[Kwg-list] Almost Finished in Kenya

Fri Aug 22 22:17:16 PDT 2008

Hello Everyone,

It's almost the end of our time here in Kenya - and the time has
passed very quickly.  Although short, our time here has been very
worthwhile.  We've seen many clients, met with old friends and hosted
a successful workshop.  It was certainly good to be back in Kenya -
and we were especially glad that the clinic and family and friends
here were spared any injuries or losses during the post-election
violence.  Unfortunately the same can't be for others in the country -
as is evident by the burned out buildings we've seen in Rongo and
Kisumu and the refugee camps outside the Rift-Valley cities of Nakuru
and Naivasha.

Julie and I visited our sponsored child, Wycliff, in Kisumu and were
overjoyed at the progress he's made since we first picked him up on
the streets (still high on glue) three years ago and dropped him off
at a rehab centre for street kids.  Luckily the centre itself is far
enough outside town that it escaped harm during the violence in
Kisumu.  There's a noticeable lack of street children in Kisumu this
time - we were told by the person that runs the rehab centre this it's
because many were caught up in the looting and protesting that
consumed the city and were killed.  Perhaps our intervention in
Wycliff's live three years ago saved him from a similar fate.

"Chateau Okidi" now has electricity (and television and a fridge!) and
the "coup-de-grace", in-house internet access via Telecom Kenya's
cellular network.  The road between Rongo and Homa Bay is under
construction (finally) however things have to get worse before they
get better (if you can imagine that road getting worse).   Stretches
of the road are down to one lane, which results in a hair-raising game
of chicken when two vehicles approach from opposite directions.  Every
evening it's been raining (heavily) and the night's rains are doing a
great job of ruining the day's progress on roadwork.  At this rate, I
doubt the work will be complete anytime soon.

The workshop in Kisumu was a well received and ran exceptionally
smoothly.  The facilities (as well as lunch and morning and afternoon
tea) were provided by the Aga Khan Hospital in Kisumu.  The Chief
Executive of the hospital and his team were extremely accommodating
and were excited to receive the team from Canada.  The hospital values
professional exchanges and we found out that in December they intend
to be send a team of nurses to Calgary for a placement.  I doubt the
Kenyan nurses know what's in store for them when they disembark the
plane in Calgary in the middle of December.

The first day of the workshop began with registration and formal
introductions - which if you've ever been to Africa you know can take
a long time.  Kenyan OT's and PT's are expected to take 30 hours of
year of "continuing education" - and this workshop we ran was
officially sanctioned by the Ministry of Health for such a purpose.
This didn't change our course content - but it did result in even
longer introductions.  We had 27 attendees and one of the first orders
of business was to delegate a timekeeper, a spiritual leader (opening
and closing the day in prayer), a "rap-a-tour" (who would collect and
read a summary of the day's events) and an "energizer" (responsible
for keeping everyone's energy levels up).  Perhaps we'll introduce
some of these positions at the next KWG meeting.  The topics covered
at the workshop were diverse and the feedback was very positive.  From
HIV and Rehabilitation to Stroke Assessment to assessment of
lower-back pain.

After the workshop we took advantage of the vehicle at our disposal
and headed up to the town of Kakamega.  The climb in elevation
strained our poor Nissan mini-bus and I think that we burned as much
oil as we did fuel.  Nearby Kakamega Forest is all that remains of the
massive old-growth rainforest that once stretched for thousands of
kilometeres throughout east and central Africa.  We only had a few
hours to hike around the park on Sunday morning (before the 5 hour
drive back to Rongo) - but it was worth it!

We just wrapped up a "training week" at the clinic - with 20 children
and their mothers staying for the entire week.  Some of the kids made
spectacular progress after only a week of daily rehab - and we can
only hope that when they go home the families will keep up with the
assigned exercises.  As the official photographer of the group I was
fortunate enough to be the only one who avoided being pee'ed-on.  The
clinic's orthopaedic technician had a lot of equipment to make - so I
lent an hand with a hacksaw to cut steel pipe for a walker.  We were
working at a shop a few doors down from the clinic.  It was hot
working in the sun and I attracted a very large crowd of people who
were not expecting a muzungu to be working as a "fundi".

This is our last weekend in Rongo and we've been invited to a party on
Saturday to celebrate Peres' retirement after many years working as a
nurse.  Puja is flying back to Nairobi on Monday morning and will be
back at work by Thursday.   The remaining four of us are being
picked-up on Wednesday for a 3 day Safari to the Masai Mara.  It's the
beginning of the Wildebeest migration, and we're looking forward to
this small vacation after three extremely busy weeks of working.

Take care everyone!
See you soon,

Mike
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