Broadcast letter from Kijabe, Kenya July 2002

Greetings from Kijabe Hospital, Kenya.
I arrived into Kenyatta International Airport on Tuesday July 2 without difficulty. I was collected and brought to Kijabe with two other doctors who will be working here during July also. We are staying in a house overlooking the Great Rift Valley, the other side of which I haven’t clearly seen yet. The area’s most notable landmark is Mt Longonot, and inactive (NOT dormant) volcano. The climate is quite cool as the elevation is 7000 feet. This is the beginning of the dry season and reminds me a good deal of Northern California in the fall. Those of you who are admiring my fortitude in braving the rigors of Equatorial Africa may now move on to other matters.
The hospital serves people from all over Kenya but primarily the Kykuyu and the Maasai. The Kykuyu a rather prominent in government as they are a large fraction of the country’s population and the first president, Jomo Kenyatta, was Kykuyu. The Maasi are more rural and isolated generally and thus more traditional. Most people speak a usable amount of Kiswahili (i.e. the language of the Swahili). Contrary to my stay in Zambia last year, there is very little malaria Burkett’s lymphoma or shistosomiasis. There is however a good deal of tuberculosis and AIDS (the local population has a prevalence of about 35% since it is on a heavily traveled truck route).
The medical supplies which I brought were fallen upon with glad cries! Children in this hospital, as in most general hospitals, are at the back of the queue as far as getting supplies. In a country which has limited resources, children frequently do without, medically.
This week a mother of a boy on the ward asked about Jesus and was led to Jesus by a Kykuyu layman. A mother in the next bed listened in and was also saved. Last night the 12 year-old boy was saved while his mother looked on. We serve a truly amazing God. His care is sufficient. I saw a sign today at the local school which said something like: “Our highest goal is not to do good works, succeed in accomplishments or even to see the working of God’s will in His creation but rather in the furtherance of our communion with God as his children in imitation of His Son.”

Sincerely yours,
Walt Boutwell