“I will only go to Africa from Europe” (shorter distance). #lie

Three years ago, I made my first mission trip to Rwanda. See blog (https://cobbsdoeurope.com/2018/07/09/africa/). This time, it was Kenya’s turn!

I said it was too far, but I pushed my comfort zone out a little farther. The initial trip was only a 5 hr drive and then 3 flights to get to Nairobi, then just another 3-4 hr drive to Bomet, Kenya. Not too bad 😜.

Kenya 🇰🇪 is a much larger country than Rwanda. It is slightly smaller than Texas but with 28 million more people. On the east side, it borders the Indian Ocean. The west side borders Lake Victoria and the Serengeti. The country is much more arid and desert-like than Rwanda, which was very green and lush. It was overall much less clean, but then again, Rwanda is the cleanest country in Africa.

As we drove out of Nairobi, one of the first areas our driver pointed out is one of the largest slums in the world, Kibera. It went on for miles. It is estimated that nearly 1.5 million people reside in the slum.

About an hour outside of Nairobi, we reached the Great Rift Valley. It is part of an intercontinental ridge that runs from Mozambique to Tanzania, through Kenya, north toward Ethiopia and the Red Sea. It was beautiful.

We continued to drive west about 3 hours and reached our main hub, Bomet. From there, we drove roughly 2 hrs (45 ish miles) each day to get to the different clinic sites. Thankfully most of the roads are paved (but not smooth!), so the really terrible off-roading was minimal.

Here are some pictures from the drive.

The clinics

Our team was smaller than the last team and was comprised mostly of medical staff. We had 3 physicians (2 were surgeons), 3 nurses, 2 pharmacists, one veterinarian, and 6 others who helped manage lines, helped in surgery, pharmacy, and with the vet team. Additionally, we had 3 local missionaries who joined us to help.

The clinics were set up in 4 main sites, just as last time: triage, doctor, pastor, pharmacy. Additionally, we had a surgery site for minor procedures on a few of the days.

Over the 4 days, we saw over 1000 patients and handed out over 2000 meds. Roughly 10 patients were able to have minor procedures. A handful of patients were very ill and required further treatment at the local hospital or required a transfer to Nairobi. The costs of those treatments are covered by our mission.

The most common complaints are dizziness, dry/itchy eyes, stomach issues, neck and back pain, malaria, and amebiasis (amoebas in the stomach). Luckily most of these issues can be alleviated with medicine and the patients are grateful.

My favorite description of stomach issues is “lions in the stomach” – to which I’m still not sure if this is amebiasis or just hunger.

A couple of patients had blood pressures higher than I had ever seen before. Thankfully we were able to treat those as well.

Overall, we were blessed with great days and good weather for the clinics. One day there were rainstorms that forced us to pack up early but the team tried their hardest to still seek out and treat the sickest people before we left.

In addition to the medical clinic, the vet team saw thousands of animals for deworming and a minor procedure here or there. The vast majority were cows, but they also saw goats, sheep, and donkeys. The rodeo of the animals was quite a site. Not sure how they managed it, but they did!

Favorite pictures

And with that, I must say goodbye to an awesome trip. Until next time!