Friday last day at the clinic ends at 2pm with 357 patients served

 What a blessing this trip has been for my team and for all that we have become friends with.  It was much like yesterday when we got to the clinic only worse!  We had given out 219 or so photocopies of our registration cards as "tickets" to get to the front of the line for those whom we couldn't serve by closing time Thursday.  There were at least 400 to 500 more than that on the grounds.  We couldn't even park in front of the clinic but had to lug our stuff in from the street. Wow! Here is what it looked like:

Our original plan for the day was to see the people with the tickets and then see how many more we might serve. My friend Pastor Dave used to always say "If you want to make God laugh, tell Him your plans!" Upon further investigation, I learned that people had gone to local copy shops and made copies of the blank copied registration cards we had handed out.  I was not nervous at first, but I didn't want three times as many people as we could possibly serve standing in line in the sun all morning only to find out they would not be seen. That could have gone south rapidly.  

I made my first priority getting the clinic running efficiently right away. Next we set about announcing to the crowd that it was the last day of the clinic and we were going to limit the number of patients we could see and that most of them would be better off going home and waiting for our next clinic somewhere in and around Nairobi.  We had to repeat these announcements throughout the day to even try to thin out the crowd.  By 11:30, we had decided who the last patient would be, yet many folks still hung around.  We saw the last one at 1:30pm, packed up the clinic and had a devotion and one more goodbye.  

Here are some of the 18 successful cataract surgery patients from this week, waiting for our doctors to examine them for problems or infections.  All were doing just fine.  A modern miracle, sight to the blind!

Most of my team was able to go to the Nairobi Game Park today, right near the airport and one of the best experiences in all of Kenya.  Because of all of the travel issues, most of us never got to do a safari.  In fact, I just saw the team off to the airport.  I am staying one more day and hiring Jeff, our driver during the week, to guide me around the park for birds tomorrow.  I'll fly out Saturday night and will return to Austin Sunday afternoon if all goes well.  

We were able to have a good day at the clinic without most of my team because our volunteers have been doing so well that we were around just to take care of any issues that were out of the ordinary.

It's 7:30pm here and my driver is picking me up at 6am.  We will do the safari from 6:30 until maybe noon or 1pm depending on how we're doing and if rain predicted for early afternoon appears.  I'll have a nice lunch with my friend Catherine and Jeff afterward, then return to my hotel to freshen up before heading to the airport.  More to follow as I can. Blessings everybody!

Thursday there were several hundred people waiting when we arrived at the clinic! 6-6-2024

 It got so hectic by around 11:30 that we decided not to register anyone else for the clinic.  We stopped at around 600 patients at that point knowing that we wanted to serve every person as if they were the only one in the world.  While it's great to see large numbers of people, I will always choose quality care over quantity. We gave out blank copies of registration cards to around 220 people to give them priority Friday morning.  Tomorrow's clinic will be about half a day as our team members are flying out that night to go home.  I was able to extend my stay by one day for free, because the delayed flights we had starting May 28th during the storms in Dallas were involuntary on our part.  I have our super clinic driver Jeff taking me to the Nairobi Game Park Saturday and expect I will have lunch with him afterwards before getting ready to go to the airport early in the evening.  I'll finally arrive home in Austin around 4pm Sunday.

Here are some pictures showing how chaotic it was today, I thought yesterday was bad!

There 18 people who showed up early, under the impression that we were going to get them to a hospital for their cataract surgeries.  While we hadn't planned on it, Jeff found a way to hire a nearby local bus and it delivered our precious cargo, plus the young twins that had cataracts in both eyes for their initial exam.  By the end of the day, all 18 had undergone successful surgery. Thank you, Jesus!

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Jeff posing with his fancy bus that he hired

At the end of the day, we had seen over 600 patients and were all dog tired, but it's a good kind of tired! There were quite few moms with little kids with eye issues that we either could help or are going to find a way.  We packed up the clinic and then we had our final devotion, during which I talked about the Fellowship of the Believers from the end of chapter 2 of the Book of Acts. We also awarded the

certificates of appreciation to our volunteers, since much of our team will not be at the clinic tomorrow morning.  It was a moving experience with a lot of laughter and a few tears as we parted company.  Jeff closed the day with a powerful prayer. Thanks for reading everybody, more to follow as it is possible.

Blessings!

Wednesday clinic was biggest yet - 603 patients were served

 Amanda, Arron, Sarah and Catherine went out to the school in Kongasis today, it was such a blessing to us last Friday that we just had to let our educators and media guy experience it for themselves. We ran the clinic with 4 of us supervising our local volunteers.  They are doing very well at each of the stations, so our job now is to troubleshoot any issues and do what we can to keep things moving smoothly.

