The medical clinic results

When we arrived back at the clinic there were so many more waiting to be treated. The team had gotten organizied and the process of seeing each person had begun. Dr Kasenbeli told us about the District Health Officer of Kitale and that he wanted to come and meet us. This was the very first time that this particular clinic was opened and so in Kenyan style we had a ribbon cutting ceremony. The people waiting to be seen crowded around the clinic and Pastor made the announcement of the opening thru the support of Kitale district, Dr Kasenbeli, OWI US and OWI Kenya. The Distrct Health Officer spoke and then Marjaana said a few words then was given the honor of cutting the ribbon. Back to work immediately. First stop was the blood pressure/pulse table. nurse Linda and Joy were taking those while Jen V took down the numbers. I came to help later to give the nurses a break. Jen became honorary nurse taking the vitals and I wrote the numbers. Marjaana was our over all coordinatior of the med clinic making sure that all details were being handled and connecting people to the right resources. Nurse Mumbi was in charge of the medical side of coordination making sure that we had all the meds we needed. . Running here and there and even going into town on a motorcycle when the vans were not available to pick up more. The 7 clinians who came to help were seeing the paients and then sending them to lab and HIV testing. Those showing positive of which I heard were last count 10 and mabye more before the end of the day were counseled by our social workers Becky V, Evelyn O and Jenn T along with the help of our friend Alex who flew in from Sierra Leone. The pharmacy was manned by OWI Kenya Irene and Jenn R, Jan M and Tom helped with packaging pills and crowd control. Also our friend Silvia joined us for the morning to help there. And Belinda ran errands into town and picked up supplies from the district hosp in Kitale. By the end of a very long and hot day the clinic had treated over 1500 people. . Had there been more time more medicine and more energy we could have seen more. They just kept coming. So many people with sickness and no way to pay for the treatment they needed. My heart broke for every child and adult who came and literally waited for hours and hours in the hot sun to be helped. The team was drained physically and emotionally but excited that so many were helped. Tomorrow we have the Womans Conference at Deliverance Church and Pastor Rosemary from Kenya will speak along with several of the team and OWI Kenya sharing.......talk to you soon
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