Making Kenyan Friends

So now I am back home after 10 weeks internship in Kenya. And I must say: what an experience!

I have learned and saw so much and I also have made many many friends. One of them is a girl Mildred, she is 22 years old, almost my age but her life is so completely different!

We worked together for a few days in the Mama Lucy Kibaki Hospital and she asked how my weekend was. I was very excited and told her about all the fun things I did and then of course I asked her how her weekend was, if it was nice and what she did. And then she shocked me.

I talked with her about her life before, she works 6 days a week in the hospital from 8 in the morning until 6 in the evening. Then after travelling 2 long hours back home she cooks (if she can afford some food) and after it goes directly to bed because she has to wake up in the morning very early.

I really hoped that she at least has some fun and relaxing in the weekend but I was wrong..

After finishing her shift on Saturday she travels all the way to her parents’ house where her mother has 5 other children. Her mum is sick and she can’t really take care of the kids anymore so Mildred takes over in the weekend. She cooks, cleans the house, does the dishes, wash the clothes and everything. Also she bathes the kids and helps them with their homework. When she is done she is so tired and goes to bed early. It is a really short night because the kids wake her up early in the morning and she has lots of work to do. The rest of the Sunday she stays in church from 11am up to 4pm, praying for a better life I guess. And after that the work continues. She finishes everything in the house and on Monday everything starts again. No fun, no joy nothing!

She is such a sweet girl and asked me all the time if I enjoyed my stay in Kenya. It’s heartbreaking that she is so nice to others and doesn’t care about her own life at all.

Then you understand how lucky you are growing up in a country like Holland, I am free to do whatever I want. I do have to work hard but I earn enough money to do some nice things as well and I only work 36 hours in a week instead off 54 hours.

At the day we were leaving I gave her some old clothes of mine and her reaction was priceless. She was so happy and thankful, she blessed me and my whole family and she said I would be the best nurse with a beautiful life and it made me so proud that I went to Kenya for an internship.