Shadrack - A Story of Hope

Lately I have had a few blog posts in my mind. I've just not had the time and/or energy to get them actually written and posted. But I wanted to share about last night's events while they are still fresh.

The young man with William and I in the above picture is named Shadrack. And if you live in Southern CA get ready to be blessed by his presence!! Shadrack's is a story of hope. When he was still a young boy in elementary school his mother died leaving him and his siblings behind. After the funeral, the crowds left and there were three children left standing at the graveside, Shadrack and his two sisters.

David Tarus, William's uncle, approached them and asked what they were going to do and where they were going. They looked up with hopeless eyes and told him they didn't know. At that moment God moved David's heart and he told them "Come on, let's go home." Since that time Shadrack and his two sisters Jane, and Carolyne have truly been adopted into the family. Last year Shadrack finished high school with very high grades. The entire community celebrated with him. This year the doors have opened for Shadrack to attend Azusa Pacific University in southern CA.

Just over a week ago the entire community came together to raise money for his plane ticket to America. It was a beautiful time as people came to commission him from our small village to the USA. They asked him to represent our people and to study hard so that he can come back and make a difference in the community.

Last night was Shadrack's goodbye service. William and I had a long day making a road trip to recruit a new nurse for the clinic. By the time we were getting back to the community it was long after dark and we were both exhausted and worn out from hours of bumping on the rough roads (think Indianna Jones ride for hours on end!). For a moment I considered not going to the service, after all we were several hours late! But let me tell you I am so glad that I went.

The service went on until nearly midnight as friends and family members took time to recollect Shadrack's growth and to encourage him in this new endeavor. Boy did the tears flow! After many, many words of praise, encouragement and advice, Shadrack was given a turn to speak. He went around the entire room personally thanking each person in attendance and telling them what a blessing they had been in his life.

After the speeches were finished and the tears continued to flow, the group stood together to anoint and pray for Shadrack as he was sent out from our community. The picture below is of that prayer time. Friday night he will board a plane to Dubai and then on to Los Angeles. Life is about to change drastically for this young man. Please pray for him as he goes through the culture shock and transition to life as a college student in the USA. William and I are looking forward to spending some time with him on our upcoming trip. That's right, we will be in the USA from Oct through Christmas!

Comedy of Errors

Well it is another day for two blog posts. This one may be a bit long and hopefully make you smile and possibly even laugh. I confess, I'm hoping that writing the play-by-play of my evening will be therapeutic for me and entertaining for you.

As you know from my last post, I was involved in a late-night and early-morning delivery. We are almost 24 hours out from the beginning of my last post. So I was pretty tired this morning.

During the morning delivery the power went off. Unfortunately this is not at all unusual in Kenya. At any moment the electricity could turn off anywhere, and be out from moments to days. Often when it goes out in the morning it will be gone for the day and then return at either 5, 6 or 7PM.

True to form, the power was off all day. But that was okay, I've got an incredible long-life battery on the computer and so I was still able to complete clinic paperwork and our medication order for the month. The day wrapped up nicely and I prepared to head home.

As we were locking the clinic we had a teenage girl arrive who had slashed her toe open with a machete. It was getting dusky outside but with the help of my handy, dandy, headlamp I was able to get the wound closed and give her a tetanus shot.

I got home and wanted nothing more than a shower. I then remembered that there is no electricity. Which means that my electric shower-head will not work to heat the water. Which lead to the internal debate: To heat water on the stove for a splash shower or not? Then I remembered that we use electricity to pump the water to the tank for running water. No electricity = no water. UGH!

I also had plans of baking chicken wings for supper. With my electric oven it seemed another plan was foiled. So at this point I decided that the best thing to do was to lay on my bed for 30 minutes and hope and pray that the power would return by then.

After 15 minutes on the bed I started thinking about what would happen if the power did NOT return. That would mean that I had to go find a bucket to clean out for water. I would then have to pull the water out of the well, haul it in the house and cook supper on the gas range. All of the above activities are better done when there is still a bit of sunlight peaking through.

