A nod to the audience

Or - Who reads blogs anymore, anyway?

The other day, we had a short-term visitor in Kapsowar who was trying to explain Substack to me. (No, I don't really get it, and no, I haven't actually looked it up yet.) The conversation turned to other forms of social media, and eventually we were talking as medium- and long-termers about how much time we spent "blog-stalking" before moving to Kapsowar. This month, I thought I would write about you, my real or perceived audience!

Family and Friends: I assume that the largest percentage of the "tens of readers" of this blog are friends and family. Since I don't use any other forms of social media (although maybe Substack is in my future?), this blog and our emailed newsletters are probably the main source of pictures and information about what's going on in our lives. If you read this and have a question or comment, feel free to send a text, WhatsApp, email, or leave a comment on the blog! 

Potential Visitors or Volunteers: As I mentioned before, we read through a lot of blogs of long-termers in Kenya before we moved to Kapsowar. It's helpful to see how people live life in a context that is a bit different to the North American lifestyle that we grew up with. Part of the reason that I write a lot about the mundane here is that it might be helpful for others to get a glimpse of some of the joys and challenges and everyday practical realities of living cross-culturally.

Supporters: We are supported financially by about 90 individuals/families and 6 churches. We have also developed relationships with a small number of people who donate toward specific programs at the hospital and school of theology. We want to express our gratitude to these donors on this blog, and also show what is happening in our lives and in the lives of our patients/students through your generous donations! We feel incredibly privileged to do what we love, to feel that we are serving others in the ministry God has called us to, and we are so blessed that the financial side of our ministry has never been a major stressor. We know that this is not true of every family who support-raises, and we are thankful!!

Ourselves - To be perfectly honest, reading through this blog is a way that I sometimes remind myself of God's faithfulness to our family and to our community; a way of encouraging myself that we have come a long way and that the challenges we face today are not any bigger than the ones we faced five years ago. I haven't made a photo album for quite a few years, but if I ever get around to it, this blog provides a bit of a timeline of family's journey.

The unknown reader - I'm sure there are groups of people who I have missed! If you belong in another category and want me to know about you, please leave a comment!

Thanks for reading!

What Else?

This blog is filled with a lot of reflections and information about a very narrow slice of life in Kapsowar -primarily Kim's work, Dominic's school, a little bit about the school of Theology, and probably more of our travels and vacations than you care to see. But what else goes on in Kapsowar? It takes more than just physicians and nurses to make a hospital and community run! This month, I'll focus primarily on our Serge team and matters that directly impact our family, but there's so much more than I can even include here!

Marketing / Friends of Kapsowar: The hospital's ongoing health and growth depends on having reliable sources of income to pay staff salaries and the vendors who sell us medications and supplies, and even to pay the power and internet bill. As we turn to outside sources to provide some of that funding, it is important to communicate well with donors, tell patient stories truthfully, thoughtfully, and respectfully, and work closely with national partners to ensure that donations are put to good use. Our teammate Regan has been working closely with the hospital social workers to connect donors with opportunities to make a real difference for real patients with real needs.

Engineering: Whether building new structures/infrastructure or keeping old ones running, mechanical and structural engineering is critical to a safe and functional space to care for patients. In our six years in Kapsowar, we've worked with three full-time engineers who have been critical to the function of the hospital. From repairing/restoring power to our homes after a recent power surge, to overseeing construciton and finances of new building procjects, these men have been invaluable to our community. 

Children's Home: Since the early 2000s, our community has had an informal relationship with a Children's Home, located about a 40 minute walk from our station. Involvement has included paying school fees, purchasing shoes and unmentionables, furnishing the home with beds/mattresses, paying the salary for the caregiver at the home, inviting the kids to activities like our annual (American Thanksgiving) Turkey Trot.

Education: In 2022, when we completed our term with World Medical Mission, Dominic was the only non-Kenyan kid in our community. Today, there are 25 North American and 13 non-Kenyan African kids living on our compound! About 80% of the school age kids in those groups are homeschooling, so education is at the front of our minds almost all the time. We now have a North American teacher who is creating lessons for a small group of the younger kids, and helping to oversee the online/computer-based curriculums of some of the older kids including Dominic. We're excited by the progress we've seen in the one-room school house idea in Kapsowar, and we're looking forward to seeing how God can grow this education effort in the coming years.

Hospitality: We continue to host visitors to our community who are involved in various areas of the hospital or school of Theology, or who are visiting specific long-term family or simple want to come and see what's going on in Kapsowar. Coordingating housing, transportation, tours, and first meals for these visitors is a huge task - as I can attest from personal experience! (I handed over the task to another long-termer about a year and a half ago.)

Station Management: Our station employs about 12 full time workers to maintain and clean houses (long- and short-term housing), maintain the grounds, and watch the smaller children.

Finance: Because we have employees, transport and house visitors, and occasionally take on some small and large building projects, we have a bank account that needs to be managed, bills to pay, and money to collect. A group of us divide up those tasks and more or less try to keep the finances in order.

