24 year old Jake Ham recently returned from Kenya, Africa after a 6 week visit volunteering his medical expertise.
While Jake scoffs at the term medical expertise, he did indeed head to the small town of Kangundu (East of Nairobi) with his newly acquired kinesiology degree in hand. Not sure if he wanted to attend grad school, yet wanting to put his skills to use, Jake found an short term alternative. Working through a Canadian volunteer group Jake had to come up with his own money for passage and lodging, while the Canadian group found him a host family and a hospital with which to volunteer.
To many of the tribe Jake was the first white man they had seen, to others, those educated and traveled, Jake was nothing new but still referred to as a mzungu – white. Jake was welcomed almost immediately and quickly picked up some Swahili words to communicate loosely. All around him people would chant in Swahili. He began to be comforted by the sound.
