cooking in kijabe

A couple people have asked how the fish turned out and I realized that I forgot to report on it. You know that cooking is a great pleasure of mine, so I've been working with the minimal kitchen and supplies available to me and trying to eat well. Our house here was not stocked with any kind of spices except salt and pepper. At our big grocery trip I only picked up curry, chicken masala, and pilau masala spice mixes.
The fish was common carp and after spending quite a bit of time filleting it (rather poorly) the night before, I coated it with the chicken masala and fried it hard on the skin side and then a bit on the seasoned flesh side. And it did in fact taste good; though way too many bones. I forget what they call the extra line of smaller bones in the fillet, but they make it a little tedious to eat carp.
Tonight, I made chicken coconut curry with potatoes, onions and collards (wishing I had a tomato to throw in) and masoor dal (lentils) with the pilau seasoning and rice, again worried about the lack of spices and ingredients at my disposal. Low and behold, another decent meal.
Tomorrow will be mac and cheese casserole and the neighbor family of four is coming over. I'll have to borrow some flour for this from the neighbors first.
Later in the week I'll soak some beans, buy some chapatis (tortillas) and hope to find some chili powder and attempt "mexican"
Tomorrow will also be shopping day at the market, for fruits and veggies and fresh samosas (every tues and sat). I'll have to take some pictures of bananas and pineapples in their native environment and add them later.
Now you are probably getting hungry for dinner. bon appetit.
zach

Mount Longonot

Kijabe looks right out over the Rift Valley and directly at Mt. Longonot. Today we took the morning to climb up to the view point. Breathtaking. We didn't traverse the rim with our little G, but don't have any regrets as it was a hot and dusty hike. Feeling satisfied with a little exercise and a pretty view.
---Katy

Just What the Doctor Ordered

I am really starting to like my work on the Women's Ward. Most likely because I'm getting to know the patients that have been there all week with me as well as the nursing staff. It's very different than working at the hospital at home, in Kijabe all the patients are located in the same 4 rooms on the same floor instead of spread throughout a 12 story building in a high-rise in Seattle. The same nurses come in everyday and you start to get to know them more each day and well as the idiosyncrasies of working here and within the Kenyan culture. And all 16 patients are mine, I take care of them from 7am to 6pm (and sometimes late at the night or the weekends when I'm technically off but know no one is watching after them or knows their stories as well as I do). I do have a wonderful teammate Martin, a clinical officer which is like a physician's assistent, who is brand new out of training so has a lot to learn but is motivated and a great help with "scut work" and translation. Dr. Scott Myhre is also on our team, a US trained physician who is also new to Kijabe, but has been working in Uganda for several years and who's awareness and depth of knowledge about treating tuberculosis and HIV related complications is invaluable. It's a lot of work and we have some very sick patients but I feel very dedicated and honored to do it, just wish I had my fellow Swedes (residents) here to whip this hospital into shape!

After Saturday morning rounds Zach, Gus and I headed out of town for the afternoon to Lake Naivasha. We went to a beautifully landscaped country club with a pool and also took a boat out to see the wildlife. Gus finally got to see hippos! As well as many birds, giraffes, monkeys, etc. It was a very relaxing day, just what the doctor ordered.
---Katy

Flow of Hope

I've been hanging out with John Njane quite a bit and getting to know the area outside of Kijabe, which is quite isolated from the typical Kenyan lifestyle because of the missionary influence. For instance the Rift Valley Academy (RVA), which is a large school for missionaries children, is as nice as any school back home, with amazing ball fields, gyms, playgrounds, etc. And then the troops of baboons that hang around the perimeter are just a bonus. John is very motivated to help improve his community and has been a blessing to many people. He received some generous support from an individual when he was younger which allowed him to complete school and learn his trade in mechanical engineering. He was profoundly affected by this gift and opportunity to better his life and I suspect he will spend the rest of his life passing that blessing on to others.

