Saturday, February 28, 2009

Here are a few photos.
 We drove 7 hours from Kitale to Narok, the center of the Masai tribe crossing the equator.



In Narok Cherry met with her GEM girls. Ask her how you can help sponsor and educate girls for a brighter future.



 George Sadaris, our friend and interpreter at the Narok Clinic.



A very sick 38 y/o Masai man we saw at clinic just outside the Losho Mara tent camp near the Masai Mara game preserve.




Giraffes in Msai Mara




We left Kitale on Thursday the 26 and drove 7 hours to Narok where we did a clinic. We saw about 75 patients. We saw Ntayia, the  boy on crutches we had sent to an orthopedic hospital 2 years ago. He was excited to see us and we were happy to see he is doing well.


After a night at The Seasons hotel (definitely not the Four Seasons) we visited an orphanage and then stopped to help enroll a street girl selling bananas in school. This is the heart of Masai country and we drove 2 hours to a tent camp Loche Mara near a Masai village. That afternoon we saw patients for 5 hours - brucellosis, HIV, ear infections, skin boils, and malnutrition.


Today as our reward we took a game drive in Masai Mara Game Park.

Tomorrow we drive to Nairobi and say goodbye to the California team and then on Tuesday we head for Rwanda and Congo.

Wednesday, February 25, 2009



Here are the pictures from Mt Elgon from yesterday.

Tuesday, February 24, 2009

Here are the pictures from Mondays blog.

David saved an eight year old boy's hand today. I wish I could put a picture on the blog for you but it won't take pictures from here. The small boy's hand was swollen, the medical term is cellulitis.  The hand was hot but the fingers were cold. They were getting no blood.  I was working in the makeshift pharmacy.  David came  to me and said, "Give me 500 shillings." I ask, "Why?" He said this little boy is going to lose his hand if we don't get him treatment today."  Then D. came and ask for 500 more shillings.  No questions ask, Kris who was pouring meds with me and I started pulling money out of our wallets. It turns out that 500 Kenya shilling would only get him seen, but another 500 would get him an x-ray and treatment. We gave his sister the money and they walked to the district hospital. After we finished the rest of the long line of people that had been waiting for hours for our primary care, we checked on him at the hospital. The flesh had been opened with a knife, allowing the pus to escape and he was started on antibiotics. The cost, it's 75 K shillings to a dollar. Go figure, for $13.33 an eight year old boy still has a hand.  

Monday, February 23, 2009

We went to church at Birundi Church where we had worshipped in 2007. We saw old friends Pastor Joseph and Rachel Wyonyoni and Cherry’s friend Dorcas.




Monday we held a medical clinic in Sinoko, a village near Kitale, nicknamed Bosnia because it is composed of Bukusa refuges from Mt Elgon who were chased from their land by the Sobot tribe in the early nineties. A member of Parliament bought them this 5 acre plot but there are 100 families living on this small parcel of land, not enough land to   raise food to eat. We saw malnutrition, malaria, pneumonia, and other diseases of disadvantage. We took a walk through the village and David taught Noel how to dance. 


Tomorrow we go to Mt Elgon, where their is still periodic fighting over land, usually around election time.


Sorry no pictures. Internet too slow here

Saturday, February 21, 2009


Today was a rewarding day. After breakfast at the Kitale Club where we are staying we drove to The Purpose Driven Academy. some of our group painted classrooms and Cherry and I saw 16 children from the Academy who had been in a home previously where there was abuse. Fortunately we found no evidence.

Cherry passed out toys and jumped rope with one of the girls.

After lunch of pepper steak, stuffed peppers, and vegetables we headed for Sister Freda's Cottage Hospital. We gave her all of the supplies that we had purchased with the generous donations we have been given - injectable medicine, pills, and supplies plus a pulse oximeter and nebulizer. She was thrilled.

Then Sister Freda showed us the 
construction on the nursing school. Great progress since August. It is almost roofed! She is very proud of it and hopes to have a class of eighteen girls very soon.

Friday, February 20, 2009


We made it to Kitale yesterday evening hot and dirty but after a shower and good nights sleep we were off to West Pokot, an area of Northwest Kenya with over 300,000 residents and five doctors.

 


It was a hot dusty trip. Steve Rutenbar, our fearless leader came up to Cherry at one stop and said, "Elton John called
......He wants his glasses back!"




We didn't see all the residents of Pokot, just most of them (or so it felt). As you might imagine the need is great and our time was short. We had to turn many away. Most of what we saw were respiratory diseases, malnutrition, and probably malaria, brucellosis(an infection in cattle that humans get), and typhoid. I say probably because we have no lab facilities. Sister Freda and her staff are really patient and helpful. I am amazed that they do this day after day. We will go to her clinic tomorrow. We miss Terry our dentist!


Wednesday, February 4, 2009








Sister Freda came to visit us in Dallas in late January. She was accompanied by Darlene Sala who has written a book about sister Freda Robinson, Heart of Compassion, Hands of Care.





It was her birthday and NorthPark Presbyterian Church gave her a birthday cake and sang Happy Birthday. We then had a video presentation of her work in Kenya. Cherry also had Kenyan crafts to support the GEMS ( Girls Educational Movement). The girls send these to Cherry and Marty Mattia who return the proceeds to the girls to support their schooling.




We had a reception for Sister Freda and Darlene at our house so that people could meet this remarkable woman and her biggest fan. Darlene and her husband Harold usually work in the Phillipines but are so taken with Sister Freda that they have helped her too.


Sister Freda told us of caring for President Obama's father when she was a nursing student in Kenya and then meeting then Senator Obama at Saddleback Church in 2006 at an AIDS conference.





On February 16, 2009 Cherry and David will leave for Kenya where they will again work at Sister Freda's Hospital and outlying regions. They are taking medical and educational supplies with them. After 2 weeks there they plan to go to Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo with Steve Rutenbar, SaddleBack Church's Pastor of Relief. We hope to tell you more of our trip while there. We welcome your prayers and support.