The hospital was a fairly large, one story concrete building. The trim had been painted a bright blue and pots of flowers hung here and there from the rafters of the large veranda in front. At least a dozen people were coming and going through the doors or hanging around outside. “Every patient has to have someone here to help take care of them—a family member or friend,” Dr. Bob explained. “We do the medical care, of course, but they help with feeding, bathing—things like that. Jambo, Peter! Jambo, Marcus! Habari? How are you?” he called out to several of the men standing nearby. Each person they passed greeted the group with a big smile and a jambo.
“We won’t go into the hospital today,” Dr. Bob said as they walked on by, “but tomorrow you’ll get a close up look at it in action. It’s one of our clinic days and we’ll really be buzzing! Then the next day, when you’ve all recovered from your jet lag, we’ll start work on the new addition.”
The group was approaching a large cheerfully yellow build ing. “This is the orphanage,” Pastor Phil said. “The older kids are all at school right now—that green building over there—but the little ones and babies are here. Let’s walk around back. I’ll bet some of the kids are outside playing.” They started around the building and Pastor Phil went on to say, “We have over seventy children here. Many of them have lost both of their parents, but some are here because their mothers lead very bad lives and cannot or will not care for them any longer and have abandoned them. Mark and Beth Jameson are in charge of the orphanage. They have such a huge heart for these kids and are doing a wonderful job, not only providing for their needs, but also making sure each one of them knows that they are loved. They have a dozen or so Kenyan girls helping them.”
They rounded the corner of the building just then and Kristi and all the other girls in the group chorused, “Awwww!” A fenced-off area in back held twenty or so cute little black children playing in the grass. Several young women were holding babies on their laps and chatting while they watched the toddlers play. Big smiles filled every little face, except for one who had tears sliding down his cheeks. He had fallen and hurt his knee. One of the women got up and went over to him, then gave him a hug and whispered in his ear. He nodded, jumped up and ran back to his play.
The young woman looked up just then and saw them. “Jambo!” she called out. The other workers turned and stood to their feet, holding the babies on their hips when they saw the group approaching. “Daktari! Doctor! Mchangaji! Pastor! Jambo!” they said as they hurried to the fence. That set off a rush of small children. Like little pound puppies, they ran to the fence and began jumping up and down crying, “Jambo! Jambo!”
The group of Americans laughed and Pastor Phil led them to the gate. As soon as they went through they were surrounded by little ones grabbing their hands or clinging to their legs. Kristi found herself looking into the eyes of a sweet little girl. She knelt down and gave her a hug. “Jambo! Hello! My name is Kristi! What’s your name?” she asked. The little girl just stood there smiling.
Kristi turned to Dr. Bob who was standing nearby and asked, “How do I tell her my name and ask her what her name is?”
“You say Jina langu Kristi. Jina lako nani?”
Kristi repeated the phrase as best she could and was rewarded with a little giggle from the tiny girl.”Ninaitwa Leah,” she said. “I am called Leah.”
Dr. Bob grinned. “Don’t worry about not speaking the lan guage, Kristi. Swahili is the common language here in Kenya, but English is also an official language and most people here can at least speak a little English. They learn it in school. In a few years little Leah will speak three languages—her own tribal tongue, Swahili and English!”
“Wow! And I’m having trouble with just English and the little bit of Spanish I know!” Kristi noticed her mother holding a baby in her arms. She took Leah by the hand and went over to her.
“Look who I have!” Rachel exclaimed. This is Baby Moses!”
“Baby Moses!”
“Um-hmm. Pastor Phil told me they named him that because he was found in a basket outside the gate one morn ing. Apparently his mother couldn’t care for him so she left him there.”
“Oh, Mommy, that’s so sad!” Kristi cried.
“Yes, but look at it this way, Kristi—at least he is in a safe, clean place where people will love him and care for him. His life might have been a lot harder otherwise.”
“I know, but I feel sad for his mother, too.”
“I do, too, Kristi. It’s a very hard life here.”
