The greatest challenge is never knowing how to start these blogs and how to write them in a way that has true representation of my experience here.
I have so many stories.
After leaving Nairobi, I joined Lucy Wachira once again in East Pokot, Baringo County.
As I explained in my last blog, the most common means of transportation is by bus or matatu (smaller bus). This time around, I had so much luggage it seemed, although all I was carrying was my larger camping backpack and a small carry-on suitcase. I've definitely learned the beauty in packing very lightly and only carrying the necessities. Although, that itself remains to be quite a challenge to me as well, as I've always been a heavy packer since I was young (my mother can attest to that). I've been doing well though, and have left many things behind in attempt to lighten my load.
On the ride to East Pokot we ran into one of the head-teachers of a school in Chemolingot who we previously had worked with while doing school ministries. She sat with us most of the way. While we were riding, she informed us of an incident that had happened the day before at her school. A body had been dumped on the school grounds. Wow. It was hard to believe what I was hearing because I knew that place so well, and where I was staying was so close to there. When first hearing of it, my first thoughts of course were murder or something malicious happened. However, I was quickly informed that what most likely happened was the person who passed was either very sick and traveling far to get to the hospital (the hospital is very close to the school where the body was left) and unfortunately did not make it in time, OR the family was given the body of a loved one who had died in hospital and they dumped it on the way home. As mentioned in my last blog, there are many strong beliefs in some of these areas about not touching the dead, or else it may give a curse. Families draw so close together and large numbers of people from the community always come when they have an ill loved one and stay close with them. But once their loved one is gone, they flee from the body.
This was so sobering for me.
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Despite the Rufus story from my last blog, I'm actually really coming to like goat meat. I haven't been eating it as much lately, but had lots in Chemolingot and really loved it! Nyama choma-- (BBQ'd goat, or other meat [but most likely goat]) so yummy!
Ah so many memories with Lucy in Chemolingot... that place I hope to call home someday :). To mention a few, one night Lucy and I worshiped together singing old hymns and laughing so hard. It was quite late in the night and the next day some of the neighbours were commenting on how they could hear us while they were in their homes! I will always look back on that night with a smile :). Lol @ losing tune so quickly haha.
We also experimented and made banana bread, from my aunt's recipe, in a jua kali (fire fed oven)! That was fun, and they turned out so well! We loved them so much that later that week we made lemon bread from the same recipe! The neighbours loved them too :), thanks Dawn Dawn!
The simplicity of life here is what makes it so beautiful. Even when it comes to things like mothers breastfeeding, and how socially acceptable it is to do it in public with no coverings. At home, the social belief is that it's something that needs to be hidden or kept private. Many women in the more rural areas don't own or choose not to wear things like bras, and sometimes even underwear. In some of the schools, the girls miss a week of school every month because they can't afford sanitary pads during their periods. But not only that, most don't own underwear either. I had a long conversation with a colleague at Chemolingot in hopes to start a program in the area to address that issue. There are many organizations that already have projects like that running, but we need to figure out a way to get more of them to East Pokot.
Speaking at Chemolingot Boy's High School during our first mission.
View point of the Great Rift Valley tourist stop
Mmm from time to time I forget I am different from most here. I've gotten so comfortable and used to not seeing other whites that I almost forget. But where ever I go I'm new to everyone else, so people always, every day, call me out in one way or another. Many just say hi, ask me how I am in English (which I really wish they would ask in Swahili and I could fit in :P), but most still call me what has come to be like a second name to me now, "mzungu"(white person). I actually don't mind it so much anymore though, because it's really not viewed as an insult here. The only time I get annoyed is when some vendors try to charge me more because they think I have lots of money :P. I'm so thankful for my Kenyan hosts. They truly have been watching out for me and taking care of me. Even when it comes down to not letting matatu drivers charge me 70 bob instead of the only 50 bob it costs to get to town. 20 bob (approx 20 cents in USD) really goes a long long way here! You can buy two bananas with 20 bob! Sometimes even 4 bananas if the stand you are at is selling them for cheaper:P.
