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.

Branching out in the Kenyan Community

Bright and early Tuesday morning, I crammed into the front cab of a truck with two men in their late 50's and several nurses in the back seats, and drove almost two hours to set up a community health clinic at a local school. Tenwek's community health program does these visits to schools and churches all over Kenya to provide baby immunizations, pregnancy checks, and AIDS awareness programs. As we drove up, a few hundred kids immediately recognized there was a mzungu (white person) in the truck, and started running after us and crowded around the truck door as I got out; the driver actually had to push them back because they were all trying to touch my pale skin and blonde hair. The kids were all yelling at me, asking my name and where I came from, and when I sat down, they all got quiet and stared...until I reached out my hand to shake another kid's hand, and then they immediately rushed forward and tried to do the same! It was so entertaining.

As for the clinic, we set up in one of the school rooms, and I helped weigh the babies and gave oral immunizations to them. We probably had almost a hundred moms and babies come through our clinic that day! One of the school teachers asked me to teach one of the classes that day, so I gave an algebra lesson to a large classroom, which was really fun. And on the way there and back, I got to talk to the two men for a while about lots of random things; their families, nursing backgrounds, how they became Christians, what America was like.

Yesterday was spent in the pre-surgery and surgery areas; I helped do a few biopsies on patients, one of which was on an 11 year old child with a huge mass extending from her armpit to her hip. Another was on a woman with a large forehead mass, and while I was waiting for our next case, I was able to pray with her, which she seemed so thankful for; the people in the hospital sincerely appreciate any individual attention and care you give them. Then I scrubbed in on some surgeries; my favorite of the day was a woman who had had some complications from a previous surgery which had caused her stomach to stretch to be at least four times as big as normal! I also got to try some traditional Kenyan food for lunch: stewed beans and rice with ugali (crushed corn soaked in water; it's the staple food of Kenya). It was really good, except for the ugali, which I'm not a big fan of...but the Kenyans eat it for every meal with different beans, veggies, and sometimes meat.

Then today was the last day of the visiting OB/GYN, so I followed him on rounds and did procedures with two of the PA students staying in the guest house with me. I've never been in the OB/GYN department, and especially in Kenya, you can see some crazy stuff. The first two rooms we went in were mostly women in labor; a few of them were sprawled out on the floor, groaning in pain, with some blood splattered on the floor. The delivery room was next to these rooms, and contained three beds divided by curtains; the women have absolutely no pain medications, which is absolutely amazing, and the nursing students do all of the normal deliveries. They basically just put on some scrub aprons and gloves, throw a sheet down on the table, and coach the women through the deliveries. There was an incubator by each bed, for newborns to be placed in, and I got to carry around twins that were only an hour old! I also almost saw my first delivery, but ran out of time, so hopefully I'll be able to see and assist on one tomorrow!

Even though I missed seeing my first delivery, it was for good reason; we crammed eight of us and a driver into a station wagon and drove a few miles to a nearby orphanage with 40 or so children. We jumped rope and tossed footballs with the kids outside, and they absolutely lit up at all of the attention. While I was turning the jump rope for some kids, a little 4-5 year old girl kept coming up to me with "gifts" of hula hoops or ropes, so I eventually gave my job to someone else, picked her up, and she pretty much stayed attached to me the rest of my time there! I wanted to take her back with me so badly; she was really sweet, but laughed so easily and basically stole my heart within a few minutes. When it was time for their dinner, the orphanage director gave us a tour of the cow and chicken stables that help support the orphanage, and the rest of the orphanage facilities, and then the children sang a few songs for us. We got to pray over them, and they chased our car down as we drove away. I really hope to go back there before I leave!

One Week!

I've officially been in Kenya for a week! I'm definitely starting to feel comfortable around here, now that my schedule is gradually being worked out and I'm getting to know the visiting staff/students and missionaries. There are so many things to do here, and I'm learning to be more assertive and take the initiative in signing up for different clinics and service projects, ask millions of questions to the doctors I'm working with, and intentionally building relationships with the people I'm around. I'm trying to branch out from surgery, even though I've loved that here, and see some different aspects of the hospital...and with my surgical sponsor being extremely busy (I've seen her only two or three times since we drove from Nairobi together), that means I have search out the doctors in charge of different hospital areas and set up my own schedule, which has been pretty cool.