Robyn and Anna came over just then, each with a toddler in her arms. “Aren’t they cute, Kristi?” Robyn said. “This is Andrew.” The small boy’s grin matched Robyn’s! He waved his hand at the mention of his name.
“And this is Jacob,” Anna said. “He reminds me of my little brother, even though his skin is a different color. Seeing him makes me miss little Miguel even more.” Jacob looked solemnly at Anna with his big dark eyes and laid his head down on her shoulder.
“Well, just give him all the hugs and loving you’d be giving Miguel if you were at home,” Kristi said. “I have Leah here,” she gave the child a smile and a wink, “and my mom has Baby Moses.”
“Baby Moses!” the girls echoed. Kristi explained how he had received his name. They looked around the yard and saw that everyone was involved with the children. Skeeter was tossing a ball to a couple little boys. Dan and Pete were down on their knees in front of a little girl. They must have been saying something funny because she was laughing and chattering back at them. Even Kristi’s dad was awkwardly holding a tiny baby. He had a big grin on his face and was cooing and talking ‘baby talk’ in a high, squeaky voice. Kristi nudged her mother and pointed in his direction. They both giggled.
Finally Pastor Phil got their attention and said, “Okay folks, we need to let the girls take the children in for their naps. You’ll all get to come back and play with them again, and meet the older kids who live here, too.” With final hugs and smiles the group left and started back across the road.
“You’re so lucky,” Kristi said to a couple of the other girls in the group as they went. “Your team is working at the orphanage. You’ll get to spend a lot of time with those adorable little kids.”
“Oh, Kristi, I’m sure there will be lots of children at the hospital, too, where your team is working,” Jen Whitman said. “The difference is that the children you’ll be with will be sick—and I can’t imagine anyone better than you and Anna working with sick kids. You both have such soft hearts. You, too, Robyn, although actually you and Skeeter will be the ones making them laugh!”
“I still can’t believe we’re actually here in Africa,” Barb Davis said. “And there is so much we can all do to help. This place is amazing!”
“I can’t wait to go down to the village tomorrow and see how the people live, and the work that the missionaries are doing down there,” Kristi said as they passed through the gate to the housing compound. “Robyn, do you think—”
Just then the air was filled with wild barking and a brown furry shape came rocketing between the houses and straight towards them. The girls nearly jumped out of their skin! They stopped in their tracks. They heard a voice yelling, “Buddy! Buddy!” and then Ken Smiley came running around the corner of the house closest to them.
The big brown torpedo headed their way turned out to be a huge German shepherd. Suddenly he stopped, sat down in front of the group with his tongue hanging out and a silly grin on his face, and then rolled onto his back with his legs in the air, begging someone to rub his belly!
The group burst out laughing. “What a goof!” Skeeter laughed. He dropped to his knees by the dog and obligingly began to pet him.
“Takes one to know one!” Dan muttered to Pete with a grin.
“Sorry, guys!” Ken said. “He got away from me. We had him in the house when you first came. This is Buddy. We call him the Big Galute. He’s supposed to be a watch dog, but as you can see, he’s all bark and no bite!”
“Thank goodness for us!” Steve Cameron said, smiling.
The group spent the rest of the afternoon unpacking and getting settled in the guest house. The missionary kids came home from school and stopped by the house to meet the teens from America. Most of them were quite a bit younger. Once the kids at Grace Mission Station reached their high school years they went away to boarding school, so there weren’t any teenagers among the MK’s at the station right now. Kristi wondered to herself if she could ever do such a thing. She couldn’t imagine having to move away from her home and family at such a young age.
Amy Cooke knocked at their door a while later and called them to supper out in the pavilion once more. There was a bigger crowd this time, for almost all the rest of the mission aries were home from their work around the station and in the village and were joining them.
“What are we having for supper tonight?” Skeeter asked as he sat down at one of the tables. “Crocodile? Monkey meat?”
“I believe it’s kuku tonight,” Pastor Phil said.
