Sub-Saharan meets West

For the past few weeks, I have had the opportunity to work in the OPD (outpatient department) dressing room which means wounds, wounds, and more wounds.  These aren’t your everyday scrapes and scratches, these are gangrenous, pus filled, and fowl smelling wounds and abscesses (sorry for the vivid description).  I often find myself asking “why did you wait so long before coming to the hospital?”  But coming to the hospital is often a last resort for many of the patients. 

Traditional medicine is often practiced by many and it includes taking herbs or even a visit to a witch doctor.  Illnesses are sometimes believed to be caused by witchcraft.  So once these preliminary measures have not worked, then the patients come to the hospital.

I took care of a young girl in the surgical ward named Sonia who was brought in by her father.  She was bitten by a dog.  As I was washing and dressing the wound I noticed she had a hanker chief wrapped around her left wrist.  I learned she had fractured her arm a few weeks before and was taken to the traditional healer for that injury.  I couldn’t help but think, wow, I flew half way around the world for treatment because my arm was fractured and Sonia was not even taken to the hospital.  This is just one of many situations that have been difficult for me to wrap my head around.

I also want to share with you the story of Elly or as he was known for the first few weeks of his life baby Faith.  The babies are called by the mother’s name until a name is decided upon.  Faith, his mother, is a 21 year old with stage 4 HIV who was in the surgical ward for many weeks due to her c-section incision not healing.  Faith was married but abandoned by her husband so her grandmother was at her bedside taking care of her and Elly. Faith was so sick and therefore was unable to produce enough breast milk.  The nurses and I tried encouraging her to breast feed more often, we helped her with expressing the breast milk but there was just not enough.   The guidelines for PMTCT are 6 months of strictly breastfeeding or formula which is very expensive.  We learned that the grandmother was giving sugar water out of pure desperation because the baby was crying all day. At 6 weeks he had only gained 80 grams.   Every time I walked into Faith’s room, Elly would stare at me with his big brown eyes and each cry was like “I am starving!!!”  I just couldn’t let it continue so I helped arrange for Elly to get formula for the next few months.  That was definitely the western way of remedying the situation and I realize there are many babies like Elly in similar circumstances but I had to help him.  Elly was gaining weight when he and Faith were discharged.  This past week we found out the results of Elly’s first HIV test and it’s negative, he needs 2 more until we know for sure he will remain HIV negative.  Just hoping and praying for his future!

Bad Things Happen

I have been in Kenya 3 months so that means it was time to renew my visa.  I left for Nairobi this past Monday with Dr. Tum, a volunteer who was returning to Thailand and Fr. Emilio. On Tuesday, Tum and I went to the Masai Market at Westlands, the bank, and then we had dinner at Fr. Emilio’s friends house.  I discovered that the house had a gate, a security system, a guard, and something called the “gateway to heaven” which is a steal door at the end of the staircase that is locked each night to protect against armed thieves.  I thought, wow – how scary.  Little did I know that it was a foreshadowing of the next day’s events. 

The following morning I renewed my visa at the immigration office which involved some paperwork, waiting in a few lines, 2200 Ksh, getting finger printed with black ink (that was a first – just like a prisoner – the irony).  I was happy it went relatively stress free. After lunch, I went to the ATM to remove money for Kayla’s Jigger Eradication Project.  Normally, I would not have agreed to take money out of someone else’s account but getting to a bank from Karungu is difficult and everyone in this area deals in cash. Kayla also wanted to avoid using public transportation while carrying a large sum of money.  So after going to the ATM, we walked to the car, and drove to pick up some linen and mosquito nets for the hospital.  Then, as we were on the way to the next place, stopped in traffic, a man came up to my window (I was in the backseat on the passenger side) which was unfortunately down and tried to take my camera from my hand.  I pulled the camera away and closed the window (I had just locked my door about 1 minute before – thank God).  While I was dealing with this man on the left, another man came around to the other side of the car, opened the door, and stole my purse!!!  My passport, money (I had also gotten out money to pay school fees for a friend), Kayla’s project money (1/8 of her budget, basically – a lot), credit & debit cards, and my cell phone were all gone within a matter of seconds.  What a terrible, scary, horrible feeling.   Then we went to the police station to report it and I didn’t report the whole amount of cash that was stolen.  Corruption in Kenya is widespread (if you know what I mean).  It is very sad, especially for the good and honest people living here – who do you turn to?

I turned to my parents who I have to thank for helping cancel my credit/bank cards and being there for me once again!  I am so sorry for making my friends and family worry.  I am okay now.  Since it happened I have played the scenario over and over in my head and have thought about the million “what ifs.”  But I have to be grateful to God that I was not injured.  This is just one of the many lessons that Africa has taught me – things don’t matter and to be grateful for every minute you have on this earth.

So that night, we took Tum to the airport but before he left he told me that in Thai culture that if something bad happens something good will come of it and then gave me $194 for Kayla’s Jigger Project.  If you also want to continue the goodness and donate to the Jigger’s Eradication Project, you can do so by writing a check to St. Mark’s Mission (in the memo, write:  “Kayla in Kenya”). You can mail the check to

St. Marks Catholic Church

c/o Hilda Beck

3736 S. Lee’s Summit Rd.

Independence, MO 64055

The following day, I went to the US Embassy and applied for a new passport and then made the trip back to Karungu.  Even though, such an ugly thing happened, there have been many beautiful things these last two days: the sunset over the lake, the children’s welcome back drawings & smiling faces, a card from my mom that said, “Don’t get discouraged – persevere – you can do anything!”  When I turned on my new phone which is actually Lauren’s old phone, the display reads “don’t give up, you are loved.”  That was definitely meant to be!