Simon: "I want to serve"

Simon is a Pharmaceutical Technologist in Kilifi Kenya. Kilifi is in the Coast Province of Kenya, just on the Indian Ocean. Overall, it’s an apparently quiet place,.. nothing like the capitol city of Nairobi.. The traffic jams are non-existent, but people go about their daily lives just the same, albeit in a less frenzied pace. Simon is the chief pharmacist at the Kilifi District Hospital,.. the hospital responsible for the health matters of almost 5000 square miles (about 12,500 sq Km) of kilifi district.. So his job is to facilitate delivery of medications to hospital inpatients as well as those in close proximity to the hospital.

Its not an easy job. Dealing with the medication needs of the hospital is one thing. Dealing with the needs of the surrounding community is yet another. You see, the way it works is that, although the hospital takes care of some of the community medication needs, the majority of these needs are managed by dispensaries and health centers “closer” to those. Closer, is in fact, a relative term. There’s a phrase in Kenya used often when talking about distances, especially on the coast. That phrase is: "just here". When asked “are we there yet”,.. the usual response is” its just here”, which could me we have another 10 Km to go,.. but its “just here” in Kenyan terms. So the community health centers of Matsongoni, Ganze and Msumarini, are “just here”.

On this particular day, we’re driving between health centers and dispensaries, on not so smooth “off” roads to places where the villages and homesteads are disbursed some distances from each other. We’re driving and the time seems endless. Can’t imagine how it feels when you’re walking. And that’s what they do…. Walk. To “just here”.

Some of the places have only nurses and maybe a clinical officer, but certainly no physician and no pharmacist. Simon explains that there is an acute shortage of pharmacists and physicians in the medical system of Kenya, especially in the rural areas. When asked why, he further explains that the pay is low and the circumstances are cruel and demanding, the hours, grueling. Many health professional go the private sector, where pay is much more than when working for the governmental health system, as Simon does. So I asked Simon,… Why do you do it? His response: I want to serve.

Simon is a rarity, even here. If you had to go to work every day to provide a service to those who might night be able to pay, whom you might contract a respiratory disease from, where you might hear babies crying in anguish all day…. Would you do it? Many here won’t,.. But many will. And the truth is that most of us serve, in one way or another. But because Simon serves here, one more child will live. Because he is planted here, a mother will receive medication so that she can look for work, or, work on her farm, or, sell goods in the market place…..because Simon serves,… and inspires others to serve. In this, there is hope.

But that can happen anywhere, it can certainly happen in the U.S. where the needs are as great as they are in Kenya or anywhere, ...the difference is that we have systems that, arguably, could work and should work on our behalf. But similar to Kenya though or anywhere else for that matter, if systems don’t work on behalf of the poor, the rest of us are called to serve,.. like Simon, and with intention,.. not the intention of being recognized for service, but with the intention of lifting someone up. With the intention of being an instrument of justice, not charity. With the intention of “leveling the playing field”, which may not happen immediately, but over time, it happens. Simon knows this, and so he serves.

So, in our lives and travels to “just here”. What intentional service will we render today? We're all thinking about this, but going beyond thinking and into action is yet another matter. As we go beyond action in our own lives, one more child will live.

So Simon "toils" on, ...with joy, sometimes frustration, yes,.. but always with intention. Can we join him?