Some Final New Experiences: From Arrows to Weddings

This past Thursday, I spent my first full day with the eye team when I discovered that they were taking a trip out to the Mau forest area to set up a clinic. We packed eight of us into a Land Rover and drove an hour and a half to a small governmental clinic. I helped to do the first stage of the clinic: a general visual exam, where we put a letter chart up on a concrete wall and approximated their vision, just like we do in the US. For the illiterate, we had one side of the chart that simply had a "W" turned different ways, and they had to indicate which was the letter was pointing. After we recorded vision numbers and any complaints or remarks, the patients went to see the ophthalmologist to receive reading glasses, medications, or a referral to Tenwek if their situation was very severe. I also had my first true Kenyan toilet experience: the restrooms are stalls with concrete flooring covered in gunk and a hole in the middle for toilet usage. Fun stuff!

Helping with visual exams! At this point, I was in charge of covering each eye so that no pressure was applied to it, and writing down vision assessments.

Friday, I was back in the OR for most of the day because I'd heard about a few interesting cases going on. The first was a two year old who was born without a normal rectum opening (called an imperforate anus); as an infant, he had a colostomy (where his large intestine is cut and the two ends are brought outside the body to act as a bathroom device), but now that he had reached the potty-training age, the surgeons were going in to basically re-create his rear end and, eventually, will reverse the colostomy. That afternoon, I got to scrub in on a thyroidectomy (thyroid removal) and help to hold retractors, cut sutures, etc. This woman's thyroid gland was almost as big as my two fists put together! As we were finishing that case, we heard that there was a new patient in Casualty who needed surgery immediately: he had been shot with an arrow in his abdomen! As the doctors wheeled the young man into the OR, I learned that the man's father had given a lump sum of cattle to him and his older brother to split amongst themselves. Our patient's share was 73 cattle, but when he only received 72 (and because he was Maasai, which makes cattle extra important to him), he got in an argument with his brother, who shot him. One of the Kenyan surgical residents joked that at least the arrow wasn't poisonous, since Maasai warriors will dip their arrow tips in poison before shooting outsiders. This arrow, however, was metal, several inches long, and had pierced his large intestine! I suppose the poison would have certainly made it worse, but like the patient humorously informed me when he was brought into the OR, he definitely "had a problem."

Here's the arrow, after its removal! How would you like that thing stuck your abdomen for several hours? No, thank you!

Yesterday was another first for me: I attended a Kenyan wedding! The Japanese surgical nurse, Anna, knows the pastor at the church where the wedding was being held, and she invited me to come along. The ceremony was supposed to begin at 10am and even though we arrived around 11, we were still the first guests there! We were invited to eat lunch with the pastors in attendance, which comprised of ugali (the staple Kipsigis food, made of crushed corn and water), cooked boga (a bitter wild green), and mursik (traditional Kipsigis "yogurt"; they mix fresh milk with ash and then let it sit out for a few days. All I could do was try it because it tastes like lumpy, very bitter yogurt). After lunch, I realized how completely packed the church was: there were a few hundred people inside, with another hundred outside, looking in door ways and windows, or just listening to the speaker on the lawn. The wedding started after 1, with fifteen or so bridesmaids and almost as many groomsmen parading through the front of the church and then walking back out to bring in the bride, in her poofy satin dress, extra long veil, and tiara with a heart that flashed pink lights) and groom. The wedding then showed some similarities to American weddings: the exchanging of vows and rings, led by the pastor. The couple also signed their marriage certificate, which the bride traditionally tucks in the groom's pocket, and then they knelt in front of the altar while their family prayed over them. While the pastor was giving his concluding sermon for the couple, we had to slip out because it had started to rain and the roads would be impossible to drive on if we waited long!

The bride's parents giving their final words before handing their daughter over to the groom.

We made it back safely, and this morning I attended my last church service at Tenwek, which I'm certainly going to miss. Then a few of us hiked up to Silibwet, a town about 1.5-2 miles away from the hospital, and looked around the market and stores for a while. We got caught in some rain on our way back and got a bit wet and exceptionally muddy on the dirt roads, but it was great to make one last hike there before I leave this week!

