This week we worked at the Mamma Maria Clinic in a town called Custom on Muhuru Bay. Because of the number of bags we were carrying, we decided to charter a matatu directly from Common Ground to Muhuru Bay. Again it was a painfully jarring, dusty, deisel fume breathing 8 hours on the tortuously bad Kenyan roads. But we arrived safely and with all our luggage thanks to that charter. On the way we got to stop in Kisumu for lunch and internet. It is actually a lovely city with a beautiful view of Lake Victoria. After lunch we moved on to Migori to meet our next coordinator Charity. Charity came with us the rest of the way to Muhuru Bay and helped us get settled.
We stayed in a compound of huts (mud, dung and thatch) that turned out to be over 4 miles away from the town, really just stuck out in the middle of nowhere. It wasn't even on a road. You had to keep an eye out for the big anthill - and turn there to get to the compound. It was a long, hot, dusty walk into town and back each day, punctuated (and delayed) by several parades of young children that followed us down the road yelling "Muzungu!" (white people), all wanting to touch our strange skin and hair. I felt a bit like the Pied Piper.
 |
| Turn Right at the Termite Mound |
Muhuru Bay and the town of Custom is in the far southwest corner of Kenya on the border with Tanzania and on a peninsula that sticks out into Lake Victoria (with Uganda visible across the water).
Our time in Muhuru Bay was very different than our time in Common Ground. Our accomodations at the compound were not as comfortable, and as we were not staying with the coordinator, we did not connect as well with our hosts. There were definitely some cultural and language challenges. Muhuru is very hot and dry. The compound we slept at was a 4-5 mile walk down a hot, dusty and busy road to the clinic. We were pretty tired (both physically and emotionally) as well as completely filthy by the time we got to the clinic each morning. My feet have never been so dirty!
To compound the discomfort, we only got to bathe every few days (the water had to be carried from the lake (10 minute walk each way) and there were so many of us we thought it was not really reasonable to request that they prepare water for that many baths each day.
The road into Custom: walking to work
To compound the discomfort, we only got to bathe every few days (the water had to be carried from the lake (10 minute walk each way) and there were so many of us we thought it was not really reasonable to request that they prepare water for that many baths each day.
Our clinic experience was fantastic though. Unlike the Sr. Frida Clinic which had a lab that they would not use, the Mamma Maria clinic had a really well developed protocol and patient flow that included testing for everyone before diagnosis and treatment were given. I think we all learned a lot and the staff was really open to learning about natural and preventative medicine. They were eager to add our therapies and knowledge to what they all ready knew.
We also got to plant trees at the site of the new hospital.....
There were three other volunteers at this site. Nicole was a 3rd year student from the Canadian naturopathic college. She has been volunteering in developing countries for many years and has done extensive training in homeopathy with the Abbha Light foundation in Nairobi. We learned a lot from her on treating all the tropical diseases homeopathically. Kat is a pre-med student from N. Carolina. I had a great time with her since we were both from the south. Angie is a engineer at Boeing and was working on the memory book project recording family trees and life histories for patients that are very sick and may die. We really enjoyed working and hanging with all three of these folks, and having such a large and diverse group probably really helped us all maintain our sanity and gave us all nice social buffers for when people started to bug each other, there was always someone else to spend time with...
At Muhuru we also did school education outreach programs. One of the schools had an award winning dance team and they performed for us after we fininshed teaching. That was so awesome!
One of the last days in Muhuru I convinced Charity and Brook to sneak over the border to Tanzania so I could say I had been there.
On the 18th we headed out for the Massai land. Due to a crackdown on all of the non-roadworthy cars being used for public transport, we nearly got stuck in Muhuru. There were almost no cars to be had and we again ended up chartering a private car to take us to Kilgoris where we would meet our next host Emmanuel.
Comments