Friday, I was initially supposed to go out to a village with Tenwek Community Health, an organization stationed beside the hospital that ventures out into villages and schools to teach about AIDS awareness and prevention, weighs and immunizes babies, gives basic health lessons, and teaches other simple yet vital skills for the benefit of Kenya's health standards. Yet their vehicle for the trip was booked at the last minute and the coordinators were planning on taking motor bikes out to the village instead (which neither the coordinators nor I felt comfortable with me doing), so I instead decided to shadow a doctor in the Casualty (ER) department for the day. It was somewhat of a slow day, but I was able to do some more hands-on procedures there, especially on motor vehicle-crash victims. But soon after I left, a man came in after being shot by an arrow. Yep, he had a huge barbed arrow sticking several inches into his chest (you could easily see it on the X-ray); he was stealing a Masai member's goat that was on his property, and apparently the Masai man didn't really like that...so he shot him with an arrow. Insanity. That definitely provided some great dinner conversation that evening.

After missing out on the tribal warfare, I spent my Saturday morning hiking to Silibwet, a small village located a few miles away from Tenwek, with a few other visitors. We walked most of the way along goat paths and passed numerous tea, sugar, and maize fields, and ended up in the middle of Silibwet's modest weekend market, with small stores full of fabrics and clothing, fresh fruits and vegetables, and lots of random trinkets. My favorite was the butcher shop, which boasted of having several skinned goats hanging in the front window at room temperature with flies swarming around them. Nearly everyone in the village stared at us in our white (or rather sunburned-pink) skin, and a few children came up in their raggedy clothing to shake our hands and gazed with wide eyes and giggled as our hands touched. At first I felt like a touring attraction, but now I've become more accustomed to it.

Sunday started with a church service with the missionary families and several Kenyans; the pastor preached on faith passages from Hebrews and Exodus, and it was really applicable to my current phase of life because I'm constantly praying about being able to trust God with my future and have faith that he will chose the best plan and work all things together for the good of His people (Romans 8:28) in His way, and His future plans aren't always visible to me, but I have to have faith in His character to know that His plans are far above and beyond mine. I was able to talk with a few other medical students about the service on our three-hour hike to the top of Mount Montigo after church, which took us through the beautiful, tall hills of southwestern Kenya and brought us to a breath-taking panoramic view of the geography we were serving in; you could see dozens of rolling mountains surrounding the peak we were standing on, with multi-colored farms and pasturelands that were pieced together like patchwork quilts on the hillsides. As we were gazing around us, a man came up from his house nearby to greet us and offered to let us come to his house, where his family was eating lunch; we toured his quaint two-room mud house with a rounded cooking room next door, and I was again struck by the incredible hospitality of the Kenyans.

Then today, I spent the day in the endoscopy procedure room with a retired gastroenterologist who seemed to love teaching-which was perfect, because I love to ask questions. I learned so much about the anatomy and procedures dealing with the GI tract, and was able to see and help with several endoscopies. I was also able to assist in a esophageal stent-insertion in a man with so much tumor growth in his esophagus that he couldn't swallow anything; and after an hour-long procedure, we gave him a cup of water, which he almost chugged in excitement and kept thanking us with an enormous grin on his face. It was so cool to see how medicine can provide such amazing help to a person and to witness the man's incredible gratitude and joy. Then tonight, I spent a few hours at a missionary's home for a prayer/worship night, which was so cool because I barely knew most of the people there, but because of our faith, we automatically share the same life foundation and can praise and pray together to the same Father. I also haven't really been in a small, Christ-focused meeting like that since I left the US and it was really encouraging to be surrounded by a group of believers who are living out the Great Commission in a super real way. So I'm definitely still meeting new people around Tenwek, but it's always a wonderful reminder to know that we're already a part of the same family and are serving the same purpose.

Theatres and Cows

I'm just starting my third full day of being here at Tenwek, and I'm getting really busy during the day, which is awesome! On Wednesday, I spent the entire day in the operating room-except Kenyans call it the "theatre" (it's the British term for it. And I love surgery-especially with all of the crazy cases that I've already seen. We have five surgery rooms that are all connected to a central storage room, so it's easy to scrub in and walk between the different rooms to see everything that's going on. Plus, I get to wear scrubs and a white lab coat and my badge around and look super official...as well as a mask and cap in the theatre. So, so awesome. I may become a surgeon just to wear the scrubs and caps; they're basically super comfortable, but super official sweatpants, which I think is brilliant. Anyways, I was able to watch surgeries on esophageal cancer, hydroseal, and salivary gland tumor patients. I haven't been able to do anything beyond retrieving supplies and opening sterile equipment (and I'm definitely not qualified to do more than that), but one of the residents asked me if I wanted to scrub into the sterile environment next week when it's less hectic, which I of course got really excited about.

