01 July 2016

St. Francis Primary School

GREETINGS FROM MOMBASA

     I'm back to work after a wonderful break at home with my family and friends.  Yesterday I went to visit the school where my housemate, Teresa, teaches fifth and sixth graders.  (Notice the light around her head...similar to a halo!) She has also started up a library.  This photo shows pictures from calendars in the library that one of my donors sent to us.

     I look at these young girls and feel a bit concerned.  They come from one of the most needy informal settlements built on the side of a hill which turns to slippery, sloshy mud when it rains.  I'm almost afraid to imagine what constitutes 'home' and a 'family' for each one of them.

     The newspaper today reports about a girl in sixth grade who became pregnant.  No doubt she was terrified and her 'boyfriend' gave her some pills to get rid of the baby.  The pills only caused her terrible abdominal pains.  She confessed to the headteacher her attempt to abort the baby.  So, they made her go to the police station to record a statement.  Next, the police detained her in a cell for four days announcing she was under arrest!  Finally when she became very ill they took her to the hospital and admitted her under police guard.  It took the doctors another day to do the surgical procedure she needed because the operating room schedule was 'full'.  I wonder where the boy is???  Fortunately she survived.

     Teresa asked me if I would share some of my experiences in South Sudan as part of their geography class.  We had a book written about The Lost Boys of Sudan, some of whom I had met and cared for during their perilous journeys from Sudan to Ethiopia, back into Sudan and down to Kenya.  As we read the book together I realized that no matter how hard the lives of these children are in this place, it doesn't compare to what happens to children during war.  Children had to drink their own urine when there was no water, scavenge for leaves and roots in the forest for food, swim across a river filled with crocodiles and walk at night to avoid the burning sun, the airplanes with bombs and wild animals that roam around looking for food.  Unfortunately, South Sudan is still filled with violence, hatred and terrible suffering.  The same must be true for Syria and for all of the millions of migrants desperate to risk their lives to reach Europe.

     The line from the book that I choose to remember is a quote from one of the older boys caring for the younger ones.  He said, "We were never lost.  God always knew where we were."

     The young boy I wrote about last month is back in the hospital to have surgery to repair his colostomy and allow him to pass stool normally.  He is doing well and we hope he will be discharged soon.  I doubt he remembered me.  But he wasn't terrified to see me and was happy to get a warm hug. Love really is the best medicine.

    As I write this the Imam is singing his evening prayers.  This is the Holy Month of Ramadhan with fasting, prayers and works of charity for Muslims.  When they see the new moon next week they will celebrate coming closer to God through these practices.  It is a great reminder to me that we are all searching for a way to come closer to God, each in our own way.

PEACE OF THE GOD WHO ALWAYS KNOWS WHERE WE ARE AND IS ALWAYS WITH US.

01 June 2016

FIST BUMP WITH MY NEWEST PATIENT

FALLING IN LOVE

     I write from Minnesota but I start with my newest patient in Kenya, Bob (not his real name).  I left Mombasa on the 16th of May having planned my schedule to help me finish everything piled up on my desk.  That got blown to smithereens on May 6th when I got a phone call from Triza, the lawyer working in St. Patrick Parish where I do a clinic each month.  She has been working with womens' groups to create awareness about children's rights.  They informed her about two children who were in trouble.  When she found Bob she called me. 

     Bob was in a small village two hours away and he needed specialized surgery.  So I advised her to bring him to Mombasa and met them at the hospital on Friday night along with the only pediatric surgeon on the coast of Kenya.  His catchment population is 3.8 million people but only 30% are children.

                      The surgeon was excellent.  On Saturday he did the first necessary procedure and on Sunday he did the major surgery.  On Monday morning we found such horrible nursing care we started to organize volunteers to stay with Bob around the clock. Norah, the social worker at St. Patrick's, was put in charge of organizing youth, church women and a Muslim man who knew his local language to help. Bob comes from a very dysfunctional family, the third of eight children.  His two older brothers have already died.  He does not speak but within the first day of being surrounded by loving kindness I could already see a big change in  his behavior.

