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| SUSAN AND MARY |
FUTURE COLLEAGUE
I was walking back to my room in the dark after a clinic located five hours from Mombasa. From the left, a streak of movement rushed towards me out of the trees, grabbed me by the waist and wouldn't let me go. It was Mary whom I hadn't seen in almost two years.
Her mother was only 16 when she got pregnant and was thinking of getting an abortion. The Sisters begged her to have the child and they promised to help her with funds to raise her and send her to school. When I first met Mary (not her real name) she was seven years old and starting to learn English. Now she is almost fluent in English and she wants to be a doctor. She didn't have much time to visit with me. She had to go polish her shoes and put out her school uniform.
She would awaken at 4am and get on the bus at 5am; about an hour before dawn. When I commented this was very early she said she was lucky. Other children had to get on the bus at 4am!!!
The clinic I did that day was packed to overflowing. The Kenyan doctors are still on strike...day 58 on February 1st and counting. There is no end in site. The nurses are also threatening to strike on February 1st. Both groups have legitimate grievances with past agreements that the government hasn't honored.
It takes six years to train a doctor in Kenya and the cost of education from primary school to university is KES5.7 milllion = US$56,000.00. (The Sisters are facing a big education bill with this little girl!!) The World Health Organization recommends 36 doctors per 100,000 people. Kenya has an average of 19. 51% of the doctors they train emigrate to other countries and most doctors work in the cities. All of the clinics I supervise are run by nurses or clinical officers (physician assistants). Some are at the end of a very long road with only a telephone to connect them to me or some other source of assistance in an emergency.
Mary is such a bright little girl and I will have to live to 77 to see her graduate from medical school. But she gives us all hope with her enthusiasm and love of life. On a sad note, the man, Julius, whom I mentioned in my blog last month was taken back home and not admitted to the government hospital due to the strike. The family took him to an excellent mission hospital but they were so packed with patients they couldn't admit him and told the family to take him home and continue with the medicines we gave him. He never improved and on January 24th he passed on. I think he probably had a brain abscess which would have required surgery. At least he had the best care we could give him and the love of his family to surround him.
The other big concern here in Kenya is the possibility of post election violence in August when the presidential elections will be held. The clinic I went to last Friday has been seeing over 100 patients every day and they also work on Saturday. All the staff were visibly tired and frustrated. They are in an area where violence has occurred during elections in the past. They are planning to close the clinic for 10 days around election time and allow the staff to take their families to their villages for safety.
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| RIIMENZE SOUTH SUDAN JANUARY 2017 |
Lastly, many people are asking me what I think of President Trump. I tell them I didn't vote for him but he was duly elected. However, I cannot agree with his executive order banning immigration. When I worked in what is now South Sudan I had to move many times due to the war. At one point I had to cross the border into Uganda for a month for safety. I never had to leave my country of birth but I know what it is like to keep moving from one place to another and fearing for your life. These people need compassion and care but more than anything they need hope. Without that many will die needlessly. Innocent suffering is what Bishop Taban used to say was South Sudan's gift to the world. How sad that such a gift continues to increase in our world. Let us not forget the huddled, silent masses in addition to the people detained or deported in US airports.
IT IS BETTER TO LIGHT A CANDLE
THAN TO CURSE THE DARKNESS
- Lord, give me courage to keep lighting candles, even though I know some will burn out and some will blow out.
- Heal me, Lord, when I get burned in trying to keep the light going.
- Teach me to give generously and wisely, Lord, even when I don't have enough candles for everyone.
- Give me strength, Lord, when despair and discouragement tempt me to accept the darkness.
- Lord, forgive me when I preach candles to those who can't even afford matches.
- Grant me humility, Lord, when everyone else seems to have spotlights and floodlights and all I have is a lousy candle.
- Teach me patience, Lord, when it is a long time between candles.
- Help me to forgive, Lord, when someone I try to help deceives me, cheats me, or steals my candle.
- But most of all, forgive me Lord and grant me faith and hope when I start to believe the world is too dark, too cold, and too windy for simple candles. Dan Griffin, Former Maryknoll Lay Missioner
