Accidents and Acceptance

Last Sunday was a day none of around here are likely to forget anytime soon. As we sat down to lunch I got a phone call that I was needed up at outpatient because there had been a bus wreck. I quick ran off not knowing what to expect. When I walked in it was absolute chaos. Casualty was so full of patients that you could hardly move. We started to move people to the OR recovery area and it quickly became like a scene from a horror move. People were rolling in bloody with all sorts of trauma. The initially chaos began to slow down after about an hour. I helped triage patients for surgery and procedures and then began the slow process of suturing wounds and deciding who to admit and who to discharge. All doctors, nurses and other staff that were around were asked to come up and help. I worked for about 9 hours straight, as did so many others. Not only did medical people pitch in, but so did other volunteers. A surgeon's wife fixed food for everyone to eat that night, the CEO bought everyone sodas, and our neighbor ,Ms Barb, ran around helping however she could, including putting candy in people’s mouths so they would not become hypoglycemic. Sarah helped by watching the kids of a family all day so both parents could be at the hospital. Things wound down around 11PM with some families showing up wanting to go to the make-shift morgue to identify family members. By the end of the day the floor was covered with blood.
Apparently the bus was the African version of a Greyhound and had between 50-60 people on board. Apparently 7 died on the scene and another 7 died that day at the hospital. The bus was traveling down a hill and around a curve and lost control in the rain, going off the road and into a river bed. Apparently several other wrecks have occurred in the past at the same spot.

Waking up Monday morning we quickly realized it was not all a bad dream. The recovery room still held surgical patients from the night before. All the wards were full with surgical and orthopedic patients scattered throughout. During the course of the week another 7-10 people have died, with an ICU full of patients still on vents. Dealing with the wreck has made everyone tired. National media came out Monday for interviews. Over 40 surgeries have been performed. Plus it has made for some tough decisions. Patients code but we have no ventilator to place them on because all the machines are being used. It has been a trying time.
There have been some good things to happen over the past week. It never ceases to amaze me when people accept the Lord’s free gift of salvation. We continue to see suicide attempts come in who have not heard of Christ and upon us speaking to them want to be saved. I cannot know there hearts, but when you see the smile on their faces the next day it says alot. I had a patient in clinic who asked for strength and to grow in his faith as he was saved in clinic 2 months earlier. I had other retired teacher who came through and said he was a student at Tenwek’s high school and then came back their to teach. It was a neat situation.
Tuesday was a day to get away from Tenwek for awhile. Dr. John Spriegel, the medical superintendent, and I, along with a pharmacist, rode to the city of Kericho for a day for an HIV conference. It was sponsored by PEPFAR. This is the main US aid program enacted by President Bush to pay for medications and care for AIDs patients in Africa. It was announced in the state of the union the same year he first talked about the war against terror. It began in 2004 and is in several African countries, with Kenya receiving the most support. Needless to say many locals are afraid of what will happen if the funding stops. The conference itself featured a speaker from the NIH and was very informative.
Kericho was beautiful. It is one of the unofficial tea capitals. The ride up featured rolling mountainside covered with tea fields. Around here tea is grown by locals and sold to buying centers. There large corporations own the fields and hire workers (which I was told is one step above poverty). The conference was in the Kericho Tea Hotel. It seemed like a place that would have been stunning 30 years ago, but was now run down and needed major renovations. Our afternoon was highlighted by a political fanatic who was dressed in a military uniform and had a big homemade banner for his party. He was crazy, but not threatening. He even made it up onto the roof.

I noticed 2 other things about Kenyan culture while at Kericho. One was what I have heard called the “Kenyan Pause”. When a Kenyan speaks English, he or she may stop at any point in the sentence and pause, which takes some getting used to. There is also the issue of photography. We have mentioned this some earlier, but I’ve learned photographers are a staple around here. They will show up at any gathering of people and take photos, regardless of what is going on at the time. Then a little while later they will show up with photos of you which they want you to buy. Then at the end of any gathering it is almost understood that you will all gather for a group photo before leaving. This is something else that is funny to me.
On the way John and I discussed many things, including his vision for the future for Tenwek, including distance education and satellite clinic sites. We also discussed our need to determine who will fill future leadership roles here, especially with all of the medical people leaving on furlough this summer. Pray for us as I will need direction in which roles to take.
We did have an encouraging event this week. You may have read in the last email about a possible ministry opportunity being with the local prison and of the orphanage’s desire to do something as well. I went and spoke with the interim pastor of our church about this and he said that was funny that I asked about this because he had just received an email from a missionary on furlough asking about what was going on with the prison here. He was excited about the opportunity of us going out there. We planned to go out the next AM and speak to the head of the prison face to face, which we did. We also had a lady from the orphanage meet us out there as well. It was quite a visit. When we arrived we went into a waiting area outside of the main prison quarters. It was there that the prisoners were constructing furniture for sale. I learned that several

of the guards were licensed in other areas and taught there skills to the prisoners so they could become certified themselves when they were released. When we entered the prison itself we saw that another group of prisoners were building the new prison barracks. We then met the head of the prison. He was a believer and 3 of the guards were pastors. Our meeting opened with prayer and after much discussion we decided on a fellowship with the prisoners on Sunday Dec 23rd after church. The tentative plans are for us to fix a meal and have it with prisoners and staff, then have a service with preaching and singing and then to give out gifts. It was suggested we do mattresses, blankets, and even maybe spoons, sandals, and person hygiene items. There are about 50 prisoners currently with a max of 150 capacity. There are also about 80 guards. We all felt very encouraged about the possibility of this ministry. Please pray for us as we make plans to do this.
Sarah also had a repeat u/s this week to confirm the gender and now we know that we are having a boy. We are very excited. Sarah is 21 weeks on Nov 18th and doing great now. She is also experimenting more in the kitchen. She had a dream about Krispy Kreme doughnuts, so this week she made homemade donuts, which were great! She also occasionally will drive into and run errands in Bomet.
A few other things from around here. There is no such thing as patient privacy, especially when you are sharing a bed with another patient. It is usually quite funny when neighboring patients will turn around and help give you the history of the patient.
Also, we were glad to see that the first of the televisions were installed in the outpatient department this week showing the Jesus film in Swahili. It seemed that the patients were really focusing on it. We also learned that there may be copies of the film available here in Kipsigis as well.

It’s hard to imagine that Thanksgiving is this week. We’ll tell you all of our adventurous first African Thanksgiving soon! Please do keep all of us in your prayers here as we have been experiencing a rollercoaster of emotion recently. Thank you all for your prayerful support.