SUSAN, NORAH, TRIZA, BOB

      Unfortunately the breach in nursing care caused a big infection and Bob had to go back to surgery on Thursday. The surgeon wanted to transfer him to another hospital which had much better nursing care but I couldn't afford it. We redoubled our efforts and I found myself teaching nursing duties to every person in the room helping to care for him.  We couldn't afford to mess up again.  And we didn't.  Before I left I paid $3000 on his hospital bill. Thanks to all my donors who give me money just for things like this. He wasn't discharged until a few days later and he will need another surgical procedure in June.  We've found other donors to help with those bills.  He has been accepted to a children's home that has offered to care for him until he is 18 years old.  He has found an older boy at the home with his same name who speaks his local language and also has special challenges mentally.  They have become the best of friends.

     As I said goodbye to him the day before I left I found a tear welling up in my eye...no small feat for someone with Sjogren's syndrome! (We have dry eyes.)   I usually do well keeping a good distance emotionally from my patients but this time I failed.  All the women in this picture failed.  We all fell in love with him. They send me pictures of him and I will see him myself when I return to Kenya on June 25th.  Without such a committed team of people who worked very hard to take care of Bob we could never have helped him recover.

MOM, JEAN, SUSAN, EMILY

     I have just attended the wedding of my niece and goddaughter.  There were more tears as two young people committed their lives to one another and thereby brought more love into our world.  Now I am on my way to Illinois and looking forward to reconnecting with many loving people there as well!

PEACE OF THE ONE WHO IS UNCONDITIONAL LOVE FOR OUR WORLD AND EACH ONE OF US!

     

01 May 2016

HEALTH COMMITTEE ST. PATRICK DISPENSARY

FAREWELL

       At the center of this picture is Judy Walter.  I attended the Committee meeting for St. Patrick Dispensary with Fr. Gabriel Dolan and the Kenyan members in March.  Judy helped to open this clinic in June 2011 in Bangaladesh, the poorest informal settlement (slum) in Mombasa.  She has just moved to Tanzania and will continue as a Maryknoll Lay Missioner.  She has retired from nursing and will be helping to open a House of Prayer.  We already miss her greatly but are thrilled that she will continue to serve by opening new doors in this year of Mercy!

     Last year I had a 17 year old girl with insulin dependent diabetes mellitus.  She was attending a clinic about an hour away from Mombasa and she always came with her father...both very simple quiet people.  I had never seen Lucy smile.  She was extremely thin and although we provided all of her care free she never gained an ounce over 9 months.  I would take them in my car on the way home and drop them them off to walk a long distance to their remote village.  It was just before Christmas and her dress was so thread bare and tattered I wanted to buy a new one for Christmas. But I knew that the whole family would need clothes and this just wasn't feasible.  I had been given two big papaya fruits and as she got out of the car I gave them to her...the only thing I had at the moment. It was the first time I saw her smile.  What she, and the whole family, needed was food.  

     We transferred her care to St. Patrick Dispensary where they had a feeding program.  Even though she and her father had to get in a boat to go there it was actually closer to their village!  She was put on the feeding program and linked up with Nora, the social worker.  Nora is young, vivacious and could get her to talk. Lucy has now gained 12 pounds and looks beautiful.  Her diabetes is better controlled and she has a support group of people her own age to meet with.

     Who would think that a clinic in a slum would be helpful to someone as poor and sick as Lucy.  The group of people in this picture is testament to what can be done when we care about the health care of others, especially those most in need, work together and spend money for the purpose for which it is intended.   

      I give a great deal of credit to Judy Walter.  Everyday she got on public transportation which is hot, noisy and reckless to go to work.  She battled with the local government to get support for medicines and supplies.  She never succeeded despite the fact that her clinic provided the only health care for 50,000 people.  The government has no health facility in Bangaladesh.  She built up a staff of caring competent health workers who put the patient first and go look for those most in need.  My role was to support and advise them when I would come once a month for a clinic.  It is one of the best run clinics in the Archdiocese of Mombasa and I looked forward to working with them every month.

HAPPY FEAST OF ST. JOSEPH THE WORKER

MAY WE NOT ONLY PRAY BUT WORK FOR PEACE

01 April 2016

St. Josephine Bakhita
Patroness of Human Trafficking

HAPPY EASTER

     We had beautiful liturgies for Holy Week at the Cathedral here in Mombasa.  With all the heat I truly do not know how the priests survived the long ceremonies with the many layers of clothes they were wearing.

     On Holy Thursday I witnessed, for the first time in Kenya, the priest washing the feet of women and children.  One of our friends, Cecelia, a 90 year old woman whose family was from Goa, India, was chosen for this ritual.  Fr. Correa, an 80 year old priest whose family was also from Goa, knelt down to wash her feet.  It was allowed because Pope Francis set this example last year.  Fr. Correa had to be very careful in explaining to the parishioners. He said that he hoped that this wouldn't cause problems for some people.  He said that things change and now we must change too.

