have some nursing students this week and they have been spending the afternoons with us because they run out of patients to see. They have been great to have around because their english is very good and they have been teaching me many things about Kenya and Kenyan culture. One of them took me up to the market this afternoon after work to get some tea and some fruit. I'm so excited to eat fresh passion fruit again!

Below are a few pictures of the Rift Valley because its just so beautiful! I went on a walk yesterday and was able to get a few more pictures from a few different angles. Enjoy!

We've had some beautiful rainbows the past few days, the picture doesn't do it justice.

The blue roof is Kijabe Hospital.