These last couple days have been particularly rough, mainly because of patients I am taking care of on the ward. Yesterday on rounds we had a 20-year-old woman with HIV and TB pass away in front of us, as we debated and tried to decide if there was anything else to do. The answer was clearly no, and as she died, her mother stood in the middle of the ward wailing inconsolably. I felt helpless in that moment as she ran out of the ward. A mother should not have to witness the death of her own daughter. Her daughter had been sick for some time, being treated at another hospital without improvement, and Tenwek was their last hope for a cure, for recovery. I never saw her with any level of meaningful consciousness, and we knew from the moment that she was admitted that she would probably not make it. Still, it hurts to see.
This morning prior to rounds, my intern pulled me into the ward because there was a 62-year-old lady who was barely conscious and clearly struggling to breathe. She had been admitted overnight, and had been previously healthy prior to becoming suddenly sick. It was unclear what had happened on our first assessment, and labs were unrevealing. The differential for her problem included sepsis, stroke, or even poisoning, and we were treating her with antibiotics. The hard part about this case is the uncertainty we have to deal with when faced with limited resources. In the US, we would have obtained CT scans, extensive labs, and maybe reached a diagnosis. Unfortunately, with the limited abilities we have, she passed away this morning prior to rounds. Who knows, even with all the resources in the US, she would have died anyway.
Then on rounds we were faced with another lady in her 30’s, previously healthy, who came in with fevers and had become unconscious overnight. Again, our best guess was meningitis, based on findings from a lumbar puncture done the day before, and she was placed on appropriate treatment. Again, we spent significant time on rounds trying to decide if we should move her to our limited ICU, intubate her and place her on a ventilator. With the severity of her condition, the doctors here said that the chance she would survive was almost zero, and that would tie up resources for someone who had a better prognosis. I had to explain this to the family, who continued to insist that she had swallowed something that was blocking her airway, and if we could just get it out, she would be fine. I don’t even know how to deal with that one, and rested on the help of my intern who was translating for me.
This afternoon I saw a patient who tried to commit suicide by organophosphate ingestion and was in status epilepticus. While pushing phenobarbitol, we transferred the patient to the ICU. I intubated the patient after the tube dislodged on the way to the ICU. We will see, but he is the most likely to recover as the poison wears off.
So, I haven’t figured out how to deal with suffering during this month. One option is to be overwhelmed with grief. Here this can be very crippling as people die every day. Another option is to become callous, and even complacent, which I have become to an extent to protect myself. These last two days have broken down this wall in my heart. Seeing the families’ desperation as their daughters die in their arms is enough to do that. I suppose the real answer is somewhere in between, accepting those things that are inevitable, striving to change those things which you can, and being filled with compassion at all times. It seems an impossible task, but thankfully with God all things are possible.
Adam
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
Friday, April 16, 2010
Update from Adam
I know that my addition to the blog is long overdue. We are at the end of our third week, and it is going to be difficult to encapsulate all that I have seen and done over these three weeks.
My main position is as an attending on the medicine ward at the hospital. Tenwek Hospital has 16 intern positions that rotate every 3 months through medicine, pediatrics, general surgery and obstetrics. They started the first of January, and therefore my first week here I caught the first group on their last week of medicine, and then got a new group of 4 interns these last two weeks. There is one family medicine attending who rounds, another resident and a Kenyan medical officer who all attend on the wards. I have been running rounds on the female ward (18 beds, always over capacity), and the family medicine attending runs rounds on the male wards. We also take care of patients in the ICU and do any medicine consults. I am on call with one of the interns roughly every 4th night, and was on all weekend the first weekend.
My position being what it is, my primary ministry is to the interns, who I work with very closely. I teach them on rounds, while admitting patients on call, during daily morning report, and have given them a formal lecture on heart failure management. On call I have had opportunities to sit and get to know them better. I have also been able to assist with their presentations at the various conferences they present at. I love teaching, and this has been a wonderful opportunity for me to use my skills as an educator to help them as they grow in their knowledge of medicine and how to take care of patients.
