Coincidence.... SURELY not

So, since our little camping expedition , I have been having some issues with a rash. Most of the time I am able to cure this with a little ( or a lot) of gold bond or anti-monkey butt ( and yes, that IS what it is called.)
This time I was having a particularly bad experience. The rash just would not go away.
This weekend we went to Nairobi to pick up a visitor. While we were there I went by the chemist( pharmacy) to see if perhaps they had some Lotrimin or some such thing. They did not.
And so I walked away from the store. The minute I left, I felt compelled to FIND SOMETHING... anything that would work.  I went back to the store. They had Whitfield's ointment.
Now, from my experience with medical clinics, I had seen this used a gazillion times but never knew what it was for. I read the little tube and it said "anti-fungal." Yep... that ought to work.
There was of course no price tag on the tube so since I was in Nairobi I expected to pay an exhorbitant amount ( in the same store, revlon nail polish was the equivalent of $25.
I went to the counter, asked for the tube and the lady said 40 shillings - WOW - about 50cts.
So I took my tube back to the guest house, used it that night and things seemed to be clearing up.
On Monday, we traveled home and stopped by an IDP camp to do a little follow up on water filters we had distributed about 10 days ago. We walked from house to house and from tarped tent to tarped tent.
We were there for about 2 hours or so.
As we were leaving the camp, a mama came with her child and asked if we had anything for her child.
By that she meant the rash on her head. I looked at the rash and recognized it as fungal ( from all my time in triage at clinics, some things you see over and over.) This rash looked like mildew.
Whitfield's - yep- you treat it with Whitfield's.
So now I knew why I had the compulsion a couple of days before.
And so we went to the van, got out my tube and gave the little girl her first does. Our visitor and I washed her head and then applied the ointment.
I pray she is better. Somehow, even without another treatment of my own rash, it seems to be clearing up as well today.

Somehow..... there are no coincidences and I just smile and say Thank you Lord.
s

Thoughts from our first day at clinic at Kopanga

We'll try something new tonight. Here are a few favorite or memorable moments of today.
For me , today I was in triage for the first time this year. I had forgotten what it is like to see so many people so closely. So many who are so sick.
For me today, the most memorable was a young mother who fell down while she was breast feeding . Her fever was so high that she started shaking. We took her inside and got her fever down. It took two blankets and me laying beside her to get it straight. Martha took her very young baby outside while we treated her. Most babies here do not wear diapers - particularly in the rural areas.  Martha was christened by the wee thing... I had to say it was funny.  We made a diaper for the sweet little thing and Momma was better and went home smiling.
Susan.
More later... rain is coming.
S

Stepping out of my comfort zone

Most of you are fully aware of my fear of the dentist. Many of you share that fear. Dr. Tom ( our friend and dentist on this trip) and I had a long talk before we left the states about my fear. Dr.T is a wonderfully kind and loving man. I see it in all that he does. I see it in the entire Smith family.
On the first day of the dental clinic, a young girl was waiting to see Dr. Tom because of a tooth ache. She was a school girl. She had come to the dentist and needed to get back to school. When I took her hand, she was shaking and then I felt her chest and her heart was indeed pounding out of her chest.
And so, I took her  to the dentist chair and promised I would stay with her until it was all over.
I held her hand and she opened her mouth wide. So... I am not a dentist. I don't even like to see the "instruments of torture" but God had me right in the line of fire. When she opened her mouth , I saw half of a tooth and a bunch of black. My "diagnosis" was that what was left of that tooth was going to come out in pieces and it wasn't going to be pretty.
We had no idea how afraid she really was. Wingate, Tom's son, came in and held her other hand and eventually we did to hold her down. The tooth did eventually come out. But there were a lot of tears. Poor child was basically hyperventilating, so Wingate and I taught her out to breathe in and out slowly.
There were so many patients so she needed to get up and get moving. She was still crying. So I sat her up and hugged her a bit. Then she walked around the chair and I offered my chair to her so that she could collect herself. When I said would you like to sit in the chair.... she said yes, with you.
So I held that sweet little 13 year old girl until she caught her breathe. She left with a smile , two pens and a pack of gum for later. And I left with a sense  that my hands had indeed shown the love of God.

What it means to sponsor a child?

There four girls ( and more) are sponsored by those pictured in the photo. We went to visit them at their school to let them know there are indeed people in the US who care and are praying. When their US sponsors are not around, Peter and I make sure we are always at visiting day.

