A close friend of ours was murdered lately. His wife left for dead by the attackers of a home invasion. They were both tortured before being killed or left for dead. It has been 10 years since the last home invasion against in the Kitale area. I thank God that his wife, Phao has clung to life and has recently been released from hospital after numerous surgeries. No one knows if she will ever be able to return to her job as a doctor. You might recall she worked alongside us when we were just starting the clinic work.
One of the sad commentaries on the justice ministry/ police here in Kenya, is that unless you are willing to pay big bucks to the police they will not investigate or peruse the case with any interest. So, both families have decided, perhaps for different reasons not to peruse the matter.
She was released from the hospital, but insurance only covered 60%, now the need to come up with the equivalent of a couple years wages, before they will release her, meanwhile the bill goes expediently while they hold her there.
Please pray for a full recovery physically, mentally, and emotionally for Dr.
On a happier note, I had a fellow from Kelowna, who I can now call a good friend, come over to repair damaged borehole pumps. Robert Fait, typically spends his holidays in Ethiopia installing equipment to produce clean surface water. He was convinced to come and help here in Kenya this time.
Many NGO’s and organization have no problem spending 12-20 thousand dollars to install a borehole and place a hand pump on top. The problem is that the pumps tend to break down after 3-5 years, and there is no one with the knowledge or resources to repair them. So, they just sit unused.
With Rob’s mechanical abilities, and my contacts (oh yeah, and his fundraised money) we were able to repair 8 wells and a cattle trough. In Kitale, we did one in the Kipsongo slums, and another at a primary school of 550. The others were located way out in the remote villages of Pokot. We were able to provide water to around four thousand individuals and about a 2-3 thousand goats, camels and other livestock, which sustains the villagers.
The area we serviced the wells at, was ripe with tribal fighting. At times the local police felt it best that we travel with soldiers, but for the most part we did not bother, as they were expensive and cramped our style.
A murder each week, on the average, because the border between the two tribes was located a couple KM from the wells. Most killings were retaliatory in nature. But the problem is between the two tribes, and we are not part of their century long quarrel.
The day after Rob left, we took off for a week, up into the northern part of Kenya, to participate in a promotional event promoting the stop of Female Genital Mutilation, and visit friends.
We drove for hours sometimes without seeing another vehicle as we crossed the desert.
Finally the Jade Sea now called Lake Turkana
Venturing far up north on some bad roads to visit a friend who is a Samburu Warrior, a Moran. We met his family and he took us us into the local villages. While there Francine and our friend Agnus befriended a little girl, who is deaf and dumb. Her mother rejects her and considers her a curse. Francine was able to persuade our friend David into letting her participate at the school he teaches in. We bought her a uniform and books.
And she is now with kids her age, doing what children her age should be doing, school. We are now looking for sponsors that will help us put ….into a special school where she can learn to sign etc.
We also wanted to witness a reconciliation event between eight different tribes that traditionally kill one another, and steal their cattle.
David and his older brother recieved post education, but his younger brothers have never been to school, (and they had no interest in attending, they are now married) that was all the parents could afford . David and Patrick help support the family now, as planned.
Presently we have a couple volunteer registered nurses working at the clinic. One of them is residing with us, and the other at a friends. They bring a lot of wisdom, at the same time, they admit that the ICU’s they work at back in Texas and Seattle are so different. Here they have to improvise, rather than pass the patient on to a specialist or hook up to a piece of modern medical equipment.
So funny, these street boys go at it with broken bottles, knives and fists, but just cannot handle the idea of a needle.
The masks are not for hygiene in this case. The fellow stunk so bad, they had to strip him, and the lice were jumping off. They had to burn his clothes and even the linen on the bed and which we wrapped him in. His feet had started to rot. A good bath, another set of clothes, some electrolytes, fruit, gave the dependable street boy who brought him in some money for a week of food, a blanket and he was on his way, back to the street.
Our Patients are enjoying our new file/chart system. Some day we will be fully digital.
We will be doing an outreach into Pokot next week, and that will really stretch the nurses. But, the camping overnight, and the remote culture is usually a highlight for everyone.