Showing posts with label fundraiser for Ernest. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fundraiser for Ernest. Show all posts

Wednesday, April 21, 2021

Update

 Hello friends,


This is a quick update on my friend Ernest in Kenya. In my last post I shared that he had to be admitted to hospital due to Covid and that he needed help to cater for the hospital costs.

I'm grateful to report that he did not have to be admitted to the High Dependency Unit (equivalent to ICU). He did however need many days of oxygen support, medicines and vitamins. He is currently in isolation and we are hoping that he will be discharged in a day or two. He has been off oxygen for a few days but his oxygen levels have dipped as low as 80 so they keep him for observation and fortunately his saturation levels have increased.

The Kenyan government has National Health Insurance for those who pay for it but it does not cover anything to do with Covid. It barely covers anything to do with a whole host of things but I think coverage is a bit spotty depending on where in the country you live.

With the help of one reader we have covered about $900 US in hospital and medicine. We will need a bit more in the next few days if you are able to help kindly send to Pay Pal at kerichojoy[at]gmail [dot]com. Added:  I've just been informed that the hospital requires an additional $450 (US) and $545 (Canadian) to discharge the patient (built in exchange rates and wire transfer fees eat up some of the funds).

If you are able to send a donation through Pay Pal (the fast way though it still takes 3-5 business days for funds to fully transfer), you may have to try more than once.  It seems the system can be a bit finicky but if you have any concerns you can always contact me directly to see what has actually been received. Thanks so much in advance for your consideration.

I continue to take time off from the blog as I need a rest and I am currently behind in everything including the garden. The personal, digital project I started back in October has taken far more time than I could have imagined and it is ongoing. New target completion date is end of this month or early May. Hopefully I can be back to regular blogging and commenting after that. In the meantime everyone please take care of yourselves and your loved ones.






Friday, June 14, 2019

After the Pain

Hello everyone,

Since my last post I have suffered a lot of pain. After taking so many painkillers I decided to call the dental office and let them know I needed to get in sooner than my scheduled appointment. I had been on wait list but had not received a call. A few people commented on my last post that their dental offices have space for emergencies. I guess I didn't consider my situation an emergency because I didn't realize that the tooth giving me a problem still had roots.

