Happy Leap year

Our very last clinic for this trip; how quickly time has flown. Setting off to Barut where our clinic was to be held, it became apparent that the information given that it was “not far from Pondamali slums” was incorrect. An hour later we just made it in time for the van to be completely out of fuel! Cyrus organized for a local to travel via “pik-pik” to buy some fuel and bring it back for us; this took well over 2 hours. Meanwhile the uncompleted shell of a church hall quickly was transformed into our clinic and the people came, and came and came. Approx 500 patients were seen. Cases that stood out: a child with a colostomy that had no bag/covering of any sort and needed a possible reversal, a 9 year old boy who had epileptic fits several times daily, was unable to sit or walk unassisted. His mother had died during childbirth and his widowed grandfather was raising him and couldn’t afford treatment. A woman with several abnormal growths protruding in her neck, a 2 month old baby with suspected spina bifida but mum couldn’t afford an x-ray to confirm. By 4pm the last patient was seen and we headed back to town, exhausted but happy. Yet the day was not over for Lyle and Rosemary who went to take the x-ray of a woman who’d had a total hip replacement a year ago to a local surgeon for review. Unfortunately she’d only received the “ball” and not the socket, consequently the ball was slowly grinding into the bone causing her a lot of pain and limited movement. We also heard that little Nemo has unfortunately contracted rotavirus, which will hinder her recovery L Later tonight we enjoyed an African experience over a buffet dinner a special treat, as Jenny, Glenda and Gillian would be leaving Kenya tomorrow.

(the lady with the abnormal growths / ?cancer)