This is an e-mail from Richard Vinroot, son of Richard and Judy (Allen) Vinroot of Charlotte, NC, who is working with Doctors Without Borders in Kenya until February 2009.  Richard is the great grandson of Dr. George S. Allen, one of the original founders of the Allen Family Reunion tradition.  Richard is an emergency room doctor in New Orleans - and yes he was there when Hurricane Katrina hit that city.  We thought the family might like to know about his experiences during his first few days "on the job".

"all is well.  made it here tues morning. work is fine and i am getting hang of it: i am director of 2 tuberculosis programs in two separate clinics. one treating hiv coinfected with Tb and one which solely treats those with drug resistant tb.  i am also advising medical staff with regards any trauma/medical emergencies within the mathare slum that show up at the blue house clinic.

and i am living with a japanese logistics coordinator, a liberian midwife and a camaroonian doctor who will leave tomorrow.  i am taking over for him.  the slum i am in was center of most violence a couple of months ago during the political unrest.  most live on 50 cents a day ... also 12 percent of population has head of household who is a child.  this is due to large hiv burden.  large number of gangs limit my movements between clinics and therefore i travel between clinics with a guard at all times.  there are 450,000 people living in the slum.  i am working with one other doctor who covers hiv patients.  he is ugandan.

I am spending most of my day getting to know staff and how things are run;  i started seeing pts [patients] yesterday.  i also spend a large amount of time studying hiv and tb protocol with regards to doctors without borders.  i also have to spend part of my time learning swahili since many of the poorer patients dont speak english.  also most of the expat staff is french so i also am working on my french.  i am the only american in country with DWB.

lastly the house i am living in is nice and we hve a kenyan housekeeper.  they do this so all i have to worry about is being a doctor.  i feel very safe since we have 3 bodyguards who are samboru tribesmen from the north of kenya.  they are related to warrior clan masai from arount mt kenya.  DWB hires them because they are scared of nothing, extremely loyal, dont sleep and are lethal with their bow and arrow which i swear to god is propped up with them every second of the day as they sit by the gat - unbelievable.  

hope all is well back home."

If you have any stories of family that you would like to share - this is the place.  The Allen family is spread far and wide and there are many interesting stories that should be told.