Post Kenya learning

 A few things I wrote in my journal about what I 

experienced and took with me a few weeks after coming back to reality…..

 THE THINGS I LOVED & LEARNED OF KENYA:

last sunrise as we left Lokichar

All the places we drove to and worked in

Overlooking the Rift Valley

~SMILES ...they have the brightest and biggest REAL smiles ALWAYS that I have felt deep down to my heart SO, smile more, smile often & be contagious!!~PRIDE…I have never seen and felt pride radiating off people the way I felt it inKenya. These people have all that they know and all that they need (despite needing so many basic life things) They keep their heads held up high, straightest postures I’ve ever seen and the nicest clothes they own they wear the same ones every day with pride dirt and holes in them. The suits, skirts, heals, dresses, uniforms may be older that they are…but they dress up everyday and everywhere they go with their heads held high and the brightest smiles SO, be prideful everyday and hold your head up high regardless of what you may lack in life.

~PEACE…Judith the founds of the orphanage we worked at talked about the corruption of their government leader being a member of the Pokot tribe. He gives no money to the people unless you are Pokot.  No jobs, no assistance, no water help…he keeps it all for his tribal people. She explained that Kenyans could try to “impeach” him or begin fighting/protesting..but she explained that they would rather keep peace than ask for their money and start fighting. They would rather have peace. SO, make peace of situations, it gets you farther than fighting

~FAITH…I really believe that without their faith, religion, trust in whatever ‘powers of above’ they believe in..they would never survive the life they live out there.  I mean these people have bare minimum if even that, some have no water, rarely food, walk miles to get a gallon of dirty water, go without eating, living conditions you couldn’t even imagine would be survivable….and yet they believe in their faith, they entrust in whatever it is above they believe in. They gather for the most beautiful church experience I have ever had the opportunity to experience. They walk for miles to come for a 2 hour service every Sunday filled with love, dancing, singing & prayer.  I truly deep down in my heart feel that if they did not have their faith & beliefs they would never survive.  And they people don’t pray for unnecceary things, they pray for their meals and they sincerely mean it and are grateful for a getting a meal that day. Think about what you pray for, most of it is within our own ability to obtain for ourselves…pray for the tools to help you get there and pray for others.  These people work for everything they have and they work for everything they do and accomplish in life, their faith is what gets them there SO, you have to have faith!

Our life in Turkana

walking to clinic with camels everyday

Working in Lokichar

the clinic

Days in Lokichar consisted of early morning wake up, eat quick and walk to clinic while holding hands with the children that would wait outside of our camp to walk us back and forth.  Our clinic was located in their church building where we would set up a pharmacy every day and we had stations for eye glasses to be given the correct prescription, lab area where we could test for pregnancy, malaria, HIV, urinary tract infections…we also had a triage area where people would wait to see a medical person and have their vital signs taken if needed and would have their name and age along with chief complaint written on paper.  In back we had a private room for more personal problems we encountered and for the very sick people.  Luckily, we had our favorite dentist Gideon who traveled for hours to come spend a few weeks with us and pull teeth!! The lines would be wrapped around the church every single day and we saw over 200 hundred people every single day! Variety of complaints we received…lots of sick children seeing that their infant mortality rate there is over 50% the women with children jumped at a chance for an American to see their child even if there was nothing wrong at all. Many different nomadic people stood in our line and had walked from far distances to see us.  My very last patient on our very last day walked for 2 days with her three children because of a rash they had, which I had grown to learn what scabies looked like, and sure enough they all had it…but we had completely run out of our scabies medicine and I could do nothing for her but send her back home on her 2 day walk :/

One whole day we dedicated to education!! The purpose of Project Helping Hands is not just to go in and medically treat people in third world countries…but their purpose is to give them tools to become their own self sustaining village someday.  So we all put together a seminar including all kinds of education from cleanliness, wound care, safe sex, STD/HIV, pregnancy, childhood illnesses, breast feeding, nutrition, common Turkana diseases and treatments…..they would ask questions, we would give demonstrations and had some hysterical and some very serious conversations that whole day.  The area of Lokichar (with the help of Project Helping Hands) put together what they call “Community Healthcare Workers” – this consists of 50 volunteers with zero medical background let alone even jobs, each dedicates to about 70 people in their area in which they are responsible for checking in.  The day we did our seminar FORTY SEVEN of the the fifty volunteers showed up for the class!!! That is a huge turnout for them … mind you, they were all two hours late (Africa time), BUT what an amazing turnout!! After the day long classes, each person received a copy of this community healthcare handbook that our whole group got donated to us to provide them all with the books! The people LOVED these books and the smiles they had when we gave them their books and personalized certificates of completion were so heartfelt! Made you leave that evening thinking “wow, I really did make a difference today!” and that was such a humbling feeling! They were so eager, and engaged and the best listeners I have ever had—for they knew that we were teaching them would help keep their villages alive!

teaching first aid

books for all workers

all the graduates!!

