First week at Tenwek

It has been a week of work both for me (Eric) at the hospital and Jodi at home teaching the kids. We have adjusted well I think and are enjoying ourselves. The first day was hard to get much done at the hospital because an elaborate greeting is needed for everyone I knew, which was the majority of the hospital staff. There is a three stage handshake, hugging on each side of their body, then asking about family and such. It was kind of bad that I couldn't remember more names, but even worse on day 2 when I couldn't remember who all I already greeted. It is bad form to go through a big greeting 2 days in a row!

I was assigned to the Medical ward, which consists of 1 large room for men and 1 for women. There are about 20 beds in each room and, unfortunately, about 25 people in each room. So they just hop on in with another sick patient and cuddle up for warmth at night. The people with fevers are the warmest, so if you get one of them you are lucky (the ones that are vomiting aren’t as good).

The illnesses vary greatly from things we see at home like strokes, pneumonia, and skin infections, to more African illnesses like malaria, meningitis, and tuberculosis. Then there is a whole slew of folks that we simply don’t know what they have. They tend to slowly dwindle to death as we continue to be clueless of how to help them. The medical floor averages about 1 death per day, but there were three over the last 24 hours. We are really struggling to keep a 21 year old college student with rheumatic heart disease from being number four.

We estimate that 40-50% of the patients have HIV. The prevalence of HIV infection in our area as a whole is about 7%. This makes winning the battle against whatever illness they have difficult.

It looks like Tenwek has pretty good OB coverage, so I don’t know how much of that I will do. That is where all the exciting stories come from, so you might just have to read more boring stories this time around. Perhaps I will just make up a few good stories if I run out of interesting material (perhaps I have already hit that point).

The kids continue to be enjoying themselves here. Our 2 next door neighbors have 3 girls that know English fairly well. They are the kids favorite playmates, which is amazing since Nathan has been in a “No girls allowed” phase (to the point of writing it ON his bedroom door with a marker before we left, by the way).

Speaking of Nathan, he was the first to succumb to the stomach bug. But in true Nathan form he felt like he was going to vomit in the morning and was eating burritos by lunchtime. Friday night the bug hit Eric. He completed rounds in the morning and slept most of the afternoon. He, on the other hand, is staying as far away from burritos as possible.

Yes, we eat burritos here and just about anything else we want. The only difference is that you have to make everything from scratch. So for burritos, for example, you soak dried beans overnight then cook them forever the next morning. We live very close to the butchery, so we hear our hamburger bellowing in the morning, and could be eating him for supper. The tortillas are rolled out and cooked on the stove. The salsa and guacamole are also made from scratch of course. So although it is more work (partially done by hired house help), the end product is fantastic.

The fruit has been delicious and we have been eating everything mango since they are wonderful right now. Mango on cereal, mango smoothies, mango salsa with fish, mango juice, homemade mango jam, and just plain mangos. Other fruits that we have plenty of are papaya, pineapple, and bananas.

Things we miss? Walnut Creek Cheese accessibility. Dutchman pastries. Of course, friends and family. This morning Julia curled up on Jodi's lap, in tears because she misses Furbee, our dog, among other things associated with home. Both kids have felt overwhelmed at times because of all the new people, different schedules, etc. But overall, they seem to love it. They have instant friends next door, Eric is home for lunch almost daily and even was here this morning some to read geography to them...fun. And what could be better than spending most of the day with Mom - in school, during recess and all afternoon? We're all enjoying this time together - away from cell phones, long-term responsibilities at home/work, etc. It's good to really get away from everything for a few months...that way we'll appreciate home and responsibilities in a new light when we do return.

And by the way, we got our toilet fixed.

So far, so good.

Arrival at Tenwek

Our trip to Kenya was great. Just like last time, the kids did beautifully on the plane because of the individual TV screens for each seat. The only way we could get Nathan to sleep, eat, or use the restroom was to turn it off momentarily. Every now and then I had to hit pause just so he wouldn’t drool from lack of remembering to swallow. I am quite certain that Nathan could have undergone a major surgical procedure without noticing.

After 24 hours of travel, we finally arrived in Nairobi. I realize that everyone THINKS they pick the slow line, but we indeed DID pick the wrong line to get our visas. After over an hour of waiting, we were the only ones left in the previously crowded room. Our kids were grumpy, but not as grumpy as their dad. The good news was that once we finally made it through, it was easy to find our luggage since they were pretty much the only ones on the luggage carousel.

We were picked up by a van driver who thankfully didn’t give up hope on us. Sometimes they scrounge up a car seat or two for the kids, but not that night. As a matter of fact we could not even find seat belts. As we raced down the road, I had to wonder why our driver insisted on driving 15 feet behind the car in front of him. Perhaps it was because he couldn’t see them since many of the cars had no tail lights! Needless to say, I wasn’t feeling very safe . . . but we’ll get used to it.

We stayed with our friend in Nairobi for a day to recoup and get some groceries before heading to Tenwek. The 3 hour van ride to Tenwek was fantastic. We have never seen the Kenyan roads nearly so smooth. Apparently the quality of the roads is improving in Kenya, although for the last 25 years there has been almost no road expansion in spite of a ballooning population.

On the way to Tenwek the kids were happy to see baboons, gazelle, and a couple giraffe alongside the road.

Once we got to Tenwek we were completely humbled by how warmly we were welcomed. The door had welcome pictures from some 5 year olds anxious to meet Nathan and Julia and our house had cards, gifts, flowers, and lots of food treats. We were greeted by many old friends as well as from many newer people that we did not know but soon will.

Our apartment is bigger than last time which is nice since Jodi will be homeschooling the kids in kindergarten. The apartment is very simple, but all we need.

We are tempted to complain about some small things, but soon catch ourselves. We were a little down that rainy season just started here. That means it will rain every day, making it harder for the kids to play outside and making it very muddy. But it also means that we will have more electricity, which has been off a lot lately because we get our power from a hydro-electric dam on the compound. (Not to mention the more important fact that farmers can grow food after a long dry season.) We were a little down that every time we flush our toilet, a half quart of water runs over the bathroom floor. But then again, how can we complain about running water (albeit “running” across our floor).

The kids are enjoying their first days of summer. There is a nice mix of American and Kenyan kids everywhere. So Julia and Nathan have been playing outside pretty much nonstop with not more than one ball and one Frisbee (but lots of trees, sticks, and critters). We took our first hike, our favorite Tenwek pastime, and got drenched 200 yards from our home. When it rains, it rains hard.

So far, so good. Work starts tomorrow.