Mashujaa Day

Today we'll have a history lesson. :)

Friday was Multicultural Day at RVA - a day that has grown out of respect for Kenyan history and the people among whom we live and serve.  Kenyatta Day (which was Saturday) is a national holiday that honors the first Kenyan president (Jomo Kenyatta) after Kenya gained independence in 1963.   Last year, the new constitution changed the name to Mashujaa Day, or Heroes Day, to recognize that there were many heroes involved in helping Kenya gain its independence.  In Kenya, there is no school on Kenyatta/Mashujaa Day, so a few years ago RVA began a new tradition of celebrating Multicultural Day - fitting because there are students from 28 or 29 countries this year!  It is a day that the students can both celebrate their heritage AND learn about and appreciate so many others.  There is a flag ceremony at the end of the assembly during which 1 or 2 students carry their country's flag and say something in their language at the microphone, while the national anthem of that country plays.  Many of them were dressed in the traditional clothes of their country.  It had a very Olympic feel and was quite touching.  During Olympic opening ceremonies - and during this flag ceremony - I always like to imagine how all the peoples of the earth will one day worship God together and what that will actually be like.  Mind boggling, inspiring, exciting!  Enjoy a sampling of countries (and please forgive my lack of cropping!).

Madagascar

New Zealand

Norway

Republic of South Sudan - as you can imagine, there was a lot of cheering for him!  His life at home must be quite different than his life at RVA, but you can't distinguish any difference as he interacts with his peers from all over the world.

Uganda

Singapore

United Kingdom

United States-I was surprised by the emotions I felt when these kids started down the aisle amid raucous cheering.  It is hard to be a cultural minority and to be so far from home and everything you are used to.

Kenya - I really shouldn't have been surprised that Kenya was saved for last.  After all, we are all here in this country to serve and work among these people!  The sound in the auditorium was, in a word, deafening when they started down the aisle!

After the assembly, there was an event called the One World Run which is an international 5K race to raise money for AIDS orphans.  Rick, Ted, and Anna ran, I walked and photographed, and Emily cheered us all on!

Ted sprinting for the finish line!

A silly photo after finishing 25th at 7500 feet. :)

Rick actually smiling as he finishes!  He has not been running here, but still finished in under 30 minutes!

Here comes Anna!

Emily with Julia, one of her favorite friends from our time in Machakos. :)

That evening there was a pickup "American football" game (you have to distinguish it from football/soccer here) followed by fireworks on the field.  There was also a perfectly stunning sunset!  The mushroom cloud on the left is a rainstorm in the valley....

The next day was the school carnival, which is not unlike our Fall Festival back home.  The girls each dressed up with their "Big Sisters," while Ted dressed up as Pajama Heroes with our friend Julia. :)

Macaroni and Cheese

Hawaiian Hula Dancers

Pajama Heroes or Pajama Mashujaa!

This is our first full week in the hospital and we begin taking night call.  We are still trying to wrap our mind around the sorrows and the joys here at Kijabe Hospital....but will save that for another post.

Love,
Sarah
Ecclesiastes 3:1-13

Things I thought I would never see....

The title is not a judgement...just a true statement.  There are things that I might have consciously thought that I would never see, and then there are things that I happen upon and think "Wow - I never thought I'd see that!"  There are a lot of the latter here in Kenya! 

Flip flops made from old tires - very impressive and practical recycling! They are appropriately called Treads.

Ok, really - how do I describe this?!  This guy is actually rollerblading down the HIGHWAY leaving Nairobi.  To say this is not a safe road for rollerblading is the understatement of a lifetime.

The next 2 photos are of a Somali boy's thigh and his MRI (for the medical types; he had the MRI at another hospital).  While it is obvious that he has a very swollen thigh (mass vs. infection), it is not so clear how the skin findings are related.  And why are the lesions in a distribution that is sharply demarcated at either end of his thigh?  It turns out that the family tried to use traditional medicine to heal his thigh by burning him with hot metal rods - 2 months prior!  The family obviously did it out of love, and - before we snort and judge -  it is not that different in philosophy than the early American practice of "bleeding" a patient.  At any rate, the uncle volunteered that they would not use traditional medicine again....an interesting comment, since the boy is still so very sick after almost 2 weeks here.  The double language barrier (English to Swahili to Somali) with this Somali family is difficult - I cannot just sit down and talk with the family.  There are many patients together in his room, and some of the other patients just jump in and start translating.  There is not the same concept of privacy here.  Sometimes it is helpful and sometimes it is downright confusing, with everyone talking at once!   Please pray for this boy, Ahmed, as he is so sick and not responding to treatment.

Right thigh

MRI

Part of the surgical pathology lab

Other part of the surgical path lab - notice the barred door.  Bars are ubiquitous in Kenya!

This is a silly one, but many of you commented on the photo with all the different beans, so you may be interested.  All this came out of one 0.5kg bag of beans - half of it is little stones!

Coolest bug in Kenya (so far)!  I learned last week of another bug, called a Nairobi Eye, that causes a chemical burn if you smash it on you.  I wonder if that is why so many people don't brush flies away (if the bug in question is a Nairobi Eye instead of a fly, they will end up with a nasty burn!).

I was called to the post-op area to see this 2 year old girl with some respiratory distress after surgery.  Her oxygen saturations were upper 70's-80 (out of 100%) when I arrived, but came up easily with oxygen.  At one point, I stepped away to answer a call and, when I came back, the nurse had given her a piece of hard candy (!) to distract her from the nasal cannula.