Tenwek is unashamedly a mission hospital, as evidenced by their motto, “We treat, Jesus heals.” This also plays a part of my many interactions, as we pray before each conference and before morning rounds. It also has played into many of our discussions on rounds, as we discuss how to care for patients and many of the ethical issues we face. We have even openly prayed together over patients, which has been a neat experience. For some of the interns, their faith is very vibrant and evident, and for others seems more of a formality, giving many opportunities for discussions. There are also morning devotions every Wednesday morning, and Bible studies every Wednesday night for the interns.
My next ministry is to the patients. I have seen an overwhelming amount of HIV/AIDS, TB, meningitis, typhoid fever, malaria, and esophageal cancer. More than I have ever seen in my life. I have spent a lot of time in the hospital library reading about the diagnosis and treatment of conditions I rarely see in the US. We do a lot of good here, but I have also seen death every day, and fight the urge to grow callous and cold. I have even shed tears for patients that would have lived had we had adequate resources to care for them. There is a lot that Tenwek has to offer compared to most of the other hospitals throughout Africa, but it is still very limited compared to what I am used to at Mayo. Sometimes I think it is a good thing, because it forces us to think about everything we do, justify it, and cut waste—a skill that is lacking in my practice in the US. But when people are dying because of lack of resources and public health, it is sad. Even with limited ability to communicate with language, I try to communicate compassion through smile or touch and through translators.
Well, it has been an eventful 3 weeks. I will try to blog more before the trip is up.
Adam
My main position is as an attending on the medicine ward at the hospital. Tenwek Hospital has 16 intern positions that rotate every 3 months through medicine, pediatrics, general surgery and obstetrics. They started the first of January, and therefore my first week here I caught the first group on their last week of medicine, and then got a new group of 4 interns these last two weeks. There is one family medicine attending who rounds, another resident and a Kenyan medical officer who all attend on the wards. I have been running rounds on the female ward (18 beds, always over capacity), and the family medicine attending runs rounds on the male wards. We also take care of patients in the ICU and do any medicine consults. I am on call with one of the interns roughly every 4th night, and was on all weekend the first weekend.
My position being what it is, my primary ministry is to the interns, who I work with very closely. I teach them on rounds, while admitting patients on call, during daily morning report, and have given them a formal lecture on heart failure management. On call I have had opportunities to sit and get to know them better. I have also been able to assist with their presentations at the various conferences they present at. I love teaching, and this has been a wonderful opportunity for me to use my skills as an educator to help them as they grow in their knowledge of medicine and how to take care of patients.
Tenwek is unashamedly a mission hospital, as evidenced by their motto, “We treat, Jesus heals.” This also plays a part of my many interactions, as we pray before each conference and before morning rounds. It also has played into many of our discussions on rounds, as we discuss how to care for patients and many of the ethical issues we face. We have even openly prayed together over patients, which has been a neat experience. For some of the interns, their faith is very vibrant and evident, and for others seems more of a formality, giving many opportunities for discussions. There are also morning devotions every Wednesday morning, and Bible studies every Wednesday night for the interns.
My next ministry is to the patients. I have seen an overwhelming amount of HIV/AIDS, TB, meningitis, typhoid fever, malaria, and esophageal cancer. More than I have ever seen in my life. I have spent a lot of time in the hospital library reading about the diagnosis and treatment of conditions I rarely see in the US. We do a lot of good here, but I have also seen death every day, and fight the urge to grow callous and cold. I have even shed tears for patients that would have lived had we had adequate resources to care for them. There is a lot that Tenwek has to offer compared to most of the other hospitals throughout Africa, but it is still very limited compared to what I am used to at Mayo. Sometimes I think it is a good thing, because it forces us to think about everything we do, justify it, and cut waste—a skill that is lacking in my practice in the US. But when people are dying because of lack of resources and public health, it is sad. Even with limited ability to communicate with language, I try to communicate compassion through smile or touch and through translators.
Well, it has been an eventful 3 weeks. I will try to blog more before the trip is up.
Adam
Monday, April 12, 2010
Typing, Proof-reading, reformatting and more!
Today I went back to Community Health (a sub-organization of Tenwek which takes groups of people into the community to work on public health issues like malaria awareness). I went in last week on Wednesday to ask how I could help (hoping that I would be able to get out into local communities and see/interact with locals). Of course, the Lord chose to continue His lesson to me about being an unconditional servant and truly having zero expectations…so that I will be willing to do anything. So, without actually knowing my typing skills, the man I was speaking with said, I think that you are very fast at typing and you can help Florence with typing because she is very slow.
