Today was my day for teaching the staff at Dreamland hospital.

Day Six

Today was my day for teaching the staff at Dreamland hospital. I arrived at the hospital at about 10am and the staff slowly assembled for the diabetes seminar. The clinical officer was away for the day as he had a previous meeting at the district hospital. Margaret was therefore Dr and pharmacist for the day so she wasn’t able to attend the whole day’s seminar but she joined in as much as possible. The sessions were very interactive which is the way we teach patients in the UK and I followed a similar format so the staff would be able to repeat the teaching in the future with diabetic patients and new members of staff. All the teaching materials will be left here for their use and the sessions are also recorded as presentations on a memory stick which I will also leave here as a resource. When we covered the session on blood glucose monitoring I demonstrated the use of the glucose meter by pricking my own finger and testing my blood. The staff were then given a chance to use the meter themselves with bottles of control solution. However they all wanted to find out their own blood sugars and were gaily stabbing their own fingers to obtain blood samples. Several had low blood sugars and when asked if they had eaten breakfast they confessed that they had not. So we took a break for some sweet tea!!! One tested his blood sugar after the break and it had risen from 3.9 to 5.3!! Proof that a sweet drink is good treatment for a low blood sugar! We continued until lunchtime when Margaret asked me to see a 60 year old lady who she suspected may have diabetes. She had come to the hospital with a history of all the classic symptoms which I had been describing in the morning session. I met her and tested her blood and indeed her blood sugar was very high! She was admitted for intravenous fluids and to start medication and monitoring. The afternoon sessions covered treatments of diabetes and finished with some information about insulins which they will be able to use when they have a fridge to store it! The seminars were well received and the staff all thanked me for taking the time to give them so much information.

Meanwhile back at the building site: We arrived to see the basic structure of the house complete and the roof was beginning to be constructed. The doors and windows also had to be put in place today, while Khafwafwa was still around to help. Much of this work was carried out by the men as they seem to think women cant handle a hammer and nail; ever determined to undermine a stereotype I set to work sawing off a piece of wood that still needed to be neatened up… it took a good half an hour and much gafawing from all the men present, I claim I was att an awkward angle and at least I wasn’t as bad as Matthew the previous day. For the rest of the morning I decided to settle for some more traditional work; I busied myself by caring for the young baby, feeding and getting him off to sleep…he was adorable! However, after accusations of ‘slacker’ started being thrown around I got back to work hammering the fitos (the horizontal wooden frames that hold the mud together) to the main frame, again I had an audience of men desperate to get the hammer away from the female, but I was a little better at this than the sawing. The day ended with some more digging of mud and mixing it with the water ready for the following day when the mudding would begin! But just as we were ready to leave Dominic got a phone call from someone from the mission, a lady living close by was very ill and needed to be taken to hospital,; obviously we jumped at the chance to help…but there was a problem. The road to the house was long and would use lots of petrol, so the wise men decided to drive our landrover across the pedestrian path to get there. The gap leading from the road to the path was barely a metre wide with a deep ditch on either side.After much discussion between the men and revving of the engine, the men filled the ditch with the trunks from the maize and our driver Elliott quite literally went for it. Amazingly he got through unscathed and we got the lady, who had diabetes, safely to hospital. Another day was over!

Day Seven

The day of the mudding…we had two days to mud the whole house, inside and out. We were ready! When we arrived the men and women from the community were already getting started, so we set to work quickly. Matthew and I set about getting a large pile of mud into balls and then piled into a wall. The Fitos give the wall some structure so it doesn’t all just collapse into a mound. We were working hard,I made the mud into balls and Matthew formed the wall..we were determined not to have a break untilthe whole mound was gone. After a fair while we were done but as fast as we worked more piles of mud appeared so we carried on working, and the local community were working so hard as well. The mudding is considered more of a womens job though the men give it a go sometimes. The women there are so hard working, I honestly think without them the community may fall apart! The men have a tendency to stand around discussing the job that only one of them is actually doing! By about 4 in the afternoon we were way over half way up the whole way round and we were really pleased with the progress and the community for all chipping in. We had Supper all together, some beef and ugali (this is the national dough like dish made from maize flour) I have to say ugali wasn’t really for me but the other local dishes were wonderful…again the women had surpassed themselves. We went home that evening feeling very happy with ourselves and expecting an easy last day of work. We had dinner over at Paul an Pat’s that evening, we ate Sukuma (spinachy dish) and cooked banana with peanut sauce…it was yummy!

