The Common Ground Project
(Sept 5-9)
(Sept 5-9)
Common Ground as it turns out is not a place, but an idea. Joshua's vision is to become a teaching center for sustainability on all levels. He teaches Kenyans to farm organically, to layer crops and how to make more money and grow more food from limited amounts of space. He teaches sustainable business practices, he is working on developing grey water systems and solar cooking and food dehydration to preserve food and increase people's food security. He is also very interested in improving public health. He has built the Chris Halperin Memorial Clinic in honor of my friend and classmate Chris Halperin who loved serving the people of Kenya so much before he died.
When medical volunteers come thru he has us teach at the schools and do various outreach programs with small communities in the area (widows, orphans, family groups, etc) to increase their knowledge of good health practices and sanitation to prevent the most common infectious diseases. Infectious diseases and malnutrition are huge problems in Kenya, followed closely by musculo-skeletal complaints due to the manual labor that is done (especially by the women). Much of the diseases are perpetuated by poor hygiene and sanitation practices and are thus totally preventable with some small changes of habits (boiling water and hand washing).
Below are some pictures from around the compound:
New Volunteer hut being built
Mr Robinson (Sister Frida's husband and owner of the land where Sr. Frida's hospital is)... Really magical man. We loved him.
Nathan demonstrates the proper use of a pit latrine
Learning to use pit latrines has proved to be quite an adventure, especially with female type anatomy.... Brooke and I feel we are batting about 50% currently.... let's just say that we are very glad of the wet grass to walk thru when we are done with our business.....
Each morning during breakfast this chicken walked into Joshua's house where we were eating, looked at everyone, then pushed open the door to Teresa and Nate's room (which was right next to the room we were eating in), closed the door behind it, and proceeded to lay an egg on their bed.....
We did three main projects while at Common Ground:
1) Teaching basic health education to the school children at Pathfinder Academy (Foundations of health are: good food, good air, good water, good sleep, good community, good work, exercise) as well as a talk on infectious diseases.
2) We also volunteered at the Sister Frida hospital for one day and then the next day the Sister Frida clinic staff came to Path Finder and held a mobile clinic at the unfinished Chris Halperin Memorial Clinic with us.
3) Health education outreach to the Imbwaka family and surrounding community
Walking to the next province to visit the Imbwaka family. Posing with school children along the way... (mzungu, mzungu.....)
We spent one day with the Imbwaka family. They are a family that has become a hub for a group of families. Joshua has connected with them and periodically works with them doing various outreach and educational things with them so that they can improve their overall quality of life and sustainability. Our job was to go and teach them about health and answer their questions about health. We were only told about this trip the night before and were told that we were supposed to plan on talking for 4-6 hours.... not really possible to prepare that much lecture material, so I started with questions and answers. That ended up taking nearly the whole time, and we just summarized our general health talk and infectious disease talk for them at the end of our time together. They had questions about all sorts of stuff. Everything from diabetes to diet, and head rushes to memory loss. Several of the women pulled me aside to ask about "women's" problems that they were not comfortable talking about in front of the men. At the end of the day they brought us some food to share with them, and then Brooke and Teresa taught them some yoga stretches. That will make a very funny video.... At the end of the day I am proud to say that we were paid / thanked with a chicken.... somehow I feel that I have now truly arrived as a physician now that I have exchanged my services for a chicken....
The Imbwaka Family Homestead
When medical volunteers come thru he has us teach at the schools and do various outreach programs with small communities in the area (widows, orphans, family groups, etc) to increase their knowledge of good health practices and sanitation to prevent the most common infectious diseases. Infectious diseases and malnutrition are huge problems in Kenya, followed closely by musculo-skeletal complaints due to the manual labor that is done (especially by the women). Much of the diseases are perpetuated by poor hygiene and sanitation practices and are thus totally preventable with some small changes of habits (boiling water and hand washing).
Below are some pictures from around the compound:
New Volunteer hut being built
Mr Robinson (Sister Frida's husband and owner of the land where Sr. Frida's hospital is)... Really magical man. We loved him.
Nathan demonstrates the proper use of a pit latrine
Learning to use pit latrines has proved to be quite an adventure, especially with female type anatomy.... Brooke and I feel we are batting about 50% currently.... let's just say that we are very glad of the wet grass to walk thru when we are done with our business.....
Each morning during breakfast this chicken walked into Joshua's house where we were eating, looked at everyone, then pushed open the door to Teresa and Nate's room (which was right next to the room we were eating in), closed the door behind it, and proceeded to lay an egg on their bed.....
We did three main projects while at Common Ground:
1) Teaching basic health education to the school children at Pathfinder Academy (Foundations of health are: good food, good air, good water, good sleep, good community, good work, exercise) as well as a talk on infectious diseases.
2) We also volunteered at the Sister Frida hospital for one day and then the next day the Sister Frida clinic staff came to Path Finder and held a mobile clinic at the unfinished Chris Halperin Memorial Clinic with us.
3) Health education outreach to the Imbwaka family and surrounding community
Walking to the next province to visit the Imbwaka family. Posing with school children along the way... (mzungu, mzungu.....)
We spent one day with the Imbwaka family. They are a family that has become a hub for a group of families. Joshua has connected with them and periodically works with them doing various outreach and educational things with them so that they can improve their overall quality of life and sustainability. Our job was to go and teach them about health and answer their questions about health. We were only told about this trip the night before and were told that we were supposed to plan on talking for 4-6 hours.... not really possible to prepare that much lecture material, so I started with questions and answers. That ended up taking nearly the whole time, and we just summarized our general health talk and infectious disease talk for them at the end of our time together. They had questions about all sorts of stuff. Everything from diabetes to diet, and head rushes to memory loss. Several of the women pulled me aside to ask about "women's" problems that they were not comfortable talking about in front of the men. At the end of the day they brought us some food to share with them, and then Brooke and Teresa taught them some yoga stretches. That will make a very funny video.... At the end of the day I am proud to say that we were paid / thanked with a chicken.... somehow I feel that I have now truly arrived as a physician now that I have exchanged my services for a chicken....
The Imbwaka Family Homestead
Comments