When we arrived, it had been raining and our tents were just being erected.  As they went up, the 150 people or so who were already waiting scrambled to take shelter in them, causing the start of the day to be anything but easy.  Our registration people gave each patient a number to use to claim a spot in line when the process could begin, but others kept arriving, so we had two lines forming, one with newcomers and ones with people who had preceded them coming from the tents.  It took until about noon before things got straightened out, we won't let that happen again! Here's what it looked like then:

I am expecting a large crowd again tomorrow, our last full day at the clinic.  Friday will be a half day as the team flies out Friday night and will need time to freshen up before heading to the airport.  Amanda, Sarah and Kevin will be back just in time for our big VBS at Redeemer for several hundred kids, glad I'm not doing that with jetlag!  They are looking forward to it, it's a very special ministry.

That's about it for now, need to get some rest before doing it again tomorrow!  Blessings!

Tuesday the clinic really began to roll

 We saw 500 patients on then nose and could have done a few more if we didn't have to drive across Nairobi for our team dinner.  Our volunteers are doing a stellar job and they will need to keep it up since 3 of our team will be visiting Catherine's school in Kongasis tomorrow and those who have never done a photo safari will get a chance Thursday or Friday morning.  

Our day started out with a hearty breakfast at our hotel.  It's a nice place with a mall and all kinds of food in walking distance.  The only downside is the bathrooms are poorly designed with a shower with no curtain adjacent to the commode so the whole room gets wet.  Not only that, but the water has only 2 temperatures, scalding hot and inferno. I need to try to get this sorted out.  I've practically had to take a washcloth bath halfway through a shower when I can't take it anymore.  I thought it was only me until the team brought it up and we all had the same experience. Wow!

Our team dinner had me sitting between Catherine and her mother who dearly loves me. Pictured below is me giving Mama Hershey Kisses and Catherine Peanut M&M's, delicacies they can only get from the States. It is already 10:30pm here and we expect to see large numbers of people if tonight's rains don't turn the outside into a mudslide. Time for some good rest. Blessings everybody!

The clinic begins in Dandora! 268 patients served

 We got up bright and early to have breakfast at our hotel and the chefs had not arrived at 6:30 as planned.  We were able to order from the menu and were on the road by 7:15 however and at the clinic by around 8am to begin setting things up.  Our volunteers and Pastor John were there, but we couldn't do anything other than pick out the locations of our tents because no one with a key had arrived yet, so the late breakfast didn't really matter in the long run. We got our footlockers out and the clinic began to take shape as we decided where each station would be.  The spacious room is a real blessing, because it gives us a lot of flexibility to change things around quickly should the need arise.

We opened the day with a prayer and began our work. As usual, the first hour or so was quite chaotic as we put the finishing touches on the flow of the clinic.  It looked like things would never begin to go, but we were blessed by having quite a few old hands on the team that were able to take charge of their areas fairly quickly.  We did have some paperwork faux paux that we quickly corrected and we used it as a learning moment for our new team members.  We need to be vigilant that we have consistent paperwork as patients flow from one part pf the clinic to the next and we all need to be able to spot when things just aren't right.

At lunchtime, the church provided a lunch for all of the volunteers and ourselves that was very tasty.  Some of us were served Kenyan portions, including me, and you are expected to eat it all. It was tough, but I got it done and vowed to never let it happen again.

One of the most meaningful moments of the clinic for me was when I was brought 2 registration cards of two identical twins who were 5 years old who both had congenital cataracts in both eyes.  Carol, our friend from several clinics, made a few phone calls and found out it would cost as much as $1500-$3000 per eye times four to get surgical treatment.  She had a better idea, for only about $30, the two of them could be examined by the surgeon and perhaps a government program could be brought to bear.  Here Carol and I with Regina, the mom and the two boys. We're praying for a miracle!

Jon, Sarah and Amanda went to the airport when Jon received a message that his bags had arrived.  No such luck for the others, but perhaps tomorrow.  They have all kept good cheer despite these inconveniences, which is what they are compared to the problems folks encounter in the slums every day.  

We finished the day with a beautiful song from our volunteers, a report by me on the clinic and also praising the volunteers for a great day, the Pastor making a few remarks and Rudy closing the day with prayer.

