Friday - International Medical Aid

I should preface this with the fact that I didn’t get much sleep last night due to the fact that Mombasa weather has a tendency to just break out and downpour. It rained really hard for quite a long time.

As I had mentioned earlier, before we got here, there were already a few people here working. One of the guys that had gotten here a few weeks before us is named Homayon, and he works with a program called International Medical Aid. The organization does a lot of different things from what I understand, but today a few of us went with him to an orphanage/school called Saint Patience. The area where the orphanage was located was about a fifteen minute drive through town (or should have been). Once we got to the edge of the city, the neighborhood where Saint Patience was located was down a little dirt path about another mile or so. Remember that rain I told you about? Well the dirt path that once led to Saint Patience was now a muddy river. We had two vans full of people and supplies that needed to make it to the school. We made it about half way there before the first van found a sinkhole. After about ten minutes of back and forth and back and forth it was finally free. Us less fortunate soles in the second van weren’t so lucky. We were stuck where we had stopped behind the first sunk van. Luckily, all the supplies were in the first van that made it to the school. The rest of us eventually just got out and walked the rest of the way since there was no way that van was going to make it up the slight incline in the slippery clay.

Stuck van

Eventually we got to the school and the met the students. They greeted us with tons of songs in Swahili. It was adorable. When the greetings were finished, we all went outside and the kids sat under the tent and watched us demonstrate how to use a toothbrush and toothpaste while Ferris, our program coordinator, gave them step-by-step instructions in Swahili. We also repeated the same demonstrations and instructions for how to wash your hands with soap. When we were finished all of the kids got their own toothbrush, toothpaste, and soap. When Ferris asked the group of kids who owned a toothbrush, no one raised their hands, and their teacher informed us that they use sticks…no paste…no brush…just sticks.

Hand Washing Demonstration

Group Picture

They were all very grateful for the things we had brought. When we were finished passing out the items we had a few minutes to sit down and play with the kids. It was sad to see how little they had but nice to see how sweet and well behaved they were for being such a large group.

Their School Building

The name written in chalk above the door

They had just finished their welcome songs

I asked Miss Patience, the teacher, how many students she had and she informed me that 88 kids attend her school. It was a very tiny building made of plywood and tin and not much bigger than the cabin that we are staying in here at the compound. She also told us that she has to rent the building that she teaches in and it costs her 3000 Shillings a month (a little more than 30 USD).

The kids absolutely loved our cameras. They would come and ask you to take their picture just so that they could turn the camera around to see themselves. It was adorable. I would crouch down to take a picture with a child and then be swarmed with a bunch more who wanted to be in the picture too. It was encouraging to see how happy they all were despite the fact that they had very little.

As hard as it was to leave, we packed our stuff up and headed back down the muddy road. Next week we have a full day scheduled to spend with an orphanage so there should be more cute kid pictures yet to come.