THE POKOT

There are two major people group that Kapsowar hospital serves: The Maroquet and the Pokot. The hospital is in the mountains where the Maroquet live. The Maroquet are farmers and consequently pretty nourished appearing in physique because the mountains have rain and are green. The Pokot on the other hand are herders in the valley, which is drier and has less access to water. One part of the Valley has a river that runs through it. On the opposite side of the Valley is a community, Lodengo, that God has put on Kyle’s heart. Whereas the Maroquets are Christians and nominal Chrisitians, the Pokot are still largely animistic. Part of the native Kenyan culture is the circumcision which marks the coming of age. Boys are circumcised among both the Maroquet and Pokot between 12-16 years of age. At Kapsowar the Christians have organized essentially a leadership training camp associated with the circumcision at the hospital, so that the procedure is controlled and the boys are monitored at the hospital, and also it lets them put the emphasis on becoming a man of God (instead of them going around and beating women after the ceremony as it has been in the past). Among the Pokot the boys have to kill some animal and then they all dance around the corpse chanting to their ancestors. Female circumcision is still very common among the Pokot, and less so among the maroquet. After the female’s rite of passage, she can be married. Sometimes as young as 13 years old. God has really placed the Pokot on Kyle’s heart. They have great need for both the Lord and the basic needs as well. Kapsowar is the nearest hospital to them, being about 3 hours away. Because they live off animals they’re all very thin and malnourished. And they have little access to water. Responding to the burden that God put on Kyle’s heart for these people he began driving down to the Valley every month or so to have a clinic and speak truth into the lives of the people. Kyle talked with the people and pursued the Lord’s direction for helping this people to improve their health and ability to meet their basic needs. Consequently, they began seeking a way to access sustainable fresh water, so that they could then open a health center there in Ladengo. It’s over 1.5 years later, and they’ve been through an overwhelming amount of frustration and discouragement. Several wells they dug ended up not having any water after all. They’ve used several different geologists to help find water, several different drillers. The first driller had equipment that took a year to drill and kept breaking. But the conviction that God desires health and water for these people is still alive! Maybe God is teaching the Pokot and the missionaries alike faithfulness and persistence in prayer. But love for the loss people of the Pokot fuels the flame of hope as the people of Kapsowar pray for the well. Yesterday the drill reached 136 feet and ran out of gas. Based on the calculations of a geologist from MIT who’s a believer, the water should be at about 160 feet. Be praying for the well and for the Pokot, that they see God in all his glory, and that they cannot deny his love for them. A sustainable water source is necessary for the health center being built there to be able to care for the people and be sustainable as well. Currently they only hold clinic in Ladengo once every 4-6 weeks. With the health center there, the people will have daily access to health care. They will be able to deliver uncomplicated labor in the hospital there. They will have access to basic medicines and vitamins. Last Friday when I was on call, Kyle called me to due a c-section with him. A Pokot woman had just arrived from the Valley. She’d been laboring for several days, but she still had not delivered the baby. It was concerning because she’d had 5 normal vaginal deliveries in the past. When I put my hand in her uterus to deliver the baby the head felt bigger than normal (usually during a c/s you deliver the head first). As I tried to pull the head up towards our incision to deliver it, it kept floating away. Kyle helped, but ended up delivering the butt first. As it came out we saw on the child’s spine a myelomeningiocele. The rest of the body came out except the head got suck and couldn’t fit through the uterine incision. As we struggled to deliver the head, base on the spina bifida Kyle guessed the kid had hydrocephalous…and he was right. The head was as big as the rest of the baby’s entire body. The child also had clubbed foot on the right and an extra appendage of the gum in its mouth. She wasn’t breathing but had a heart rate. As we closed up the mom, the nurses worked on resuscitating the kid. Finally she started breathing and her tone came back. She was placed in NICU and did well overnight. If she survived she could go to the Christian hospital at Kijabe where they had specialists and have her spina bifida repaired, and hydrocephalus drained. The next night she stopped breathing and they were unable to resuscitate her. Spina bifida has been significantly decreased in the USA because most pregnant women are given prenatal vitamins which have folic acid. Because this lady didn’t have easy access to prenatal care she wasn’t given prenatal vitamins. The Pokot’s diet is probably low in folic acid as well because they drink goat’s milk, which is deficient of folic acid. Even very basic medical services can significantly improve the overall health of the Pokot. But Kyle was still able to use the tragedy as an opportunity to comfort and share truth with the baby’s parents. Please be praying for the Pokot, that they come to know and worship God.