Makeni

We travelled to Makeni today and visited 3 hospitals- the old government hospital, the Holy Cross private hospital and the new government hospital. THe old hospital is very run down, has one doctor, an xray machhine that doesn't work because the battery is dead, and 4 nurses, 2 midwives. The doctor is an orthopedic surgeon who does everything gyne, ob, peds you name it. Holy Cross is in much better shape with a functioning xray machine, a lab, and 2 OR suites. They have a special separate OR suite for microsurgery on hands. It operates 2-3 months a year by Italian team. They come and repair war injuries. When we visited the new government hospital we doscovered a gem of a prothetics clinic that was so awe inspiring, the work they do changes peoples lives in the rural areas, they travel around fitting prosthetics, and even have a boy in a village with an Ilazarov bone lengthening device. That is high tech medicine in a low tech setting.

We walked around the village after looking for the tree that leaks poyo- palm wine. We couldn't find it but did get to play some soccer with the Gr 8 boys, they loved seeing me try to keep up to them. We all had a good laugh.

I cried today too. There are a few families living very marginally in this community. As I was snapping pictures it occured to me that if I return next year one of them may not be here. You see the reddish hair and big bellies that indicate a lack of protein in the diet and know how close they are to dying from malnutrition. The young kids often come in the evening and we sing songs together Old McDonald, etc, they love it when we song and we love it when they sing. It is a fun hour or so. I also have been playing cards with number and letter cards so we sing the alphabet song and do math sums. Fun fun.

Love to all gonna go now. Likely going out of town for the weekend to Outambe NAtional PArk it will be interesting. Oh and saw a giant spider last night in Clare's room. None in my room and still no snakes.

Cheers Jane