So, ok, it does just so happen that I am pretty fast at typing (piano lessons and Typing Maniac have seen to that). Still, I was excited to help someone improve their typing skills….because that is what I misinterpreted that I would be doing the next day when I went in to help.
As it turned out, Florence didn’t want help with her typing skills, instead she needed help to type her project in Social Work/Community Health. So, for three days and a total of 8 hours when all was said and done, I typed, proof-read and formatted her 56 page thesis project. (Yes, even though this blog is fraught with mistakes, I do know how to proofread - the blog didn’t get such careful attention because I was afraid our internet would go out before I could get it up and out to folks…)
Typing her thesis project wasn’t a glorious job, but I have to admit, I loved reading about her project as I typed…she went out into the community and did several projects with families and small organizations to increase income generating activities among people who had very little income and she worked with others on time management. She also did several case studies where she worked with orphans or children in homes of abuse. It was fascinating. Florence told me today when we completed her project that she had scheduled 3 weeks for what took us 3 partial days to complete. She is now free to continue in other community projects.
So despite my unmet expectations (although they were flexible expectations…they were still there and unmet), I felt useful and learned a lot about struggles that are common among local communities. Maybe I will still be able to get out into the communities in the next couple of weeks, but maybe not at all and I am ok with that. The Lord knows the plans He has for me…I don’t need to know them…I just need to be faithful in what I am given to do. I am willing to bet that if Community Health has more typing that needs to be done while I am here, they will call me. And that work would be welcome.
On other things, there are some opportunities to get up to the nursery at the hospital to help feed two sets of triplets that are there and need assistance during feeding times. I’m hoping to do that sometime on Thursday or Friday, but if it doesn’t happen, that will be fine. For the next couple days, other than my regular mother/house duties, I will be watching Arathena some so that Reena can go up to the hospital and do some Occupational Therapy duties. I kind of think of our situation as job-sharing.
Also, Adam has a lecture to give to the Kenyan residents up at the hospital tomorrow, so please pray that this goes well. I am still working on getting an update from Adam for this blog regarding his work in the hospital and have been assured that it is coming. But if you can, please pray that this lecture goes well and that there is lots of participation from the residents.
We also were able to go out to the Maasai Mara this past weekend (Tenwek arranges a weekend away for all those staying for one month) and it was our time to go. We had a great time and the kids did really well despite the super bumpy off-roading of the safari drives. The most hilarious thing that happened was when Arathena dropped her pacifier out the side of the truck about 10 feet away from two male lions. It was even funnier when Andy and Reena asked our driver Wilson if we could somehow get it. Wilson backed up the vehicle until all he had to do was open his door and bend down and pick it up…he wasn’t taking any chances. Smart man…
Lastly, God continues to work in me through reminders of the fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control (Galatians 5)
P.S. We marveled at our God and his awesome creation this weekend while we are away…the land was beautiful and the creatures were amazing (see photo)
So, ok, it does just so happen that I am pretty fast at typing (piano lessons and Typing Maniac have seen to that). Still, I was excited to help someone improve their typing skills….because that is what I misinterpreted that I would be doing the next day when I went in to help.
As it turned out, Florence didn’t want help with her typing skills, instead she needed help to type her project in Social Work/Community Health. So, for three days and a total of 8 hours when all was said and done, I typed, proof-read and formatted her 56 page thesis project. (Yes, even though this blog is fraught with mistakes, I do know how to proofread - the blog didn’t get such careful attention because I was afraid our internet would go out before I could get it up and out to folks…)
Typing her thesis project wasn’t a glorious job, but I have to admit, I loved reading about her project as I typed…she went out into the community and did several projects with families and small organizations to increase income generating activities among people who had very little income and she worked with others on time management. She also did several case studies where she worked with orphans or children in homes of abuse. It was fascinating. Florence told me today when we completed her project that she had scheduled 3 weeks for what took us 3 partial days to complete. She is now free to continue in other community projects.
