Testing, testing.  It's been almost three years since we posted an update here.  We are preparing for our three month leave of absence - seems like we were just doing that!  But here it is three years since we traveled to Kenya.  This time we are staying on this side of the globe...traveling to Tucson, AZ from December through February.  We are looking forward to this change of venue, although we will greatly miss the friends and colleagues at Tenwek Hospital.  Perhaps we will get back there soon!  We'll write more about our upcoming trip...simply testing the site now for new features and such!
Blessings!
jodi and eric

Back Home...

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.