Now that we have had our day off, it is time to get back to work. We travelled to the area of Chavakali, which is near Evojo School. This is one of the first schools we ever visited to deworm children and its needs have always been a part of our hearts.

The clinic was very successful and we treated nearly everyone. Sarah, one of our Kenyan nurses, went out into the crowd and asked everyone what time they had come to line up. Those that had been in line for three hours were treated and the rest were asked to come to a clinic on another day (can you imagine being asked to do that at an emergency department after you had already stood for hours in the hot sun). We also ran out of many of our medications so more and more people were going home with a partial prescription. When that happens, the patient comes to the next day’s clinic, if at all possible, and receives the rest of the medication. We treated 789 patients inside the clinic, dewormed around 1200 school children, and treated 180 persons for jiggers at a number of small clinics throughout the area.

It has rained here every night. The Kenyans don’t need the Weather Channel to predict the weather. If it is very hot during the day, it will rain hard during the late afternoon. According to Sarah, the rainy season is from January to July. The crops are planted during this time and then harvested in August. The rains were late starting this year so that is why we have experienced such heavy rain as opposed to other years. The road to the Sheywe from the little plaza at the end of our street is inches deep in wet slippery mud. In fact, we have been unable to leave with the van after an hour or two of rain. One doesn’t want to slide off the road into the steep ditches. The other thing you don’t want to do is walk back in it. I believe we have all done that once and that was enough. If you have been following this mission, you will know that we have had quite a few vehicle related incidents. In fact, our van was rear-ended in Kisumu on Sunday, with no damage to either vehicle or at least nothing to report. We certainly weren’t going to call the police as we are already on a first name basis with them. Bye the way, the last photo on this blog is a glue sniffer who hung about the clinic.  He wasn’t a problem but we kept a careful eye on him.

Take care

Dawn