home - a few reflections

     We've been back stateside a little over a week. A lot has happened since our uneventful (thank you Lord!) flight home. Bill went straight back to work  the next morning, Ella started  school the day after that and Jack started preschool the day after her. And I unpacked and started drowning in a very long to do list (which doesn't shrink while you disappear for 1 month, I found out) and lots of back to school papers.
     We are treading water a bit better now and mostly righted our sleep schedules, so I thought it was about time to reflect on our trip a bit. I will speak a bit for Bill first. Bill loved Kijabe - he got to see a ton of new things, do a ton of procedures, enjoyed way better hours at work and loved the Christian working environment. Bill was so relaxed during our month in Kenya. At this point I'm going to refrain from talking about what Bill disliked in Kenya and upon our return home - I don't want to misrepresent him. That being said we will be hosting an evening next week where we will be talking about our trip so if you'd like more details, please comment below or email me.
     I had a really different experience than Bill. We lacked structure and schedule to our days and I found that difficult. And sometimes it was lonely - being in a new culture and not knowing how things work is intimidating. I struggled when the kids had difficulty with our new place. But on a positive note, I really enjoyed the people we got to know and the chances to learn about life in Kenya. I loved the freedom the kids had and lack of worry I had about where they were and what they were doing. The simplicity of our day to day (in hindsight) was refreshing.
     Returning home has not really been hard with "reverse culture shock" so to speak - I notice the differences but I don't feel and struggle with that (to this point). I have a new appreciation for true poverty, the blessings we have here; I find myself worrying less about my to do list (that never gets done!); we've learned how to be really flexible. I guess what I'm trying to say is it's impossible to leave the developing world and not be changed.  To find that not everyone lives the same way you do. To move beyond your own circle and subculture you tend to "do life" in and realize there's a whole lot of world out there. I thought I knew those things until I took this trip. 
     So I think that about wraps up this blog - I realize this last post is perhaps a bit short, a bit abstract, lacking in closure, etc. But that reflects where I'm at right now. I'm still reflecting and processing our trip. But I also realized if I didn't write something now I might not ever get it done!
      If you'd like to talk to me more about our trip just comment or email me so we can do that - it might be easier to discuss things outside of the blog. And as I mentioned earlier, we'll be hosting an evening next week to talk about our trip. If you'd like details, get in touch with me (I'm not going to post those details on the web.)
     Thanks for journeying along with us and for your thoughts and prayers. They have been much appreciated!

Better late than never - our Masai Mara trip

     Our safari trip was amazing! It is hard to put into words what it is like to be just yards from a lion lounging in the shade or to watch 12 elephants walking across the grass together, a stone's throw from your vehicle. But I will do my best!
     Although we had no major hiccups with our trip, we had a slight miscommunication about how we were paying for the trip. We thought we could book partially on credit card - WRONG! Apparently we needed to pay for the whole thing in cash.  So, fingers crossed and prayers lifted we hit the ATM in hope that we some how wouldn't reach our withdraw limit for the day. Somehow we managed to make 3 ATM withdraws which was just enough to cover our expenses for our 3 day trip (we literally had the equivalent of $30 leftover).  Crisis averted.
      The trip down took about 4-5 hrs. About halfway into the drive, you hit the road to nowhere - literally! It took us about 2 hrs to drive about 60 miles due to half the road being potholes and the other half unpaved (which was actually better because you could go a bit faster). I was feeling a bit saddle sore. And once again the ipad saved the day for our journey.
     We arrived early enough on our first day to head out for a 2-3 hr game drive. We were not disappointed! We probably saw 15-20 different types of animals that afternoon. And bless our driver, he worked really hard to find the elephants Ella was looking for and finally spotted them on our way out of the park. Hooray!
     Our second day was our longest - we spent 8 hrs driving around the Masai Mara on our quest to spot animals. We stopped for a picnic lunch amongst the wildebeests and Jack thought it was really cool to "pee on a tree." The memorable sight of the day was stopping at the river and seeing all the dead wildebeests in the water who were unable to successful cross without being trampled, drowned or chomped by crocodiles. The smell was awful.
     Our last day included an early morning rising to catch the sunset and one last glimpse of the animals. We were unable to find the elusive rhino, but we did catch a gorgeous sunrise.
     The accommodations did not disappoint! We stayed at the equivalent of a very fancy guest house. It was small and the kids felt at home. The staff was wonderful and the views were amazing!
     To recap - highlights of the trip: wildebeest migration (1.5 million migrate from Tanzania to Kenya and we were there to see it!) lion eating a wildebeest, huge groups of elephants walking together, the kids sticking their heads out the top of the vehicle (a highlight for them!) the kids faces when we spotted animals, a picnic on the Mara, our excellent driver, an indoor place to sleep at night
     the not-so-highlights : huge spiders and slugs in our room at night, sitting in the car for loooooong periods of time, using "the bush" as a toilet, the road in and out of the Masai Mara, the not so warm shower
     I'm going to leave some pics below for your enjoyment. This was a trip of a lifetime - I highly recommend it!