“Cuckoo? We’re eating cuckoo? I didn’t know they even had cuckoo birds in Africa!” Skeeter exclaimed.
Pastor Phil laughed. “No, not cuckoo, Skeeter—kuku. It means chicken!”
“Oh!” Skeeter said. He looked a little disappointed.
The kuku and the rest of the meal was delicious. Afterwards they all sat around talking. Introductions were made to the rest of the staff. Grace Mission Station was fairly large with six families and five single people sharing in the many areas of ministry. They met Ken’s wife Diane, who was a nurse, and the Barkers and Lisa Crane who were all teachers in the school. The Andersons were both doctors. Austin was a dentist and Olivia was a woman’s doctor. Sherry McAvoy helped the Jamesons at the orphanage, and Lisa and Andrea were nurses like Diane and Sarah Matthews. It was evident by the way they talked that every one of them was dedicated and excited about the work they were doing in Africa.
Finally it was time to call it a night. “Uh, Dr. Bob, I was wondering,” Skeeter said as they began to clear off the tables. “Are there any lions around here?”
“You’ll see plenty of lions when you visit the nature reserves, Skeeter, but we don’t usually have lions roaming around here. Once and a while a lion will go after game that has left the reserve in search of food, but that happens more frequently further north of here.”
“They say lions are the king of the jungle, but I don’t see any jungles here.”
“Yes, lions are king, alright, but of the savanna, more than the jungle. They’ll go into forested areas, but not thick, dense jungle like you’re thinking of,” Dr. Bob explained.
“Are they really man-eaters?”
“Of course they’re very dangerous, but they mostly eat zebras and antelope, and sometimes ostrich and buffalo. From time to time, though, you’ll hear of a lion or a pride of lions who will terrorize an area by killing humans.”
“Enough!” Kristi begged. “I’m going to have nightmares!”
Kristi forgot the conversation a short time later as nine girls vied for the bathroom and got ready for bed in one room. It was like a slumber party, and as tired as they all were, it was a while before the giggles died down and they drifted off to sleep.
Kristi woke up sometime in the middle of the night. A rustling noise outside the window and the sound of a large animal snuffling had woken her. A low, menacing growl caused the hair on her arms to stand up, and her heart caught in her throat. Lion! She froze, too afraid to even cry out.
Then a snort and a sneeze—and Kristi smiled. No, not a lion. It was Buddy, the Big Galute!
__________
CHAPTER FOUR
__________
Hannah
The group gathered together after breakfast the next morning. Tom Barker spoke to them. “I hear you have a team ready to help out at the school! That’s great! We have over sixty kids in grades kindergarten through eighth, most of them from the orphanage, and the rest either our younger MK’s or the children of our workers. That’s too many to send down to the village school which is run by the government so we started our own school several years ago. They’re divided into four classes—K through second grade, third and fourth, fifth and sixth, and seventh and eighth. The kids know you’re coming and they’re all excited to meet you! If you’re ready, why don’t we go on over and get you set up before the children start arriving.”
Joe and Ellie Grant and their team left with him. The Grants were the perfect couple to lead the team, since they were both retired school teachers. They had a lot of good ideas and had helped Ricky, Nicole, Jeannie, Rob, Debbie and Becky plan games, songs, puppet shows and craft activities for the school kids. Nancy Barker had also asked if they’d be willing to help with the children’s English lessons. They would paint some of the classrooms, and they had several boxes of school supplies and athletic equipment to give to the school, as well.
The rest of the group walked across the road to the mission compound with Dr. Bob. A little boy was standing by the gate watching for them. He took off running when he saw them, shouting “Ay yi yi!” at the top of his voice. “Wanzungu! Wanzungu! White people!”