Bible Study: We meet together for Bible study, worship, and prayer 5 days a week! That means someone (or many people) is always prepare a message, reflection, and worship music to share.

Special Events: Short- and long-termers alike prepare fun activities for kids (ex-pat and local) as well as more formal classes (art, music, sports are the ones that come to mind). Of course the adults are never left out, although usually our participation in special events is either running (Turkey Trot or the Kapsowar Annual Charity Run) or eating (potlucks, potlucks, potlucks! and of course Fat Tuesday doughnuts).

So much to do - I'm tired just thinking about it! We love our community, and consider it a privilege to live life and be "church" with our wonderful co-workers and neighbors!

Happy New Year from our family to yours!

Happy Thanksgiving!

Well, events have once again conspired to make life a little more "exciting" here in Kapsowar. A county-wide government nurses' strike does not affect our hospital directly in that most of our nurses are paid directly by the hospital, not by the government; however as nurse-midwives provide almost all the maternity care in our county, it does mean a sudden and dramatic influx of pregnant and laboring patients. In the new era of government health insurance, this means not only managing their medical conditions, labor, and delivery, but also spending a lot of time checking to see if they have paid their monthly insurance fees, explaining the program to them, calling social work to councel them, re-checking to see if they have paid their fees...If YOU are tired of hearing me talk about the government health insurance plan, imagine how I feel!!

We have a lot to be thankful for, though! Of the approximately 20 mothers who delivered babies between 7am on Tuesday and 7am on Wednesday, ALL of the mothers and babies did well and I don't believe ANY of the babies were admitted to the nursery. Although clinic and our 4-bed labor and delivery ward have been hectic, the maternity nurses have been working well with nurses from other units who have stepped in to help out, we have a visiting resident who is doing a lot to help, and our social work team have made themselves some temporary office space on our ward to help with admissions and discharges.

On the home front, we had a severe power surge on Tuesday evening that burned right through many people's fridge guards and power strips to destroy several appliances. After over 24 hours without power, not knowing whether our appliances would turn back on again, our power was restored last night, and I'm so thankful to report that all of our family's major appliances are working. We'll have to replace our coffee pot (again - haven't had one in Kenya that lasted more than a year) but that's a small price to pay!

I'll end this rather rushed and haphazard post with an introduction to another new website and non-Profit - Friends of Kapsowar! Our teammate Regan has been working hard with a board of wonderful friends and supporters to get this organization up and running, and we are now able to raise money directly for the hospital! Currently the OB/Gyn Department is looking to raise money for the hospital by subsidizing the cost of c-sections. Our goal is $200 USD per c-section in November through January. But even if you have no interest or ability to donate, please check out the website! It is full of fun pictures and great stories curated by Regan. And thanks so much to the many of you who support the hospital in SO many different ways!

Thankful for all of you! Happy Thanksgiving!

Two years of dread(locks)

There's a lot going on in our world and in our families' lives right now. This post is a "light" topic, not because those things don't matter, but because sometimes I need a break from the "heavy" stuff. Enjoy if you like this sort of thing, check back next month if you don't!

If you regularly read our blog or newsletters, you may have noticed that my (Kim's) hair has changed a bit over the past two years. Let me start by saying that I've never been a person to settle on a hair cut or style. My first memory of making a conscious decision about my hair was when I was around age 7, and wanted to grow out my bangs (they would call it a fringe now, apparently). Seeing my hair constantly in my eyes was driving my dad crazy, so he told me that if I asked my mom to trim my bangs, he would take me to the mall to get my ears pierced. Deal. Hair grows, Dad! Got my first piercings, AND got rid of the bangs a few months later! (Note: NOT the last time my father bribed me with a piercing! Ask me sometime how my nose came to be pierced just before I went to college.)

Over the years, starting with a late night haircut by my junior high classmates, my hair has been short long, curly, straight(ened), highlighted, dyed, and even permed once. Most of these different styles have been DIY. One look that I always wanted to try (probably since college, during the height of Shane Claiborne's popularity) was dreadlocks. I was never able to due to being a student, resident, and then having to appear before a board to prove myself to be a qualified and professional physician in order to be "board certified." So, when I passed my board exam in 2022, dreadlocks were finally on the table.

Day 2 of getting my dreadlocks "crocheted"

With age 40 rapidly approaching, more gray hair coming in every day, and no particular love of my hairstyle at the time (self-cut), I decided to go for it. About 6 months before me, another ex-pat in our community had found someone in Eldoret who was willing to do dreadlocks in caucasian hair, and so she was the "guinea pig." In September 2023, I spent 2 days in Eldoret having my 49 dreadlocks "crocheted." I went back to the same guy a few times over the next several months to touch them up, and then to a local lady in Kapsowar to have them maintained. After one full year of having others maintain my dreadlocks, I switched to self-maintainance. I haven't talked about my dreadlocks a lot unless people ask - some people probably strongly dislike them, and that's totally fine. I'm certainly not pushing them as a hairstyle that people have to love! Here are some answers to common questions:

After about 1.5 years, the dreadlocks had enough length to try some different styling techniques

- WHY? I just always wanted to try it, and finally had the opportunity to do so. I wear a scrubcap almost all the time at work, so I didn't feel like my hairstyle really mattered much.