 

looking out the top of the tour van

our tour van - literally an 8 person nissan mini bus! these are the tour buses of choice...

 

Jack with Timothy, who led us on a crocodile hunt - they liked his gun, so he posed for the kids!

 

Ella's turn to pose!

 

Wildebeest for breakfast

Last few days

     Tonight is our last night in Kijabe. We just finished packing up our things and are unwinding a bit before bed. Tomorrow we're off early on our Safari - we return Saturday to Kijabe to pick up our bags and then head off to Nairobi for the night. Sunday we hope to visit a friend's church and have our last round of goodbyes before our very late night flight (at 11:30pm!) Sunday evening.  Please pray our travels home would be less eventful than on the way to Kenya!
     I may not be posting about our Safari until we get back, so this will be the last post for a bit.  I hope to share about our Safari next week, as well as recap and reflect a bit about the whole trip.  We'd appreciate your prayers for our final days of travel to and from our Safari, to Nairobi (around town and to the airport) and for the way home to Pittsburgh.
     And just so you know - we are returning with 4 bags instead of 8.  I can't believe how much stuff we were carrying for the hospital and other people! (glad we were able to do it) 

Carnivore and a visit

Bill has been wanting to find time to take me to a restaurant that is near and dear to his heart - Carnivore. With our time getting close to a close here in Kenya, we decided it was this weekend or never. So we made plans to travel to Nairobi (which I have gotten quite sick of since (1) the road out of Kijabe is awful and (2) the traffic in Nairobi is beyond awful) on Saturday to enjoy a feast of meat at Carnivore.
     Carnivore - the name says it all. They specialize in spit-roasted meat, everything from chicken and lamb to crocodile and ostrich. Servers bring your meat to you on spears and slice it in front of you onto your plate (Jack found this fascinating). When you have had your fill, you then turn down the flag on your table and they stop serving you meat. If the presentation wasn't enjoyable enough, the monkeys that visited the dining area sure were. They would sneak onto the outside dining area periodically to steal food!

(menu at Carnivore)

(where the meat is cooked)

(getting a picture with our meat)

     So needless to say, we loved Carnivore. The kids enjoyed the chicken and the playground next to the restaurant. Bill and I enjoyed eating crocodile meat, but we decided to pass on trying the ox balls. (not a joke, they were really on the day's menu!)
     Making our day even more enjoyable was the company we had joining us for lunch. When Bill was previously in Kenya, he spent his 3 months with a Kenyan host family. Fortunately we were able to reconnect with them on our current trip and invited them to join us for lunch. Ella and Jack took quickly to the teenage girls and we enjoyed catching up during lunch. After lunch We traveled back with them to their hometown of Thika and spent the night - the kids were excited to "sleepover" in the girls room. But I think they most enjoyed the cable tv (we don't have a tv where we are staying in Kijabe) and the satelite service include the nick jr channel. It was hard to convince them to do anything else.

(at one of the waterfalls in Thika)

     So minus having to spend extended time in the car (again) we thouroughly enjoyed the weekend. We were sad to have to say goodbye to our friends, but hope to see them again next year if their plans to travel to America fall into place.

Meeting Kenyans

     The one thing that I didn't count on this month was that it would be a little tricky to get a chance to know a few Kenyans. Except for the friends Bill made from a previous trip to Kenya, it's been a bit difficult to get to know the folks here. Why? Kijabe has a large amount of westerners here. Between the missionary kids boarding school and the hospital, there are just a lot of white folks around!   
     Now don't get me wrong - it's been nice to have familiar faces here and people I can ask questions of. But it's good to try and get a feel for the local culture too. And thanks to a certain 3 year old in our family, we had that chance this week.
     Part of the agreement with where we are staying is we get house help (laundry, cleaning) 2-3 times per week. The kids have grown quite fond of the lady who comes to help us out - so comfortable that in fact I heard Jack exclaiming "When can we come to your house?"  I guess when you are 3 it's ok to skip formalities and invite yourself over :)
     So last night we were invited to visit for part of the evening. We tried to prepare the children that the house would be very small, but apparently they weren't listening. Pretty much the first words out of their mouths was "it's so small" followed by whining about wanting to go home. I was mortified, but our hosts were very gracious and smiled and laugh.
     Eventually the kids got interested in playing with other children outside and we ended up visiting for more than 2 hours! Kenyans tend to eat dinner much later than us, so I was suprised the kids were doing alright with a banana and a bag of potato chips - I guess it means they were too busy playing outside to notice that it was way past their dinner time!
     We had a lovely evening learning about Kenyan culture, language and sharing a bit about our home in America.
     I am still struct though, by the amount of space that 6 people were living in - and their home is a very typical Kenyan home. In fact, they do ok by standards here - they both have steady work, they have a house girl, they are able to afford school fees, etc. But it is literally half the size of the 3 bedroom apartment that we are staying in, and maybe even then I am being a bit generous by saying that.
     At first, it's hard not to feel a bit guilty about all that I have - house, cars, yard, etc - but I don't really think that's the right response. It's not wrong that we've been the recipients of so many blessings; what would be wrong is not sharing my blessings with others. So I've been challenged to think about that - how we use what God has given us...am I seeking only to bless myself with my things or am I seeking to share and bless others?
     I think the thing I enjoyed most about the evening was just how nice it was to be there in our new friends' home. Appearances didn't matter - the warmth of their hospitality did. That's invaluable.

