Well what an incredible last 4 days we have had! It took us 14 hours (with armed guards carrying AK47 for 5 hours of the journey in bandit territory!!) from Brackenhurst to get to our final destination – a village called Loglogo. It is not on any map but it is about 30km south of Marsabit in Northern Kenya. The terrain is desert so camping was extremely challenging. We were constantly whipped by the dust & wind & were absolutely filthy. It was 35 during the day and 25 at night. We had no water other than to drink. We definitely perfected the art of the “baby wipe shower”!!
Word got out quite quickly that there were doctors in town. We had 1 Aussie & 2 Kenyan doctors, 2 nurses & a pile of volunteers. The people were mostly Samburu & Rendille. The Samburu wear very colourful beading around their necks, arms & feet – and not much else! It was not OK to take photos most of the time so we will treasure the ones we got!
We set up the first clinic in an abandoned hangar on the “airstrip” – a stretch of dirt with massive rocks removed (& they only have an aircraft land every 3-4 months).
There were 5 stations set up:
- Registration – name, age, etc
- Triage – weight, temp, BP
- Doctors consult
- Spiritual counselling – local pastors sharing the gospel
- Pharmacy – dispensing of medicines
On the first day we saw 200 patients and we were quite happy with that. It was flat out from 9am until 4pm & we would take it in turns to walk back to camp for lunch ( it is disrespectful to eat in front of these people). The next day we only did a half day as we needed to pack up camp & drive to the next village. So we started at 8am & finished at 1pm & managed to see another 300 people – the systems were working well & we were on a roll!
We then hit the dusty, dirty, crazy road again for the next town travelling south – Laisamis. The clinic was set up in the grounds of some place and it had a fence. We were so excited!! We could then better control the crowd and deal with cultural & gender disputes outside! Our translators here were not as good (and very few people spoke Swahili) so we only managed to see 300 on the first day. It was extremely hot, even under a shade canopy & most of us suffered mild heat stroke at the end of the day. We were starting to hallucinate about hot showers by then….
Sadly that night all a tummy bug hit. Our toilet, nicknamed the bat cave, as 3 bats lived in the stinking hole, was not coping with the demand!
By morning there were only 5 left standing so we dragged ourselves to run a dramatically reduced clinic & limited the patients to only 125. The casualties were left back at camp but the tents were too hot to lie in so they were all strewn around the ground on mattresses. It looked like a war zone!! Thankfully it was only a 24 hour bug and most people recovered in a day or so.
The rural medical camp was extremely challenging but unbelievably rewarding. There was so much suffering and sickness. 2 or 3 babies/children where severly ill and/or malnourished. We kept reminding ourselves that long after the medicine is taken, the Word will remain. We will never know what impact our team made (this side of heaven) & so we serve obediently not expecting a return. We were so greatly encouraged by the dedicated pastors & missionaries who are travelling to the ends of the earth to SHOW & TELL of the love of Christ. It makes ones heart burst with joy! It was humbling honour to serve alongside them. That spiritual station at our clinic was BY FAR the most important, and we did all we could every step of the way to love and care for these wonderful people who live a tough existence.
The shower I had when I got back to Nairobi was the best shower EVER & this trip has reminded us yet again of how blessed we are to have smooth roads, running water, flushing toilets, but most of all, the Holy Spirit living within us.
Yesu akupenda! (Jesus loves you).
A Samburu lady waiting patiently in the queue at the free medical clinic
