Grace over Kenya; Case studies from Kenya In the summer of 2000, Both I and my schoolmate and friend Tish Stoebner traveled to Kenya. We were going there because we were invited to help open an AIDS clinic in the slums of Nairobi. Both Tish and I have recently graduated from NCNM and are Naturopathic Doctors. The trip turned out to be a very real experience of grace for me. By grace, I mean that I experienced almost no effort on my part. It was definitely as if I was helped along throughout the trip. It was also a journey I never would have imagined. The experience was profound for me, meeting the patients, the wonderful results, and the beautiful people of Kenya. Shortly after we arrived, I wrote a little email and sent it off to many of my friends. That little letter was published in a few in a few homeopathic journals in 2001. We had many people supporting us and we were well taken care of during our trip. The women who fed us and the place we stayed were wonderful. In addition, a homeopathic pharmacist in Austria, Robert Muntz, was kind enough to donate medicines to our project. Shane Mcamey, a representative of Boiron, also helped us out with a sizeable donation of homeopathic medicines for the clinic. Overall, we got a great deal of support and help all along the way. A little background: The trip was to be five weeks long, starting June 29th 2000, and ending August 2nd. We arrived and were greeted by Didi Rucira; she was to be our principal benefactor and contact for the trip. Didi Rucira is a nun of the Ananda Marga order. She was the person whom I'd corresponded with to arrange the trip. She'd been treating patients in her mobile clinic, and had dreamed of opening a real AIDS clinic. Via email, we agreed that I'd come out and see her first patients and help open and establish the first non-mobile clinic. Tish and I were also to teach some students she had there. The schedule was that we were to work Monday through Thursday, have Friday off, and teach all day Saturday, and half of Sunday. The clinic we worked at was of a level of poverty, squalor, and destitution that I've never witnessed before. I've been to other third world countries before and seen poverty, but nothing like this. These people lived adjacent to the town dump of the city of Nairobi. It was common to see people wandering through the heaps of garbage looking for things. Children could also be seen running and playing on top of the mounds of garbage and jumping over raw sewage. I could go on describing the slums, but it is incomprehensible. Most of us have never seen and certainly never experienced anything like it before. Tish and I traveled daily on colorful buses every day to get to and from the slums. The busses, called “Matutus” were over stuffed with people, animals, and miscellaneous items. The ride is incredible, as there are no rules. There are no stop signs or traffic lights, so drivers simply vie for the right of way randomly, it is incredible chaos. Drivers routinely go up on sidewalks and over top of everything. There is virtually no pedestrian right of way. We didn't stay in the slums themselves, but in a suburb of Nairobi called Buru Buru. Generally our days consisted of waking up around 6:30 am, and taking a bucket bath (a bucket of heated water from the propane range - there is only electricity starting from about 6:30 am til 9 pm). We'd then pack up our video camera, medical equipment, medical books, laptop, and lunches and get into a taxi to take us to the slums. We would arrive at 9am, and were blessed with patients of every variety ‘til about 5 or 6pm. One of the things that struck me the most profoundly about this trip was that it was like a trip back to the “homeopathic past.” I mean that I saw patients of so many types of both acute and chronic diseases who often received no treatment of any kind. People spitting up blood, Epilepsy, STD's, AIDS, TB, etc. The cases were like nothing we see stateside as they were often quite dramatic and serious. The beauty of it was to see homeopathy work with serious diseases as the only medicine given just like back in the old past in the US. I vividly recall the evenings I studied my cases under candle light in an abandoned house in Buru Buru (I lived separately given that I couldn't stay with Tish and the nuns due to my gender). I would be studying my cases using the old books, and read about the medicine from some old authors. Often the homeopathic physicians from 100 years ago would be talking to me, showing me from their clinical experience what to prescribe. The experience of these old physicians would be an incredible guide with these often very ill patients. I'd go to sleep that night feeling very content. These cases are not being presented as long term cures. I was only there at the clinic for 5 weeks. Additionally, I only got sporadic feedback on the patients and the patients were not well managed after I left. The above cases had significant benefit from the homeopathic medicines prescribed, but it is impossible to know how long those medicines will act, and if the medicines listed will go to cure the patients ultimately. Most of the cases will need adequate follow-up for quite some time even should the medicines prescribed turn out to be curative. I am a student of Massimo Mangialavori, MD. He uses a standard which I share. The standard is that a prescription is not the simillimum unless the cure lasts for at least 2 years with only one remedy. Additionally, the remedy must address all acute complaints as well as chronic ones. The purpose of sharing these cases is to give our community some idea about doing homeopathic “missionary” work. I found it to be deeply rewarding and incredibly affirming of the power of homeopathy, especially in the light of the gravity of the cases. I look forward to doing more of this work in the future. Below the cases begin. They are just a few of many successful cases I got to treat while in Kenya. The cases were typed verbatim, and mostly taken via a translator. A Case of Childhood Epilepsy A Case of Renal Failure A Case of Post TB Cough