Hey everyone! As promised, here is the final count for the total number of people seen and treated through the 11 days of clinics of the 2018 mission. We saw a total of 5,823 people in 11 clinic days. This number does not include the 315 people we treated for jiggers, the 181 people who were tested positive for malaria and treated for, the 90 wounds treated, the 405 young girls taught sexual education and given reusable sanitary pads, the 1,559 kids dewormed, and the 411 people given reading glasses. We also did 12 home visits and sent 19 people to the hospital for further treatment. We could not have made this mission possible without the help from our sponsors as well as all of the generous donations from all of you. On behalf of the 2018 CNFA team, we are so thankful and grateful for the support from your donations - you were all just as much a part of this mission!

When the water works hit you like a tonne of bricks. I’m happy to report that I wasn’t the only one crying on the last day of clinics this year. Throughout the day we had a giant game of soccer and frisbee going simultaneously with all of the kids from the school - basically you had to run around dodging a soccer ball and frisbee from hitting you in the head.             Ingrid, Barb, Karen and I dewormed over 100 kids.                     We finished off our mission with a buffet dinner at the Sheywe - with all of our favourite foods from our two weeks stay - the staff knew us well. The night wasn’t complete until Jer Bear sang Hakuna Matata for us. I think it’s safe to say we all left part of our hearts with the people of Kenya - I definitely found mine right where I left it last year. Stay tuned for an update on the total number of people seen and treated in all 11 days of clinics.  

When I say north you say pole! Solomon started off our morning with a prayer where he thanked his friends from “the North Pole.” We had a good laugh to start off our second last day of clinics.               Priscilla went on a hospital transfer with a 7 year old girl who had a broken and dislocated elbow. She had X-rays done, her elbow reduced and placed in a cast.                 Laura, Meaghan, and Becca went with Johnstone to a school and treated 20 kids for jiggers.             Pictured below is the girls latrines that CNFA built for this school in 2014.           Today we saw a total of 559 people, along with a total of 82 jiggers treatments, 2 jiggers home visits, 300 children dewormed, gave 39 pairs of reading glasses, taught 40 young girls about sexual education and gave reusable sanitary pads, sent 2 people to the hospital for further treatment, treated 4 wounds, and out of 36 RDTs for malaria, 15 were positive and treated for.  

Today school was back in session and Laura and Krista dewormed 200 kids and went from classroom to classroom at a school and gave Whitfield’s anti-fungal cream to each child.             Patti went on a hospital transfer with an elderly woman who had fallen and broken her wrist yesterday and needed an X-ray and to be casted. She also transported a baby who needed to be admitted for fluids and rehydration who had a fever and was vomiting. Ingrid went on a hospital transfer with a young 11 year old girl who had arthritis in her hands and a wound that needed I&D (incision and drainage).             We saw a total of 587 people, taught 30 young girls sexual education, sent 3 to the hospital for further treatment, gave out 30 pairs of reading glasses, treated 20 positive out of 51 RDTs for malaria, did 2 home visits and treated 9 wounds.  

Today Gail went on a home visit to follow up with a lady who had thyroid surgery done last week - she is recovering and doing very well thanks to all of our CNFA donors. Priscilla went on a hospital transfer with a 10 month old girl with stridor who was admitted with pneumonia and received nebulizer treatments. Today we saw 613 people, gave 35 pairs of reading glasses, treated 11 wounds, dewormed 82 children, had 11 out of 42 positive RDTs for malaria that were treated, taught 40 young girls about sexual education and gave reusable sanitary pads, treated 26 for jiggers and did a home visit and jiggers treatment. We also sent a total of 3 people to the hospital for further treatment.            

Ingrid, Johnstone, Victor and Sara went on a home visit to assess an elderly woman named Gladys. She had a stroke 5 years ago and has since become very weak and has a lot of pain when trying to ambulate. We provided her with some pain medications as well as taught her some exercises to build some strength. She is a very strong willed lady who is determined to be mobile again.                 Karen and Krista went on a hospital transfer with 3 patients - a baby with bilateral pneumonia and two young men who were in motor cycle accidents. One had a fractured elbow and wrist with a severe wound and swelling across his arm and hand and the other had a broken leg that was originally repaired by external fixation 3 months ago but hadn’t been set properly. He had also developed a wound on his leg. All three patients were admitted and their treatments paid for by CNFA. Pictured below is the one man’s X-ray of his arm where you can see how much swelling there was.

As today was Saturday, it was a shorter day for our clinic. We treated a total of 407 people in about 5 hours.               Lynn and Jane fitting a young barefoot boy with some shoes that grow. Today, 25 young girls were taught sexual education and given reusable sanitary pads, 38 children were dewormed, 4 wounds were treated, one patient was taken to the hospital, out of 45 RDTs, 23 were positive for malaria and were treated for, and 31 people were treated for jiggers.

