Adventure of a Lifetime

Dear Mr. Baker,

In October 2010 akronlife magazine (then called Akron Life & Leisure) ran a story about a fundraiser for a group called Bonyo’s Kenya Mission (BKM). We took that issue on a mission trip to Masara, Kenya, and I’ve included a picture that shows the organization’s founder and Akron family physician, Dr. Bonyo Bonyo (who was born and raised in Masara), some of the 63 medical students who went on the 2010 trip, BKM members and friends, members of the Masara community who are proud to have the Mama Palista Bonyo Memorial Health Centre in their village and myself (I’m the one holding the magazine) on my first mission trip.

I’ve been thinking for the past 13 months about writing this story. It’s taken me this long, as the experience was not one that was easily put into words. It was the opportunity of a lifetime and an unbelievable adventure — wrapped up into three weeks of events — which changed me and the path of my life forever.

Having had a lifelong ‘calling’ to assist those around me — whether ‘less fortunate’ or not — I’ve also had a specific need to help those in Africa. This need was marrow-deep and unable to be ignored. As a child, I asked for world peace for every birthday candle, every dandelion fluff and falling star. One birthday, when I was about 10, I went to bed with that wish. The next morning, I had a Barbie doll waiting for me. I was so upset that God had not granted my wish of world peace for my birthday that I was depressed for days.

The knowledge that world peace could be obtained (if only we all helped each other, lifted up those below us and did not litter) has never left me. I’ve volunteered for more fundraisers and nonprofit groups than I can recall. I’ve worked with the homeless, organized record-breaking drives for Harvest for Hunger, coordinated groups for the Heart Walk, March of Dimes and United Way, and was a Boy Scout leader for 13 years, leading multiple young men through the Rank of Eagle. Understanding that I can’t obtain world peace alone, I helped to raise good children into good adults. None of this completely fulfilled my need to do what I felt was necessary for world peace, but it all helped a bit along the way.

 When I met doctors Bonyo Bonyo and Barry Greenberg, they were the answer to the next step in my lifelong goal. In May 2010, we made the whirlwind decision that I would accompany them to Kenya. Although I thought I had no specific skill-set which would benefit the mission, they were certain I did. The paperwork was all completed, my immunizations received and off we went!

It turned out that while in Kenya, I was very helpful at the Mama Palista Bonyo Memorial Health Centre. I sorted about 3,000 pairs of glasses that were then distributed to the people who needed them. (We have an eye refractor at the clinic, do vision-testing on anyone in need and offer them the correct glasses to help with their vision.) We also gave out dozens of sunglasses to protect against cataracts and eye injuries to those working in the rice fields. We collaborated with a hospital in the Great Rift Valley to remove the cataracts from the eyes of 40 people during that trip.

My ‘official title’ at the clinic was ‘ear washer.’ When anyone had a hearing problem, due to impacted wax, they were sent to me to have their ears cleaned. After one quick lesson from Dr. Greenberg, I was famous for my ability to cause the deaf to hear! It was a messy job, but I enjoyed every person who came to me for help. When these patients couldn’t hear and their ears hurt, the look on their face a few minutes later, when they had relief and hearing, made up for the language barrier. It was a look of sudden relaxation and adulation at the same time.

I also learned to take blood pressures, weighed patients, completed paperwork, corralled children, distributed water, cleaned the clinic’s many rooms and restocked supplies as we cared for over 1,000 patients in less than two weeks.

Between long days at the clinic, our group took turns spending a day touring the Kisumu area. A group of us joined in the World Aids Day Kisumu Marathon. We took a hippo-watching tour on Lake Victoria. We visited the HOVIC Center, an orphanage run by a U.K. organization called Kenyan Orphan Project (KOP). We performed medical exams for the boys of the HOVIC center, and on several days, we toured local hospitals.

One of my favorite memories was the few hours I spent sitting on a box in the middle of the clinic yard, in the blazing hot sun, painting the faces of a multitude of children. I had purchased a set of watercolor pencils in Kisumu, thinking I would paint just a few children’s faces. It turned into the event of the week for the children, who all ran home and returned with their siblings, cousins and friends! What joy a few colored pencils can create!