Ah.. another thing I've learned about being away so long is that life just continues back home.. it goes on without you! Many of my friends graduated, got their first professional jobs, two of my close friends got engaged since I've been away, my nieces have grown so much, life moves on.
Being here has also made me realize who really are the most important people in my life. Who would you contact if you could only send one or two texts a day? Who would be the first person you check in with when you finally have internet again? It really puts things into perspective.
During my stay in Chemolingot, I had opportunity to attend the local church service on Sunday, as well as work in the Chemolingot Hospital. On the way to church, Lucy and I decided to take a boda boda (motorcycle) to save time and energy. They are used kind of like taxis here (they have taxis as well, but boda bodas are cheaper). On the way we ran out of gas :P. Good times. We had to walk the rest of the way! Thankfully it wasn't far! During the service, I was actually asked to preach because I was a visitor! "Words that come from someone who has traveled so far to be with us must be strong". When I spoke, I mainly only shared my testimony and taught a song. The joy in singing here is so beautiful. I love rural African worship. They really know how create something so beautiful with just their voices and a few drums... they also really know how to dance :).
I was so blessed to have the opportunity to work at Chemolingot Hospital as well and learned so much there. In small hospitals like that, the nurses are the doctors. They are responsible for diagnosing, prescribing, treating, all areas of care. In cases that are more complicated, they call and consult doctors for direction. And about once a month a few specialist doctors will come for clinics! That was a huge adjustment for me as I was pushed to learn how to diagnose and critically think how to prescribe and determine the direction of treatment. Most hospitals I've learned have mainly pediatric patients or pregnant or young mothers as patients. If they have an adult patient, they are usually very sick and have waited until the last possible moment to come to the hospital.
Many of the cases I saw there were young children with upper respiratory tract infections, malaria or snake bites. I also saw a few births :).
On my first day, I got to help with a delivery. The mother was young, only 19 so even younger than me. Her name was Florence. I stayed with her during the whole labour and was able to help during the delivery. Once the baby was born, she was taking a long time to respond and wasn't beginning to breath on her own. Me and another nurse worked on the baby. I got to do CPR, then we switched so I was doing the ventilation and the other nurse doing the CPR. Wow. This is why nurses and doctors do what they do. That moment of such high intensity and emotions.. We worked on her for at least 2 minutes or so (it seemed like it took so much longer for her to breathe!) but then there it was. Her first breath. It's funny, when you are in that situation all you are thinking is "please please please breathe" so seriously and scared, and then once the moment of relief comes so many emotions sweep over you. I had to keep myself from crying. An older custom here is to name babies after places where they were born, animals in the area, something particular about the day of birth, etc. etc. The custom is starting to die out a bit, as a lot of families in urban areas are naming their children with Western names, but many in the more rural areas especially still name their children after particularly remarkable things that happened on the day of birth. All of this to say, Florence named her baby after me :), "Jaclynn". Her Pokot name and middle name is a combination of the name of the floor tile in the delivery room and the word "mzungu" (white person) as well, because I was with her during the delivery. What an honour. I truly hope to some day return and meet little Jaclynn all grown up.
I will never forget that experience.
The next day, I was working in the MCH (mother-child clinic) giving out immunizations to the babies. When giving Jaclynn's immunization, Florence told me she hopes to go back to school to become a nurse like me in the fall :). God you are so incredible!
Later that week I got to attend a community meeting in a further rural area with the DC of Chemolingot. The DC was to give a peace talk to the peoples who had some unrest regarding grazing lands of their animals. To get there, we had to battle the challenge of crossing the river that had been raised from rains. We had to wait a long time in order to cross, but eventually we did it and only had a little bit of water enter the landrover. When arriving, I was absolutely the only mzungu (not a big deal to me) but we arrived late, and unfortunately I stole a lot of the attention of audience during a very important speech (whoops!). It was a pretty amazing experience to see the whole community come together for something like that. There were news reporters there as well! They asked to interview me and I got to appear on the local news! Wow! Lol I was way too nervous during that interview, and it was so evident haha.