Long story short, I did go in a few days earlier to the dentist and it was discovered that I had an abscess which needed to be cleaned out right away. Since then I only had a bit of pain after the freezing came out. I've now got antibiotics and pain killers to use as needed. I return Monday for the work to be completed. I'm not sure yet about other work as there is another major piece of work that needs doing under a bridge which now needs to come out and hopefully redone. When I saw the dentist a few months ago he thought he could work around it so I'm not sure why he says something different now. Maybe the x-rays tell the story but the affected tooth has no roots. So I'll wait and see. The main priority was getting rid of the tooth pain and is more or less gone. Thank goodness!

~~~~~

These sky photos were taken around 5 a.m. from my patio

Sunrise June 9, 2019

Sunrise June 9, 2019

Sunrise June 9, 2019


These plants are all from my patio garden

Geranium in a pot.

Catmint (not cat nip)
Remember the pansies were almost dead before I potted them but they are doing very well now.

Pink petunias

Basil

I've been taking a 1 mile walk each day in my neighbourhood (running errands, going to appointments and to the community garden plot), I spend 10 minutes a day, sometimes 20 minutes on the whole body vibration (WBV) machine, I take supplements for arthritis and try to eat more greens.  The knee pain has greatly reduced but is still there in the background if you will. I will continue with my regimes and next time I see the doctor I will ask for a referral to the arthritis specialist to discuss what my options are.  There can be quite a long wait for knee replacements where I live but they assess each person to see whether you should go on a priority list.

On my last post Yoko commented that I must strengthen the thigh muscles to help the knee pain. I remember when I was getting physiotherapy for the knee I was given some exercises to strengthen the muscles around the knee so I will start doing those again. The WBV machine also increases muscle mass in my legs so that helps.   The knee pain returns when I haven't been using WBV. There have actually been studies showing that WBV is good for arthritis sufferers (if you get the right kind of WBV machine) and I did experience great relief for several years after first being afflicted by arthritis many years ago.  My situation was much worse back then and I was eventually able to walk pain free after a lot of rehabilitation (as described above) and supplements.

I continue to keep very busy with the missions in Kenya. Right now I'm trying to help Eunice and her family who are dealing with life and death issues and the heavy financial burden.  Some of you may remember that Eunice  suffers from a blood issue. Either the blood is clotting and causing sudden hospitalization or she needs a lot of blood transfusions. I fear that she cannot go on much longer as she has already been through so much but God only knows for sure.

The main source of need is to pay for blood at a cost of 3000 Kenyan shillings per pint ($40 Canadian/$30 American) and she needs blood every other day. It gets expensive.  Her family has been getting relatives to travel in from several hours away to donate blood to try and reduce the costs but even this is a hardship because most of them are very poverty stricken and its hardship to spend on the transport and try and eat a bit on the journey to hospital and back. Kindly keep this woman and her family in prayer as the hospital she has been in for some time is several hours away from her home. The specialized kind of care she needs isn't available where she lives.

Ernest Ruto has gone home from hospital but there is still an outstanding balance of about $180 Canadian owing to the Kericho District Hospital. It's important to clear the bill not only because the money is owed but because it is the least expensive hospital option in Kericho Town and if the bill is not paid Ernest will have a hard time to get future medical assistance. I thank God for those who helped get this man home to recover. He is far happier to be recovering at home. Another benefit is that the hospital bill is not increasing since Ernest is no longer occupying a bed.


About a month or so ago I finished the last crochet blanket I was working on. I let it sit around for weeks as I just couldn't seem to get to tieing off the ends and taking a photo.


Finally I put all the loose threads to the back so I could take a photo of the blanket. I spread it out on the grass at the park because it is too large to get a good photo at home.  It is a twin size blanket so I also can't get a good photo of it on the sofa or on a larger bed.  Since I took the photo I have finally woven in and tied up all the loose ends at the back. I just need to prepare the blanket for mailing to my aunt so she can take it to my uncle.  I do hope it won't go missing at the care home where he lives as I've learned that things often get stolen in care homes.  That reminds me that I need to put a name label on the blanket before I mail it. It might help a bit.

I had the service man from the telecommunications company here to upgrade the modem and digital and PVR boxes. The equipment I had was first generation stuff from about 10 years ago and it really needed to be upgraded. What a difference it has made too. I no longer have such long delays and pauses when I use the remote controls. I also now only have to use one remote control rather than 2 and the speed of everything is much better even though I'm still on relatively low internet speed.  I've been waiting for years to get the fastest internet speed and it has been available now for awhile. But sadly the strata council and the telecommunications representative had an issue which led to a stand off and the end result is we cannot get the high speed internet right now.   So the upgrades are a God send and really correct the main issues I've been having. The service man will return in a few weeks to do one more thing which will allow me to have more streaming capability in the apartment. When you have guests or roommates it is much better to have more than 2 streams at a time to use for HD television (2 for watching in different rooms and one for recording). I am probably not explaining things properly but some of you may know what I'm trying to say, lol.

Other that that I've finally got things handled with the new financial advisor and I've made a few financial decision which I had put off for some time while I deliberated about finding a new advisor. I'm pleased with the progress I've made and will be doing more analysis and tweaking over the coming months.  I asked my new advisor if there were any incentives available for making the switch and I was given a choice of gift cards in the amount of $100. It was a bit disappointing since they give $300 for new bank accounts but I am still happy to have something. If I didn't ask I wouldn't get.  I chose a gift card for movies as that is one thing I like to attend throughout the year but I don't like paying today's prices.

Weather here has been very hot. It is usually me complaining about the heat but as I walk down the street my neighbours and some times complete strangers complain to me about the heat. Usually people just love hot weather but it seems this year those that don't are a bit more vocal. I am sure we are off to another dry summer and I just hope we get a few good rainfalls here and there. In May we only had 30.5 mm of rain which is just barely over 1 inch and well below the norm.

Every day or every other day I water my small balcony garden and go to the community plot to water that too. The community plot I have has a mish mash of plants because there are things coming up that were planted by the previous tenant.  I don't want to pull anything out until I can see what is growing. My lettuce, sunflowers and beans seem to be doing well. I didn't have poles for the beans when I planted so now need to get some up pronto so I purchased some 5 foot high bamboo poles. I didn't have time to go searching for alternatives and just bought these in a package of 25 at a store in my neighbourhood.  In future I hope to have some good enough photos to share of the little plot.




Thanks for reading. I hope you will come again.

Tuesday, June 4, 2019

Status Update

Hello everyone,

I hope you are enjoying the beginning of June so far.

I have been kept busy with the usual: gardening, doctor appointments, family, changing financial advisors, dealing with estate matters and other legal issues, catching up with friends and reading.

It has been a bit hot this week but not for overly long.  Thank goodness. Tomorrow we are supposed to have a bit of rain. I hope we get a good amount to help the gardens along.

Right now I'm suffering from a lot of inflammation. I have both a tooth infection, resulting in headaches and knee pain. The pain is almost constant and for the first time ever I've had to take Tylenol for pain. I've also started to seriously contemplate knee surgery or least speaking to the doctor about it.  To try and help myself  I've been back on the whole body vibration machine,  taking daily walks and various supplements.  In the last 2 days the knee pain has eased a lot.

I scheduled a dental appointment but due to some issues with the front desk staff at the office there have been delays in getting insurance approvals for the dental work.  My appointment is almost 2 weeks away and I've asked to be on the wait list. In the meantime I'm trying to do pain management. I don't expect to be on line much due to it being hard to concentrate with toothaches and headaches.

On a brighter note, I was able to volunteer to raise awareness of Compassion Canada. There were about 140 of us who went to the Pacific Coliseum where Hillsong United of Australia was playing to a sold out crowd. Our volunteer efforts consisted of handing out child information package and collecting completed applications.  Afterwards many of us stayed to listen to the concert.  Of course we were not allowed into the areas where people paid for their tickets and we had to be respectful of security staff who were very sensitive about it all. Each volunteer received a free Hillsong CD and a Compassion T-shirt which was nice. Many of the songs sung in the concert are from the new CD.  I really enjoyed the worship experience and many of those in attendance said the sinner's prayer at the invitation by the band leader.  I pray that these dear ones would be able to grow in their faith as the days and weeks go on.

Update: I received an update from Compassion staff on June 5th. The total volunteer count was 187 people. Two hundred ninety three children received new sponsors.  There is potential for an additional 93 sponsors because that is how many child information packages were handed out but have yet to be turned in.  That's so awesome.

Orientation Leader

Band Rehearsal

Volunteers enjoying the Orientation Leader's sense of humour.

Hillsong United concert underway.


