Nineteen of us each max out our limit of two duffle bags of 50 lbs. each plus our carry on knapsacks full of medical and dental supplies, food and a few clothes. The Rift Valley of Kenya, our destination, is 5000 feet above sea level. We were just south of the equator and the weather is cool in the evenings and mornings, perfect in the daytime, much like Atlanta in the spring. This land of the Maasai and Kipsigi tribes is neither jungle nor desert. It is the forested foothills and grasslands of the Maasai Mara and Serengeti Plains of East Africa.
My brother, Brad Williams, a minister, and his wife, Christina, a physician, built a hospital in Olmekenyu, Kenya in 2000. My wife and I took our first dental mission trip there in June 2001. We returned a year later with a team of 30, including two dentists, a physician, four nurses and three dental assistants. Last Saturday night we returned from our eight trip to Kenya. This was the first year my entire family joined us…Sheila my wife, Justin and Tyler, my sons who are 27 and 25. We showed the Jesus film again in a new village.
Our team flies through Amsterdam into Nairobi. Picked up in Toyota Land Cruisers and four-wheel drive minivans by our excellent drivers, we immediately head out into the bush to Olmekenyu where the medical/dental clinic building has been built. The drive begins over good roads, then fair roads, then dirt roads, then muddy roads. Driving in Kenya is hazardous to your timetable. You never know if you will be stuck in the mud or not. This is especially true in rainy season…like now.
We stop off in Narok, the district capital, to pick up Dr. Daniel Chepkeygon, our legal means of practicing dentistry in Kenya without going through much red tape. He is invaluable as far as diagnosis, translation, anesthesia and extractions.
Our first visit to Olmekenyu in 2001, on our first afternoon, we saw 46 patients, working until 8 p.m. with flashlights as the rain clouds darkened the sky by 6 p.m. The next day, we worked two shifts, morning and afternoon, and saw 112 patients, all for extractions. All in all, we saw 252 patients and removed 600 teeth. Daniel diagnosed and anesthetized 90% of them and I extracted 90% of the teeth. Since that year, we have returned annually and found that the community is much healthier and more prosperous. Our doctors, nurses and dentists are making a difference there. They say its but a drop in the bucket, but the bucket is nearly full…now.
From Olmekenyu we usually go to Morijo near the border of Tanzania. This is the isolated land of the Maasai still much like it was 100 years ago. There had never been a dentist visit this area. Our first patient in Morijo, Tabula, had a 10 year-developing osteoma of the maxilla. She had walked over 20 kilometers to see us that day. Her tumor was the size of a small grapefruit on the left side of her face. Not being equipped to do advanced surgery there, we took up a collection among our team and sent her to a mission hospital seven hours away by Land Cruiser. What a blessing it was for us to see her the next year with the first of her two surgeries completed. Half of the tumor had been removed. Many trips to the hospitals in Nairobi later and many years passed before she was able to navigate through the Kenyan medical system and get her second surgery to complete the removal of the tumor and get her needed denture made.
The trip in 2009 was quite similar to our first trip other than the fact that we are taking 22 in four vehicles versus seven in one Land Cruiser. One difference this year is that we are working in Sakutiek, an area of an orphanage, seeing as many as 1000 children for care in three days. At the end of our trip we ventured much farther north than in previous years to work at OlMaran and the Kuki Gallmann Nature Conservancy. You may remember that she wrote the book, I Dreamed of Africa, and that Kim Basinger played her in the movie.
Here are the results of what we accomplished on our latest trip in 2008 and 2009:
Medical Mission: 2008 - A team of one physician, one nurse practitioner, three nurses and four support personnel triaged, evaluated, and examined 1200 patients. In Olmekenyu, 512 patients were treated and in Morijo, 400. The total number of conditions and diseases diagnosed was 84 with 111 cases of worms, 93 wounds, 78 of otitis media, 52 of bronchitis, 29 of typhoid and 20 cases of scabies topping the list. Interestingly, there were only a few diagnosed cases of HIV and malnutrition did not seem to be a significant problem in the areas we visited. 2009 – One nurse practitioner and two nurses plus one local physician evaluated and treated 1500 patients in three villages.
Dental Mission: 2008 - A team of one dentist, me, Dr. Daniel and one dental student from Nairobi worked for 7 clinic days with our team and examined 485 patients with 699 teeth extracted, 20 teeth filled. This year we had a portable generator to run our halogen headlight for dental loops and a portable dental unit with high and low speed, air-water syringe and oral evacuator. Ah, the advances of modern dentistry on wheels! 2009 – we added two additional dental students this year for half our trip and treated 560 patients completing 860 extractions, 50 fillings, 20 full mouth ultrasonic scalings, 3 lingual frenectomies and 1 root canal.
50% of the teeth were extracted due to caries, 40% due to periodontal disease and 10% due to orthodontic wishes of the patients. It was interesting that the Kipsigi to some degree and the Maasai to a larger degree do not consider a crowded look and especially a “fangy” look to be attractive. They always want the most misaligned tooth removed.
A smile that the Maasai find attractive is that of an open space in the lower front teeth. It is common for two teeth to be removed for cosmetic reasons in their culture. The locals told me that the reason has to do with a common practice from many years ago. When someone would get “lockjaw” they would knock out the two lower central incisors to allow a straw to feed them. It became a status symbol to have those teeth removed. Later, it became a fashion statement.
The ongoing development of Mercy Hospital in Olmekenyu was the highlight of the entire mission. In 2002, the tile was laid on the floor and the pharmacy interior was constructed. Upon our return in June 2004, the cistern was completed; the refrigerator installed to keep medications and vaccines cool, the solar panel/battery system was in operation to keep the refrigerator running. Since our last visit cellular telephone service has come to the town and the hospital. Also this year we have funded two full-time nurse’s positions at the clinic.
As you can tell, it was a very busy time. We did a children's outreach - feeding 300 children in one village and did a Bible study with them: 125 were saved! The Tembea Na Yesu (walk with Christ - a 3 day spiritual retreat) had 56 people in attendance. There were local pastors and community leaders in attendance. It was a wonderful event for them and for those of us who participated by teaching: Brad, Lisa, Hayden, Sheila, myself and leaders from Sotik in Kenya where previous Tembea Na Yesu's have been held. We are partnering with local churches and pastors in one of the villages to help take care of 12 orphans. The pastors are finding homes and overseeing their care and we will provide funds for their school fees, uniform and monthly food allowance for the family who takes them in. If this works well, we will fund more for the following year and try to get pastors in other villages to do the same thing. The funds that are given to towards the orphans.
As we work, we find more needs than can be met. But what we realize is that we made a difference each year for a handful of people. Individuals are healthier; they are alive; they are learning from us as we learn from them. We are making friends that impact our lives as equally as we do theirs. I hope you’ll visit our web sites and meet our friends.
Other web sites about the mission:
KenyaMedicalOutreach.ning.com
Afdd.com/kenya/2009.html
Wbwilliams on Twitter
William B. Williams on Facebook
Donations are tax deductible, are welcomed and can be sent to KMO c/o
Bill Williams, DMD, MAGD
Director: Kenya Medical Outreach, Inc a Georgia registered non-profit charity
200 Johnson Road
Suwanee, GA 30024
Andy Velo headlined a fundraising effort to raise money for Kenya Medical Outreach mission team going to Kenya in May of this year. Twentytwo friends, neighbors and family were in attendance at the home of Dr. and Mrs Bill Williams of Suwanee, GA as Andy told the group about his vision for his rising country rock music career, his plans to go with KMO to Africa this summer and be their director of music and song leader as well as helping in the dental and medical teams. 
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