It’s
probably the weirdest feeling knowing that there’s just less than 2 months left
living and working in a place where I am 100% comfortable and happy in – there’s
excitement of going home and getting to see family and friends, but mainly it’s
sadness that I’m leaving somewhere so special to me. Not only that, but
mentally I am on wind down with work, whilst quietly panicking that I won’t
finish everything I want to. Add to that the feeling of “finally getting
somewhere”, but yet not being able to enjoy that satisfied feeling because of
having to leave soon. It’s all one big mind game...
It’s been a
quiet month: I was away for a couple of weeks with my wonderful family who came
to visit. It was a very surreal, but special couple of weeks, especially when
they got to visit where I live and meet people I work with. Although, all the
gushing ‘we love Rachael’ speeches were a little overwhelming.
Even though
it’s been quiet, it’s also been frustrating. Again! I was hoping this update
would be all about Marion after she’d had the cleft palate repair surgery that
I decided to fund from money generously donated to me before I came to Vihiga. Instead
I am gutted to say it didn’t happen.
Imagine
sitting by a beautiful pool in the sunshine sipping cocktails (a completely
different life than the one you’ve become used to) with family in Mombasa and
you get a phone call from a distraught mother who cannot speak any English
frantically trying to tell you that her daughter hasn’t had the surgery they’ve
been waiting 6 months for. Kijabe Hospital offers free cleft lip and palate
surgery approximately 3 times a year, Marion had been booked to have hers done
there on the 14th April 2012, for 6 months. Although the surgery is
free, Kijabe is on the outskirts of Nairobi and so there was no way Marion and
her family could afford the transport (approximately 8 hours on a crappy bus),
food and accommodation costs, so I provided the money needed for that.
They got
there a day early just to make sure Marion would be first on that operating
table, only to be told the surgery had been cancelled. Why the hospital didn’t
think to call Marion’s mother beforehand I do not know. After being politely
arsey to the lady from Kijabe I spoke to, I ended up getting in touch with the
co-ordinator of the hospital. No reason was given for the cancellation of the
surgery, no money was offered to reimburse the travel costs incurred and I
feared there would be no second chance for Marion as I do not have the money to
give her to return for an appointment they’ve given her... for July!!
I was
gutted. More to the point, the family and Marion – who is almost 10 years old,
and is more excited about eating ugali than any other person on the planet
because it won’t fall through her nose anymore – were gutted.
Thankfully
my dear friend and colleague from Mumias, Martin, came to the rescue and told
me of free surgery for cleft palate repair happening at Nybondo Hospital on the
23rd May. Nybondo is a couple of pounds cost away from Kisumu. I
received confirmation that Marion has been booked in for her surgery on the 23rd,
I get to tell her about it on Tuesday. Hopefully (every part of my body that is
crossable, is crossed right now) I’ll be able to update you on how she is doing,
post surgery, in a month.
In the next
blog or 2 that I write, I will hopefully be putting up a link for my Indiegogo
Campaign that I hope to go live before the end of May. This is a website which
enables me to put up a video of the work I am doing here, with reasons why I
want to stay, in the hope to raise the funds for me to be able to come back
again next year.
My target is
$10,000 :-s
To put it
into perspective of how far that will go - $500 will cover the costs of me
doing Speech and Language Therapy across Western Kenya (Vihiga, Kisumu and
Mumias) for 3 months. This includes training, transport and resources.
I hope it’s
achievable, because like I said, this is not a place that I want to leave
without knowing that I’m coming back...
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