Escape - and a lot to be thankful for!

Thanks to a very generous volunteer physician, who gave up two weeks with her family to come and work in my position at Kapsowar Hospital (and also gave up another two weeks of work to quarantine upon her return to the US), our family was able to take a much needed vacation for the first time since January. Here are some pictures from our very relaxing and rejuvenating vacation.*

Dominic found this beautiful starfish during his first "snorkeling" expedition (mostly just sticking his face under the water from a standing position, but he did a little swimming too)

Dominic and a baobab tree (he was in "Baobab" class at his school in Nairobi last year)

View of the resort at night

Latte macchiato by the pool

We stopped in Nairobi to visit some friends and do our Christmas and birthday shopping. Here is Dominic enjoying a salad at Burger King :)  He also downed an enormous chocolate milk shake.

Kris and Dominic riding a camel on the beautiful white sand beach

Dominic with some delicious dessert at the resort

Finally, a very blurry photo of our last night of vacation, relaxing by the fire and playing a game of Ticket to Ride at Brackenhurst, near Nairobi

We're back in Kapsowar, back to work and play in our beautiful little community. We enjoyed a socially-distanced Thanksgiving dinner, but we were a little late and didn't get a chance to share the things we're grateful for this year. Here's what I would have said:

- Our family and friends who have supported us in prayer, encouragement, and financially throughout a very difficult year, personally and globally

- The team at World Medical Mission, who have walked us through some dark times and who arranged a volunteer to come and work for me so that our family could take a much-needed vacation

- The volunteer who actually decided to travel in the midst of a pandemic specifically so that I could take some time off

- My Grandma, who sent an iPad for Dominic and I to use during homeschool - which has made a huge difference in our mornings!

Finally, here's a scene from a morning this week (my first attempt to load a video onto this blog, apologies if it doesn't work...)

*Some of you may wonder what a missionary family is doing at a beautiful resort like this. It's a legitimate question, and a dialogue that I would be happy to have, but this blog is probably not the best venue. If you have questions or comments about our vacation, please send me a comment or email!

Marking Time

 I'm sure I've said this a hundred times in the last seven months - it's simply amazing how time flies when there are almost no events, visitors, or trips to break up the weeks and months. This month, though, we'll celebrate a few mile markers, and with the holidays approaching, it is somehow more believable to me that we've been here in Kenya for well over a year. We moved from Nairobi to Kapsowar the week of American Thanksgiving last year, and our puppy Nala was born around that time as well. The rhubarb plant that Kris transplanted from Nairobi, which almost died during our time back in North America over New Years last year, is now thriving and looks good enough to start harvesting (although the internet tells me I'd better wait a little while longer). 

Dominic's second Halloween in Kenya. We invited some of his friends over to watch a "scary" movie - Monster's University :)

One of the good things about COVID-19 is that we have reconnected online with our church in Vancouver, British Columbia. Our pastor this week encouraged us to make and share a list of the "small things" that we're thankful for. Here's the start of my list - and given that today is election day in the US, I challenge you all to take a moment to start a list of your own! Even if we're not completely happy with the way the world is right now, we can still practice gratitude and joy!

My list:

- Rainy evenings in front of a warm fire

- Finding chocolate AND candy sprinkles at our grocery store in Eldoret

- Sharing conversation and baked goods with our neighbors

- Usually reliable internet connection so we can stay in touch with our family and friends all over the world

- A beautiful view of a beautiful country from our backyard

- The intermittent and always surprising appearance of fireflies, also in our backyard

- A free magazine sent to the hospital for Dominic from the US

- Waking to the sound of birds greeting the sun, every morning

- Our grocery store in Kapsowar starting to carry yarn in a variety of colors

Slippers for the family

- Brussel sprouts!

- The sheep (with a new little lamb) who live at Kris' school

So many more things, big and small, to be thankful for today...if you feel like it, feel free to leave a comment with your "small things!"

Kim

Have wheels, will travel

After 6 months of waiting, Kris was finally able to pick up our car from Nairobi last month! We took a little retreat to Eldoret this past weekend just to get away, do some shopping, and be officially off-call. 

Dominic got a new skateboard...he looks pretty cool carrying it around ;)

First lost tooth!

Good thing there's a tooth fairy in Kenya...Dominic is saving up for some kneepad and elbow pads for his new skateboard. 

Scenes from Kapsowar

September has started with a bang - Kristopher is back to work teaching a two-week intensive course at the School of Theology, and Maternity has entered the busy season due to nation-wide holidays in December :) We're so thankful that Gladys is back to watch Dominic during the days and to keep our household running while we're at work. As requested a couple of months ago, here are some snapshots (some new, some old) of our lives in Kapsowar.