Our fifth day of clinics at Kigama has been the busiest one so far with a total of 657 people seen. 35 pairs of reading glasses were given, 40 young girls were taught sexual education, 30 people were treated for jiggers, 69 children were dewormed, 13 wounds were treated and out of 44 RDTs, 20 were positive for malaria.                 This is Ernest from one of our clinics last year who had a fractured humerus and CNFA funded his surgery to repair it. He came by to show us that he’s doing very well and going to physiotherapy. Meaghan went on a hospital transfer with a man who was diagnosed with a UTI. She also was able to transfer back home the man who had suspected TB which turned out to be pneumonia and was treated with antibiotics. He was very grateful for CNFA for helping him.                 Meet Elinah. She is a lovely 59 year old woman who has needed numerous amputations for an unknown disease that effects her limbs. She came to us with a wound on her hand that was open right to the bone and tendons. We…

                If you’re asking what this picture is about I’ll tell you. Normally we leave at 7am for clinic but this morning Lynn came running out of her room at 7:05am in her pyjamas in full blown panic mode yelling “I JUST WOKE UP!! I JUST WOKE UP!!” Not pictured is her tripping over barbed wire and falling onto the grass right after this. After playing a solid game of soccer with some kids, my pants decided to split right down the middle but thankfully an African lady named Mary came to my rescue to sew them up. It’s safe to say that Lynn and I were not off to a good start today.                 Karen watched some RDTs (rapid diagnostic tests) for malaria being done by our Kenyan nurses. A small amount of blood is collected like a glucometer and it only takes about 5 minutes for the result to come back. Out of the 36 tested today, 15 were positive.               Our fearless leader Gail with our Kenyan nurses, Brenda, Winnie, Jane, Sarah, Rosaline and Victor. We had a total of 506 people…

Barb and Patti did a home visit with Johnson and treated a family of 5 for jiggers. Jiggers is a type of sand flea here in certain parts of Kenya that gets under the toenails and fingernails and can cause severe deformity and infection if left untreated. They sprayed the entire home and had each member of the family soak their hands and feet in a potassium permanganate solution for anywhere from 15 to 45 minutes, depending on the severity of the infestation.                 Ingrid went on a hospital transfer with a very sick 46 year old man who presented with shortness of breath and a cough and ended up having TB and malaria. When she arrived at the hospital she was shocked at how the man wasn’t placed under airborne precautions. He ended up being admitted and we had to purchase his own personal utensils and medications for him while in hospital.                 At today’s clinic we treated a total of 523 people, taught sexual health to 45 young girls, had 11 out of 49 positive malaria cases that were treated, gave out 46 pairs of reading glasses, dewormed 46…

Lynn, Krista and our Kenyan nurse Sarah gave quite the laugh to 30 young girls while teaching sexual health and handing out reusable sanitary pads.                 Becca had the opportunity to go to the hospital with a young 13 year old boy who fell out of a tree and broke both of his arms three weeks ago. He came to us to be treated and we sent him to the hospital to have both arms x-rayed, manipulated and placed in casts.                             Ingrid learned how to deworm children by providing them with albendazole medication and making sure they took each pill right away.                 We finished the day off with a long walk from the clinic down a dirt road, walking with the locals while kids were yelling “mzungus!” (White people). We treated a total of 542 people, gave out 39 reading glasses, did 16 jiggers treatments and gave out 4 jiggers shoes, taught sexual health to 35 young girls, sent one young boy to the hospital and paid for his treatments, treated 5 wounds, and dewormed 152…

Day one of clinics started off in true Kenyan time - pole pole (slowly slowly) as they say in Swahili. Because of the upcoming election, it was around 930am by the time we opened the clinic. We packed 18 of us plus medications into the 12 passenger matatu and made our way to a small village. Of course Solomon was there bright and early, riding in on his motorcycle eager to greet us.           Our clinical officers in their CNFA white coats. Becca had her first experience with going to the bathroom in a hole in the ground in a tiny shed that locked from the outside - interesting to say the least. But if the cows mooing in behind didn’t get her bowels fired up, I don’t know what would. Laura, Krista and Karen learned how to deworm children and had a good game of ring around the rosie going.               Although a slower than usual start to the day, we treated a total of 425 people, taught 30 young girls about sexual health, treated 9 wounds, dewormed 161 children, sent 1 baby with stridor to the hospital and out of 22 Rapid Diagnostic…

            The roadie to Kisumu started off in luxury - Jeff and Jerry picked us up at the Sheywe in the shiniest matatu we’d ever seen, complete with a flat screen tv and surround sound. However that quickly turned into something out of a nightmare for the car sick girls not being able to see anything out the front window because their vision was obscured by some African ladies dancing in a music video on the big screen. With Patti basically needing to stick her head out the window for the ride, Krista’s low key voice of panic said what we were all thinking “is this tv going to be on the entire time? I feel like we’ve been kidnapped.” Meaghan, Laura and I were mildly concussed in the back seat from banging our heads on the roof with every bump we hit. Both of them discreetly saying “I’m now realizing I’m not wearing enough support for this.”             After picking up the boxes and boxes of medications at the local chemist, we made a quick stop at the Maasai Market to try and bargain for some souvenirs. Back at the Sheywe we sorted out…