Going Deeper...

I’m beginning to feel like the first few sentences are the hardest ones to come up with when making a blog. So, I’m going to start this one with that disclaimer! There’s just so much to talk about, so many new experiences when you’re dropped into a culture this different from your own.

I know it’s been a few days since the last post. I kept trying to get Jackie to put a few of her thoughts down, but she’s so into the book that she’s reading right now that it takes up all of her spare time. She was actually reading it with a flashlight while we watched a movie last night. The book is called “Infidel” by Ayaan Hirsi Ali – it’s really intense… Anyways, I do promise that her thoughts will come soon enough, although if she waits too long she’s just going to have too much to say! I can say, however, that she has started a new rotation this week, this time with a Kenyan “medical officer” (kind of like an advanced resident in Canada) named “Kimosop”. He does Pediatrics and Internal Medicine, and he truly runs on “Kenyan time”. If he tells Jackie to meet him at 7am, she leaves the house at 7:25 or else she would be waiting half an hour for him! He does, however, know a TON about medicine so Jackie stands to learn a lot from him.

The two of them had a very interesting case yesterday. Basically the gist of it is that a 16-year old girl came in with her mother because she is pregnant. She wants an abortion, which is actually illegal in this country. Her reasoning, though, would cause even the most conservative person to stop and think about the decision. Her father doesn’t know, and she and her mother believe that when he finds out about the child he will kill her. So if they don’t do this procedure for her in the sterile and safe environment of the hospital, she will either get someone in her village to do it (extremely dangerous with a good chance she’d die then anyways) or she will kill herself. What would you suggest in this situation? I’m honestly at a bit of a loss… They really couldn’t do anything about it other than recommend her to pastoral counseling intervention and recommend against having the abortion done in the village.

On Saturday we went on our longest hike yet, to a peak called Kipkinor. We had to leave at 6:30am so that we could make it up before noon, the hottest time of the day (I know you’re all bitter at me now because of your Canadian December temperature). It was a beautiful 10km there (and then 10 back) through the forest. We saw about a dozen monkeys, although I couldn’t get a good picture of them because they were way up in the trees and really try to stay out of sight of us humans. I did carry my camera around my neck for part of it, until I slipped in the mud and turned my body while I fell to protect the camera. A bloody and bruised elbow was enough to convince me to put the camera away again, and thus I did not get a picture of the monkeys :-( At the top of this peak, though, was a large rock outcropping about the size of a living room where we had a beautiful panoramic view of the area and the town (and where we could lay down for an hour-long nap before heading back). Mama Brian and her neighbour boy Jonah were excellent guides for the journey. What was interesting was passing cows (and dodging cow patties) almost the entire way up. There were even a half-dozen of them on the peak! I’ll include a picture of Jackie and I hanging out at the top…

We are feeling more and more comfortable as time goes by here. I can now walk to the market in centre (what they call their town centre, if you say “town” you actually mean Eldoret) and meet up with at least 5 or 6 people I already know. Because you walk everywhere, if you see somebody you know you automatically stop and have a conversation. Greeting each other and talking is more important to the people here than what they originally set out to accomplish! This aspect of culture here really gets you thinking about the “bubble” that we create for ourselves back home by driving everywhere, hanging out in the back yard of our homes instead of the front yard, and minimizing spontaneous get-togethers with people…

As for me, I continue to diversify my role here… I spent the morning with a couple pastors from the local church helping them figure out their new projector, where to set it up, and how to play videos on it for the church. What’s funny is it would have been a 15-minute job back home, but it turns into an hour and a half here because you just end up enjoying each other’s company for that long! I’ve also spent time helping organize the Nursing School Library (yay Dewey Decimal System!) and I’m going to the children’s home tomorrow to help on their “jamba” (garden) Thursday I’m traveling to help out at a Junior High Youth Retreat with one of the Pastors from the church here. Oh, and of course I’ve been putting on a clinic at the basketball court with the high school boys – they are really improving!

I think that should be about it for now, I don’t want you guys to lose interest in these because they are so long :-) I have enjoyed hearing from family and friends back home, and thanks to my students for the regular updates on their volleyball season! Both teams competed in the Thames Valley Finals on Saturday, with the girls winning one match and playing really well, and the boys actually taking home the gold medal in what I was told were some really tight matches toward the end! I’m thinking that the teachers don’t stand a chance against the grade 8’s in the annual grudge match this year, unless Mr. Devries has really been working on his hops and Miss Reitsma on her topspin jump serve… I do know that the kids are sad to see the season finish up.

At any rate, we send our love to you all back home. Please continue to pray for the doctors and nurses here who really have their work cut out for them (such a small hospital for a catch basin of a quarter-million people) and for us to keep finding ways to fill needs in the community while we are here.

Blessings,
Kevin and Jackie