Ruth’s 7^TH Day: I had arranged with Judith to accompany her to one of the community units in Nassoussi. She and Tatwa were hoping to meet with some of the community leaders to discuss plans for transformation in this area. The section which interested me was obviously the health issues which were very basic concerns of clean water and sanitation in each area. The day started as all days in Kenya with a late departure from HQ! I was learning that things never happen at the time arranged! When we arrived there was already quite a group assembled I didn’t realise that many more had been expected. The proceedings were held in a church building and started with Tatwa addressing the group. It was all in Swahili so I wasn’t very sure what was being discussed. I was asked to give a short talk about diabetes. Just to help people identify symptoms and when it was an urgent case which needed hospitalisation. One of the community group was my translator. I kept the talk short and simple in the hope that they would all take away some message from it. The more people who have some understanding of the disease the more the knowledge will spread and myths and old beliefs will be dispelled. I gave some general advice on diet and lifestyle changes which Tatwa told me the next day were well received by a couple of the people he spoke to. One lady recognised that her husband had some of the symptoms and was determined to improve his diet!!! As many people had not attended it was decided not to continue with the teaching about transformation plans but to invite the leaders to another meeting the next day in a nearby unit. There was then a period of worship and bible study. Then a short talk from a teacher who had come from the polytechnic nearby. At the end of his talk he asked if any of the young people present would like to go and study for a qualification at the polytechnic. Three young people volunteered and a collection was made to help towards the cost of their education. Bernard, who was leading the worship, asked me to give them a few words of encouragement which I was happy to do! They asked me to pray with them and I did my best to use the right words. I’m not an expert in this area!! Soon after the meeting broke up and we returned to Kimilili. I asked Tatwa to drop me off in town so I could go to the supermarket for a few goodies! Crisps, chocolate etc ( I don’t follow the health advice I give to others!!!) After shopping I set off on foot for the guesthouse but the weather clouded over and I realised it was about to pour with rain. I hailed a passing boda driver and asked him to get me back before the rain. He did a very good job and by the time I reached the gate the rain was just beginning in ernest. The walk from the gate to the door was enough to soak me to the skin. My skirt and top were dripping and I had a shower to warm up!!!

Day Eight

Our last day of building and we arrived in high spirits, Leonard the man in charge of Relief and Welfare for the time being came along with us as well. The work should not have taken very long but sadly due to the rubbish weather not many of the locals came to help out with the last of the work. We set about getting it all finished anyway, we had to finishing mudding up to the roof and fixing in the fetos and mudding the interior wall of the house, we also had to add the ridges to the roof so it would be watertight. The mudding outside didn’t take too long, but it was a bit treacherous as it was the high bits that had been left over, the ladder wasn’t the most stirdy thing I had ever stood on, but we got it done without any serious injury. The inside wasn’t so easy however, the mud was very wet today, I think it had rained in the night and it wouldn;’t hold any form, just went into a blob. So we worked on building the wall but it would just sort of crumple down and fall into a blob on the floor. I got blamed for shoddy workmanship, but after Matthew tried and failed we put it down to the materials… Just as the roof was finished the heavens opened and the rain came down, luckily we just carried on working on the inside and after not too long the interior wall was half way done. Just as we were sitting down for some food under the shelter of our newly built house a hole opened in the side of the house, the mud had fallen in… again it was my workmanship that was blamed but this time it really was not me; I hadn’t worked on that bit of the wall! We fixed things up and got the house ready for the handover the next day. We took a few photos of the family and got in the car. The journey home was probably the highlight of an already funny day. The roads here are terrible, most are unmade up and in the rain they just turn to rivers. Elliott our driver is brilliant and got us most of the way safely, until my dad phoned that is. We were going down a particularly muddy road and just as I answered the phone we slipped 90 degrees round and into the ditch by the side of the road. I squealed and then giggled down the phone and continued to as the car slid around as Elliott tried to get us out of our predicament! I hung up to get out of the car but chose to let the men slide around in the mud trying to get the car free of it. It took a good half an hour and again it was the maize trunks that saved the day..that and a little digging from Elliott. Matthew got a mouthful of mud and everyone was pretty splattered but the car was out and we were on our way home! Another eventful day was over.