So I got the water and started supper; 6PM came and went with no power. I gave up on the power returning in time for the chicken to bake and resorted to frying it. As the chicken was finishing up my phone rang. I had a case at the clinic. I should also mention that at this time the skies decided to open and rain.

So after getting the chicken off the stove, and finding an umbrella, I made my way back to the now dark clinic. There I found a 7-year-old boy who had been chopping grass for the cows when his machete slipped and he chopped the end of his thumb. The wound was deep, and went halfway around the digit and into the nail-bed. I just love doing complicated suture cases in the dark! (I hope you can read the sarcasm there!)

So I'm rooting around the treatment desk for supplies and I can't find a suture set. So I pulled out my keys and went to the maternity building to get a needle driver, tweezers, and scissors. I carefully lock maternity back up and return to do the suturing. Just after I finally finish the last stitch, the power comes on. What great timing! (Insert more sarcasm.)

I then remember that I need to give him a tetanus shot and the tetanus vaccine is back in the maternity room. So out come the keys again and another trip to get the vaccine. Finally he has been stitched, wound-dressed, and injected. After a trip to the pharmacy to get him some pain killers he discharges home. As I'm heading out the door a girl shows up with some random red pills in an envelope. She wants to know if she can trade them for de-worming medicine for someone's baby. Only in Africa! I explain to her that I can't trade the pills but that the medicine is only $0.50 and she will need a bottle to put the syrup in. She agrees to come back in the morning.

Now that the power is back on, I'm on a single-track mind. Shower!!! I remember that I will need to pump the water first. So I go out to the pump-house, grab the extension cord and head for the house to plug it in. I then have to run out to the water tower to listen for the sound of water coming in. Because if I don't hear the water flowing the pump probably needs to be primed (which is a whole different blog post for another day). Thankfully I hear the water flowing. So I head in the house to plug in the computer and start charging it.

After the tank has had a while to fill I turn on the sink tap to see how the pressure is. It's just a trickle! What's up with that? So I poke my head outside. I hear water pouring on the ground. This doesn't make sense to me, because if the tank is full enough to overflow I should have some water pressure. I run back inside to unplug the pump. Then back outside with a flashlight and still hear water pouring. I then notice that someone left the outside tap wide open. A neighbor probably came to fill a bucket with water and kept cranking the tap wider and wider. Upon not finding water he or she must have just walked away. So all of the pumping I just did has resulted in a flooded yard. Big sigh.

I close the tap and go back inside to turn on the pump again. By now I'm praying that there is enough water in the well to fill the tank for my shower. Thankfully there is. During the second filling of the tank I call my husband to say "Where are you and why aren't you dealing with this crisis for me?!" He is on his way to a goodbye service for our colleagues who are headed back to the states. No one told me it was their goodbye tonight. Another sigh. But alas it wouldn't have mattered anyway since I'm on call at the clinic.

As I write, I'm now showered and feeling much better about life. I even have to giggle a bit as I imagine Lucille Ball playing the part of Michelle Kiprop tonight. It would be good for some serious laughs I think. Now here's to hoping that there are no more machete injuries, deliveries, or any other chaos tonight!

In Just 12 Hours...

..... we received the official results that Kenya had voted yes on the new constitution, and then in the clinic delivered not one, but two babies! All of this between 9PM and 9AM.

Last night the official results were announced over the radio that the constitution had been approved by the Kenyan people. It will go into effect just two weeks from now. The leader of the "No" campaign, William Ruto, conceded defeat earlier in the day and made a statement that he accepted that Kenyans had made their choice. His peaceful response is a huge answer to prayer as his reaction was watched by many. So far Kenya continues to be at peace. Praise the Lord!

Shortly after hearing the official news, I headed over to assist with a delivery at the clinic. Our two American interns joined Kitur (our clinical officer) and myself in helping bring a baby boy into the world. It was a text-book smooth delivery. Then this morning as I was waking up I learned that there was yet another delivery in progress. The interns ran from the training center to assist yet again. This delivery was quite a bit more challenging but still resulted in a healthy baby girl. At one point we had 11 people in the room with the mom.