the adorable elderly

working in the pharmacy for the day

playing duck duck goose with the kids

After long hot clinic days, it was back to our ‘tent home’ where we spend the next 1-2 hours filling jugs with water and then pumping and filtering it twice so that we wouldn’t get sick.  It was a fun task that we all did together while washing our clothes in buckets and just enjoying the smells of Kenya, the children, the animals and the largest sunsets I have ever seen while the full moon rose above us! I mean it really feels like you could reach out and touch the sun and the moon – they seem that HUGE!! We would get ready for dinner and shower in ‘solar showers’ (aka bags full of water with a tiny spout) where we would wear head lamps and bring a partner to watch for scorpions and other disgusting bugs while we showered in the dark under the brightest moon! We would have dinner together cooked by our hosts and every night each one of us would have to say our “HIGH” & “LOW” of the day and just reflect on everything and plan for the next day.  Then we would sit up and talk or head to bed where I would journal and read and stare up out of my tent and a GAZILLION stars and the moon listening to the sounds.  Every night I fell asleep pretty fast (which is amazing for me)…the best nights sleeps I have ever gotten I think. This was because my brain was turned off, for like once in a million years, I was so at ease and felt so peaceful just laying on the rock floor of my tent.  If you had to pee in the middle of the night I would take my headlamp and toilet paper and hold my breath while fighting off cockroaches crawling all over my feet while I did my duties in the tiniest little whole in the ground! But it all began to just feel normal to me after a while and I loved every single second of everything! A couple nights it began to ran early in the morning hours and I would have to wake up and move all my stuff and my tent under a tin roof because my tarp flew away a few days back—so that was fun & I honestly mean it because I didn’t complain about it all…I seriously loved every single second of everything (except some of the food and not pooping for days!)

walking with the kids to clinic everyday

skinny camels and tall Turkana man

our 1 toilet to share that we brought so we didn't have to squat

mine has the blue tarp top! that was my home!

our breakfast and dinner table everyday as a family

pumping to filter our water every afternoon

BACK SWEAT from a long day!

Everyone saw so many patients in the weeks we spent there treating things I never knew about and prescribing medication that I would never have done in America! We saved a babies life – without us having clinic there this baby would have died: Our miracle story was of a mother with newborn twins…she brought them to us because one seemed smaller than the other and not as awake lately.  

first time caring for babies and kids

One look at the family and you could easily see that this poorly nourished mother was doing her best to breast feed her newborn twins but hard to produce milk for two when she could barely keep herself hydrated.  One twin was wide awake, smiling and a chunky little face; while the other was so tiny and dehydrated she couldn’t even produce tears any longer….we were able to begin treating the baby in our clinic with hydration and luckily we had multiple IV antibiotics we could send with the newborn to the hospital.  Money donated was used for this newborn to be transported to the nearest hospital being three hours away & we payed her entire hospital bill when she went home! The physicians in our group were up many nights speaking with the doctors at the hospital regarding the babies condition and telling them which medications were needed based on lab work we demanded to be completed.  We honestly believe without us having clinic that day for the mother to bring her child to, that baby would never have made it.

FIRST pair of sunglasses we gave out!

We gave out many pairs of sunglasses but only to those that had bad scarring and discoloration from the sunlight.  Everyone wanted sunglasses and we just didn’t have enough for thousands! This woman pictured here was our first recipient and boy did she rock those sunglasses like no other!! People that got sunglasses would go outside and be mesmerized showing their families how they worked and letting them try them on! It was adorable!  We diagnosed and treated malaria, TB, scabies, nasty eye infections, worms,  tumors, abcesses (I drained my first abcess!!) all kinds of stuff we did that I never imagined I would ever see or treat!  We turned away people that we knew had terminal cancers or infections that we could not treat, blind children, starving families so malnourished, chronic arthiritic pain in the elder people we would give Tylenol or ibuprofen but only enough for a month or so…. However, I CANNOT and did NOT get down on myself for not ‘doing enough’ because the appreciation and just the presence of an American seeing their loved one meant the world to them & when we would say, “We’re sorry, there is nothing we can do” they honestly believed that everything had been done and if we were unable to help, then nobody can and they smiled and went on their way. All in all we flew over 30,000 miles, drove about 50 hours total, washed clothes in buckets, ate (not much) food that was gross but became some of my favorite items by the end, no cool air/fans for weeks, warm water, driest skin, dirties I have probably every been in my life including the worst stench I am sure, saw over 2000 patients in the time we were there, paying for some people to get to hospitals and paying their bills and also discussed some sad cases as a group that we left funding behind for to get medical attention & I would do it all again in a second!

The community there in Lokichar, they have something I never though existed in a third world country let alone probably even in America.  The respect and love for one another is nothing we would ever understand.  It is jaw dropping amazement how these people survive on seriously NOTHING but they do.  I am not a very religious person, but for the first time I think in my life, I have realized the importance & meaning of ‘having faith’.  I can say with 100% certainty, if these people, with the nothing that they have and the war/unrest that they endure…these people would not survive without their faith.  And what an amazing lesson to learn and to FEEL, that faith is what makes them survive. 

