Learning and Living

I can hardly believe it has been almost a week since I’ve written! This past week has gone well. We are finally enjoying sunshine again the past couple of days after almost a week of rain. We are continuing to soak up all we can learn about this culture, while seeking out how we can best be of help while we’re here. We started Swahili lessons this evening! There is a local schoolteacher who is going to come to our home twice a week to teach us. We are eager (and I’m a little nervous) to try and get our feet wet in learning another language. We’re planning to continue lessons in Nairobi with a different teacher when we return to Kenya in February.

I think I’ll structure this blog post by topics again to try and cover the main points of the past week’s happenings…

Nursing Students

    Last Thursday night we attended a Bible study / get-together / movie night with one of the classes of nursing students from the school here in Kapsowar. One of the missionary families had been having this group of students over almost weekly for a while and wanted to start it back up. Jason led a devotional time, the students sang, and then we played a game. We then watched a movie (the electricity went out so with about 25 people, we watched it on my laptop with a little set of speakers :) ), while having popcorn, cookies, and Chai. We had fun and enjoyed getting to know some of the students.

     I met with the principle of the nursing school today to ask if I could be of any help with nursing education while I’m here. He said that the best opportunity at this point in their school year is to do clinical teaching with the students in the hospital. He said to either prepare some basic topics, or to just do impromptu teaching as able. Please pray that I will be creative, take initiative, communicate well, and be culturally appropriate as I pursue this opportunity more. Please pray also for the spiritual growth of the students, and that we will be able to build relationships with them, as we will hopefully continue to have these weekly get-togethers.

Scenery and Exercise

    Jason and I are very much enjoying the beautiful scenery, and are attempting to stay in shape by walking these hills at high altitude! (Jason has actually been running quite often but I haven’t made it to that point here yet between the mud, steep hills, and altitude). We decided to take a “long” walk on Saturday to see the neighboring villages and ended up walking about 13 miles! We stopped about halfway to get some soda, and Jason randomly decided to get his head and face shaved by a local “barber”.:) All went well and I got some funny pictures...

    Today I got to see more of the surrounding area as I walked with one of the long-term missionaries and a visiting medical student to a nearby children’s home (orphanage). We passed one area that looked like a jungle and got to see a bunch of monkeys swinging through the trees and chasing each other.

   The orphanage has around 10 or 12 children who have “house parents” that live with them. The children are between the ages of 7-16 yrs or so I think. They grow all of their own food and their education is sponsored mostly by outside funds. The children are very sweet and seem to be close with each other. Please pray for them as they have many challenges and obstacles to overcome.

Missionaries

    Saturday night and Sunday were spent with a group of missionaries that are working in different areas of Kenya. We had a wonderful time of getting to know them, hearing their stories, and sharing in Bible study, prayer, and worship. It was such a great reminder to me of the incredible people of faith who have gone before us, experienced things we never will, and are continuing to live joyfully and faithfully for Christ – despite incredible hardships and suffering. Two of the couples were from Germany, one woman was from England, and the other two couples were from the US. One of the couples from Germany spent many years in the remote jungles of Papua New Guinea with just the two of them and no form of modern communication. They had all four of their children there and had tons of crazy and amazing stories. Another couple headed to the northern desert area of Kenya almost immediately after they married. They had their children and raised them in the desert and then moved to another area of Kenya at a later time. They also had many stories of God’s provision, along with many hardships.

   Overall though, the time with these people was encouraging, refreshing, and inspiring. The dedication and perseverance of the missionaries here in Kapsowar is also having an impact on me. Christ’s life and power is so evident in His people that are fully surrendered to Him! Full surrender does not require you go to a remote part of the world, but it does require us to love and obey God with all we are (Deuteronomy 10) This means to follow Him fully, wherever we are and wherever He leads us.

Hosting

   We hosted for the first time in our home last night! I attempted to make Hawaiian chicken with our one baking-type dish and an oven with only numbers 1-8 to set it by. By God’s grace it actually turned out really well! :) We really enjoy having people over and visiting over a meal. Hopefully we’ll be able to do more of this over the next few weeks.

Surgery

    Jason got a call Saturday morning that there was another C-section that needed to be done so I went with him, hoping for a better experience than the last couple I was a part of. Praise God, this one went really well! Although there was a lot of meconium from a long labor, a beautiful and healthy baby girl was born! I think C-sections here can sometimes become fairly routine but I was so excited that I kept giving reports that she was fine, then showed her off to the mother, and then just cuddled her for a while. :)

    Today I got to watch Jason and the primary surgeon here do a partial thyroidectomy. Jason did most of the surgery and did an excellent job (not just according to me – the surgeon said so as well. :) ) It is fun getting to watch Jason as he works, and to be more a part of what he does here. I’m hoping to scrub in some and learn even more about the operating room as I have opportunity.

Tenwek

   We will be travelling to Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya on Thursday to join up with the team from Vanderbilt for a few days. The pediatric cardiac surgery team is there for a couple weeks doing heart surgeries and we’re going to go help out a little. I’m looking forward to seeing some familiar faces and helping with the nursing care over the weekend. One team came this week and most of them are switching out with a team coming next week. This leaves them a little low on nursing care over the weekend and I have had enough pediatric cardiac ICU experience to hopefully be of help (I usually work on the medical side of the PICU at home). Anyway, we will come back to Kapsowar next Tuesday. Please pray for travel mercies for us and the team, and for steady hands, strong minds, and wisdom for the team as they choose their patients, operate, and recover them.

Thank you all so much for your interest and prayers for all that God is doing in (and hopefully through!) us here. We hope you are doing well and love to hear from you!

          Meridith