The late-night delivery was a friend of mine and this morning's was another friend's sister. So I was extremely thankful that both babies were born healthy and strong. The picture below shows the team of friends and relatives who were supporting and assisting the mom through her labor. Now I'm off to the office to see what today holds!

Earlier this month our clinical officer, Kitur, I attended a one-day seminar hosted by Mission for Essential Drugs and Supplies (MEDS). This is the company we order our medications and supplies from. It's a Christian organization that does it's best to help get faith-based clinics supplied with quality materials.

It was well-done, and I was impressed with the patient-focus that the company has. Most of the times in the past when I attended a seminar put on by a pharmaceutical company or supplier, it was a big pitch for why you should prescribe their brand name. It was refreshing to hear lectures about how to provide the best quality care for the patient.

I also learned that in sub-Saharan Africa there are only four laboratories monitoring the quality of drugs that are marketed in medical facilities and pharmacies. One of those labs belongs to MEDS where they are vigilant in checking the quality of their drugs. I also learned that up to 25% of medications sold in pharmacies in Kenya are either contaminated or just flat-out placebos. Rather scary! It was a relief to know that the company we order our medications from is working hard to provide quality care instead of just focusing on the bottom line.

Field Trip

Not long ago, the local public primary school decided to have a field trip to our clinic. The purpose of the trip? To see our fish tank!

Just Checking In

Well I'm definitely not meeting my goal of blogging twice a week. But honestly there has been nothing too exciting to blog about. This week has been one of catching up.

As usual I have under-estimated how long it would take to do something. I remember setting up study sessions where I planned to whip through two chapters and out line both in a set period of time. I would always be devastated when the time would arrive and I would only have completed half of one chapter.

Well thankfully I no longer get devastated if my "to do" list doesn't get completely checked off by the end of the day. Living in Africa has taught me a bit about flexibility. Someone recently recommended putting the item "interruption" on the list a few times. That way you can gleefully check it off when you get called here and there for one reason or another.

I don't dare say that I am completely caught up. But I've made progress. My calendar is updated. I think I'm just about caught up on old e-mails. I have food in both the pantry and fridge. I know what's been going on at the clinic. My updated prayer letter went out yesterday. Our bookkeeping is relatively up to date. And we are planning a big mobile outreach for the 22nd of next month. Although I hoped to have all of this done on Monday (hahaha what was I thinking?) I think it has been a pretty productive week thus far.

Tonight I have an internet chat-date set up with an old friend to talk about the possibility of a special photography project in our village. Speaking of which, hopefully this next week I can break out the camera and get some pictures of our running water at the clinic!

Close Call

It's been a while since my last post. I had a family emergency that took me on a quick trip to the USA. But I'm back in Kenya now, and back to blogging. And what a return! I'm doing some serious jet-lag. I didn't have too much on my arrival to the USA a few weeks ago, but I think I'm making up for it now on my return to Kenya. My luggage made it half-way around the world from Los Angeles to Nairobi via London with no problem. But somehow it didn't get on the plane with me from Nairobi to Eldoret. So William and I will be tracking it down tomorrow.

William picked me up at the airport this morning and on our way home we had a very close call on the road. I've shared with many of you how terrifying driving on the roads in Kenya can be. We were almost run off the road by a big truck on our way home. William scooted to the side and let him zip around us. As we followed him he made an abrupt turn into oncoming traffic. He was broadsided by a poor Toyota Landcruiser who never saw it coming. There was no time for him to even attempt to avoid the accident. So we didn't hear any skidding, just the huge impact and the cruiser and truck spinning to the side.


Unbelievably enough no one was killed or even badly injured for that matter. And what is really crazy is that there were half a dozen men riding on the open bed in the back of the truck. My mother-in-law and I were pretty sure that someone would have been killed. William had us sit in the car while he ran to check things out. Since there were no serious injuries I never got out of the car. And we weren't far from a police check so they quickly made their way to the scene. Unfortunately this is a very typical daily occurrence on the roads here.


We were blessed to get a dinner invitation tonight. It is always enough transition getting moved back into the village without having to figure out what to make for dinner that first night. So I'm going to enjoy some fellowship and food then hopefully sleep a bit tonight. I should be back with an update on things at the clinic soon.