Blog, Mission 2024

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A Busy Friday

Friday was a busy day as expected, with many triaged, numerous wounds dressed, and medications handed out. We also made a couple of hospital trips, one van load again with two nurses for some more tests like X-ray and ultrasounds. Sadly, we encountered our first very ill patient who had to be physically carried in by family and friends. She was brought by the experienced nurses to the hospital in hopes of being admitted for care and treatment. There were a lot of issues with test results, treatment, and transfers amongst hospitals, but our nurse left this young 21-year-old girl in the hospital with an emergency contact number so that we could help her receive the care she needed to get better.

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A Saturday Half-Day and Celebration

Saturday we had a half day with a party—well, we were told it was a half day but if you do the hours, it was more of a 75% day. The day flew by as us Canadian nurses, Kenyan nurses, and the chief medical officer were all looking forward to some relaxing fun time together that afternoon. Despite a light rainfall, we still managed to enjoy some pizza, candy, and drinks together after the rain stopped. The rain made the dance floor a tad bit muddy, but that did not stop the Kenyan nurses from showing us how to dance and move our hips in ways we didn’t know were possible.

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Sunday Fun: Hikes and Boat Rides

Sunday was our day off where we split into two groups. Three nurses went off to Kakamega forest for a hike, and the rest of us headed to Lake Victoria for a boat ride and hippo watching. Sadly, no hippos were seen as the water levels were too high, but it was a nice relaxing boat ride, and some of us even got a little sun-kissed you could say. We then headed to a local market. We were warned that this was when we had to stand our ground and be stern with prices. Well, that was easy when we had an unknown secret bargainer on this trip—who would have known the small but mighty “baby” of the group knew how to take charge and had some mean wheeling and dealing skills in her back pocket.

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Comparing Adventures

During dinner, all of us hippo goers were anxious to hear about the forest walk and all of the animals they got to see—which was monkeys and butterflies during their 9 km walk. And us boaters got to say, we saw no animals but had a great day nonetheless.

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Reflections on Healthcare

We have always said on this trip how fortunate we are to be from Canada and the healthcare we receive. I know as a floor nurse it was always frustrating when you had to wait for results or for tests to be done, but I had always been proud of the care I gave despite the impatient wait for results or answers. I was personally shocked to hear people will just be left untreated in the hospital if they did not pay upfront and eventually would die. It hurt my heart to hear, and all of our hearts were devastated last night at the dinner table when we got the call that this young girl from Friday had passed away at the hospital. Despite us being willing to front the bill for treatment, antibiotics, tests, etc., it was the weekend and they were not able to do anything until certain results came back. It was a hard reality for all of us, and we truly believe that if this young girl had been fortunate enough to receive the care we do in Canada, she would have been able to survive and tell the story. Now we are all left to mourn the loss.

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Update on Day 7

Today is day 7 of clinics. I have sadly been under the weather and spent the day at our home away from home. So, I am relying on the next blog to be posted by my partner in crime tomorrow morning at the breakfast table while I can sit back and enjoy a coffee. Thanks for following along on this journey, and hopefully, the third time's a charm and I have finally figured out how to upload pictures properly. Again, I am a nurse, a jack of all trades, but I usually leave the IT technical stuff up to the professionals.

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