First week in Shikunga

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  Kakamega, Kenya
Saturday, December 6, 2008

It's been an exciting week in Shikunga this week. We arrived Sunday late in the day after buying meds in Kakamega for the first camp, dumped our bags and made the quick walk to the new clinic. We'd heard rumours that the new clinic was slightly larger than we planned for... apparently our initial builder read our plans wrong and added 4 metres to each side, almost doubling the size of it. Now, Shikunga has a new mini hospital in the making complete with consultation rooms, a maternity centre and a massive ward. It's an impressive structure, but due to the size not as complete as we had anticipated so another year of fundraising to finish it off! Exciting times ahead with the promise of trained medical staff from the government once it is complete. Not surprisingly, it's the talk of the town!

So far we've run 3 medical camps in surrounding villages attending to around 500-600 patients. We've seen a lot of sick kids, many with malaria, fungus infections, and the usual few that are extremely ill which we send to the local hospital. The camps are exciting, and the joy and hope they bring is incredible, though at times things get a little overwhelming. When you see a family of 5 come in, all sick and orphans cared for only by their grandmother you have to wonder what hope there is. But even though the little ones are scared of the 'mzungu' (white) doctors, we often get a smile out of all of them when we pack them up with medicines and a few little hygiene chats in the pharmacy!

We've also run some great days at the local non-formal secondary school. Thanks to all the girls that sewed pads for us we helped almost 40 girls with pads and underwear and all were overjoyed. It was a beautiful day to see all the smiles and the photos (which due to the dodgy internet connection here I can't upload yet) are gorgeous. We also purchased a pedal Singer sewing machine for the girls to learn to make their own pads and clothes, and will be purchasing an extra acre of land, plus fencing and concrete to build a toilet and 4 extra classrooms over the coming years. The students wanted to make sure we thanked everyone back in Australia for their support and hope that we will continue to remember them - especially when we get their pictures developed from their photo essay project we set them!

Aside from that it's been a great team this year with all the doctors and med students helping out and the camps and making Nes's home back in Shikunga full of energy, junk food and fun. Can't wait to share the photos when we get home of all the days, as well as the video we have of the school song!

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