arrival in Kapsowar

Asante Sana (thank you) for logging in again to my blog! It’s been a couple days since I have posted an entry – on Monday we left Nairobi at 6am. We caught a shuttle-bus to Eldoret (arrived there at noon) where we met up with Christina Francis, one of the doctors in Kapsowar. She is from Indianapolis and into the 3rd month of her two-year commitment. She took us out for lunch and then shopping for groceries. It was pretty different in town than it was in Nairobi in that we were pretty much the only wazungu (white people) so we caught a lot of stares… That may have also had to do with the 8 pieces of luggage that we had that each weighed 50 pounds – pretty embarrassing… We’re hoping to leave 4 of those pieces behind so it won’t be nearly as bad going back to Nairobi. We also ended up with a ton of groceries, it’s pretty hard to buy groceries for 4 people for 4 weeks!

From Eldoret we drove 2 hours in the hospital’s ambulance (with all of our luggage strapped to the top!) down a pretty horrible dirt road, and arrived in Kapsowar at about 6pm. The most interesting part of that journey was driving through the town of Itan (ee-ten). That is the training headquarters for all of the Kenyan runners. It makes sense, you should see how hilly it is here, and we’re at over 7000 feet elevation! We saw a few of them running, and Christina told a story that especially Alyson and Danielle will appreciate. Dr. Rhodes (the permanent doc who isn’t actually here at present, he’s at home in the States) and his daughter were out for a run, and they met somebody else running on the road. They chatted with him for a bit, then invited him back to their place for dinner. In the course of the conversation, Dr. Rhodes mentioned that he was hoping to qualify for the Boston Marathon the following year (probably the most well-known marathon in the U.S.) He proceeded to ask the Kenyan if he had heard of it, and the Kenyan replied “yes, I actually won that race last year”! It turns out about 75% of Kenyan marathon runners come out of this district (the Marakwet district). My goal now is to get out running every morning and then try to meet one of them!

At any rate, I cannot describe to you how absolutely gorgeous it is here. We are way up on a hill here in town, and we look out over multiple valleys that are hundreds of feet down. In fact, I’m looking out the window of the house that Jackie and I are staying in and all I see are green rolling hills. They do get a lot of rain in this region (especially recently) so the trees and vegetation are quite impressive (again, not what you’d expect). It is one of the most beautiful places I have ever been to. I will take plenty of pictures, but I’m sure that they won’t do the area justice. The only thing missing is the wildlife – plenty of birds, but the rest are just cows and sheep! Oh, and don’t forget the massive spiders, cockroaches (I’ve only seen one) and crazy Junebugs the size of golfballs. When those are flying outside of your window it sounds like someone is cutting their lawn with a lawnmower… I think the lack of wildlife is because of the colder climate (by colder, I mean 70’s and low 80’s during the day, 60’s at night) and the elevation.

Since today is our first actual day here, we haven’t been up to much. We received a tour of the hospital grounds this morning, and then I came home to get our place more organized and do a bit of relaxing while Jackie, Allie, and Crystal got right to work in the hospital. I did go into town to explore for a bit and to try to pick up a card that I need to get the internet going, but man I felt so out of place that I didn’t last long ☺ I think it will be easier once our faces become a little more familiar in town. Many people are very friendly, however, and will try to chat your ear off in Swahili, or in English if they know it. Mary, the lady in charge of keeping our house in order, came by to do our laundry as well, so I got to chat with her for a while. She lives across the valley, and it takes her 1.5 to 2 hours to walk here every morning! She is so cheerful and I think it’ll be fun practicing my Swahili with her!

Tomorrow I am going to start working with the construction crew that is putting up a new operations theatre for the hospital. It’ll be a really good chance to build relationships with some locals. I might be spending a bunch of the time while I’m here doing that, along with visiting a couple of the orphanages in the area and playing with the schoolchildren who just started on a 6-week break.

Anyways, you may have stopped reading a while ago – this is all SO exciting to us, but it’s hard to grasp it all by just reading along. God has been amazing to us so far in providing us safety (especially on the roads), people that are excited to have us here, and beautiful accommodations. Please pray for Jackie and the girls – they are pretty nervous that the medicine side of things is going to be overwhelming (although I’m sure they’ll do great). Also pray for me as things are a bit more open-ended in terms of my responsibilities here. I’m really excited about the prospect of getting to know and witness to the locals whom I will be working and spending time with.

We’re definitely missing all of you at home, but it is comforting to know that there are many of you praying for us (as we are doing for you) and thinking of us during this time. I will try to send some pictures to my mom so that she can post them on this blog and the last one. The internet connection here is too slow to really be able to download or upload anything - which makes sense since we are way out in the boonies...

Until next time…














Our house in Kapsowar