Cows! and Christmas stuff

This is the latest since our last update- due to internet issues we are late getting this posted.
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!

"Uh oh, Kimbo"

Here is the latest since last time.
Well, our adventures in Nairobi continued. On Friday we went to some markets and did some shopping. We met our friends the Ganey’s who were in town and had dinner with them. Saturday was great because the guesthouse was quiet and we rested most of the day. We had lunch there, packed, and didn’t go out until around 4:30. It was good to rest. We talked with one of our friends from here about helping us to find a car, which he said he would. Then we had one of those “God things”. Sarah’s sister sent us 3 large packages to Nairobi for Christmas. She told us to open them when they arrived which we did. Sarah almost cried when she looked in. Not because the customs agents had ripped most things open, but because of what was in side. There were maternity clothes just like Sarah needed, but had not asked anyone for. There were also some things she wanted specifically for Maggie and had been looking for, but had been unable to find. She also did not mention this to anyone and it was in the box as well. God is so good! We met the Ganey’s again and did some running around and then went out to eat and came back to rest for a long Sunday, which involved last minute errands and hitting the road as early as possible to get back to Tenwek.


A view into the Rift Valley outside of Nairobi
Monday was a great day for me to rest and spend time at home doing some administrative tasks. I’ll admit, it is the first I have slept in and stayed home for a day in several weeks. It felt good to get several things accomplished and be at home for a day.

Maggie having fun
Tuesday it was back to work. Not very eventful. Wednesday we had our monthly long term doctors meeting. It feels good to be able to put in what I feel is valuable input and to have my colleagues say that I am doing job. Encouragement for each other is something that is really needed around here.
Thursday was a good day. I’ll admit it is easy to get frustrated at times and today was one of those days. After some time though I started getting some things accomplished. I also chaired another outpatient task force team meeting today. We do this once a month. I went to go to the administrative conference, but was told someone else was meeting. Long story short, we decided to meet at another venue, the open air dining area at the hospital restaurant. It was great! We sat around, drank Cokes, and openly discussed issues. It felt so informal, but we got so much accomplished and at the end everyone was happy and felt the same way. I think that we may continue to meet this way in the future.
We had another funny incident on Thursday. Sarah says someone stole 200 shillings (about $3.00) from our kitchen. Sarah said the money was on the counter and a little girl wandered in the kitchen and her nanny went after her. The helpers were in different portions of the house and when Sarah asked about the money later, it was gone. Everyone was very concerned. Our helpers were even going through the trash looking for the money. Everyone reached the conclusion that the nanny must have taken the money. This made several people upset. Sarah was going to confront the lady the next day. Then later that evening we were greasing a pan to make brownies and she said “Look.” In the lid of the Kimbo (our equivalent of Crisco) was a 200 KSH bill stuck to the lid. It must have fallen there and no one new it. We are glad we had not confronted this nanny!
Christmas time is busy around here as well. It is not as commercial as back in the states, but there are parties and teas for different groups around the hospital. Several of the houses do have lights up, which brings back feelings of home. There are no decorations in the hospital itself because people just do not do that here. On Friday Sarah helped to put on a Christmas tea for all of the missionary househelpers. Sarah said it was a lot of fun and they all appreciated it.


Our home decorated for Christmas
Friday night we were getting ready to have supper at a friends house and we got a phone call. There had been another RTA (road traffic accident). We couldn’t believe it. My friend Mike Ganey, a surgeon, and I walked up. Thankfully there were only about 7-8 victims and the most major injury (at least at that point) was an open humerus fracture. The folks that did arrive all helped out and we were done in less than an hour.
Over the weekend I was on pediatric call. I had good interns working with me and since I have a little more experience now rounds were not nearly as bad as before. I had 3 babies to die at delivery on Sunday, which is something you cannot get used to.
Monday was a relaxing day. Almost all of the missionaries on the compound had left to go to their annual Christmas meeting, which we did not have to attend and decided not to for many reasons. The compound was so quiet with many people gone. The White’s had not left yet, so we loaded Maggie up into the wagon with her lantern and we rode her up to their house to see their outdoor lights. We’ll go out to see the rest when other people are home.


