July 2nd: Arrived in Nairobi, we were picked up by Lawrence who had brought along Martin, both of whom had been drivers when we came to Kenya in 2016. Lawrence took us to our hotel for the first night! Lovely!
July 3rd: The day of the long drive from Nairobi all the way to Kendu Bay on the shores of Lake Victoria. We arrived after many hours of driving to the guesthouse at Kendu Adventist Hospital. Nice welcoming dinner and then resting from the long day. A lovely guest room with lots of space for us.
July 4th: In the morning, we visited Nyaburi School down the road from the hospital and met many of the administrators both for the school and for the boarding and physiotherapy section of the school for the physically disabled students. We then returned to the hospital with Lawrence to meet with the hospital director, George. He had a brief meeting with is and gave us a tour of the hospital before leaving for a workshop that will keep him away for the rest of the week. We also met with Helen, the hospital secretary and Karen, the director of nursing who both added to the tour. In the afternoon, we briefly helped with some filing in finance before going back to Nyaburi School to observe some of the physiotherapy work for the children.
July 5th: In the morning, we briefly visited the maternity and pediatric wards. We then visited Ruby Kraft Primary School which is the private school within the Kendu Adventist Hospital grounds. The principal was happy to show us around and give us some direction of tasks we can do in the coming days to assist around the school and with the administration and interaction with students. After lunch we walked over to Nyaburi School to discuss more with the Deputy Headteacher about how we could help at the school. We met several university students who were on internships there and who were quite interested in discussing Kenyan and Canadian school systems.
July 6th: We spent quite a bit of the morning in the library at the Ruby Kraft School organizing the books. It is a task to be continued in future days as there are many books and often they are in serious disrepair. In the afternoon, we went down to Nyaburi School in the hopes that we would be able to observe and make records of the physiotherapy taking place, however, the children were still waiting for lunch and had not yet been bathed. Darius, the occupational therapist was unable to complete any exercises with children because of this delay. We visited the dormitories and greeted the students enjoying the afternoon and making preparations for the upcoming music festival.
July 7th: In the morning, we attended church with many other members of the Kendu Adventist Hospital compound. Very much a family event, with Children’s Lessons first thing, then Bible Study in groups and then the general service. A very welcoming church. The rest of Saturday was a rest day.
