One Week

There are more posts from our safari weekend that I would like to write (probably once we get home). For now I want to switch gears on posting topics. While the safari was wonderful and a dream come true, it is not why we chose to come to Kenya at this point in time in our lives and it represents little of our activities here.

One week. That's the amount of time we have left. Next Wednesday, we will go to Nairobi and get on a plane to return home. Feelings are mixed. I’ll make mention here that the thoughts and feelings I’m sharing are primarily mine and the kids. David has not had much opportunity to process his own thoughts, much less share them with me!

Of course, there are many positives to home: seeing, talking to and spending time with family and friends (and our dog); our church; not having to remember to turn the hot water heater on before we need it; not feeling like I need to buy something from everyone who asks; having access to a dryer, dishwasher, high speed internet and my favorite drive-thru (Chick-Fil-A). However, when I look at that list, most things are mere conveniences, things we could do without.

There are some things I do dread about returning home. Primarily, my tendency to be bombarded by the pace of American life. While doing everyday life here is not easy, it is much simpler. I’ve been asked if it has been hard making so many meals; at home I’d never cook and prepare as many meals in my kitchen in the same amount of time I have here. However here I don’t have a car; outside our initial grocery run, any errand I’ve done was accomplished with a short walk. Here I don’t have NEARLY the same amount of laundry, house, and stuff to juggle. Here I can be in any room of our apartment in about 15-20 steps (for David it’s about 10). Here I have some help with the house work. We have had another worker, Winnie, come in to help a few days and I am so thankful. Monday, she ironed for 3 ½ hours!

The reason I most struggle with leaving is the people. It is so easy to see the need here. It’s not that we are the only ones skilled to do the jobs, but the workers are few. I’ve shared that there has been a big need in the pediatrics department. Paul, the wonderful family medicine doctor we mentioned who had been running peds, has unexpectedly had to return to the States on an indefinite leave due to a family situation. Thankfully there is another short-term pediatrician coming on the 12th to serve for a few weeks. Please pray for the call to be answered (my request on 10/2 on our prayer calendar).

Our children see the need, too, and have expressed concerns about leaving. They do miss family and friends, but have loved their time here. Tonight at dinner Abby, the one who most often mentions seeing others back home, said she was sad to think about leaving. It has been interesting because they haven’t spent significant amounts of time around the same people (other than Helen and Winnie). We have been able to see Megan and Rhett’s kids quite a few times and they always enjoy that. They’ve played around kids a few times at the playground, but rarely the same ones more than twice. More often we see the workers, vendors, and some staff at the hospital. The chaplains have been very verbally appreciative of their visits to the children at the hospitals.

Today before lunch we were able to make another visit to CURE and this afternoon a visit to Kijabe (Bethany Kids). There were fewer children in the CURE playroom so after a while Phoebe asked if we would walk down the hall to visit the children who were in their beds on the ward. Madeline, again, was fantastic churning out the balloon animals and hats. A 9 year-old boy named Peter really took to John. He had met us in the playroom. He was extremely polite and spoke very good English. Once we went to the ward, he showed John all around and introduced him to everyone. It was very hard to tell him goodbye. Phoebe was so kind and encouraging to the children and me before we left. She told us that our visits had not been in vain and that we had made a mark. It made me teary and I told her that we were so encouraged by her work and heart for Christ and the children.

John and his buddy Peter

John, Abby and Madeline with Phoebe and Peter at AIC CURE

We went to Bethany Kids at Kijabe Hospital this afternoon to give Mercy more of the decorated name cards to put over the patient’s beds. She walked the kids around until they each spotted one of their cards in use. We were able to make a few more visits and balloon animals.

Madeline in front of 2 pieces of her artwork.
Sidenote on this "smile": After the 1st few pics I took of her here, I mentioned retaking it b/c she wasn't smiling. She kindly informed me that, yes, she was smiling. I gave up - not wanting to pester her into a Garfield grin. Of course, whenever I uploaded said smile on the blog, I worried people at home would believe her to be unhappy here.
Today while we were at CURE, Peter borrowed Abby's camera to take some pictures. While trying to snap a shot of Madeline, he peeked out from behind the camera and said, "laugh". It worked for him; I guess I need to try it :)

Abby's artwork (sorry it turned out blurry)

John's artwork.
Mercy told the kids that since using their name cards, the patients are taking them home when they leave.

Mercy and one of the patients at Bethany Kids.

