Jambo (Hello) fellow Zumbro members! What a wonderful adventure I had today with our Iambi hospital friends. I was asked by Principal Ilumbi and Matron/professor Delphina to ride along with them and the 20 nursing students at Iambi to drop them off in surrounding villages for their 1 month off site clinical rotations. They will be working in village dispensaries (small village clinics) for the next month to enhance their education! I was welcomed back with open arms as they remember my teaching from last year.
Our journey started at about 10 am with us boarding the van as you see here. There were 23 of us riding in that one van with all the provisions the students needed for the month strapped on top. They were each provided with a foam mattress to sleep on the floor in their temporary living quarters, one bag/backpack for ALL their personal belongings and enough dried rice, beans, sugar, corn flour to make ugali (like flour polenta) and cooking oil to make all their meals for the month.
The van atmosphere reminded me of the many school age mission trips I took in vans (although not as packed). The excitement level was high and the talking/laughing was non stop! We rode 2 hours on VERY bumpy dirt roads before we dropped off the first 5 students. There were prayers, many well wishes and hugs as we repeated the same step 4 more times.
I will never forget the looks on their faces as they were so excited to learn and have an adventure far from their home at Iambi hospital. It was a sad farewell for me as they will graduate in August. I won’t likely see any of them again when I return. I will always cherish the memories of them and never forget the love they showed me even though I spent so little time with them today and last year.
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