This is Matt again. I spoke with Alicia this morning for the second time since she’s been gone. She couldn’t talk long, as the calling card she has is charged at almost $1 per minute. Unfortunately, Alicia is having computer issues. There is a free internet connection at the hotel, and she took one of our old computers with her (an Apple iBook G4), but she went to turn it on today and it didn’t want to start. So, if that doesn’t get remedied, Alicia’s internet correspondence will be very few and far between. I hope she can get something figured out, because I’d like to see some pictures!

Anyways, I got another email from one of the group leaders this morning. You can read it below:

Wednesday, December 2, 2009 at about 5 PM

Dear Friends and Family,

We are all hanging in there, although a few of us have begun experiencing the unwelcome effects of eating new foods in strange lands. Nothing that a few highly trained professionals can’t handle…

Yesterday (Tuesday) we had a full clinic day, beginning with our hour-long bus/truck ride on the 2-lane Oginga Odinga Road from Kisumu to Ahero. Vehicles in Kenya move forward on the left-hand side of the road and at that time of day (perhaps all day) it is packed full of trucks (pickups and larger ones for hauling freight but not 18 wheelers thank goodness), vans, buses, motorcycles (many with passengers who have paid for the ride), bicycles (also many carrying at least one paying passenger), pedestrians, cows, sheep and goats. At that time of day the air is cool and you can see people getting set up for their day and going to work, women carrying large loads on their heads and children herding livestock. Ahero was a madhouse because it was market day and everyone was there to trade – this reduced our patient load somewhat but that was not a bad thing for our first full day. We were a little late arriving at the clinic because the rains had caused the road from Ahero to Masara to flood and it was terribly muddy, so much so that the bus was not able to get through and we had to walk the last π mile. Children from the village accompanied us – we wore shoes and rolled up our pant legs but most of them went barefoot through the mud (shoes are a luxury not everyone can afford), many carrying younger siblings. Despite the conditions, the kids are generally in good spirits and interested in talking to the Americans. Unless they are sick, which many were, with meningitis, malnutrition, whooping cough, malaria, pneumonia, abscesses – common conditions associated with poverty in Kenya. We worked all day in tough conditions but everyone considered the day well-spent; we stopped at the outdoor market on our way back to the hotel and took time to shop for souvenirs.

Today the road was drier and we got an earlier start, caring for about 300 patients. We rigged up tarps to provide shade for our intake and pharmacy areas (patients line up and wait for care for many hours in the equatorial sun – folks in the US would never wait that long anywhere!) and are starting to hit our very sweaty stride.

Time now to clean up for dinner, a clinical presentation and then a much-needed rest. We’ll see you in our dreams!

Best from the SHARE Kenya crew.

Thanks for reading!