Road to Kenya Part II

It is interesting how people refer to "Africa" as a place.  Yes, it is a place, but only slightly more descriptive than saying planet Earth is a place.  Africa is an entire continent with many counties, people groups and climates.  I rarely hear someone say they are going to "Asia", "North America", or "South America."  Usually the traveler refers to somewhere more specific, like the country of China, Canada, Peru, etc.  I mean, Canada and Mexico are pretty much the same right?  Vietnam and Kazakhstan?  Perhaps it is because the continent of Africa and her nebulous countries are relatively unknown to us across the pond in "North America".  With this in mind, the Mitchell's indeed are traveling to "Africa" next year to serve as a missionary surgeon and family.  Hopefully in this blog post we can share some insight into exactly where we are going, and who we will be serving.

In August of 2013 the Mitchell tribe is going to Kenya, which is a country in East Africa, just south of Ethiopia and west of Somalia.  Kenya was a British colony until they gained their independence in the 1963.  Since then, it has been one of the more politically stable countries in East Africa.  However, there is an election coming up in January 2013 that may lead to some unrest.  (Pray for a stable election!!)


Tenwek Hospital is located in Bomet, Kenya, which is about a 3 hour drive west of Nairobi.  If you look at the map above (or look up Bomet in google maps), Tenwek is just north of the Masai Mara Reserve.  The weather is quite nice year round as the location is near the equator and Bomet is at an elevation of about seven thousand feet. 

Tenwek Hospital began in the 1930's as a medical dispensary and maternity ward.  Through the years it grew into a hospital, and surgical work began in 1959 with the arrival of Dr. Ernie Steury.  (Dr. Steury's biography "Miracle at Tenwek" is a great read and is inspirational for all those interested in missionary surgery.)  Currently Tenwek is a 300 bed hospital and also includes a nursing school, chaplain school, and has community health outreach.  One of the reasons Erin and I chose to go to Tenwek is because it is known throughout the world as being one of the best run missionary hospitals.  In order to be the best, you have to train with the best.  Plus, I will get the chance to teach and mentor Kenyan surgery residents that are training to alleviate the paucity of surgical care in Eastern Africa.  Our goal is to spend two years there serving, teaching AND training under those who know how to provide good care in an impoverished area.  I will be one of three general surgeons and will provide surgical care to a population of about 750,000.  To put this in perspective, this number is similar to all of Grand Rapids plus the rest of West Michigan.  (In this area of Michigan we have close to 75 general surgeons.) The largest group of people served by Tenwek Hospital is the Kipsigis, who are mainly rural farmers.  However, Tenwek is a referral center for a much larger area with many other people groups.

So now you know a little more about Tenwek Hospital, located in the Rift Valley Provence of Kenya, which is a country in "Africa."  If you catch me telling someone we are going to Africa next year...you can correct me!!

I found this map on another missionary surgeon's blog and thought I'd re-blog it.  It is a great representation of the disparity of health care throughout the world.

This map scales the regions of the world to show the proportion of physicians working in that area.  Southern Africa is arguable the neediest part of the world.  Rwanda, for example, has 1.9 physicians for 100,000 people.  The USA, by comparison has 549 physicians per 100,000 people.  The surgical workforce is even smaller.  In the East/Central/Southern African region, there are 400 trained surgeons for 400 million people.  Compare this to 1 surgeon for every 2,000 people in the USA.  The need to train physicians, including surgeons is Sub Saharan Africa is desperate. 

Next episode:  Some background on the organization we are going with: World Medical Mission, a division of Samaritan's purse.