The kindness and appreciation from every single person I came in contact with will stick with me forever –

“ FURAHA YA KWELI” ~ true.personal.happiness

THAT is what these people showed me and that is what I took home with me to make a part of my life.

The journey out into Turkana

our bus and the amazing RIFT VALLEY

The Travels to Turkana:

We had about a 10 hour drive ahead of us to a village of Lokichar. We woke at 5:30 am (which was our usual wake up time for the next leg of this trip) and packed a huge bus with all of our totes and luggage and food that our leaders had bought because out there we would have hardly anything to eat! I noticed these chickens with ropes tied around their ankles attached to large rocks and was confused about this at such an early hour….I later learned these chickens were coming on the bus with us because they would be our source of protein for the next leg! So cocka-doodle-dooin for 10 hours we got to endure! 

At first, we loved the chickens, we named them, held them and let them sleep on our luggage…..however after being awoken at around 4 am the next few mornings by them, we were ready to make them our dinner!! On our drive for 10 hours, all I could do was stare out the window….like the ENTIRE time! We drove thru part of the Great Rift Valley which was absolutely stunning … I think the whole 10 hour drive I barely said many words to anyone just peaceful silence, with my brain turned off driving thru the Kamatira Mountains and Marich & Moroto pass overlooking all of Turkana.  

Camels and monkeys crossing the road thru lush tropical rainforest and around tall mountain ranges with the craziest peaceful feeling I think I may have ever felt in my life.  No book, no phone, no nothing….just me staring out the window and taking it all in.  I had never waved to so many people in my lifetime during that 10 hour drive…they loved seeing our bus drive down their dirt roads and some ran after us just waving and smiling.  

I got a photo of this man in a town called Ibit who had the most stunning blue eyes and as he stared up at me, I just thought ‘ the poverty is unfathomable of what I see here…yet it is more unfathomable how happy and prideful these people are.’  Nobody had a sign like we see homeless here in America asking for money…they just smile and live life! We drove thru hundreds of little towns with store fronts made of tin and hand painted signs. I was mesmerized at how little they had, yet to them it was everything. For example, their ‘hardware store’ consisted of tree branches in varying sizes.  They had “car wash” signs on the side of the roads washing the oldest beat up cars I have ever seen. I mean, imagine poverty on the streets with hundreds of people gathered on the side of the road but dressed in their best torn suits and dresses with no jobs and nothing to do all day but to walk around the streets trying to make a living or afford the most basic life necessities if even that. And for about 10 hours I just stared out the window at this prideful, poverty striken, organized chaotic life of Kenya. 

sewing in his little shop 

I learned a lot about the Pokot tribe during the drive and the tribal/political fighting in Turkana.  I learned about the ‘Displaced Person Camp’ that we passed by.  About 7 years ago the Pokot tribe came to Nairobi (which is a very busy and major city ofKenya) and they kicked out any Turkana people and made them go back to Turkana (which is a very nomadic way of life that many may never had even known). Many of them had never even been to Turkana, or left as children—but because they were “Turkana Tribe” they kicked them all out and back to a nomadic way of life.  They were placed in the government housing because to go from busy city life to nomadic life in Turkana, they would not be able to survive.  How sad is that and what a change of life they were forced into. It was a reality check to realize that what I read about long ago in my history books, actually continues to this day.   

We arrived late that evening to our new “home” for the remainder of the trip.  When we entered Lokichar the children began running towards us from all directions.  They were smiling, waving and all of them yelling “How are you!” with this adorable little African accent that I still hear everyday! Everyone wanted to shake our hands off the bus as if we were the most famous celebrities! We arrived at Charles house (our host while in Lokichar) and it had a beautiful gate with wired fence all around us.  The cement rooms were not finished for our arrival which was why we all brought tents for our bedrooms! We set up our “tent home” camp and enjoyed our first dinner…usual just rice and bread with some sort of meat (that I quit eating after day 3) and cabbage!! I never liked cabbage really ever before in my life but I learned to LOVE it there!! When we arrived after 10 hours of staring out the window and drinking as much of my filtered water as possible to ward off dehydration….my vision was all blurred! I was kind of scared because I could only see things in a huge haze unless I held something right up to my nose! I was frightened that I had caught some death defying illness while on that bus and I would never make it out of Africa again! HA HA!! I guess paranoia had set in also!! I told my team leaders about it and they thought it was just from all the dirt/dust blowing in my eyes for 10 hours and too much water may had diluted my blood stream and my electrolytes were a little off! So, I went to bed and the next day my vision was better but still had some troubles—but eventually my sight came back and I did not die!!  My lips were cracked beyond belief from just the heat and blowing dirt and sun on my face.  Morning breakfasts consisted of hard boiled eggs, coffee, water and sometimes a puff pastry that we would cover in nutella that our team members brought! We had some fruit until it all ran out…I would also get into my luggage and eat a ‘fruit leather’ and a package of Costco cookies every morning and every night! I would share my cookies every day with friends I had made from Lokichar and never having had oreos or lemon cookies—they loved them!!

Our new home Turkana for the rest of the trip

where we slept

where they live