Greetings to all of you in Canada and thank you for your support while we are here. This past Saturday, I had the privilege of doing a home visit to a patient unable to come to the clinic. This gentleman is 50 years old and suffered a stroke due to HTN. Hypertension is endemic in this population and at very young ages. To visit, we walked approximately four kilometres through the county side of this densely populated area. Every inch of land is used for crops or grazing animals.

We arrived at a typical mud hut that serves as home to find the patient propped up on the floor. His existence since the stroke is lying in the hut or on the grass outside, depending where his family carries him.

He was a subsistence farmer and the work has fallen to his wife and young sons. Childhood is brief here. Along with Sarah, the Kenyan nurse accompanying me, we devised a plan to provide his hypertensive medication. More importantly, we will work through a local organisation to provide him with a wheelchair. Hopefully, we will at least be able to improve the quality of life for this man and his family. I am continuously overwhelmed by the suffering and need of this country.

Gail