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This is a long overdue blog entry...and probably the last until our next mission trip! Many thanks to all of you who have joined us on this journey. We received many emails, a few letters and packages, and were lifted up by many in prayer. The past 12 weeks have sped by. What have we learned? What will we take with us from this time that would not have been gained otherwise? Well - let's hope this part of the conversation never ends, even if the blogs do.

Our return to the U.S. has gone smoothly, although readjustment to life here continues slowly. Our travels from Tenwek went well - all flights were on time, all our baggage arrived without any damages, and most importantly, the videos on the flights worked so the kids had nonstop entertainment. Boy, are we spoiled!

We returned to Dulles Airport in DC where my parents met us - there's nothing like coming home to family! The weather was HOT! We drove to OH on June 2 and began the process of unpacking. But mostly we wanted to see family and friends so went out to eat a few times and even had a BBQ in our unkempt yard! Yardwork...now that's an area that needed catching up. We had some neighborly help with the mowing (Thanks Allan!) but also ended up recruiting the help of 4 teenage guys from church to tackle the weed eating and other big yard projects. The house needed a good sweeping and dusting, so before unpacking, I did the marathon cleaning. Unpacking...we're still in that process.

We were welcomed back by our Sunday School class and enjoyed catching up with friends. It's been over two weeks now and I think we've seen almost everyone, washed every article of clothing, restocked groceries and toiletries, gotten reacquainted with the dog and have gotten almost back into one of my loves - cooking/eating...so why do I still feel like something's missing?

Time...it's being filled up so quickly here in the U.S. Even though we were busy at Tenwek - Eric at the hospital, and the kids and I with homeschooling, food preparation and basic routine, we just had more of it and better quality. Already, my lists have exceeded the lines on the paper and the hours in the day. Home Insurance, bank statements, dying computer, dying cell phone, dying vehicle, water leak, etc. were all issues we were faced with during our first week home. Sure, these aren't life issues that can't be dealt with, but the time spent on these took us away from the precious time that we had become so used to spending with our children or with others at Tenwek. Sure, there have been trade offs - four lane highways, convenient ways to grab a meal, fresh produce galore, and special time with family and friends. No complaints here at all. It's just been difficult to shift gears, in a sense. So if we seem a little disoriented or not all together here...we're still trying to get our feet back on the ground here in Ohio. Three months sure has thrown us off...or maybe gotten us back on track!

So we are each processing our time in Kenya, in different ways. We miss the new friends we made and the ones we reconnected with. Many thanks to those who welcomed us and walked with us during our time at Tenwek. At the same time, we are so happy to be home and know that this is where God wants us to be during this season of life. We are glad that Eric could give some relief to the long-term missionaries at the hospital and that he could be involved in the medical training of interns and residents. We are so glad that our kids had the opportunity to live in another culture and experience life differently than they ever will here in Holmes Cty. And we are very thankful that as a family we were able to spend quality time together, surrounded by people and events that reflected God's love and His working in the lives of many.

So that's where we are at the moment with processing the last 12 weeks. How many more weeks/months will it take for some of our experiences to really soak in? Who knows? In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the fresh strawberries of the season...right after I finish my list of to do's for today!

http://www.newsleader.com/article/20110514/OPINION02/105140303/The-Bizarro-after-Easter-celebration

A little about Tenwek Hospital...

Since you are all probably tired of hearing about us as well as bad medical stories, we thought we would tell you a little about our area of the World. Tenwek Hospital is in the rural Kenya highlands. We are less than 10 miles from Kenya’s largest rain forest (Mau) so get much rain off of all that vegetation. So from a farming standpoint, we are in a good spot of the world. The countryside is like a quilt of small farms dotted with very small homes.

The main thing they grow (and eat) is corn. They grind it into cornmeal, add a little water and cook it into a semi-solid substance called ugali. To them, this is “food”. Without it, one has not eaten. To us, this is “not good food”. Nutritionally, it is a cheap source of calories but is pretty much devoid of nutrients (not to mention flavor). As a result, malnutrition is very common here. One measurable side effect of only eating ugali is anemia. At this elevation and level of activity, a normal blood level (hemoglobin) should be around 14. However, the average patient seems to have a level of about 10, and numerous times in our months here I have seen it in the 2’s and 3’s. It is more difficult to work the farm and for a child to learn and develop when they are malnourished. Our pediatric ward typically has about 5 kids that are admitted primarily for severe malnutrition, but most admits have some degree of malnutrition and multitudes go on with less severe chronic malnutrition that affects them for life.

Our plentiful rainfall and temperature range between 50’s at night and 70’s during the day also lends itself to growing lots of tea. This is the cash crop that locals sell to British tea factories in the area, or they may work directly for the tea company. It is a hard job to pick tea but pays relatively well.

