We started out on our great safari (trip) at 5AM Saturday. Since the word got out that we were going to Nairobi, we had enough people who wanted to come along that we could filed up about ten vehicles. She had a definite priority list: 1st - sick people and relatives to care for them, 2nd government officials and dispensary staff 3rd church members, 4th other townspeople. As it turned out, Gloria and Cheryl were in the front of the ambulance, Matthew and I were in the back on fold-down metal seats along with six other people and plenty luggage and [View Full Entry]

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We started the day with a visit to the local primary school. We had met Emanuel, the Headmaster, a couple of days earlier and arranged to visit the school on this day. As we arrived, there was a mob scene of youngsters touching us, trying to greet us, wanting to shake our hands and generally just being kids. Emanuel showed us around the classrooms (by this time filled with orderly children) and explained a bit of the school’s history. They currently have 188 students which is slightly down from last year’s 202. The people in this area are nomadic and they [View Full Entry]

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The past two days have been pretty uneventful during the day but the evenings have been fun. Daytime activities for Cheryl have included organizing the boxes in Gloria’s office since they moved her into it without much thought as to what goes where. She did the same with her spare bedroom which had become the dispensary de facto storage area. She also made up nearly two dozen Maternity kits for the new mothers. These kits include all the stuff Americans give to expectant mothers at a baby shower only the items are adjusted for living in rural Kenya. I worked at [View Full Entry]

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On Tuesday 17 February we were privileged to accompany a team of healthcare workers from Arsim Dispensary to two nearby villages - Sidai and Rosso. All week long, teams are providing medicine to people to help them combat, and eradicate this disease. Sidai is the first site that Cheryl and I visited with the team. Here are some photos of the Sidai Clinic, the Sidai Waiting Room and the Parking Lot. Sidai (which means ostrich in Samburu) is one of two mobile clinics sponsored by our church. The other is at a Rendille settlement called Red Rock or Soito Nanyukuo and [View Full Entry]

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Considering that we are a hundred miles from the nearest wide spot in the road, I think the technology here is pretty nifty. First, let’s start with the basics - water and sewer. Water comes from mountain springs or wells and is collected in a concrete reservoir just uphill from the dispensary. You might call it the water tower, but it’s not a tower, so you probably shouldn’t. It is then piped down to the home(s) and a spigot in the middle of the truck yard as well as a faucet in the town of Arsim. Water for consumption by Americans [View Full Entry]

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Sunday morning is church service. It is a very spirited and spirit-filled session indeed. The men all sit on one side of the church and the women on the other. They sing together, worship together and praise together. They just don’t sit together. When the service is over they all file out, men first and they congregate on the side of the chapel that they sit on, only outside. There doesn’t seem to be much conversation, but it’s like a time of fellowship. Then the women file out and they all congregate on the side of the chapel they sit on. [View Full Entry]

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Gloria finally arrived home about 1 AM from her meetings in Baragoi, a town 3 hours away by vehicle. Naturally, we didn’t see her until the morning. It seems that government bureaucracies are no different wherever you go. The Kenyan Ministry of Health has started a push to vaccinate people all over the country against Trachoma, a disease of the eye. I’ll talk more about that later. In their infinite bureaucratic wisdom they decided that all of the healthcare workers throughout the country needed to gather together in the town of Baragoi for two days to learn all about the v [View Full Entry]

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The Dispensary here at Arsim services virtually all of northwestern Kenya with medical needs. Our friend, Gloria, is living and working here under the joint auspices of the Government of Kenya (Ministry of Health), ELCK (Evangelical Lutheran Church in Kenya and WMPL (World Mission Prayer League). There are probably a couple of other acronyms to contend with, but I forget. We are spending a second day here in the heat and dust without Gloria to help us interpret customs and what we should be doing and what we shouldn’t. Fortunately, she left us in the charge of a couple of her [View Full Entry]

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As it turned out, the doors to the MAF hanger opened at 7:00 so we could weigh ourselves & our luggage obtain our tickets and get trucked out to the plane and load up. We flew a Cessna Caravan, a 12-seat single prop plane, about an hour and a half to Korr a town with a landing strip a bit over 60 kilometers (approximately 40 miles) to Arsim, where our missionary friend Gloria Sauck lives and works. We were met by the Arsim Dispensary’s ambulance and driver, Peter, for the 2-hour trip. The road (if you can call it that) is [View Full Entry]

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Fish and Daniel picked us up about 10:00 for a trip to the Merkato - the largest open air market in Africa. We wandered around for a couple of hours and were amazed by the variety of goods for sale - foodstuffs, mats, baskets, furniture, building materials, carpets, -- if it’s not there, you don’t need it. Cheryl was fascinated by the donkeys. Daniel told me that if one owns a donkey, he can earn up to 100 Birr (about $9) per day. Goods are transported around the Merkato on peoples’ heads, on donkeys, and even on trucks. Most store keepers [View Full Entry]

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