Beaches, Toddlers, and Mudding in Africa

Just got back from a wonderful week at the beach! Every year, the World Gospel Missions (WGM) missionaries across Kenya take a week-long retreat together at Turtle Bay near the coastal city of Malindi, and they asked me to come along to work in the nursery. So I road with a few Tenwek missionaries to Nairobi on Wednesday morning and spent the afternoon and evening with the Tenwek pediatrician, Dr. Bemm, and his family (they have seven children-and four are adopted and all under the age of 5) in the city. We were also able to go out to a fabulous Indian restaurant downtown (there is a decent amount of Indian influence here), and then we all flew out to Malindi (which would have been a nine hour drive from Nairobi) Thursday morning.

Stepping off of the plane was a shocker because it's probably fifteen degrees hotter and much, much more humid on the coast compared to at Tenwek, even though they're approximately at the same latitude. But the resort we stayed at way directly on the gorgeous beach, which kept cool breezes and scenic views coming our way. I somehow managed to get my own room overlooking the pool and ocean, which was such a fabulous treat. The missionaries had a special speaker come in and held sessions in the morning and evening, so I worked with five very active 1-2 year olds from 9am-1pm and then watched the Bemms' three littlest kids (all around the age of two) at night so both parents could attend the evening sessions. I was super blessed to have an awesome co-teacher named Annette who is in her 30's and has four children of her own, and brought tons of crafts, snacks, Bible stories, and games for us to use during the week. Then late at night, Annette and I went to hang out with her parents who were leading the senior high group, and played games with them on the beach.

Working hard, obviously! This is pretty much what my weekly morning in Malindi looked like.

Our afternoons, between lunch and dinner, were totally free and I took full advantage of the ocean, beach, and pool. There were several dukas (stores) along the beach, which were fun to walk through and look at. We actually rented a matatu (the mini-vans used for public transportation here) and packed a huge group of us into the vehicle and drove to downtown Malindi to walk around and shop. Another big difference between Tenwek and Malindi was the religion: Tenwek is surrounded almost completely by Christians, while the coast is heavily populated by Muslims. On the way back from Malindi to the resort, I was able to share my faith with our Muslim drive and talk about why I was a Christian...only to have him tell me about his wife and newborn daughter, and proceed to continuously ask me out and explain that polygamy is well-excepted is Africa. Yeah, definitely a new experience. Hopefully some of the things we talked about with regards to my faith stuck with me!

The gorgeous beach-front view of the Indian Ocean from my reading chair! And yes, that's a camel on the beach; the owner was giving visitors rides along the seashore.

Now I'm back at Tenwek and already plugged into some new experiences here! Today, I went with a group of twelve or so other visitors to mud a house! Tenwek's Community Health and Development department does a really awesome job of identifying the most needy families in different districts and helping to mud houses, provide school fees and uniforms for, and do health check-ups on them. So today we worked with a family who were taking in two orphans whose mother had recently died from AIDS complications, and were expanding their house to accommodate the new children. Typically, the men build the stick-structure and roof for the house, and the women do the mudding, but we had some men from Community Health helped to show us how to dig up, add water, and mix it with our feet. We stripped our shoes off, jumped into the mud pile, and grabbed handfuls of mud to shove and smear between the stick columns that the house. We put the first/interior mud layer on, but the family must wait for three days for it to dry before applying the next layer; they usually apply 3-4 layers of mud before the house is complete, with the final coat being mixed with cow dung, which acts as an insect-repellent. After our work, we had bread and chai (tea) with the family, neighbors, and church members, and then the family and community leaders introduced themselves and showed their very generous gratitude to us before we each stood up and spoke to the group.

Three of our project team members and me after we finished mudding the housing addition directly behind us.

I'm quickly approaching the end of my time at Tenwek, which is seriously staggering. I cannot believe that after two months here, God is still providing a solid community for me to be a part and new adventures to be included in. The Kenyans continue to amaze me with their generosity and incredible commitment to their Christian faith; the fact that an already impoverished family would take in two orphans in addition to their other children is amazing. When I spoke to the group, I shared the following verse with them:

Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:

to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself

from being polluted by the world. ~James 1:27

I've never seen truer religion than what I have witnessed and been a part of here in Kenya. And it's my prayer that it will inspire and change me in a way that will never leave me the same as before, even when I venture back to my home and routine in the US.

