Visiting the water station in Thugunui

rs. Today I visited the water station that had been built with the help of Eddie Kroll in Thugunui. Our guard Nelson was just cleaning the house when I arrived. He informed me about a small whole in a tube that has to fixed, so I organized our sanitary person Kamau to come next week. Then I went to the "Hotel" of the village and saw they were preparing some local specialities. When I had my meal many school children came and asked if I brought something for them. Unfortunately I had nothing with me, perhaps next time. The teacher also appeared and said that I had some magic power; the children I recently visited finished school with high marks - much higher than the children in Kasambara. The local in Thugunui always enjoy when I come up the mountain to meet them and on the way I have to greet everybody. If not, they get mad at me! And I also keep getting offers to get some land from the locals to build my house there.

Sunshine Hotel in Thugunui

A vist to the refugee's garden

Mama Matata overlooking the garden

rs. The refugees are cultivating their own garden and are growing their own vegetables. Although the amount of rain is not big at the moment, the seedlings are growing well. The refugees were very proud when I visited their garden. In between the corn I found some beans and I told them that they are already ripe to pick. Besides the beans there are cabbages. The earth here is not easy to cultivate because when it is drained, it becomes heavy and cloggy. And when the earth becomes dry, it is solid like a stone. I explained how they can recycle kitchen garbage to nourish the earth. The Kenyans need some time to get convinced, but at the end we both can learn from each other!

Concern about Infection cases

rs. Nyaga called me early this morning because five patients showed signs of serious infections due to polluted water that they drank from a river in the area of Fescha, about 10 km away from our hospital. We immediately informed the health commission. Hopefully they check the situation there to prevent a larger breakout. We always advise the people to boil the water before drinking but often they don't have the money to buy the necessary wood. We did some first tests in our laboratory and should have more details by tomorow. At the same time I bought additional material to properly disinfect our staff.

The control duties of our guard Askari

rs. Our guard Askari is usually at our entrance gate and is responsible for controlling all bags of the people coming in and out of the hospital ground. He also keeps track of the amount of water that is being taken. Another control duty is checking the working times of our crew and patients are marked down in a book together with the amount they payed for the treatment.

People should communicate more

rs. This is the child that was born during the night. We published a picture of the mother waiting in the garden in yesterday's post. It's so fascinating to see how quickly the Kenyan mothers recover from a birth. Normally a mother stays in the hospital for a couple of days or even a week!

This morning Nyaga came to me and said that he got a call from a man who reported that his wife and the three children came to our camp and he wanted to get them out again. At 1 pm he came and we had a long and difficult discussion. First I spoke with him alone and then we invited his wife. After 4 hours we made some progress and we agreed to meet again in a couple of days. The big problem here in Kenya is the lack of communication. They didn't learn to make decisions on their own.

Baby was born on the way to the hospital

rs. This child was born on the way to the hospital. Without our intervention the child would have died. His skin was blue and his respiratory ways were blocked. Our team saved him in the last minute. The respiratory tubes were cleaned and then immediately oxygen had been given. The mother and baby soon recovered and already in the afternoon they could go home... Outside the hospital another future mother is waiting until the time is ripe:

In Nakuru the situation is still dangerous. Yesterday a large group of refugees from the showground marched towards the city but was stopped by the police with guns and one boy was killed. Again this morning masses of people were aiming at the city center to protest because the Government stopped their food supply and wants them to go home. Many of them don't know where to go; they don't have a home anymore.

Back after a short visit to Switzerland

rs. On Friday night I was invited to a benefit evening to rise money for the Rhein-Valley Hospital and to give our sponsors first-hand informations about our activities. The event was a big success with many invited artists such as the Swiss band Combox and musician Nicolas Senn who recently visited the hospital in Kenya himself. Photos and a video produced by Benjamin Pipa of the Swiss Film GmbH were illustrating the activities. Besides myself Hennie Jacobs from Holland and nurse Barbara Wieland gave reported.


After returning to Kenya I checked the hospital and it seems that everything is ok. Our doctor Wanjara told me that he reordered the cards with the medical history of our patients and nurse John was working with the cards of the patients of the ambulatorium. In the permanent station I visited our elderly couple (see picture). The man was just helping his wife to take a meal. - Ruth Schäfer