So despite my unmet expectations (although they were flexible expectations…they were still there and unmet), I felt useful and learned a lot about struggles that are common among local communities. Maybe I will still be able to get out into the communities in the next couple of weeks, but maybe not at all and I am ok with that. The Lord knows the plans He has for me…I don’t need to know them…I just need to be faithful in what I am given to do. I am willing to bet that if Community Health has more typing that needs to be done while I am here, they will call me. And that work would be welcome.
On other things, there are some opportunities to get up to the nursery at the hospital to help feed two sets of triplets that are there and need assistance during feeding times. I’m hoping to do that sometime on Thursday or Friday, but if it doesn’t happen, that will be fine. For the next couple days, other than my regular mother/house duties, I will be watching Arathena some so that Reena can go up to the hospital and do some Occupational Therapy duties. I kind of think of our situation as job-sharing.
Also, Adam has a lecture to give to the Kenyan residents up at the hospital tomorrow, so please pray that this goes well. I am still working on getting an update from Adam for this blog regarding his work in the hospital and have been assured that it is coming. But if you can, please pray that this lecture goes well and that there is lots of participation from the residents.
We also were able to go out to the Maasai Mara this past weekend (Tenwek arranges a weekend away for all those staying for one month) and it was our time to go. We had a great time and the kids did really well despite the super bumpy off-roading of the safari drives. The most hilarious thing that happened was when Arathena dropped her pacifier out the side of the truck about 10 feet away from two male lions. It was even funnier when Andy and Reena asked our driver Wilson if we could somehow get it. Wilson backed up the vehicle until all he had to do was open his door and bend down and pick it up…he wasn’t taking any chances. Smart man…
Lastly, God continues to work in me through reminders of the fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control (Galatians 5)
P.S. We marveled at our God and his awesome creation this weekend while we are away…the land was beautiful and the creatures were amazing (see photo)
Wednesday, April 7, 2010
Long-in-coming Africa update
March 28th & 29th
Travel to Tenwek
Four checked bags (filled to capacity including over 120 diapers), 1 carry-on suitcase, 1 carry-on hiking backpack, 1 baby backpack carrier, 1 diaper bag, and 1 gigantic car seat… Amazingly, travel through the airports with all of our carry-on luggage was relatively easy.
Our flights were all on-time and we had some difficulty with Eli’s ticket because it was an electronic ticket. Apparently on Delta, for an infant traveling under 2, they require a paper ticket…since our reservations were made through Northwest (while it still existed), an electronic ticket was acceptable. Since Northwest no longer exists…the electronic ticket was not acceptable. So in Minneapolis, we spent a little over an hour at the ticket counter waiting to get our boarding passes (fortunately we got there with plenty of time), however they were unable to give us boarding passes for our flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi. The ticket agent told us to go to the KLM Transfer station at the Amsterdam airport to get our boarding passes and that everything should be fine with that. Sure..ok,…no problem…we can do that.
We arrive in Amsterdam after our lovely overnight 8 hour flight (Eli had a hard time getting to sleep and was a bit fussy, but truly, it was not that bad…)…and we go to the Transfer Station to get our boarding passes…they have a number system (like at the deli counter in a grocery store…) we asked an agent there assisting people in getting numbers if we were in the correct place to do what we needed to do. She said yes and printed us a number. There were 4 agents assisting those with numbers and each time one became available…we heard a ding and the number changed. Agent 1- at A068, Agent 2- at A067, Agent 3- at B124 (how do you even get a B number?), Agent 4- at A070…our number…A0005. Hmmmmmm, well if the lines go quickly, we should be able to make our flight…after all my watch indicated it was 7:45 Amsterdam time and our flight isn’t until 10:10am. 45 minutes goes by and I strike up a conversation with the women next to me because I am getting concerned since the numbers were now as follows: Agent 1- at A077, Agent 2- A067, Agent 3- at B125, Agent 4- at A078. Just to make sure of the time, I asked the woman what time she had and she said it was 9:30am. Um…really…that is an hour later than I thought it was. At this point, Adam and I talked and decided we would try to go to the gate our plane was departing from…the only problem was that at some of their gates they have security before you can get into the specific gate area and you need a boarding pass to get to the ticket agent. We decided to try. We got to the gate and there was an agent outside the security area that we went to and explained our situation. She said ok and bumped us to the front of the line to get through security. We got through and the security agent opened my passport pouch to review my passport and boarding pass and even though there was no boarding pass she passed us through. We asked the agent scanning boarding passes about our situation and she said, to hold on…she looked something up in the computer, printed us passes and said that we were in the bulk head (front of a section…more leg room) and asked if that was ok. We were thrilled…she printed the boarding passes and we were literally the first people on the plane. Eli slept a majority of this flight…Adam and I also were able to get some sleep.
