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.