Masai Mara Memories

My mom and I were beyond blessed to spend three days and nights at the luxurious Fairmont Mara Resort this past weekend. We left Tenwek on Good Friday morning and pulled up to the Fairmont around noon to be greeted by a fully-adorned Maasai warrior who took our luggage, a tray full of peppermint-scented towels, and glasses of fresh-squeezed mango juice as we were ushered into the main lodge. That place is absolutely spectacular, and the only way we were able to go is because the owner loves Tenwek and gives its workers a super great deal on their stay at his resort. It's totally decorated in gorgeous dark-wood, earthly tones with a huge deck looking over a river running through Maasai land that's filled with hippos. The lodging is the coolest part: my mom and I had our own private "tent" that's decked out in Maasai colors with a gorgeous bathroom and deck, and is right on the edge of the hippo-filled river; so you go to sleep hearing hippos snorting and splashing the river 40 feet or so below you!

Mom posing by the bed in our fabulous tent.

The river right below our tents, scattered with hippos.

After a fantastic lunch on the deck between the pool and river, we went on our first game drive that afternoon. Each day you have a 6:30-8:30am game drive and then a 3:30-6:30pm drive.; so we went on a total of six drives. Our driver, Jeremiah, had been working at the Fairmont for fifteen years and was from the Maasai tribe; so basically, he was a total pro! We had a wonderful group from Tenwek with us: my mom and me, a visiting retired Tenwek missionary, as well as an anesthesiologist and his son were there the first night; then the missionary left on Saturday, and we added to our group a gastroneurologist, his wife, and an anesthesiologist from another Christian hospital (Kijabe) in Kenya. Despite the fact that I had to get up at 5:45am, the morning drives were my favorite: I woke up to fresh Kenyan coffee and delicious hot chocolate, wrapped myself up in a Maasai blanket in our land rover, watched the sunrise glide above the nearby hills and slowly drench the mara planes in its colorful light, and saw some incredible animal sights. The "ultimate goal" of a safari is to see the "Big 5," or the (potentially) most dangerous and sought-after safari animals: lion, rhino, elephant, cape buffalo, and (the rarest) leopard. And we were able to see them all, which is pretty rare! Sunday afternoon, we spotted a pride of seven lions and got within 20 feet of them all clumped together on a rock; the beauty and power were just incredible! Monday morning, we spotted a leopard about thirty feet outside of the resort's gates, which even our driver was surprised about because they're so difficult to spot! We saw numerous zebras, giraffes, elephants (my favorite animal), hyenas, Thompson gazelles, impalas, a few cheetahs, and lots of other animals. It's incredible to see the animals in their beautiful natural habitat, interacting with each other.

Zebras on the Masai Mara on our first morning safari drive.

Our first lion spotting! This was a three-year-old male lion walking by himself; our driver said most of these guys look for a pride of lions to challenge the lead lion and take over the group.

Giraffes on the road to the resort!

Our second cheetah spotting! This female actually had her cub with her as well.

My favorite elephant spotting! The baby elephant in this video is less than a month old. So precious!

It was certainly a very unique Easter weekend! It was wonderful to be able to read parts of the Easter story each day with my mom on our deck looking out on the river, and enjoy the gorgeous creation that our Father has restored to Himself through sending His son to die in our place and bridge the gap to allow us to have a relationship with Him. On top of all the beautiful nature, we were able to glimpse into the Maasai culture; every evening, we had a cultural event before dinner. One night it was a Maasai warrior who talked about his tribal culture and major trademarks, another it was several Maasai warriors dancing and jumping (one of the traditional ways for Maasai warriors to show their strength and impress the ladies) in their traditional attire. We also visited a Maasai village in the middle of the mara plains and their chief's son led us on a tour of their homes, cattle pens, and crafts market.

The Maasai warriors (back left) and women welcoming us into their village.

Sadly, my mom had to depart on Monday to go back to the US, and I'm back at Tenwek, unpacking and re-packing to head off to Nairobi tomorrow morning! I'm going to the Kenyan coastal town of Malindi for the annual long-term Kenyan missionaries' retreat. I'm so excited about spending a week on the Kenyan beaches and having a retreat with the Lord in Africa!

Kenya-ing and Tenwek-ing with Mom

It's late at night here in Kenya, and my mom and I are getting ready to leave for our three-night safari at the Masai Mara tomorrow morning before she leaves to go back to the States on Monday. I'm so excited! For the past month, I've heard rave reviews about the place we're going and the safaris we're going on, and now we finally get to experience them!

