11 year old girl and grandma join our camp

rs. Today again was a log day. The sanitary installations are almost finished. A new supply of medications arrived. And we made the final listing for the camp. Each tent gets a number which will be visible from outside. So it's like a little town, each tent will have his "house number". As we were writing down the list, an old woman and a young girl came and asked us if they could also join the tent camp. It was the 70 year old grandmother that we knew from before. They are the remaining members of the family. The girl lost both parents during the fights and is now together with her grandma. It's hard to believe if you hear all these tragic stories. Sure enough, we found a tent for them and gave them mattresses and blankets. The only things they had was a small bag with clothes. At 6 pm our doctor John came back with the boy who had a serious operation in the Kijabe hospital. The intervention was successful and we can now take over the after-treatment. It suddenly was after 6 pm and Njaga reminded me that it is high time to go home, because it's no more safe, once it is dark. Jokingly he said, that I should take my cat with me and start living in one of the tents, then I could work and discuss the whole night...

Today the Hospital is four years old!

Mama Matata (Ruth Schäfer) with Kenyan children in the tent camp of the Rhein-Valley Hospital in Kasambara, Nakuru.

rs. Today we had another of these 12-hour days, and this on May 1st, where some have a holiday. After experiencing heavy rain in the past few days, we were lucky today, the weather remained fine. The electrician came to control the secutity lights at the hospital and then we brought to paper the various rules we want to implement for the camp. Suddenly we saw Wakoma with his donkey, carrying a load of wood (see picture below). I exclaimed "Don't forget to give water to your donkey for all his heavy work." The wood is used to accomplish our toilets (see picture right). As you see on the picture there is no luxury, but it's better than nothing. Together with Njaga we finalized the plan to house 20 more men and their families within our tent camp. As today marks our fourth Anniversary of the Rhein-Valley Hospital (it was opened May 1st 2004), we bought some mineral water and sat together to celebrate the event. At the same time we could explain the new rules to the displaced peoples of the camp.

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Parish council member's unclear complaints

rs. In the morning I called the Kenyan Telecom and checked about our internet connections and finally it came back to life during the day. We also unpacked our car and started to distribute the kitchen ware we bought yesterday. Mr. Muhia called and informed us that he will deliver 50 more mattresses for the IDP's today. Then we had an unexpected visit by a parish council member and an assistant policeman. They said they first wanted to take the police car to arrest me and Njaga, our secretary, but he told the boss that he knew me and that we will find a solution without further consequences. It seems that that they claimed that we dismantled the church kitchen without permission, that they wanted back the hut, where we have our material and that the border wire would belong to them. And we had cut the trees without their permission. I asked Njaga to bring the ground plan and finally they had nothing to add anymore and left. I then rushed to my car before the big evening rain started. The temperatures dropped now to 19° C.

Shopping in Nakuru - Internet interrupted

rs. According to official informations, the Kenyan internet is currently out of function due to technical problems. We hope to have it back soon. In the meantime I am sending this text by other means to keep our daily posts alive.

This morning I went to Nakuru for shopping, together with our secretary Nijaga. As most of the IDP's have no washing bowls, nor dishes or pans, we decided to buy bigger and smaller pans for cooking. We also bought hand lanterns that work with paraffin, because we often envision power brakes during the night. Alltogether we spent nearly five hours in a shopping center and even after we payed our bill the owner wanted to check everything over and over until my patience became thin like a thread! When we finally wanted to load my "Liseli" (that's the name of my Landrover), we realized that it is too small so we had to hire a little 3-wheel taxi and due to the usual evening shower we had to bring everything into my home. Tomorrow we will bring the things to the hospital and will distribute them to the people.

Some signs of joy

rs. As on Monday's we have our food distribution and as always we had to check the people because we are only allowed to give out food to the IDP's from our camp. The sanitary installations make more and more progress and what is enjoyable, the people are smiling a little more. They are happy that somebody cares about them and that every day the circumstances in the camp are a little better. Some children even start on their own to clean up the ground and started to play. If you instruct the children early, you can see the result. This morning we had another joyful moment: a mother gave birth to twins - all three are fine.

Photos: Ruth Schäfer

Camp toilets almost finished

rs. Our improvised toilets are almost finished. We worked hard the whole week to digg the earth wholes, to cut the wood pieces and to get the needed materials. Now only the plastic sheets are missing. By the way, in the meantime the people could use our hospital toilets.

During the day I made some plans to properly organize life in the camp. Discipline is of key importance. We have to include the help of these people to bring an order into their daily life. This is general cleaning and especially of the sanitary installations, who is in charge for the fire place and a laundry plan for the different tents. The Kenyans are not so easy to handle, so you have to tell them the things many times until they do it. Without a lot of patience it's impossible to survive. It was an active Sunday and not much time for my household or office work...

First cholera death in Nakuru town

It's now 7 pm and I just got the latest news that a girl died of cholera when she was brought to the hospital in Nakuru town.