Time Flies When You’re Having Fun...Kenya Week 16: January 17-23

Rabare Primary School Jigger Removal Day.

It’s amazing how time flies when you’re having fun.

And when you’re staying busy.

And when you’re removing Jiggers.

It’s really just amazing that time can fly in Kenya...I guess there’s a first for everything.

After firmly establishing myself as the local “Jiggers Expert”, I spent all week organizing to remove jiggers, removing jiggers, or writing reports about removing jiggers. I’ve learned some great lessons. For starters, I’ve learned that for every hour you spend “in the field”, you have to spend 2 hours researching, coordinating, and fundraising beforehand, then 2 hours writing reports and following up. For the first time in four months, the week passed quickly and I finally felt like I was really gettin’ in the groove of things here in Kenya.

Thankfully, I love what I’m doing. Well...blood curdling screams from small children having live insects extracted from their toes isn’t so fun. But knowing that in ten minutes their feet will be jigger free and they’ll have long forgotten the pain makes it all worth it.

On Thursday teams from St. Camillus and the District Public Health Office met at Rabare Primary School to remove jiggers from 50+ students. We’re becoming much more organized and efficient and by 2 pm, all hands and feet in Rabare Primary were jigger free.

The teachers and community were incredibly grateful for the assistance and receptive to the health education and instructions we gave concerning jiggers prevention. Unfortunately six of the nine classrooms have a dirt floor, which explains why so many students have jiggers. I talked to the Head Teacher and we’re going to work to see if we can find a way to cement the floors.

While we waited to go back to St. Camillus, the kids invited us to jump rope and play soccer with them! I guess their feet weren’t too sore after being de-jiggered!!

Now I’m back in the office writing reports and getting ready for our next step. And I can’t believe it’s already time for lunch.