Souvenir shopping

     We spent Friday afternoon doing a little souvenir shopping in Nairobi - on Fridays they have a Masai Market set up in one of the shopping plazas in the capital, and we heard it was definitely a place to check out.  It was a bit overwhelming actually! Lots of vendors with lots of wares (many selling the same thing). 
     The name of the game in this shopping experience was haggling. The thing is since you are a Western tourist, they tend to mark the price quite a bit. So, you just have to barter a bit (and pretty much still get a bit overcharged, but not quite so bad) and come to an agreement. The tough part is as soon as you express any interest in an item at a stand, the seller comes straight over to begin selling to you. This made it a bit tough to browse, so we just had to work hard to do a big loop of the place and then sit down and figure out what we wanted to buy from where.
     Fortunately, the market is attached to an upscale "mall" of sorts and there was a playground for the kids to play on so we could take turns walking the market and purchasing items. I am not a haggler by any means, but it was not as bad as I had thought it would be. Bill (true to form) managed to have an eye for the most expensive items and kept returning with things I didn't know he was going to buy!  They were worth it though...
      Sadly, I won't be posting any of the pics of the stuff we bought (yet) - don't want to spoil the surprise for those we bought for!
     The rest of the week has been less eventful. I have not been posting much because there really hasn't been anything major to write about. Bill continues to press on at the hospital and the kids and I have been poking around at home and trying to get outside when the weather has been decent. So my apologies for the lack of posts!

Life at the hospital

     Well, I thought it was probably my (Bill) turn to write something of my antics since arriving in Kijabe.  Things at the hospital have been somewhat different from what I anticipated since the attending surgeon (or consultant in the local vernacular) that I had arranged to work with here has been ill and unable to work for several weeks and now has returned to the US for further evaluation and treatment. 
     I have spent most of my time working, instead, with an Australian surgeon, Dr Bird, who is the Chief of Surgery here and has been here for 11 years.  The first day, in fact the first case, as I was preparing to assist in a thyroidectomy the OR supervisor pulled me out and said: "You are a general surgeon right?" I told her I was a general surgery resident and she took me to another room where a patient with a HUGE lipoma (fat tumor) was being intubated. The rest of the day I was in that room doing cases with a Kenyan intern. The attending would poke his head in from time to time to see how I was doing but otherwise I was on my own. The cases were mostly minor ones that I was well familiar with. If it was something I hadn't seen before Dr Bird would show me how to do it, but most days for most cases I run my own room.
     I do get a chance to scrub in with Dr Bird and the Kenyan upper level resident on the service quite often as well on more sophisticated cases and often he will let us do large portions of those operations without him as long as I am comfortable doing it.  This has given me many opportunities to teach and learn from the residents here.  Coming here after beginning my senior resident year at home is like coming to college out of high school.  I felt reasonably competent to deal with most things I have encountered at home, but here the rules, the patients, the diseases and the resources are so different I feel at times quite lost and not infrequently frustrated.  I knew life would be different without ready access to a CT scanner but I never thought how heavily I rely on other things that are unavailable to me here such as Arterial Blood Gases, Arterial Lines, and reliable laparoscopic equipment. 
     Kijabe hospital is remarkably well equipped with subspecialists for a mission hospital. There are training programs in General Surgery, Pediatric Surgery, Neurosurgery and Orthopedics but still the range of things I see are so much broader than I have ever experienced. I will in one day operate on a breast, a toe nail, a colon, a tongue and an anal sphincter. It is fascinating and humbling to again be made aware of just how much I don't know.  God has been good to bring me to this place where I am well-supervised and supported so that I can see that despite my 14 years of preparation for this field I still have a LOT to learn.  Continue to pray that I will serve effectively and learn fast.
     Things I do not want to forget: praying before every surgery, operating on people who have no where else to go, teaching Kenyan residents, eating breakfast while looking out over the Rift Valley, walking home for lunch with my family, watching my children play with Kenyan children, learning from career medical missionaries, sending people away with advanced disease because they were not caught in time, losing patients to resource limitations, trusting in the plans of a Holy God
-Bill