The White's house (much brighter in person)
It is also customary here to leave a set of your house keys with a neighbor when you are going out of town. Needless to say with everyone leaving, we received quite a number of keys when everyone left. The next morning Sarah told me it was funny as all the househelpers came by our house to pick up their keys.
A few other things. There is no such thing as a short office visit here, at least for me. My average time in a room is about 30 minutes (put I have no one pressuring me to hurry up, which is nice as well!) I am also overwhelmed by how many resources there are back in the states. I was reading a US medical journal about different sorts of imaging available for heart disease. Here was are considered advanced because we can get an x-ray and most of the times and EKG!
I was reminded of an important point the other day that I actually heard recently in a sermon. We do not convert anyone. We merely witness, but God does the changing of the heart (Some sow, some water, but God receives the increase). I had to remember this when I shared the gospel with a patient the other day, but he ended up being more concerned about getting his medicine and going home. I realized that it was up to the Lord, not me, to change his heart.

Turkey and dressing (and monkeys!)

Hello everyone,
We hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving. And yes, for those of you who asked, you can buy turkey in Kenya. Thanksgiving Day itself was rather interesting. First of all, it was not a holiday here and was a regular day of work. Fortunately for me it and the rest of the week were already scheduled off, so I did not have to work Thanksgiving. Sarah unfortunately was sick and rested most of the day. Maggie and I hung out around the house and starting constructing our artificial tree some friends gave us. We did have a visitor join us. His name is Sat (pronounced like cot, but w/ an S). He is a pediatric resident from Walter Reed in Washington, DC. He is spending some time at Kericho and we met him at the HIV meeting there a few weeks ago. We are glad he was able to come and join us. Around lunch time when everyone was napping I was able to pull up the rest of our sweet potatoes from the garden. They were a popular item the last couple of days as everyone was wanting them to cook with. That evening we had a compound wide Thanksgiving dinner which everyone contributed to. All of the traditional food was there, with the inclusion of a great seaweed salad from our Japanese nurse friend Anna. Maggie was a little impatient seeing the food, but having to wait to eat (our table ate last because we came in last in a Thanksgiving trivia game, but that’s another story). After dinner there was singing, a movie for kids, and a football game shown in the auditorium. (The kids movie was our copy of Charlie Brown’s Thanksgiving, which we also shown to the locals at Wed AM devotionals to teach them what Thanksgiving is about). We didn’t stay for this as it was getting late. When we got home our neighbor, Ms. Barb, hung out with us and we finally got her a copy of our photos from the nursing school graduation.
Friday morning fortunately Sarah woke feeling much better, so we quickly backed for a weekend trip to Nakuru. This is about a 3 hour drive from us and home of the World Gospel Mission headquarters. We were invited to go there with our friend’s, the Robert’s family. I was happy Sarah was able to see the beautiful teafields along the way. About half way we stopped and had lunch at a little cottage-style hotel called “Ray’s Place”. We ate a picnic lunch on their back porch. It was a beautiful area and quiet little hotel. We then got back on the road. As we entered Nakuru we stopped at the Africa Gospel Church’s Baby Center. This is a baby orphanage and first of it’s kind. It was created with the intension of promoting adoption, but we learned that adoption is not accepted here. Family is very important here and people feel “why would you want to take someone’s baby away from them and put them in your family”. One of the missionary couples at Tenwek are the first and only family to adopt a baby so far. It will take time to change mindsets. Now the baby’s are getting up to near 2 years in age, so the center is making huge expansions planning on having to house 3 and 4 year olds soon. The facility is very nice and has (1 think) about 30 babies now. I was asked to examine about 5 of them, some sick and some new babies who have not been seen. Maggie enjoyed being around a bunch of kids her age.

After this we met with the couple that are the country directors for World Gospel Mission, the Vanderhoofs. They showed us around town for a little while and the Roberts went to their home and we went to Margie’s, the WGM accountant, home (she had MacGyver on DVD!). We unloaded and then all went to the Vanderhoofs. A game of croquet broke out in their back yard which was a lot of fun. We then ate pizza and had leftover Thanksgiving deserts.
Saturday AM we woke up and after running a few quick errands in town went to the Lake Nakura National Park. This would be the site of our second safari in Kenya. When we arrived at the park, which was at the edge of the city (the second largest in Kenya), we immediately saw monkeys at play. We then drove up to the building where Ben and I went to pay for everyone. From past experience I told the girls when we got out to roll up their windows so a monkey wouldn’t get in. They laughed. While we were inside we heard loud screaming. We ran out and saw a monkey running off with a bag. Apparently a large male monkey jumped up onto the passangers side window. They tried to shoo it away, but it snarled, jumped in and grapped a bag of trail mix. Jenny yelled at it in Swahili, but to no avail. The monkey had what it wanted and ran off. I offered to retrieve the food, but they said that was okay because the monkeys had their hands all in it.

