Meanwhile I was back at Dreamland hospital

Meanwhile I was back at Dreamland hospital to see some patients with diabetes. The day started late as usual with only 4 patients present some with a relative. I needed a translator as their English was not so good. The doctor translated until he was called away and then Margaret took over. The patients took part telling their stories of how they first found out they had diabetes and what symptoms they had. We collected quite a list on the board. I then explained what was happening in their bodies and why they felt the way they did. We then went on to the complications and how to prevent these. The director’s father joined us towards the end as he had travelled a long way. I saw him individually and discussed with him what he had missed and tested his blood glucose. He was managing very well and was following a good diet and had lost weight so he would be a good ambassador for the treatments. I got caught by very heavy rain again and the road was a river of mud. The school bus had moved to the crossroads for safety so when I left I slithered up the mudslide to the bus for my lift back to base. The temperature had definitely dropped and I wished I had taken a cardie!

Day Nine

Today was the day of the handover of the house to the family. It was to be a day of celebration and singing. We arrived around 11 to find the family singing and dancing with the local community. The plan was to have some introductions and a few words from each of the area leaders, Chief and for Dominic, who was in charge of the local area to speak to the local community about the IcFem mission; Tatwa had also come along to say a few words as this was the area that he had come from. The day went brilliantly, all the speakers were received well and the people seemed interested in what was being said, Tatwa in particular got many laughs and agreement from the crowd. Their was also a choir who sang a few songs and danced intermittently, I think it was to get people off their bums every now and again…we were sitting listening for a good couple of hours. After the talking was over the family were given some time to express their feelings about the work, the mum said a few kind words expressing how they had felt worried when the rain was coming and how before she joined the fellowship she had felt low but now she felt happy and a part of something good; it was really encouraging to hear. The surprise came when the youngest daughter got up to speak, she told a funny story about how she used to worry that the roof of their old house would fall on them but now she was happy that they had a real house, she was so eloquent…she has been to school whereas the older ones haven’t been. The family where then given blessings by the community, gifts of clothes and shoes while the mission gave them two mattresses and blankets. We were really pleased to see how much was offered to them and see the happiness on the families faces. Then it was time to open the house, Mum and I were asked to do this so we cut the little piece of string across the door and opened the house up for the family! It was a good moment to see all the hard work pay off. We ate another good meal supplied by the local women and then decided it was time to leave the family with their new home. Just as we were leaving Matthew and I were presented with a chicken as a thank-you for our work...it was for our dinner…it was alive! When we got back I refused to let Matthew kill the chicken, especially after she laid an egg for us! So we named her Esmeralda and Matthew promises to look after her when I leave, if I find out she has been eaten there will be trouble…first plane back to Kenya!! We had a quiet evening in as we were tired from the day and the electricity board had been over to the Guesthouse compound saying that the bills had not been paid so turned off all the electricity, no lights, hot water or TV!

Day Nine

Still with no electricity we got ready for our visit to Bungoma, a town about an hour away, cold showers all round! We wanted to see a bit more of the local culture, and Bungoma was supposed to be quite lively and we wanted to get some food from the market for the curry we planned to cook on Sunday. We took the Matatu into town and spent the day wondering around and getting some food. We went to a nice food place that Matthew knew was ok (you have to be careful where you get food here) and they even have pool tables so we played a few games, though Matthew proved irritatingly good. It was nice to be somewhere different and a little bigger than Kimilili, Matthew said he often takes visitors here to see a bigger place; it seemed a little better off as well…cleaner and such. When we got back…the electricity was back on!!! Luckily there had just been a mistake with the payment so we got to have warm showers and relax watching a DVD that evening.

Day Ten

Our last full day in Kimilili, it felt like the 12 days had gone so fast and we couldn’t believe we would have to be packing up and heading home the following day! Mum had a lazy morning while Matthew and I went back to pefa to do the Sunday School again, we had a couple of exciting things planned and we were looking forward to working with the children. Again I was so impressed by their confidence in faith and good Bible knowledge; one girl got up and recited in order all the books in the Bible, a year of Theology study at University and I cannot do that! We had a Scripture study planned for them to do in groups to start with and then present back to each other, they did this well and were interested in what there was to learn. When we had finished this the allotted time was over but the children said they wanted to stay on and do our other, more exciting, activity. We had chosen 4 accounts from Jesus’ life for the children to act out in groups to each other, and we had found various props and had ideas about how they could be performed. They were split into 4 groups, 2 each, and we spent 30-45 mins rehearsing, people were assigned to be the characters and they all got involved even the little ones. When they performed them to each other it was great and hopefully now they will find it easier to remember the accounts. The last one to be performed was the Feeding of the 5 Thousand, so each child got some ‘food’ (a lollipop). And that was the end, we all said good bye and I was quite sad to know I wouldn’t be back again to see them, not soon anyway! When we got back Matthew, Mum and I set about preparing our curry and spent the day doing this, when in the evening it came to the eating it was great! So yummy! We had even made a chocolate biscuit cake for pudding and we were joined by some of the staff who had been looking after us for the last couple of weeks, so it was a nice good-bye meal.

Day Eleven

We were asked by Tatwa to give a short talk to the HQ staff about what we had been doing during our stay. Kathryn talked about the school visits and her house building with some photographs supplied by Matthew in a short presentation. I then filled in the gaps with my recollections and an account of my time teaching diabetes and at dreamland hospital. I then did a presentation for the staff about diabetes so they can pass this knowledge on to people they meet in the community units. I have left some leaflets as reference materials for photocopying. I also had a chat with Esther who does the cooking here about the fat, sugar and salt content of the food. The diet would be healthy if the rice, greens and beans were not cooked in so much fat with added salt, and the sweet tea is almost unpalatable to our tastes. It is served pre-sweetened so there is no chance to have a less sweet version.

Time to thank everyone and say good-bye, we leave this afternoon for Kitale to fly to Nairobi. One night there and an early flight tomorrow back to the UK. It has been a wonderful experience but I have to admit to missing some of my home comforts and finding the mud gets into and onto everything!!!.... Thanks to Matthew for looking after us so well and playing endless games of Yatzee in the evenings even by candlelight, also thanks for his supply of DVDs when we had power to watch them. He has terrible taste in films though!!!

Time to upload!