I want to interject here that I have been very proud of my kids on these visits – for a few reasons, but one very important one that I want to share:

There have been at least 2 times that Madeline, Abby and John have seen children who most of us would find difficult to look at. We just don’t run into that many people with severe facial deformities. Mercy had asked them about it before the 1st visit and they said they wanted to try. Today, it wasn’t planned; we met the little boy when we went to find Mercy. The kids and I talked about strategies to use in this situation, but we also talked about “God’s eyes.” We love the Brandon Heath song, “Give Me Your Eyes” (if you’ve listened to a few hours of Christian radio in the past 3 years, you’ve probably heard it; oh yeah, it’s on the blog, too – almost forgot since the music doesn’t load on dial up unless you’ve been on the page for 30 minutes). I have prayed on my own and with the kids that God would give us His eyes for these children and that we would see them as He does. “Give me your eyes…for everything I keep missing …. Give me Your love for humanity; Give me Your arms for the brokenhearted, the ones that are far beyond my reach; Give me Your heart for the ones forgotten, Give me Your eyes.” I’ve listened to that song thousands of times in the past few years, but have never experienced it so literally before now.



I’d like to share a few answers to prayer, and a few more specific requests.

I haven’t talked to my sister, but I know she arrived in Liberia safely. Please continue to pray for her while she is there. If you haven’t done so, check out her blog: http://deedeeeubanks.blogspot.com/

Our friends Barry and Mike made it home safely. We had hoped to see them last weekend as we were all in Masai Mara, but it is a VERY big place and our camps were not close. We look forward to swapping stories when we get back home.

David is on call this weekend so he will be working the next 6 days. He seems to be feeling more comfortable each day though he still spends time most every evening reading his texts. I’m certain he hasn’t read or studied medicine this much since he took his board exams in 2004.

If you've made it to the bottom of this post, thank you for reading and praying.

Maasai Village

Saturday morning around 10:30, we took a tour of a Maasai village. The Maasai are traditional nomadic herdsman and they make up about 2 % of Kenyan people. On our drive to the mara, we saw many maasai people herding their cattle, sheep, and/or goats. This particular village welcomes tourists and their dollars.

The chief's son, MaiTan, was our guide. As soon as we entered, he asked for our cameras so that he and another guide could take pictures as we enteracted with the people. There are 150 children living in this village (brought into this world by probably less than 10 fathers). I'm pretty sure MaiTan said something about having 14 wives??? Obviously a very different culture.

After the tour of the village, they took us to their market area where each home has their own stand. It is very overwhelming b/c they are all extremely eager for you to buy something from their "shop". We felt like we needed to visit each one (which was probably a mistake b/c it greatly lengthened our time there & created a mental shut-down for me), but we wanted to be polite. My favorite was the fact that they continually showed us the "calabash" as an item to purchase and proudly told us why it is so practical - b/c it is used to store cow blood for drinking. Apparently no one has broken it to them that these aren't in high demand in the US.

Of course, after looking at each stall, then the kids had to remember where they saw something they wanted to buy (which, for John, was every other stand, but we made him narrow it down to one - he's already made way too many purchases here!) You have to bargain quite a bit b/c they set their prices very high. Interestingly, they all know the word "negotiate".

Despite the mental drain of the last hour plus in the market, we were all glad that we had gone. It was very interesting to see ans something we will certainly remember.

The women singing a welcome song

Maasai warriors performing a traditional dance.
Jumping high (though I'm not sure to which height) proves you are ready for marriage.

Our waiter at the hotel recommended we take a treat to the children.
Fortunately, we had some bags of Jelly Belly Beans (I think from Grandma Sprayberry).

They lined us up with the women to sing a song (& decorate us with their traditional beaded necklaces)

The warriors led us in another traditional song and dance.

Mai Tan proudly showed us their houses, constructed of cow dung. They have over 40 houses in this village.

Inside the house. He showed us the sitting room, the kitchen, the warrior's bed, the other bed which is for the wife and children, the storage room and the kids' favorite - the sleeping room for the baby cows.





 
 

Safari Part 3

* Sidenote: I've received messages from some of you saying that you had an ERROR response when you tried to comment on the Safari posts. I'm not sure what is going on there; I haven't changed settings. Hopefully the problem will  be resolved. We do love reading your notes (when we have the connection to do so!)

