Good Day

Yesterday (17/9), my classmate Ryan and I were given the opportunity to participate in a program called "BIGPIC." I'm still not sure what it stands for, but basically it is a outreach program managed by pharmacists to help patients in rural villages handle their chronic illnesses (mainly diabetes and hypertension). It also helps them set up and manage their own micro-finance infrastructure. They form a group that meets once a week to twice a month. In addition to supporting each other, they also have a shared reserve of money that they can buy shares in or withdraw from to pay for their medications/clinic visits. They are allowed to withdraw up to three times the amount they have put in. When they borrow though, they have to pay interest, and the interest rolls over and accrues from month to month. They also have to pay small fees if they miss meetings (paying more for unexcused absences), are late for meetings, etc. At the end of the year, everyone is given a share of the interest/fees that have added up according to how many shares they've bought. They are limited to a certain amount of shares that they can buy per month. It's pretty incredible how each village manages it all on their own and how they come together to support each other as they succeed or struggle in managing their blood pressures and blood sugars.

As students, Ryan and my main purpose was to assist in the screening of patients: we took their blood pressures and weighed them. We also got to assist the pharmacist in charge that day in adjusting blood pressure medications and insulin dosing. For our day we got to go to two different villages in the Sinoko (sp?) area in Webuye, Kenya. It was really neat to get out of the hospital and experience a real Kenyan village. I particularly enjoyed the first village, where we made friends with a young girl and boy who couldn't have been older than 4 and 3 years old. The little girl would make a face at me, and when I made it back at her she would laugh and laugh; it was one of the most adorable sounds I've ever heard. Ryan also made a cool paper airplane that they both really liked. I would throw it and they would chase it down, laughing as the wind carried to-and-fro. When we were finished, the village gave us each a soda and asked us to pray with them. I was expecting a quick 30 second rant in Swahili that I didn't understand, but was pleasantly surprised when one man and several of the women began to sing. Their voices were beautiful, and the gentleman closed the prayer with some kind words in Swahili--I'm assuming they were kind. Technically, I suppose they could have been threatening to murder us in sing-song, but the melody just didn't strike me as having that kind of tone.

It was a very peaceful day. Even though we didn't get back to IU House until about 6:45 pm, it was completely worth it to meet these amazing people. In comparison to the urbanized America I'm used to, they live such simple lives and they are some of the happiest folk I've ever met.

In the words of Ice Cube: "What can I say? Today was a good day."

"Unity is strength, division is weakness." ~ Swahili proverb