Kenya Part 5: School, Hospital & Nairobi

While in Kenya, I also did some work at a school called PCEA Rengata Learning Center.  Dr. Salvador (my colleague mentioned in an earlier post) donated a school to an area that suffers from extreme poverty.  Many of their families cannot provide more than one meal at home each day, so they receive meals at school.  With their donated uniforms and clothes, you wouldn't know that the students are impoverished.  But even without those gifts, their happiness outshines their humble circumstances.  They are grateful for the blessing it is to be at school and to be healthy and for all of the simple things that we take for granted.

I love the "Quote of the Week" hanging on the exterior of the school wall, "There is light at the end of the tunnel."  What an appropriate quote for these children who look forward to a brighter future.  Ironically, you'll notice how dark the inside of the classroom is because they cannot afford to have electricity.

I wish I could post more of the beautiful faces full of light that I met, but here is a sample....

If you notice winter hats and warm clothes in these photos, that's because it was a frigid 80 degrees outside. That's right, I was warm and other people were cold.  That never happens.  But I admit, it is one of the reasons that I love Africa - I am not the only cold one in the room on a sunny day.  The children were bundled in all of the clothes they owned, including ski caps and warm coats (who knew there was a market for those on the equator?) and I was warm in short sleeves.  

While I was with the school children, Jason was busy operating.  He learned a lot (and hopefully taught a little) in a completely different system.  I admit, I was a little worried about how he would do working at a hospital in a developing country.  At his hospital in the States, there is nothing that bothers him more than inefficiency and things are not exactly defined as efficient at any hospital I have ever been to in Africa.  But, he adjusted the moment we stepped foot on the grounds and didn't complain once.  Husband Africa Test #3: Have patience, patience, patience and undertand that all relationships take priority over work.  He passed all three Africa tests with flying colors.  I love that man!!  (Jason.  Not the man in the photo below.  Although I am sure he is a great person, too.)

I would share more of Jason's photos, but I sent him with a camera one day and he came back with four photos, none of which included him.  I will share two random stories about Kikuyu Hospital to give you an idea of what he was working with:

• Jason saw a lot of bizarre old injuries because people do not have access to medicine and therefore take too long to seek help.  In Kenya, there are 7,143 patients for every one doctor, with most of those doctors located in Nairobi.  (In the US, there are 390 patients for every one doctor.)  One man came in for a leg that was injured 50 years ago and has been draining the entire time.  He had to have it amputated, but he was happy to finally be pain free (even though he talked about his missing leg still itching).
• The hospital has a rule that you cannot leave until you pay your bill.  Even with the cost of care highly subsidized by the church who founded it and organizations like CMMB who support it, some people just don't have a penny to pay.  If they can't leave, they can't earn money to pay the bill and if they can't pay the bill they can't leave.  So there are people who end up living there for months and sometimes years following their treatment.

Our last day, we left the hospital where we were staying, and headed into Nairobi for the last time.  Due to some unavoidable (and completely unnecessary) delays, we missed our chance at the David Sheldrick Elephant & Rhino Orphanage that apparently is a must-see.  We then had extra time before our flight home, so we did some touristy things in the city.  

We went to the Nairobi Animal Orphanage (basically a zoo), which was rather anticlimactic after our fresh experience in the wild.  To the school groups on field trips, we were a main attraction.  We heard "mzungu! mzungu!" (white person! white person!) everywhere we walked.  At one point, two girls came up and asked if they could have a picture with me, pointing at my camera.  I told them, "Sure," thinking they wanted to see what they looked like in the view finder afterward.  Then one girl asked, "How much?"  Hmmm.... Were we paying her or was she paying us??  Awkward.  Then she started to reach into her pocket for some money to answer the look of bewilderment on my face.  I explained that she didn't have to pay us.  I am still not sure what really happened there, but at least I got this free photo!

We saw more interesting animals roaming outside the zoo than inside the zoo:

We also went to Bomas of Kenya, which is cultural center.  They had a show with many tribal dances and had examples of different tribal huts, but we still preferred the indigenous people and huts that we had just returned from.  What was entertaining was an acrobatic show that one group put on.  The photo below is of a man who just did the limbo under a burning stick, the height of the two small water bottles holding it up.  His pants were literally on fire afterward, but he made it!  Jason would work on that one at home, but his chest is wider than a water bottle, which poses a slight problem.  Otherwise, he and his flexible self would be up there performing with them.

The only friends I seem to consistently bring home with me from Africa are my parasite friends, who made sure I suffered just about as much as if I had brought my two children on the flight home with me.  If I ate even as much as a peanut, I would get horribly sick, so I ate nothing for the entire 30+ hours of commuting home.  Never before has airplane cuisine smelled so tempting....

We eventually made it home to our excited children, who had spent one week with my mom and one week with Jason's parents.  (We LOVE you, grandparents!!!)  The kids had such a great time without us that they shed tears when we left the grandparents behind.  But we missed them and they seemed happy to be with us again, so we'll count it as a bonding experience for all involved.

We still miss the children of Kenya, but we plan to return again and look forward to that day.