The Past Week and a Half

It is around noon, a light breeze is blowing, and the sun is shining here in Nairobi, Kenya. Jason and I are sitting at a place called Art Café, enjoying a laid-back Saturday. He has some things to work on, so I decided to take this opportunity to try and put some of my swirling thoughts into words…

The City

We have now been back in Kenya for a week and a half. While the experience has been a very good one, living in the middle of this busy city is quite the contrast from the rural Kenya that we encountered during our last trip here. Nairobi has the feel of a large, western city. The café we are enjoying right now is within a large mall that is full of about anything you could want or imagine. This entire city is full of a very eclectic group of people from all around the world. It feels like a melting pot of cultures and languages. While completely fascinating in many ways, I find this place to also be a bit confusing. Trying to see and understand how to best love, learn from, and serve people here is not very clear. It is often challenging to strike up a random conversation, or even get people to make eye contact or smile back at you when walking on the sidewalk or along the street. Also, it is hard to find fresh air to breath due to the constant exhaust coming from the many buses and trucks, and I often feel stifled by amount of buildings and vehicles. 

While talking with a good friend last night who lives here in Nairobi, she told me that many of these things are just part of the culture of a large city. Since I have yet to live in any “large” city besides Nashville, I guess these are things I will just have to get used to and learn from. The ease of a large city and having everything accessible at your fingertips has definitely been a positive though. Also, the amount of people in one place energizes me as I wonder about their lives and hearts. This city is definitely a fun place for people-watching. :) I pray that God will direct these many thoughts so they can become useful actions.

Walking & Running

Almost everywhere we go, we walk! This is great for us in many ways – saving cost of transportation, saving ourselves the challenge/risk of driving here :), and gives us natural and frequent exercise. It takes about 10-15 minutes to walk to the hospital or a local grocery store, about 5 minutes to walk to people selling fresh fruit or sodas, and about 35-40 minutes to walk to a larger store / mall or to the orphanage I have started helping at. In addition, we have have about 10 flights of steps to get to our apt (only 6 actual floors I think), which also helps keep us in shape. Since the weather is beautiful pretty much every day, the walking is enjoyable most of the time for us. Jason has also been running throughout the city, or in our little work-out room in our apt complex, almost daily. He is training for a marathon in April that is here in Kenya. He did an 11 mile run today! I admire his perseverance and hard work. Maybe I’ll eventually try a marathon – sometime after the baby for sure… :)

Food Adventures

Although we are within walking distance of several stores, I have still had to adjust the ways I plan for and create meals. Since I usually walk, I only buy what I can carry back with me. At home I usually shop for almost a whole month at a time so shopping small and frequent is a definite change. This is also the necessary way here due to the size of our refrigerator – very small. :) However, we have a freezer and small ice trays which feels like quite the luxury. We have been eating very well though – lots of fresh fruits and vegetables! My biggest challenge has been trying to find gluten-free flour that is good for baking. I’ve been craving bread lately, and I often substitute my bread cheaply in the States with corn tortillas (due to gluten-intolerance). The problem lies in the fact that I can’t find corn tortillas, or the proper flour to make them. This has led me to attempt gluten-free bread from scratch (not my strong point!). I have has some pseudo-successes, the best of which was banana bread. When you mix this challenge with the up and down hormones of pregnancy, you find a woman who starts crying over failed baking attempts… :) The crazy part is that when this happened last Wed, Jason walked into the apt with his arms full of a dozen red-roses, “just because” he knew I was having a rough day. He is such an amazing man and incredible husband – far more than I deserve! The following day we returned to the “flower lady” because he had asked her to find calla lilies (my favorite flower). When I asked him why in the world he would buy me flowers two days in a row, he said because this is what he really wanted to get me, but he had also wanted to have some for me the day before. Anyway, our apt is now full of beautiful flowers – a constant reminder of God’s grace, mercy, and love through the man he gave to me.

Bible Study & Church

One of the highlights of our time here so far came Friday night before last when our friend took us to the Bible study she attends. What an incredible group of Kenyan believers! The teaching from the Bible was solid, hard, practical, and encouraging all at the same time. The fellowship was genuine and welcoming. The thing that impressed me most of all is that it was a young group of people that seemed to really be seeking how to practically live out their faith in Christ in the midst of their jobs, families, etc. It was a very encouraging group that we are excited to be a part of while we’re here.

Many of these people are also connected with the church we visited last Sunday. Please pray that we will have wisdom and direction in choosing a church to be involved in during our short time here. We don’t want to spend the whole time we’re here “looking around” for a church, but would instead like to choose one quickly and get plugged in as much as we’re able.

Orphans & Abandoned Children

As many of you know, one of the great loves and passions of my heart is for children – especially those who are orphaned, abandoned, abused, handicapped, or ill. I have found a beautiful children’s home for infants-toddlers that is within walking distance of our apartment. I spent several hours there yesterday and I’m hoping to return 2 or 3 times a week when we’re in Nairobi. The place is called “New Life Home Trust” and was started by a missionary couple several years ago. It is now run by Kenyans, and is managed incredibly well. I spent yesterday morning holding and playing with a whole bunch of 5-7 month old babies who seemed well-fed, happy, and healthy. After helping with some random chores (including making cotton balls and home-made diapers), I played with the toddlers outside and then helped feed them lunch. It was a lot of fun for me, and so encouraging to see the blessing this place is to so many little lives! I will keep you all updated on this place and the many ministries they are involved in. I also hope to take and post pictures sometime if able.

Work

Jason and I are now hard at work on collecting and entering data for the research project. Jason is spending almost all weekdays at Kenyatta National Hospital and I am joining him most days. We decided together that I would work full days with him on Tues and Thursdays and have Mon and Fridays be half a day for me. Wednesdays are my “off day” although I’m hoping to use my half-days off and part of Wednesdays to help out at the Children’s Home. Gathering data from disorganized paper charts and entering the information into an online database is tedious and time-consuming work. However, I’m very glad to have a tangible way to help Jason in his work. Also, each chart is the story (or part of the story) of a child’s life with Wilm’s Tumor and the hard road this diagnosis takes the child and their family down. We will need to enter retrospective data from each of the four hospitals that we are working with. We are anticipating this process taking about another two weeks or so at KNH alone. After that, we will travel to the other hospitals to follow the same process. We will hopefully also begin to see patients who are newly diagnosed with Wilm’s and entering them into the study.

Evenings

Our evenings are fairly free here, which has been a nice change of pace. We have so far spent them reading, talking, cooking/baking, catching up with people on emails or skype, watching a movie on our lap-top, or walking one flight down to visit with our friend who lives in the same apt complex. I’m hoping to also incorporate practicing guitar, hosting people, learning to crochet, and exercise (going to attempt pregnancy pilates! :)) into some of the evening time when able.

Baby Axt Update

Praise God, all still seems to be going well with this pregnancy! I am now 20 weeks along and the baby seems to be healthy and growing as far as we can tell. I am feeling pretty good most days, although I seem to get dehydrated and have an upset stomach much more easily than normal. I am now feeling the baby move fairly often, which leaves me amazed and in complete wonder every time. Carrying a baby is such an incredible miracle that I feel humbled and privileged to experience. What a gift from God. Thank you all for your continued prayers for this little life!

Well, I’m hoping for my next update to be in pictures! My goal for this weekend is to take pictures of the apt and my growing belly (I promised my family… :)) and figure out how to post them on this blog. Hope you all are well and would love to hear from you!

 

     Meridith