Kenya Update 2!

Well friends it’s been a few weeks since I posted last so let me bring you up to speed on my current adventure in Kenya. The internet out here is incredibly slow and a bit spotty. So I wish I could update you all more often but I am very thankful for the internet that we have, even if it is slow.

 

Monica and I have been at the Ewaso Ng’iro clinic for about three weeks now and it has been great so far! We have finally gotten ourselves settled into the team house on the compound and minus the spiders we are doing well. We have a resident gecko named Mumford, who coincidently is a hopeless wanderer, and by that I mean he lives behind our couch. Since he eats the spiders though, we’re happy to let our little friend stay.  *It breaks my heart to say that since writing this post Mumford has sadly passed on. RIP Mumford. L*

We are now staying in Ewaso Ng’iro, which is about 3 hours from Nairobi. It’s a rural, small town but we are only 20 minutes from a bigger town, Narok, where we go to do shopping and get other supplies. Traveling wise we take matatus, which are Kenyan taxis, between towns. Getting to know and engaging in the Maasai culture has been getting better each week and we’ve found the Maasai people to be incredibly hospitable and loving toward us while we have been here. The Maasai name that I have been given is Namunyak which means “blessed”. Funny story-The first time that I introduced myself to a national I got confused and called myself “Nakumatt” which is a grocery store in Kenya. So essentially I said “Hi, my name is grocery store!”

 

So far our time spent with the clinic has been eye opening and filled with learning experiences. Being a nursing student from the U.S. it has been interesting to see healthcare in a different setting. The clinic has the basics to care for patients but none of the super sophisticated machinery and supplies that are commonly available back home. Despite that though I have seen the clinical staff constantly care for the people with the resources that they have and still work to provide holistic care even in a rural setting.

Working at the clinic has allowed us to observe and practice in a wide variety of areas such as seeing patients with clinicians, helping in the pharmacy, maternity, and pediatrics. The majority of cases are HIV/AIDS patients, water borne illnesses, and urinary tract infections.  We have also had opportunities to travel out to surrounding field clinics to distribute medications to HIV/AIDS patients and help in immunization clinics for locals. I have found the clinicians and staff to be great teachers as well. They have allowed me to continue to practice the skills that I already know while also taking initiative to help teach new ones and explain the different treatments for the patients that we see.

 

During our time here we were blessed to be able to travel out to the village of Olkoroi and stay with the always wonderful Angela Highfield and family! Angela is a close friend of mine who just graduated from Milligan College, so it was great seeing a familiar face all the way in Africa. While there we got to experience a different side of mission work apart from the clinic. We got to go to a nearby village and evangelize and encourage a woman and her children and see a well being put in for a community. It was an incredibly humbling experience to see the praise and happiness that clean water was able to bring people. Sunday we then went out to a new church plant. Even though church was held in a different language and under a tree, God’s presence was there. It was so cool to experience that even in a culture which is very different from my own that God still remains the same and that there is no cultural barrier to the movement of the Holy Spirit.

 

Thank you all for your continual prayers and know that you are in mine as well! I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for all the support and love that each of you have poured into my life. I have loved my time here in Kenya and I’m excited share my stories, struggles, and joys that God has given me with you all when I return home. Until then I pray that you all are doing well, soaking up some sunshine, and that your 4^th of July weekend was a blast! HA! Get it?! ;)

 

Much love and many goats,

Anne