AMPATH: My Coat of Many Colors
You will recognize the reference to that oh so sentimental song by Dolly Patron. It is no coincidence, AMPATH is sentimental for me.
Humble beginnings
My mum Leah Njeri, who was known as Rachel to most Indiana University/AMPATH folks, was an amazing woman. Everyone probably says that about their mum. A single parent, my mum lived her life for her kids, so we may have a brighter future. We did not have much growing up. We first lived with my grandparents in Laikipia, then Eldoret. We lived in Kamukunji, a slum in Eldoret and our family of five shared a one-room house for as long as I could remember.
My mum started ailing in 1997, and it was on for long stretches then off, then on again. My mum was keen on getting us an education and I ended up going to a Catholic boarding school in Eldoret. My mum could not afford it, but she took me anyways. I will spare you the details of my life at that school, but suffice to say I only made it through the kindness of people, most of whom were strangers.
In 1999, my mum gave birth to a baby boy who died at 2-months-old. We all chalked it to pneumonia, buried him and life went on, but my mum’s health deteriorated. In 2001, when I was in my final year of high school, my mum’s health was so poor that even she thought she was going to die. Her family discussed and agreed she should be taken the village so that when (not if) she dies, her funeral will be cheaper without have to transport the body from Eldoret. During the school holiday in August of 2001, I worked as a domestic house help for a family friend and used that money to go to the village and bring my mum back to Eldoret. I figured if she was going to die, it will not be for lack of trying everything we could do. I wrote my final high school exams while commuting from Kamukunji every day so I could nurse my mum who writhed in pain all day. She lived on cheap over-the-counter pain killers and not enough of a balanced diet to get better. My older brother, who was a matatu conductor at the time, was the sole bread winner for our family of three (my two brothers were living in the village with my grandparents). There was barely enough food for all of us and I often went without food so my mum could have more. All this time, we still had no idea what was ailing my mum. The local ‘clinic’ said it was malaria, then typhoid. We spent any money we could spare on medicines for this. You are probably wondering why we did not take her to a “real hospital.” Simple, we could not afford even the 150 shillings (US$1.50) registration fee.
Once I finished high school in November 2001 and was able to do more odd jobs, then we had some more money for the hospital. We took my mum to a slightly bigger hospital in Huruma estate and they referred her to ‘Medical’ which is the now Moi Teaching and Referral Hospital (MTRH). They also prescribed some medicines that could manage her pain and deal with some of the issues she had. We bought the medicines and my mum started getting better…..or so we thought.
My mother, Rachel Leah Njeri Mungai in 2005
My mum was not one to sit around feeling helpless. She decided to go to town to find a job. It is while she was out that she collapsed and was taken to MTRH by a good Samaritan who drove her there. The lady who took her there was called Rachel. My mum was unconscious when she arrived and because they could not identify her, they recorded her “Rachel’s patient.” The good lady paid her registration fee and left her.To date, despite all my efforts to find her to thank her for saving my mum’s life, I have not found her. It wasn’t until four days later, and a lot of frantic looking, that we got word from a hospital staff who lived in Kamukunji that my mum was at MTRH. When I arrived at the hospital, she could not be found in the system because she had not used her name. I remember the darkness I felt when it was suggested that maybe I should check the morgue instead. Meanwhile, the nurses had taken to calling my mum “mgonjwa wa Rachel- Rachel’s patient.” But that I guess was too long because they dropped the phrase and just started calling her Rachel. And so my mum became Rachel to this day!! When my mum woke up, she was just glad to be alive and did not care what they called her so long as they kept the pain in check.
The AMPATH Connection
My mum was at the hospital, but still we had no idea what ailed her. We needed to pay to get the tests and screening done, and we didn’t have enough money. She stayed at the hospital having her pain managed and racking up the bill. A group of doctors from IU came by including Joe Mamlin. After lots of tests my mum was diagnosed with a heart condition that needed open heart surgery!! That was obviously a death sentence for my mum because there is no way we could ever afford that. After a lot of pleading and promises, my mum had the open heart surgery done in February 2002, with the understanding that she wouldn’t be discharged from the hospital until the fees were all paid. My mum was also found to be HIV+ and an ARV treatment plan was put in place. In hindsight, we agreed the signs for the diagnosis were all there as early as 1999 we just didn’t what they were.
My mum was so much better after the surgery and was ready to come home, but she couldn’t leave the hospital until we paid. I contacted my grandfather (her dad) and he agreed to deposit with the hospital the only valuable thing his entire family owned, the title deed to the family land. He later admitted to me that this was the most painful and difficult decision he ever had to make. On the one hand was family land which was all he had with a lot of family members depending on it for housing and livelihood. There was every possibility that we would be unable to pay the hospital bill and the land would be auctioned. On the other hand was his child who needed help with no one else to help. So my grandfather turned up at MTRH ready to surrender the title deed but it was not to be. When Joe Mamlin found out what the plan was, he asked that my mum be discharged, and her medical bills be waived or put on his tab!! My grandfather’s tearful joy on finding out the news fills me with renewed gratitude and love for Joe every day. We took my mum home determined to regroup and rebuild our lives. My mum and I agreed I would go to Nairobi to find work to help the family and save up for further schooling. I ended up as a domestic house help for a family that overworked and underpaid me.
In mid-2002, my mum, who had a college education. was employed at AMPATH as a research assistant, a position she joyfully held until her death. Her first order of business was to bring my two younger brothers from her parent’s home to Eldoret. It was at this point that she met Mary and Ed Liechty who were working in Eldoret. My mum shared my dreams of further education and becoming a lawyer with Mary, who agreed to support me.
