COP gives Mukumu Hospital a fresh coat of paint
"We are still very grateful and proud of the good work and the sacrifice that you made.

Be blessed!" was the message COP members received from Sister Julie Moraa the hospital administrator at St. Elizabeth Hospital, Mukumu in the Kakamega area of Western province.

The COP members were excited to have a chance to travel to Western province. The group of 15 was composed of nine students, three lecturers, a painter, the driver and a caterer. They managed to paint 19 rooms in four days - from 17th to 21st November.

Though we had an idea of what would be involved in painting it proved to be more than the obvious strokes of a brush from one side of the wall to the other. The painter who came with us taught us all there is to painting a room perfectly.

Preparing a room for painting was the most educative part. There were different tasks to be performed before a room was ready for painting from mixing the paints to filling in cracks with polyfilla.

We repaired the ceiling, protected furniture from being ruined with paint by wrapping it with newspapers and lined the floors to avoid leaving paint marks. At the end of it all, we came to realize that painting a room requires skill and patience as we kept learning something new every time.

For the task of painting the hospital, we divided ourselves into groups and worked on different rooms doing different tasks. This gave us a great opportunity to have team building sessions and socialize with each other. We worked like this for two and a half days toiling from 8:00 am to 8:30 pm.

All along Charles, the painter, worked with us teaching and correcting us patiently to ensure a perfect job was done. To sustain the work spirit at least every one got involved in the different tasks to avoid monotony and enrich the experience. Jokes and song flew from wall to wall to lighten the mood.

Being a hospital, the walls had posters stuck on them for information purposes. The posters were stuck with cello tape and superglue on the walls. Removing such posters was a tedious task but thanks to team spirit we managed to remove all.  We later showed the hospital staff how to use notice board space optimally and how to use masking tape to stick posters on the wall. We repainted the notice boards to make them more attractive.

To apply a fresh coat of oil based paint on an already painted wall, we had to sand paper the walls first to make the paint stick on to the walls properly. Once this was done, a wall was ready for painting. Painting with a brush is also a technique to be learnt, as there is a particular way of making brush strokes so as to have an even spread of paint on the wall. We used both water based and oil based paints. White water based paint was applied on the ceiling and top part of the walls immediately after the ceiling.

Life Skills

It was not all a painting affair and members of staff shared important life skills with students. They helped us understand why we traveled all the way to Western to paint rather just give a donation or say a short prayer for the less fortunate. We also realized the importance of having a wholesome life where one's life is balanced between work/study, family, social life and spirituality. They also talked about the importance of work and working well.

Every member of the team played their part well. Our caterer Antonina prepared great meals for us. This had a great impact, not only did it give us energy to keep us going but also reassured us that our meals were well prepared. We had great get togethers at the end of each day where we shared our different experiences and planned the next day's activities.

Children's Orphanage

Friday, 20th was our last working day. We began our day by visiting a nearby Children's orphanage. It is a moving story of how a generous lady called Grace has turned her home into an orphanage and taken in 32 children. These children have either been abandoned by their parents in the hospital, or have been ostracized because they are living with HIV/AIDS status. Others kids are not accepted in their families because they are considered illegitimate.

Grace has a humble home but she takes care of them the best way she can and well wishers like the Red Cross as well as the Municipal Council assist her where they can. Talk of magnanimity!

Grace also supports another ninety children who are day bugs. These come from poor homes and the streets. She has a make shift classroom where the kids are taught basic reading and writing and at the end of the day she gives each one of them a mug of porridge. She challenged us to give to those who do not have, as we all have something to give even though it is not tangible.

How can we be in the vicinity of the biggest lake in Africa and not visit it? After visiting the children's home, we traveled down to Lake Victoria's beach and had a luxurious meal of fresh fish and ugali. The lake was covered with hyacinth but we were still able to wade through and enjoyed a boat ride. Afterwards we went into Kisumu, did some shopping and site seeing.

The whole work camp was awesome and there is no sufficient way to express our experiences, but to say: We can do it all over again! Fr Boniface Makokha the hospital chaplain said that we truly transformed the hospital and the lives of the community in Mukumu. He also expressed his desire to work with the University in other projects in future.

See Mukumu Hospital's website: http://www.mukumu-hospital.org/index.htm

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