Muthoka Mutua

Page 3

Coming to the United States was a miracle. A couple of retired Americans had been traveling in Kenya as tourists and my Dad happened to be their tour guide. Years earlier, I had asked my Dad to speak to any American who he thought would be willing to sponsor a student and willing to assist me. Two hours with my Dad and a willing retired couple was all it took for me to come to this great country. The faith that this couple had and their willingness to help in spite of their financial shortfall is a great testimony. I arrived here in the fall of 1973. Of all the places to be, I made Reno my home. I was invited to attend Urbana Mission Conference at Champagne, Illinois in December 1973. To my dismay I could not attend this International Mission Conference as there was no Inter Varsity Christian group at the University of Nevada and, secondly, I was new in the area and did not know any one who knew any thing about Urbana.

I had to pass this invitation, but promised myself to begin an Inter Varsity Christian group at the University and send delegates to the 1976 Urbana Mission Conference. God heard the prayers of Mary, Dave E., David T., and myself. In a few months we got sponsorship from Sacramento, California. Rick Pennington visited us every other month to coach the new team and strengthen us. In 1976 we were able to send three students to the Urbana Mission Conference. Through all this my heart was back with my mother country and it continues to be to this day. Throughout my undergraduate and post-graduate education, I kept thinking about the health care problems in my country. Not only did I think about the needs but also dreamed about a clinic. I talked with my friends about this clinic; one such friend was Terri. Terri was working in the Human Resources Department of the Medical Center where I worked then and do to this day.

In the early days, I thought my family could build a clinic all on our own. That year was 1996, and I purchased an ocean cargo container 20'x8'x8'. I filled it with medical supplies that were donated by the local hospitals and my friends. I also purchased a simple one-man water drill in hopes of drilling water wells for people in dry areas.

Why a water drill? Water is a very vital commodity. The region where I grew up has enough water for drinking but not much else. However, the availability of this water is limited. The rainy seasons (March-May and November-December) vary, and there is either plenty of water or very little since rain is often unreliable. Many man-hours are spent searching for drinking and cooking water. Can you imagine two to three hours of each day searching for a few liters of water for a family of five for one night? When there is scarcity of rain, crops fail and famine strikes. In addition, purity of water is not guaranteed. Many diseases are spread through dirty water. The reasons for this water drill were two-fold; one - to drill for clean drinking water, and two - to be able to supply a provision of water to communities during dry seasons. The idea was to drill water wells for communities where a majority of the people could benefit by getting clean water for families and animals. My knowledge was limited and I later found out that the Hydra drill that I purchased was not strong enough to drill through hard rock.

Most of the supplies that I shipped got to the seaport of Mombassa securely. Little did I know the difficulty and bureaucracy of custom clearance at a Kenyan seaport and most of the supplies were lost. In addition, there were heavy fines for storage of the container at the seaport of Mombassa. The charges were incurred from July to November at a cost of $25 per day, not a cheap charge. The few items that were left had to be shipped and stored away for the dream Medical Clinic.