We finished up the clinics in Mikinduri having seen 6450
patients in the 9 days of vision, dental, and medical clinics. A number only a
few higher than last year, though still impressive. Special regognition must be
given to the team leaders: Kathy Murphy (Medical), Catherine Bailey Mitchell (Dental),
and Cheri Butt (Vision). These three expertly managed their areas, seeing
thousands of patients, managing 10-20 volunteers and professionals, and all
having been ‘thrown’ into it with very little preparation. They made my job of
organizing the clinics very easy. We
concluded the clinics on Thursday with a Kenyan meeting and celebratory meal
for the 70+ professionals and volunteers (Canadian and Kenyan). Like every
Kenyan meeting that we had attended, there was prayer, introductions all
around, and speeches, before handing out participation certificates.
Because the team was so efficient packing up the clinics the
day before, Friday became a bonus fun day. We went to a Tea packaging plant and
learned how the tea leaves are processed to be transformed into the Michimukuru
loose tea granules. This allowed us to wander through the tea plant fields and
watch in awe as one of our Kenyan team-members (Martin) showed us how to pick
the leaves with just a flick of his wrist. At the factory, all you could see
were green bushes for miles. Inside the packaging plant, the noise was
significant and many of us wondered how the workers could hear after a full day
of work.
After the tea factory, we went to a water project where
Mikinduri Children of Hope supplied water catchment devices and storage tanks
to certain needy members of a local woman’s group. The tank allows women to
collect and store the water during the rainy season to be used during the dry
season. This saves them from walking to community taps that often pipe in
polluted water. A young boy shimmied up a 30 ft tall mango tree while we were
there and treated us each to a mango by shaking the tree.
Following that treat (as it’s not yet noon), we went to
Kinwe (pronounced Kin-oye) Primary School. This is the site where a feeding
program has been occurring for just a year and where four classrooms will be
built over the next year. It was nice to see that the enrollment had increased
due to the feeding program and the kids
were excited to hear about their new classrooms. If you look back to one of the
first blogs of this year, there is a description of the dilapidated school made
of wood slats and a corrugated tin roof. Most of the children do not have shoes
and it’s just as well as the floor is made of dirt. At the school, we were
immediately enveloped by the children and guided up the hill for, you guessed
it….introductions and speeches. The children all sat patiently listening while
the Canadians fidgeted a bit, facing out at the sea of children, with one or
two young girls sitting on their laps. Desiree Leary of Cornwall and her newly
sponsored child Glory was attached the duration of the visit, though it’s hard
to tell who was enjoying it more. I was
sitting with the students in the crowd, getting them to take pictures with my
camera to document the event. It has become quite enjoyable to provide even
this amount of empowerment to the young women, who are very hesitant to take
the camera when offered. From their reaction and awe of the device, it must be
their first time taking a picture.
After the speeches concluded, we went down to the feeding
center to serve lunch to the children and learned about the moringa processing
plant, an initiative to introduce a new cash crop to Mikinduri farmers. The facility
processes the moringa into a powder that can be eaten with most meals. If
you’ve never heard of moringa, google it; this will be the next superfood fad
like the acai berry. Some of us then went on a trek to see if we could see the
monkeys that play in the mango trees, but sadly they stayed out of sight. That
evening we went back to the hotel to pack up and get ready for the weekend of
surprises.
On Saturday morning, with heavy hearts, we said goodbye to
Martin, Lloyd, Francis, and Euniffer, the Kenyan Mikinduri Hope Development
Office Staff. On the long 4-hour drive to Nairobi (which turned into something
more like 7 or 8 hours for some combi’s), we stopped by the equator and watched
how the water direction reverses in the northern and southern hemispheres. From
there (skipping ahead a few grueling long, hungry hours), the team enjoyed
pizza and beer in Nairobi. Sam Murphy recalls eating the first two slices,
sandwiching them one atop the other, not even tasting them he was so hungry. From there the team went to the Giraffe
feeding center where they fed giraffes from the palm of their hand, and some of
the braver folk put the pellet in their mouth and the giraffes licked it right
off! With how cautious we are with water, germs, and washing our hands, I can’t
believe some of the team thought this would be a sanitarily sane idea, but all
survived. The team then went to Kazuri beads, a shop where battered women can
earn a living making beautiful jewelry, before heading back to the Anglican
hotel for an early night. After the long day of travel with little knowledge of
the overall plan, some of the team were ready to mutiny, so it’s a good thing
that the next day, the big surprise would be revealed.
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| 2014 MCOH |
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