Waiting for the river to go down to go to Peace Talk.
After leaving Chemolingot, Lucy and I headed to Kakamega (western Kenya) for door-to-door mission. Leaving Chemolingot, we actually had no idea how we would get transportation to go, as buses tend to only leave Chemolingot once or twice a day (and we missed the early morning bus!). We ended up hitching a ride with a trucker heading in the direction we were going. After that ride, we hitched a ride with someone Lucy knew in his car, and that brought us to Marigot. From Marigot we caught a matatu to Kabarnet then another matatu from Kabarnet to Eldoret, where we stayed the night with Lucy's lovely nephew and his wife and family. It was so cool to trust God even in things like transportation. He totally provided that for us and it was so cool! My cover photo is from that day actually, the scenery traveling to Eldoret from Marigot is so gorgeous. So many mountains.
When we arrived in Eldoret, we learned that Lucy's family was also hosting 3 other visitors for the night, so the house was full. The visitors were actually the landlord of the house and his sisters, they were in the area for a funeral. We spent the evening all praying and worshiping together. That night the landlord of the house gave his life to Christ after many years of struggling with alcohol and other things. The presence of the Lord was so strong in that place.
Mountains on the way to Eldoret! (If you look closely you can see a waterfall!)
Beautiful friend named Ageno from Eldoret :).
Our time in Kakamega was so refreshing, and a very new Kenyan experience for me. We were in town/city that was pretty well developed and there were missioners from all over Kenya, some from Uganda and Zambia I believe who all came together to do this one week mission spreading the Gospel to the people of Kakamega. Ah what an experience. Door- to- door really isn't easy, but we were able to see so many people come to Christ. The statistics were recorded and by the end of the mission week, there were around 700 of us missioners, over 70 000 people heard the Gospel, and 6 000 got saved :D. Praise God!
Door-to-door mission buddy in Kakamega named Patrick!
I also met so many friends there. There were many of people my age and we had a great time at the church services and crusades dancing and singing together.
I know some of those friends I will keep in contact and see again someday.
New friends in Kakamega :)
Dancing in worship at a Crusade during the mission!
While there, I also had the chance to do another school ministry outreach (so so much fun!). We spoke on purity! And the final day I got to help with a jiggers-campaign, and help remove jiggers from the children's feet. It may be a bit gory, but if you don't know what they are I'd encourage you to google them. Basically they are small insect/worm things that burrow into your skin. Some homes here can get infested with them like our homes in North America can get infested with fleas (same sort of idea). But in order to get them out of your skin (most common place to get them is in your feet) you need to soak your feet in treatment, then have them cut or squeezed out. That was one of the harder medical things I had to do mentally as some feet were riddled with them, and most of the people that had them were only children.
Removing jiggers.
Visiting a young boy that MeMA supports who was burned as an infant. At Eldoret Hospital.
After leaving Kakamega, Lucy and I went to Nairobi after stopping again in Eldoret to visit a boy MeMA supports in the hospital there. We headed to Nairobi for a medical camp mission in Mathare, one of the slums there. Slums, are vast areas of low-income housing places that can be on the outskirts of cities. Nairobi has a few slums, and our medical camp was placed in Mathare. The medical camp was run by FFP (Foundations for Peace, a group of missioners from America) and MeMA (Medical Mission Africa, the organization that I am here with). So basically we triaged the families, assessed them then either prescribed antibiotics or other medications, sent them for lab tests, or referred them to a local hospital if the conditions were too severe. We were able to tend to over 200 families and our clinic only ran two days (usually the families were ranging from 2-5 people, so you can imagine that is quite of few patients that we saw)! The medical camp provided free services and free medications, lab tests and sometimes funding for further treatment if necessary.
Mathare medical camp MeMA team!
At the Mathare medical camp!
