VBS (:

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Hi!

Just finished our first VBS today…yesterday, they told us to prepare for 200!!! Kids!!! So, naturally I freaked out! J but thank God that it was only 47! And that there were 10 adults! It was very cute to see them all sing and dance! Kenyans can dance! All the kids have this natural rhythm that, well, to be racist…Chinese ppl just don’t have! ;) You can imagine how the kids giggle at how I can NOT do half of what they can! They love it! J

I have had the most wonderful time here the last week. I can’t believe we have seen 900 ppl in the past 4 days of clinic. We have all become drug pushers! Amoxycillin, paracetamol or amodiquine anyone? Yes…that’s for all you pharmacists (or if you are here you would be called a chemist!) out there! J It has been amazing to also see how God’s given us the strength and energy to keep on going and going and going AND still smile and have fun afterwards! Although, at the rate we are going we are training our bodies to not eat lunch and to drink only a sip of water (b/c I’m afraid of using an outdoor squat potty!). We’re saving some meds for UTI’s for us! J The ppl at the clinic wait for hours and yet they don’t complain, they wait patiently and are grateful for what we are doing. EVEN the kids wait patiently and quietly!!! Cynthia mentioned how “can you imagine doing this in china?!!” it would be soooo loud!

AND I gotta say how we are so spoiled here!! We live in a beautiful house and when we come back from a long day we have this delicious home cooked meal for us! Kenyan food is so good!!! Some of my favourites have been Mandazi (like a donut), pancakes, fried potatoes, stews, peas, beans, cabbage and in the morning: Uji (a porridge made out of wheat millet). It has also been great to eat together as a team and with our Kenyan family at the dinner table. So many stories and laughter!

I guess I could go for awhile, but I won’t drag this on…one more side note…I super LOVE the music here!! It’s like a mix of latin, reggae and good hip hop! The beats are awesome! AND they play praise music on the “normal” radio stations and even at the supermarket!

Take care my lovelies!!!
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Hi again everyone! (:

We attended our second African worship service today! It was so fun and inspiring. The only instruments they have are drums and a keyboard, and they like to blast the keyboard and microphones super loud. The cool part about it is that even though the worship team and music is extremely loud, you can still hear the congregation sing because everyone sings loudly and passionately. What’s even cooler is that all the children sing and dance too, and they’re just adorable!

It’s been a great weekend of rest and I’m so ready to work again this week. We ordered thousands of multivitamin pills and a whole bunch of other meds…so we will be sorting them once they arrive. This week we’re making visits to IDP camps and having one last day of clinic at the church. Apparently there will be thousands of people there so we’ll try to do as much as can to help. We might have to work out of our van. Don’t worry though because we’re all pro pharmacists. The coolest drugs I think are probably Cephalexin (cause it’s so fun to say) and Promethazine (cause it looks like candy and it’s blue!). I also got to do HIV tests for some people as well as follow through with several patients’ counselling. I have to say it’s not the easiest breaking the news, and to hear some of their stories..it was really hard ): I can only pray that God will bless them and protect them. So please remember to pray for all our patients and the people we meet here! It is God who really does the healing here. We’re just his servants after all!
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Hello everyone: Thank you for all your prayer and support. We’ve had an exhausting week but thanks to your prayers, we don’t usually feel tired until the end of the day when the clinics are over. Practicing third world medicine here is everything I imagined it to be. It’s primitive and challenging because of the limitations in resources and complexity of medical and social problems. There are too many patients for us to see but we try the best we can.

It has been so rewarding to take part in God’s work here in Eldoret. At times, I’ve felt so discouraged because I feel like I’m doing so little to help these people. What can I possibly do to help people with muscle pain secondary to years of hard physical labour? What difference can thirty tablets of multivitamins make in a malnourished person’s life? How do you help a man with severe high blood pressure requiring lifelong medications if he can’t afford to eat three square meals a day? Bishop encouraged us by saying that everything we do, say or give is God’s love poured out to these people. Everything we’re doing is only the tip of the iceberg of something greater that God is orchestrating.

God is doing something amazing in this town and we’re so thrilled to be a part of it. Please continue to pray for the people in this town. Pray that their lives and experiences of healing can be a blessing to those around them.
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AH MA NGO SEUNG DEEN SEE!!!!
Habari zenu kila mtu! Tunafuraha hapa lakini tumechoka!

Ok, I’ll write in English now because I’m limited in all the other languages. Well, it has definitely been an eventful week, from the clinics to the VBS. But God has been good to us and have kept us safe and well. On Thursday, we were to have our last clinic at the church and many people had come for the clinic. When we arrived at the church, there were a good 200 people already waiting for us. 2 hours into it, we decided to stop giving out forms to people so that we wouldn’t be there til midnight. You can only imagine how hard it was to turn away people from getting treatment when they have never even had the chance of seeing a doctor for their ailments. By the end of the day, we had seen 291 patients. Since there were many more who wanted to be seen, we are now going back to the church on Wednesday to do another clinic.

Many things have not gone the way we had hoped it would, but God is faithful and He sees us through. By the end of the last clinic, we didn’t know if we would have enough meds to give to the people, but we were able to. On Saturday, the cars that were to bring the food to children broke down and we waited for a couple of hours for it to come, but the children were happy to have rice and potatoes. We are constantly reminded that all things are possible with God. He’s the One who gives us strength throughout the days; He’s the One who gives us abilities we never thought we would have (drug pushers); He’s the One who gives us grace to love each person who walks through the doors.

As mentioned by others, please continue to pray for us as we move to different areas to do clinics. We are going to the biggest IDP (internally displaced people) camps in Kenya right now on Monday. God is doing wonders here and miracles are being done.

(On Thursday, during our busiest day, the “media” came and interviewed Cynthia, Bishop and myself. We were on TV and the radio on Friday, but never got to see it. We’re trying to get a copy of it.)

Au revoir pour maintenant!
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