Tenwek Hospital is in rural Kenya, 140 miles west of Nairobi. It was started in the 1930’s as a small clinic and has grown since then. They now treat more than 10,000 inpatients and 150,000 clinic visits per year. Their motto is, “We Treat, Jesus Heals”, which becomes so evident when our feeble attempts at helping cure medical problems fail. Besides giving inexpensive physical and spiritual care to a referral population of a million people, Tenwek thrives as a teaching hospital. They have a nursing school, chaplaincy school, and they have multiple types of what we would call residency programs for doctors. We are always happy that many trainees stay and work at Tenwek, but most move on to other needy parts of Kenya or, frankly, where they get better pay.

Safari

Safari was great. God created so many unique animals. A special treat this time was to see Cheetahs up close, which was the only important animal the kids didn’t see last time here. Another new experience was a walking safari in and amongst the zebra, wildebeest and impala not to mention Nathan’s favorite, bones and elephant dung.

As expected, the roads getting to safari were a major challenge. The roads degraded from nicely paved to bumpy dirt roads, to rocky, to finally not really any roads at all. With all the rains, vehicles just get from point A to B anyway possible. This is often not on the road itself, but wherever the mud is not. So this adds some thought and sport to driving (which thankfully we were not personally doing). It involves getting out of the vehicle and walking a hundred yards one way or the other to see what the best bet is. Typically, seeing a vehicle buried up to its axles is a good sign not to go that way. We saw several of those, some of whom had spent the night in their vehicles waiting for it to dry up. We were hoping not to be one of those.

We did manage to make it to our safari camp and had a fantastic time eating a picnic lunch under an acacia tree in the middle of the plains. (Our driver having first driven a couple hundred yards in all directions to make sure there were no lions.) But most of the time it was driving around in a Land Rover up to all the typical animals you would expect to see in Africa. The kids loved the whole experience as did the parents.

Visit to Omoja Orphanage (Jodi, Nathan and Julia)

Our driver was scheduled to pick us up at 2:30. We didn’t actually see him until 3:10, which is par for the course here in Kenya. We drove about 15 minutes from Tenwek to Umoja Children’s Home. This is an orphanage that supports approximately 50 orphans. The majority of them attend school, with approximately 8 attending nursery school at the orphanage.

We arrived and were greeted by at least 25 of the children, all smiling and friendly. Handshakes were made all around – Nathan and Julia had been prepped, but were still overwhelmed by about the 18^th kid. Even in Amish Country, we just aren’t used to that much handshaking in the U.S. We were ushered into the compound where we were given a tour of the orphanage. The overall feeling was one of community and hope. There is a nursery school room. We visited the girl’s dormitory, the boy’s dormitory, offices, restroom area, laundry area, and the stable where they have cattle for milk and raise chickens for selling eggs and such. It is quite the self-sufficient place. The grounds were impeccably clean and welcoming.

We then went to the dining hall where the children were singing. They sang a number of songs for us after we were introduced and welcomed. We were traveling with another lady who gave a Bible lesson, taught the kids a song and played a bible memory game with them. Nathan and Julia both sat and listened, however, Nathan’s morning activities caught up with him and soon his head was bobbing and eyes were closing (see picture of him finally sleeping). We handed out oranges, then said thank yous and good-byes.

The children at the orphanage were lively and very welcoming. It was a new experience for Nathan and Julia that I will have them write about soon hopefully. The stories of the many orphans here in Kenya are endless. These orphans have been taken in by a faithful couple who believes strongly in the value of education. We are thankful to have been able to visit the orphanage and will remember the experience. Support is gratefully accepted for this orphanage as follows: World Gospel Mission, PO Box 948, Marion IN 46952 (on the check account number 125-35222 that is the orphanage project account - tax deductible of course).

Our experience for this weekend is going to be safari. For all the visitors that stay a month or more, they set us up to go to Masai Mara game reserve for a weekend. So we are excited to be off for safari tomorrow AM. Hopefully we will have some good experiences to share with you next blog.

Easter at Tenwek

Easter Events. Many have asked how we celebrated Easter here at Tenwek. Believe it or not, our Easter was pretty traditional, from the Good Friday evening service to the Easter egg hunt on Saturday, icing cut-out cookies, and the ham dinner on Sunday. Our sunrise service was the most memorable in my mind. First, we woke up extra early, and as we were trying to get the kids out of bed, one of the missionaries played “Up From the Grave He Arose” on the trumpet, so all on campus could hear. Then we all gathered quietly in an open yard where we could watch the sky grow lighter and the sun rise above the surrounding hills. It was a bit cloudy, but beautiful in any case. There was music, scripture readings and a short meditation as we enjoyed the start of a new day, one representing the most important day for us as Christians. Our Sunday afternoon was spent indulging in a carry-in with a group of our best friends from years past.

