K E N Y A A F R I C A

Dearest Friends and Family,

Greetings to each of you in the name of the light of the world, Jesus Christ. We pray that each of you are surrounded by His light and able to reflect it into a hurting and dark world.

A week ago Wednesday, the headline of the "Nation", the Kenya newspaper we read, was "Power Outages Nationwide". Our long rains from March through May were not sufficient and the reservoirs from which the vast majority of our electrical power comes, are so low that the government is making a weekly schedule of the nationwide outages. Persons who have experienced this in the past said that outages were usually 7:00am - 1pm and 1:00pm - 7pm. That seemed very tolerable as we would have electricity at night when it is most helpful. However, the first schedule, starting 1 Sept. has outages around the clock. Our area was not included in the first week of outages but the paper assured us the schedule would rotate and all would experience them. Also we have had numerous problems with our telephone. It was dead from 27 Aug. - 1 Sept. When we do have problems it seems to take longer and longer to fix. Well, all that to say that you will probably not be hearing from us as often. If you do not, please know it is because of power outages or our phone being down.

Bill's many projects are going well. The guest house is moving along very quickly. The walls are completely up. He has completed entering all the data for Payroll in accounting and is now waiting to train the Payroll person to learn how to run reports and do the day to day entry. The street children project is going well. Not all of the boys go daily for bathing, food and lessons as they do not want to give up their glue. I'm not certain if I mentioned that most the street children sniff glue. One of the rules at the center is no glue. But the majority of boys are willing to give up their glue for the food and lessons. Please continue to pray for this program.

Today when Bill and I walked to the Post Office and to the market together, one of the boys approached Bill and asked him to buy him some food. Bill was so kind to the young boy. He asked him why he wasn't going to the center and the boy told him he had glue and didn't want to give it up. Bill slowly looked him in the eyes, smiled and explained that the boy must follow the rules. The boy accompanied us shopping and then headed for the center. Please pray for these young boys and the program.

For the past several weeks I have been spending much of my time on the medical and surgical units. I have completed the Nursing Care Assessments (a practical assessment that the students do, performing nursing care on a group of patients while a tutor and a clinical nurse observe)for our sophomore students and am presently working with the freshman students on the medical unit teaching them to take and interrupt vital signs, give bed baths, do catheter care, etc. and working one on one with the three senior students that failed their hospital exam, trying to help them relate knowledge to practice. Thus I thought I would share a few stories about the many patients I have seen.

Recently, during one of the Nursing Care Assessments on the surgical unit the student I was assessing had the following four patients. Actually one of the patients was discharged but still under her care. The patient discharged was a 26 year old male that had been cut with a panga (machete) on his neck, right arm and ankle by his father, with whom he lives. The most severe cut on his right arm was sutured but due to the fathers refusal to pay any more money, the man was going home with the cut on his neck and ankle still open. The two cuts looked clean but definitely needed suturing. As I listened to the student teach this patient how to care for his wounds, I wondered how his physical and emotional wounds would ever heal.

Another of her patients was a 22 year old male that had been shot with an arrow in his chest by an acquaintance. He came to the hospital 28 hours after sustaining the injury and was immediately rushed to the OR for emergency surgery. In the OR they drained 4 liters of blood off his chest. That he lived seems to be a miracle. The day I saw him his chest tube was draining well and he was able to get out of bed on his own. As the student checked and cleaned his chest wound, I wondered what had caused such a serious injury and what would happen to his "acquaintance" when he was released from the hospital.

In the next bed was a 25 year old male that had just returned from surgery. His right hand had been almost amputated and had been sewn back as well as possible but with little hope for use of the hand (per the surgeons note). The admitting note stated that his cousin and he had been in a fight over miraa. The cousin had sustained some superficial cuts and was released after suturing. During the assessment, this young man had a anesthetic reaction and received emergency care. As I left the ward he was beginning to awaken and was complaining of severe pain. Certainly that day the pain was caused from his injured hand, but I wondered how much more pain he would experience from the loss of the use of that hand.

The final patient was a 19 year old male that had been in a fight with his brother-in-law and sustained cuts to the head, face, neck, back and upper arms. He had broken ribs and a crushed ankle. He had been to surgery three times and was now close to discharge. He was only awaiting the swelling in his leg and ankle to decrease so a cast could be applied. His scars would be a testimony to the anger and violence that seem to be so prevalent in this community, especially with those that grow miraa.

As I left the unit, I could only pray that God's love would replace this anger and violence. To my sorrow the vast majority of patients that are admitted to our surgical unit are trauma patients rather than scheduled surgeries. Dr. Ziegler, our very competent surgeon, does amazing things to help heal these wounds, but it is only the love of Jesus Christ that can heal the wounds that are creating the problems. The day after the assessment I read this prayer by Carlo Carreto. I have been praying it often since then. Not just for the men on the surgical unit but for all of us.

Please keep this community in your prayers.

Thank you for your continued prayers, love and support of my mom, family, and Bill and I.

He is our comfort,

Jerri and Bill

You can answer this letter at savuto@MAF.org

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