The doctors here are incredible; they have the most sincere and loving hearts towards the patients, and are all so excited about what God is doing at Tenwek and are eager to let me learn about the surgeries and patients they are working with. I was able to do a few patient visits as well with some of the PA's, and that was really eye-opening. The beds are almost all full, with some patients doubled up in the surgery wards beds, and the rooms often smell of body odor and urine, but the patients are all so sweet. There is a twelve year old boy named Peter who the PA I am rooming with knows from her visit to another part of Kenya, and he is nearly blind, but just had an eye surgery, which was supposed to greatly improve his vision. He speaks very little English, but on Thursday, we stopped by twice to bring him milk and pray for him; and even though there's a huge language barrier and his vision is severely impaired, he still manages to smile when we talk with him. It's incredibly humbling and rewarding.

So yesterday (Thursday), besides visiting Peter, I was in theatre all morning to watch another esophageal cancer surgery (which apparently is one of the most common surgeries at Tenwek, and no one totally understands why that's such a problem here) as well as an ovarian mass and cist removal; the ovarian mass was fluid-filled and was seriously as big as my head...and the woman was only 23! After theatre, I went to lunch at one of the missionary families' homes, which is something that visiting medical staff get to do almost every week day, and it's really awesome! I ate at the home of a woman named Linda who had served for ten years as a nurse and single woman in the Congo, met her husband, and they have now served at Tenwek together for several years since then. She has started a Bible study that started with only a few women from surrounding villages, but has now reached thousands of women around Kenya; she writes the studies and translates them into Swahili and Kipsigis (the two main languages around Tenwek) with her housemaid and cook, and then teaches almost fifty leaders every month, who teach other women leaders and members in their villages, and the trend continues. They also have a program where the women have to memorize 17 verses and quote them all together, and then they receive a Bible; through this, over 5,000 women have received Bibles in Kenya! She also coordinates donation money from the US to go towards buying cows and metal roofs for homes of needy women in the Bible studies. My mind was blown at how much this woman has done for the Kingdom of God here in Africa.

And on top of this, I got to go to a cow dedication ceremony with her after lunch! I didn't realize how much of a bubble Tenwek is until this event. We crammed eight women into Linda's jeep and traveled thirty minutes on mostly unpaved roads to get to the home of a single mother with three children who had just received a cow purchased by a third grade classroom in the US. There were seriously 50-60 women there, along with two pastors of the churches represented by the groups and their families. When we first arrived on her small farm, the women sang and all lined up to hug us. We then went into the woman's small, two-room mud house for chai (tea with sugar and milk) and lunch (bread with butter); usually, chai is acceptable to drink because it's boiled (and it's pretty good), but I was a little worried about the lunch food...so I took a few bites and tore up the rest to make it appear that I had eaten more. The ceremony took place outside after we had finished our chai, and basically consisted of two hours of testimonies, encouragement, Bible readings, and singing. All of us white women were able to introduce ourselves and, since I was the only one who didn't mention a husband, a woman came up to me afterwards and told me that "There are men here!" and tried to make me agree to stay or at least come back (or so our translator told me). So glad they are concerned that I'm not married with four children, like another woman my age there was. And afterwards, they presented us with shawls as gifts, which broke my heart because these women are so poor and must have paid for those scarves with the pennies they had for food or other necessities. I cannot even express how grateful and welcoming they were; I was constantly being hugged and touched and smiled at and welcomed. The Kenyans have the most beautiful faith; every woman who spoke was so excited about her faith in Christ and continually wanted to express that to us. I can't wait to go to another village soon!

