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