Kenya 2001
Kenya Report
by: Jeremiah Ostapowicz

First of all I would like to thank each one of you for giving so generously.  I believe that God has called me to a very similar ministry such as this.  The money that I received was an answer to prayer and it enabled me to experience something that some may never fully understand the joy of giving to the needs of hurting people. 

When I was preparing to go to Kenya I did not think very much about how different it was going to be.  When we did arrive what shocked me the most was the filthy conditions that were present everywhere.  Many of the streets were lined with garbage that was often smoldering giving off a horrid stench.  Sometime we would even see people sitting right in the middle of this burning trash.  The vehicles there gave off such bad pollution that on some days it was even hard to see through the smog.  It was hard to comprehend how these people could live in such conditions, but they did.

Every day we went to a different area to give out medicines and healthcare.  The places we went were the poorest areas.  They are called the slums.  In these slums the houses, or rather tin shacks, are crowded so close together that most of them are not accessible by car.  There is usually an area set aside for garbage dumping, but often it is just left out anywhere.  Most of the little children do not have shoes and I saw many of them running bare foot through this garbage.  This is what compelled me the most, the little children.

When we would go to one of these slums to set up a clinic there would often be a line of people already waiting.  It amazed me, though, to watch all the kids playing and having fun.  Even in, what we would call, unbearable conditions they would be smiling and laughing having fun with each other.  When we would leave a clinic many times the children would chase after us waving and thanking us.  

There were many different things that we saw in the clinics.  Many had malaria, some just had colds or the flue.  Many babies were malnourished not because of a lack of food, but because of the ignorance of the mother on what to feed the baby.  Some more interesting things, I thought, were open wounds the people came in with.  One man I remember had the whole top of his foot open and infected with only a small cloth covering it.  We cleaned it, which was very painful it took three of us to hold him down, and bandaged it.  Another woman came in with breast cancer.  The cancer was so far along that it was eating away at the outside of her breast.  There wasn't much we could do for her, but dress it. 

One thing that I will never forget was our visit to a school for the mentally and physically handicapped.  I put a small bandage on a young boy’s foot and that was such an important thing to him.  When we left he started to cry.   

This is why this trip was such a life changing experience for me.  I not only was able to see what these people go through every day, but I was able to experience impart how they live.  It is only when you experience what a person is going through that you can truly understand how they feel.  When you are able to understand a person you will be able to have compassion on them.

Again I thank you very much for helping make a difference in the life of another.