JR Woodward :: Blog :: E-Mails from Friends in Kenya

For those of you who have an interest in keeping up with what is happening in Kenya, I will occasionally post some e-mails from people I know in Kenya - both medical missionaries and locals.  I think sometimes it is helpful to hear from the people on the ground instead of just the popular news sources. I will leave out or edit some details, when it deals with the potential safety of those sending me the emails. I have permission to share these emails with you on this blog.

Here are a couple emails from my Medical Missionary friends:

12/31/07
While I can’t
prove it beyond doubt, God protected ..... (place where they work) today.  A large mob had
gathered in the square of the small town two kilometers away.  They
decided to attack .....  in some form of retaliation or protest of the
election.  Guns could be heard from here and were coming closer.
Police were using tear gas and weapons.  Families gathered inside their
homes.  The hospital administration gathered the people from the
rival tribe into a safe place as they were being targeted around
Kenya. 

My wife had to decide whether to run home or run to the hospital
as the nursery staff hadn’t shown up.  She chose to run up the hill to the hospital with people shouting, “Wrong way!”
Her husband?  I was deciding with three other surgeons whether to
continue with an emergent operation on a gunshot victim or wait to see what the situation would bring.  We went ahead and hopefully saved that young man’s leg.  Many people were praying
with gunshots in the background.  However you choose to see it, the mob
suddenly decided to change course and attack another location.  I am
personally very grateful to God this evening.  Of course life isn’t all rosy, I still lost my temper somewhat with a busy day
and became short with a few people.  My wife just went back up to the
hospital to work as many staff are afraid to leave their homes to come
to work.  And yes, Mom…I’ll walk her home at ten when she’s done.  Please continue to pray for Kenya and ... (place we work and live).  It is unfortunate so much violence is happening.

1/2/08
Today has been rather quiet here at .... (place they work).  We are grateful.  

However, much violence is still going on.  The local chief’s house was burned down across the river
from us.  All of our local gas stations have been burned.  Locals have
set up roadblocks to get bribes and look for people from other tribes.
We have only had 7 gunshot victims since things began and one arrow
shot victim.  We rarely have gunshots here as so few people have guns.  So most of these guys were shot by police likely doing something they shouldn’t have been.  We haven’t had any injuries from rungus (clubs), pongas (machetes) or knives.  That is our usual trauma mechanism. 

One
clinical officer intern was trying to report for his first day of work
today.  He had just been given a training spot to fill in for someone
else before the holidays.  Apparently he was trying to get here and got stuck about an hour’s drive away.  He called on his mobile to say that he couldn’t make it to his first day of work…he was hiding in a bush due to the violence.  Many staff haven’t
reported for duty so we are struggling some to keep the hospital
running.  Some very local staff have come even off duty to check and
when vacancies have been found, they have filled in.  Most who aren’t here are stuck some distance away having traveled for the holiday.

It
has been hard for our visitors.  We had a great family from the US who
were here for two weeks to give our orthopedist a break for the
holidays.  They were scheduled to leave on Saturday.  With the violence we couldn’t send them by road.  However, our local airstrip has recently become in need of repair such that we can’t
get a plane in.  So this family had to travel with a police escort thru
back roads to get to a large wheat field where a mission plane picked
them up.  They called to say they were airborne en route to Nairobi to
catch their commercial flight home.  I pray their travel in Nairobi is
safe.

I
filled up our Toyota with diesel tonight from the hospital tank.  Ben
was doing the same and it seemed like a good idea to me.  I need to
replace the bushing on the rear strut again but can do that in the
morning so the vehicle will be ready if we need to do something.  For now, I’d rather be here than travel as it’s a bit out of the way.  Stores are being looted so eventually things will need to settle down or we’ll have some trouble there.  Fortunately my wife has a large store of things out back.  I don’t know how long the hospital can last without the roads opening up for supplies.  It is dry season and the river is low.  So we’re having to supplement our hydroelectric plant’s electricity production by using a diesel generator.  Interesting times…

Thanks for all of your prayers.  I’m
certainly more concerned for our staff and neighbors than for us as our
hospital grounds have been without incident.  Some of our staff are
sleeping in bushes as their homes are targets for one reason or
another.  Some are hiding out.  I’ve heard horrible tales of people suffering and I’m concerned for them.  Please continue to pray for the people of Kenya and for peace.

P.S.

Oh yeah, on the light side…My wife scared herself severely today.
She calls to tell me she saw a large truck pull up outside of her
window in the nursery this morning and all of these military guys
jumped out with AK47s.  She was working alone due to staffing and was nervous. She
was also in the middle of changing the light bulbs on an incubator
(source of heat for the babes).  Not paying attention to the bulbs any longer to see what the men with guns were up to, one of them rolled off the table and fell to the floor.  The subsequent “Pop!” was of course recognized as a gunshot…”I’ve been hit!  It won’t be long now. Tell my husband I love him”  she thought to herself…  Finally she calmed enough to realize what happened…  We’re still laughing now as we listen to some jazz at our place….