"Kwaherie (goodbye) Kenya!"

Today is my very last day in Africa and I have just a short time before i take a bus to Nairobi to meet up with some other volunteers before my flight! It was so strange taking the motorbike into town today for the last time. As I was saying goodbye to my friends there I was able to give my Bible to one of my favorite girls! She is from Canada and has such a HUGE heart for serving others. She told me that she is currently researching religions and searching for something and I told her that I just broke in the Bible for her. I gave her a few good places to begin and I'm really proud of her for wanting to research and study religions on her own! She is very very bright but i gave her my email in case she had some questions! The Lord has blessed my friendships here in multiple ways!!! I am so sad to leave Saikeri and the people here but am just about ready to come back home! :)

Last weekend we went into Nairobi and got to spend a little time in the market! lets just say... i can bargain! I think the trick was to start out by saying, "before you give me a price I want you to know that I am here as a volunteer in the Maasai land and that beautiful painting of the Maasai women just caught my eye! I am working for free and that is such a nice painting I dont think i would be able to afford it..." Then they will offer you a deal and you only pull out the 400 shillings that you conveniently placed in your pocket and explain this is all you can offer but you know its worth so much more. They usually will thrown in the deal and ask for just a little something extra like a ball-point pen. I love it! It was so fun to collect gifts and fun things to take home! That night we all sat around after dinner and Maggie asked me to sing some American songs for her... so i managed to pull out "Oklahoma" and "Deep in the Heart of Texas"! the other volunteers were just cracking up the entire time and I barely managed to finish my performance while giggling.

I also experienced my first church service last Sunday in the Maasai land. It took one our to get there and the actual service neared 6 hours long! This sunday they were having a "music extravaganza" as Maggie called it and they had girls from every age group go up and perform their song. It was so interesting to watch but probably would have meant a lot more if I could have understood one word that they were saying but i was totally following along in spirit! :) The actual church took place in a small hut that they crammed about 300 people into and everyone was so lively the entire time! Now let me explain the getting to church part. A small pick-up truck pulled in front of our house already "full" of women. Little did i know that wasnt even close to the meaning of full. We managed to pile in the bed of the truck and picked a some straglers along the way. I'll paint a picture for you... 28 Maasai women all gettin their gospel on while we are flying off our bums and their beads are flapping everywhere! it was quiet the site to see! there is ALWAYS room for one more in Kenya. For one of the girls it was her very first church experience and im concerned she may be scarred for life, but I assured her they were very different at home!

One of the coolest things happened the other day! I have been thinking about what Maggie will do when I head home because one one was signed up to take my place here and its so hard for her to do clinic alone. So I prayed for someone to sign up for a medical placement here at the clinic soon and would stay for an extended time. I even wrote it down that specifically in my journal. Literally one hour later Maggie walks into the clinic and tells me that she just got a call that she is getting a medical volunteer next week who will be staying for 6 months!!! I immediately replied "Praise the Lord, Maggie!!! i prayed for that this morning!" Her eyes filled with tears as I showed her in my journal those exact words! She looked up and said, "Mayana, I think you have a good connection with God." :) It is SO wonderful how the Lord answers prayers and will always provide! I was able to share this will the other volunteers at lunch and everyone was just blown away! Thanks, Jesus!

There have been some really neat things going on at the clinic that I have been able to have a hand in. Last week we did a mass malnutrition screening for 300 women and children around Saikeri. Maggie set up a program to have the ones that qualified as "malnourished" given food on a weekly basis and monitored. Out of the 300 we had a little over 10% that were malnourished and just a handful that were severely malnourished, which Maggie was absolutely thrilled about! That still seems like so much to me but I guess its better than 20%! We also have had two days of immunizations for the young babies. It was quite the site to see all of the Maasai women lined up on the benches with their screaming babies while we ran around with shots! I couldnt help but laugh because most of the babies cried harder at the site of a white person than the actual shot! i had no idea i was so terrifying!

As most people know the world cup is going on right now in South Africa and all of Africa is just going crazy with excitement. There are soccer games going on at all the schools with goals made out of giant sticks and mounted together. Its really fun to see! Anyways, the other day we decided to make a trip down the road to the Saikeri pub to watch a game in the middle of the afternoon. They had gotten a generator and fuel and a microscopic TV that they set up in the corner of the wooden room. We could barely make out the team names but sipping a Fanta orange drink and watching "football" was so great.

We have had a few interesting patients recently with a crazy fungus or mumps or chicken pox. One boy in particular had the chicken pox and after I sent him on his way he pouted outside my clinic for another hour because I wouldn't give him an injection! Everyone wants shots here! These people are crazy! haha!

I had a really heartbreaking patient come in the other day that made me so upset. She was about 9 weeks pregnant and came in to the clinic with abdominal pain and heavy, heavy bleeding. I had to explain to her that she was having a miscarriage and was losing her baby. It was so so hard to send her on her long walk home with just some Advil for the pain. I felt terribly helpless knowing nothing could be done and taking her to a hospital would be impossible because she couldnt afford to be seen. Here you have to pay before you see the physician which makes it completely out of the question for most Maasai to go. Maggie explained to me that some of the women can even bleed to death in their home. I cannot imagine. I wish that there was some way to extend maternal care out here. I know that getting a doppler will not solve any problems but perhaps that can be a small start. Now i am determined more than ever before to make that happen for the clinic.

Last night was my last dinner with the volunteers and family so i decided we should have something halfway American that i would make for everyone... I ended up choosing tacos. Far from American food I realize but it just sounded so good! we made chipate which is like a tortilla and I made guacamole and beans and rice! The other volunteers loved it but i think the family was totally bewildered by the fact everything was NOT mushed together and soaking in butter and spices. I wasn't fooled by their attempt at complementing the cook! :) ha!

Well, Its time for me to head off to the city and say goodbye! i cant believe that my time here is finished, but I hope to continue my contact with Maggie and the clinic and send them resources.
Thank you, Lord for this incredible experience!