After this exciting start we headed out. Unlike our last safari, on this one you drove yourself and could do what you liked. The main animals here were flamingoes (it was a lake), storks, pelicans, water buffalo, zebras, and rhinos. There were other animals as well.


We also got to see some lions. Around lunch time we drove past a waterfall and got out at a picnic area, which was nothing more than a clearing with rest rooms. We ate cautiously looking for animals. When we were about done Ben yelled “baboons”. After the morning incident, we quickly grabbed up everything with kids screaming. Jenny tried to get her youngest in while still strapped in the stroller. Sarah got Maggie and I got the pecan tassies and jumped in. I then got back out and helped Ben. We were able to keep the baboons at bay long enough to gather everything and get out okay. The park rangers even came up and helped us. All in all it was a fun day and a beautiful park. After this we all went to a hotel in town to swim with the kids. The water was very cold. They also had soft-serve ice cream, which is rare here. It was so good, we even sat in the rain to eat it. We then did some shopping and went with the Vanderhoofs to a restaurant for dinner.
The next AM we went to the Vanderhoofs for breakfast and then they drove us to the top of the Nakuru crater. It was huge and apparently the second largest of its type in the world. After this we headed back. We stopped at a place called Taidy’s on the way back and grabbed a snack (strange being in the middle of a teafield at a restaurant showing soccer on a flat screen TV). We also bought some veggies and fruit along the way. We just had to slow up and the car was swarmed with sellers. Very convenient.

When we arrived back at Tenwek later that afternoon we had more fun in store. We gathered with some of our friends for our own Thanksgiving dinner, but called it a Christmas kickoff as their house was decorated and had Christmas music playing. Many people were away, so after this all the families left on the compound came over for dessert and fellowship. We had a special time of prayer over Ms. Barb as she would be leaving on Monday for furlough. When we got home that night Sarah helped her until way past 11 and again the next morning. She will be missed while she is away.
On Monday we were back to work. I had a frustrating morning as I went to the IT department to work on a new hospital form and ,long story short, an editing session took almost 3 hours. That day we did not finish rounding until around 4. When I got home we had fun, however, as we did our Christmas decorating. We were given a tree earlier and have accumulated some accessories, including ones sent to us in the mail, thanks.
I am seeing more and more people now in clinic who are in with me for follow-up visits. It is so neat to see improvement in many of them. I even had a patient ask me to pray with them before they left before I could even ask.
Still tired from our previous excursion, we loaded back up on Wednesday for a trip into Nairobi. It did not bother Maggie as she began to smile when she was able to get back into her car seat. It was a long, dusty ride. The dust was so bad at times we had to come to complete stops to let it clear. Our driver got lost in Nairobi, after telling us he knew where he was going. I then got a phone call from Tenwek saying the meeting we had come in for the next day had just been cancelled. I was very frustrated at first, but decided to look at it as a chance for our family to relax together. We arrived at the SP office and talked with one of the leaders there. We talked with her about doing Operation Christmas Child. It is new here, but she said she would do what she could to let us help get involved next Spring! We came into the guest house and rested. We then went out to eat with more workers here going back into Sudan. One was a lady we met last time who we got to know and were very glad to see her again. We got talking about Operation Christmas Child and learned that she used to be the financial director for OCC. We sat around and talked and shared stories about OCC. We don’t know why all this happened, but we are excited that this may help to open up new doors for us to have increased involvement with this ministry in the future. Please pray for this!
Thursday was now a free day for us, so we went to the giraffe center. This is a place that was founded in the 1970’s as a haven for a nearly extinct breed of giraffe, the Rothschild (there are 3 varieties, Rothschild, reticulated, and Maasi).

