Our day began with a special Canadian celebration of Michael
Nash’s birthday. He wore the pretty pink princess birthday crown as Kenyans and
Canadians alike sang Happy birthday. The
group made its way to the Shiru clinic, at which time Andi, Jenn, Nash, Eric P,
Kristin and Kevin headed off to the day’s outreach clinic in Cheptulu.
Compared to the first outreach clinic, Cheptulu was relatively
tame. It was set up in a small church,
with Jenn and Andi having their “examination rooms” in the front behind the
altar. Many patients suffered from a
host of conditions untreated for years, so it is hoped our Canadian medical
advice was able to provide them with some relief. There were a few surprises, but most of the
day was spent prescribing medications for such things as malaria, heartburn,
arthritis, various infections and malnutrition.
One of the patients was recruited as a Swahili translator and proved
invaluable. He was more than happy to
assist us, claiming we were there to save them.
Spending his day translating was, he said, the most he could do to repay
us. It was obvious the community was
incredibly grateful for our assistance and, together with the Kenyan medical
staff, we treated close to 200 people.
Although the contractor said no work would be done today as
the concrete footings were fresh and needed time to cure, on arrival we found
masons in the trenches. They were using
water levels to judge heights and were preparing to lay the first line of
bricks. As those not at outreach has
planned for a day off, we headed off for a factory tour of Mudete Tea.
Mudete is a firm that reputedly grows the best tea in
Western Kenya. Since tea is such an
important industry (Kenya is the world’s third largest tea producer) we were
unable to take photos of the plant’s interior, but we were able to take photos
of ourselves dressed in lab coats and white Mudete baseball hats. We saw the entire tea making process from tealeaf
sprout to teakettle spout.
After the tour some of us boarded public transportation back
to the clinic and had a chance to experience some of the local culture. Daniel sat beside a female farmer with a
basket on her lap. When it clucked he discovered
it contained a live chicken.
After our tour at the tea factory, many of us purchased bulk
tea at the factory store (factory window is actually a better description). As transportation is always tight we split
into two groups for lunch. Half the
group ate a restaurant where they tried chapatti with scrambled eggs. The other
half of the scouts returned to the clinic for a regular Kenyan lunch of beans,
potatoes and warm cabbage, then moved to a nearby public school for an epic
game of football (soccer). The results
were a predictable loss with a score of 3:1 for Kenya.
By Krysta and Jamie (with further smart comments by Hannes)
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