I mostly grew up in a small town graced with a kind doctor who made house calls. He didn't do it every day; generally he saw patients in his office, but if someone needed medicine and was too sick to come in, he didn't see the point of making them wait when he could just swing by their place on his way home.
When I heard Dr. Shoup was retiring, I was dismayed. I've run into enough unpleasant doctors to appreciate the gentle ones. But by "retirement," it turns out he did not mean retiring from medicine, just his public practice. He meant a trip to Africa to work with HIV orphans.
I'll shut up now. Here's what the doctor has to say:
Arrived in Nairobi around 10PM last night (2PM EST). Fr. Dag and a driver picked me up - no trouble with customs except the guy just wanted to talk and I was too tired to explain why this was my first trip to Africa - he was very pleasant. They grought ne to Nyumbani about 11 PM and showed me my room in a building where volunteers stay. To refer to it as Spartan would be heaping too much praise on it. There is a bed , table, shower and toilet. I tried to go to bed immediately but some damn rooster thought 1 AM and every few minutes thereafter was dawn. Not much rest. This AM around 6 I gave up. Shower has two handles but no warm water. You take showers here in afternoon after the sun has warmed up the water tank.
Started walking around the place around 6:30. The 94 children live in five cinder block buildings-actually more like ston buildings - some of the "big boys" live in a quanset hut. Actually the grounds are very lovely with flowers, shrubs, trees Toward the rear of the property is a chicken house (with that rooster). a concrete hog pen, a rabbit house and a large veg garden. On this early morning tour I was greeted by the four dogs -also very friendly.
Finally , a lady approached me and introduced herself - Sr. Julie from Phila, She was principal at St Benedicts for 12 years and was the at St Agnes Hospital for past seven. She will be here as a volunteer for another six months. She took me to the kitchen for a cup of milky tea. The kitchen is a separate building and the house "moms" and "uncles" pick the food up and take it back to the cottages for the children.
Gradually, the place became very alive with children, volunteers, and staff.It was amazing to see the kids -all of whom look healthy. Age is 9 months to 23 years. The 9month old was abandoned by her HIV mother and ended up in a hospital for first four months. Child developed ricketts in hospital before getting here. At this age she could end up being HIV negative. I ended up holding her for some time. The 23 year old was so sick early in life that he was never able to start school until he was 13. He had until recently been a big held after they taught him to drive but after four accidents in last couple of months, he is no longer allowed to drive until his defensive skills improve He is a funny, happy kid.
Big problem here is HIV mother gives birth to child who may or maynot be HIV positive. She is afraid to breast feed for fear of giving child HIV but she cannot afford to buy milk so she will often abandon the baby.
In addition to the 94 children here, Nyumbani also has 860 children in the slums who are HIV+. Only some of these get meds from Doctors without Borders. But thanks to US pharmaceuticals and some European companies playing with George W, drugs are very limited. COMPASSIONATE George's administration imposes sanctions on any country they tries to make generic drugs. He would rather see millions more die This situation cries out to Heaven. Already, Ihave learned that George W. is despised here. These 860 are in two slum districts in Nairobi. Monday we open third slum clinic in which all the kids will have to be tested. As long as they can get generics from India and Brazil some of these kids will get treated. Note to Drs Katner and Stephens - treatment starts when CD4 gets to 500. I do not think they pay much attention to viral loads until after treatment is started- more on this latter.
Mid morning was spent being introduced to every one, kids, staff,volunteers etc. You should see the kids sweeping out their cottages and washing their furniture- I will get pictures next Sat of this. Happy, talking kids, running little scooters into each other and the dogs who seem to have experienced this many times before'. Volunteers are an amazing group ranging from a 17 yr old girl from Scotland with The British version of Jesuit Voulunteer Crop to a 26 years old social worker from Holland to a photographic journalist from Calif to a young chemical engineer from England to Sr Julie from Phila to so many others. Everything is well organized, even Dr. Mary, the peds, had to be back at Nyumbani by 3PM to read to a group of the kids.
Later this AM I went with Dr. Mary and Susie the journalist to YaYa a suburban section with a mall - ie modern building with all sorts of shops including Woolworth. We walked about a mile (for benefit of dear cardiologist Davidoff) before getting on a matatu - like a van only jammed with 14 people. After we survived that trip we still had several more blocks to walk before we shopped. Then went to another shopping area where their was a Java Cafe with outdoor sitting. You would have thought you were in any warm American city. Lunch was good - Reuben sandwich and ice tea for me. This is a big gathering place for Americans as well as Kenyans; loads of mixed couples with obviously interracial children, middle class Kenyans, young couples. All very friendly an polite. All the store workers in these shopping center are were friendly and want to know everything about you. After we started lunch, Sr. Julie, and the girl from Scotland and from Holland showed up I learned a lot from all that conversation. I promise you those two girls know more about HIV than most doctors in US.
We got back here shortly before 3 and I started this epistle. I paused for a second and suddenly this laptop froze- it would not type, their was no mouse arrow, it would not even shut doown after unplugging it. I went and got the chemical engineer and another computer literate to help me.It would have been too expensive to call Dr. Hedden, so chem engineer suggested removing the battery and waiting a few minutes. This solved the problem but I had to start the epistle all over. But then Fr Dag showed up and took me to the new Jesuit home for elderly and retired Jesuits. The building is beyond description sittin near the edge of an old quarry overlooking the Gnong Hills ie mountains. We had cocktails and dinner all the while watching probablythemost gorgeous sunsets I have ever seen. One Jesuit was from Malta. Ed Brady who taught at both St Joe's Prep and College before going to Sudan. He is very crippled from post polio syndrome. One Jesuit was staying there an Indian who has a big shot job with the UN educational division and goes all over Africa and Asia for the UN - really interesting. All the conversation reminded me of conversations at Georgetown.
The Superior is a physicist from Wisconcin who has built an observatory on the grounds. Don't forget we are 5400= ft above sea level and 3 degrees above the equator. This scope has a 17 1/2" mirror making it by far the largest obseratory in Kenya. At 8Pm he took us to this observatory where we looked at the moon and two of the craters named after Jesuits and at the crater close to where on of the moon landings took place. Next we viewed Saturn and I clearly saw the rings around Saturn, the seven Sisters (really 150 stars}. and the belt and sword of -what's his name. I am getting too tired to think and I am still suffering from jet lag and total lack of sleep. It is now 11:15 or 3:15PM EST.
One last thing -the shirts some of the kids were wearin to: Steelers - someone from Pitts was year last year and gave them out. This has Sr. Julie all upset -she is worse than my nephews- an unbelievable Eagles fan- and she is trying to get Eagles shirts. A couple of the kids shirts had "Southern Comfort" printed on them. More later -I will have to mail this from an ethernet cafe when I can