     For the Stations of the Cross we Maryknoll Lay Missioners used the  Way of the Cross of Human Trafficked Victims.   These were prepared by Sr. Mary O'Malley, MMM who has worked with these people.  I have known that trafficking  is common here on the Coast but now I have my own personal experience.

     When I went to Likoni Dispensary Sr. Susan met me immediately.  She was very distraught and wanted me to see a woman before she ran away.  We will call her Josephine.  Josephine was a huge woman who had come to this clinic claiming that she was pregnant and demanding a card to prove it. The staff could find no signs of pregnancy and she looked much too old to be pregnant.  She had come twice before over the past several years, had taken a prenatal card and later returned with a baby for the immunization clinic.  Sr. Susan was very suspicious of her circumstances.     

     So, my first encounter was with a woman who had a two year old child clinging to her dress and she claimed this was her child.  She looked more like the grandmother and I, too, could find no sign of pregnancy.  None of my training or experience had prepared me for this.

     I called a social worker I knew and she could offer no advice.  So I called a lawyer who works at another parish in the Archdiocese and she told me we needed to call the police.  Yikes!!! The police are the last people I call when I have a problem because they are so corrupt.  This woman would surly run away as soon as she saw them.  So, I asked the woman to come to another clinic I was doing in two days nearby, ostensibly so that I could recheck the little boy and herself.  She agreed and we began to make our plans.

     First of all Sr. Susan needed to get the approval of the Parish Priest (Pastor).  He told us, in justice, we needed to proceed and to his credit he supported us.  Next step was getting the police to come to the next clinic.  We sent the social worker of the HIV clinic to the police station on that very morning.

     When the day came I was relieved that Josephine showed up at 9am.  I notified the social worker. He was still with the police.  I feigned needing to care for more sickly patients but by 10:30am Josephine was getting restless so I brought her into my office.  While she was undressing I was texting the social worker telling him to come quickly.  He said they were on their way...a common euphemism when someone doesn't want to tell you exactly how far or near they are!  After a nice long exam done as slowly as possible I opened the door to see a police officer's uniform.  I told Josephine to get her things together and I would be back.
     The female officer had seen Josephine through the open door and said she knew her.  She ran a children's home. I reviewed our concerns and they told me to just let her leave the office and they would confront her for questioning.  Their investigation took all day and even led them to the local prison.  Josephine is 58 and her husband is 29.  He, of course, wanted children.  So she would pretend she was pregnant and then buy children from local prostitutes when they delivered their babies.  She paid as much as $1000.

     Who knows the story of Josephine's life?  Maybe she herself was trafficked as a child.  Perhaps each of us is capable of the evils that led to the crucifixion of Jesus.
     I share with you this banner of St. Josephine Bakhita that hangs in my parish of St. Patrick's in Urbana.  It was made by a good friend in the parish, Pat, who uses her wonderful talents to bring beauty and inspiration to our prayer space. Bakhita suffered horribly at the hands of her owners but she found life when she came to know about Christ.  It is said that she wished she had known him earlier to have helped ease her sufferings.  Pat placed a butterfly on her chest as a symbol of new life.  The chains on her wrists are broken and her hands are open in welcome and service.
     As an aside, Pat used different textiles from parishioners to make her banners.  The blue skirt Bakhita is wearing is actually from a dress of mine made from material from Kenya!
     So, I wish you the joy of Easter which we should celebrate all the way up to Pentecost...as my mother would often remind us.

PEACE OF THE RISEN CHRIST TO YOU!!!!

01 March 2016

The Year of Mercy

     Over the last 30 years I have watched as the AIDS pandemic swept over East Africa.  We have made strides in education about the disease and treatment as well.  But stigma still reigns. That can be as heartbreaking as the disease itself.  