Sunday morning we had our last game drive. We said good morning to the King of the Jungle and watched him stroll around a bit. Then we came upon a group of hyenas feeding on a kill (an unlucky wildebeest). We watched for about 30 minutes as they fed. Two jackals also circled, trying to sneak in while the hyenas were distracted. It was very interesting. I realize some will be interested in these pictures, and some will not. If you fall into the latter group, scroll down until you are past the red blur and take comfort that there won't be bloodshed in heaven.

Madeline especially liked the jackal. The kids thought it bore some resemblance to our dog Dottie.

Our fantastic driver Cosmas.
He has been doing this for about 18 years. On one of our drives, I asked him what some of his favorites things/scenes are that he has seen/experienced. He answered, "Cats. I love cats."
As I thought back to the amazing lions we had watched earlier that day, Cosmas added, "I love my cat at home. He comes and sits in my lap when I sit down." Fortunately on other game drives, he had shared some of the sights he's seen which were more in my line of thinking.

John’s most exciting sighting of the day actually came before the drive. I don’t think I’ve mentioned that our wake-up calls Saturday and Sunday mornings came at 6am when a kind attendant brought a tray of coffee, tea, and hot chocolate to the tent (FYI, a large majority of our family are not morning people).

Anyway, we were getting ready and John, in particular, was dragging. We were supposed to be at the front circle for pick-up at 6:30am. David and the girls headed toward the lobby a little earlier while I attempted to move John along. Meanwhile, the attendant came back to retrieve our tray. When John and I (eventually) came out of the tent (which was located about 50 yards from the main building), there where our walkway met the main path, sat a baboon helping himself to our drink tray which apparently had been set on the ground.

The baboon paid no attention to John and me (I had been told they are not afraid of women and children b/c we do not typically carry war clubs), but he did look over his shoulder several times to make sure no one else was coming before he began picking up the pots and drinking from them! John, of course, found it hysterical and before I tried to figure how we could get to the lobby, I decided I HAD to take pictures. I snapped a few (though they came out blurry) before David came walking down the path scaring the primate away. John had a ball telling everyone he saw after that all about it.

Baboons are notorious for their unruly behavior.
David wondered out loud, "What do you think a baboon on coffee would be like?"

I do realize while most people reading these stories will find them amusing, there MAY be a relative or two who will have concern over the “dangerous” points; just remember we have returned safe from the African plains and we've never been sound anyway!

Safari Part 2 (see Indescribable Post below for Part 1)

Saturday afternoon around 3:30 we headed out for our 3rd game drive. Cosmas, our safari driver and guide, had promised John we would see rhinos; we didn’t realize we would see them so “up close and personal.” There is a rhino conservation area where a group of White Rhinos are protected by a group of guards. These men follow the rhinos to protect them from poachers.

Cosmas drove us up to the group of guards and said, “Now you will have a walking safari.” One (note: one) of the men led us up a path to an area where 4 of the (very large) rhinos were grazing (about 20 yards away). As we began snapping pictures, the rhinos worked their way closer to where we were standing. We would step a little further away and snap some more pictures. At one point, the guard very calmly and politely said, “Ah, hello; this way.” He led us through a few bushes then turned and stated, “that one is aggressive; sometimes we run.” Oh, okay; good to know. Never fear, he did carry a twig to wave off the aggressive rhino should a situation arise.

Yep, there's a rhino behind us; he's pretty close, too

They seem much bigger "in person"

Grab a magnifying glass and look very closely between Madeline and Abby; you may be able to spot the protective twig

Once back in the cruiser, we saw more animals, spent several minutes observing the lions (simbas), and watched a BEAUTIFUL sunset over the savanna.

Topi - one of the many variety of gazelle found in the mara

Many times, the chorus from Chris Tomlin's "How Great Is Our God"
played in my head as background music for these amazing scenes.

Indescribable

(Written Saturday afternoon:)
Our safari experience so far has been incredible. I wish everyone had an opportunity to see God's amazing creation here. It's surreal; David and I continually look at each other and just shake our heads. I'm not sure how many times we've told the children, "What you are experiencing is an opportunity of a lifetime; something some people only dream of." And we have only been on 2 of the 4 game drives included in our stay.

There are so many posts I could do from the past 30 hours (the 4-hour road trip across the Rift Valley from Kijabe to Masai Mara; our hotel and Kenyan hospitality; the visit to a Masai Village), but I will start with the most amazing one and the one that many of the kids' friends have been waiting for: Safari Animals!

