The Farmer's Wife

Growing up I always was fascinated with Little House on the Prairie and bygone eras. Turns out that this was a good thing since in many ways, moving to Kenya was like stepping into an era of the past. Who would have ever guessed that this American girl raised in the suburbs of CA would wind up living on a farm?

Saturday we had a major celebration in our village as friends of mine launched a new hospice ministry in our community. So I got dressed up for the event. Later while cooking dinner William came rushing to the kitchen door with this brand new little lamb. I helped him wash her with warm water. He then asked me to assist him up on the hill in our yard where our livestock stay. So I marched up (in my best dress) to assist. The mama was delivering the placenta right as we got there.

William needed my help managing mom and baby while he created a safe space for them to spend the night. Our sheep sleep in a pen that has slats at the bottom. The slats are so that we can easily collect their dung for our compost. Well the slats were a bit big for our little lamb and we were afraid she would slip through. So we moved the calf, cleaned out a shed and made a place for mama and baby. Turns out that in our excitement we left the gate open and one of our milk cows got out. So after chasing Daisy back in the pen I headed back in to finish dinner. I have to confess, on evenings like that one, I really do love being a farmers wife!

In other news, things are going well at the clinic. I've been doing ultrasounds on our pregnant moms. Today we picked up a case of twins. It was a huge blessing that we were able to pick it up during a prenatal visit. Otherwise we would have been dealing with the delivery of the twins just a few weeks from now!

Tomorrow I'm starting the hands-on part of the advanced gynecology training I started in the USA. I'll be going weekly to train alongside American physicians working at a teaching hospital in Eldoret.