Sunrise from our bedroom window

Sunday morning breakfast - banana bread by the fire 

Weekday routine - Mom and Dominic do school on the couch in our PJs, while Dad makes breakfast (oatmeal)

Kim's walk to work - view of the "station" from our front door.

(It's about a five minute walk, door to door, including a temperature check and hand-washing station thanks to COVID-19.)

Walking past the nursing school (classrooms on the left, dorms on the right)

Walking home for lunch - the tree-lined main road into the station (compound)

A few pictures of our house:

Dominic's room - no closet, so we had these boxes built for organizing his clothes, books, and toys. His bunk bed is behind/left of the camera.

Our bedroom - again the closet space was limited, so we had the cubbies under the window and "open closet" to the sides built. Our room gets great morning sunlight - best appreciated on weekdays if Kim has NOT been called in for a C-section in the middle of the night :)

Here's our kitchen/living area - the refrigerator and washing machine are by far the nicest we've ever had! You can see that we do have a microwave and coffee maker - and our drinking water comes from the water dispenser, which we refill from a UV filtered source.

Finally, a few views of our area - our neighbor Kyle took us for a short driving tour with views of the Kerio Valley last weekend. The pictures don't do it justice!

Green all year round

Kerio Valley (an offshoot of the Great Rift Valley) in the distance

Sorry for the delay...

 It's been a busy two weeks here in Kapsowar - not because of COVID-19, too many patients, or some other disruption, but because we've decided to implement our inpatient electronic medical records. Those of you in healthcare know that the transition from paper to electronic is time-consuming at best, and makes you want to tear your hair out or quit your job at it's worst. I've been through this transition three times already - as a receptionist, a medical student, and a resident. Now as an attending physician I've got to admit that it's just as tedious and frustrating as before. But at least I know what to expect...

I have two things I'm grateful for during this transition: one is my family medicine resident, Tadeo, who has been able to take part of my workload while I'm figuring out the EMR. The other is my new computer which I purchased through donations from generous people like YOU approximately four weeks ago. Little did I know what a huge difference it would make in surviving this transition!

Had to bring in an extra cup of coffee to get through this day!

I promised in my last newsletter some pictures from our daily routine. I'll get to those later this month! But first - I've got to figure out a few admission orders :)

Kim

Hike to Kipkinur

While I was on call last weekend, Kris had the opportunity to hike with some of our friends up Kipkinur (spelling totally made up by me and probably wrong). Here are some pictures in no particular order. Special thanks to Mike and Ashley who watched Dominic while I was at the hospital (in other words, most of the day!).

The trail is pretty muddy and a bit overgrown.

The day started off quite misty

And finally, the view of Kipkinur at sunset from the hospital. Kipkinur is the little bump on the skyline between the setting sun and the treebranch on the right of the shot. People say it looks like a thumbnail rising above the mountain ridge.

Thanks for visiting our blog! Let me know if there are particular pictures you would like to see next month!

Kim

Natural Resources

Have I mentioned yet that Dominic has started Kindergarten? Before COVID-19, we used to meet for devotions and prayer from 8-9am four mornings per week with the other physicians and volunteers at our compound. However, when social gathering restrictions began in Kenya around the end of March, I decided to use that time to work on reading and writing with Dominic. As time went on and we ran out of workbooks, our neighbors very kindly offered to let us borrow their Kindergarten homeschool curriculum and books. So Dominic’s first day of Kindergarten was April 6. Because…why not, right?!?

First day of Kindergarten!

In the last week, we’ve been reading and learning about natural resources. Dominic’s “homework assignment” was to go outside with Kris and list the wealth of natural resources we have in Western Kenya.

•  Farm land: In the mountainous region where we live, there are no large fields of crops. However, most families have a “shamba” or small farm at their home to grow vegetables and corn for their own family, and maybe a little extra to sell in town. Every other week, we order about $20 USD of fruit and veggies from Eldoret. We buy the rest of our fresh produce at a stall right outside our compound. Many families also keep cows and chickens. We’re lucky to have our milk delivered to our house (1 L fresh milk every weekday) and I pick up eggs from a coworker every week.
  
