Whilst in Mombasa we visited a small village for disabled people called Bombalulu and had our eyes well and truly opened as to how they adapt the simplest tool to help with their mobility. I felt really humble to be in my shiny blue wheelchair while they only had some metal work and four wheels if that they thought my chair was a limousine. Amputees had pieces of wood strapped to their stumps and some with no legs at all just lifted themselves over the ground the best way they could. Others were more fortunate to have a piece of wood on four wheels to get around on. I often think about all the discarded wheelchairs no longer viable over here that would be treated like gold dust in Kenya. When I made enquiries about the possibility of sending old artificial limbs and chairs over to Africa it was the transportation that was a problem.
As soon as we arrived and saw the poverty of Kenya Doreen and I removed the jewellery from our hands not because we were worried of theft but because we felt guilty to have these possessions. We took socks, pens and pencils to barter with as advised in the UK but ended up giving them away to very grateful recipients.When we got back to our home land we both had our eyes well and truly opened and realised that compared with some parts of the world we are so very fortunate to have the home comforts that others never will enjoy.
It is a certainty that we in the UK have a lot to be thankful for although when we see services being limited or withdrawn we don’t think so!NB There will not be a blog for a month as I'm away, but watch this space on my return.