It now serves as an educational center to teach Kenyan school children about conservation and the environment. We had so much fun. You can feed the giraffes and they eat right out of your hand. We then went to part of the Karen Blixen estate for lunch. It was set up and felt like you were in British East Africa in the 1910’s. It was nice and relaxing. (Rumor has it that this was where Teddy Roosevelt stayed to come and hunt in Africa.). We then went into downtown to go looking at a particular store. The downtown area has big buildings and is very crowded.
Okay, that is our journey thus far. December is going to be very busy for us. Please pray for our stamina then and for the prison project coming up near Christmas. We will fill you in on the rest of our journeys soon, but wanted to share this with you for now.

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.

Prayers, Play-dough, and Playing

So many things to recount and tell over what has happened and what the Lord has done since we last talked. Last Saturday was the Tenwek nursing school graduation. This was the 20th one, so that tells you the school has been around for awhile. I was honored when our neighbor, Ms. Barb, asked me if I would take pictures at the graduation. She is normally the unofficial photographer around here, but as she is one of the leaders in the school, she was participating in the ceremony and could not do the photography. It started at 10:30AM Saturday morning at Tewnek Africa Gospel Church. It is the first

event I have been to here that started on time, which was told it would. There when it started, the church was only a quarter full. The entire ceremony ended around 12:30. Cars and vans full of people were arriving throughout, with people walking in as the procession out was occurring. By the end the church was standing room only. The cars of people coming in were decorated with flower branches. Vendors were walking around with snacks and drinks to sell afterwards. There were also people selling congratulation medallions made of ribbon and Christmas garland. Family members would walk up front and place these on people throughout the ceremony. The other photographers there were bolder than me, even walking up onto the stage to get pictures. After the ceremony families would just picnic where ever there was a clearing in the church yard. I also walked around with Ms. Barb to take group photos and photos of her with each of the graduates. It was a fun and interesting day.
Last Sunday a new member of the Tenwek family was born. Our neighbors, the Alterman’s, had a baby girl born by repeat c-section. Everyone is doing well. The pediatrician and his wife were with Heidi at the delivery, so Sarah got up early to watch their kids. Sarah also got to check Heidi’s private room on the OB ward, which was nice. It had us thinking about making plans for our delivery. (The halfway point is tomorrow- 20 weeks- praise the Lord!)
Last Sunday was also the first time in weeks that we got to take a quiet walk as a family. It was very nice and a chance to discuss several different things. One of the main things we are were discussing is our reason for being here, especially in regards to ministry outside of the hospital itself. We really desire to get involved with at least one of the 5 orphanages in the area, but every time we try to go something happens so we wonder if that is what we are to do or not. Operation Christmas Child is also a young ministry and it would thrill us tremendously to help coordinate that ministry in this area. We currently trying to talk with leadership in Nairobi about this. We also know that VBS used to be a big ministry here and we’d even like to do that or help bring teams over that would like to do this. There is a prison in Bomet and we’ve even talked about doing some ministry there. God has been faithful to us and we know that he’ll show us what to do, but pray for us to be patient and be shown what it is that we are supposed to do. We are slowing continuing to learn about things, people, places, and the ropes one has to go through to make things happen here.
My schedule has been a little busier lately. There are no medicine volunteers this month and as our internist is the medical superintendent I have been trying to help to rounds and work in the outpatient clinic. I had the opportunity to speak with the med supp, Dr. John Spriegel, for quite a while the other week. We were discussing some medical things, but also long term plans for the hospital, which include another large addition within the next 5 years and even possibly dialysis (we see so many patients that need this, including a 23 year old who died of renal failure this week. The sad thing is he came here, when his home town was actually closer to a hospital that offered dialysis). But with such thing, there will also be the need of more equipment and more doctors. He said there are so many needs and volunteers come and say they want to help, but get home and forget about things here. Therefore keep your eyes out for a email coming soon that will include a Christmas wish list for us involving much of the ministry here.
Another thing that has made things busier is related to politics. The Ministry of Health in Kenya can place workers (i.e. doctors) anywhere they wish. This past week one of our residents had an accident where his infant son was burned in kitchen. His wife is going to stay at home with the child, but she is the only doctor at the nearby government hospital. The MOH felt that we should provide someone to take her place. We technically did not have to do this, but the MOH could take any our Kenyan doctors and move their full time if they wished. We felt it in our best interest, and as a ministry opportunity, to help them with this request, which has made thing a littly busier for the rest of us.
This past Monday was a very “God” day. We try to tell own interns and students that they can talk with patients about spiritual things and do not have to wait for a chaplain to come by. After talking about this we had a young lady on the floor who had tried to kill herself for several reasons, mostly family related. We told her we loved her and asked her about Jesus, who she new nothing about. We shared the gospel with her and she accepted right there. We noticed for the rest of the week she had a much more pleasant expression on her face. This was the second suicide attempt we’ve had to accept Christ during rounds in the last several days. The same afternoon that this young girl came to Christ I had another interesting experience in clinic. Upon finishing up a patient visit I asked a lady if she had any prayer requests. One that the mentioned was that she wanted to “get saved”. I asked her she meant and she said she new it was a good thing to do. We shared the gospel message with her and explained what “being saved” meant. She prayed then to receive Christ! A reminder that we never know how or when the Spirit is moving!
A funny moment occurred this week in clinic. I noticed one of the nurses hanging a 2008 poster-style calendar. The post was promoting a political party. The bad thing is the national elections, including for president, will occur on Dec 27th. The date of the election was only decided on about 1-2 weeks ago. I told the nurse she’d be fired back in the states for doing that, but she said that people liked that party here and things would be okay. But I also learned not to wear orange into Nairobi because it was the color for that party (which is another long story which if you’d like to ask me about I’ll tell you later!)
One of our missionary friends who was a nurse in the states finally got her Kenyan RN this past week- after 15 months of paper work and orientation. A surprise party was held for her. At the party we met a visit orthopedist who is from North Carolina and actually did training with some orthopedists we knew in Greenwood, one of which goes to our home church. Another small world moment.
We had our first official dinner with visiting guests this week. It was fun to finally do that. One of our guests was a visiting surgeon from Samaritan’s Purse who we met earlier in Boone. The funny thing was that the next night we all decided to get together again at someone else’s house.
Today we did get our first trip to an orphanage. We were so excited to go! We went with another missionary family from here, the Bemm’s, who is in charge of the orphanage ministry. On the way we stopped in Bomet to buy 2 oranges for each of the kids. The drive was to the town of Sotik and was only about 30 minutes away. When we arrived the kids were

