Back to Life

Well as of today we have been back in the village for three weeks. Somehow it feels like three months though. We really hit the ground running. As soon as we arrived William was asked to help coordinate an engagement ceremony for one of his cousins. This kept him quite busy. We then had a super, incredible, team from Iowa come. The leader, Dr. Fitzgerald, always brings incredibly motivated and caring teams. They keep us running from sunup to long after sundown. We were very blessed to have them in our village last week. Many great things were accomplished through their efforts.

We have also had some emergencies in the clinic. It seems that the good old phrase “When it rains, it pours!” holds true to night duty at the clinic. We had a double stabbing case, several sick children, and woman in labor all within an hour’s time. The woman wound up losing the baby. It was a case we call Cephalo-Pelvic-Disproportion (CPD) basically meaning that the baby’s head was too big to fit through the birth canal. It was a truly difficult night for all of us involved. Getting the mom transferred out to the hospital was quite a challenge. Finally William wound up driving her there. They did a C-section but it was too late to save the baby. Thankfully both stabbing victims wound up surviving.

On a completely different note, yesterday I made my first solo trip to town (Eldoret). Driving here is a bit of an art. I’ve often thought that a video game could be made called “Driving in Kenya”. I’ve done the drive before, but always with William in the car. Yesterday we had a missionary friend coming in to town and I needed to go pick her up. So I took a deep breath, said a prayer and climbed behind the wheel. Our road to town is a narrow, paved, two lane highway. It hosts large trucks, buses, private cars, motorcycles, bicycles, donkeys, tractors, matatus (public-transport-vans), and pedestrians. Driving here is not for the faint of heart. The matatus like to drive at about 70 mph, whereas many of the trucks tend to move at around 30mph. Because the trucks are so wide, you actually have to pull out into the oncoming traffic to determine whether it is safe to pass or not. Then you have potholes and random speed bumps to navigate as well. I know I’m not even beginning to do this explanation justice. But it at least gives you an idea. My mom says that driving in Kenya is like constantly playing chicken on the road. There is an element of truth to that. Thankfully I made it to town and back without hitting anyone or being hit!

But enough about that! The point of this blog was to say that we are back in Kenya. We are safe and sound, and we are in full-speed-ahead mode. We are looking forward to seeing what God is planning to do in this community this year. Stay tuned and I’ll keep you posted!