     One day a nurse brought this little boy to see me.  He was in severe pain with swellings on his cheeks that were growing rapidly.  He and his mother both have HIV.  He had been infected at birth but hadn't begun treatment until the very late age of five.  His mother was adamant we shouldn't tell anyone in her family why they were sick.  She was terrified her mother in law would broadcast her 'sin' to the whole village.  This illness is a huge dishonor to the family.  I knew he had cancer and would need to go to the provincial hospital for treatment.  That would cost a lot of money.  We didn't charge them and gave them $25 to get started on a journey that would most likely bring this little one back to God.  He would die of stigma and judgmental attitudes that exclude him and his mother from family and community.
     At another clinic I was called to see Mary, who was hospitalized in midlife with a severe stroke.  She, too, had HIV and she knew it.  She had left her family and roamed the streets with many men, perhaps because of her own shame and self-stigma, believing herself unredeemable and unworthy of treatment.  Her husband had tried repeatedly to bring her back home and help her to get the care she needed.  She always refused.  I walked into the ward to see her and found a well dressed woman sitting in the chair near Mary's bed.  She was about the same age as Mary.  She didn't say much and seemed distant but at least she was someone I could talk to as Mary couldn't speak.  After reviewing the long litany of Mary's ailments I explained to the woman, who was married into the family, that we needed to elevate the head of the bed so Mary could breath better and not aspirate something into her lungs.  The  nurse and I scoured this electric bed, imported from Europe, for a way to raise the head.  But we had no electricity and couln't find a crank to lift it ourselves.  I wrote my orders and moved on to the next patient while the nurse went to look for pillows.  When I returned a short time later I found Mary's visitor sitting in the hospital bed with Mary propped up on her chest.  A bevvy of family members had arrived, including Mary's husband and several women who were arranging the bedding, wiping Mary's face and gently spooning some thickened cereal into her mouth.  They were fairly well educated and lived in the town nearby.  I listened as they poured out their frustrations over many years of being unable to help Mary.  Now that she was completely incapacitated they could finally shower her with their love and tenderness.  They only wanted her to get better and come back to live with them.
     Traditional rural customs and rituals where I have worked in Tanzania, South Sudan and Kenya have usually been very caring and attentive to family members in need.  But they can be judgmental and severe when issues of morality and sexuality are concerned as I saw with the little boy.  Pope Francis has given us all a challenge to see as Jesus saw, through the lens of mercy.  That's what I saw at Mary's bedside.  Mary died in the hospital about a week after I saw her.  She went back to God surrounded by the love and mercy of her family and friends.

Coralis Salvador, Maryknoll Lay Missioner, and her colleagues

PEACE OF THESE LOVING MERCIFUL WOMEN WHO GIVE SPECIAL CARE TO PEOPLE WITH EPILEPSY

01 February 2016



MIRIAM AND YUSUF

HEROS AND SUCCESS

     Meet Miriam and Yusuf.  You should know I never use the real names in these pictures.  But they are Muslim and that is important to this story.
     Yusuf came at one year of age, wasting away.  We figured out he had low thyroid hormone, began him on medicine and basically saved his life.  He looks scrawny here but he looked like a famine victim when I first saw him.
     Someday Miriam may save my life.  In December a bus was travelling in Kenya from the town of Mandera very far north of Mombasa on the Somali border.  It was ambushed by Al-Shabaab terrorists who ordered the Muslims and Christians to separate.  The Muslims surrounded the Christians and some women even gave the Christian women their Muslim clothes (hijab) to wear.  They told their abductors to kill them together or leave them alone.  This shocked the extremists.  It had never happened before.  Dumbfounded and confused they started shooting and left in a panic.  They shot and wounded the Muslim deputy head teacher at Mandera Township Primary School, Mr. Salah Sabdow Farah.  Bullets lodged in his hip and arm.  He was air lifted to the National Hospital in Nairobi on 22 December and he died on 18th January due to the injury to his hip and bleeding in his kidney.   Sadly, I only found the small newspaper article by chance at the bottom of the page in one of the national newspapers.  It should have been the headline news on the front page.  It should have been picked up by the international news agencies, just like the story of the three Americans who acted on the French train to save peoples' lives.  He died trying to shield his fellow Kenyans and he is a hero.  


