The Doctor Is In!

---

Today We Set Up The Health Clinic

Breakfast was early, at 6:30 am. There were no hitches and that allowed us to get on our way to the school early today.

We made arrangements for a doctor to come today, so it was the perfect motivator to set up the health clinic this morning before their arrival. It was a lot of work but we were able to assemble everything in a bout 2-3 hours. The single beds were assembled with mattresses, a table was brought in, and the medical supplies were spread out for his review. As it turned out, Dr. Opondo was not able to make it as he had been sick for a little while. However, the center’s director where he had worked, Rev Ommani, arrived with his assistant Ernest, and Peter, a missionary from San Diego’s Grace & Faith Family Church. The good Reverend Ommani was on a fact finding mission and after a long discussion we made arrangements for another doctor, Dr. Maleche, to assume responsibilities for the student’s health at the clinic. He will try to come next week with a few other doctors to give a thorough examination, and also advise our nurse. We have also asked for a full health report on the school which will be instrumental for us in determining whether we have further changes to make at the school to insure good health conditions.

Peter, the missionary, suggested a new way of building the oven which will completely eliminate the smoke produced by the cooking fires. It is an enclosed system and he showed us pictures of it on his cell phone. This has been a productive and mutually beneficial day.

After the visit by the Reverend Ommani and his associates, Charles and I set up the offices with file cabinets, printers and a scanner. Later in the afternoon we hired the new school nurse, Janet, and I gave her some direction on setting up the medical room.

After that, we finalized the arrangements for a large celebration on Saturday. It will be our last day here and that will be a very important event with many government and local administration members coming to see the school, give reports, and lend true community legitimacy to the school. It will dramatically increase the standing of the school. We had to purchase a bull to slaughter for the community to eat.

The children asked if they could play football (soccer) on Friday afternoon against the neighbouring primary school. I thought that was a good idea, but I held back form telling them that I had bought a new soccer ball for them the previous day. I will surprise them just before the game.

Just before we left for the hotel, and the students had gone home, we got some more propane for the cooker and made an attempt at making some home made popcorn for the kids for their movie afternoon on Friday. We thought it would be a real treat if we can make it work. They have heard of popcorn, but no one has ever known how to make it. After much struggle, and several adjustments, we actually made it work quite well. We made a huge batch and the teachers gathered around to taste it. It really went off quite well, and they bagged up the extra to take home with them.

We arrived back at our hotel and went down for super in the restaurant. We asked for “an ice cold Tusker” (the local beer). This was probably not the best request as Kenyans can often take your statements quite literally. Our server brought us two cold Tuskers with a glass of ice cubes on the side. Later, we decided to have a second round and ordered two more “ice cold Tuskers”. This time they brought us two beers that had been placed in the freezer and literally frozen into two blocks of ice. It took some time, and a little foaming to finally thaw out our beer, and I suppose that is a good lesson to us about messing with the language…..

---

Comments

[Michael]

Popcorn and beer
I wonder whose idea it was to make popcorn....Heather??? I'd love to try one of those ice cold Tuskers! Excellent scribing Todd. I feel like I've been in Kenya with you.