My week with my mom continued on Monday and Tuesday with medical ward rounds (which is basically the in-patient area for internal medicine). Since my mom is an internist, we both decided that was a good place in the hospital to start. Before rounds, the team of interns, residents, and doctors always sit down for chai and mandazis (pastries similar to donuts, but without a sugar coating) to review patients, have an educational case, and split up the rounding work; it's a wonderful time to talk, relax, and get to know the other people you're serving with. I hadn't rounded with the internal medicine team yet, so it was really interesting to see the adult in-patient area and to observe my mom in action as she chatted with the new interns, visiting and long-term physicians, and patients. I'm so proud of my mom and how great she was at communicating with patients and proposing diagnoses and treatments to the doctors! I think the biggest shock for both of us was the amount of AIDS in the in-patient area: I've heard that about 8% of Kenya's population has AIDS, but I would say that 75% or so of our patients had been diagnosed with it. On top of that, they had tons of complications: the majority of which were tuberculosis and cryptococcal meningitis (a fungal infection of the membranes covering the brain and spinal cord). Basically, the patients are really, really sick and sometimes there isn't much you can do to help them. But you do have a huge chance to love on and be a light of encouragement to these patients, which is the big optimistic side of medical wards.

Then Monday and Tuesday afternoons, we went to theatre (the OR) to watch some surgeries; again, it was really awesome to have my mom there because she definitely had a better understanding of the cases we saw. On Monday, we were visiting a patient who was just brought in for an enlarged, benign thyroid lobe (called a goiter, from a lack of dietary iodine) that had been growing for ten years, but was now obstructing her breathing; she was breathing very well with an oxygen mask at first, but suddenly, she started gasping for air and almost "coded," as my mom said. So we rushed her to an OR, and we had over fifteen surgeons, nurses, and techs running around to prep the room; and in the midst of all this, my mom got to scrub in and assist with the surgery! The surgeon said the growth was the biggest goiter he had ever seen (about the size of a grapefruit!). I think both of us really enjoyed theatre because of all the fascinating cases we were able to see at Tenwek: orthopedic surgeries on broken arm and leg bones as well as general surgeries on the abdomen, neck and head.

My mom helping with the goiter surgery!

Mom with the enormous goiter!

Together in the OR :)

Wednesday, my mom and I went out with the Hospice group to three different patients' homes. The first patient had AIDS and was dying from some type of abdominal cancer; her 11 year old daughter had also just been diagnosed with AIDS, and her father had abandoned them when he found out the woman was pregnant. But her sister was taking wonderful care of the woman, and we were able to comfort her with Scripture and I got to pray with her as well. The second was a beautifully kind woman named Grace, who was dying of gastric cancer, but had the most wonderful peace and joy in her attitude: you could tell she was a Christian, even though we didn't speak the same language. We discovered that she participated in one of the Tenwek missionary's Bible study programs, and had earned her Bible through the missionary's program of memorizing and quoting 17 verses to receive a personal Bible. Our last patient was actually Tenwek's Hospice's longest patient ever: he had been with them for almost three years! When my mom asked our nurse, Fredrick, if he was a Christian, he said that he had continually avoided it and had never been willing to make up his mind. So my mom remarked that maybe he had been on Hospice for three years in order to continually give him a chance to accept Christ as his Savior. Well, wonderful news! My mom and I were able to lead both the patient and his wife to becoming new Christians on that visit, and gave them a Kipsigis Bible as well! God is so, so good!! We walked them through salvation and how to continue growing in their faith and get connected with a local church, so I'm really excited to welcome two new believers into our heavenly family!

With Abraham and his wife, the two new Christians! So awesome! 

From left to right: me, my mom, Abraham, Fredrick (the Hospice nurse), Abraham's grandchild, Abraham's wife, Abraham's niece).

Today was my mom's last day at Tenwek, so we spent our morning hiking around the river and nearby homes, and actually ran into with two people we had met at the tent church we attended on Sunday! One was an wonderfully joyful, elderly man named Joel, who knew the first missionaries at Tenwek, helped build the dam at Tenwek and whose father was the first pastor in the Kipsigis area. He's an amazing man! We very soon ran into Lillian, a mother of five whose husband abandoned her recently; she has been living in a filthy, 5ft x 5ft apartment with her children, one of which has AIDS. Yet earlier this week, we were able to find a new, private home for her and her family nearby, which my mom decided to help to pay rent for! Plus, one of the missionaries set Lillian up to attend a tailoring school so that she will have a profession that will enable her to earn an income to support her family! So seeing Lillian and hearing all about her excitement and thankfulness for her new home is so wonderful; she had already completely moved in the last couple of days! My mom and I were also able to give her some toys and fruit for her children.

