Tonight Stephan comes back to Nakuru

rs. Today it's again busy in the hospital. Aska recovered a bit from her injury but her face is still swollen. I could stay in the hospital only for a short time because a lot of office work is waited for me at home. There was again a power brake down and only thanks to my generator I could write today's report. Kamau who wanted to repair the broken water tube, couldn't come but sent someone else: his fried Paul who did the reparation in a twinkling of an eye. Then I had to prepare to drive to Nairobi because tonight my partner and co-founder of the hospital Stephan Holderegger cames again from Switzerland to assist us here - what we badly need!

Today's picture shows a young women of our neighborhood
carrying dried grass for her animals (Photo: Ruth Schäfer)

WFP Containers arrived this morning!

rs. After a half-ruined night (I had a broken water tube in my house), things became better in the morning. I got a call that the containers of the UN/WFP (World Food Program) were on their way to the Rhein-Valley Hospital. I just rushed together my things for the day and drove to the hospital - just in time. The truck was arriving the same minute at our grounds and I could help him find the correct place to unload the goods. People from our crew and from the refugee camp helped to unload the 50 k bags and even an elderly man wanted to help. He said that he regularly gets food here and that he also wanted to help a little bit. We counted the bags and there was only one bag of corn missing. They even promised to bring the last one on Monday when they will have a chance to witness our food distribution to the needy.

"Little" Ruth Schäfer amongst piles of food bags

Returning home in the evening I had another call, this time bad news: The mother of the little girl that we are currently treating because of her heavy burns, wanted to go back to her burnt home, perhaps to find something left there. Arriving in Eldoret people started to throw stones on her and she had to be hospitalized. This episode again reminded me that the situation is still very tense between the different tribes, but we will continue our help for the displaced persons.

Massai and Kikuju girls do our laundry

rs. This morning I went to the office of the Health Ministery in Nakuru. I learned that our hospital now belongs to the Naivasha district, that means from now on we have to get our vaccines from Naivasha which is two times as far as Nakuru. I was not happy but couldn't change his mind. So this meeting was not very fruitful and constructive for me. In the hospital there is a lot to do: Many patients came with stomach upsets, fever and open wounds. Some even come without any illness; they just need someone to tell their sorrow. Many only realize with the time what they had lost. Our cleaning ladies (see picture) show us that different tribes easily can live and work together: on the left side is Serea, a Massai; on the right side Ann, a Kikuju. They took the opportunity of a dry day to do our laundry. One young patient was in observation because of a possible malaria infection. Her blood is now being checked by our medical crew. At 5 pm I wanted to go to Nakuru to buy some food but it was so chaotic on the streets that I quickly returned - I will have to accept what I have at home...

Editorial note: One of today's pictures was too nice to be published in small size, you fill find it on our special photo blog on Kenya. It shows a mother and her child in our waiting room.

Building our own toilets

While driving to the hospital this morning, I came accross many security posts and people still are on the road with all they have. In the hospital I met a new patient: a young student was there with a burnt foot. Our doctor John and nurse Wilder treated him. He needed an infusion with antibiotics, because the wound was already inflamed. Outside on our ground works progressed to build a simple toilet. As the church's public toilets have been closed we have to make something on our own. Here on the countryside no machines are used, everything is done with hard manpower. The day's activities lasted until 7 pm and suddenly I realized that I have forgetten to take a proper meal, so I was preparing my combined dinner/lunch. Today Spagetthi are on the menu plan...

2-hour interview with Citizen newspaper

Some glimpses of today's activities: Our doctor John had a lot to do because his nurse Aska hasn't come for work yet; she is still recovering from her injuries due to the attacks some days ago. Our crew did some sports in the break time and Ann was responsible for our Lunch. She prepared Ugali, some white sort of corn. In the afternoon I went to Nakuru to visit Aska and I met James Mwembi of the Citizen newspaper. They already published an article on our work at the hospital but he wanted more informations. So we spent almost two hours together. The situation in the town is still tense, military trucks are present and security posts have been established. The citizens are still inpatient and long for returning to their home towns. Often you see trucks full of household articles and furniture, leading to Nakuru, or further down to Kikuyu land. People already speak of Cholera, Typhus and Yellow Fever cases and it is our daily duty to emphasize on proper hygiene.

