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.