Sick Cucus

Wednesday is market day in Gilgil and it’s turned into a good day to catch up with many cu-cu’s.  We look forward to two of our favorites, both great grandmothers in charge of their great grand-daughters named Hannah…both currently in Primary Boarding and doing well.  First we decided to go check on cu-cu Kagure and found her happy to see us but looking a bit strange…something wrong with her left eye.  Then she admitted to two weekends of bad headaches loss of vision and hearing in one ear. Didn’t seem to be a stroke but went to a Doctor to consult and they just sent me back with a stronger pain killer????  At any rate a couple days later and she said the headaches are gone.  Then on to find cu-cu, Nyagothie.  She walks 6 miles into town every other wed for food and to find us.  We went to her daughters to find her gravely ill and rushed her to the hospital (if that’s what you want to call it….amazingly aweful and inadequit to me).  She was unconscious and in very bad shape.  We had to get a taxi to take her from one building to another and then carry her in to the ward and lay her on a plastic coated bed with no blankets!!  I had just bought a blanket for the house and pulled it out of my bag and wrapped her up….then they made us leave as we weren’t family….. sadly waited the night out and went back in the morning to at least find her conscious….and very happy to see her mzungu!  Then she went back to sleep. As of this writing she is slowly recovering…we brought warm sox, sweater, vest and stocking cap to warm her….no one had done anything else…her kids started showing up to fight over the “plot” of land she may leave behind…never bothered with their mothers comfort…AFRICA is so hard to fathom sometimes…you just walk away with tears in your eyes and hope for a better day……