What do I do in Kenya?

My 1st trip to Kenya was in March of 2000. My husband and I went for 2 weeks to visit friends from our church. I talked with a young man that had lost 2 wives in childbirth and both babies were stillborn. To hear his story broke my heart. All the way home I cried for these people and prayed," Lord, there has to be something I can do to help them."

When I got home, I started planning another trip. I wanted to meet the birth attendants and talk to them about complications. How to handle different things, ask them how they deal with unusual births. I wasn't sure how this would take place, but I knew I had to go back.

In April 2001, Jennifer and I packed up teaching supplies and went Mbita. We stayed 1 month and held 4 workshops for birth attendants in different villages. Our smallest class 15 and our largest was 35. We were overwhelmed with the eagerness of these ladies to learn.

We also learned from them. They have a lot of breech births, twins, and even delivered conjoined twins vaginally! When in the bush of Kenya, you have no choice but to do what you can. There is no transportation to clinics or hospitals and the nearest help could be 8 hours away.

I had a Kenyan lady that was to deliver her 2nd baby in July. She begged me to stay and help her. When I got home to the States, it worked out so that I could go back in July. When I landed in Kisumu, her husband greeted me to say their daughter was born the night before. They named her Kathy Joy. So I spent July revisiting the birth attendants we had taught, and distributing gloves and scissors.

October of 2002 I went back for another month and followed up with the ladies I had met with before. Several of them had died from aids. But their mother and baby death rate was considerably lower. They were applying some simple measures like hand washing and using clean scissors to cut cords.

My next trip to Mbita was in 2004, October. I had a lady from church go with me. She was working with the teachers and the ladies in charge of the orphan sponsors. I visited and taught several clinics.
We did a solar cooking class with some of the widows and attended a wedding. Susie and I stayed in the guest house and listened to the hippos every night. We got a surprise safari, planned by 3 Kenyan men, (Godly men) from the missionary school. They took us to Ruma Park and Game reserve to camp, Yes, in tents in the bush! It was not the KOA! We waited for a troop of baboons to move so we could put up tents. That was an experience!

In 2005, I went in September and took my first born daughter, Jill. We stayed in an apartment, so we had water and toilets and electricity! Quite a treat. We focused the midwifery teaching to a group of women on Mfangano Island. We spent a week with "The Brave Women of God" from Pastor Joshua's Church. We camped there with his family (his wife Mary and 4 daughters). The same ladies came every day and we acted out birth scenarios and discussed complications. I took my doppler so we listened to a 13 week baby, they all got so excited to hear such a thing. When we left, we went on safari to the Masai Mara, the Kenya side of the Serengeti. The migration was taking place. Wow! That's all I can say.

My 2006 trip was very short, only 2 weeks. My husband, my daughter and my granddaughter went with me. We went to the wedding of my sponsor son, Christopher. I did go to Paster Joshua's and met with the ladies from last year. They told me they had not had a single infection since they started using gloves for every birth! I left more gloves and bulb syringes this time. I have taken so many things for them, they want to build a store for the ladies to come and get their supplies. The lady, from the previous trip that we listened to her baby using the doppler, brought her baby girl to class, she named her Kathy.

I plan to continue my work in Mbita and the surrounding areas.