The author with Sarah Ellen and Joe Mamlin.
I moved back to Eldoret in 2003. Because I did not have perfect grades for government sponsorship to a university in Kenya and private sponsorship was too expensive, we had to get creative. My mum and I agreed I would pursue two more years of high school in what is referred to as Advanced level in Uganda, and then pursue my law degree. I vividly remember the long trip with my mum from Eldoret to Mukono, Uganda, which involved five different matatus and two boda boda rides laden with a black metallic box that contained my personal belongings and school supplies. That long journey to Uganda changed my life in ways I would never have imagined. It is the journey that led me to so many valuable friends and experiences. It led me to law school, where as a great debater, I was part of the team that represented Uganda in the prestigious Phillip Jessup moot court completion in Washington, DC, in 2011. There I got a tour of the White House in the President Obama era and a tour of the Congress. It is at law school that I met a dear friend who invited me to her brother’s wedding. At the wedding I met a handsome, smart young man to whom I am now married. We have two wonderful daughters and live in Canada--a world so far away from where that journey began!!
Over the next two years, at the beginning of each school term, Mary drove through running wastewater and garbage in Kamukunji to come and give me a ride to the bus stop in Eldoret. Mary’s rides were not only convenient and helpful, but also a security measure. If people knew or imagined that I had some cash on me, I could get robbed even in broad daylight. So Mary held onto the money until we got to the bus stop where she would give it to me in the car and ensured I hid it well before she let me out. There I boarded a matatu to Bungoma Thene I would board another one to Malaba or Busia border. Then I took a boda boda across the border. After clearing with border officials, I took another matatu to Mukono which is just outside of Kampala.
When I finished Form 6 in 2004, I became a volunteer at the Sally Test Pediatric Centre (now Child Life) at MTRH which was run by Sarah Ellen Mamlin. Joe and Sarah Ellen became my alternative parents almost immediately. We were like kindred spirits. Through the Mamlins and AMPATH, I was sponsored to go to law school in Uganda where I graduated with honors in 2011. My mum continued to thrive and worked at AMPATH with so much dedication. She became an advocate for fighting stigma against HIV/AIDS. She opened our small house to people, mostly women needing shelter due to stigma and domestic violence. It was common to run into people wearing my few clothes because my mum had brought them home to safety with nothing but the clothes on their backs. My mum was known in Kamukunji for protecting women. If someone said they thought someone’s wife was hiding out in our house, the husband knew not to dare come huffing and puffing looking for her or he would have to deal with my mum. She was nicknamed “Kanyina” which means “a small mother” which is what she was to everyone who needed her.
She also became engrossed in church and was a pastor, counselor and mother to many. In 2006, we moved from Kamukunji to Langas and life settled to a good rhythm of work, study and service.
Shiko at her family home in Laikipia with her grandparents
Then my mum was diagnosed with cervical cancer. Joe ensured she got the best care possible in Eldoret and Nairobi, but all the resources and love in the world could not save her and she saw it coming. My mum was concerned about her children and wanted to ensure we would be cared for. We were living in a rented house. I was in Uganda for school and my two younger brothers were still living at home and going to school with no source of income. She asked for help to buy a house that her children would call home. Thanks to many people in Indiana, most of whom I will never even know, money was raised to buy my mum a house. That and some of the family savings had me signing house ownership documents on 28 March 2007 at the exact moment my mum was dying at the memorial wing of MTRH with her sister holding her hand. She died at age 44 at peace with the knowledge that we had a home and she filled with joy and pride in what she called her five glory years. She was laid to rest at her father’s land, the same land that would probably have been auctioned off to pay her hospital debt. It was a beautiful celebration of life with a big group of AMPATH staff who came to send her off with the same love they had come to know her for.
Joe and Sarah Ellen continue to be there for my brothers and I in ways words cannot explain. In 2010, I needed surgery to fix my vocal cords which were dying, which is bad enough but even worse for a lawyer. Joe sent an email asking for help for his daughter and as usual the responses were overwhelming. During my first trip to the U.S., an amazing team of ENT specialists led by Dr. Susan Cordes performed surgery on my throat, the cost of which was fully waived by Wishard Hospital!! I had a repeat surgery in 2012. Joe and Sarah Ellen have laughed with me, held me through tears, propped me up when I was ready to crumble and cheered me on as I scale the heights on life. They are doting and sometimes annoying grandparents to my two daughters and I have AMPATH to thank for them.
I reflect on my mum’s life and how what would be considered by many as an unfortunate event set in motion a whole series of fortunate events that changed, not just her life, but mine too. I have a video of my mum taken on World AIDS Day in 2006. She is standing on a high wooden stage at the Huruma open grounds in Eldoret, telling the whole world how AMPATH changed her life, and how at that moment her daughter was at the university studying to be a lawyer!! I became a lawyer in Kenya in 2014, worked in private practice and for the United Nations, and I am now a few months away from becoming a lawyer in Canada.
So you see, for me AMPATH is a coat of many colors. It is the color or love, color of hope, color of faith, color or patience, of forgiveness, of unity, of strength, of kindness, of pain, of innovation and resilience of the human spirit. It also is the coat my mama made for me even without knowing or meaning to. She had to be sick to need help, to be found and saved by AMPATH and to experience her rebirth. AMPATH is not just a program, it is a way of life, a connection of the human spirit where needs meet love, not just for the patients, but for their loved ones as well. My celebration of AMPATH and my mum’s legacy is to be the best I can be and pay forward the kindness bestowed on me by so many that has led me to where I am. To light some up someone’s dark path like it was done and continues to be done because that is the AMPATH spirit.
Wishing you all a happy, compassionate, kindness and love filled 2020!!