When In Kenya

[Sorry for the late blogging..we are all safe and at our Kenyan home! We just had some Internet issues. Safaricom was down for two days...but we're up!]

When in Kenya, do as the Kenyans. Which, apparently, involves getting temporarily locked up for speeding. On our drive across Kenya this Monday, our driver was caught speeding. After a long stop at a police station and a collection of 5,000 Kenyan shillings from the group, our driver was permitted to let his passengers (us) off at a nearby restaurant. We enjoyed the break from our vehicles for about an hour, then another hour when we really began to wonder where our driver was. So, Dr. Scott, Stacy and I decided it would be prudent to go to the police station to check on things. Outside the front gate of the police station it ironically read "Corruption Free Zone." Ha!

After some exploration of the police station, we finally found our driver...locked up in a very scary prison. I wish we had a picture of this place! Jimmy, our driver, was non-chalant about the whole experience and told us he would be released in about 30 minutes. He was...and after a VERY long drive we made it to Reuben and Mama Betty around 9:30PM. They had a very nice reception of food and chai tea for us!! It's good to be back!

Here we go!

Hi friends!

Well, we're finally off! We left Shreveport on Friday morning for Houston and we all managed to get there, on the plane, and all the way to Dubai in one piece! What a miracle! Currently, we are 21 strong and we're staying in a pretty nice hotel in Dubai tonight thanks to the very accommodating Emirates airline! Tomorrow, we'll be picking up a special donor, Stacy Cason, and together the 22 of us will finish our journey to Nairobi and on to Bungoma! We are all very pumped about this year and the work we are going to do.

We look forward to updating this blog with interesting stories and maybe even some pictures as we experience Kenya and make a small difference to these communities!

Ashley

Packing Meds & Baking Cupcakes

S.H.I.P. members have not only been very busy packing our bags with enough supplies to last for 4 weeks, but also we've been busy pre-packing medications for our traveling clinics. Each year we keep record of how much medication we use in clinic every day. Last year we used over 8,000 Ibuprofen and needed more! The picture below shows your our Ibuprofen collection for this year (over 10,000 tablets). Ashley and I sat down to pre-package some of those bottles into 30-day supplies.

Another huge task for S.H.I.P. is raising funds for our mission trip to Kenya. With 25 medical students and doctors traveling with us to Kenya, our budget exceeded $67,000 this year. Believe it or not, our school bake sales raise a substantial amount of money for our trip. We hosted a Safari/Mardi Gras-themed Bake Sale yesterday and brought in $1,013.30!!

Thank you for all of your support in helping us get to Kenya. We've all had incredibly supportive family, friends, and colleagues who have made this possible. We will try to update our blog frequently throughout the trip! Stay tuned!

Mary Katherine Baker

New Years Update

Happy New Year everyone! We have only 18 days left until we leave for Kenya! How exciting! Financially, we are very close to our goal, but we still need about $2000 more to finish it off. Please visit the indiegogo fundraising site that one of our physicians, Dr. Scott, has set up to help us finish off our fundraising! http://www.indiegogo.com/LSU-for-Kenya/x/2065208

We also have a garage sale coming up on Sat, Jan 12th from 7am - 3pm in south Bossier (1920 Alison Ave).  Please come out and support us if you're in town!

Flights are booked, medications are ordered, and we're nearly ready to go! Please continue to follow us as we head to Kenya this February! We will be sharing stories that touch us and experiences that will shape our lives!

Thank you for all your support!