Sun. 8 July 2007

Dearest Friends and Family,

“If you begin to live life looking for the God that is all around you, every moment becomes a prayer.”  Frank Bianco

I know it has been sometime since you have heard from us.  We have been incredibly blessed to spend time with my family, (88 year old mother, sister and her husband, brother and his wife and son).  While they were here we visited some game parks and spent time in Maua.  Some of the highlights in Maua were planting four new plants on my father’s grave and then celebrating his life with songs, stories, and love.  We also dedicated “our” AIDS Orphan Home and had the experience of a life time.  My mom was so incredible.  She never complained about the rough roads, long days, delays, crowds, noise, heat or cold but enjoyed everyone and everything and made our time together so enjoyable and memorable.

Along with the visit from my family, we have hosted five work teams.  Space will not allow me to tell you about all of them nor what they have done for and brought to the hospital.  The teams have been from Germantown UMC, TN; Stephenville FUMC, TX; Clearlake UMC & Friendswood UMC & Jones Memorial UMC, TX; Lakewood UMC, TX; and Memorial Drive UMC, TX.  They have brought the hospital duffel bags full of medical supplies and equipment which allows us to keep our costs down so we can serve our population (a 7-day stay at Maua Methodist Hospital is approximately $100 - $200).  They brought many computers that will allow us to replace the computers which have broken down over the last few years; many of our staff are very anxious to once again have computers that they can use.  They have helped paint the Medical Ward, Medical Stores, two staff homes, built the covered walkway between the nursing wards and mortuary and between the kitchen and laundry, worked on the addition to the School of Nursing Library, built 5 AIDS Orphans homes, and some teams have worked at the Synod Women’s Training Center. The medical people have done surgery, taught classes, worked on the wards, in the clinics, and done outreach clinics. Every week I have had at least one Clinical Update taught by a team member and some weeks we have had sessions daily.  The teams have been flexible, loving, generous, and so very helpful.  We could not carry on without their labors of love in building and maintaining buildings on the hospital and bringing supplies and equipment.  But most importantly we need each person, for their presence in our midst reminds us we are not alone.  God has brought people to stand with us, to work with us, to understand our needs and situations, and to love us in His name.  What a gift each person and each team is bringing God’s spirit and love to us and then going home and sharing what they have learned with others.  Their presence, their prayers, their love in action binds us into a family – the family of God.

Recently one of the team members mentioned to me that she believed “we were living in paradise”.  I understood what she meant at the time.  The hospital compound is a beautiful, green oasis in Maua with huge, wonderful trees and gorgeous, blooming flowers; incredible people working hard to give care and love to the sick; and a pace that allows the teams to have morning tea for 30 – 60 minutes and lunch from 1pm – 2pm.  Though the team members are very hard at work and often doing grueling labor, the pace is so much slower and things seem much more relaxed.

Her statement has made me think long and hard about paradise.  What is paradise and what would it look like?  For me paradise is any place or time where one can glimpse the love of God or be in His presence.  Thus any place or time can be paradise.  I feel that often the team members experience moments of paradise here perhaps more here than in the US because of the difference in pace and their reason for serving here. I often experience God’s presence and glimpses of His love.  I experience paradise every Sunday morning when we take a team to St. Joseph’s Sunday School class and the children measure out their blessings with their arms spread as wide as possible and then throw those blessings to the team.  When we dedicate an AIDS Orphan home and the children, grandmother, and/or mother thank the team, I experience paradise.  When I see team members painting a hospital building which transforms it from an ugly and mildewed place to a beautiful, clean ward or home, I experience paradise.

But I do not live in paradise.  Behind the smiles and laughter of the children, the love and care of our staff, the prayers and singing of the people there is the suffering, the poverty, the cruelty, the ugliness that man brings to this world and to so many situations.  Though I work to tell the positive stories, to see things for the good they may and often do bring, there are so many sad and terrifying things that happen.