Flow of Hope is his mission and is based on direct involvement from its benefactors, with the ideal that seeing and participating directly with community improvement here is the most practical for all. His mission is to instill a sense of hope in people so that they can strive to better their lives and to continue to hope for better and better things, thus the continued "flow" of Gods love and desire for us to care for each other. So, I will try to provide a brief overview of Flow of Hope here, which I have found to be very well thought out and organized.
Flow of Hope is the umbrella structure for multiple outreaches. Widows of Hope, I believe, was the first to develop and provides assistance to older ladies that are often supporting multiple grandchildren and kids in the community with little to no resources. These women have received house improvements, livestock, seeds, and assistance with school fees. As their houses are improved, it enables then to continue to care for their children and alleviate the risk of losing them to the streets (if there is not enough room at home, kids will leave to fend for themselves).

Then there are multiple trade programs targeting different groups. Thread of Hope is providing sewing machines and training for young women that often resort to prostitution as a means to support themselves. There are the street boys, which for now, John tracks down in the community to act as a role model and instill in them some pride in their appearance and demeanor, so that they may have a better chance of getting work. Currently he has organized soccer tournaments to get these kids involved. He hope to develop Wood of Hope (wood shop), Metal of Hope (metal shop) and Wire of Hope  (computer training).
With the sewing machines he plans to provide machines to individuals through a kind of micro-loan program, where they will be able to earn money and pay off the cost of the machine. The basis for all of this work is to enable people to be able to provide for themselves. The people here are very laid back, so if they are given too much, they will not be motivated to care for themselves. Another example of John's contributions are with school fees. The widow we visited yesterday owes a balance in school fees. John provided her with half of the money, a little more than $1 worth and expected her to work for the rest. When we arrived at her house, she provided a receipt showing the payment to the school that she made which was for more than he had given her. So, it is working.
Below is a picture and hopefully we will be back next week to do the work. Please pray that this will be a fruitful gift, beyond anything we can imagine in the short term. It looks like the cost for the roof will be around $500 and any contributions made to Katy's doctors account with World Medical Missions/Samaritans Purse will be  used for this project. (note, Flow of Hope is actively working on NGO status in Kenya and nonprofit status in the US, so that financial support can be direct, but for now, this is what we have come up with for interested donors. Please don't hesitate to contact Katy or myself directly with questions or interests in getting involved). Your continued prayers and thoughts are being received and very much felt in our hearts. It takes a special kind of grace and patience to be here and it is not something that we are accomplishing alone.

Peace,
Zach

Thank you with a goat!

I have been very concerned about a young Masai woman on my service who presented with copious uncontrollable bleeding from her mouth and nose. She had a very low platelet count of 4,000 where normal is anywhere from 150,000 to 450,000. These are the blood cells that allow your blood to clot, so obviously we understood why she was bleeding so much. Unfortunately her red blood cells and white blood cells were extremely low as well. This is what we call "pancytopenia" and is very scary and can sometimes be due to cancer, a serious infection, or an autoimmune problem. To make matters worse the only way to replenish someone's platelets here in Kenya is to transfuse fresh warm blood straight from a donor before the platelets die. They don't have frozen platelets stored like we do in the states. So through a train of translation English-->Swahili-->Masai, we were able to get her blood, control the bleeding and work toward the diagnosis. Today I got to perform my first bone marrow biopsy ever, this is where the body makes blood cells. We all celebrated with the patient and her family when we got the results that she did not have cancer and in fact her bone marrow looked like it was in overdrive and on the way to recovery! According to the pathologist it looks like she must have ingested a toxin (herbal remedy) or had a virus causing an "aplastic anemia." We are curious about the herbal remedy theory as the patient's family described similar symptoms of other women in their tribe and other doc's here in Kijabe have as well. Everyone was so overjoyed. I was standing among a family of very tall lean Masai just ecstatic thanking me, praising God and telling me they were going to bring me a goat!
---Katy

Gus says, "we're going to Africa!"

