Fun in the Sun!

Last week I started taking all the "walkers" in the Baby Home out once or twice a day, for a chance to walk around in the glorious sunshine we have been enjoying since the rains let up!

Stop taking our picture, hurry up just open the door!

And they're off! The short one in front is Faith, she's small but she's fast!

 

Three out of four will come running when they're called. The fourth one...still in training!

Yes, let's do this everyday!

Kikopey....

Since about a month ago, when Mety and I were first making plans to go to Nakuru, I think she's been craving roasted goat! After we finished touring the park in Nakuru, we still had many hours left on our rental car, so we got directions to Java House, Menengai Crater, and a place called "Kikopey".
Java House served us a very yummy lunch of chicken quesadillas and then we drove about 20 minutes to the top of a viewpoint overlooking Menengai Crater. The fact that our rental car was nearly out of gas (and also had some sort of electrical problem that caused it to frequently shut off while braking) made the steep drive a little bit more fun!
When we reached the top of the ridge, we were greeted by a sparkling view of the crater. The weather was completely perfect!

Menengai Crater - One of the largest volcano depressions in the world!

The black rock on the floor of the crater is the lava path!

Warning! Do not go beyond this point! (it's a long way down!)

A beautiful view of Lake Nakuru from the other side of the ridge.

The road.... which Mety coasted down in neutral, as we were very low on fuel.....ha

After viewing the crater, we coasted into a gas station and added a little fuel to the car. Not very much, because we didn't want to waste money - our rental car came with no gas and we were set on returning it in the same condition. Then we set off for Kikopey - a cluster of open-air "restaurants" on the side of the road between Nakuru and Nairobi. I've never been before but Mety visited once and said it was a haven of nyama choma. We were told it was a 10km drive from Nakuru town. By the 20km point, I was glad that we had put a little extra gas in the car. By 30km, I was wishing we had put more! 40km later, we finally reached Kikopey!

This is real Kenyan barbecue! From Left to Right: Goat intestines (yeah those aren't curly fries!), whole flayed chicken, some kind of sausage?,  then leg of goat. You choose your portion, then they finish roasting it and serve it to you on a wooden platter garnished with a pile of salt. This guy happily agreed to let me take this picture, and then really grossed me out when he started piling the finished chickens on top of the platter of intestines. Mety saw my face and quickly told him in speedy Swahili to bring me some chicken that hadn't touched intestines!

We were shown to the fanciest table in the joint, which was polished wood instead of plastic. There wasn't another Mzungu in sight! Much to my dismay, our table backed up to the "kitchen" where the dishes were cleaned. The "cleaning" bucket is out of sight in this photo, the green and blue buckets are 1st rinse and 2nd rinse. You really can't appreciate the murkiness of the water from this picture! After I took this, Mety made me turn around and stop looking so I couldn't photograph the wash water.

Mety's goat leg and my chicken, after it was chopped up table side by the chef. I was thankful for the generous pile of salt! (Salt kills bacteria right?) 

My friend Mety - that's one very happy Kenyan!

Mety finished her goat, and I made a small dent in my chicken before I realized the terrible smell I kept getting whiffs of was coming from my own platter! Mety concurred that some of mine had a smell, but her response was "just don't eat the smelly pieces!" No amount of salt could keep me eating, because all I could picture was intestines and the brown water behind me. But it was a good experience, and after we got back to our Nakuru hotel, Mety surprised me with flowers and chocolate! Definitely the most unique, memorable birthday I've ever had!

Birthday in Nakuru!

This was the first year I celebrated my birthday without my sisters, and the first time I celebrated in Kenya! Mety and I decided to make a weekend trip to Lake Nakuru and go on safari in the park. The weather was perfect and the animals were feeling like being photographed! We had a great morning driving around and taking photos, and we only got lost once. =)

These waterbucks were really close to the car, but they ran away from us, shaking their heads back and forth the whole way! Really funny looking.

Pumba and family!

Hippo!

It seems to be the season for baboons and monkeys - there were babies EVERYWHERE.

Very successful lion hunting!!! 

Flamingos and Lake Nakuru!

We saw these monkeys playing on our way out of the park, so cute! Much cuter than the smelly baboons.















The safari just took up the morning, the rest of the day will be a whole different blog post.....=)

It's not all chapatis and kissing babies.....

I had an "I Hate Kenya" day today.

