Tenwek

Journal Entry 7-13-10

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Visiting Tenwek Hospital

Today we left for Tenwek, we got to see the hospital here and it was amazing! We had to wait for around 30mins for a Doctor to show us around the facilities. He came and told us the history of the hospital and shared some of his experiences working; he was a great man. As we were walking around I was thinking if I could be able to work in a setting such as this-it would take some transitioning but I think I could adjust. The hospital is one of the best clinics around and they have so many wards compared to all the other places. The hospital really encourages praying with each of the patients, there motto is: "We Treat, Jesus Heals." Each doctor and nurse does the best they can do in treating the patients but sometimes all the best medicine and knowledge are still not enough. The doctor explained to us that this is a compassion hospital, "We don't just take care of their physical needs but there spiritual as well." "We prepare individuals for heaven while working here," said the doctor.

"We Treat, Jesus Heals"

The boys grabbed lunch while me and MB headed out to the yard to journal. While we were waiting for the guys to finish up a young boy who was sunning himself next to his father on the grass came over to us. The father kept redirecting his frail and sick son away from us, the father assumed we didn't want anything to do with his child. He was wrong. I noticed this boy a few times throughout our tour of the hospital and I wondered what sickness he had. I motioned for the boy to come over and sit next to us and he marched on over. His father started laughing and took a seat next to his son.The boy was extremely malnourished and had sores around his mouth and neck. The boy was so content in sitting next to me, it was great! I wanted to communicate so bad with this boy and his father but because of the language difference we couldn't. Luckily, a random man stopped by who knew English and he was able to translate a little of the boys story for us. The man told us that the boy was 8 yrs old (he looked as if he was 4 yrs of age) and had been at Tenwek hospital for an entire year. All he could say about his condition was that he had stomach problems and was not able to eat for some period of time before his admittance. This poor child looked like he was in so much pain-luckily, they said he had improved immensely since being at the hospital. Thank goodness!

We got to hike down to their waterfall which generates all of their electricity, I was glad for the chance to be outside around trees and water. It was my highlight for the week.

Some kids we found while hiking to the waterfall-
They loved holding our hands while we walked.