01 December 2017

WORLD AIDS DAY KICHAKASIMBA DISPENSARY

WORLD AIDS DAY 2017

     We traveled almost four hours into the interior of south coast to celebrate World AIDS Day in a remote dispensary in a village called Kichakasimba.  (That means the forest of the lions but they've all gone somewhere else I think!)  The goal is to get to zero new infections.  The theme was INCREASING IMPACT THROUGH TRANSPARENCY, ACCOUNTABILITY AND PARTNERSHIP or let's be honest with how we spend the donors' money and work together!

During the day we gave health education about prevention of transmission of the virus and the importance of each person knowing their status. Those who are infected need medicines to live a long life and care for their families.  HIV is becoming a chronic illness and so we also concentrated on prevention of other chronic illnesses like diabetes and high blood pressure.  We taught about cancer of the breast, cervix and prostate and did screenings for these illnesses.  It was a busy day with a few challenges.  My car had been in the shop till the day before the clinic.  In the morning I awoke at 5am to find water all over the floor of my flat from a leaking sink.  I was unable to get a plumber at that hour and even when I called repeatedly from 8am onwards neither the landlord or the plumber would answer.  Then during the clinic the driver showed me that we had a flat tire.  The clouds gathered and it started raining which meant the roads were going to be a challenge to get out of there.  When I got home there was no electricity!  I started to feel sorry for myself.

     Then I got a message from a friend about more trouble in one of the parishes where I lived briefly in what is now S Sudan.  There were 500 people moving into the parish being chased by rebels against the government.  All the local people were afraid for themselves too.  I stopped feeling sorry for myself and thanked God for having a car, water and electricity!  Will trouble in S Sudan ever end???

     In a good sense it has ended for one man.  I have just heard from one of the patients I treated for kala azar...

In 2000, my mum and I came to Nanyangacor, in what is now South Sudan, from Loyoro about 100 miles away. I had kala-azar (a potentially fatal disease transmitted by the bite of sandflies infected with leishmania) and there was no health center nearby. We traveled on foot to Nanyangacor despite that I was at the deadliest stage of my sickness.
The first day I was surprised to see a white lady for the first time; that was Dr. Susan Nagele, who treated me for one and a half months and became my friend. She would give me clothes to put on because I had none. I was just 10 years of age.
My treatment was successful and Dr. Susan advised my mum to let me join the nearby Good Shepherd primary school. School was a new environment for me. Later that year, Sister Mary Ellen Manz became our new teacher. I remember when she used to bring her piano in class and teach us how to sing do, re, mi, fa, sol, la, ti, do in the music lesson. Dr. Susan was responsible for my school needs.
Sister Joan Sauvigne and Sister Marilyn Norris took care of the sick at the clinic. I had a friend named Marty Roers who liked planting trees. So we used to plant trees with him and some of the other students. Marty used to give us petty cash for our services.
The year 2003 was not a good one for me because Dr. Susan and Marty left Sudan. Sister Joan, who cared for six orphaned and poor children, took responsibility for me until 2007 when I finished my primary level. In December of that year I went home to visit my mum after seven years of absence because during holidays I used to remain and help in the clinic. When I returned in January 2008, I learned that Sisters Joan and Mary Ellen had gone back to the States. I was left in suspense. I had wanted to give them thanks, especially Sister Joan for all the help she had bestowed upon me. I thank all the Maryknoll community for the work, mercy and commitment they showed to our people during their time here in Sudan.
Adimo Elijah Lobukui

     I cannot tell you how much joy this letter brings to me.  I don't have my own children but in a very real sense I feel Adimo is like my child.  He was just skin and bones when he reached us, close to death after walking 100 miles.  I must have looked very strange to him, being white.  He was courageous enough to let me give him a very painful injection daily for one month.  And he survived. 

     Adimo got sick because he was a shepherd.  Those little boys would sit in the shade of the ant hills for respite from the blazing sun.  Sand flies lived in the ant hills and would come out and bite the boys.  They carried the little filaria or worm that causes leshmaniasis and that is how he became infected.  This Advent Season I will be thinking of my little shepherd boy from S Sudan who has lived to grow up and give praise to God with his life.