We've all seen the incredible pictures taken, but it is hard to imagine seeing those scenes personally (especially from a few yards away). 440 pictures - that's how many we've taken on our "big"camera during the 1st two game drives! Obviously I'll only be able to share a sampling.

You've heard of the Big Five (elephant, rhino, leopard, cape buffalo, lion) - so far we've seen 4 and John has been guaranteed that he'll see the 5th this afternoon. It is rare to see all 5 during a short safari stay because the leopard is very elusive, but we were fortunate to catch a view of one on the drive back to our "camp" last night (you'll understand why camp gets "these" after we do the hotel post later!)

Enough chit-chat, let's see some pictures!

SAFARI PICS - PART I

One of my favorite of the kids' quotes, "I can tell it's an African elephant because of the ears;
Ms. Tiffany taught us that."

Tembo is swahili for elephant

The Masai Mara is an extension of the Serengeti Plains in Tanzania

Cape Buffalo (nyati)



Wildebeest Migration
There are millions of these in the Masai Mara right now

You can't see it very well in the picture, but we watched this lioness crouch and start after a pair of Wildebeests.
She gave a very half-hearted attempt though and quickly gave up.





Here she is resting after her 30 yard dash



Not sure what yawn is in swahili



Simba!
It was amazing watching this beautiful creature walk across the plain (and right past our cruiser) Saturday morning.



David snapped this great shot

Lion cub hiding in the brush. We had to crop in on the computer to get a closer shot. They were very hard to see; we never would have noticed them if our guide had not showed us.



Our most requested animal picture by friends at home:
twiga



There will be many more things to share from our wonderful weekend and hopefully those posts will come sooner than later. We are safely back in Kijabe. Thank you for your prayers for safe travel.


Abby does want to let all of their friends know the kids "absolutely, positively miss all of them."



Pictures from Visit to AIC CURE

The kids and I enjoyed our visit to AIC (African Inland Church) CURE yesterday. CURE is a pediatric surgery facility that brings a group of kids in each week (usually on Sunday or Monday) for scheduled surgeries. Most children return home Saturday and a new group comes in. There are many different types of surgery available, including repairs for club foot and cleft palate.

There is a wonderful little playroom with books and toys. Phoebe is the woman who currently assists with some of the children programs. She talks to them about Jesus (Yesu) as she works. She was very welcoming. We brought Madeline's balloon animal materials and it was a hit. I asked Phoebe if I was allowed to take pictures and she said yes.


There were 3 children in the room when we arrived and soon several others joined us.

  



Thanks to the wonders of digital cameras, I was able to show the children themselves. They loved it. Some kids responded with a small smile, others (as you will see) went all out!



A few of the kids like this boy made their own creations. He had a blast blowing up the balloons with the hand pump.

This is Faith; she loved having her picture taken. Abby took this picture.

Doesn't he have the best smile?

Before we left, Phoebe asked us to share with the children why we had come and to sing a song. We told them that David had come to work in the hospital and that we wanted to come too to meet them and share Jesus' love. We sang "Jesus Loves Me" (& added the sign language words we could remember). At our request, the children then sang a song for us.

Later yesterday afternoon, we went back to Kijabe Hospital to take Mercy (the chaplain) name cards we had made at her request. She puts a paper over each of the kids' hospital beds with their name and "Jesus loves you" written on it. She wanted some that were colored/decorated and we were happy to help.

When we arrived, Mercy was on one of the larger pediatric wards (think community rooms from Patch Adams) talking to the parents and children. After she spoke and they sang (they love to sing here and we love to listen to them), she introduced us and asked if we had any more silly bands to pass out . Fortunately we did (though we are getting low - we should have brought a lot more!) Mercy asked to me to pray for and over a group of mamas and their babies (who have hydrocephalus). Talk about humbling. David says every day so far he has seen cases which could be written up in journals. Very little here is a simple "cut & dry" illness. Thank you for praying for these wonderful people.

Confessions and Such

I had planned to wait until tonight to post, but since our internet connection has been down since Monday, I should probably do it now.

It may have come through in part of my post Sunday, but I'll confess I struggled over the weekend with the thought that most of my time here may be spent doing housework. I knew those tasks consume much time  and we had sent word that we would like to hire someone to help so the kids and I would have opportunities to get out and serve (BTW, the cost to hire a house worker is less than a dollar an hour and is considered very good pay).