eating sugar cane, a Saturday treat. There were 60 boys and girls there from preschool age to teenagers. We were concerned how Maggie would do, but she liked the kids and they liked her. Sarah led a few games with the younger kids, but had a hard time with communication. Maggie liked playing bean bag toss. I helped to organize a soccer game with some of the older kids. It was very humbling. We did all this out in a big field with uneven terrain, bushes, thorns and holes, but it

didn’t slow them down. After about an hour or so of play, we brought everyone up for a devotional and then gave them oranges. The kids were well mannered and appreciative. The orphanage leader fixed us chai and mendazi as a treat (they usually fix lunch, but we informed them earlier that we would not be able to stay long). We then came back through Bomet for a few more things and headed home.
One of those “God things” happened there as well. We mentioned at a meeting a few weeks back about doing a prison Christmas ministry, but nothing more was said. I was thinking about it the other day and coming through Bomet Chuck Bemm mentioned it as well. Then when we arrived at the orphanage the leader there, Elijah, told us he and some of the “mommas” there wanted to a meal and gifts for the prisoners! It seems as though God is orchestrating something. Pray for us in wisdom in what to do and as I try to speak with the pastor here this week about organizing something.
The rest of Saturday afternoon was relaxing. After lunch with the Bemms we took Maggie down to the trampoline. She showed us how she can flip, but is still learning to jump. One of the head surgeons, Russ White, walked by and we talked for a little while. He asked me if it was okay if he placed in the CMDA (Christian Medical and Dental Association) journal our need for more FP doctors. I said please. We then discussed the overwhelming need for more doctors because as of May to June most will be on furlough and I will be the only staff doctor for the outpatient department and for the medical and pediatric wards. Plus we will have lost our intern coordinator, schedule makes, and medical superintendent. We know God will provide, but please help us in praying that these gaps are filled.
A few other fun things. Sarah and Maggie made play-dough this week. Maggie loves playing with it. She also is quite


