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Published: February 14th 2009
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Flight to Korr
interesting terraine, eh? 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 really just a track worn in the semi-desert by numerous vehicles traveling to and from Korr and points west.
Along the way, we saw about 3 villages and many of the villagers stood by the side of the road and waved and shouted hellos. We also saw lots of donkeys, goats, lambs and camels belonging to the villagers. We are now in the dry season, Peter explained, and it’s increasingly difficult to find adequate pasture land for the animals. That fact coupled with the fact that the people must travel to the nearest well, often 5 km (3
Cessna Caravan
This is the 10-seater plane that brought us from Nairobi to Korr, Kenya - a one and a half hour flight. I thought my aviator friends might enjoy the picture. miles) apart, on foot to carry water back to their homes makes this a hard land to live in.
Because it is desert or semi-desert, no crops can be grown here and the people must cover great distances to sell their animals, hides, wool, milk, cheese, etc. in order to buy produce, and other goods with which to survive.
Peter also told us that Gloria had been called to a government-mandated meeting of healthcare workers at a town some 3 hour drive from Arsim. The meeting would last all day today and tomorrow and that she would make it back home late tomorrow night.
He dropped us at Gloria’s house and the adjacent house formerly occupied by the Jackson family who rotated back to the US from Arsim a month or so earlier. He also turned us over to Samuel to be our guide until she returned and his friend, 20-year old Joseph, who would show us around the clinic and the area a bit later.
The house is a two-bedroom block building with running water (cold only), electricity, a kitchen, dining area and living room. Gloria had left us an ample supply of food and
Ambulance
Peter drove us and Yousef (on the right) rode with us for the short distance to Korr, where he got off. There we picked up two others and some goods for the trip to Arsim. water she had purified in the filter. By the way, the electricity is solar-powered (more on that later) and is relatively low power. Cheryl asked me to point out that her hair dryer and curler does not work here, so no pictures of her until we return to Nairobi. We decided that we should rest for a while before starting our tour.
We napped for a couple of hours and Joseph knocked on our door about 3:30 to start our clinic and area tour. I had just awakened and Cheryl was still sleeping, when he came by so we prevailed upon him to wait a few minutes while we re-dressed and had a small bite to eat before starting out.
Our tour started by walking through the goat pen to the clinic where we saw the dispensary, operatory, pharmacy, recovery ward (which is a Samburu-style stick hut), newly-built maternity ward, office building (opened in September last year) and the electrical plant. Electricity here is produced via solar panels with an array of storage batteries to supply power during non-sunny times. It happens every night, you know.
I had read in the in-flight magazine from Addis to Nairobi
that Africa receives 51% of the earth’s supply of power from the sun. This amounts to 10,000 to 15,000 times the amount of power required to run the planet. It seems that if the distribution could be arranged, we’d be free of fossil fuels completely. I’ll have to research this some more.
Joseph then took us up the hill to the new water collection tank that will soon (they hope) get water from the springs at the top of the surrounding mountains for distribution to the Dispensary and the town. From the top of the hill, we could get a fine almost aerial view of the clinic and the surrounding area. We also learned our first word in the Samburu language, “sopa”, which means “hello” and the response is “ooyeh.”
We returned home to the Jackson house about 5:00 and Cheryl did her Bible study and I took a nap until about 9:00 when I awakened to find that she had pulled the mosquito net around our bed and climbed in herself.
Mosquitoes in this area carry a variety of nasty diseases, most notably Malaria. Therefore, we are now taking Malarone, an anti-Malarial drug that we must take for the entire time we’re in an at-risk area. We also take it for two days before exposure and seven days after.
Tomorrow, we’ll get up in time to attend the daily devotional time at the church building with the people of the area. I’ll tell you about that then.
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Loren
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Adventureland
Cheryl and Biel, it sounds like you have found some true adventure. Packing this into two and a half months is amazing. Hey Biel, try to stay off that raw stuff. I know you are attracted to it but...no wait. This time you have a nurse with you. Go for it.