And finally, this evening, we went to Umoja Children's Home to host an Easter celebration for the orphans there; one of the missionaries shared the Easter story with the kids, and then we passed out cookies, cupcakes, and punch. My mom and I also brought jump ropes, kickballs, footballs, and some art supplies (crayons and coloring pads-thanks to my dear, thoughtful friend, Nicole Lively!!), which the kids went craaazy about! They don't have any toys (they make toy balls to kick and throw around out of plasic bags and dirt), so they were jumping and running around everywhere with their new treasures! The children here are so wonderful; they're joyful and excited about the smallest details, and it was so much fun being able to give and serve them in a simple way!

The adorable orphans, singing a worship song for us visitors.

The orphans checking out the toys and gifts we brought!

Karibu, Mama! (Welcome, Mom!)

My mom is here in Kenya! She arrived yesterday afternoon, and it's been so much fun to show her around. We took a walking tour of the hospital in the middle of a rainstorm, but I was able to show her all of the different departments and where I have been working. It was really cool to show her the general medical wards area, which is the department Mom works in at home; hopefully this week, we'll be able to go on rounds through that area and a few others. We've taken a few walks to the river and dam, and around the farms nearby, and between the rainstorms, the weather has been beautifully breezy and cool. Today, we also went to the small tent church I attended previously, and it was wonderful to share part of my family with the families I had already met there. It means so much to be able to share my experiences with someone else in person!

This week, I ventured out with Hospice for the first time, and absolutely loved it! It sounds a bit depressing: you go to dying individuals' homes and check up with them, even though there's usually nothing you can do to help them improve, but it ended up being so much more than that. We packed five of us into a jeep: our driver, a super joyful and helpful nurse (Fredrick), a chaplain (Jane), a visiting family doctor's wife (Barbara), and me, and visited three different homes that day. Hospice is so neat because you get to enter into the patients' daily life and living circumstances, meet their families, and intentionally love on them and pour into them spiritually. The first patient had extensive thyroid cancer, and her husband had dementia, so he apparently continues to struggle with his wife's illness, even after the nurse and his family have explained it to him several times. The second had esophageal cancer, which is one of the most common diseases seen here for some reason (I'm actually helping with a research project on this here as well). Both families were incredibly hospitable: always offering to make us chai and lunch, pulling out chairs for us, and continually thanking us for our help. And I got to share a few verses and pray with the patients too, which is one of the most special things you can ever do with a person. One of the verses sets that I memorized this year was perfect for our second patient:

Therefore, we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes, not on what is seen, but what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal. ~2 Cor 4:16-18

Fredrick with our first patient, examining the extent of her thyroid cancer. In the background is the family chicken coop!

Barbara and Jane sharing some encouragement with our second patient.

We discovered, upon arrival, that our last patient had actually just passed away; her granddaughter was having trouble staying in the same room as us because she kept breaking down in tears. Hospice usually holds a bereavement service for these families, but when we discovered her church was coming that afternoon to hold one (it's so awesome to see the body of Christ caring for each other!), we decided to just pray with them. Before I left, I reached over to the granddaughter and hugged her...and she absolutely broke down in tears, clinging to me. So I held her while she sobbed and all I could do was pray for her as I realized that there are some things, like grief, that the entire human race can relate to, and nothing on this world can help such an emotion as well as the companionship and compassion of another. That's part of why Christ built us for community. And it was such a blessing to look down at that young woman as we both wiped away our tears and hear her whisper, "Thank you."

