Refugee Relief

Hey friends,
Today was one of the hottest days we’ve had here yet. Church was full, which it hasn’t been for several weeks for several reasons.
As things started to get back “to normal” this past week, we were all made aware of a new, and probably long-term, problem- displaced people, or refugees. There are an estimated 250,000 across Kenya currently. Many are around police stations. We were told that there were some in Bomet, but most had left. We sent one of our clinical officers out Wednesday morning to investigate this as we heard some of the people there were sick. When she returned with her info, we learned that most people had already been sent to other areas, but there was still a lady there with a 1 week old baby and 2 year old child. She was sick and they brought her into the clinic. I called Sarah and told her about the lady. Sarah quickly called around and helped to gather her some food and clothes. When she took them up to her, the lady was so happy she began crying.
While Sarah was doing this we had a large hospital task force meeting to determine how we can help the refugees. Apparently the Red Cross wanted us to help primarily with medical needs. We met for about 2 1/2 hours and decided we’d go to a camp with 700 refugees in the town of Mulot, which is about 1/2 hour away. We created a team of about 50 people that with community health’s leadership, would have a medical clinic, chaplains, educators, and give out much needed supplies.
That afternoon another doctor and myself began going through medicines and supplies to take out and Sarah called to organize people for a pill packing party. We’d decided at the meet to go out on Friday, less than 48 hours, so we had to get busy.
The next morning John Spriegel (who also has a public health background) went out with a few people on a fact-finding mission to Mulot. They discovered that most people were doing well physically and there were about 500, not 700. There was also a Catholic clinic and church near by that had about 100 refugees. When John returned we all met again that afternoon and it was decided to carry a much smaller team that provided mainly supplies. There were still several supplies to organize that night, so we had another, and much larger, pill-packing party.
Friday was the big day. I was so happy to be asked to go out with this team. It ended up being about 20 of us going out. We picked up blankets, soap, and a few other supplies in Bomet on the way. On the way there was a burnt car, a burnt kiosk, and rocks and barricade items along the road as signs of the violence from the days before. Otherwise things were like normal.
We finally arrived at the refugee camp. It was at the police station in the equivalent of a large empty pasture. We met the police officers who cleaned out someone’s living quarters for us to set up our small clinic. Once things were organized we went and addressed the groups, telling them what we were doing and why we were there. There seemed to only be about 300 people, but learned there were so many babies which made the number about 500. They were divided into 4 groups based on tribe, yet only set feet apart and got along well with each other. Each group had a leader. Apparently they had no physical belongings as most of them fled for there lives leaving their homes to burn days before.
We gave out the supplies by family and saw those who had medical needs. After this another guy and I took out a football and played with the kids for awhile while the adults were receiving instruction on future plans. The people overall seemed happy and content and were very grateful for our visit.
While most of the activities were going on, John and some of the team went and visited the Catholic clinic. He also went out and did some fact-finding at the other refugee sites. When the rest of us were getting ready to head out, we were given a snack of soda, chipati and sausage. It took a long time to get back because we were on a bus the eye team uses and people wanted to be dropped off all over Bomet to do errands. The town was so busy. I was fascinated by a random cow in the middle of town. How did he get there? We did arrive back in time for me to be on call that night. We then ate supper with some friends and rested.
Saturday was a big day, Sarah’s birthday! We did some things around the house as a family, including letting Maggie swim in her new swimming pool. We also planted and watered the plants around the house. Maggie then took a nap and Sarah and I sat outside, mainly to make sure no one or no thing accidently got into the pool. Later that afternoon Sarah had a tea in her honor with some of the ladies on the compound. When Maggie woke up she swam again and then we went and picked some more zucchinis from our garden. (It is looking much better thanks to the assistance of our helpers). That evening we had dinner again with some friends and rested.
Things continue to be calm overall around here, but there are still occasional isolated attacks. We remain safe and a group of our fellow missionaries went into Nairobi this weekend and we anxiously await their report.