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 ...

Power interruption and heavy rain

rs. This Sunday morning I got a call from John, that the power supply was interrupted in the hospital. I found out that it has been announced in the paper but who reads the paper every day... I then called Aska who was attacked yesterday. She doesn't feel well and still has a lot of pain and she barely can see with the swollen eye. She asked to stay home for another two days. Sure, no problem. Today I also made my control visit to the hospital. I visited a pregnant woman and saw a young girl, that have been beaten up by her mother and luckily the eye had not been damaged. When I returned home, I had to prepare everything for tomorrow, we will have our food distribution day. In the meantime we had heavy thunderstorms, temperatures are now around 19°C.

Husband visits his wife in the Rhein-Valley Hospital this morning

Sad stories remain in the focus

This morning Fundi, our Hospital manager packed his furniture to be moved to a small village at the border of Uganda, were he spent his youth. He and his family ran for their life when the turbulences started in Nakuru. I spontaneously gave them shelter. After a while his wife and children returned back to their parent's home. They belong to the Kalenjin tribe. As the wife couldn't take all the belongings with her, her husband is now bringing the rest. It is an 8 hour journey. Hope all goes well and he will be back soon; we need his help.

After returning home the phone rang and it was John, our clinic doctor. With agitation he reported that our youngest nurse Aska had been attacked yesterday evening and had to be delivered to the town hospital where they treated her for 6 hours, before she could go home. They also stole her salary that she picked up from the bank. She saved money for three months to help her mother whose house had been burnt. And she wanted to build a little hut around the hospital to be together with her animals. For the time being she had to take shelter in the police station. It is disheartening to hear all these stories. It seems that sometimes human beings are more cruel than animals. - Mama Matata

The rainy season started also in Nakuru ...

Nakuru town: expensive and dangerous

rs. This morning I went to Nakuru to make some payments and was looking for mattresses, but I couldn't find any. Before the elections, normal foam mattresses cost 235 Kenya Schilling, now they are 3 x more. It's unbelievable how the prices rose, also in regard to food. People try to steel money wherever they can, especially those who are not town residents, but come from other villages and from the show-ground. You have to be very careful when walking in the town and you have to carefully close all zippers of your jacket. The situation in the street is getting very unsafe and quickly I went back to my car where my boy "body guards" took care of my car. As recompense they usually get milk and bread. After returning from town I quickly checked the hospital before returning home.

Falling temperatures, rain and a birth

rs. Stephan and the other Swiss returned home and here I am back alone with our daily duties. The temperatures drastically fell to 18°C, it is heavily raining and it became windy. The rain season cannot be stopped any- more. Today a new soul was born: Jakob. Besides this many daily routine and office work and some troubles because of our inconsistent power supply which is especially bad if you are working on the computer.

This is the Hospital ground with the tent camp

Today marked the last day of our stay in Nakuru, that means of Nicolas Senn, his mother, Gaby from the Swiss TV and myself (Stephan). Tonight we will return back to Switzerland via Nairobi. We had again an active day giving out the food for many refugees in the hospital area. It is always a big task to handle the masses but Ruth Schäfer has the needed poise together with a hidden firmness to keep the situation under control. As a last excursion Nicolas and myself went a little up the mountain to make some shots from the Rhein-Valley Hospital ground with the tent camp.

Nicolas and Ruth

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Another Dulcimer concert on 2700 m

Today we visited the water station in Thugunui on 2700 m where all school children gathered together to attend another concert of Swiss dulcimer player Nicolas Senn who is currently staying in Kenya together with his mother. The water station was opened on November 15th 2007 together with the Austrian help organization "Schilling für Schilling" and allows the whole community to have fresh drinking water the whole year round ... and even free of charge! The children were very receptive and happy. The adults were also listening and all had a good time. At the end the community thanked Mama Matata and the musician. Nicolas took the opportunity to walk down to the Rhein-Valley Hospital ground on 2000 m and realized how much effort it took for the locals in the mountain village to bring the water up the mountain before the water project was established.

This old men sponsored the land for establishing the water station.

