Wana Duma Children’s Project

Well Friday taking David to Jomo Kenyatta Hospital turned out to be a monster of a day…. Daniel and David spent the night at the house so we could leave by 6 am from Gilgil for the two hour(+) drive into Nairobi. The rains started the night before and I delayed our departure by 20 minutes so it would be better on the roads. It got us into Nairobi a touch later then I wanted as we then had to navigate rainy rush hour traffic. At one point Daniel started making a lot of noise about something in the road and then under the car.  Knowing me and animals he came to a dead stop….cars rushing by hooting their horns, a guy on the corner came out in the street and tried to get this small kitten from underneath with no luck….so I jumped out crawled under the car in the mud and rain and snagged the little bugger threw him inside my fleece jumped back in the car and away we went.  Crazy!!  Popped the terrified tiny little creature into my kiondo (woven bag made by one of my Cu-cu’s).  There it stayed for the next 10 hours as we waited for David to have his echocardiogram without a peep, it was so exhausted. Spending the day in a third world hospital….the largest in Nairobi for the poor is quite the reality check to say the least.  We waited on hard
benches (actually taking turns sitting as there were not enough seats for all in line) from 8:30 until our number was finally called at 4 pm.  All those waiting behind us were told to come back the next day!!  Yes we were very lucky!  In more ways than one as our boy’s echo came out perfect!  We were indeed the lucky ones.  Now we still have to define his pain but now can eliminate his heart and concentrate on his stress levels, ulcer issues and possible allergies. This all came about by a friend from UK who pulls together incredible heart, eye and soon dental missions with nothing but the best surgeons and staff from the UK.  I e-mailed Dee when concerns for David’s heart where first raised  and asked what she thought we should do and she told us to hang on and come that Fri Oct 16 for free diagnostics and if surgery was needed that too would be free. Unfortunately it doesn’t work out that way as we were to find out.  As we first had arrived to sign in we befriended two different people who had traveled a long way to bring their young children to this free surgery. MEAK the UK organization is phenomenal and does everything for free BUT the lovely Kenya hospital for the poor would not admit anyone unless they paid an outrageous admittance fee!!  So I got on the phone with Dee and she had some donors lined up to assist…these poor folks almost left after spending everything they had just to get there.  Kenya is truly a strange, cruel place.  The Kenyans are surrounded by it and don’t even feel it anymore….for newcomers it is a whole different story.

I had made masses of sandwiches for our boy and bananas for eating along the way…but he was too nervous to think about food…he thought he had open heart surgery in front of him.  But we were surrounded by many little children their folks too poor to buy them anything…so we fed the masses. 
So some long days are for different reasons….ours wasn’t for David who was fine…but God’s excuse/push to get us down there to help those other folks who would have lost their only hope and of course to rescue that terrified kitten….

It took another hour for our all clear report for David to be processed and the car wouldn’t start when we got to the parking lot….the rains started and it was getting dark fast and we were back into Nairobi Friday
night rush hour traffic which never ends….Daniel finally dropped me off at our Nairobi house at 8….he and David drove on back to Gilgil to get the car back…in the pouring rain…stopped by police at a police check
for a half hour of harassment and finally home by midnight! So it was a long horrible day for all of us and one I was happy to have over……

but after being surrounded by such poverty all day and holding up very well…I crashed…had a meltdown….really admire the MEAK team they really did and are still doing a fabulous job….they continue on all week with surgeries….truly they are a gift.