Kenyan Battles Fought and Mostly Won

(July 5-6) Strange title I know, but this week had its share of minor battles. First, my ears had been slightly bothering me for awhile (since before I left Chicago) which happens to me a fair amount, so I had not been concerned. While in Watamu it got much worse and by Sunday night I had severe pains in my left ear and suspected an infection. Thankfully I had Jackie in Kenya to help me out. She had her employee Caroline meet me and take me to her ear, nose, and throat doctor in Mombasa Monday morning.

A few differences to note in the US vs Kenya when visiting a doctor, first, there was no appointment needed and I went straight to the ENT specialist. However, we got to the doctor first and had no idea when they would arrive. Luckily she came at 9:30, so we only waited an hour or so. I went in to the small room and sat in a dentist type chair while the doctor asked me all of the usual ear questions and then took a look. All of this was standard and I liked this doctor, because to poked at me with care. She confirmed the ear infection and wrote me a prescription for antibiotics in pill and ear drop form (I hate the drops, so that was a sad necessary evil). The one thing she did that I have not had done was to insert a long thin bandage with a steroid and antibiotic medicine on it to bring down the excessive swelling. This fun and games cost me $40 US plus another $75 US for medicines. Check off “visit a doctor and get meds in a foreign country” from my bucket list.

The one major upside of the whole un-fun doctor day was Caroline found a little tuk tuk (small motorbike carriages often found in Asia) to drive us back to Nyali from the town center. The driver was fun and while Caroline ran into the store he asked if I wanted to try driving the tuk tuk and if I knew how. I of course said yes and jumped to the front as Caroline came out. She was surprised, but I assured her this was a good idea and that she should get back in. I drove for a couple of blocks with the help of the driver since a clutch and gear shifting was involved, and I have truly only done that once on a dirt bike (and not well I admit). It was a good time, but given crazy Mombasa traffic the driver took over and I hopped in back again. This whole experience was fantastic, and there is a picture taken from my back seat below. Liz and Maki were extremely patient and kind throughout my time being sick, and I thank them profusely for that since I was not much fun. As I am writing this nearly a week later I am mostly over the ear infection and will consider this battle won shortly.



Battle number two of the week was team Kellogg Corps (Liz, Maki, and I) versus the GSE project. We had scheduled a meeting with Jackie for Tuesday evening, and we had lofty goals as to what we would complete. We all worked hard to leverage past project knowledge, complete research, and finalize nearly 55 powerpoint slides related to the Industry, Competitive Landscape, Target Market, Consumer Insights & Positioning, and initial Advertising Implications. This portion of the project completes the ground work for the marketing plan recommendations and media packet (along with a video crafted by our own director Liz) we plan to complete. Finally, we were able to get some amazing video clips and photographs while visiting a local Kenyan community during our homestay experience. This footage will be used for the marketing video Liz will create. My next blog update will describe our 3.5 day visit!

We have also begun creating contact lists of USA educational, corporate, and travel focused organizations for GSE to eventually reach out to as potential customers. These lists will be further reviewed and edited during our final time in Kenya.

Okay, that’s all for this installment. Next up will be stories from the village homestay and our Tsavo East safari adventure.