- What else is in there? My dreadlocks were just my hair, but I did use some wax to keep them compressed or "tight" especially at the roots, and occasionally something called "dread butter" which was supposed to keep the hair from getting overly dry and rough.

- Is it easier than a "normal" haircut? Not really. I knew the first year was going to be a lot of work as the dreadlocks got established, but without putting a bit of energy into it in the second year, things were getting a bit chaotic and was frizzier/fuzzier than I liked.

- Do you love them? I would say I really enjoyed having dreadlocks when I was able and willing to put the energy into them, when they were quite long and I could take time to style them in different ways. It was a fun creative outlet. However, I enjoy a lot of other fun creative outlets that also involve the use of my hands, and so choosing between dreadlock maintainance and doing other stuff (cooking, knitting, cross-stitch, playing piano) was becoming a decision that I really didn't want to keep making.

- How do you take the dreadlocks out? Well, that's not really something I explored until I had made my decision that I was finished. The options include cutting ALL the hair off, cutting a bit of the dread off at the bottom and then trying to pick the rest apart, or what I did, trimming the dreads to approximately the length I wanted for my next haircut, and then hair by hair gently pulling them out of the dread near the root end. This took a LOT of time and probably wouldn't work for someone with coarse hair, but it turns out my hair isn't very coarse at all, so it actually went pretty well. Between giving myself a haircut a few months ago (trimmed all my dreadlocks to about half their length) and ultimately removing the dreadlocks, I had about 2 gallon-sized ziplock bags of hair that I threw out! My head feels REALLY light - and small - now!

On Safari: Notes from a Reluctant (Christian) Traveler

Romans 1.9-12: “God, whom I serve in my spirit in preaching the gospel of his Son, is my witness how constantly I remember you  in my prayers at all times; and I pray that now at last by God’s will the way may be opened for me to come to you. I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—that is, that you and I may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith.” (NIV)

    This year I turned 40. And for reasons not entirely known to me, as I get older, I get less and less excited about travel. Perhaps one reason is that I like living in our community in the Kenyan highlands. We have good friends and neighbors, we enjoy our work, and we have the best weather on the planet. I like my daily routines, sleep well in my own bed, and always know where to get coffee. Furthermore, I am a poor swimmer and don’t particularly like hot weather, so even Kenya’s beautiful white-sand beaches don’t appeal much to me. And then there are the bourgeois issues of sitting for long periods of time, making sure you have the right documents, and crossing borders.

Wading in the Indian Ocean

    But even I recognize that some travel is good and important and worthwhile. And that was the case with a recent trip to Tanzania to visit some dear friends and team members. It was an opportune time for our family. I was between terms for teaching at the theological school, Dominic could take a break from homeschool, and Kim had good doctors who could cover the clinic.

We all enjoyed the break from school!

    In 2024, John and Kate and their family (from the US) came to live and work in our medical community for six months. John, the father and husband, is a family practice doctor. And his wife, Kate, is a Physician’s Assistant, who during this season of life, stays home with their three lovely kids. They quickly jumped into life and culture in Africa and became a blessing to our mission community and the broader Kapsowar community. When their six months were up and it was time to return to the US, they expressed interest in returning to Kapsowar for a longer period. And not long before they decided to return with our mission organization, Serge, making them our new teammates! They had much to do over the next year, selling their home, raise support from friends, family and churches and attend missionary training school (yes, this is a real thing), not to mention wrapping up life in the US and saying goodbye to friends. In addition, the Serge organization recommended that they do three months of Swahili training in Tanzania before moving to Kapsowar.

    Over the course of all this preparation, we have kept up with John and Kate over email, WhatsApp and Zoom. And while I am thankful for these technological developments that connect us to our loved ones over great distances, there really is no substitute for a real hug, conversation, face to face, or sharing a meal (even if it is a Tanzanian Pizza Hut!). One might even use the Christian theological term, “incarnation” (“in the flesh”) to describe this deep “with-ness” that is at the core of Christian friendship and community.

Dar es Salaam has an endless variety of decals for their tuk tuks

    While the Apostle Paul loved communicating by letter and would have marveled at Zoom, I think he would have agreed that there is no substitute for truly sharing life together. In spite of having to do the journey by foot and struggling with health problems, the continued threat of bandits and persecution, he seemed to love to connect with his brothers and sisters in Christ. And in our thoroughly “connected” world, so many still long for true, deep “connection.” Our technology can tempt us to forget the divine gift and blessing of true and deep human connection--especially when the Holy Spirit which connects us across great distances brings us together again after time apart.

Paul concludes his letter to Philemon this way:
“One more thing—please prepare a guest room for me, for I am hoping that God will answer your prayers and let me return to you soon.” (NLT)

Perhaps take some advice from me, a very reluctant traveler, and the Apostle Paul. Make plans today to go and visit family or friends. It will be worth your while.

~Kristopher

Precious time with new teammates!