I woke up early hoping to get some things done around my cottage before going to work. My shower annoyed me because it no longer sprays straight down and instead sprays all directions, making it even more difficult to rinse my hair with the already-low water pressure that now sprays the wall more than it does me. (Every time we run out of water and then get it back again, sediment gets washed through the pipes, and my shower head is now blocked with mud, but has thoroughly resisted my efforts to disassemble it.) I add this to my list of "things to ask for repair", at the same time calculating how long this repair will probably take in "Kenya time", and get more annoyed that I can't just run to Home Depot, buy a tool, and do it myself.
I washed dishes and cleaned the kitchen, then had coffee while checking e-mails. The internet cut out every few minutes, so I waste about an hour trying to load a few e-mails.
I mopped my floor and deck and then got ready for the priority of the day: taking 6 kids to the dentist. It had rained all night and the ground was really muddy, so I really debated which shoes to wear since it's inconvenient to traipse around town and the dentist office in knee high rubber boots which would be the best choice. I ended up putting on my rubber strap-on sandals. I needed to drop off a box of supplies at the pharmacy and pick up a medication, then go to the office to get my transportation request approved and signed and then go round up the kids so we could leave on time. I dropped off the box of supplies and then on my way to the office stepped in a particularly soft and unexpectedly deep mud hole, thoroughly coating my entire shoe, foot, and lower part of my jeans in gritty, red, slime. I was closest to the pharmacy, so I turned around and went back to wash the mud-sock off my leg. I get inside and discover there is no water. I slowly smeared the mud off my foot, leg and jeans with wet-wipes and a few paper towels, then ditched my mud covered sandals and changed into the croc shoes that I wear around the pharmacy. Stepping very carefully, I made it to the office and got my transport request signed, then decided to run back to my cottage and get tennis shoes and a clean pair of jeans. I am once again running out the door when my phone rings and the dentist now informs me that they are going on strike today, so I shouldn't come to town because no one will treat us.
I go back to the office to my smiling, well-dressed, teeth-just-brushed kids and inform them they can all go back home and get muddy because our dentist appointment is canceled, and we will do this whole routine another day.

Then I went to the Baby Home to kiss some babies.

I'm Fundraising!

2013 Kenya Jewelry Fundraiser

I am fundraising for 2013-2014! If you live near Spokane, please come to my jewelry sale fundraiser this Saturday, would love to see you ! There will be food, wine, and mandazis!

:

• • Saturday, 16 March 2013

    

    12 noon until 8pm

1216 S Ash, Spokane WA

1216 S Ash, Spokane WA

View map · Get directions

 

Iraq trip 2013!

I just got back yesterday from my 4th medical mission trip with the International Children's Heart Foundation, to Najaf, Iraq! We did some very complex surgeries this trip but we had a great team and the kids did well! Here are a few of them....

Baby Girl

This little sweetheart was a doll while she was sleeping, and usually screaming mad when she was awake! She was much happier when she got to leave ICU and go to the pediatric ward.

On the ward, cuddling with mom! Much happier but still no smile! (I did get her to smile on the last day when she came back to ICU for an echo - I gave her candy while she was waiting her turn!)

The Little Man

This handsome guy was a real star after surgery - he coughed on command! Here he is relaxing after extubation with his new teddy bear and his motorcycle.

Going for a walk around the ICU....a requirement before discharging to the ward!

Up on the ward - first he showed off his new electric toy truck, then got his chest dressing changed, then posed for a photo! He will be going home soon. =)

Sir Mohammed 

Looking very stoic and ready to leave ICU. 

Up on the ward - still looking stoic! 

Thumbs up!

This boy was so cute when we visited him on the ward. He knew where his medicines were, how to get his chart from the nurse's station, and rattled off answers to all our questions through the translator. Feels like a new kid now that he has a healthy heart!

My Little Musa!

 This boy stole my heart from the first day! He was very sick before surgery, and came back from surgery also very sick. After a rough couple of days, he started making serious progress!

Very sick baby...Six months old and weighing only 4kgs, Musa was a baby who was too little for us to operate on in November last year, because we did not have the right equipment for him. When we discussed his case during the planning meeting on our first night in Iraq, the surgeon remembered him and said "that boy LIVED?" He's a fighter!

On day one he still had an open chest, day two he had a peritoneal drain, day three - he was extubated and making strides!

 Musa getting some cuddle time. I would have taken this baby home with me if I could!

Little Peanut

On Tuesday, week 2 of our trip, we scrambled to find a seventh bed to add to our ICU. Squeezing 7 patients into a unit built for 4 was a tight fit, but this tiny guy needed immediate surgery! He was transported from another hospital 3 and 1/2 hours away for urgent repair of a serious heart defect called TGA (transposition of the great vessels). With this heart defect, the body gets very little oxygen and most babies die within the first week of life if they are not repaired. At 10 days old, this baby reached us just in time!

Weighing only 2.3kg, little Ali was our smallest patient!

After surgery - nice and pink! He recovered very quickly with his new heart!

Here is a photo of Ali's bed just after he arrived post-op. Miraculously the local staff found an incubator we could warm him in. His bed space almost looked like a real PICU! (since you can't really see all our plastic and tape rigging things together!)

Nice and pink, off the ventilator and breathing on his own less than 24 hours after surgery! His mother was very happy.

Sharing a room with 6 other patients in a one-room bustling ICU makes for a very bright and loud environment! We had some trouble getting this little guy to sleep for very long, but his sunglasses helped a little.

Of course the easiest way to get a tiny baby to stop crying is to just hold them all the time....we did a little of that too!

This lovely girl was one of our final cases, and she had her mitral valve repaired. Here she is, almost ready to go to the ward, with a new bear to match her new heart valve.

Grumpy Bear

Little Shakur had a fairly uneventful surgery, but had ongoing rhythm issues post-op that kept him pretty unhappy. He demanded that his older brother stay by his side at all times, and nothing we did could ever get him to smile!

Even after he was discharged to the ward, Shakur wouldn't smile! Here he is with Farzhana, the ICHF nurse educator for Najaf. She tried everything to get him to smile and he always refused.

On the last day, I told Farzhana "hey, Shakur came to ICU for his last EKG, and I gave him a teddy bear and he smiled!" "Really??!"

Yep.......

There it is. 

Miracles happen every day. =)