Collecting School Furniture

ak. It was a busy day at the hospital today. The waiting room was full by early morning and the medical staff were on the run until mid-afternoon when there was a much-needed lull in patients. Later in the afternoon, students from the neighbouring Kasambara Primary School arrived to collect their tables and chairs, donated by the Swiss organization Kids-to-Kids. It took two trips with 20 students, but within 30 minutes the furniture had disappeared, destined for good use by rural Kenyan school children.

Discipline brings the refugee camp to flourish

rs. Today, we first discussed how we can rationalize the food distribution because after 2 pm it often starts to rain and we have to continue in the wet. So the proposition for next week is to devide the group in two on two days, Monday and Tuesday. Like this we are finished by lunch time and have the weather on our side. For today we still had the old system and luckily it stayed dry until we gave out the past portion. It is great to see that the displaced people slowly start to show some joy in their faces. The men sometimes need a little bit more discipline because the group has to work together and all duties have to be done by both genders equally. Finally, after explaining it to everybody, it worked well. The men also took part in cooking and washing dishes afterwards. The older children could start school today in Kasambara and they have been well accepted by the teachers. Our small patient with the head operation could leave the hospital today and only has to come back for periodical controls. By the end of the day, some men came to us and were looking for a volley ball. So playing, having joy and getting back to a more or less normal life are of paramount importance to bring a better atmosphere to the camp. We make our best to help them wherever we can.

The church closed the toilets - unbelievable!

rs. When I arrived at the hospital ground, people were already waiting in line to get their daily food ration. After I parked my car a woman came to me and asked where she can use a toilet, because two days ago the church closed the public toilets! This is "love your next like yourself" practiced by the Catholic Church... Then I went to the hospital and Niaga from our crew came and said they fear further aggression by some groups of people and he questioned if we should give out food today. So we carefully served group by group, first those who are registered, then the Kasambara group, those from Thugunui and then the rest. The distribution was finally more or less quiet. Only 3 men wanted to push forward in line but our guard brought back the order. And some people even thanked us for our help and were happy to be taken care of. After work, we discussed plans how we could build new simple toilets as son as possible.

Then later in the afternoon the rain blessed us again ...

Film shooting at the Aequator with Nicolas Senn

ns. Today the Swiss delegation (Gaby from the Swiss TV, musician Nicolas Senn and Stehan Holderegger) went to the Aequator and visited a village where Nicolas had a concert last September. The locals immediately recognized the Swiss dulcimer player and showed autograph cards from last time. Gaby filmed the meeting and could make several interviews. We even plan to organize a big concert together with Kenyan dancers. Fortunately we had no rain on the way back to Nakuru. Soon the rain season is expected to start here and we already had first showers last night. Let's hope that the thousands of refugees in the camps will survive! The conditions will get worse and worse.

Growing support for Mama Matata

sh. Today we not only served 3,500 refugees at remaining hot temperatures but we could do it in the presence of many journalists from Nairobi as well as a TV crew from Switzerland (TV TSR). A big help to bring together so many press people was Josef Muyu, Director of the Lake Nakuru Lodge. Mr. Muya (see right picture) also brought a present for the refugees: 4 bags of milk powder, answered questions from the journalists and praised the activities of the Rhein - Valley Hospital. Today we gave out food for the next 3 days: corn, rice, sugar, white and brown porridge, Frutapura baby food, beans, milk powder and not to forget: fresh drinking water. Some hope is dawning: the press is acknowledging our work and we have to forget the past. Let's build together a new future for the Kenyan people!