GUINEA WORM

Now for the success part of this blog!!!!  I worked in what is now South Sudan from 1991 until 2003.  When I moved to Toposaland in 1997 the Carter Center was working in our parish to try to eradicate Guinea worm by the year 2000.  These nomadic people moved their cattle from place to place and were always short of water.  This nasty little creature infects a person when they drink contaminated water.  The filarial worm is contained in a flea (Cyclops) in the water and when it is ingested the stomach acid destroys the flea and liberates the worm.  The worm then passes through the wall of the stomach and the male and female mate.  The male promptly dies but the female takes a year to move to the extremities and she can become two to three feet long.  When she reaches her destination she causes a painful blister to form and the person puts their foot in a pond or pool of water to get some relief from the pain.  As the blister opens little worms are released into the water and if a person drinks the water the cycle begins all over again.  The big worm needs to come out and local people would slowly wrap it around a twig and remove it over a couple of days.  There is no other treatment for the big worm and the person is in such pain they can't work for many weeks.  One of my patients had 62 worms come out of his little body!!! 
     Our dispensaries worked with the Carter Center to educate and distribute cloth filters and pipes.  If people used filters to strain the fleas out of the water, transmission could be stopped.  At one time there were 3.5 million infections in 21 countries.  When we were working in South Sudan only 13 countries, all in Africa, still had the worm.  We helped Ethiopia eradicate it in 1998 because we were working right next to their southern border.  But the goal of eradication in 2000 came and went and there was no way to succeed while Sudan was still at war.  Then, the peace accords were signed in 2005.  That was the ticket to progress.  Last year there were only 22 cases reported in South Sudan, the last country to harbor this little critter.  The cycle can be broken in one year if every reported case is isolated and prevented from transmitting the worm.  2016 could be the year for success.  If this happens, guinea worm will be the second infectious disease to be eradicated from our planet.  (The first disease  we stopped was small pox.)  To be honest I AM SO EXCITED AT THE POSSIBILITY!!!  The Carter Center is also a place full of heroes.



PEACE OF THESE LOVE BIRDS AND ALL OUR HEROES TO YOU!

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!!!

01 January 2016

YUSUF (not his real name) How old do you think he is?

1st JANUARY 2016

WORLD DAY OF PRAYER FOR PEACE

 

     The nurse had seen this little boy five days earlier and she thought his cheeks were a little swollen.  However, he had malaria so she treated him and told him to come back to see me.  He and his mother have HIV and both are on treatment.  In just five days the swelling had greatly increased along with swellings in his jaw and leg.  I was sure he had cancer but it was only two weeks to Christmas and this is the worst time in Kenya to get sick.  Everyone goes home and few staffs are working.  The mother refused to tell anyone in her family about the HIV infections because she was sure they would exclude them from the family and blame her for getting sick.  We don't charge them for their treatment but she didn't have money to get to the hospital.  So, we gave her the equivalent of $25 to go to the district hospital to get x-rays and I went to hospice to get morphine.  He had terrible pain, especially at night.  He is now in the provincial hospital where they have confirmed he has cancer.  He does not have a very good chance of survival with all the family and financial problems.  We can treat his pain and make him as comfortable as possible.  Perhaps if it is a Burkitt's lymphoma he will respond well to treatment and surprise me.  He is five years old but looks more like three.  Mother and child...such a hard life.

      FEAST OF MARY QUEEN OF PEACE

     In another clinic before Christmas I saw an 18 year old young woman with a pelvic infection.  Treating this problem revealed a litany of social challenges.  She finished five grades in school.  She was impregnated at age 15 by a married man.  He gives her some support for the child so she continues to meet up with him.   She gets treatment for the infection but he refuses to be treated so she gets re-infected.  She's really just a girl trying to survive.

     I sent her to the social worker who is very gifted in helping with these challenges.  We both encouraged the young mother to leave the married man and go back to school to finish eight grades.  Just as she was ready to leave she asked me if there as a chance she could have another albino child.  I was dumb founded.  After all of our interviewing and counseling we had failed to find out that her three year old son has albinism, a genetic disorder where the skin fails to produce pigment and the person looks white.  Exposure to ultra violet rays of the sun can easily cause cancer.  It is not uncommon here and there is tremendous social stigma attached to the condition.  In the most severe instances albino children and adults have been killed by witchcraft and their body parts used by the witch doctors for their evil machinations.  And yes, if she becomes pregnant by the same man again there is a 25% chance the child will have albinism.    

     All during this Christmas season I have been thinking of Mary and Jesus in light of these mothers and their children.  Why do so many young women and their children have one problem after another?  More importantly, what can I do for them?  When I am creative I find there is always something I can do for them.  In this coming year let us look at possibilities and be creative.  Let us not be overwhelmed by all the evil and troubles that seem to sprout like weeds.  Let's be hopeful and do what we can...with love and compassion.                                         

WISE OLD OWL

HAPPY NEW YEAR 2016!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

PEACE OF THE WISDOM AND CREATIVITY THIS COMING YEAR WILL BRING