Charleston to Kenya - Part 3

The third morning we had our official meeting with the hospital board. We fully intended to learn what they were doing and see how our hospital could develop a continuing relationship with them. Happily they were prepared and had a carefully thought out plan describing what they were doing and where they wanted to go. I explained that I wanted more pictures to take to our hospital and that they should show me even the things they weren't most proud of.

They did. We started with the patient latrine (whew) and then climbed the hill to the nurse's quarters. I was most impressed that the hospital had it's own farm and the nurses had a garden as well. Nurses were out working in the farm on their time off.

We left the hospital with many hugs and well wishes as well as a formal prayer.

After lunch in Eldoret we visited two other hospitals. These were pretty tough to see. We drove up to the Endebess Hospital and were greeted by an attractive young doctor who had recently been posted there. This gal had her hands full and I was most impressed with her. Their biggest issues were malaria, HIV and dysentery and water borne diseases. They looked puzzled when we asked about our usual issues of heart, diabetes, stroke and cancer. These were not their day to day concerns at all. People had a high fiber diet, got lots of exercise and ate lean meat.

At the time we toured she had 33 patients in a 28 bed hospital. Some cots had patients doubled up and she had a few beds tucked in the storage room. Although most women delivered at home she showed us the delivery room and whispered how nice it would be to have some suction, a simple bulb syringe or laryngoscope to suction meconium like she had had during her training.

The next hospital in Saboti was even harder to see. These folks were trying to run an inpatient facility without electricity or running water. After they used up the rain water in their tank they had to pay for containers of water carried from 3 kilometers away. I'll admit it was the first time I had seen a propane powered refrigeration unit, gas heated autoclave or manually spun lab centrifuge. Half of the beds didn't even have sheets on them. They had one broken delivery table without a mattress pad on it. Wow. Yet, the number of patients they were providing community health and prevention education to was incredible. I kept thinking of the simplest things I could do that would help so much.

We were able to walk through a local market on our route this day which seemed to consist mostly of used American clothes. Once again everyone got a big kick out of seeing themselves in the camera.