Yesterday Gus and I, and our new friend John Njane, took a trip to Lake Naivasha, and visited Crescent Island (see this webpage for some of the stats on the wildlife population), a wildlife sanctuary where you can walk around with the animals in their natural habitat. It is where "Out of Africa" was filmed, among many other films and animals had been brought in for the movie and then settled there. Of course there are no wild cats. There are buffalos and hippos though, which you must keep your distance from. It was so exciting! We hired a driver to take us there and as we were loading up into the van, Gus kept saying, "we are going to Afirca." I guess Africa is where the wild animals are.
Most amazing I thought were the giraffes. They are such strange creatures and amazingly adapted to eat the acacia leaves that are surrounded by 3 inch plus thorns and grow to be quite large trees. We started at the top of the hill with a guide and intended to loop around to see the giraffes, so we headed down to the shore line and traversed herds of wildebeest, zebra, and gazelle. There were also waterbuck, which seemed not to congregate in large herds but were interspersed with all of the other animals. I was impressed with their majestic striped black and white antlers.

Before we made it too far, the giraffes had headed our way and were apparently coming to see us. They had three babies with them, one only 20 days old; still quite a bit taller than me and Gus combined though.

Our friendly guide also took us to a nearby Hyena den, which apparently are created by the Ardvarks, who dig for their food and then abandon the caverns that they create, providing housing for Hyenas, Pythons and probably a number of other creatures. At the den, there were remains of the "hyena picnic", as our guide referred to it. Weak, dying or dead herd animals are taken by the hyenas at night, as they are scavengers and the herd animals often do not have enough food from the drying grasslands. The rains will return here soon though and revive the land for the farmers and animals alike.

python track and den-guide says the snake extends from the den a little further than picture shows, about 12 feet.

Other highlights included meeting some fisherman on the shore in a type of canoe, filled with common carp. They sold me five large fish and gave one to our guide. I later sold one fish to our driver, kept one to cook tonight and sent the rest home with John to feed his large family of foster boys. I'll have to report later on how dinner turns out.  Also, we saw two water buffalo from a distance, apparently the outcast or loser males of the herd. We then walked by a large flock of pelicans and found a very nice pelican feather for a souvenir. Unfortunately, we did not sight any hippos and were only able to witness a python track through the dirt from its den.

I'm not sure what Gus enjoyed the most; possibly the van ride, seeing animals along the road (donkeys, sheep and goats), and his snacks. He did pretty good considering we walked around for a few hours, which included a short nap on my back, running around and riding on our shoulders ("airplane ride", as John called it). He was often "too hot" while walking, "too cold" from the wind while riding and interested in getting back to the "white van" to go home.

I think that he will enjoy another safari once we get a chance to all go together. Katy was on call, working very hard while we played. We are so fortunate to have the opportunity to see these animals. It seems as if the Kenyan government has done well to create protected areas. Additionally the cost is very high for tourists to visit. There are affordable entrance rates for residents and, in fact, the caretaker at Crescent Island did not even charge for John. I do struggle with spending as much as we do, as tourists, compared to what that money could be used for to help people living with so little here. For us, we hope to balance to two. This afternoon I will be meeting with John again to visit a widow that he has been helping through his Flow of Hope mission to evaluate putting a new roof on her house. I hope to pay for the materials and help install the new roof possibly next week. After our visit today I will explain more about Flow of Hope and the amazing heart that John has for his community.

