This year Mediquest spent almost 4 weeks in Kenya visiting various hospitals and clinics. We started with 6 days in Kijabe at the large mission hospital there. While we were there we attended ward rounds and HIV/AIDS clinics, spent time visiting patients with the hospital chaplains, and worked alongside professionals in each of our fields (medicine, dietitics and physio).

Next stop was Kajiado Child Care Centre which cares for around 60 resident children with physical disabilities and more that come as outpatients. As well as spending time at the centre we got to go with both the therapy team and the nurses from the dispensary on various mobile clinics and home visits into rural Maasai land.

The last couple of weeks was spent visiting several rural dispensaries spending a couple of nights in each place. Two of them we reached by a small plane, the others by rough road. We saw a variety of patients from ante-natal checks, to a guy who had been shot in the shoulder during fighting over land and cattle.

One of the best parts about this time for me was to talk to the Kenyan nurses about the issues they faced in healthcare, and to be able to talk through the challenges and blessings of this work with mission staff. It helped to open my eyes to the issues surrounding medical mission, as well as the practicalities of the conditions seen and the resources available.