I stayed in Nairobi for quite some time after the medical camp. I stayed with a different Lucy and her fiance James, and then moved on to Kikuyu (just outside of Nairobi) with the Mugo family. I will always be thankful for my time with both of these families. So many laughs, great chats and fun times watching movies together. I truly look up to each member of the MeMA organization and the hard work and dedication they put into their daily lives. I'm so thankful I had a chance to meet most of them, and spend time with them in their homes.
During my time in Kikuyu, I had opportunity to work in Nazareth Hospital, as well as St Joseph's Dispensary. At Nazareth, I spent a lot of time in theatre (the OR) watching obstetrical and gynecological surgery! So I got to see 4 c-sections, and 3 other gynecological surgeries. What an experience. It was at Nazareth that I truly felt God showing me where He wants me to go in my career. I know obstetrics is where I'm supposed to go :).
Theatre (OR) friends at Nazareth!
Theatre garb :)
One afternoon after theatre, I was able to meet with a support group for youth who suffered from HIV/AIDS. Many of them had HIV/AIDS passed on to them from their mothers during birth. They were all my agemates! What an incredible group of individuals, I had such a fun time with them! They taught me how to make real Kenyan beaded bracelets, and I got to take some home too!
Learning how to make Kenyan bracelets at Nazareth Hospital!
One morning, I arrived to Nazareth a bit late because I had used public transportation to get there that day and it took quite some time to get there. Upon arrival, there was so much commotion at the entrance to the hospital. I looked around and asked a nurse what was going on, and she informed me that it was a family mourning. They had just traveled so far to get to the hospital and their family member was pronounced dead on arrival. I'll never forget those screams and crying.
At St. Joseph's dispensary, I was able to get more experience in triage nursing! I worked there for 2 days! Later that week, Dr. Mugo brought me swimming at a local pool! It was so wonderful, what a treat! That is something I've definitely missed. I really do love to swim!
My Kikuyu buddies :)
Casually behind a pickup truck carrying 2 cows #onlyinKenya
View from James's apartment!
Now I am currently in Kijabe (the place of wind)! Kijabe is placed on an escarpment of the Great Rift Valley and is only about 30-40 minutes from Kikuyu. I've been volunteering this week at Cure Kijabe Hospital, an orthopedic hospital where my host (and one of the founders of MeMA) Jeff Mailu works. Mailu is a surgeon there an I've had the privilege to observe some of his surgeries. I got to see someone get a new ACL in their knee yesterday! So cool!
Kijabe is a missions ground that American missionaries helped develop throughout the 1900s. There are many westerners here and I've met a lot of American friends. I was able to have a bit of a tour of Kijabe yesterday evening, and Dr. Mailu showed with the resting places of many of the missionaries who established the hospitals in this area. What a privilege. He mentioned to me that many of the missionaries who came to Kenya then packed a coffin, because they were never sure if they would make it back to their home countries. What dedication and true sacrifice to do God's work. They honestly gave their lives for the Gospel. And many of them were responsible for actually introducing the Gospel to many rural areas in Kenya and South Sudan. It definitely put what true and effective mission is into perspective. To see what the seeds they planted has grown into today is so inspiring!
Beautiful view of the Great Rift Valley from Kijabe!
Next week, I will be completing an Advanced Care Life Support course that I need for some of my schooling requirements. After that, I plan to take a short trip to the coast to Mombasa and then I head off to Europe for the month of August. I actually recently met a friend here in Kijabe who will hopefully be traveling with me to Mombasa! She's an answer to prayer and I'm so thankful for her friendship! :)
I am now down to only 9 days left of my trip. I'm kind of in a weird stage of starting to get anxious for my departure, but really missing Kenya already. In many ways I don't want to leave. But I know, at least for now, I have to go. God has shown me so many things since I've been here, especially about the direction I am to take for my future. I know I will be back here. This is just the beginning of a lifelong partnership here with MeMA doing medical missions and I can't wait to see what God has in store.
Sorry this post was so long guys!
Until next time & sending my love from Kenya!
Kwa heri!
Jaclynn