This is the official hospital memo regarding chai time for employees.  Patients are served chai also!

The next picture is a head CT that belongs to a 14 year old boy named James.   He came in with severe headaches and degenerated to hallucinations, weakness, and focal neurologic symptoms.  There is a fund here called The Needy Children's Fund, which basically helps fund procedures and some costs that families can't afford.  It is a huge blessing to families, but it only has so much money in it (from donations), so it has to be tapped judiciously.  I am still trying to navigate our involvement in the financial aspect of things since we are asked daily to help one patient or another, but this was the first patient that I okayed paying for something from the Fund.  His family is scraping together money from extended family to pay for the hospitalization/medications, but they couldn't afford the CT and ambulance ride to Nairobi to have it done.  You don't really need a medical degree to see that there are round lesions in his brain that aren't supposed to be there.  Tuberculosis, toxoplasmosis, neurocysticercosis?  He seems to be better over the last 24+ hours on TB meds, and his mom is praising God for his improvement.  This is why we are here.

It is spiritual emphasis week at RVA, which is a time for the students/faculty/parents to reflect on their walks with Christ.  At last night's worship time, I took this photo from behind students in grades 7-12.  I was so touched by the sincere worship of these teens...what a testimony to me!

Love,
Sarah
“For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11

Animal Planet = God's Creation

The kids school, Rift Valley Academy, is on a trimester schedule - that means they have 3 terms per year that are roughly 12 weeks each.  There is a 4-6 week break between each term, that allows the boarding kids to have an extended visit home with their families.  (It is a 2-3 day trip each way for some of them!)  In the middle of each term, there is a long weekend called Mid-term break.  Why do I tell you all of this?  Because, last weekend was mid-term break and we got away for 2 nights as a family.  It was a very refreshing time - the first chance we have had to be somewhere as a family that didn't involve training and transition! 

We went to a place called Masai Mara, which is part of the Serengeti ecosystem.  The Serengeti is the part in Tanzania, and the Mara is the part that bleeds over into Kenya.  The name Masai Mara comes from the tribe that has - and continues to - inhabit the area: the Masai or Maasai.  The word Mara means "mottled" and it a reference to the landscape:  savanna/grasslands that are dotted with bushes and Acacia trees.  So, the area is really a variety of grassland, bushland, and woodlands.  The Serengeti ecosystem covers about 40,000 square kilometers, and the Masai Mara comprises only 4% of that.  But is is HUGE!  The "big event" each year is the migration of 1-2 million animals from the south in Tanzania, to the north in Kenya  in search of food.  Most of these animals are wildebeest, but there are also many zebra (do you remember the Kiswahili name for these?), Thompson gazelles, and elands.  There are also a myriad of other animals!  The "Big Five," as they are referred to around here, are the Cape Buffalo, Lion, Rhinoceros, Leopard, and Elephant.  I have also heard the term (less frequently) the Big Nine, which adds the cheetah, the giraffe, the hippo, and the zebra.  I cannot figure out why those were chosen for the Big Five!  The Mara is actually a Nature or Game Reserve, and not a National Park.

So.....on to the pictures!!!   I took about 1100, but I will try to condense to the best few.  :)

Very common sight on the way - Maasai herding their cows and sheep.

Maasia village - the mud huts are mostly flat roofs, but some are cone shaped.  The tall enclosure is so their animals will be protected at night.

More herding - the Maasai are impressive in appearance, and they are easily distinguished by their bright (usually red) clothing.

Is this bathtime, a lesson in clothes washing, or both?

Our guide called the Impalas by the nickname McDonald, because of the black M on their rear ends.

We learned that giraffe sleep sitting down - for 10 minutes to 2 hours in a 24 hour period.

Ostrich - they are picky eaters!

Emily thought the warthogs were cute because there always seemed to be some baby warthogs. :)  Do you think they are cute?

Unbelievably close to lions!

Totally unconcerned...

Majestic in flight.

There were lots of baby elephants, too.

Baby elephant at the water hole.

Strutting his teenage stuff.

The fastest land animal!  We didn't get to see him in action.

The Cape Buffalo, aka, the ugliest animal in the Serengeti!  Also the mascot of Rift Valley Academy. :)

This is the coolest lizard I have ever seen - can anybody identify him?  If you can zoom in on his hand, you'll see that he has claws.  He never put his hands down flat on the rocks.

So peaceful on the savanna.

The view from our room on the first morning - 17 elephants!

Rhino - notice that this one has 2 horns and a large scar on her left hindquarter.  Can you also see the bird on her back - there were many of these birds on the 2 rhinos we saw.  The are named oxpeckers, or tick birds, and they eat the ticks from the rhinos skin. 

Henry was our driver and guide - a wonderfully personable man with a knack for finding animals!

Sunrise

Swimming! (It was cold.)

Blue heron....Thought you'd like this one, Dad. :)

 Ok, I have a lot more to share, but the internet connection has other plans.  Hope you have enjoyed!  I will try to post a video and photos of the wildebeests crossing the Mara River en masse and a lion finishing up a breakfast of wildebeest.  As Ted said, "Animal planet just doesn't do it justice!"  God has an amazing creation!

Love,
Sarah
Psalm 8