Super Short Post

Due to circumstances beyond my control...

Just saying "hi!" instead of posting anything of substance tonight because...

Internet very flakey

plus

After moving into our room here in Nairobi and starting to reorganize our suitcases to transition from Kangundo to Eldoret, the lights went out in our room; the power plug still worked but "we can't fix the lights until tomorrow." The solution – move across the hotel campus to a smaller room with the "feature" of being able to hear everything at a dance party nearby. So Holly and I threw everything into our bags willy-nilly, enlisted the help of Dr. Bob and a guard, and moved to our new room, bringing the standup fan with us.

Big decision - keep the window open for the cool breeze and loud dance music or close it? Stay tuned!

93 Years Old and Feisty!

This was our last day of work in Kangundo – hard to say goodbye to the friendships we have forged in these past few days.

Team photo!

Home visits again. Because of great cooperation within the medical team covering tasks for each other, everyone was able to visit a home – always an excellent way to get a bigger picture of what life is like for the people we serve.

The outdoor cooking stove for one of the families we visited.

The homeowner with some of the plant starts she sells to help support herself.

Hard times plus some good fortune for this woman. Her property is quite small because when her husband died, his family swooped in and took possession of most of the land. Unfortunately, that is not an uncommon occurrence here. But she's in front of her granary and behind that is a power pole bringing free electricity to her home. Richer neighbors up the hill from her wanted electricity in their home and the shortest, cheapest route for the power lines meant putting a power pole on her property. In exchange for that, she was given a power line to her house and doesn't have to pay any electric bill.

Her very skinny dog which, though cautious, actually let me pet him.

Another home visit – their kitchen counter.

 A scaffold I wouldn't want to be on.

Dezarae is in heaven holding a rabbit. I thought it was probably being raised as a food source but it turns out the son of the woman we visited just likes to have them as pets. OK, yes, I'm jealous I didn't get to hold it!

The mama and her son – more avocados in evidence!! Two women in our group were given a couple as a gift.

A common method of collecting rainwater...

Here comes the 93-year-old! The woman in blue was sitting at the steps of the clinic by herself so I bent down to greet her. She grabbed my hand and started talking a mile a minute but of course I didn't understand a word. Not too long after, the other woman came by and together they chattered away. Soon Beatrice, the woman in blue, stood up and her friend escorted her to to the toilet.

We helped her back into her seat where she chatted and chatted to me again while we held hands. One  of her eyes is permanently closed and the other seems to have a cataract, plus I think she has only two teeth. I asked a translator to help me understand what was going on. Though at first he understood her to say she had been given her prescribed meds, we figured out they had not yet been dispensed so we got that taken care of. Then I was asking the translator to find out how she got to the clinic. "She walked," he said. Good grief! She said that if I just took her to the road, she'd be fine, but I wasn't excited about that as her best option.

Ultimately I was able to get hold of Miriam who suggested we hire a motorcycle driver to take her home and we'd pay the cost. Maxwell, one of our favorite helpers, was able to convince her to get on it by saying he was a grandson and would be coming to visit her shortly at her home. She had a death grip on her cane (understandably) and we had to coach her to hold on to the driver as well...

During our lunch break, Susan and I got to go the viewpoint that's part of Mama's property. Along the way, we got to pet an agreeable cow owned by one of our two guides (both of whom are related to Mama's late husband Isaac).

 Lots of fond good-byes to Anita, our clinical officer.

 Chairs used for clinic waiting areas are transported back to storage.

Dr. Bob reports that 824 patients were seen over that last four days, 469 of whom were women.

Tomorrow we head back to Nairobi at 7:30 a.m. Or at least that's our departure time goal (we rarely hit our departure time goals no matter how hard we try - ha!)

Third Kangundo Day

Essentially our day was similar to previous days – each work team jumped into their appointed jobs. (By the way, the missing suitcase has been returned!)

Home visits

This woman built this extension to her house by herself...

...and cuts and sells wood to make a living.

Three rocks comprise an indoor cooking "stove"

This woman invited us into her home since it was raining – a tight fit for 12 of us! She's holding coasters she has made to sell, as well as her youngest of nine children.

Work Crew

Turns out the guys aren't always swaying in their hammocks - ha! 

Sewing Community

The sewers are busy as always.

 Linda working with Boniface, the tailor.

Clinic

The clinic continues to see about 200 patients each day. Pictured below is a patient with our full-time clinical officer, Anita, who runs the clinic five days a week when we're not here with our team.

 Maddie with a new young friend waiting at the clinic.

I mentioned the "good weather" a couple of days ago but of course that's a highly self-centered way of looking at it. This is the rainy season but they've not had nearly the amount of rain they need to have good harvests. So the rain this morning was welcomed by our Kenyan friends, though of course it doesn't make up for the deficit. Still, it's beautifully green and lush. A few flower pics for you...

Not a flower nor am I sure what it is – but it's stunning.

Another Full Day

The team split into smaller work groups as usual. We've been blessed with good weather – no rain and mostly cloud cover (the direct sun can be very hot!)

Once again I was on a home visit team; we dubbed it the "small women" morning. The woman we first visited is over 90 years old and blind. Dr. Rachel was able to help her with a couple of issues, but when the woman asked if there was some medicine she could have so she could see again, Rachel gently told her "no."

One of her sons lives with her and cares for her. He told us that their brick toilet building fell down so the curtained-off area is what they are using now. 

As we got ready to go, her son insisted on giving us gifts of sugar cane and papaya.

And of course we had to greet the goats. He has been able to earn some money by breeding and selling them.

Our second "small woman" was a bundle of energy. She's taken what she's learned through some Kizimani folks about how to make soap, bleach and fabric softener to make enough to sell and thereby support herself.

They always set out something for us guests to sit on; in the center are the products she sells.

On our way to the third visit...

Her name is Kanini.

 And she and Dr. Rachel made quite a pair!

Morning visits over, we head back to Mama's house for lunch.

Have I mentioned the avocados? Oh my! These are just a few from a tree at her house. We all LOVE them though not a majority of Kenyans are fond of them. The ladies making lunch for us know we'll go gaga over them.

Today they made guacamole!

After lunch I paid a visit to our three team members working on sewing projects at the community center built by Kizimani. We're always fascinated by the iron heated with coal. Ann says it works well though it cools off quickly.

Boniface, the gentleman on the right, is an excellent tailor and through Kizimani's help has been able to start a business sewing school uniforms. All schools require the students to wear uniforms so this is an excellent business to be in.

 Every year the sewing group finds beautiful fabrics to work with...

...to create items for sale such as these bags. All profits go directly back to this community.

Just outside the community center...

Our work group consisting of three guys are telling us tales of spending all day in hammocks sipping cool drinks, but they've been doing projects around the mortuary. Here's a bench they actually did work on – though their Kenyan counterparts were largely involved as well.

Of course the medical team works all day. I didn't get a final tally but while yesterday's total count was 130 patients, today's count of women alone was 167. It's an amazing feat of teamwork and expertise.

Here's the pharmacy - I'm in awe of our three pharmacists who work here in super low-light and crowded conditions.

 

This young man was not at all certain of Dr. Matt's intentions.

We had two dentists for these past two days and their sole task is pulling teeth. Though they only had five patients yesterday, they had over 20 today. One part of their system was to walk down the lines of patients and give the numbing injections one at a time so that by the time they got to the end of the line, the first patient in line would be ready for their tooth to be pulled. Wow. 

 Cute babies are always a hit!

We have two more days here before we head back to Nairobi and then Eldoret.