February 2011 Trip: Medical Camp

Over 1600 people came through the gate during the 4 days the medical camp was held. People continued to express thankfulness that we were there. Many said to thank all of you in the U.S. who helped make this possible. and

It was sad to say goodbye this noon to our 4 friends from Virginia, North Carolina and Kenya (Susan and Len, Len's mom Sarah, Bill Coble and Edwin Oyugi) who made up the perfect team. The people who helped from Riakong'a Methodist Church were wonderful and the local medical folks who saw patients and prescribed medications were great!

We closed at noon today and as it turned out, all the people outside the gate with a ticket they had pre-purchased for 20 kenya shillings (25 cents) received medical care.

After closing up, inventoring and storing meds and supplies for the next trip we went up the hill to Peter and Clement's home where we were treated to a delicious meal of chicken, rice, chapati, fresh pineapple, mango, avocado, greens and plaintains (unsweet bananas) prepared by Peter's mom and sister Nancy.

We saw their amazing hillside garden from which the family made their living while their 9 children grew up and went to school. Coffee beans, pineapple, tea, etc. were grown and taken to a nearby village market.

(Note: besides Peter who has his doctorate, Clement is an engineer designing power plants with the help of the Japanese, and he has been trained in building solar panels. Other siblings include a school principal and a social worker, etc! )

We walked down the path to see the water system tanks - plans are to have water flow downhill to Riakong'a Methodist Church and then from there distributed efficiently to the community.

After reviewing the week with Peter and Clement, we said goodbye to them and were so happy about the 5 successful days here.

Tomorrow we head out of Nyamira and off to Masai Mara.

A view of the people waiting to enter the Medical Clinic

This is what we (and they) are hoping to prevent. This man saw his picture and held up his hand to his mouth when he realized he looked like this. But he still loved seeing his picture in the digital camera.

The people loved the toothbrushes. One of the helpers was taught to demonstrate the toothbrushing technique with the model jaw provided by Dr. Steve Buedel. She demonstrated all day long and never stopped smiling!