Thursday, March 11, 2010

February 2010 Trip: Medical Camp Recap



























































We arrived back in Evansville Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. and have spent the last day recovering from jet lag and basic tiredness! Our borrowed modem left with the person we borrowed it from, as he continued his travels, so we weren't able to access the internet and post anymore. Note to self:next time remember to buy a modem in Nairobi! They aren't available in the villages.

The overall summary of our first medical camp: all the locals and our own team called it an amazing success! We saw a total of well over 1300 people from the surrounding area in a 3 day period. Peter's brother, Clement, said that the word from the people was that they can't wait until we come back again. Someone told him he was given something to swallow, he had been in so much pain and he was amazed that now it was gone. He wondered what it was we gave him. (It was simply ibuprofen - he had never taken medicine before)

We began each morning standing in a circle for prayer and then singing "We Are Standing on Holy Ground". It was a blessing working side by side with the local medical officers and the nurses who were sent from Nyamira by the district health minister. We learned so much from them!! A picture above shows our team after we closed on the last day. Besides our "Mzungu" (white person) team, this includes local medical officers (like physicians assistants), pharmacist, helpers from Peter's family's church (Riakong'a Methodist where we worshiped on our first Sunday there)

There is also a picture of a 100 year old man with a hat that said "Cowboy" and his 80year old son,a picture of Doctor Michelle Galen and interpreting Med. Officer seeing a patient, and a child offering the rest of a cookie/biscuit we gave him to his grandmother.

Thanks to everyone for all your donations. EVERYTHING was given out:
Amoxicillin, Tylenol, Advil, Multivitamins, Toothbrushes and toothpaste (HUGE hits) pencils, pens (also HUGE hits), stickers, (kids loved)

Besides these things which we brought from the states, our mission budget covered nominal salaries for the medical workers for 3 days, all the medications that we were able to purchase in town in Nakuru and Ekerenyo, rental of 2 tents and 50 chairs.

We took many notes about ways to tweak and improve our next medical camp, scheduled for February 2011. If you're interested, let me know! We'll need at least one doctor, a one dentist, and many non-medical people. The total for the mission team will be 12. We look forward to sharing our pictures at another Kenyan meal in the spring!

1 comment:

  1. Congratulations on a successful trip! Can't wait to hear stories and see pictures! You guys are awesome! :)

    ReplyDelete