    

29 November 2017

Yesterday was another public holiday and the inauguration of President Uhuru Kenyatta went off in Nairobi with a lot of fanfare.  All was quiet here on the coast and you would have thought it was a Sunday with not much going on.  Interestingly the BBC was not transmitting for a lot of the day and the electricity was very bad from the afternoon until now.  My refrigerator is getting warm!  Not very good signs for the future ahead of us!

The opposition in NBI was not allowed to congregate at the place they wanted to have a memorial for all the people who have died/been killed in the last four months.  The US Embassy didn't send us any warnings so maybe it wasn't too bad. The opposition leader has now announced that he will be sworn into the presidential office on 12th Dec, Independence Day.  Clearly the opposition has some unknown plans and this political roller coaster isn't over yet.

Today is the anniversary of the death of Dorothy Day, a woman of peace who spent her whole life fighting injustice and serving those most in need.  She could show us the way if we would just pay attention and learn something about active nonviolence.

20 November 2017

This morning the Supreme Court dismissed the petitions contesting the rerun of the presidential elections and declared them free and fair.  President Uhuru Kenyatta will be sworn in on 28th Nov...another public holiday which will disrupt my clinic schedule.

I am in Voi, 160km outside of Mombasa.  All is quiet on the coast.  There has been violence in Nairobi and Western with two people killed.  Raila Odinga is in Zanzibar.  The government has said that they are willing to talk to the opposition about moving forward and reinvigorating the economy but not about the elections which for them are over and done with.

This is a very divided country with many challenges ahead.

18 November 2017

Mombasa remains quiet.

Nairobi was not. Yesterday the leader of the opposition came back from ten days in the USA and it took seven hours for his vehicle to get from the airport to town.  There were huge crowds of supporters, heavy police presence with lots of tear gas and five people dead, at least, at the end of it all.

On Monday the Supreme Court must rule on the three petitions challenging the rerun of the presidential election.  No matter what the ruling, half of the country will be upset.  If the court finds the election was free and fair the opposition is likely to cause chaos.  If the court finds the election needs to be done once again the opposition will be jubilant and the country will continue in limbo...meaning a place they have never been before and are not sure where it will lead them to.

Regarding my own troubles, I have been battling ants in my computer for two days!!!  I didn't have time to take it into the shop until this morning where they promise me they cleaned them all out.  I have no idea how they got in there.  I never eat or drink at my office desk.  I tried to kill them by putting the computer in the freezer over night and then blow drying it with my hair dryer. That worked for less than a day.  St. Francis forgive me but I was desperate.

I have managed to find a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner on Thursday.  I have invited about 20 people and am praying the electricity stays on so the oven works.  If the happens I will be truly grateful!!!!

11 November 2017

All is still quiet in Mombasa and through out the country.

Three petitions were brought to the Supreme Court challenging the rerun of the presidential election on 26th Oct.  The court will need to answer the petitions by 20th November, assuming they can raise a quorum.  President Uhuru is now being called the 'President Elect'.

The Opposition Party has begun to form 'Peoples Assemblies' the first being in Siaya, an opposition stronghold.  They are pushing for fresh elections once again.  They want an interim government to rule for six months to address all election issues first.  Raila is in the US trying to get support from the international community for his political agendas. He claims the country is 'hurtling towards a dictatorship'.

The Catholic Bishops all met in Nakuru this week. They are calling for a national dialogue which will address the difficulties of holding elections, electoral reforms, reconciliation, criteria of addressing long term issues of governance, transparency, poverty, unemployment, economic inequality, conflict resolution, injustices and accountability...among others!

There is an eight page tribute to Bishop Korir in the Daily Nation today...the day he is being laid to rest.  Perhaps his absence will now make others take his life very seriously and show them another way to solve their problems.

For my part, I got stuck in a big jam on Tuesday morning going to Giriama.  We had to drive all the way around through Kilifi and what usually takes one hour took three and a half hours.  But my trip to Bamba on Wednesday only took an hour and fifteen minutes on the new road through Mariakani.  Before it was always two hours or more and impassable when it rained.  I saw my little boy with the terrible rash and he is MUCH better.  No more itching and most of the skin is dry and healed.  Thanks be to God!!!

