Tuesday was a great day. Most of the missionaries were still away at their retreat, so it was quiet here. I had a meeting with the outpatient department that morning and spent the rest of the morning doing administrative types of things. It was so good to get “caught up”.
That afternoon I was up at the hospital taking care of business when I got a call from Sarah. I did not know what was wrong. She said cows had gotten in the backyard and were going for our neighbors plants and bushes. She had tried to shoo them, but they would not move. I ran home in my dress clothes (fortunately wearing crocs) through the rain and found a metal rod the kids had been playing with laying in a neighbors yard. I grabbed it and saw Sarah outside with an umbrella. I was able to get the cows to move, but they would go the wrong direction. I got one to go the right way, then I went after the next one. I got it turned back around, but it started bucking and heading towards Sarah. She got out of the way and the cow eventually turned off. After I got these 2 out of the way, Sarah said there was another. Sure enough, he was chowing down in the garden. I trampled across the field and got him out. All of the commotion woke Maggie from her nap. She is already a fan of cows, but this episode had her mesmerized. She was out on the porch with Sarah and saying “Dad ah Moo” repeatedly. After this initial commotion another showed up in the yard. I went and ran him off and Maggie came out to watch, but quickly decided to go inside and watch from there. The episode was over, but Maggie continued to recount the tale, even until the next morning.
We had a nice dinner that night as well. Our friends, the Alterman’s, were getting ready to leave the country and since they will gone before Christmas, they decided to have us over for a ham dinner, which was great. Most of all the people left at the compound (very few) came over for the dinner, which ended up being a lot of fun.
On Wednesday we woke up with the plan of taking our Christmas photo. I was off work because it was Kenya’s independence day (our house helpers did not even know this, which is common for most of the locals). John Wright, our interim CEO, was at the dinner the night before and told us about some wonderful brownies that he would have made the next day. We were going to have our picture made in his backyard, so he had us to get him some cocoa for the brownies, which were great. We got our picture in front of a large poinsetta. Here they are all over the compound growing from a plant like ones back home into small trees. They are beautiful.
At lunch most of the house helpers were working, but were all alone. Sarah asked our helper’s if they wanted to invite one of their fellow helpers over for lunch, which they did. They ate inside at our table and Maggie helped eat their food. Sarah fixed them ugali and they loved watching her do it.
Later that afternoon I went to work in the garden. I haven’t been able to do that as much as I would have liked, but it is a good break. Our vegetables are making progress, but unfortunately so are our weeds. Sarah came up and helped me and she unearthed some more sweet potatoes. I worked hard, but you couldn’t see much progress. Our helpers looked at it later and asked where had I worked. We’ve decided that we need to hire a part-time gardener, which we are planning to do.
Wednesday evening everyone arrived back safely to Tenwek. It was good to see our friends and we visited almost every family on the compound because we had to return our keys.
Thursday and Friday were long hard days. Work in general was busy and several people were off. I also had to deal with some difficult issues, such as people who did not show up to work even when they were scheduled to do so. They felt there reasons were legitimate and know they made mistakes. Fortunately, at least as far as I know, no patients suffered from this. I hate getting involved in these situations.
That Friday evening was quiet. Maggie went to sleep and I was on call. Sarah spent the evening at our neighbor’s, Ms. Faith, helping her decorate wedding cakes for the area Bishop’s (and head of the hospital board) daughter’s wedding. She made 5 different cakes in all. They had a lot of fun and are getting to be good friends.
Saturday was a day of shopping in Bomet. One of the visiting OB’s had never been to the “big city” so he rode along. John Kaguthi went with us as well. He is my newest family practice resident. He arrived Thursday night and we took him into town to get some supplies. Our purpose for going in was to buy supplies for the prison ministry. The workers were so helpful at the store and had even ordered supplies from us remembering our visit and inquiring about prices from about a month prior. Thankfully one of our fellow doctors happened to be there in his van and he was able to help us get everything loaded. Pulling into the parking area at the main grocery story is hard as there are large mud puddles. This time I finally got the car stuck and had to put it in 4-wheel drive, which I had never done before and was fun. We stored the supplies we bought in Ms. Barb’s apartment as she is away on furlough.
That evening we had dinner with our friends Lisette, the Ganey’s, and Carol Spears. Sarah hosted with pizza here and we had dessert around a fireplace in Carol’s back yard. It was very relaxing and a lot of fun. John, the new FP, joined us as well.
Sunday was what it was meant to be, a day of rest. The entire offering at church went to help support the prison ministry, which was a tremendous blessing. That afternoon after naps Sarah made us and some of our neighbors great milkshakes with the new blender we got on our last trip to Nairobi. After that I played football with some of the locals, which was fun. Then we ate leftover’s and I helped Mike Ganey decorate sugar cookies that he was taking to an orphanage meeting the next day.
Monday it was back to work. I was also trying to get some of the prison stuff together. God has been so obvious as He has been orchestrating all this. We started last week looking for a tent but had not been able to find one. Some people here had a connection in nearby Kericho and were able to find one. It is so hard to do now because of parties and December (like June back home) weddings. What an answered prayer.
Thursday night was the staff Christmas party for the hospital. It was an experience. We had to bring our own silverware (which was okay) and we had traditional Kenyan food from the hospital restaurant. People filled in the back of the room, not leaving a chair empty. As soon as Sarah and Maggie got up 2 guys came and sat by me. In traditional fashion it began about
45 minutes late. It was funny because we were in the meeting room with a big podium and microphone, but the blessing was whispered by someone at the back of the room near the food, but people knew when he prayed because at amen the table was swarmed! The program lasted several hours with speakers and singing. We enjoyed the portion we were able to stay for.A few other tidbits from the last few weeks.
I learned that when patients receive tube feeds sometimes we run out of the feeding material, so it is supplemented with egg nog! (I thought that was rather seasonal.)
The other day one of my outpatient nurses looked concerned. When I inquired, she said that signs labeling doors in the outpatient department were being changed. It is all by numbers, but the workers in the clinic did not know this was happening and were still referring to old numbers. People were being sent everywhere. Some people were evening standing in the bathroom waiting to receive their medicine!
We continue to see the Lord work. I had another patient this week who when I asked her about prayer requests told me she wanted to be saved, without any prompting on my part. Another sign of the Spirit moving. I also have learned that people aren’t that different after all wherever you are. For example, I had a patient the other day in the ward who said he just started going to church when he became sick. (How many times have I seen this back home?)
Maggie and Sarah have been doing some Christmas activities. Sarah is helping people decorate and making cookies of her own. Maggie was invited to make a gingerbread house with the MK school kids.
This was a first for all of us. Sarah made sure that Maggie’s house consisted of things that Maggie could eat and would not be a choking hazard. We think her house looks great! Just an FYI- Maggie was very cute dancing with maraca in hand to the David Crowder Band’s version of Feliz Navidad the other night!
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