Post Residents Retreat at Lake Naivasha

We just returned from a wonderful, relaxing, rejuvenating retreat at beautiful Lake Naivasha, Kenya with our fellow Post-Residents and many of the World Medical Mission team from the US. The theme of the retreat was "Boundaries." In short, we were encouraged to set healthy boundaries that help us to thrive as individuals and families, so that we can avoid the burnout which is so common in the medical field in general, and in the developing world in particular. My favorite analogy from the weekend was from Dr. Jim Ritchie (Chogoria Hospital), who compared setting personal boundaries to a river:

A river within its boundaries has direction, is powerful, and is life-giving. A river without boundaries, on the other hand, can be destructive.

Every morning we enjoyed sessions with the World Med folks, and our afternoons were free to enjoy the beautiful resort and explore the area. We really enjoyed taking a boat out to Crescent Island (technically now a peninsula, not an island) and going on a "walking safari."

Obviously we didn't take this aerial shot, but it shows how Crescent Island got its name...

Crescent Island was previously uninhabited by much wildlife, but in the 1980s several species of animals were brought to the island for the filming of "Out of Africa." After the film was completed, the lions were removed from the island but the other species were left and the park was established. You can drive or boat to the "island" and walk quite close to all the animals, including zebra, giraffe, water buck, wildebeest, Thompson's gazelle, impala, flamingo, and several other species that I don't remember. There are hippos as well which you should NOT walk up to, and at night hyenas are known to cross over into the park and keep the animal population under control.

Thanks so much to our wonderful friends at World Medical Mission who put on a lovely retreat and are always encouraging and supportive! And speaking of support, thanks to our supporters who helped fund Kris and Dominic's travel expenses to and from the retreat!

With love,

Kim, Kristopher and Dominic