Launching the New, Improved MM Health Center (continued)
Calvin represents all of what Mama Maria is. An orphan, who has lost not only his parents, but the next line of African family defense, his grandparents. This, along with his extreme poverty, lands him at the bottom of the Kenyan social ladder. (Family relations afford status almost as much as financial stability in rural Africa.) Calvin stays with an aunt, and is suffering from advanced cirrhosis of the liver. He is small, about the size of an 11 year old, and looks like a pregnant teenaged girl. His shirt is stretched tight over his belly, and he is quiet and gentle. When he got up to give his speech, his words were simple - just thanks for what MM has done for him. More important than what he said was what he represented. This young, dying, utterly destitute boy, with absolutely nothing to his name, was enjoying the spotlight reserved at such events for chiefs, government officials, and high-status wazungu (white people). And the humility and power of what Mama Maria is achieving was palpable just then. The honor and status given to that quiet boy can’t be described.
Well, maybe it can. The next day Calvin walked to the compound where Peter and Katrina (Kithene) were staying, carrying a woven sisal basket. He handed his basket to Peter in thanks. Inside it was a chicken. A gift to thank Mama Maria for the honor she had given him the day before.
The work Mama Maria is doing, and by extension, you are all doing, is larger than life. Since the grand opening, MM runs more like a hospital with a fully operational emergency room/trauma center than a clinic. In fact, we are no longer considered by the government as a clinic. We are officially a Health Centre. And we are one inpatient facility room away from being listed as a hospital.
In just two weeks after we opened our doors we literally had so many births we could be a maternity hospital (in fact, the District office says that our numbers are off the charts. That we’ve seen in two weeks what the government health centre sees in three months. Along with the births, we’ve seen a steady stream of patients arriving via foot, on mamas’ backs, by bicycle and motorcycle, matatu (taxis), and of course, our new Water Ambulance - suffering from the regular culprits - malaria, typhoid, TB, and HIV - as well snake and rabid dog bites, life-threatening burns, cancer, motor accidents, and more.
There’s no end to the wonder of what Mama Maria does. A current patient is a young girl afflicted with albino-ism. She and her sister, also an albino, have been ravaged by the sun, suffering 3rd degree burns and blisters, and deeply infected wounds since they were born (see picture). The girls’ family recently moved to Kenya from Tanzania due to a cultural horror taking place there. (Learn more) These people fled to Muhuru Bay for their children's safety. There they are currently receiving, for the first time in their lives, vital sunscreen to protect their fragile skin. Something they never even known existed just two months ago.
This is the work you are engaged in. Thank you for your support, and giving us the opportunity to further spread hope to the poorest of the poor of rural Africa.
