Our trip to Kenya was a spectacular experience. One of the things I cherish most from this trip is the diversity of the people involved. We four Americans were joined by a number of Kenyans during our trip. Three Kenyans in particular traveled with us almost the entire time: Joseph the pharmacist, Amos the lab technician, and Frida the nurse. Each of these Kenyan friends of ours were from different tribes and backgrounds, and the diversity of our team reflected the differences we witnessed in the people and places we were introduced to along our way.
After three long flights and twenty four hours of travel, our trip started early Monday morning with a stop at an established and thriving dispensary (medical clinic). This clinic in Murengeti was so successful, in fact, that they even had a computer for their record keeping! The computer was not well utilized, and frequent power loss rendered it unreliable, but this was the only dispensary we visited that had a working computer system.
After visiting Murengeti, we spent the rest of the day working with a nurse at Uplands, another working dispensary. This is also where we picked up Amos, the lab technician. The patient load was light, so we left early and stopped at the girl’s orphanage in Limuru. This orphanage was built through the partnership of the Los Ranchos (America) and Limuru (Kenya) Presbyteries over the past few years. It’s operating now, and the girls there love to have visitors! When we arrived, swarms of girls grabbed each of us and dragged us to different areas of the school yard. They called us “Uncle” and “Auntie.” They braided Amanda’s hair, swung from my arms, and taught us all sorts of songs and dances that we didn’t understand. After a while of singing, we sat down in the grass. But the girls wanted me to swing them around again, and they started asking me, “Uncle, wake up!” I figured out that they were saying that to get me to stand up, but it was quite confusing at first!
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