As this trip celebrated BKM’s 16th anniversary, Dr. Bonyo arranged for a performance by two local comedians and Osogo Winyo, a singer who is the ‘Michael Jackson’ of Kenya. We spent a day dancing, singing and having fun! There were so many people inside the clinic yard, it was packed to the seams. People who couldn’t fit inside were dancing in the streets. All had an amazing time!

 After caring for over 1,000 patients who presented with everything from malaria, TB, complications of being HIV positive, dehydration, dental extractions, open wounds, diabetes and more — including several who needed emergency transport to a local hospital — we wrapped up our visit there. We restocked the cupboards and left the clinic in the capable hands of the men and women who run the clinic on a daily basis.

The final week of the trip included a long drive from Kisumu to the Masai Mara. Our caravan included five heavy-duty four-wheel-drive vans with six people in each one. We drove for about five hours through deserted plains, small villages, rural landscapes and tea fields, crossing rivers and mountains. Upon arrival in the area of the Masai Mara, we unloaded and moved into a beautiful hotel. We spent the next three days viewing lions, cheetahs, wild boar, zebras, giraffes, Cape buffalo, rhinoceros, hippopotami and all the other wonders of the Mara.

The best time was spending a couple of hours parked in the middle of a herd of 20 elephants on a warm morning. There were elephants of all ages and sizes. The babies romped around us, and there was one very large elephant that was so curious about us, he stood and watched us the whole time, creeping so close, I could see the wrinkles around his eyes. He watched us as we watched him … full of curiosity.

Finally, my trip was over — a lifetime of experience had, new friends made, a missionary-type career realized (though not yet obtained) and a little bit of world peace created.

 Since our 2010 trip, the Mama Palista Bonyo Memorial Health Centre has received government acknowledgment. We’ve been granted the opportunity to be a location where the national insurance can be used. Because most of the residents don’t have the documentation needed to obtain insurance, we have trained ‘social workers’ who go into the community to assist them in becoming documented. BKM will pay for the insurance cards for the neediest. The clinic will provide medical care for all, regardless of their ability to pay and whether they have insurance or not. The insurance will generate an income for the clinic.

The national HIV testing center has begun to visit the clinic on a frequent and regular basis. This will assist in patients’ knowing their HIV status and learning to live with, but not pass on, their disease. The government has donated chickens to our HIV mothers as a way to make money and have food, and BKM has donated land and a chicken coop. Our staff members have taken a course in raising healthy chickens and are sharing that knowledge with the women in the village.

We’ve hired two full-time nurses and are providing them with housing on the clinic compound. A physician’s assistant and a licensed physician who live in the area visit the clinic regularly, and several babies were born there in the past year.

A rain-water capture station has been installed on the clinic, and our water well has been re-drilled, which the neighboring families are welcome to use.

In addition to the work done at the clinic, BKM sponsors about 40 orphans, and the sponsors are people from all lifestyles here in the U.S. and abroad. It costs about $400 a year for a child to attend elementary and middle school and is a requirement of the law.

When a 65-year-old grandmother is working in the rice field for pennies a day, raising five grandsons and living in a mud hut with no electricity, running water or bathroom facility, schooling is an impossible task. Sponsorship pays for school fees and supplies, health care at the clinic, uniforms and other incidentals. Several deaf children are sponsored. They attend a school for the deaf, which offers special equipment to assist them with ‘hearing’ and other life skills.

It’s my dream that someday I’ll be able to work half the year or more at our clinic in Kenya. I still wish for world peace on a regular basis, and I know it can be achieved, one person at a time.

Sincerely,

Heidi

/ Author Heidi Weisel lives in Kent and is a board member of Bonyo’s Kenya Mission. If you share her dream, find Bonyo’s Kenya Mission on Facebook or check out www.bonyoskenyamission.org. Videos from Heidi’s trip are available online at youtube.com/hlweisel.