In the Nairobi airport, we hurried to get to the customs line which was already about 30 people long. It was stifling hot…89 degrees and no air conditioner. We decided to take off Eli’s shirt since he is a warm boy and was starting to fuss. He was fairly happy after we took off his shirt but we had already waited 10 minutes and only 1 person had moved through the line. An airport official came by the end of our line and started herding people to another line in another room about 50 feet down the hallway. We were part of the herded group and ended up in another line that was about 20 people long. We waited an hour and there were still 10 people in front of us. Eli began fussing because it was 9pm Nairobi time and he was getting very tired. The people at the front of the line told us to go before them and everyone else in the line agreed. We got to the counter and the airport official quickly took care of Adam and Eli’s passport and told them to go before she was done with me. Apparently, fussing babies are not common or popular here in Kenya J. And I thought Eli was a good boy.
We got to the Mennonite guest house where we were staying that night and Eli, Adam and I slept the whole night through.
The next day (3/29), we traveled to Tenwek by van. We were expecting 4 hours of very bumpy dirt roads, and were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Tenwek a little over 2 hours and fairly nice paved roads later.
Thus ends my very detailed account of our travel to Tenwek, but as you can see…God’s hand was in it and providing small graces throughout our travel.
March 30th
First full day at Tenwek and Adam started right in at the hospital in the morning. I stayed home working on getting settled (groceries unpacked, luggage unpacked…gifts for missionaries organized, etc…) Something I love already is that all the doctors leave the hospital and come home for lunch at 1pm every day and stay at home for 1 hour. It makes for a great time to touch base with one another and I think helps to keep us connected. When I saw Adam today at lunchtime, he looked a little overwhelmed with how different things are here at the hospital. After lunchtime, I spent time with Reena (our friends from Pittsburgh who are also here for the month) figuring out our housing for the month. I hadn’t realized quite how labor-intensive the food making/housekeeping processes were here. In light of this, we decided to move the next day into an apartment that we could share (two couples each with one child) so that we could streamline all of our meals to be together. So…all of the things we had unpacked the night before and that morning, we repacked for moving the next day. Thus ends the first full day…
March 31st
This morning we finished packing up and at 9am, 6 Kenyans showed up at our apartment door and began hauling us from one side of the compound to the other. 5 of them were women and 1 was a man. The trek entailed several muddy roads and a couple of hills. It’s beautiful here by the way…more on that later. Anyway, several hours later, we were all moved to an apartment in closer proximity to the other long-term missionary homes. It poured outside and hailed quite a bit just as we were headed out to meet our husbands at the hospital Canteen for lunch (it is standard to have lunch every Wednesday at the hospital Canteen). We are about 30 miles south of the equator so everything here feels quite tropical. It rains every afternoon and everywhere you look you see green and lush trees and hills.
After lunch, we came back and worked on getting our kids down for naps to get them on schedule with Kenya time (8 hours time difference from Minnesota). We were successful in getting them to sleep and spent that time unpacking the rest of our things. Dinner time was spent at the guest house where we had our last provided meal with the other short-term workers (1-2 months in length). The kids didn’t last very long after dinner so we came home and all went to bed.
April 1st
Today was the first day that Milka (our Kenyan househelp) came. Here it is common and encouraged to get a house helper to help clean and sometimes cook because it helps to stimulate the economy and maintain and encourage relationships with local communities. We worked together in the morning to make homemade bread for our dinner and also worked on making homemade tortillas for lunch and future meals. Things were going quite well until the power went our around lunch time. We had been having constant rain and a section of the compound had issues with their generator. We were still able to do a bit of cooking since the stove is a gas stove, but ended up having to move all of our food that could spoil back into one of the guesthouse refrigerators so that it didn’t spoil since we didn’t get power back until the middle of the day on the 2nd. We made do with what we could and had a candle-lit dinner where all of us were together (Adam, me, Andy, Reena, Arathena and Eli). After dinner, we put the kids to bed and played Settlers by candlelight (a little down time J). The kids both slept through the night that night…praise the Lord!