Friday, I had the chance to go to a school to hold a mini-devotion time with the kids and do a few routine health-checks. We first divided up into groups, and I got to talk to the kids about what it means to be a Christian, how to grow in your faith, and why we pray and read the Bible: simple yet vital principles. I kept telling the kids one of my favorite verses for youth, and one of the prayers for my heart:

Do not let anyone look down on you because you are young, but be an example for other 

believers in your speech, behavior, love, faithfulness, and purity. ~2 Timothy 4:12

Then we lined the kids up and handed out de-worming pills, which can be really common from the water here. One of the pediatricians taught me how to perform tinia capitus (head fungus) and skin disease checks, so I got to look through a classroom and do mini-physicals on them, which was so fun! The kids are so adorable and fun-loving, despite the fact that many are sick, filthy, and wearing rags for clothes; it just makes you so grateful and eager to simplify your life and re-examine your priorities. I'm continually amazed at how much the people and culture are teaching me here!

Passing out the de-worming pills to all of the school kids.

Performing tinia capitus and skin checks on "class 1" kids.

Then this weekend, right before my mom arrived, I hiked Mount Motigo again with a few other visitors; it's the highest elevation in the Tenwek area (which is saying something because Tenwek is at 6700 feet above sea level). It takes about three hours to complete, but the view at the very top of the hill is absolutely spectacular; you have a 360-view of the entire area, including Tenwek and a couple nearby towns. There is also a family who owns the land on the top of the hill, and both times I've gone, they've completely opened up their home for us to see and have persistently invited us inside for chai (tea) or a meal. The hospitality and community-focused attitude here is so wonderful and inviting, and I've really enjoyed all of the hiking and walking I've been able to do in the beautiful terrain here.

Almost to the top of Mount Motigo!

Settling Down and Reaching Out

Even though it's been several days, I still remember the wonderful start to my previous week. The three PA students from UK and I went to dinner at Dr. Spear's house, and although I'm not the biggest fan of Mexican food, the enchiladas she made seriously tasted like heaven! I realized that despite our wonderful cooks at the guest house, I miss American food! It was also really awesome to hear Dr. Spear's background and testimony, and to have freshly-baked brownies on her beautiful thatched-roof back porch, surrounded by chains of tiny white lights, beautiful flowers, and the bright Kenyan sky. And after dinner, the guest house hosts, Dolly and Vince, had organized a special movie night in honor of our newly-arrived Velveeta cheese dip from the States, so my night was full of long-lost American food treasures. Plus, after the movie, I got to talk to my family for the first time in over two weeks on the phone! It was so encouraging just to hear their voices and to get updated on family life back in Kentucky.

This is from the very beginning of my trip in Nairobi with Dr. Spears at the Giraffe Park.

This past week has been full of some major changes in the people I'm around; almost all of the visitors who were here when I arrived have left, and now there's a totally different group of people here. I'm getting the feel for what the missionaries go through with all the new visitors; it's weird being on my own and having to start relationships over, but God has always provided a community for me. The day my three PA school friends left is the same day I found out my mom is coming to visit me at Tenwek for a week!! I am beyond excited to see someone from my family; I think going through all of these community changes and not having the constant presence of my family, which I'm used to, is very different and has definitely taught me to rely on my Lord even more.

Several homes and gardens beside Tenwek Hospital.

The Tenwek Guest House, where I've been living! With lots of college pride hanging from the windows and balconies. 

The dam and hydroelectric plant by Tenwek; it's only a 10 minute walk from the guest house.

This weekend, we spent nearly all of Saturday at an orphanage with a very unique and intentional plan for our time with the kids there. One of the women visiting Tenwek discovered that when Kenyan girls hit puberty, many would have to miss school for their "monthly episodes" and get so behind that they would have to drop out; so she came up with a brilliant plan to sew reusable fabric pads for girls, and to teach a few Kenyan women how to make them so that they could start up their own business. So the orphanage was our first trial run of the project; we held a Bible study with both the boys and girls there and talked about the story of David and Bathsheba, and the importance of resisting sin, especially when it comes to purity. Then we split up the genders, and I helped show the girls how to put together, use, and wash their "sani-pads"; we gave each girl a package of five pads to use. Then I was able to encourage them as a single, Christian 21 year old to put God first and education second, and to keep purity as a priority in life. After that, we got to play with the kids, and had a traditional Kenyan lunch (with chai, of course!) with the couple that runs the orphanage. The kids' favorite thing to do? Play with my long, blonde hair; I had about fifteen girls gathered around me as they braided, twisted, pulled at my locks. We also asked for the orphans to give us any clothes they needed to be mended and ended up with two huge suitcases full of clothes! So I've been putting my mediocre sewing skills to use this week as well.

