Down the Rabbit Hole

It's hard to know where to begin with this post. I feel like I've lived a lifetime since I left Seattle and like I came back to Nairobi a totally different person than I was five days ago. I feel like Alice when the catipillar asks who she is. I thought I knew who I was last week; now I'm not so sure.

Last Thursday, we drove a LONG way west from Nairobi to Majengo.  We saw all the archetypical African images, zebras, gazelle, people selling things on the side of the road,women carrying loads on their heads.... We even passed the Rift Valley! It is beautiful and green outside the city. The air is fresh and just humid enough to fill your lungs with sweetness.

Friday, we did a medical camp with World COMP at the local widows' center. Life for a Kenyan widow is very difficult because her husband's family often claims all his property and may even cast the widow out. She is left with no assets, very little skill, and children to feed. The widows ministry in Majengo is a group of about 700 widows who have banded together to improve their lives and their positions. They hosted our medical camp at their soon-to-be complete three story building that will host a number of money making enterprises for this desperately needy group of women and their children. 

The World COMP mini medical camp was staffed by Kenyan clinicians, nurses and pharmacists, who graciously let us participate. We triaged, treated and dispensed medications for at least 450 needy people in about 7 hours. It was a hot, busy, and deeply fulfilling day! I earned every drop of spear that rolled down my back and made my shirt smell like a REALLY filthy athletic sock! (The shower Friday night, despite oscillating between glacially cold and scalding hot and having the water pressure of a leaky faucet, was the very best of my life!)

Interacting with desperate people and, in some small way, making their lives better is why I got into nursing! Every twinge of back pain, every drop of sweat, every moment of feeling overwhelmed by neediness was repaid a thousand fold by the smiles and gratitude as I measured vital signs, looked deep into  beautiful, brown eyes and prayed to my God for intervention in their lives. This is why I'm here; this is what I want to do! How do I go home and live a normal, suburban life after this?