April 7th
Elijah
Eli has been slowly adjusting to life here in Kenya. It has now been just over a week since we have been settled in a two bedroom apartment with our friends Andy, Reena and their daughter Arathena (almost 2 ½). This has been a bit challenging as both children are only children back in the States and are not used to sharing living space with other children that require parental attention. So, Eli, being the younger of the two, is trying to imitate Arathena is most things she does…unfortunately, this does include some not so fun new words like “mine” and “mommy, mommy” over and over, but for the most part, his imitation of her is sweet and I know that he will miss her after we get home to Minnesota. He has also revealed some passive aggressive tendencies because he has found out that just by pretending to touch Arathena’s arm he will get a strong reaction from her…so of course…he likes to push the limit on a regular basis. This has resulted in a bit more discipline and lots of mama/Eli heart to heart conversations. They are both improving I think as they learn how to live with each other and in a different culture than they are used to.
Elijah has also been quite a hit with the Kenyans we’ve seen since being here. I think that they like him because he is a super chubby, super white baby boy. When we went into the local village, Bomet this past weekend, we had one woman offer to purchase Eli from us (no, we didn’t ask how much), and another woman offer to trade her son Manuel for our son. I’m pretty certain they were joking…
Elijah also draws attention from the Kenyans sometimes just because Adam will carry him around in the backpack carrier on his back. It is not normal for men in this culture to carry the babies…everywhere you look, you can see women carrying around children in slings…never do you see a man carrying the baby. As we walked through Bomet, we drew open stares and open laughter from the Kenyans about this. No one seemed offended, it just struck them as hilarious. I’ve never experienced walking anywhere and being openly laughed at as we walk along.
Some of Eli’s favorite things to do here include going to “see the turtles.” One of the missionary families have three turtles as pets that roam around in the backyard. One of them is quite large (the size of a car tire). There are also a couple of dogs that are missionary pets but who have free reign of the missionary compound. Eli loves to run up and pet these dogs and they are very patient with his exhuberant hellos. Lastly, Eli loves to play bubbles outside which tends to draw the local Kenyan children (who are all so beautiful). They all run after the bubbles and try to pop them.
Overall, Eli is doing well here, but he still requires a lot of my time and energy (I’m not surprised). My time has predominantly been spent with him and on cooking meals for us, with just a few additional things here and there (playing piano for part of the Easter sunrise service, giving a voice lesson to one of the missionary kids, organizing sheet music for a couple of the missionary families, and doing some typing/proof-reading for the Community Health office.) I have been convicted that these things are still helpful and that I am still primarily here to be a support to my husband and I am still called to be a good mother to my child. I am still thrilled that we have this opportunity to be here and with all that we are learning and still have yet to learn. In fact…God is bringing to mind daily the fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control (Galations 5.)
Travel to Tenwek
Four checked bags (filled to capacity including over 120 diapers), 1 carry-on suitcase, 1 carry-on hiking backpack, 1 baby backpack carrier, 1 diaper bag, and 1 gigantic car seat… Amazingly, travel through the airports with all of our carry-on luggage was relatively easy.
Our flights were all on-time and we had some difficulty with Eli’s ticket because it was an electronic ticket. Apparently on Delta, for an infant traveling under 2, they require a paper ticket…since our reservations were made through Northwest (while it still existed), an electronic ticket was acceptable. Since Northwest no longer exists…the electronic ticket was not acceptable. So in Minneapolis, we spent a little over an hour at the ticket counter waiting to get our boarding passes (fortunately we got there with plenty of time), however they were unable to give us boarding passes for our flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi. The ticket agent told us to go to the KLM Transfer station at the Amsterdam airport to get our boarding passes and that everything should be fine with that. Sure..ok,…no problem…we can do that.