Yesterday, I road two hours in the covered-cab of a truck over rough dirt roads with Tenwek Community Health to help with an immunization/physicals clinic in the Mau forest; sadly, the forest is now only a few scattered trees, and we set up camp in a stick-and-mud, two-room building that also serves as a school and church. Because of the forest's destruction, the Kenyan government isn't allowing anyone to live in the area, so the building is a temporary structure and the women had to walk up to 10 km (6.2 mi) with their babies or pregnant bellies to get to our clinic! Absolutely incredible. I got to help give out oral polio vaccines, vitamin A pills, put together syringes, and hold babies while they received their immunizations. As our number of patients lagged, I went out to spend some time with the Kenyan women who were chatting while drinking chai and porridge in the grass (which they, of course, continually offered me because hospitality is such a vital part of the Kenyan culture). Their English and my Kipsigis (the area's tribal language) and Swahili were all very limited, but we managed to somewhat communicate through sign language, and they were really excited about my camera and the fact that they could see themselves on the screen afterwards. Unfortunately, we got a flat tire on the way back, so my day ended up being incredibly long, but thoroughly enjoyable.

Our community clinic on top of a mountain in the Mau forest.

Giving an oral polio vaccine to a baby at the clinic.

On top of all this, I've been beyond blessed to be able to watch my fabulous UK basketball team in the NCAA tournament! I'm surrounded by UNC, Kansas, Louisville, and Duke fans, but we all gather together in the guest house activity room with our bowls of popcorn to watch the games on the projector screen; sometimes we have to stay up really late or watch a recording, but I've been staying in touch with the US that way! Besides basketball, we've become pretty obsessed with the card game, Dutch Blitz; we'll often organize a game late at night when there isn't a game on. So I'm definitely having some competitive fun out here too!

Babies and Bibles

I saw my first baby delivery!! Friday, I spent my second day in OBGYN and was going on rounds with the attending and students, but kept running back to the delivery room because there were three women getting close to giving birth. Finally, one of the women, who had been induced to go into labor, had an ultrasound done...and the baby's heartbeat was over 200 beats per minute, which is really scary. So they rushed her to the adjacent OR to do an emergency C-section, and I ran after them, throwing on my cap and mask. It was the fastest surgery I've ever seen; after the mother was under anesthesia, it was only a few minutes before the uterus was cut open, and suddenly a head and body were pulled out, wrapped, and rushed away for emergency attention. It was absolutely incredible! The baby was over 10 pounds, which is huge for Kenyans (I was 10 lbs, 6 oz, so I have sooo much more respect for my mom after seeing that baby). My next goal? Be the one who delivers a baby!

One interesting thing about Kenya, which I noticed during the C-section, is the concept of "Africa time" and the importance of "chai time." The American sense of schedule and being on time is completely irrelevant here; things start when people show up, and everyone is so relaxed and relative about time. It creates a much less stressful and more relational environment, but it can be really difficult to deal with in a hospital. The Kenyans also typically take "chai" (tea with milk and sugar) breaks around 10am and 4pm every day; it's a time to socialize and relax, and even many of the hospital workers take their chai breaks. During the C-section, the scrub nurse actually took her chai break in the middle of the operation; she was standing in the doorway and joking around with her chai, and would leave the room for several minutes to join other chai-timers. That meant I was able to help out a lot more during the operation, but it was super different from US culture!

Today, I went to a really small church with a missionary couple and a few other visitor staffers; one of the missionaries is friends with a woman who lives by the river nearby, and we went to her home for chai and then walked to the service together. The church is so humble; it's literally several posts stuck in the ground with a cloth tarp hanging above it and wooden slabs for benches, and there were only 20 or so Kenyans there. But they had very considerately pulled out two cloth-covered couches in the very front for us visitors to sit on, and brought us bottles of water. The service was really easy-going; they sang, gave testimonies, sang some more, read from the Bible, etc. They asked us each to stand up and share who we were, and basically wanted us to give a small sermon about a Bible verse; they were so eager to continually make us feel welcome, and they were all so sweet and sincere towards us and their faith. I loved all three hours of it! I think the American church (definitely including me) can learn so much from the relaxed and welcoming mindset of the Kenyans and their continuous joy that flows from their relationship with Christ; it's beyond inspiring, and the beautiful community that their tiny church displayed was such a great picture of what the body of Christ should look like.