the dancer now. It is rather entertaining to put some music on and watch her go. She also can now say “Barb”, the name of our neighbor and will yell it at her even from across campus if she sees her.
The other day Sarah heard a faucet running in the house and didn’t know where it was from. It was our ceiling! Apparently some of the gutters were clogged on our roof and during a heavy rain water came through an about 3 foot piece of wall in our bedroom. Fortunately nothing was damaged. The industrial dept cleared the gutters and said it would help with this problem. They will work on the roof and ceiling itself this next week.
As we close, let me leave you with a verse to think about- Ecclesiastes 9:10 “Whatever your hands find to do, do it with all of your might”. This was read at the nursing school graduation and I haven’t quit thinking about it. Let us all remember, we don’t know how much time here we have, but with time we do have and in whatever we do, let’s do it the best we can and to God’s glory!

Happy Hallo-what?

It was a good week. Sarah had another good ultrasound. Not 100% sure of boy or girl, but we are pretty sure, but not telling yet. Maggie began speaking more and doing more of her own interpretive dance. Ashley was able to get back into the outpatient clinic where he had been spending a lot of his time.
We went to Nairobi once again. We had to purchase enough food to last us for 10 weeks roughly until our next shopping trip here. Quite the challenge. This was the first time we did not ride with cameras in hand as we still love the landscape, but did not encounter anything new to capture on film. It is still neat to see zebras out grazing as you drive by. On the way in we stopped in our usual pitstop, Narok. This town is the unofficial Maasi capital and about 1 1/2 hours from Tenwek. This day was different, however, because the Kenyan president was coming into town. We saw people up in tree and trying to get a good vantage point of the dirt soccer field stadium where his rally would be. We saw the band warming up (which ironically was wearing mostly blue, which is not one of the Kenyan national colors). Needless to say much more of the road was smoother and watered down for dust. We never saw the president, though, as we think he may have been flown in.
We also ran into something I had never experienced before on a dirt road, a traffic jam! We were stuck in a line (we were told 5 miles deep) of cars at one point. All of the Kenyan men got out of their cars and stood in the middle of the road looking. Then occasionally they’d run to their cars, restart them, and pull up a few feet and then get out again. After about 1 hour we were in open traffic again, but never discovered the reason for the traffic jam.
We finally arrived at the SP office, stopping on the way to drop off our passports for a 3 month extension on our visa while waiting for our work permit. When we got to SP, we saw some familiar faces, but as always met some new people as well. On gentleman we met commented on my Clemson hat and I quickly learned he was a USC fan who lived in Charlotte.
We ran lots of errands and went to several different places. We went to one store that sold home, childrens, and women’s clothing items. Very American in style products with a unique African touch. The things is the store is owned by some SP employees who have taught women to sew and make these items, and the money for each item goes back to the person who made the item.
We also went our usual stores and ate at some new places. We went to a unique place Saturday night. The menu consisted of French, Chinese, and Indian items (all of which were excellent). The real interesting thing was there was a large outdoor play area next to the outdoor tables, so your kids could play while you eat. It was so nice and convenient and the first meal we’ve had to ourselves in months.
It is amazing how God lines up everything perfectly. One of these days I’ll learn not to be amazed by this because 1) He does this all the time and 2) He is God. The day before we left for Nairobi I finally was able to speak with the head chaplain, who I’d been trying to find for weeks. We discussed the idea of purchasing TVs for the hospital. He then connected me with the head of the industrial department who came right over to do measurements so we’d know what to buy in Nairobi. I was in clinic a little late, but it happened to be that that kept me at the hospital long enough for industrial to give me the plans and specs for the TVs. We purchased them on Saturday.
Sunday when we wore up Sarah did not feel to well, so we rested at the guest house. Around noon Maggie and I went back out with our driver from the day before. Because the volume of our purchase, we had wait until Sunday to pick up the items, which we did. The gentleman I bought the cables from made me meet him outside of the store for our purchase. I was told that it was because he gave me and the hospital a discount, which his boss would not like because I was a “rich” white man. We then went and picked up the TVs. What a sight! It was took about 30 minutes to load the TVs into the van, which included moving and rearranging seats.
That afternoon some of the Sudan team was relaxing at the guest house watching the World Series, which was cool. Maggie and I went out to eat with some of the Sudan team and ran a few more errands.
Thankfully Monday AM Sarah was feeling much better and we were able to run our last errands and make the trip home. We filled the van with our supplies, groceries and meat (Imagine, 10 weeks worth of meat!). Fortunately another van was going out to Tenwek that day as well and it carried the TVs and supplies. When we did arrive home we had a mess because some of the meat and cheese boxes had leaked, but we finally were able to get everything cleaned up and were glad to be home safely.
On Tuesday it was back to work. The girls helped finish putting things away from the day before. There was a team here fitting wheelchairs for kids that needed them. They come out every couple of years. Prisoners in the midwest actually make the parts. It looked like a very special ministry. Our garden is growing well, but it has not rained for the last few days so the girls watered it for us. Maggie also played for awhile outside with sidewalk chalk.


