Day 5

 Day 5 began with some of us heading out into slums again to invite them to our free clinic.  Again, this was an eye-opening experience.  Today, I went out with Esther and James (locals) and a gentleman from our group!  We had a wonderful time.  Esther and James provided me with so much information about their country and their culture.  I learned so much while I was walking through the slums with them.  They were some of the kindest young people I have ever met. 



Esther is on the right and James is out of the picture!

James and I

James is in college right now and is a member of the Petra Boys which is a program that uses soccer to train boys into being leaders in Kenya.  So James was one of the lucky ones to be given a chance to leave the slums.  I believe James was 19 years old.  He was so kind to me and Allen (another Calvary missionary) while we were navigating our way through the slums.  He made sure that we were safe.

I love this picture because the boy came skipping down this alley and seemed so happy and content. 

In this picture above, you can see the pipe that is coming out of one of the houses.  The sewage from their house drains out to a trench that runs in the streets.  So sanitation is a huge issue and concern for the health of these people.



You can see the trench in front of this home and the pile of trash - this is a
common site throughout the slums!

Hotel in the slums

Sweet moment between brothers



This butcher made his bicycle stationary by propping up the back end and then he placed a sharpening wheel on the bike so when he pedaled the wheel turned and he could sharpen his knives - very resourceful!



Recess at a school in the slums!

 I spent the morning inviting people to the clinic and Heather stayed at the clinic because she was medical staff. She spent the morning taking blood pressures, weights, and temperatures.

Inside a school room

The locals were all wearing coats and winter hats.  The temperature was anywhere between 65 and 75 degrees during the day.  Coming from North Dakota, anything above 50 feels comfortable - so 65 felt fabulous.  The babies wore snowsuits, stocking caps and were wrapped in blankets.  June is the beginning of their winter season so it can get down into the 40's at night and they all kept commenting on how 'cold' it was there. 

I spent the afternoon seating patients like I had the day before.  Today was a bit different though because a young mother brings me her baby and says that he just fainted.  I was totally out of my element as I am not a nurse and I wasn't even sure what to do.  We ended up laying him on a table and he immediately had a seizure.  I have witnessed a child having a seizure before so I did know that all I could do was keep him safe until it stopped.  It didn't last more than a minute, but it seemed like forever.  It was very hard to watch this sweet innocent boy not be able to speak because he was so exhausted, tired and confused.  The mother was very non-emotional - she just watched as a number of us had our hands on her son.  The doctors assumed his high fever was the cause of the seizure.  We held damp towels on his head and chest in hopes that his fever would drop.  He just laid on the table and shivered uncontrollably.  He was such a brave little boy.  We gave him some ibuprofen and tried to get him to keep some fluids down.  It didn't take long before all of it came right back up.  The doctors were explaining to the mother that he needed to go to the hospital to receive IV fluids.  The mother told us that she couldn't take him because she had no money to pay the hospital and in Kenya - NO MONEY MEANS NO MEDICAL TREATMENT.   So unfortunately this little boy would not be able to get additional medical care (it sure makes our medical care look great - doesn't it???) 
This little boy's name was Felix and he sat with us in the clinic for over three hours while we tried to lower his temperature.  He finally drank some fluids with electrolytes and was able to keep some ibuprofen down.  He and his mother were instructed to come back the next day so we could make sure Felix was feeling better.  I didn't take a pic of Felix when he was feeling so poorly, but I have one to post for Day 6 when he came back to the clinic.  He was just another reminder that the work we did in Kenya was so important to sooooo many people.

After a long day's work, we were treated to a Coca-Cola Light (close enough to Diet Coke for me).  This was my first Diet Coke since leaving the states - what a great surprise!!