Welcome to Labor and Delivery!

I'm struggling to find the words to describe how it feels to walk into "my" office and finally begin working after twenty years - literally, twenty years! - of moving toward this goal. Most days, it feels good! Other days, I wonder if I'm really prepared for this. And some days, I know that my only victory is going to be ridding my office of a few more spiders and dead moths. Which, I have to say, is quite satisfying. 

Thanks to a very generous donation from some friends of the hospital, our labor and delivery area is in the early stages of a major upgrade! So far we have received new labor and delivery beds and some bili lights. Tiling of the floor and walls, a new gyne exam bed, new lights, and other upgrades are coming. Previously, the beds on labor and delivery were just cots - no ability to break down the bed for delivery, no stirrups (well, one bed out of four had stirrups, but they didn't work), covered with rust, no siderails. We received four brand new beds which are much more comfortable for both the patient and the delivering provider. Remember that in Kenya, only 44% of deliveries are attended by a skilled provider. That doesn't mean 44% of deliveries are in a hospital where monitoring or c-section are available, just that someone has received training on maternal and neonatal care, and should have some knowledge of how to refer to a hospital if necessary. Our upgrades will allow us to take better care of our patients and hopefully will draw more patients in to receive skilled care.

This is labor and delivery! New curtains are also planned - we think we'll be able to afford some better hooks (these are bent wire clothes hangers)

Our nurse midwives are excited about sitting down and having good visualization for their repairs!

I swear, I did not ask Dominic to sit this way. He just jumped up on the bed and assumed the position! 

I am so thankful for the generous donation that made this upgrade possible. Stay tuned for more pictures as we continue to make upgrades. 

Kim

Flora and Fauna

Our three months of language school are rapidly drawing to a close. One thing we've really appreciated about this time is the beautiful location where we're living, northwest of Nairobi. Every day on our short walk to school, we listen to the song birds, look for butterflies, monkeys, and sun birds, and watch out for slugs and safari ants on the sidewalks! I've tried to capture a few photos on my phone, although part of the beauty of this place is that it is so difficult to get in a picture!

 These small chameleons are surprisingly common around our language school. 

 One of our new friends here is an avid mushroom hunter. Apparently I shouldn't have passed up this "beauty" - I might have made a little money, or at least a good dinner.

 I have no idea what this little bug is. When Dominic pointed it out, I reassured him that it was just a flower petal. Turns out I was wrong. That's the tip of his finger for comparison.

 I found this wildlife perched on my porch around Halloween. Why yes, that is a "wrestler bandit," how did you know? Our options for costumes for school were very limited. Fortunately, Dominic was thrilled to wear his bathrobe and a sleep mask from our flight.

 There are two types of monkeys that live around our home, Colobus (the ones with the long white tail) and these guys, which I think are a type of Vervet.

 That's a picture of a very large slug just hanging out on the wall about 10 feet off the ground. I had no idea slugs were capable of climbing like that. I do unfortunately know what it feels like to step on one of these things. Yuck.

This is a Picasso beetle - the image isn't great, but you can tell that it looks like someone has carefully painted on its back. I have never before seen an insect this beautiful!

Next month: Kapsowar!!

Blessings,

Kim

A Day in the Life - Language School Edition

Kris and I have just wrapped up our fifth week of language school! Learning a new language as an adult is a huge challenge, and we're very grateful to have three months to dedicate completely to this task (at least, to getting a good start).

For these three months, we're staying in a rural area about 20 minutes drive from Nairobi. We're renting a little cottage only a 2 minute walk from our school and 5 minutes from the international school where we've enrolled Dominic in preschool. We get up at 6:45 every morning, have breakfast together, and then Kris does some studying or walks up to the coffee shop (roughly 7 minutes walk) while Dominic and I do 15-20 minutes of "school work" - learning to write letters and numbers. I then drop Dominic off at school on time for classes to start at 8:30. Currently, our language school has 9 - 12 students (depending on the day) and 7 or more teachers, which is necessary for the small class sizes (1-3 students per class) and one-on-one conversations. We all take a half hour "chai break" at 10:30 and a one hour lunch, and classes are done by 3pm at the latest. After the last four years working 60-80 (or more) hours per week, this schedule is a dream!! The short school hours are somewhat offset by the fact that we spend many more hours at home or in the coffee shop in self-study every day.