The first two wards in the surgical unit are for our trauma patients. They are usually filled with men who have been cut by pangas (machetes) by family members in disputes over land and miraa trees.  I remember the young man whose hands had been burned to the bone by his own father.  The chief of a local village who had been attacked and had 110 cuts.  The three boys whose father cut off their arms and/or legs in a fit of rage.  The family of five who bought kerosene from a local merchant to light their lamp.  However, the merchant knowingly sold them gasoline so when they lit the lamp it exploded and after several weeks the mother and three children died.  The 17 year old chief’s daughter that was admitted with HIV/AIDS.  Her father forbid anyone from the family or village to visit her.  Though the nurses gave her good care and love, she died as much from a broken and lonely heart as from the disease.

There are the old women who have no sons to care for them and thus carry wood up the steep hills to earn $0.25 so they can eat.  The wood weighs 80 – 100 pounds.  The street boys who have been chased away from their homes because there is not enough food for everyone or because their mothers are prostitutes and cannot have them in the tiny, one room where they live and ‘work’! 

When we arrived in Maua in 1998, ninety-nine percent of the women were female circumcised (2^nd degree).  Today that number has decreased to 92%, which is certainly a great joy and encouragement.  Girls in our area are circumcised between the ages of 8 – 12.  It is against the law in Kenya to circumcise a girl but most Meru men will not marry an uncircumcised woman so the practice continues.

Many children are brought to the hospital with burns.  Approximately 90% of the people cook over wood and the infants and children fall into the fire.  Often if the child is a girl, the father will not pay for the long hospital stay and takes the child home to die of overwhelming infection after a few days.

On March 12, 2007 an “Unknown African Female, Approximately 8 years old” was admitted to the Pediatric Ward.  She had been found by the police in Kangeta and brought to our hospital.  She was extremely ill, dehydrated, and emaciated.  She was tested and found to be HIV+.  Fridah would not talk to anyone and no one knew her.  At first she was very demanding and angry but soon the love and care she received from our nursing staff transformed her into a beautiful, lovely child that adored being held or cuddled by the nurses, especially Sr. Sophia, the head nurse.

A woman visiting another child recognized Fridah and explained she was from this area.  Her parents had both died of AIDS and Fridah was living with her married sister Mercy, the only family member who could be located.  Mercy loved her sister but Mercy’s husband and family did not want a child that was HIV+ on their compound.  They tormented Fridah, often beating her, withholding food and water.  Mercy tried to protect her sister and ultimately both Fridah and Mercy were chased from the compound and lived in the streets of Maua.  Some of the friends and neighbors fed Mercy and Fridah when possible.

Mercy heard there was a home for children with AIDS in Kangeta.  Mercy and Fridah walked to Kangeta (9 Km from Maua) but when they arrived they found there was no home.  They tried to beg and find food but since they knew no one they were having a very difficult time.  One afternoon Mercy told Fridah she was going to look for food and Fridah should stay under a large tree by a crossroads in Kangeta.  Both of them were extremely weak from not eating.  Mercy never returned. Two women noticed Fridah late that afternoon and early the next morning and called for the police who brought her to Maua Methodist Hospital.

At one point we thought one of Fridah’s neighbors would take her but that didn’t happen.  The District Children’s Officer was notified immediately but she could not find a home for Fridah. 

I last saw Fridah on May 28^th when the hospital prayed for the work and workers of the new extension of the Pediatric Ward.  She looked wonderful and smiled often.  She was standing next to Sr. Sophia who had her arms around her.  I remember whispering a prayer that Fridah would soon find a permanent place to live.  Stanley Gitari had told me that if anyone would take her, she would be in the AIDS Orphan’s program so she would receive food and education free and her AIDS medication would be provided.

There was measles outbreak in the pediatric ward and Fridah was infected.  On June 7^th Fridah died of measles.  I can’t think of Fridah without crying, but I can tell you two things for sure.

#1.        For the last 2 months of Fridah’s life she was loved and cared for by our staff

#2.        Fridah now has a permanent home in paradise

You and I can glimpse paradise and experience the wonder of God’s love, grace, and mercy.  But none of us ‘live in paradise’.  We must show God’s Love more each day to allow others a moment of paradise in a very real world.

In His grip,