Kenya's hidden hospital part two

'Come now I show you the hospital we have to walk has their are no roads'.
So we set off, the country was very mountainous and the heat was tremendous we were soon struggling has we climbed and slithered over the paths. ' How do you get people to the hospital if they are too ill to make such an hazardous journey'.
'their families carry them, people here are very strong with the life they have to live..
We eventually reached the hospital, we looked down on an array of make shift buildings , it was quite extensive and obviously was well used their were queue's of people waiting to be seen. Joseph went off to find the Doctor in charge. He came back and said he was busy operating on a patient but wouldcome soon. But he told Joseph to show us round. He took us to see the wards, it was like going back fifty years, the equipment they had was long outdated, i remember when I started my training in 1961 we were shown examples of some of the outdated methods of treatment, and these were being used here in 2002 . Also the beds were bare with no linen on them Joseph said their was nonmoney for niceties, I wouldn't have called bedclothes a nicety, patieents were curled up on the beds, a lot were suffering from Malaria, which I always imagined that only westerners suffered from, but no the locals got it too and they had no money for Drugs to treat it.
We saw pregnant mother's waiting for antenatal treatment, and some were dying from Aids. Nurses were few and Joseph said they worked long hours,some of the relatives came in and did whatever they could.
They were many waiting for urgent operations but money and man power was so limited.
The doctor then caught up with us and told us how he had trained in UK and then came back to help his countrymen. He was the only Doctor and was also the Administrator. 'this is my life I do what I can, but it is never enough, no never enough'
We asked what we could do to help, 'We need money for Drugs and equipment and we need more nurses and Doctors'.
We were quiet on our way back, we vowed to come back and try and bring something to help. We will never forget what we saw, we begged our employers for medical provisions like syringes and catheters urine bags and blood transfusion giving sets, which had gone out of date but were still usable in third world countries, The Doctor was very grateful ,but if only we could do more, If i was single i would have gone and worked there,
Joseph told us the doctor was absolutely dedicated to the hospital. In the tourist areas the hospitals are very good but in these local areas it is a very different story .

safe as houses Part one second part next week

Our holiday in Kenya was superb, we went has a family, their was my husband my daughter and her 9 year old son. we had done all the normal tourist things but this was something different.We had made friends with the hotel's motivator,that is a person who organises the visitors entertainment and encourages them to join in the various pastimes on offer.His name was Joseph and he had been telling us he was building his own house.Whenever he earned enough money he would buy bricks and other building materials and  build a bit more of his house. It sounded a long process to us but he was obviously excited about his achievements.

So he had said he would take us to see it has well has is parents house which they had built on the same plot, which they had inherited.He said he would also take us to the local Hospital has ha knew that my Daughter and myself were nurses.He said the hospitals serving the local community were far different to the ones in the tourist area's

So off we went in a Matuto which his like a camper van with benches in it they are used has local buses, they just cram the people in and maybe the occasional goat.
He had brought another man to drive the matuto he was called Amos I was a little nervous has we had never met Amos before and you hear such stories of tourists being abducted, but everyone else seemed perfectly happy about it so I kept my thoughts to myself.

We travelled for about two hours we passed through a few villages we saw men with clothing spread out on the ground with people around them Joseph explained these were gifts from tourists and instead of wearing them like the tourists intended, they were selling them so they had money to feed their families, so the tourists were really helping to  feed the poor.
They came to a village green their was cattle eating the grass and roaming round, we saw another Matuto with people piling into it and also farm animals and goats snd even hens were also being loaded onto the bus.
'We go to my house now,' Amos got off in the village, and Joseph took over driving
 we were soon at the complex .
His parents came out to greet us, such lovely people.They offered us a drink which we gratefully accepted after the long drive in the heat of Africa,They led us to a grassy area in the centre of the complex,There were palm tree's  and they just shook them and coconuts showered down, which they took and hit them with stones to open them then they passed them to us to drink the milk, never have I tasted coconut milk with such flavour. and the flesh of the coconut was  exquisite.
Joseph then explained their was a river at the bottom of the complex and that is where they got their water from.
Come he said ,I will show you my house first he showed us his parents house which was a great feat for amateurs he then showed us his own which was only partly built but we could see it shaping up.
'You like' he said
'Yes you've done a marvellous job'.he beamed he was obviously very proud of his achievement.
and so he had but we would have puled holes in it like there was no proper sanitation  they had a bucket at the side of the toilet. We asked about Electric
Oh no, only rich people have electric
My Grandson said but what about Television
Joseph laughed 'No television here '
'What do you do all night '
'We talk and play games'.
'Ooh ' he said 'What about cooking'
'We have a cauldron in the middle of the complex we cook there It is dry most of the year except for the wet season.
Life there is so different from our own but they are happy and thankful for what they do  have.