~~~~~~
In Other News

Ernest in Kenya has gone home to recover from recent leg surgery however he will have a long recovery ahead.
So far we still need $180 Canadian to clear the hospital bill and a bit more to cover transport back and forth (a vehicle needs to be hired) medicines and doctor follow up care and possibly some medical supplies.
For further information kindly click on the top left of this blog.

If you are able to help with a donation  you can make it
via 

To send money you need an email address.
You can click here for it.

Otherwise, please consider sharing this fundraiser within your circles.

Thank you and have a wonderful week or two while I'm off recovering.
I will try to visit your blogs here and there.
~~~~~~~

Monday, May 27, 2019

Early Sunday Morning on the Patio









 I snapped these photos in the wee hours of Sunday morning. 
I couldn't quite get the clarity I wanted but I did enjoy my time in the quiet.
The seagulls were not out squawking for some reason.
Instead there was a beautiful chirping sound from an unknown to me bird. 
It was lovely.

I hope you enjoyed these photos.

~~~~

I also wanted to invite my long term readers to please take a moment
to read and
 share the following link with your networks and friends.
(I've also added the information on the side bar, top right of this blog).

 https://www.facebook.com/donate/378998659402985/?fundraiser_source=external_url

 It only takes a few seconds and you will help by making it possible for more people to read and possibly respond.
Thanks so much for your time
and have a lovely week.

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