What does it mean to do a medical clinic?

While we are having a day of rest on the shores of Lake Victoria, I wanted to update you on last week. We were in a place called Ekerenyo. We have helped friends from Indiana at this clinic for several years.
Hundreds of people come each day. There are clinical officers from the local hospital who come. But there are so many volunteers who are helping from the local church.
We had our dear friend Dr. Smith and his cohort Lisa who are the greatest dental team. There was a young lady about to begin her last year of dental school as well, Meghan, who was a part of that team.
What we soon realized was that everyone was willing to be a jack of all trades. Wiley and Wingate assisted their Dad in the dental area. Even I held the hand of a young girl who was terribly afraid - even more afraid than I am of the dentist.
I'll try to describe this with pictures.

It means that even if you are not a "medical professional" you will see people with tumors and goiters etc that often can be fixed - but some cannot. Helen was referred to the hospital, and we are waiting to hear the surgeons report.

It means on the fly TLC and help for a busted lip.

It means learning new skills. This is a portable refractor that allowed us to fit hundreds of patients with eyeglasses.

It means that we were able to fit hundreds of people ( thanks to your donations) with reading glasses.

It means sharing love and learning to say God Bless you in many different tribal languages.

It means making friends with a chameleon while you wait for the dental instruments to be sterlized.


This is just a very quick recap of what happens in a clinic. We are blessed.... to have such a great team and to have the Lord right by our side.

Life and death - a different look

If you remember, the eagle was coming every afternoon to snatch one of our chicks . The chicks were wandering freely in the compound and were at risk of being eaten at any time.
Bill, Peter, Sam, Francis and Len built a very nice house for the chickens and gave them a nice area for roaming around.
Since that time, nearly 20 chicks have died. Some had a funky eye disease... one was even taken by a very clever eagle.
Today Francis, who speaks very quietly and has a lovely smile, came to me as I was sitting on the porch reading. He had one black chick in his hands and said "this one is dieing." Len came out and they both looked at him. He appeared to have something wrong with his neck. Francis held the chick carefully and they both decided it needed to be "put down." And so Francis took the chick away.
Death is such a part of  life here. Every day a child dies here somewhere. Just last weekend Mary took her own life. Animals get sick and die.
I have to remind myself that because we are here and with God's help, many will survive. But the heartbreak  I see here every day is tough.
On a happy note, it's the fourth of July. Coincidentally, it's the opening of the "state fair" here in Nakuru. The Showgrounds is not far from our house and we can hear the bands playing and children laughing. I'll just pretend the entire parade is for the US.

Happy Fourth everyone! Eat some crabs for us!

Mary Wambui

Many of you remember the story of Mary Wambui. In 2009 I met Mary( pictured here) She was smart and very small and frail. Each day of the clinic she would wait to come and talk to me. Each day she told me she needed funds to go back to school. Her father had died ( I believe) and her mother was sick. She told me one day that God told her I would help her.

So... I was busy working in the clinic and finally on the last day, we got some supplies for her to go back to school. We visited her house and met her sister. She came on Saturday to help us pack things up from the clinic. It was there that I saw how quick she was and how anxious she was to learn. She told me that she wanted to go to school and have a good life.

We left the next day. And there was still something troubling me about Mary.  The next year when we returned, I wanted to find her and see how school was going. A local pastor knew her and he went to her mother to try to find her. There was something "strange" going on. We were told that Mary was a house girl for someone in Nairobi. We searched for her while we were there. We did not find her before we left. So, from the US we continued to search for her. Peter, my brother, and our pastor friend found her. We got her back to Nakuru and she even moved in with Peter and Mama Chico and their family. We got her into boarding school. We were all so pleased.

And then as time went on, we started to understand what her life had really been for the last year or so. She had actually married and had a baby - and there was far more to the story than we ever realized.

She left school. It was too late. She had become a woman and now her life would never be the same.
I wept, because I had not done more quickly enough. I felt like I had not listened to God and because of that, it was too late for her.

Since then, we have gotten several other young girls into school and it feels good to be making that difference.

Today, I received tragic news. Mary Wambui who was married and had a 3 month old baby ate poison and took her own life. I vow never to put off another young girl. It breaks my heart and I will never forget her. If I had gotten her in boarding school in 2009 she might be alive today.

My heart is very heavy. But with the Lord's help, we will find the other young girls who are in danger.