The last few days have been emotional,at times harrowing and frustrating but also productive. On Tuesday morning I met the little girl who is going for her operation. It is a sad story. Her name is Moindi. Four years ago, when she was four, she fell into a fire. The entire right side of her body and face was severely burned and her arm had to be amputated. She was in hospital for two years and her parents decided they didn't want her if she was missing an arm and abandoned her. I suppose they considered her to be of no use to them like that. Anyway, one of the nurses who worked at the hospital where she stayed has now taken her in as her own. She has had four skin graft operations and the side of her face has caved in but she is such a sweet little girl and very bright. Her next operation is in Texas, not India as I was first led to believe and is sponsored by a woman who lives in the UK. British Airways have given her free flights to and from the UK for the rest of her life. We have bought her some new clothes for the journey as she will be in the US for two months and the ones she has are pretty old and worn. What alarms me about the whole situation is that she has never been offered any trauma counselling. She must need it after everything she has gone through. I will see her and her guardian off to the airport the day before I leave Kenya. Later in the afternoon Shiama and I went with Jayne to the place where the well is being built. It is on Major Blue's land, in the same place where we did the mobile clinic. I think I mentioned him in an earlier entry. He spent 15 years in prison for his activities as a freedom fighter. When he got out of prison, he was offered a present of a young girl from his village to take as his wife. He is now 70 years old with a 35 year old wife and ten children, including a 2 month old baby. They are so poor, they literally have nothing and his wife seems to be in a major depression. It is not surprising. Jayne has tried to think of things to do to try and get through to her and help her but when she invites her to come outside for some tea, she sends the children instead. She has lost all hope and she knows that this is her life and she has no choices and no way to make it better. Anyway, Shiama and I decided to take them enough food to last them a month as they have been eating nothing but maize and the children have serious malnutrition. We got food for the baby, beans, rice, Ugali flour, cooking oil and soap and some sweets for the children. They were very grateful and a little overcome. It's such a good feeling knowing that those children will be going to bed with full bellys, at least for a while. What is more difficult to deal with is the fact that two of the majors daughters, age 14 and sixteen are having sex with men for money. Imagine. But they have no choice. The family does not have enough income to survive otherwise. I can't offer them an alternative. It's a terrible feeling not being able to help them and knowing that such a life is a reality for so many people in Africa. Our worlds are so divided. Wednesday was spent in a college in Nairobi, where I managed to get over 100 questionnaires completed. Then in the afternoon, I visited Brookehouse, the poshest, richest and best private school in Kenya. Jayne's daughter Rita who is 17, was one of only two students who managed to get a full scholarship for the school. She is very clever and talanted and Jayne is very proud of her. Anyway, they have just built a new primary school there in theme of Harry Potter. It is literally a castle, and the inside is designed just as it is in the books/movie. If I went to that school, I would never want to come home. Those people are seriously rich though. In the evening, we said goodbye to Shiama, as she headed back to London to prepare for six years of medicine at Cambridge University. It was sad as we have done a lot together since I got here and we definately shared a need to be productive. It would have been more difficult and daunting for me to break away from VICDA and do the mobile clinics on my own. I'll see her in two weeks when I arrive in London. We celebrated her leaving by jumping in the pool at the Hilton at night (one of our friends was staying there) and then getting into trouble. I have spent most of today in the city, which I hate, waiting to catch our train to Mombasa. This morning we found an organic food store to have breakfast in. This is very rare in Kenya as the diet here is definately not healthy. Everything is fried - bread, potatoes, cakes, bananas - everything. I can't wait to have some broccolli again. Our train leaves at seven this evening and gets in at the same time tomorrow morning. Thankfully we have proper beds. I have had just about all I can take of trying to sleep in noisy broken seats in the Kenyan buses. Helena and I will spend five nights in Mombasa and Diani Beach before I return for my final week at the compound. I'm not sure if I'm looking forward to going home. Ten weeks seems short but I'm looking forward to seeing my friends and family again. I know I'll be back next year at some pont and hopefully can give Jayne some support from Scotland. I'm glad that I'm going to Iona as it will take the edge off the fall back down to earth. See you in a week or so, Helen x