28 April 2013

     I have a calender of the Sisters of St. Joseph from LaGrange and today the saying is "grieve over loss".  That is appropriate for Judy and I as Mary, our house mate and co-missioner for the last three years has returned to the US on Friday.  She worked with the HOPE = Helping Orphans Pursue Education program and did a wonderful job under very difficult circumstances.  She will now go for her Master's degree and although we will miss her very much we know that it is the right decision and wish her well.
     A friend asked how we didn't get stuck on the muddy roads below and the answer is that we had a good driver and a good vehicle with four wheel drive that took us through the bush where the ground wasn't so muddy.  She also asked how we haven't gotten sick with Dengue fever when the people downstairs have.  We are very vigilant about killing mosquitoes and making sure that we don't get bitten by them.  It's a challenge but so far we've succeeded.
     I saw a two year old child at the Likoni clinic last week for follow up.  The little boy only weighs 16 pounds (8kg) which is the size of a one year old child.  His mother has taken him to the clinic every single month of his life and the health workers just kept writing down his weight and watching it fail to increase.  When I examined him last month I thought he might have muscular dystrophy and referred him to the provincial hospital.  They could do only the most basic tests and told the mother to bring him back to see the specialist.  When she returned the specialist wasn't in the clinic.  They told her to return in another week and when she did they told her that the specialist didn't have time to see the child and to return next week.  Such are the struggles of people  who can't afford private health care.  I will follow up on the child and use my mission money to get the tests that he needs if the government doesn't do them.  His prognosis is not good but at the very least the mother deserves a diagnosis and support to help her care for her child.

20 April 2013

Road to Taveta

Trucks stuck on the road to Taveta

I finally got my pictures of the trip back from Taveta to show the kind of roads were had to deal with.  The rains continue and the farmers are happy but there is flooding in many parts of the country and as you can see it makes travel difficult when there is no road.  This Class A International Road connects Kenya to Tanzania and travels through Tsavo West National Park.
     The week long trip was very needed and we found lots of problems to deal with.  The renovation of the maternity unit in Eldoro is still not complete and we could not return to Eldoro on Thursday as planned because the road was impassable.  It didn't matter as the contractor who had told Sr. Pauline he would meet with us on Thursday was no where to be found.  We talked to the foreman and told him the work must be done in one month or we will hire another contractor to get the unit open and functioning by 1st July.
     This past week in Mombasa we were told by the government that there are at least 57 cases of confirmed Dengue fever along the coast.  Three people in the family downstairs and a Sister on South Coast have all been very sick.  It is a virus spread by mosquitoes that are breeding with all this rain.  I haven't seen any public health announcements in the papers or on the radio.  It probably would not be good for their tourist industry for this to be publicized.  So on Friday I traveled to Mrima and began our teaching for the staffs in outlying areas.  Fortunately the road was paved and we came and went in the same day!!!

10 April 2013

     Yesterday 9th April 2013, the government of Kenya spent Kshs300 million ($3.6 million) on the inauguration of the new president and vice-president.  It was a public holiday but Sr. Pauline and I chose to work as we had already planned a week long trip to the villages.  Let me give you a perspective from where the common people live.

     On Sunday we began our trip and met a huge traffic jam at a weigh station outside of Mombasa.  The machines for weighing the trucks broke down and I counted 440 trucks backed up for miles.  It took 4 hours, more than double the time it usually takes to reach our first clinic. The clinic went well but on Monday night the electricity went out all night long.  On Tuesday morning we left Voi early in the morning to travel to Taveta on the Tanzanian border.  This is a class A international road and half way there we met two trucks stuck in the mud.  The road used to be paved but now all the pavement is gone and it had rained causing great piles of mud.  I felt like I was having deja vu of traveling in South Sudan many years ago.  Fortunately our vehicle could slip slide its way around the trucks.  When we reached Taveta we found the road to the village of Eldoro was full of water so we took a different side road.  There were patches of mud but with four wheel drive we could get through.  We reached Eldoro and spent 3 hours at the dispensary.  On leaving at 6pm we tried to take the normal route but found a truck stuck in the mud.  So we backed up and returned on the small muddy path we had come through earlier.  We reached our next village destination of Chumvini at 7:30pm last night.  As we traveled at night I noticed that there was electric lighting in the distance where Tanzania is.  There was no electricity on the Kenya side we were driving through.  Sr. Pauline explained that rural electrification still hasn't reached this part of Kenya.  I did a clinic here in Chumvini today but the lab technician had trouble reaching the clinic because the road was muddy.  Another vehicle tried to go to Eldoro today and failed because a truck was stuck in the road.  We have planned to return to Eldoro tomorrow to follow up on the building of the maternity unit but our success will depend on the rains and the trucks!!!

     All of this is to witness to the fact that while the leaders of the country can afford to spend plenty of money on the inauguration the common person still lives in the dark and has trouble moving themselves and their goods from one place to another.  I hope that we can give them good quality health care services to make their lives less difficult.  So far, I'm really glad we've avoided getting stuck in the mud!!!  I wanted to take some pictures but the camera on my phone had run out of charge due to lack of electricity.

1st April 2013

     It is a cool rainy morning here in Mombasa and we had a lovely Easter celebration with 11 friends in our home yesterday.  All is calm and we are grateful for the peaceful acceptance of the court ruling Saturday evening.  The court made the unanimous decision that the elections were free and fair and that the two men elected president and vice president will be inaugurated on 9th April.  This is the end of discussion and there will not be anymore appeals or legal challenges in Kenya.
     Judy works in Bangladesh slum and I will go there for a clinic tomorrow.  In 2008 this slum was the center of post election violence and many people were hurt and killed.  This month the priests (St. Patrick Fathers from Kiltegan in Ireland) report that some police came and beat up youth with sticks while they were playing on the football field and prevented other gatherings of people.  But the people didn't fight back and there was no escalation of violence.  The parish has been working diligently to help people channel their anger nonviolently and they have succeeded.  In addition, all three priests are older than me and live in the slum with their parishoners.  I suspect that Pope Francis would be approving of their lives of service!
     Most people I have talked to just want to put the election process behind them and get on with their lives.  They want to make a decent living and send their kids to school.  For me, the concern is for those people who suffered during the violence in 2008.  I heard many of their stories and know how much they suffered at the hands of people well known to them.  I hope that they will be able to tell their stories at the International Criminal Court in the Hague.  But recently the court had to drop charges against one man because the witnesses had died, been killed or changed their minds and refused to testify.  The Hague also said that the government of Kenya was not cooperating in providing what was necessary to determine the truth.  Now, two of the three men still charged have become the government of Kenya!  I doubt they will do a better job of 'cooperating'.  I feel very  sad for the future of these people and the country as a whole.  This is not a very joyful Easter for me.
     But I will go to work tomorrow and do my best to serve the needs of the people who come to the clinic.  I'll take heart in knowing that there are many of you who are keeping us in thought and prayer and admit that I can only do my little part.  Wishing you all a very Happy Eastertide and the arrival of Spring as soon as possible in Illinois!