Final thoughts...

Well the experience in Kapsowar has now come to an official close (at least for now :-) Our journey back to Nairobi yesterday was an adventure, to say the least! There’s more of a story behind this, but it included the following highlights:

- being late for the matatu at 6am (because let’s be serious, nothing in Kenya had really been on time, up to that point)
- sitting with 13 others basically on a bench in the back of a pickup (with a top) with our luggage strapped to the roof along with a pole that had about 20 live chickens tied to it by their legs. This was in addition to the 2 chickens they threw underneath the benches by our legs that were impressively well-behaved for the journey
- Allie dry-heaving for much of the first hour on the terrible dirt road
- Seeing giraffes, antelopes, baboons, and zebras along the road
- Jackie going crazy in the souvenir shop (as she tends to do) in Eldoret
- Quite an uneventful 5-hour shuttle to Nairobi, but then getting into a cab that was circa 1980 and BEAT UP, only to have it run OUT OF GAS on the way up a hill and then get towed to a gas station, have the cabbie try to get us to pay for gas, then get lost (a 5-10 minute journey turned into 45 minutes) and THEN try to get us to overpay (although it was a pretty sheepish effort on his part at that point to continue trying to rip off the wazungu).

However, we arrived on time for the debriefing last night despite all of that, had a nice, relaxing evening, and said goodbye to Allie this morning as she departed for Zambia. Jackie and I are now laying low for the day at the Mayfield (AIM) guest house just reading and organizing before our 11-day whirlwind tourist tour of Kenya that commences tomorrow morning at 7:30am. I’ll share with you some closing events and thoughts of our last week in Kapsowar.

Basically the week was similar to the rest in terms of what we were able to accomplish, but it was a great week of some culminating “bonding time”. Dr. Christina was, unfortunately, pretty ill for most of the week. It was a bummer that we couldn’t spend much time with her toward the end and that it was a couple of days of Jackie not being able to learn from her, but it did provide Jackie with the opportunity to essentially RUN the maternity ward for three days. In the end, the three girls received excellent feedback about how much they were able to help out (and not just learn) at the hospital for these 4 weeks. One interesting case that arose that reflected an aspect of the culture was another one to do with abortion. On Thursday a woman arrived who was 10 weeks pregnant but had an abortion performed the day before at a local dispensary (because it wasn't her husband's baby). She was showing signs of septic shock, which was not surprising given the method (the main instrument used was a steel rod). The abortion had effectively killed the baby, but they still had to remove the fetus from the mother – the mother will recover. The really interesting part of this is, if you remember, the fact that abortion is illegal so they really should have reported this dispensary to the police. The attitude of the Kenyan medical staff was apathetic to the situation. Having had similar experiences, they decided it was useless to report since the dispensary would just end up bribing the police and the investigation would then be thrown out before any change was effected. It begs the question: how do you change this attitude? Should you still report it even though nothing will happen just because then the dispensary has to AT LEAST pay the bribe?

As for me, I spent the majority of the week working on a Microsoft Excel file for the church we had been attending to use to track their finances and then, hopefully, design some sort of budget. The method (or lack, thereof) of the church to track the donations and tithes coming in vs. tracking their expenses going out was quite concerning, especially considering the sermon series on stewardship they are currently in the middle of. We came up with at least the beginnings of a system for them to track this (because they do have a computer available to them), and I hope that they will be able to use it. People have a genuine mistrust toward authorities when it comes to finances (for very good reason, usually), so the churches here should really be at the forefront of transparency and accountability when it comes to that. However, many of their strengths are weaknesses of a lot of churches in the west, so there has to be a balance in there somewhere... I tried very hard to be sensitive of the fact that this type of thing isn't a strength of churches here, but it seemed like motivation was there for this to happen - hopefully it's sustainable and it leads to more on their part.