We arrive in Amsterdam after our lovely overnight 8 hour flight (Eli had a hard time getting to sleep and was a bit fussy, but truly, it was not that bad…)…and we go to the Transfer Station to get our boarding passes…they have a number system (like at the deli counter in a grocery store…) we asked an agent there assisting people in getting numbers if we were in the correct place to do what we needed to do. She said yes and printed us a number. There were 4 agents assisting those with numbers and each time one became available…we heard a ding and the number changed. Agent 1- at A068, Agent 2- at A067, Agent 3- at B124 (how do you even get a B number?), Agent 4- at A070…our number…A0005. Hmmmmmm, well if the lines go quickly, we should be able to make our flight…after all my watch indicated it was 7:45 Amsterdam time and our flight isn’t until 10:10am. 45 minutes goes by and I strike up a conversation with the women next to me because I am getting concerned since the numbers were now as follows: Agent 1- at A077, Agent 2- A067, Agent 3- at B125, Agent 4- at A078. Just to make sure of the time, I asked the woman what time she had and she said it was 9:30am. Um…really…that is an hour later than I thought it was. At this point, Adam and I talked and decided we would try to go to the gate our plane was departing from…the only problem was that at some of their gates they have security before you can get into the specific gate area and you need a boarding pass to get to the ticket agent. We decided to try. We got to the gate and there was an agent outside the security area that we went to and explained our situation. She said ok and bumped us to the front of the line to get through security. We got through and the security agent opened my passport pouch to review my passport and boarding pass and even though there was no boarding pass she passed us through. We asked the agent scanning boarding passes about our situation and she said, to hold on…she looked something up in the computer, printed us passes and said that we were in the bulk head (front of a section…more leg room) and asked if that was ok. We were thrilled…she printed the boarding passes and we were literally the first people on the plane. Eli slept a majority of this flight…Adam and I also were able to get some sleep.
In the Nairobi airport, we hurried to get to the customs line which was already about 30 people long. It was stifling hot…89 degrees and no air conditioner. We decided to take off Eli’s shirt since he is a warm boy and was starting to fuss. He was fairly happy after we took off his shirt but we had already waited 10 minutes and only 1 person had moved through the line. An airport official came by the end of our line and started herding people to another line in another room about 50 feet down the hallway. We were part of the herded group and ended up in another line that was about 20 people long. We waited an hour and there were still 10 people in front of us. Eli began fussing because it was 9pm Nairobi time and he was getting very tired. The people at the front of the line told us to go before them and everyone else in the line agreed. We got to the counter and the airport official quickly took care of Adam and Eli’s passport and told them to go before she was done with me. Apparently, fussing babies are not common or popular here in Kenya J. And I thought Eli was a good boy.
We got to the Mennonite guest house where we were staying that night and Eli, Adam and I slept the whole night through.
The next day (3/29), we traveled to Tenwek by van. We were expecting 4 hours of very bumpy dirt roads, and were pleasantly surprised when we arrived at Tenwek a little over 2 hours and fairly nice paved roads later.
Thus ends my very detailed account of our travel to Tenwek, but as you can see…God’s hand was in it and providing small graces throughout our travel.
March 30th
First full day at Tenwek and Adam started right in at the hospital in the morning. I stayed home working on getting settled (groceries unpacked, luggage unpacked…gifts for missionaries organized, etc…) Something I love already is that all the doctors leave the hospital and come home for lunch at 1pm every day and stay at home for 1 hour. It makes for a great time to touch base with one another and I think helps to keep us connected. When I saw Adam today at lunchtime, he looked a little overwhelmed with how different things are here at the hospital. After lunchtime, I spent time with Reena (our friends from Pittsburgh who are also here for the month) figuring out our housing for the month. I hadn’t realized quite how labor-intensive the food making/housekeeping processes were here. In light of this, we decided to move the next day into an apartment that we could share (two couples each with one child) so that we could streamline all of our meals to be together. So…all of the things we had unpacked the night before and that morning, we repacked for moving the next day. Thus ends the first full day…
March 31st
This morning we finished packing up and at 9am, 6 Kenyans showed up at our apartment door and began hauling us from one side of the compound to the other. 5 of them were women and 1 was a man. The trek entailed several muddy roads and a couple of hills. It’s beautiful here by the way…more on that later. Anyway, several hours later, we were all moved to an apartment in closer proximity to the other long-term missionary homes. It poured outside and hailed quite a bit just as we were headed out to meet our husbands at the hospital Canteen for lunch (it is standard to have lunch every Wednesday at the hospital Canteen). We are about 30 miles south of the equator so everything here feels quite tropical. It rains every afternoon and everywhere you look you see green and lush trees and hills.
