Africa trip wrap up!

Well its October 8th, I'm back from Kenya, we didn't have internet access the last several days. So this is my wrap up. On Tuesday we saw about 95 patients in clinic, fitting those who needed them with glasses. Doctor Fitzgerald and Kingus continued to work with Julius to further his training. I worked with Cosmos continuing is training on the autorefractor it amazed us all how quickly and eagerly the native staff learned. Michelle and Sharon got to go on a home visit to a very poor woman who had 6 week old twins who were starving, because the woman had no food, and produced no milk, so she was trying to feed the babies Ugali, a corn flour and water mixture eaten as a staple by adults... they were able to buy her some milk, and food and make provisions to continue to care for her. Wednesday we saw another 80 or so patients, David the ELI director in Kip Karen told us that some of the patients had traveled as far as 80 kilometers to have their eyes checked. As we wrapped up on Wednesday evening, David proceeded to tell us about stories and phone calls he had heard and recieved from the people we had helped. He told us of an old man who was very near sighted, he couldn't see his cows that were 50 feet away from him. He was always looking for his cows asking everyone if they had seen them. He called David to say he could now see his cows anytime he wanted, he had spent all afternoon looking at all his cows!! Another woman after I fitted her with a pair of reading glasses, looked at me and smiled and joyfully told me that now she wouldn't have to bother people to read her Bible to her, she could now read it her self!! It was a Joy to be able to serve just the little bit we could. The people we were in contact with continually praised God and gave him credit for everything in their lives. It really made me reevaluate my own personal faith. It was a great experience for me. Tuesday evening after supper we had the chance to go for Chi at Maru's house, Maru is a driver for ELI, he told us his life story, how he came to work for ELI and to know God, he was a taxi driver, and an alcoholic, he used to steal from his boss,because they paid so little, his wife was a christian and was faithful in her prayer, he would ask her why she bothered to pray because their living conditions were so poor, then he finally got a job with ELI and began to see how God worked in their lives. He now has two Biological children and is boarding and paying school fees for a friends child who's family helped him go to school when he was a child. He also has two more children he considers his own who are orphans, they lost their mother to aids. He and Julie a ELI american staff member were going to the Empath clinic, an Aids clinic in the area, they saw this Grandmother their crying, She had brought her daughter who had Aids to the clinic to see if they could help her, and she died shortly after arriving. This poor woman was alone and no one was helping her, so Maru and Julie bought a matress and helped her take her Daughters body home, when they got thier they discovered that the dead woman was the bread winner, and had left behind two young children... Maru went home and talked to his wife and to Julie, and decided that they could gladly house and feed the children if someone else could pay school fees. ELI decided that they could do that, so ELI pays for school, and Maru has taken they children into his home and now speaks of loving them as his own, it is a beautiful story, truly a picture of how Christ loves us! Wednesday after we closed the clinic we donated our laptop computer with several medical and Optometric dvds to the medical clinic. the staff was very grateful and excited to receive this gift. Wednesday evening they had what they called a "bye bye" dinner for us. it was a bit overwhelming as 60 or so people from the village and ELI staff filed into the room to eat supper with us. then there was some speeches and thank yous from key people. they Sang some songs to us, traditional Colengen songs and dancing and then they closed the evening out by singing "How Great Thou Art" in Swahili... singing the chorus in English at the very end... it was very touching to me. we were then asked to each say something. I don't think a single member of our team managed to make it through our individual thank yous with dry eyes.. What an amazing adventure... OH and I think almost everyone on our team promised to come back again... I'll post pics and some highlights of our two day safari later.