Day 18 Wednesday 22nd February

Early, noisy morning as we loaded 2 van’s filled with very excited, vocal M.I.A. children, off to their annual “Sing-off” with the surrounding schools in their district. We thoroughly enjoyed experiencing the ‘surround sound’ impromptu singing along the way – it distracted us from the atrocious roads we were travelling on. After we dropped off the children, we met up with Regina, a friend of Martha’s, who also runs a reputable orphanage. Lyle and Regina discussed and organized for the malnourished 2 year old child (weighing only 4kg) that we’d seen in clinic at Nymondo, to be cared for at Regina’s orphanage.

Kenya Health will be sponsoring that child to cover her needs. We also met with Rosemary to finalize arrangements for the clinic we’ll be running this Friday 60km out of Nakuru: apparently the dreaded jiggers is a problem there, and also to discuss next week’s clinic’s at Pondamali slums. The elusive condys crystals that Lyle had tried so hard in Siaya to obtain: as part of the jiggers treatment, Rosemary had found in Nakuru ? We discovered that it’s difficult to purchase as it’s used in the process of bomb-making!

The previous day, we’d sorted through several large suitcases that Lyle had brought with him, filled with children’s clothing. We visited Rafiki Memwa –the home for sexually abused girls, that Anisha: a former employee of M.I.A. runs for Play Kenya, taking one suitcase filled with clothing, mostly warm pj’s for the cold nights. It was the pretty dresses however that caught their eyes and they eagerly tried on their new attire, proudly parading for us.

Anne-Marie founder of “Play Kenya” was there with her team from England. Anne-Marie was busily training several locals to be a part of Play Kenya. We then detoured back in time to hear the last of the singing at the school auditorium where M.I.A. were performing and brought a happy but weary group of children back home. The younger grades won 1st position for their performance while the older grades won 3rd. Well done M.I.A.! More necessary errands to be done we went back to Nakuru: to pick up our order from the chemist, see the mechanic- as the radiator overheated again and to pay the surgeon’s bill for young Ida: her operation is booked for tomorrow and it looks like she’ll be discharged on Friday.

Tammy rang: Nemo was not having a good day: her NGT needed to be resited as she’d lost 50gm’s – and as it had taken 3 days for her to gain 95gm this wasn’t good. Fund-raising for all three hospitalizations is vital!!!