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.

In today's newspaper...

Clip from today's edition of Kenyan paper "The People Daily"

Easter Sunday together with the street boys

After the successful concert of dulcimer player Nicolas Senn around the Rhein-Valley Hospital we planned to go to the city centre of Nakuru to play again for the street boys and bring them some food as a little Easter present. As soon as we approached the main post office the people rushed from all sides towords us and were astonished about our colorful outfit in the Swiss tradition. We also were astonished to see so many poor people on the street that have nothing but their life, and the youngsters most of the time spend their time with sniffing. After the concert started the children were laughing and seemed to get some happiness. It didn't matter if it was a traditional Swiss country song or a American Rock'n Roll. Gaby Schädler from Swiss TV was trying hard to capture the atmosphere without being overrolled by the masses. The situation became tense when we started to give out some food for the people. They feared not to get anything and were panic-stricken. Mama Matata had to climb on the roof of her car to bring herself in a safe position. From there she tried to continue with the food distribution but finally we had to stop the action and escape in the car. It was not safe for us anymore, to say the least. Anyway, we manged to make around 1500 young people happy this Easter Sunday! - Nicolas

World Water Day and Concert in Nakuru!

sh. To celebrate today's "World Water Day 2008" we had a very active program. The Swiss TV crew was filming the whole day, dulcimer player Nicolas gave a concert for thousands of Kenyans and we gave out the twice weekly food portions to the refugees. Nicolas also helped for 7 hours with the food program! Also present were school classes from Thugunui where we have another water project together with the Austrian organization "Schilling für Schilling" with Eddie Kroll. Our own water station at the Rhein-Valley Hospital was also very active until the evening and it was a real joy to see the manifestation of the "World Water Day" in reality! By the way our hospital is fully occupied at the moment. Unfortunately we have to place newcomers in the Nakuru camp. Although it was cloudy today the temperature here in Kasambara still was very high: around 35° C in the shadow and this on an altitude of 2000 m!

Making the children happy

Yesterday we met quite a lot of children collecting wood for their cooking fires back home at the camps. To some of them we offered T-Shirts and caps and also a Frutapura package. With little things you can make them happy! We also went to Nairobi to welcome Gaby Schädler from the Swiss TV (Rundschau) and Swiss dulcimer musician Nicolas Senn together with his mother. Today we have a full program - more news tonight.

Story on girl who escaped the flames

In today's edition of the Kenyan Newspaper "The People Daily", a story of a girl was published that escaped from a burning church. As the paper mentions, "young Wanjiru persevered with serious burns on the left side of her body for four days at the Catholic Church grounds before a Good Samaritan took her to Moi Referral Hospital for treatment. She is now camping at an non-governmental organisation-sponsored facility, Rhein-Valley Hospital, at Kasambara in Mbaruku area of Nakuru District. Wanjiru is grateful to the hospital's directors Ruth and Stephan who footed her hospital bill. Stephan says the girl was initially deeply traumatised that she could not allow anybody to touch her. But she responded well to treatment and has now recovered. The hospital is hosting over 2,000 internally displaced persons from Eldoret, Burnt Forest, Likia, Londiani and Naivasha. Some from Nakuru showground had also moved to the hospital. Wanjiru intends to get back to school at the nearby Kasambara Primary School. She has however forgiven those who killed her father and grandmother, but would like the Government to pursue and arrest them." Click on the article to enlarge it.

Street life in Nakuru

sh. Today we were in Nakuru to buy the food for the 3,500 refugees that are expected to come to the Rhein-Valley Hospital on Saturday. This will be an important day. Swiss musician Nicolas Senn and a Swiss TV crew will be here. Many school children will came from Thugunui and Kasambara and there will be a big concert for them. While staying in Nakuru we could visit a sewing factory and were quite shocked about the working conditions there. On the streets we were protected by our boy body guards who also look after our car. Life in the streets is also not easy to digest for us Europeans. It is impossible to mention all details here. The street boys are always on good terms with Mama Matata and it is amazing how she can accept the situation. For me (Stephan) it is a bit more difficult because of my week immune system. I have to keep some distance.

Bicycle reparations at the street corner - but still with joy!