Pastor Tim and his team headed toward the orphanage. They were all carrying boxes of clothes and toys donated by the church back home. Their plans were to give all the rooms inside the orphanage a fresh coat of paint and to build a playground for the children. Jen and Barb had also decided that they would like to give the workers there a little time off, and offer to watch the children one afternoon so they could have a break. The other girls on the team eagerly agreed, although the boys weren’t too sure. “Us watch twenty-some babies?” Dave protested weakly. “Are you sure we can handle that? I mean, Randy and I don’t know how to change diapers and stuff!”
“Then I guess you’ll have to learn!” Barb snapped. “Come on—it’ll be fun!” she coaxed.
“But diapers! Ewww!”
Dr. Bob led the Cameron’s team over to the hospital. As he had predicted the day before, a line of people stretched from the hospital’s veranda clear out to the gate. Several tables were set up on the veranda—one for registering, and the others for giving immunizations and dispensing medicine to those who did not need to be admitted to the hospital. A nurse was going through the line checking for those who needed more immediate, serious care and directing them into the hospital itself.
As before, a chorus of jambos and smiling faces greeted them. “Hey, Doc!” Skeeter said to Dr. Bob. “May I?” He held up a lollipop and pointed and Kristi suddenly realized that every pocket in her brother’s pants and shirt were bulging. He looked like a camel with too many humps!
“Skeeter! What on earth—?” she exclaimed.
“Lollipops!” he grinned, pulling another one from a pocket. “I figured everyone would like a lollipop, even the grown-ups, so I came prepared!”
Dr. Bob smiled. “Go right ahead, Skeeter. That was thought ful of you to think of the grown-ups, too. They don’t get many treats.”
“Great! How do you say “God bless you’ in Swahili, Doc?”
“Mungu aku bariki.”
“Thanks,” Skeeter said and hurried off muttering “Mungu aku bariki” over and over again under his breath. Kristi watched him go down the line handing out lollipops to everyone in line, young and old, sick or not. He said “Mungu aku bariki” to each one until he began to get confused and it started coming out “Bungu aki mariku” or “Kungfu achey achoo”. They all seemed to know what he meant, though, and just grinned or laughed and said, “Asante sana. Thank you very much.”
“Good, Skeeter!” Dr. Bob praised him when he came back with his pockets empty. “Until you started saying something about the caterpillar being your brother, that is. And kungfu achey achoo? Chinese food makes you sick?” The group laughed and Skeeter sheepishly shrugged.
“That’s okay, Skeeter,” Kristi said, giving him a hug. “I’m proud of you!”
“Aww, Kristi, cut that out! Th
at’s twice in one week you’ve hugged me!”
They entered the hospital and Dr. Bob showed them around. There were basically only five wards—one for women who were having babies, one for the other women, one for men, an intensive care unit and the children’s ward. There was also the operating room and offices for the two doctors and the dentist. A small building in back held the laundry, where all the laundry was done by hand, and the kitchen. Everything was clean but simple.
“We all want to thank you for the medical supplies and equipment you brought over,” Dr. Bob said as they finished the tour. “Austin is thrilled with the new x-ray machine you gave him for his dental office. And the nurses are excited about all the rolled bandages. We can never have enough of those! Please thank the people back in the States who helped donate it all.”
“You’re welcome,” Steve Cameron said. “Our church was very excited about being able to give. We have several doctors in our congregation who were more than glad to help out with the equipment.”
“I really need to leave you now and get to work,” Dr. Bob said. “Lisa here is going to take you back to the children’s ward and introduce you to the kids.” Lisa Chesterfield was one of the single missionaries who had come to Kenya as a nurse. They had met her the night before at supper.
They walked back to the children’s ward. “This is where we want to build the extension,” Lisa said. “We’ll cut a wide door in this wall and add on a room that will hold ten or twelve more beds. Ken and Jim and a few local men went ahead and poured the concrete for the floor last week. If your team can help us put up the walls and roof, that will be great! We can sure use the extra beds for the kids.”
Kristi looked over the young nurse’s shoulder and saw a dozen pairs of dark eyes looking back at her. “May we meet the children now?” she asked softly.
The Mystery of the Kenyan King (Kristi Cameron Book 4) Page 3