  
  
  
• Rivers: All the water to the hospital and compound comes from a mountain stream. The line has recently been upgraded thanks to the hospital’s engineer. We purify the water with a UV system. Many of the houses also have rainwater collection systems (we just got ours installed last week!).
• Solar: As the weather is usually overcast for at least part of the day, we can’t rely on solar for all our energy needs, so we are connected to the “grid.” However, almost all the houses on our compound now have solar energy available for our overhead lights and many of the electric outlets in our homes. The bigger energy savings come from the solar water heaters on our roofs. These supply hot water to our showers and kitchen sinks, which significantly
  reduces the amount of “grid” energy we use.
• Forests: Every weekend, we see people (mainly women and young boys) walking down the road with huge stacks of branches on their backs. The forest around here is abundant. The government has regulations regarding what type of wood can be collected from the forest for firewood, to keep the forest healthy. Houses are mostly made of brick or cement, but the forest supplies wood for cooking, heating, and building fences.
• Geothermal: I recently spent a couple of minutes trying to figure out how Kenya generates most of its power, assuming that it would be hydroelectric. However, it appears that geothermal makes up a large proportion of electric supply, mainly around Lake Naivasha, where we visited three months ago.

Throughout the developing COVID-19 crisis, we’ve considered ourselves lucky to be in Western Kenya for two reasons. First, we’re so rural and remote that the virus (as far as we know) has not yet reached our county, so we have had plenty of time to prepare, watch, and learn from other countries and hospitals. Second, we know that even if the supply chain completely shut down, we really have everything we need to survive in this land with abundant natural resources.

I recently read, and understand now in a way that I would not have understood before, that the most vulnerable in the COVID-19 crisis are the urban poor. Although they may be physically closer than we are to the food supply chain, they are economically incredibly distant. In an urban setting, they can’t fall back on their family farm or livestock to survive through difficult times as the rural poor can. Living hand-to-mouth in a slum is vastly different than living hand-to-mouth on your farm, although certainly both are precarious. When I become frustrated with the rising number of COVID-19 cases in Kenya and the apparent disregard for social distancing recommendations in Nairobi and Mombasa (the two major cities and epicenters of the disease here), I have to remember that the poor in those cities are literally making life and death decisions as they face starvation if they don’t get out to work. We have been challenged during this time to try to support our local economy in whatever small ways we can, and to steward our natural resources to the best of our ability.

The "C" word

I know the news has been bleak lately. Many of us have seen major changes to our lives, our daily routines, our relationships, our plans for the future. Maybe some of you have been thinking, "When is Kim finally going to write a post about the 'C' word?"

Well, here it is.

My first blog post on...

Crafting in Kenya!

As you may have guessed, Hobby Lobby and Michael's have not yet opened branches in Kenya. So, craft time requires a little more than the usual amount of creativity. We have been very blessed to receive a few care packages from our friends at World Medical Mission, including some very fun crafting supplies. I also used up some valuable luggage space on our return from North America in January to pack some yarn and knitting supplies. Here are a few of the projects we've worked on in recent months.

Display shelves

A few colored popsicle sticks, a little stiky tack, and we finally have a place to store Dominic's "collections" of buttons and small rocks. If it doesn't fit on the shelf, it has to be given away or thrown out!

Earring/Jewelry organizer 

All the homemade earring organizer ideas I saw online include things like empty picture frames...harder to come by than you might think here in Kapsowar! But I did have this item sitting around in a cupboard...can you guess what it is? I'll have to figure out how to hang our Christmas ornaments next year since I used the little ornament hanging hooks to hang the necklaces. That's not too big of a deal though...our Christmas tree is about 14 inches tall!

Picture frame

This one is self explanatory. I think the sticks complement the beachy theme :)

Easter "baskets"

We brought Jelly Bellies and chocolate eggs back with us in January (yep, we found chocolate Easter eggs in January in British Columbia) but had to find a creative way to pass them out to the neighbor kids. 

Tree costume

Hat + safety pins + fresh foliage = a tree? Good enough for Dominic's preschool play, anyways! 

Alright, enough about crafting. Seriously, here's the news on coronovirus in Kenya. Schools remain closed, meetings including church services are prohibited, non-essential travel is discouraged and Nairobi and Mombassa are completely roadblocked...no one in or out by plane, train, or automobile. Or bicycle, actually. 

Out here is Kapsowar, we have completed our contingency planning, our isolation and quarantine wards are built, we have no more short term volunteers, and now...we wait. We read the news, we pray for all of you who we know are in affected areas or working on the front lines, for all of you who are in vulnerable populations, and we pray that our little corner of the world will be spared from the pandemic. And we wait. 

And craft!

See, it all comes around in the end :)

Lots of love to you all,

Kim