"Andy, your work in Kenya at the Chebaiywa Clinic is inspiring. Through my travels with National Geographic Explorer and Our America, I witness the critical need worldwide for quality medical care and focus on raising healthy kids. Your decision to fight for healthy kids both in America with you work for ING's Run for Something Better program and in Africa delivering these beautiful babies and caring for these children, is phenomenal. Keep running and working for these causes! I am proud of you."
—Lisa Ling, special correspondent, Our America with Lisa Ling on Oprah Winfrey Network; CNN contributor; co-host, ABC, The View; author, Mother, Daughter, Sister, Bride and Somewhere Inside: One Sister’s Captivity.
Running with Kenyans
Heartfelt Stories of an American Doctor in Africa
Smashwords
Edition
by
Andy
Baldwin and
Summers
McKay
Photography
by Andrew Baldwin, M.D. and Michael Chitwood
Editing and Book Production by Ellen Stiefler
Published by Transmedia Books
at Smashwords
Copyright © 2011 Andrew Baldwin and Summers McKay
The authors are donating a portion of the proceeds from this book to World Vision: http://donate.worldvision.org/OA_HTML/xxwv2NewDonorDoChildSearch.jsp?egiftid=316&xxwvLocation=0051&xxwvSearchType=ALL&xxwvCampaign=123807133
ABOUT THE AUTHORS
Dr. Andy Baldwin – Ambassador of Wellness.
U.S.
Navy Lieutenant Commander Andrew Baldwin, M.D. is a physician,
humanitarian and U.S. Navy diver currently serving as a family
medicine resident at the Naval Hospital Camp Pendleton in Southern
California. Prior to his current position, Dr. Baldwin served at the
Navy's Bureau of Medicine and Surgery in Washington, D.C. as a
spokesman and advocate for Navy medicine. While in D.C. Andy assisted
the U.S. Surgeon General with a program called Healthy Youth for a
Healthy Future and currently serves as an advocate for the Let's Move
Campaign headed by First Lady Michelle Obama. Both of these programs
target childhood overweight and obesity. Andy is partnered with ING's
Run for Something Better and Team Worldvision working
to bring proper nutrition to children worldwide.
In October, Andy spent a month on rotation at The Chebaiywa Clinic in Kenya providing prenatal and perinatal care. He then ran back-to-back marathons in Nairobi and New York to further awareness of the fight against both hunger and childhood obesity.
Oh yeah, he was also the star of ABC's The Bachelor, an Officer and a Gentleman.
Summers McKay
Summers
McKay is a freelance story teller, writer, producer, blogger and
current MBA student at UCLA’s Anderson School of Management. With a
career that began as an intern at Entertainment Tonight and has
included positions in sales and international distribution at
Paramount Studios, talent management and reality TV production,
Summers has worked in entertainment from just about every angle. Her
passion in the media biz is to create positive change in our world,
empowering people and communities through inspiring media, socially
responsible messaging, fun content, effective distribution and truly
collaborative opportunities to do some good. Collaborating with Dr.
Andy Baldwin on this collection of stories while based in Santa
Monica was both a fascinating and emotionally challenging experience
and inspired Summers to continue to find and develop stories from
Africa and throughout the developing world. Find Summers on twitter
@SummersMcKay
For Cosmas
CONTENTS
Survival in Africa is a Marathon
My name is Andy Baldwin and I am a doctor in the US Navy. I have had the opportunity to travel the world for my job for Navy Medicine and have been moved by the kindness of humanity, the pain of poverty, and the hope of children worldwide, but never before have I had an experience like these last few months. Over the last seven weeks I have chronicled my journey with the Navy’s Global Force for Good providing medical care at a small rural clinic in Kenya on the Morton Report. I also trained for the Nairobi marathon and the ING New York marathon, two marathons, two continents, one week apart and a world of difference.
After finishing the ING NY Marathon, I wrote to my editor about my race experience. It was the toughest, most emotionally challenging, physically exhausting, and ultimately inspiring race I’d ever run. She remarked “Andy, your description of the marathon is pretty much a summary of your time in Africa.” She was right.
First, I’m going to explain how much my experience in Africa reminded me of the mixed emotions and highs and lows of the 26-mile marathons I have run so many times before. Then, I will share with you more detail about my time in Africa, along with very special personal photographs from my trip.
Mile 1 – 3
Upon arrival in Africa, I was greeted by my friends Michelle & William Kiprop. Michelle, a certified Nurse Midwife from Southern California, is married to a Kenyan. She runs the Chebaiywa clinic where I would work for the next month. As we drove into town to pick up supplies, I watched the chaos of the dirt roads full of chickens and sheep, with darting pedestrians and no semblance of a crosswalk. Like the anticipation of a marathon, there was enthusiasm and a bit of fear.
I arrived at the clinic to a beautiful ceremonial greeting from the warm Kenyan people. Streamers lined the clinic door, not unlike the decorations alongside a race course. Inspired, finding my stride, I knew I could make a difference and these people wanted my help. Let’s keep running!
Miles 4-8
My Kenyan friend Isaac and I trained daily. We pounded the hilly farm trails, past the mud huts, full of uneven rock and dirt, and the altitude was a challenge. A herd of enthusiastic young Kenyan children ran alongside and I noticed most of them weren’t wearing shoes. These young souls were HIV AIDS orphans attending the Chebaiywa’s Children’s School, and running for miles, smiling ear to ear without shoes.
Mile 9