06 November 2017

     Mombasa remains quiet.  Today is the last day for petitions to challenge the presidential poll to be submitted.  So we wait to see what happens.  The political posturing continues.  The opposition party has formed a resistance movement with T-shirts, caps and a closed fist symbol.  They want Kenyans to boycott products from Safaricom, Brookside and Bidco to show dissatisfaction with the Jubilee party of the President.  Jubilee has published their plan to block the resistance movement.  Very hard to know what anyone is planning or what will happen.
     Heidi, my resident lawyer and legal expert has just left to go to Nairobi to do further research on women and incarceration there.  It was lovely having her here with me and is welcome back anytime!!!

ALEX, CAROL, DAD AGE 90 MAY 4, 2013

 

OUR NAGELE FAMILY REUNION JULY 2015

 T

AUGUST 2016 GENEVRA AT LEFT NOW 98!

STEVE AND DAD AT FAMILY REUNION 2015 

DAD, SUSAN AND SUMMER 2014

     Today is the first anniversary of Dad's passing.  It's seems like such a long time ago.  He suffered so with dementia and we all wanted him to have some peace.  But I'm sure he's with Alex in a wonderful place.  I suspect Alex is showing him the ropes and they are anything but peaceful!!!!

     Sorry I don't have a picture of Michael. I have looked and looked.  I suspect he was behind the camera lens in most cases!

01 November 2017

BISHOP CORNELIUS KORIR

ALL SAINTS DAY

     When a person dies I am often inspired by the life that I learn about which was  unbeknownst to me while alive.  That is not the case with Bishop Korir who died on 30th October 2017.  When I was in Kitale during the post-election violence of 2008 Bishop Korir was well known for opening the church compound to 10,000 people who feared for their lives.  He was already an inspiration to me.  But as is usually the case, I have learned even more.

     In 1991 the Pokot and the Marakwet were fighting over livestock.  The Pokot were warriors with firearms.  The Marakwet didn't have modern weapons, just bows and arrows.  To ease tension Bishop Korir helped to build cattle dips and schools on the border between the two communities.  They dug two dams to provide water for both communities.  The Gates foundation helped to put up milk cooling plants.  Since the fighting stopped the communities together produce 20,000 litres of milk per day, earning as much as 20 million shillings ($200,000) a month. They have formed a cooperative with board members from both communities.  Bishop described this as his most successful peace initiative among a litany of other projects.  He will always be known as the peacemaking Bishop and a saintly man who shows us what we can do if we really try to follow Jesus.

LINEAR IgA BULLOUS DERMATITIS

      I know that some of you aren't particularly interested to look at medical pictures but this is my work and this little boy was really stranded.  In January he had been properly diagnosed by a dermatologist at the government hospital to have this rare skin disease which I had never heard of before.  He was treated and improved but then relapsed.  The nurses have been striking since June 5th so the government hospital told him to go somewhere else.  The mother heard of one of our clinics located two hours away from where she lived and across the ferry!!!  She got up very early and brought him to me desperate for help.  He is a cute little boy who itches all over but still manages to smile.  Almost his entire body is covered with this rash from head to toe.  Thanks to the internet I could send pictures to a dermatologist who confirmed the diagnosis and I could read up on the treatment and source the medicine he needed.  I had arranged to see the mother at another clinic last week on the day before the rerun of the elections.  To my shock I learned the night before that the next day was now a public holiday and no one could work.  I arranged to meet the mother at the Cathedral in town to give her the medicine and explain to her it is an autoimmune condition that is not caused by anything that she or anyone else did.  (There are always ideas that the illness is caused by a curse from someone evil).  No one had taken the time to tell her that this is a condition that he will live with for the rest of his life and will need to take medicines almost continuously.   Every patient teaches me something and this little boy has taught me a lot.  It is my privilege to be able to help him heal.

    The opposition party announced yesterday that they will not accept the election of Uhuru Kenyatta calling the poll a sham.  They plan to use civil disobedience, economic boycotts and the formation of a 'Peoples' Assembly' to plan the way forward to bring about another rerun of the election in 90 days and to change the constitution.  Mombasa is quiet with no violence.  Nairobi and Western (where many of the opposition live) continue to have pockets of violence but the US Embassy is back to work.  The future for this country is still uncertain.  The President says the decision has been made and we should get on with our lives.  The opposition party says that if this election is recognized officially it will enshrine corruption and impunity in the governance of the country.  

PEACE OF THE 

CLOUD OF WITNESSES

TO YOU

WE ARE SURROUNDED BY LOVE