HELLO KENYAN by MYRETTA

HELLO KENYAN by MYRETTA - November 2017 Scholarship Essay

Today is Election’s for the fate of the Presidency of Kenya in the year 2017. Today is August 8, 2017. I stay and wait for my Kenyan family to return home from voting. Since my first day in this country, today August 8th, has been stressed as the possible time of trouble. I had no knowledge of the historical events that I had witnessed or how much an impact that one individual could be and how education could build a pathway and uplift those that are oppressed due to the lack of knowledge available. This is my entry from my personal diary from my time in Kenya. I had the opportunity to work as a Health Information Coordinator, in Kenya for a month during the 2017 elections from July to August. I arrived back from Nairobi, Kenya August 21, 2017. I was employed there as a Health Information Coordinator at Calmoja Medical Clinic. I was contracted by Calmoja to work in a rural area of Kisii, Kenya at Surich Academy. Surich Academy educates a student population that fits within the age gaps of k-8th grade. At the academy, I was responsible to teach and organize health seminars to help educate the staff, study body/ parents of students along with the community about multiple basic learning topics to reinforce a healthy lifestyle. Calmoja sent me to Kisii, to open seminars to educate the community based of the community’s interest and local needs. The Director had arranged for me to create basic lessons on Diabetes type 1 & type 2, high blood pressure, safe sex practices and also spoke of habits of addiction and options of treatment. I also taught the proper technique of hand washing and the importance thereof. I also taught the Chain of infection. Another important topic I was instructed to teach was First Aid and how to identify HIV (along with facts and fictions about HIV).

I have a long list of things that I learned and taught while I was aboard. Since I went aboard, I have become inspired to continue my education with the goal to receive a master’s degree, but I also have been encouraged to become a Physician Assistant. While in Kenya I was offered an internship with the federal government working with PEACE COP, which promotes and protest peace throughout the whole country in times of trouble such as the elections. I also had the opportunity to work as an intern while I was teaching in Kisii, with a medical doctor that I sought out to help me answer some questions about HIV and Malaria that arose during one of my seminars. I found it most interesting due to the fact that most of the population in Kisii didn’t regularly go to doctor’s office or receive checkups. Dr. Isaac was also a very lenient man, he had patients that couldn’t pay him with money so would accept chickens, milk, eggs and other items as an order of payment. If I had the opportunity to study in Kenya, I feel that it would positively impact my education because due to my previous encounter with this country I understand that education is not only a luxury but an arrow that can hit any target that your eye desires. I will feel more inclined and encouraged not to just finish my degree but I feel an urge to complete it in order to truly impact the community of Kenya which is the place I would choose to study, if the opportunity was given. Studying in Kenya would not only build my experiences on the number internships that will be available, but it will also widen my perspective. And as a student aimed to complete a RN program, I have witnessed what the medical field is about. To be an effective Registered Nurse, is to genuinely care, to be merciful and provide healing to a wounded land of individuals that are vulnerable or ignorant to necessary treatment to maintain healthy lifestyle or to become healthy once plagued by illness. The opportunity would also help promote me to be versatile to any patients that I may care for in the future due to language barriers or culture differences. This opportunity upon graduating from a college will help to become not only prepared for my career path, but also have necessary mindset for my chosen career.