Today, of course, is Halloween. When I asked people around the hospital if they knew what that was they had no idea, which was kinda nice. The kids here did dress up for playgroup. Maggie dressed like one of the girls from “Little House on the Prarie”. This afternoon was a party with games for all the MKs with costumes themed after “heros of the faith”.

For supper we went our neighbor Carol Spears house with some other folks and had a nice time. And yes, we did watch “It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown” when we came home tonight!

"God Knows What He Is Doing"

“God knows what he is doing.” That is what Sarah said the other day and is it ever true. Our missionary neighbor, Ms. Barb, has been dealing gracefully with the failing health of her father. She decided to go home and found a ticket, the last one for the next day out of Nairobi. Plus, a family was riding into town the next am to provide her with a ride into the city. Also, a friend our has her mother coming into town for her baby’s delivery. She was going to come into town on her own, but now our neighbor will be able to fly out with her. Ms. Barb also came over to use skype our computer to talk with her family and friends before she flew out. It was neat to see God work in this situation.
Peds has been a very interesting experience. It is fairly busy. I am learning a lot about malnutrition. It is also very difficult seeing such sick children. I had 2 children- one about 1 yr old and another about 2 mos old, on ventlators in the ICU, both of whom did not make it. We also had a 26wk gestation about 800g baby we cared for in the NICU this week. I had another baby in respiratory distress die the other day. The baby’s present so late. I learned the mom’s think everything as the baby can eat. When they can’t, they come in for help. It is also amazing to see the malnourished kids come in who are semiconscious and then be up talking and playing a few days later. I have one baby on the floor who is HIV+. I notice how the mom smiles every morning. One of the missionaries pulled us aside this AM after seeing her and told us the miraculous story of how this mom came to know the Lord and is now a living testimony of his love.
Sarah and Maggie paid a couple of visits to the NICU this week. They came up with Jenny Roberts to deliver us some much needed blankets one day. After church I had them come up to see our newest set of triplets (one born at home, one in transit, and one in the hospital!) Maggie especially enjoyed looking at the little babies.
We also praise God for more small prayers that we are seeing answered. We praise God for them and will give you more details about them in due time.
Sarah drove on her own to Bomet the other day and did great doing it. The only thing is we seem to have trouble getting into 3rd gear at times. We hope that with a few more trips to Nairobi and learning our way around to be able to borrow vehicles and do more driving on own own.
A few other things. Every morning walking in the little kids love to come and shake our hands on the way to school. At times it seems annoying, but Ms. Barb said if such a simple act makes there day, then that’s okay.
In the NICU the nurses have the radio playing tapes constantly (usually the same ones the other day). One day I heard “How Great Thou Art” followed by “Feliz Navidad” on the same tape. Only in Africa!
We also learned you always have to be on your toes here to step in. This week at church Ben Roberts got up to announce the speaker, but could not find him. He said pray for me and then began to preach!
Oh, for those of you who use quinine for restless leg syndrome, one of the soft drinks here has quinine in it if you are interested.
In one of the books we are reading it mentions how the locals gain their long earlobes. They start by placing a thorn into the ear of children and expand from there. Looking at one of my young Maasi patients I noticed something unusually. I finally figured it out, a thorn in her ear. Her dad then tried to teach me Maasi (yet another language to learn).
By the way, Saturday the 20th was Kenyatta day (the George Washington of Kenya), so a belated Happy Kenyatta Day!