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!