Megan delivered our requests a few weeks ago, but as with many things here, response time is slow. I confessed my "issues" to the Lord and asked Him to provide opportunities; I also prayed that I would be content with whatever He chose for me to do in Kijabe. Afterall, it is important for David to be taken care of so that he is able to study, prepare, and be available to be at the hospital when needed. Everyone at the hospital has been so grateful to have a pediatrician visit and his occupation is the reason for our placement at Kijabe Hospital.

God was gracious and Monday morning, one of the other wives called to check in on us. Carolyn and her husband Paul had hosted us for dinner last Wednesday. Carolyn specifically asked if the kids and I were finding things to occupy ourselves. I told her we had enjoyed the playground several times, but would like to do something to serve. She offered to walk us over to the hospitals that afternoon to see if there was something we could do.

We went first to Kijabe. She gave us a brief tour then introduced us to Mercy, a hospital chaplain. Mercy talked and prayed with us and took us to 2 pediatric rooms. Between the 2 rooms, there were 6 children and 5 moms. Madeline made balloon animals while Abby and John passed out silly bands. Mercy introduced us (in Swahili?), prayed over the families and led them in a song to thank us for coming. Though it was just a brief visit, we enjoyed getting to interact with those precious families.
We also made an introductory visit to AIC CURE (which is the pediatric surgery hospital right next door to Kijabe Hospital). We will return this morning to join a group time from 11-12.

Moday afternoon Helen, the houseworker and assistant house manager for the sitaplex, asked if we could use some more help. She knew someone in her family who needed work. Unfortunately they did not show up yesterday as scheduled so we will see if we receive more help. If not, we will certainly be fine. I did have the opportunity to attend a Women's Bible Study. It was nice to meet some of the missionary wives here.

Continue to pray for David. He is primarily going to be working with the Nursery and intensive care babies while providing back-up for the resident running the peds unit. In the 1st 2 days of this week, they had to intubate 2 babies. David intubated the 4 1/2 pound baby yesterday and has begun the ventilator management. Paul, the family practice doc (who has been here several years and has run things in the nursery and on peds for the past few months) will leave tomorrow for a trip to the states. He is receiving a humanitaritan award from the American Acadmemy of FP. Paul will be missed, but thankfully, doc Steve Letchford (who David says is an incredible MD) will still be here and available to back-up David as needed.

The kids are continuing to enjoy their time. Of course, they miss family and friends back home, but love many of the new experiences. They are very proud to be walking every where. There were some complaints about this the 1st few days in Kijabe - I know I don't have to name names ;) Of course, David and I were easily winded as well (we'll blame the altitude - 7500 ft). In Nairobi, Abby and John were disillusioned by 2 different drivers in 2 days, "Wow! We're going to have a different driver every day?" Now they realize car rides will be rare, but they've decided we should switch to walking everywhere once we get back home. John and Abby are determined to catch some lizards, but so far the lizards have been too quick.

I'm not sure if I will be able to post again before this weekend so I'll share that we are excited about the chance to go on a safari to the Masai Mara. We'll leave Friday (I think it's about a 4-5 hour drive each way) and come back Sunday. We look forward to seeing Africa's big game animals.
We can't wait to share the pictures!
Pray for safe travels and R&R for David especially as he has been pretty tired and still trying to recover from the sinus crud that hit before we left home.

Well, I better run get us ready for the visit to CURE.

Thanks for tolerating these long posts, but I know they are especially important to our parents/grandparents. As always, thank you for your prayers. I especially love hearing about the children who are praying. It always touches me to hear our children pray.
Love y'all.

Pictures!

Thanks to my wonderful, technologically minded husband, we can upload pictures. The quality will not be the best, but that's going to be the trade-off for now. Once we're home, we can adjust that. So here's to 2 posts in one day.

View of the Rift Valley on the drive from Nairobi to Kijabe

Coming into Kijabe

Got Luggage?



Dodgeball



The RVA playground has a lot of fun things you wouldn't see on most American playgrounds these days.



John posing with his Masai warrior



Abby with her doll and the doll's doll

Madeline in the apartment window (she's on her bunk bed)

This one's for Grace.
After my 1st post, David spotted a monkey on the trashcans. He came and got the kids to go take a look, but the monkey headed for the trees so they couldn't get a clear picture. Maybe a better one next time.

Hope you enjoyed the pics. Until next time....