After arriving at our hotel, 6 of us walked across the street and had KFC.  I never thought I would travel 8000 miles to eat KFC but it really hit the spot!  Tomorrow, right after both clinics, our team will join up for our traditional group dinner. Since we may be getting in a little late, please don't worry if there is no blog post.  Blessings everybody!

Sunday worship and we got to examine the clinic site and are very heartened! 6-2-2024

 We all got a little extra rest except the few of us who went to a sports bar to watch the World Cup Final.  All of them were Real Madrid fans, so even though they were a bit worse for the wear, they were happy.  Breakfast was served at 7am as usual and many of us were there then, while others trickled in, since none of us needed to leave for church until around 9:30am.  We heard stories from the road from Arron and Sarah, who finally got to Little Daughters late last night.  It was great that they finally made it after persevering through one obstacle after another. 

This morning was one of the two times it would be possible to get a team picture, the other being at our combined group dinner at a nice restaurant one evening this week.  I got the group posed, took some test shots and then had my friend Geoffrey take the shot once I was in place.  A rare photo of Dave in a picture from one of his cameras! 

We parted company with the other team as they left for Kawangware. We left for worship in Dandora and got diverted as we decided to drop all of our luggage off at our hotel.  It is a nice place, but the Wi-Fi is a little flaky in my room on the 3^rd floor.  Not really good enough for much in the way of picture

s. Anyway we arrived a bit late for church but the pastor and the congregation were very accommodating and were perfect host.  We saw choirs of every age and especially enjoyed the little ones singing and trying to do a little choreography. It was cuteness overload!

After that, Pastor John welcomed us, Catherine said a few words about our project, and I introduced the team.  I knew I would be preaching a bit and did a modified version of a talk I’ve done during our Evangelism training on being a questionable Christian based on 1 Peter 3:15. Pastor John liked it and added a few thoughts on my topic but decided not to preach himself saying I had taken care of it.  There was nothing really special from my point of view but the personal testimony that illustrated my point touched the congregation and my team members who were very kind in their assessment of what I had said.  Thank you, Jesus!

The team enjoyed the company of the little children after worship, as Catherine, Geoffrey and I met with the Pastor and our volunteers, many of whom are in the leadership of the church.  It was obvious to me that we are going to have a great partnership this week.  We answered the questions they had, and I went over the general flow of the clinic with them and assured them that everyone would be doing wonderful jobs in each station of the clinic in no time with us there to teach and supervise them.

The church served us a fabulous meal around 2pm, it was so good and bountiful that none of us is even tempted to try out the restaurant in the hotel for dinner, but will snack and turn in early.

We proceeded to the community center where the clinic will be held and the veterans on the team helped with brainstorming the flow of the clinic, given where tents might be setup outside, taking predicted rain into account and the areas where there was already mud and puddles from recent downpours. The bulk of the clinic will be inside the community center and the room we have is the size of a small school gymnasium, so I’m very happy with our options as we tweak the clinic into shape.

We parted company with Pastor John and were driven back to our hotel by our driver.  For the newbies that hadn’t driven through a slum before, I’m sure it was an eye-opening experience and it’s always fun for the old-timers in the project to point out various things we know about.  There is a mall about a city block away from our lodging, so we were able to go over as a group and buy most of the missing supplies for the clinic, plus snacks and water for our team members.

We breakfast at 6:30 tomorrow, leave for the clinic at 7 and begin setting things up by 7:30.  We hope to be open by 9am, our usual goal for a first day.  The clinic will start at 8am on subsequent days. 

Thanks for your interest. Please keep at least 5 of our team members in your prayers that are still missing luggage, they have all be wonderfully flexible and even joyful in the face of adversity.  I’m expecting great things this week! Blessings everybody!

Sunday at last! Teams will breakfast together, then go our separate ways 6-2-2024

 Up early, getting packed because we say goodbye to Little Daughters and the team going to Kawangware.  Wach team will worship at the church they will be serving with, then if the past is any guide, we will check out the clinic location so we can get an idea of the layout, followed by lunch and then shopping for essentials for the clinics such as toilet paper, glass cleaner, hand sanitizer, paper towels, etc and snacks and water for each team member for the week.  One benefit of working in urban environments is that there will always be another chance to buy whatever we forget.  The teams that go to remote parts of Kenya really have to think about what they are taking with them, they may not get a second chance.

Well, time to get the items we packed in all of the team members suitcases sorted out at breakfast so that each team gets a supply of pens, duct tape, painter's tape and many other items that are needed during the clinics.

Depending on Internet availability at our hotel this evening, I will post about today's happenings as I am able. God's blessings on your Sunday!