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June 2007 Issue
Aspiring nurse follows God's will
to Kenyan hospital
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takes a special person to be a nurse. It takes an exceptionally
special person to give up the everyday luxuries of running
water and reliable electricity in order to practice
nursing in a foreign country. Carmen
Waldron, 23, didn’t always know she wanted to go into
the nursing field. |
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“In high school, I worked in
the [Carson City] hospital pharmacy,” Waldron said. “It gave
me the chance to observe the nurses. The patients were so
vulnerable and in such need,” Waldron continued. “That is
when I made up my mind and knew that I wanted to be a nurse.”
Waldron had always felt an urge to do some sort of foreign
volunteer work. As she fi nished her degree from the Aquinas
College nursing program, she knew it was now or never. “I
kept going back and forth on whether or not I wanted to go.
I got to the point that I thought, if don’t go now, I never
will.” After graduation, Waldron hurried to take her state
board exams, applied to the Catholic Medical Mission Board
and patiently waited to hear where she would be spending the
next eight months. She was pleased to learn she would be working
in Kenya. “Kenya seemed like a place where the opportunities
that I was looking for were available and it was important
to me to go somewhere that spoke English as one of their languages,”
Waldron said. “I spent so much time researching the area and
the Kenyan tribes on the Internet.”
Waldron was disappointed to
learn at the last minute that the hospital she had been researching
had closed due to a lack of funding, but felt comfort in knowing
that God had a different plan for her. After a short stay
in the city of Nairobi, she traveled to the village of Kaplong,
where she was greeted by the Kipsigis tribe. Waldron was provided
an apartment on the campus of St. Clare’s Kaplong Mission
Hospital that was very different from her home in Carson City.
“I had electricity, most of the time, and water if it rained,”
Waldron said. She didn’t have much time to settle in before
it was time for her to start her new job. Like most college
graduates in a new job, Waldron felt discouraged after her
fi rst day of work. “I called my mom and told her that I wanted
to come home. I felt like I wasn’t contributing, like I was
in the way,” Waldron said. “She told me to wait a week.” “I
didn’t realize how unprepared I was as a new nurse.” In Kenya,
there is such a shortage of doctors that, many times, the
nurses run the hospitals and take on many of the tasks a doctor
would normally do. “Sometimes I was the nurse in charge,”
Waldron said. “I’m glad that God didn’t reveal that to me
before I left. I would never have gone.” “It was nerve-wracking,”
Waldron continued. “I couldn’t just ask the people what was
wrong with them.” “Every morning, I prayed to God to help
me through. There was no way that I could have handled being
on my own without his guidance.” Waldron was faced with patients
with illnesses that she had only read about in her textbooks
in the United States. “Almost every patient who came in had
malaria,” Waldron said.
“Many had tuberculosis, HIV and AIDS. I didn’t
have training to deal with these. I had to learn everything
on the job.” Waldron remembers her most stressful day when
she was the only nurse on duty and a traffi c accident brought
a matatu (mini-bus) full of people into the emergency room.
She felt overwhelmed and looked to God for guidance. “You
have to let God teach you,” she said. “It was terrible. Everyone
was losing blood and going into shock, so I quickly started
IV lines and pumping fl uids into the most serious to keep
their blood pressure from dropping,” Waldron said. “The worst
part was people were screaming for my help, but I had to attend
to the most serious fi rst,” Waldron continued. “I thank God
that they all survived and that He gave me the strength and
courage to meet the needs of the situation.” Waldron also
spent time volunteering in the hospital’s Disability Referral
Clinic, where she worked to help the disabled get the supplies
they needed for their conditions. There, she met many families
who invited her to their homes. “I began to feel like I was
a part of the family when the tribe gave me a nickname,” Waldron
said. “They called me Chebaibai, meaning jovial woman.” “[The
tribe] lived in mud-smeared houses with tin roofs. They only
had one or two rooms. If they were lucky, they had an acre
of land for farming,” Waldron said.
“The entire extended family lives together
in one area. I love how much [their culture] values children
and having many children. It is a very family-oriented culture.”
“Everyday tasks take so much effort,” Waldron continued. “They
had to walk long distances for water and burned paraffi n
lamps for light. It was hard to be living among such desperation.
It was hard to see them struggle and not get ahead.” In spite
of the hardships the Kenyans faced, Waldron took notice of
how committed to their faith they were and was inspired by
their personal refl ections offered during Mass at St. Peter
and Paul Roman Catholic Church in the village. “There were
two Masses, one in Swahili, and one in English,” Waldron said.
“Even during the Swahili Mass, I knew exactly what was happening.”
“There was a lot of dancing and singing,” Waldron continued.
“They didn’t have any instruments, but they had drums. They
would sing in four-part harmonies and it was so beautiful.”
Waldron felt most moved during the offering at Mass. “Everyone
gives something,” Waldron said. “Even if they have no money,
they bring food or milk. It was amazing to see these people
who have so little give so much.” Waldron is grateful for
the time she spent with the Kipsigis and the experiences she
had in Kaplong. “I think God knew I would be better there,”
she said. Today, Waldron is making a life for herself in Grand
Rapids and will soon begin working in oncology at Saint Mary
Health Care. She is planning to sponsor a Kenyan student that
she met on her trip to go to college. “I want to go back to
visit someday.”
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