Zach

Women's Ward "Salome"

"Salome" in Hebrew means peace. That's the name of the Women's Ward here in Kijabe where I have volunteered to work (and which makes me feel anything but peaceful). I say volunteer because they did give me a choice. I was told by some wise residents who were just here in Kijabe that the Men's Ward might be a little more peaceful and less costly of your time and stress. But somehow I heard a voice come out of my mouth that first day saying "I'll work wherever you need me the most." It's a pretty busy service with some really sick patients which makes the days long and little painful. But I figure I did come here to serve, so I'm digging in and pushing onward. The cases are really interesting so it isn't the medicine that is painful, it's the work-up. Finding the labs you ordered is like a needle in a haystack and then after you've flipped through the unorganized chart three time and ask the nursing staff what happened (because sometimes what you've ordered just doesn't get done), you find out that the patient or their family refused because it was too expensive. So it's going to be a challenge to say the least and the 12 hour days I was warned about by other residents is yes, a reality.
---Katy

Sunset over the Rift Valley

The neighborhood we live in is on a gently sloping hill, literally the western edge of the central highlands, which drops off into the vast Rift Valley far below. In the haze of the daytime sun, it seems as if I am looking out over an ocean far below, until I register the farm plotted land and distant road crossing the great plain. There is a magical feel to this place, particularly once the winds start every evening and continue through the night. It's not any kind of wind storm I've experienced before, but instead it's like a wind tunnel, with the winds blowing in all directions without any break in their intensity. And this is sustained all night long, until the sun comes up the next day and effectively turns off the switch and peace is returned.  

Zach

First Pictures of Kenya

We are still dealing with jet lag here, but feel that we are close to getting back to having some resemblance of a schedule. Hopefully we will not all wake up tomorrow at 2:30am, as we have the last two nights. I know this would be a huge relief to Katy, since she starts work tomorrow. Regardless of the challenges of an unruly toddler, jet lag, and other cultural and physical adjustments, I can't say enough how wonderful it is here. I love the tropics! And being in the central highlands of Kenya means we are at some altitude and the warm days cool off quite a bit at night. I was in a state of disbelief last night at dinner time when I realized that I was getting cold. So glad I brought a sweatshirt.

Okay, onto some pictures...ok...that took awhile to upload. You'll find the majority of our pictures by clicking on the "Picasa Photostream" on the right side of the blog, as I have time to make some albums there, which I can also add to throughout our trip.

Below is our little G on the move. We fear that there will be many spills and scrapes along the way. He is often intent on learning the hard way. Ready or not hear I go!

Beautiful Kenyan sunlight

Beautiful Kenyan foliage. The pinks and purples really pop. Also, note the ominous clouds above, building for the daily afternoon showers. very refreshing and wonderful.

Our humble abode, the right side of a duplex, which is just down the hill from the hospital. Inside we have basic furnishings and kitchenware, two bedrooms down the hall with a bathroom on one side. The housing manager kindly found us a coffee maker and so far we are making due with what was already here. 

For now I am going to enjoy the last few minutes of Gus' nap in our quiet living room before heading out for more adventuring; maybe to meet some new friends next door. 

Zach

Kijabe - I think I'm going to love it here!

Kijabe - "Place of the Wind" yes indeed. Just lovely...the billowing white clouds hover in a clear blue sky and you feel as if you could just reach up and touch them, the brilliant yellow weaver birds sing and steadily work making nests for their potential mates, the flowers are the most beautiful fushias and purples and we are on the mountainside overlooking the Rift Valley staring straight a Mount Longonot. I can't believe there are zebras and giraffes down there. This is just amazing.

We are settling in to our 2 bedroom spacious home. Gus met another Gus today age 1-1/2yrs old and his brother 2-1/2yrs old and a couple of their friends, they live a few houses down, so there will be plenty of fun to be had. Unfortunately his adaptation to the new time zone is lacking, so no play date today. Hopefully the agony of sleep deprivation won't continue on much longer and we will run into them at church tomorrow and make even more friends still.

Already did a little vegetable shopping in the market and tried our first world famous homemade samosas and english muffins. Gus thought it was just great that all the vegetables are displayed at his height, creating an ever so fun game of grabbing them and then getting chased by mommy before he put them in his mouth. Utter delight....and utter terror for mommy.
---Katy