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| Dennis and I working on writing out vouchers for food! |
Voucher
Today 18-06-11
Come to church!
4-6 pm
Bring this voucher and receive one free food item.
Each voucher needed to be signed and numbered in red so we could make sure they were the vouchers that were created by us because we only had a certain number of food items to hand out. I luckily didn't have to monitor the food distribution - I just had to write out the vouchers. We obviously didn't have access to a copy machine. My other job was to greet people as they entered the clinic area. Sarah and I did the job together, but I eventually let her do the greeting because she was totally speaking Swahili and I only knew a couple of words.
Dennis was a 21-year old man who was a member of the church and he was at the clinic volunteering. He sat down beside me and asked if he could help write out vouchers. I was immediately impressed with his handwriting. The teacher in me came out and I complimented him on his nice handwriting. As we sat and wrote for hours, I really got to know this young man and his life story. He lived in the slums with his family - dad, mom, and 4 siblings. They ended up in the slums when his father lost his job a number of years prior. He had to drop out of school because his parents did not have the money to send all of their children to school. He had received an education through 8th grade so his parents put the money toward his younger sibling's education. His goal was to get his high school education and then go to college. His ultimate life plan was to become a neurosurgeon. I was so inspired by Dennis. He has all of the cards stacked against him, but he knows the Lord and trusts that He will take care of him. His father had left the church when he lost his job (as a pastor) and yet Dennis didn't let that deter him from believing in God and his promises.
I was telling Dennis that I needed to write out these vouchers because I wasn't a very good greeter since I didn't speak any Swahili. I told him that I am a visual learner and that I needed to read the words in Swahili to be able to speak them. I was super surprised when Dennis came to me the next day and presented me with four written pages of words in Swahili. He was one of the young people that I met that I will never forget. He is an amazing human being!!!!
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| Dennis and I at church with one of the children attending the service. |
This day at the clinic was very busy, but it ran quite smooth. We seemed to have a great system of checking patients in, seating them, and transitioning them to the appropriate doctor. We ended up seeing over 1700 people during the clinic days. I have no doubt that we helped many people and led many people to the Lord.
Since it was the final day of the clinic, I took it upon myself to hand out a few beanie babies that Sue (one of my roommates) had brought for the children. Had I known that I would be bombarded with children and mothers, I might have thought twice before handing any out - the kids thought I had candy. I thought I was being very secretive when I was handing them out (as I concealed my bag and I very quietly would hand a beanie baby to a young child). My secret was out when I tried handing my first beanie baby to a child about 3 years old and she started screaming hysterically. That definitely drew attention to me and what I was doing. The kids were afraid of the beanie babies, but the mothers really wanted them for their children since they don't have stuffed animals. So as I tried to move to the next child, I ended up being cornered by a number of mothers with babies on their hips and older children. They were pushing, poking, gently slapping my arms so I would give their child one. In the pics below, I actually look joyful, but I was actually a bit nervous and scared and couldn't get rid of them fast enough.
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| Mother and child coming to the clinic ! |
I found the women in Kenya to be so resourceful. Many of them had to take care of more than one child and they were probably under the age of 20. When they were given a lot of medication for their children they would take the scarf off of their heads and use it as a bag for the meds. They were obviously used to carrying a number of things at once and they made it look easy.
One thing I did notice about the adults that came to the clinic or the adults that lived in the slums was that they were very non-emotional. As they sat in the clinic, the mothers did not interact with their children or when they were told that they have HIV they did not show any signs of distress or sadness. I wondered why this might be??? One of the locals told me that she was much happier as a child because she didn't know how hard life was, but as an adult she realizes that there are a lot of people that have a much better life than she does. So I think their ability to cope with such a difficult life takes a toll on them. Another local told me that many women that are diagnosed with HIV choose not to medicate because they will die sooner and not have to struggle to feed themselves and their children.
I wondered why she had an obsession with my hair. She just kept running her hands through my hair. My only thought was that all of the women in Kenya typically have their hair pulled into tight braids so she probably doesn't get to feel hair that is loose. She even tried putting it into a pony for me. She also found my sunglasses which she thought were pretty cool. She put them on and wanted me to take a picture of her.
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| Little girl who sat next to me in the greeting area while her mother was waiting for her medication. |
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| She loved playing with my hair. |
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| Beautiful, precious, and innocent! |
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