Homeschooling. This is an area that I feel has almost run its course. The kids are doing great with the worksheets and activities we do. I, on the other hand, recognize my limits as a teacher and am anxious to just be Mom. I don’t want to seem negative about it though, I know it’s a great thing for many families. I have enjoyed listening to them sound out new words, as they learn to read. I have enjoyed watching them write about their new friends (people and animals) in their journals with a whimsical picture. I have enjoyed watching and listening to them play make believe with the neighbor kids, as they climb trees, chase after each other and build forts out of branches, flowers and egg shells (Nathan’s idea). And I have especially enjoyed seeing just how much they already know and comprehend, not only academically, but socially and personally as well. They are like little sponges with constant recorders, so I’m learning about them as well as myself!

Current Events. Julia has a loose tooth. She is still unsure if the tooth fairy will be able to find her in Africa. Nathan, we are excited to share, now holds the record for falling asleep the fastest every night, sometimes even before we leave the room, and can snore like no other during a church service (Easter Sunday actually). Both of them have become more social, especially when it comes to meeting new people. At times they have expressed feeling like they are being stared at or being made fun of – as the local children do tend to pay an extra amount of attention to us. But it’s gotten better over the last few weeks.

Observations. What are we seeing/learning here? The kids have asked many questions about poverty. On our walk today, they were pointing to various houses asking “are they poor?” Explaining some of this to them has been an interesting task. Sometimes we have to remind ourselves of how we first felt when we came in 2001 – how we had questions and how we viewed things at that point. We have changed over the past 10 years, and many things have changed here at Tenwek. It’s easy to get caught up in our daily school/work routine. But we want to continue to look at things here and around the world through a critical lens, so we don’t become complacent. This is where the kids’ points of views always tend to teach us a lesson. They ask some great questions!

One last lesson – don’t mess with pincher ants! These ants are patient and fierce. They will unknowingly crawl onto you if you are in their path. When they feel threatened, they will all pinch at the same moment in time. For an adult, this is pretty annoying, but they can easily be removed. For a kid, though, it’s downright terrifying. In 2008 Nathan had pincher ants and had to be stripped down, screaming to get them off! He remembers it quite well. Julia and Nathan both had one this week, but luckily got to keep their clothes on as we removed the ants from their feet. Those little guys are sneaky and can really pinch! But fortunately, they are not dangerous.

Visiting Friends

(Eric) As I’ve pointed out perhaps too often, we see a lot of kids dying here. After a while you get used to it and realize that you do what is reasonable and then pray for the best. But for whatever reason, sometimes you just latch onto a case and push with all your might. Last night starting at 11pm I had one of those cases. A one year old boy stopped breathing in the E.R. My intern called me up and we worked to get him back and on a ventilator.

This one year old was the second child of a very nice couple who had already lost their first child. The father explained to me, as if he had to, how important this child was to them. I decided I couldn’t let this one die. We did everything we could think of to do for the boy, prayed over him, and went to bed. After an hour of sleep, it hit me that I should try one more thing so I headed back up at 3:30am. But in the end, he was taken off the ventilator at the end of the day after we knew there was nothing we could do to help. I can’t imagine the sorrow.

Just minutes before, we took a 9 year old boy off the ventilator to die after getting hit by a car the night before. This week there have been at least 1-2 pediatric deaths per day (out of about 50 kids admitted in the hospital), mostly avoidable if they would have happened to have been born in America.

But lest we get too sad, today we sent home the baby that was dead for 20 minutes and now is acting like a completely normal baby (see photo with smiling mother). There are so many more good stories than bad.

The rains are tapering off, just when they are supposed to be at their fullest. We generally get about an inch a day here in April, but are instead going days in a row without rain. It seems nice for us to have great weather, but we forget that our pleasure can be hardship or death for many. Our kids are so happy when it doesn’t rain, but we explain to them that it is not our simple pleasures that are important but the lives of the farmers. But as is often the case, our own thoughts and actions as adults are not that different from self-centered kids.

Don’t we close our Mexican border so they won’t disturb our economy? Don’t we subsidize our farmers in spite of how it literally kills farmers in developing countries? Don’t we destroy countries with our bombs so that we can keep our physical and economic security intact? Yes, we too like to keep our “sunny days”, regardless of how it affects the voiceless unseen.

