The Yellowmen on Tour
February 2009
After the usual last minute panics the Yellowmen Team consisting of Rotarians Peter Stiles, John Relfe and Martin Mears plus Jeannie Stiles and Katy Woolley landed in Nairobi at the start of another ‘ tour of duty.’ Rtn. Eddie McCall and our driver Justus were already in Kenya and had been for some ten days. They had travelled down from Tikeet the previous day and unlike the rest of the party, who had spent the last 9 hours in the air, were well rested.
The 11 hours safari bus journey that followed is best glossed over and has been described in previous articles. On arriving at base camp in Marich Study Centre we were welcomed with a hot meal and a few Tusker Beers. This was to be a busy trip and so the next day and the nine that followed would be work days.
The aim of this trip was twofold – to continue building work on our clinic and to carry out a series of clinics.
The building work consisted of supervising the setting out of the compound hedge, clearing, cutting 
and marking the fence line, planting lemon trees at the entrance to the site and pushing the workers to finish the John Cocker unit. On the medical side we wanted to have two major treatment clinics, a mother and baby clinic as well as three screening clinics. The aim of the screening clinics was to try and establish some health data concerning Pokot children. 
We had a good idea of the medical problems affecting adults (as seen here), but were unsure of those affecting children. Optometrist Peter Stiles was able to investigate the eye health of the children and Dr Thomas Ngolesia (our Pokot doctor) the general health.
Both professionals would write up the results of the clinics so that they could be submitted to the Kenyan Health Ministry. Meetings with the District Commissioner in Marich and with the Right Honourable Wilson Litole in Nairobi would allow us to press home concerns on a variety of subjects to do with the medical programme.Since our visit in October last, the work on the clinic had raced ahead. The John Cocker unit was virtually completed and by the time we left even the solar lighting and refrigeration plant was installed and working. The walls were painted white and the workmen were laying the concrete base on the verandas. It was brilliant to stand at the entrance to the compound (now grown to about 10 acres) and look at the rapidly emerging clinic. Work on the building that housed the three wards was also going on apace and the brickwork nearly complete. Talk was of finishing the ward building within a couple of months.
The screening of the children in three separate areas of Tikeet was a logistical nightmare.
We needed to be able to process over 125 children a day if we were to meet our target. To do this we had to have at least that number in the compound at the start of the day. The children were brilliant,
standing under the hot sun until called to see the medics. Katy, working as our photographer also doubled as child entertainer and organised games to keep the children happy.
In the end we saw over 300 children between the ages of three and ten. It was of concern that the immunisation programme seen elsewhere in Kenya seemed to have broken down here and masses of children had not been immunised at all.
Peter Stiles also noted the need for a Vitamin ‘A’ programme to help with continuing eye health.As well as the screening we also held two general clinics and saw another two hundred and fifty patients, including about 70 mothers and babies. Though the majority of the children had a reasonable level of health there were many suffering the after effects of serious malaria and several suffering from leishmaniasis (sand fly disease). Malnutrition was evident in children from the deep bush. Amongst the adults, Peter saw many that had incurable eye conditions,
though he was able to hand out quite a large number of ready readers to adults who thought their reading days were over. Looking at the face of a patient who is able to read again after many years is very moving. That look of incomprehension followed by smiles and in a few cases tears was something never to forget. 
In the general clinics there was the usual range of illnesses with a great number of worm infestations, urinary infections and chest problems. Living in huts in which a fire burns causes real problems.
However, it was not all hard work. In between we had singing and dancing and feasting. At the end of a busy day with the safari bus packed with Yellowmen both British and Kenyan and the temperature still in the upper thirties we sang our way to the only shop, 25 kms from Tikeet, where we could have a coke and sit with the locals before driving the last 25 kms to our base in Marich.
Leaving Tikeet is always sad. The days there fly by and belonging becomes a total reality. Friendships, now developed over ten years in some cases, means that our Tikeet family never wants us to leave and presses us to come back very soon if we have to go. What a privilege it is to be there and to be part of this project.
As I write, the October team is being put together and hopefully the final steps towards the completion of the project will be taken. Meanwhile further fund-raising is needed. A fellow Rotarian from another club once asked who can go to Tikeet and of course the answer is anyone. If after reading this you want to get involved, contact the Yellowmen at Senlac Rotary Club.
