DERRY — Patricia Hutchins said her word to live by will soon be "flexibility."
In a few weeks, the nurse practitioner will embark on a trip to Kenya to volunteer for one year in the Mukumu Hospital in Kakamega.
"I'm 70 percent excited and 30 percent terrified," said Hutchins, 63.
When her position at the Manchester Department of Health was eliminated in July, Hutchins said, she began looking into medical volunteer programs, including Doctors without Borders and the American Refugee Committee.
"When I was young, I loved to read about Tom Dooley and Albert Schweitzer," Hutchins said. "So, I thought, now was the time to do this."
Hutchins was told she didn't have enough experience with these types of organizations. Then she found the Catholic Medical Mission Board.
Hutchins certainly has enough experience for her mission in Kenya. She will be teaching in a registered nursing program and working with pregnant women who are HIV positive.
"I'm combining two things I really love to do," she said.
In addition to working at the Manchester Health Clinic, Hutchins taught obstetrical nursing for 20 years at New Hampshire Technical Institute in Concord
She will be staying in the nuns' quarters at the hospital in Kenya.
The cost to send a medical volunteer through the Catholic Medical Mission Board for one year including airfare is $15,000. The volunteer is asked to raise $5,000 of that amount.
Hutchins and her husband Paul Doolittle have been selling honey and eggs at their home, Sunpoint Farm, in East Derry. On Sunday, they hosted Kenya Day, with music, food and a silent auction, to raise money for her trip.
Hutchins has been inoculated against yellow fever and typhoid, and will soon start antimalarial medications.
"The hospital is near a rain forest, so it will be humid and buggy," she said, seated in her living room last week patting her springer spaniel Molly.
Hutchins said she will be on her own at the Kenyan hospital.
"The medical director of CMMB told me they're about 24,000 nurses short in Kenya right now," she said. "He said they'll probably expect me to do at least seven jobs."
Hutchins has been researching Kenyan culture and the Swahili language. She found out that nurses are required wear white shirts and skirts. Pants aren't allowed — ever.
"There is so much I don't know about," she said. "'Flexibility' will be my new word."
Hutchins is spending this week at the Stella Maris Retreat Center in Monmouth, N.J., for orientation. She expects to leave for Kenya the first week of October.
Donations can be made on her personal fundraising page at support.cmmb.org/goto/patriciainkenya.
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