Jodi here – with a lighter side of things. Last Sunday we visited a good friend that we’ve known since our first term here in 2001. Peter Ronoh is a hard working, congenial man, tall with a big smile. We drove about 10 minutes and then hiked up a hill to his home. We enjoyed greeting his wife and two of his children followed by his brother, nephews, nieces and neighbors. His wife prepared delicious chai over an open fire inside their mud home. We saw his mom who looks about 102 years old (see photo), but may only be 76, according to Peter. No birth records exist. It was great to catch up with his family.

This was one day that we are very fortunate it did not rain on our trip. Julia has a true phobia of rain ever since we got caught in the torrential downpour on the side of the hill a month ago. This being rainy season makes it difficult to make plans, especially when the grey clouds begin to roll in and the thunder begins. This is a more serious problem than we ever imagined and know how to handle at times. We appreciate any advice and especially prayers for Julia who reacts with fear and tears until the rain stops. Thank goodness for the IPOD and earphones.

Overall the kids seem to enjoy life here. There are kids outside at almost all hours of the day, ready to play. Imaginations are on cruise control here with fewer toys to play with and no excuse to not be outside in the perfect weather. Homeschooling is going well, although it is a stretch for me. It takes some time each morning for the kids to settle down, but once we are in the spare “school room”, they are all business and work hard to complete all the worksheets, math problems, handwriting pages and station activities that we brought or have had emailed to us by their Kindergarten teacher. We normally work for an hour, take a recess, then work for another hour or so before finishing our school day with recess…all afternoon. Of course, we aren’t strict – often we’ll do reading in the afternoon and two days a week the kids attend an activity hour where books are read, crafts are done, games are played. So lots going on here for them to enjoy.

Another light note – congratulations to Geoffrey Mutai of our local Kenyan tribe who won the Boston Marathon in record time!

Sticking Out

On Sunday we went to a Kenyan church after being invited by friends of ours. As we got more into the bush, the drive slowed down to a crawl on what non-Africans would consider an undriveable road. But it was ok being behind schedule, since Kenyan churches (and everything else) don’t start on time. It was supposed to start at 10am, but it didn’t get going until about 20 after, which we considered great.

The crowd cheered when we walked in and we were led to the stage at the front of the church to sit. So much for our goal of lying low. So there we sat in front of the church being watched by a crowd of 400, and the service just kept going. Noon came and went. 1:00 came and went. Our snacks came and went. And at 1:30, after our patience came and went, the sermon started! By now the kids were absolutely starving and stir crazy, so Jodi took the kids outside. To my surprise, they soon came back in, our kids being overwhelmed by more than 50 kids outside the church crowding them and touching them. They meant no harm, but Nathan and Julia were probably the only white kids they have ever seen.

The sermon went on. After an hour of listening to the sermon and our stomachs growl, Julia and I tortured ourselves with a cruel (but somehow funny) game of naming all the foods we wanted to eat when we get home – broasted chicken, oatmeal pie, ice cream, creamsticks, etc. After 1 ½ hours of listening to the sermon it was 3:00 and we were done. Our kids were absolutely amazing to be able to sit quietly in there that long, but we could not make them or ourselves endure any more. So we sheepishly told our hosts that we just needed to go. Perhaps it was rude, but after nearly 5 hours of sitting in church without lunch and the rains coming, we didn’t care. And after all, it was probably better than plan B which was to tackle the pastor and then make a run for it.

I guess the good part is that we could demonstrate to our kids and ourselves that God can be worshipped in many ways and ours is not the only “right way” (although I was pretty sure at the time that there wasn’t much right about a 5 hour service), and that being hungry is a way of life for so many people. We should all go hungry now and then to be reminded of that fact.

By the way, as far as I know, the pastor is still preaching.

Things are very busy on pediatrics, but I am enjoying it very much. Indeed it is tough to see so many kids die - at least several per week – but we see so many good cases too as kids tend to recover so much better than adults. Last week we actually had one 6 week old baby die, death certificate filled out, and ready to go to the morgue. After 20 minutes, the mother fiddled with the baby and it started breathing. I am not sure the kids will ever go to college, but so far she’s doing great.

On a sadder note, we have several newly diagnosed diabetics. One is a cute 4 year old boy (see photo). The story doesn’t sound so sad at first. We get them all tuned up on insulin and diet training. However, their prognosis is terrible because they soon stop the insulin secondary to cost. They simply can’t have a whole family go without food or school fees so that one kid can have his medication. The prognosis for a diabetic is worse here than for cancer or AIDS.

School for Jodi and the kids is going well, but the kids are always anxious to head outside and play with their gang of friends. Something tells me they will be bored when they get home and have only their dull parents to play with.

Thanks again for all your prayers and support. Pray not so much for us, but for all the needs at a hospital like Tenwek, in a country like Kenya, on a continent like Africa.