After lunch, we came back and worked on getting our kids down for naps to get them on schedule with Kenya time (8 hours time difference from Minnesota). We were successful in getting them to sleep and spent that time unpacking the rest of our things. Dinner time was spent at the guest house where we had our last provided meal with the other short-term workers (1-2 months in length). The kids didn’t last very long after dinner so we came home and all went to bed.
April 1st
Today was the first day that Milka (our Kenyan househelp) came. Here it is common and encouraged to get a house helper to help clean and sometimes cook because it helps to stimulate the economy and maintain and encourage relationships with local communities. We worked together in the morning to make homemade bread for our dinner and also worked on making homemade tortillas for lunch and future meals. Things were going quite well until the power went our around lunch time. We had been having constant rain and a section of the compound had issues with their generator. We were still able to do a bit of cooking since the stove is a gas stove, but ended up having to move all of our food that could spoil back into one of the guesthouse refrigerators so that it didn’t spoil since we didn’t get power back until the middle of the day on the 2nd. We made do with what we could and had a candle-lit dinner where all of us were together (Adam, me, Andy, Reena, Arathena and Eli). After dinner, we put the kids to bed and played Settlers by candlelight (a little down time J). The kids both slept through the night that night…praise the Lord!
April 7th
Elijah
Eli has been slowly adjusting to life here in Kenya. It has now been just over a week since we have been settled in a two bedroom apartment with our friends Andy, Reena and their daughter Arathena (almost 2 ½). This has been a bit challenging as both children are only children back in the States and are not used to sharing living space with other children that require parental attention. So, Eli, being the younger of the two, is trying to imitate Arathena is most things she does…unfortunately, this does include some not so fun new words like “mine” and “mommy, mommy” over and over, but for the most part, his imitation of her is sweet and I know that he will miss her after we get home to Minnesota. He has also revealed some passive aggressive tendencies because he has found out that just by pretending to touch Arathena’s arm he will get a strong reaction from her…so of course…he likes to push the limit on a regular basis. This has resulted in a bit more discipline and lots of mama/Eli heart to heart conversations. They are both improving I think as they learn how to live with each other and in a different culture than they are used to.
Elijah has also been quite a hit with the Kenyans we’ve seen since being here. I think that they like him because he is a super chubby, super white baby boy. When we went into the local village, Bomet this past weekend, we had one woman offer to purchase Eli from us (no, we didn’t ask how much), and another woman offer to trade her son Manuel for our son. I’m pretty certain they were joking…
Elijah also draws attention from the Kenyans sometimes just because Adam will carry him around in the backpack carrier on his back. It is not normal for men in this culture to carry the babies…everywhere you look, you can see women carrying around children in slings…never do you see a man carrying the baby. As we walked through Bomet, we drew open stares and open laughter from the Kenyans about this. No one seemed offended, it just struck them as hilarious. I’ve never experienced walking anywhere and being openly laughed at as we walk along.
Some of Eli’s favorite things to do here include going to “see the turtles.” One of the missionary families have three turtles as pets that roam around in the backyard. One of them is quite large (the size of a car tire). There are also a couple of dogs that are missionary pets but who have free reign of the missionary compound. Eli loves to run up and pet these dogs and they are very patient with his exhuberant hellos. Lastly, Eli loves to play bubbles outside which tends to draw the local Kenyan children (who are all so beautiful). They all run after the bubbles and try to pop them.
Overall, Eli is doing well here, but he still requires a lot of my time and energy (I’m not surprised). My time has predominantly been spent with him and on cooking meals for us, with just a few additional things here and there (playing piano for part of the Easter sunrise service, giving a voice lesson to one of the missionary kids, organizing sheet music for a couple of the missionary families, and doing some typing/proof-reading for the Community Health office.) I have been convicted that these things are still helpful and that I am still primarily here to be a support to my husband and I am still called to be a good mother to my child. I am still thrilled that we have this opportunity to be here and with all that we are learning and still have yet to learn. In fact…God is bringing to mind daily the fruit of the Spirit: Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness, Self-Control (Galations 5.)
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