So what else are we doing to occupy our time? Making most of our meals from scratch and washing laundry by hand take up a lot of time. Kris has participated in some pickup basketball and soccer. We've been befriended by several families around the area, and have enjoyed spending time with them. I'm also enjoying spending more time with Dominic than I've been able to since he was a newborn, and we've even pulled out some old board games to play as a family. We walk in to the local town to buy fruit, or to a nearby farm to buy cheese and ice cream. On the weekends, we've taken Uber to go shopping in Nairobi, and we walk to a nearby church for a service in both Swahili and English.

We're so blessed to have this time to spend together as a family, to learn Swahili together, and to prepare for the next step in our journey! Thanks for following along with us!

Mzungu (white boy) dancing at church

Live from Nairobi, Kenya!

Dear family and friends,

It's hard to believe, but we have been in Kenya for almost a week! We are getting settled at our new home for the next three months. The transition has had challenges for each of us, but we feel welcomed and safe at our new home, and are meeting new friends every day. We're very grateful for the open and helpful attitude of everyone we meet, from the groundskeeper at the house we're living in who helped us get our power back when it went out over the weekend, to the family who picked us up for church on Sunday and took us for lunch and shopping, to our teachers who are patient, encouraging, and very knowledgeable.

Kenya is a beautiful country! It is green everywhere, with fruits and vegetables growing in abundance wherever we go. We even have some shy monkeys that visit the tree right outside our front door! Best of all, there are no snakes in our area, much to Kris' relief. For those of you who are curious - we don't have WiFi available in our house, but we do have an unlimited WiFi connection about a 5 minute walk from our house, within a compound (meaning that the walk is very safe). We have new Kenyan phone numbers but kept the same US WhatsApp account numbers as we had previously, and have a good Internet connection on our phones. AND, we discovered that we can Uber in to the nearest shopping center for a little less than $7 round trip, so we feel like we have a little more freedom and independence even though we don't have our own vehicle.

Dominic's first day of school was last Friday, and Kris and I started language classes this morning. We are drinking from the proverbial fire hose, but we enjoy practicing the few phrases we've actually managed to retain.

Please continue to pray for good sleep, peace of mind, and physical strength as we settle into our routine here. Thanks to all of you who have sent messages of support - you are so appreciated!

With love,

Kris, Kim and Dominic

Dominic's first day of school!

Packed and Ready (?)

We've had a wonderful summer, visiting family and friends in Montana, Seattle, Eastern Washington, and back in Salt Lake City. We made new friends at orientation with World Medical Mission in Tennessee and North Carolina. We've sold most of the things we wanted to sell (anyone need a 2006 Mercury Mariner?), packed most of the things we wanted to pack (2 suitcases, 8 duffel bags, 3 carryons, 3 personal items), said "see you later" to many people. Our cat, Leona, seems to be doing well in her new home with her adoptive family in Salt Lake City. Dominic has done surprisingly well, demonstrating his ability to make friends wherever he is.

So now, I'm struggling to find words for how I'm feeling. I'm excited to leave tomorrow, to move forward with this exciting next step. I'm especially excited to sleep in one bed for more than a week! Of course, I'm sad to be moving so geographically far away from all our family and friends here in the States and Canada, and I'm thankful for WhatsApp and Skype. Most significantly, I'm grateful for the continued generosity and support which I've felt throughout my life, but most poignantly during the course of this move to Kenya.

If you're reading this post on August 25-28, please pray for safety, sanity, and SLEEP as we depart from Seattle on August 26 and arrive in Nairobi on August 27. And if you're reading this later - expect our next blog post from Nairobi!

We'll be in Nairobi until December 2019, then moving northwest, about 2 hours north of Eldoret

June update

Hi Friends!

I'm three short days from my last day of OB/Gyn residency. Saying goodbye is really difficult! So instead of saying goodbye, I've been handing out links to this blog so I can stay in touch.

I don't have much of an update in regards to Kenya, but here's what we're planning: Kris and I will start learning Swahili through a formal language training program in Nairobi at the beginning of September. There is an international preschool near our language school, so we're hoping to enroll Dominic there. After three months of intensive language training, we'll pack up again and move to Kapsowar, where I'll work at Kapsowar Mission Hospital (kapsowarhospital.com). Kris will start teaching at the Kapsowar School of Theology, probably starting in January.

We still have so many things to do in Salt Lake before we leave for family vacation in Montana on June 26. But we are so thankful that we are far into the process of selling our house and very hopeful that the sale will be finalized this week. We are grateful to our families who are coming to help us pack, sell, or otherwise distribute the last of our stuff this coming week. And we are heartbroken to say goodbye to the good friends that we've made here. Thanks so much to all of you!

With love,

Kris, Kim, and Dominic