Aldersgate U.M.C. Mission Trip to Kenya: Home safe and sound! A wrap up of the medical camp experience

In 2004 they began the story ......

The dream and the reality: The Amani Reading Centre was completed thanks to the dream of Peter Mageto, who grew up without any books in a western Kenya village, and high school students from Signature School in Evansville Indiana who heard him, listened to his dream, and said "His dream is that his village might have a library with books for the people to read? No problem! We can build one!" Pictured with Peter Mageto (in the U.S. until 2006 working on his doctorate) are Elizabeth Korb, Catherine Forston, David Moore, Sarah Moore and Kristin Moore. Peter's brother Jared, from the Kenyan village, and Jim Coy with the beacon group in Evansville were important parts of the project. The building was completed, filled with tables, chairs and books, and 'inaugurated' with an Itierio/Ekerenyo community celebration in 2006. Catherine Forston was one of 10 who traveled to Kenya for the big event! That initial team also included David Forston, Alex McCool, Sarah Leider, Karin Heinicke, Jesse and Phyllis Elliott, Jacque Hardin, Ken Montgomery and Lynn Renne. The second team went in July 2009, and included Sarah Moore, Amanda Reid, Pat Miller, Fran Vix, Carol Watson, Alexa Watson and Lynn Renne. This trip allowed for meeting people, painting and making curtains for the Reading Centre, planting bushes and trees around it, and seeing the Safe Water System installed up the hill from the Centre, thanks to the generous donation of land by a man in Itierio and Aldersgate donations. Peter's brother Clement has done an amazing job overseeing all of the projects, including most recently, the hooking up of the Reading Centre to electricity and installing a water tank next to the building!

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Home safe and sound! A wrap up of the medical camp experience

We arrived back in Evansville Tuesday at 3:30 p.m. and have spent the last day recovering from jet lag and basic tiredness! Our borrowed modem left with the person we borrowed it from, as he continued his travels, so we weren't able to access the internet and post anymore. Note to self:next time remember to buy a modem in Nairobi! They aren't available in the villages.

The overall summary of our first medical camp: all the locals and our own team called it an amazing success! We saw a total of well over 1300 people from the surrounding area in a 3 day period. Peter's brother, Clement, said that the word from the people was that they can't wait until we come back again. Someone told him he was given something to swallow, he had been in so much pain and he was amazed that now it was gone. He wondered what it was we gave him. (It was simply ibuprofen - he had never taken medicine before)

We began each morning standing in a circle for prayer and then singing "We Are Standing on Holy Ground". It was a blessing working side by side with the local medical officers and the nurses who were sent from Nyamira by the district health minister. We learned so much from them!! A picture above shows our team after we closed on the last day. Besides our "Mzungu" (white person) team, this includes local medical officers (like physicians assistants), pharmacist, helpers from Peter's family's church (Riakong'a Methodist where we worshiped on our first Sunday there)
There is also a picture of a 100 year old man with a hat that said "Cowboy" and his 80year old son,a picture of Doctor Michelle Galen and interpreting Med. Officer seeing a patient, and a child offering the rest of a cookie/biscuit we gave him to his grandmother.

Thanks to everyone for all your donations. EVERYTHING was given out:
Amoxicillin, Tylenol, Advil, Multivitamins, Toothbrushes and toothpaste (HUGE hits)
pencils, pens (also HUGE hits), stickers, (kids loved)
Besides these things which we brought from the states, our mission budget covered nominal salaries for the medical workers for 3 days, all the medications that we were able to purchase in town in Nakuru and Ekerenyo, rental of 2 tents and 50 chairs.

We took many notes about ways to tweak and improve our next medical camp, scheduled for February 2011. If you're interested, let me know! We'll need at least one doctor, a one dentist, and many non-medical people. The total for the mission team will be 12. We look forward to sharing our pictures at another Kenyan meal in the spring!