Today was an experience of a lifetime. I work in a hospital in Texas. The hallways are constantly buzzing with
administration and disease control personnel working hard to make sure we are
kept up on the latest and greatest technology and techniques. Cleanliness is a must – we have signs on the
walls telling patients that they are allowed to ask us to wash our hands and
use gloves before seeing them. We have
tons of gloves, masks and gowns to protect us from each and every little thing
and to prevent it from spreading to the next patient. Well today I saw the opposite end of the
world. The opposite of everything that I
know and have always been taught. Today
I saw a hospital in Kenya that many people from the villages would consider a
“higher end” kind of place. You walk in
and see the receptionist and the medical records piled in old envelopes behind
them. The pharmacy is in a room that is
not closed or locked directly past the receptionist area with a guy working
behind it who I think had on the job training.
The hospital rooms were individual rooms with 2 old beds in them and a
table in between. The hallway was one
single hallway that was open to air – there was no roof! They were kind enough to
show us the surgical suite too – they had us take off our tennis shoes and walk
from the outside in our socks all around their “sterile surgical suite”. Sterile surgical instruments are cleaned in
an autoclave and wrapped in clean cloth and taped – and then set on benches in
the hallway (the open to air hallway!). Nothing about this place made sense to
me. There is a hospital in Nairobi that
I am told is more similar to an American hospital – but Nairobi is an 8 hour
drive from where we are. This place is
the best of the best for the people in the village.
Today I also got to do some backpack medicine in a village
near Chris and Lisa. I was nervous and
praying before going into the village. I
have always been told that Kenyan people are so kind and welcoming but we were
walking into a village with people who we had never met before at all. I was expecting to go some place that at
least Chris and Lisa were familiar with but this place was so completely
new. We walked into this village of huts
that were falling over and people started yelling “Jambo! Welcome! Please come
sit down!!” I know when I am at home
and someone comes to my door, I don’t even answer sometimes if I don’t know
them!! These people ran up to us as fast as they could to welcome us into
their homes. Almost everyone in this
village were sick – really sick. Many
were incredibly malnourished and we had to give worm medicine to all of the
children except one. One child had a
103.2 temperature and looked like he felt terrible. The mother had taken him to the doctor and he
had prescription antibiotics and some other fever reducer medication that
wasn’t even labelled. We saw this child
first and I gave him some childrens ibuprofen and within 30 minutes his fever
was down to 101 and he was already feeling better – he had supposedly been
taking this medication for 3 days and still had a very high fever.
Can you imagine not having over the counter medications for
your family? Can you imagine getting sick and not being able to get medical
treatment? Can you imagine going to a hospital with an open to air hallway and
walking in the dirt and dust to get to the bathroom. Did I mention there was a random clothes line
running the length of the hallway in this hospital? Can you even imagine? We
met 2 patients in the hospital and asked to pray with them. Most people in America would have looked at
us like we were crazy! These people were really kind and allowed us to pray
with them and would clap and thank us for coming to see them afterwards. These people were so grateful and had no idea
what they are missing. We gave the
hospital donated multivitamins and there were no questions asked. Things are just so different. When I go home I hope I never take the things
we have access to for granted. The world
is so much bigger than I ever knew.
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