I also gave a talk to junior high school and high-school aged kids about “balancing your spiritual life amid distractions of life”. It went really well, although the difference in teaching/learning style here was definitely evident. It’s all done by rote, so trying to get them to engage in discussion or answer questions out loud was like pulling teeth! They were very attentive and appreciative, however, and most took good notes!

What had the greatest effect on us this week were definitely the goodbyes. Despite the fact that the hospital quite often takes in “short-termers” like us, so much energy was spent making us feel welcome the whole time and in sending us off “in style”. We were repeatedly told how much we were appreciated, and repeatedly asked when we would return! Jackie and I had the privilege of hosting our friends Elisha and Franxedes for dinner one night, we returned to the orphanage on Friday afternoon to say goodbye and play some “football” with them (in their colourful new soccer jerseys we had brought them from Clinton), and then we had a very special goodbye dinner with almost everyone we had grown close to on the hospital compound on Friday night at Mikel’s house (one of the nurses). This final party had 20 people (in a really tight space!) and included about 8 speeches and then us being adorned with gifts of sarongs (wrap-around skirts) for the girls and, luckily, a t-shirt for me :-) This picture is, as follows: Dr. Drew, me, Jackie, Dr. Kimosop, Crystal, Salome the hospital administrator, Allie, Dr James, and Mikel. Of noteable absence is Dr. Christina (she was sick).

Finally, yesterday here in Nairobi we had an excellent debrief with Murray, the man who had done our orientation with us before we left 4 weeks ago. He challenged us to think about the following (among other things) :
- How we would apply what we learned about ourselves and missions in general when we return to Canada
- Handling the “reverse culture shock” of returning to Canada and trying to balance our thoughts about our culture vs. that of Kenya
- Sifting through positives and negatives of our experience, as well as how we’ve grown spiritually in these last 4 weeks

We have definitely learned much about ourselves and about how “missions” might fit into our future plans – too much to write about in a relatively short blog. I want to thank all of you who stuck with us through the end of this blog (maybe it was only our moms, Victoria, and Tetcy, but that’s ok because it really helped me collect my thoughts as we progressed through the trip). We definitely look forward to returning home to family and friends and then discussing this experience with anyone who is interested as well as finding out what you all of have learned and been up to since we’ve been gone. Don’t worry, I’m going to think about a 1-minute, 5-minute, 10-minute, and then limitless presentation of what we have learned through this experience, and I’ll get Jackie to do the same (if you know Jackie, this is of vital importance. :-) So, you don’t have to be afraid to ask us for the “1-minute version” or whatever you’re interested in hearing. I already had one person (Mrs. From) tell me that she wanted the limitless discussion complete with pictures and everything, so that’s an option too :-) Perhaps most of all, we’ve learned (through experience, now) that God’s love and providence extend even to the far reaches of rural Africa, and that people in any circumstance or position can teach us about Him and about ourselves if we open ourselves to it.

As for Jackie and I, we leave for Sekanani camp tomorrow morning at 7:30 to do our 3-day “Africa wilderness safari" in the Masai Mara. Then we’re back in Nairobi for the night of the 23rd, and we leave early on the 24th to do our trek up Mount Kenya. If we get some really cool photos, I'll post a short blog about the safari when we're here again on the 23rd, so you can check it out then if you'd like. We return to fly out of Nairobi on December 30, and will arrive back on Canadian soil on the evening of December 31st. Again, we really appreciate all your thoughts and prayers and look forward to catching up with each of you (even if it’s only moms and Victoria) when we return! We will miss spending Christmas with the families, but being on the side of Mount Kenya with just each other (and our shirpas, haha) will be a pretty cool experience as well... I'm also really looking forward to seeing my grade 8 class and the rest of SCCS again in January!

Much love and blessings,
Kevin and Jackie

Here's a picture of my "basketball gang"


Allison and I on the "Piki Piki" outside of the Childrens' home

A picture of the Operating Theatre on the hospital grounds

Jackie and her patient Eunice with her baby "Kipchumba"
(which means "white" - because the C-section was performed by Jackie and Christina)