Arrival at Tenwek

Just arrived at Tenwek Hospital a couple of hours ago! I managed to get a grand total of two hours of sleep during my 22 hour plane saga, and was picked up by a driver from the guest house I was staying at in Nairobi from the airport. He said he knew I was his person to pick up immediately because I was smiling, and his "missionaries are always smiling." That was super cool to hear; just to know that I was still appearing to be happy and awake after all of that traveling, and to remember that I am a missionary here (and everywhere). Driving in Kenya is a bit crazy; there aren't any stop lights and people are constantly battling to squeeze several lanes into a narrow street or merge in and out of the roads, but no one uses their horn or seems to be rude about it. Traffic in Nairobi is not bad at night, but horrific in the morning. Also, nearly everyone speaks English in the city and all of the ad's, menus, etc. are in English. I know it's much less common in rural areas (they speak their tribal languages and sometimes Swahili around Tenwek), but it made getting around Nairobi really easy. Anyways, I slept for about four hours last night at the guest house and am only now seriously feeling exhausted from all of my traveling. But Carol, the surgeon I'm working with, picked me up from the guest house and took me out to breakfast at a local cafe. We then went to the baby elephant orphanage to see almost twenty elephants between the ages of four months and three years be fed and talked about by the reserve managers. It was so so awesome! The elephants were almost always within touching distance, and they were really playful, intelligent, and had distinct personalities. Definitely my favorite animal. The reserve managers have to spend the nights with them in order to prevent stress from the lack of parents, which have usually been killed by poachers and the babies are found wandering alone. On the reserve, I also spotted several baboon climbing in the trees, warthogs, and gazelles.

Next, we went to the giraffe preserve, where there was a sixteen foot tall mother and her two children at the gate, as well as numerous scattered around the preserve. And I got to kiss two of the giraffes! I know, so so exciting! People put a food pellet on their lips and then the giraffes come up and snatch it away with their tongue. The mother had a super long tongue, so that was kinda disgusting, but still really cool!

After that, we drove the 3.5 hours to Tenwek Hospital. On the way, we passed by Rift Valley, which is this huge sunken expanse of land that's absolutely gorgeous and inspired the Pride Rock scene of the Lion King...so obviously, I was incredibly excited to see it. We drove through so many diverse parts of Kenya; Nairobi has some incredibly rich neighborhoods, but also has one of the largest slums in the world. We drove past herds of cattle, baboons sitting on the side of the road, numerous small villages full of local shops and patched-together homes, and both plains and tree-covered hills. Tenwek is in the latter type of geography; it is so beautiful here. I arrived at the guest house with all of my stuff just in time for the communal dinner with twenty or so of the other hospital workers. There are three PA students from UK (I'm rooming with one of them) and our house mom is from Wilmore, which is awesome! So I'm getting ready to unpack and crash before I have to wake up early tomorrow to get a tour of the hospital and hopefully start some shadowing!

Prepping to depart for Nairobi!

It's official. I'm leaving the United States (and North America, for that matter) in fourteen hours. I finally finished my packing today (I'm and expert procrastinator) and am getting ready to spend my last night in the US for a couple months. Originally, I was supposed to leave a week ago, but after a few logistical problems and a few million emails, I delayed to leaving the day after my mom's 50th birthday, which turned out to be super cool. We got to use my departure as a cover up for her surprise birthday party and I was able to see my mom's entire family before I left the continent. So tomorrow, I'll be making my 22-hour flight to Nairobi alone, with two plane switches along the way, and will meet up with a driver who I've never met or talked to, but who will be holding a sign with my name on it by my flight's terminal. Kinda weird and movie-esque, but i'll be able to meet the surgeon I'm going to be working with me next day. I'll spend the night in a guest house in the capitol city before meeting my host (Dr. Spears, a general surgeon at Tenwek Hospital) the next day to travel around the city and shop for groceries. Then we'll take the 200 mile trip  (which, because of the roads' conditions, usually takes about four hours) to Tenwek, which is near Bomet, Kenya. Basically, I absolutely cannot wait to be Kenya! After a year and a half of praying about working in a medical missions setting in this country, God has seriously given me the most amazing time to do so. This last week has been full of bittersweet goodbyes and realizations of how much I'll be missing in the US, but I've also been able to pray about my trip and the people I'll be able to serve and learn about, and I've been filled with such a peace and excitement about my trip to Kenya. A few months ago, I received an email from Compassion International about the twelve year old girl in Kenya I've been sponsoring for a couple years, and it contained the following verse: "Look at the nations and watch-and be utterly amazed. For I am going to do something in your days that you would not believe, even if you were told." (Habakkuk 1:5) That verse has been part of my prayer for this trip ever since; I'm so excited to go witness and be a part of what God is doing on a totally different continent, in a completely separate culture, and get to have some serious hands-on experience with learning about working in a hospital while bringing in the gospel and my commitment to Christ through my Work. I can't wait to finally be living in Kenya!