Shhhh, don't tell my momma!

Tuesday at Nyahera. Ok, so I absolutely cannot contain my excitement about writing this blog. The only problem is, it may be difficult to explain the hilariousness of the day- or may not even be humorous outside of the Kenyan culture... but oh heck, here it goes:

First of all, even before the day began, we found out that our Care & Compassion volunteer, Dorine, came down with malaria, so she wasn't able to come with us to translate. But God provided along the way and we made it through the day quite swimmingly.

Our first stop was George's house. George was the patient we brought on last week and took to Masseno hospital and found out he had TB and thrush. Well, Praise God! He's doing so well!!! I hardly recognized him when we pulled up to his house. Last week he could barely walk and it was obvious that speaking was painful for him. This week, he's walking with strength and was speaking to us with a renewed voice and new energy. I just can't thank God enough for leading us to George last week, for a good hospital that can diagnose so accurately George's infections, and for the proper medications to strengthen and heal his body... and I'm so thankful for all of you readers who kept George and his wife Maureen in your prayers last week. Thank you, Thank you, Thank you.

The next stop was Joseph. This was my first week seeing Joseph- he was a patient of ours who despite only being 30 something, had a severe stroke. He spend about 1 1/2 months in the office where Robert is now so that he could get the proper physical therapy needed to recover from the stoke. Now, he can walk very far, and has almost full mobility, except with his left arm and hand... but it's for sure getting stronger slowly! His wife left him the moment she found out that he was very down with AIDs and moved to Nairobi with his children. However, he has decided to find a new wife... beginning with looking in the church... and have a real wedding! The majority of Kenyans here are not married. The benefits of not being married is that it costs much less and the bride's family doesn't have to worry about the dowry. The downside is that it has resulted in a culture in which the family unit is a complete mess. I remember Julie telling us a few weeks back that more and more people are having a real wedding, to make the commitment in front of friends and family and God. Even though Julie wasn't married when she had all her children, she and her husband had a church wedding with the hopes that her children will go through the formality and choose a wedding as well.

The hilarious moment of this visit was that besides the fact that Joseph and his momma were beyond thrilled to see us, the momma let Desmond know that some bananas were ready for us but we'd have to cut them down. Thinking nothing of it, we walked to the back of the house and there was a HUGE bunch of bananas in one tree. I never expected the momma to give us that many bananas, and then, instead of just cutting down the bunch- the whole tree needed to be cut down! So down went the banana tree with the machete and we'll probably be eating banana bread until we die.

The next stop was Kennedy and just as we were pulling up near his home, the car completely stopped- no power, no gas, nothing. So we lifted up the hood and figured it must be the battery because the Land Cruiser had been having battery issues. Anywho, we asked one of the mommas as the house we parked at if she had a "spanner"... which is a wrench... I think? She said she didn't so we decided to do the visit with Kennedy and then figure out the car. It turned out that he had to show us a potential new patient, so he came back to the car with us, but it still wasn't working. Kennedy didn't have a spanner either- so he sent someone off looking for one. We were at the broken down Land Cruiser for over 2 hours... in the hot African day. But we had bananas to eat :) I ended up reading my Bible for most of it and taking a nap, which was just so lovely. But in that 2+ hours there were many hilarious moments. Firstly, at one point before the mechanic crew got there, we thought about push starting the Land Cruiser. Honestly, I have no idea what that means... but in order to push start it, we had to push the Land Cruiser out of it's spot so it would have more room to start. So- Kennedy, the momma, some other guy, and I tried to push the Land Cruiser slightly uphill. It didn't go so well. We pushed it about 5 feet though! and I think all of us faceplanted at some point while we tried to push out. Secondly, when the mechanic crew got there, the head mechanic was slightly intoxicated. He tried to "clean off" the battery by pouring water on the fuses. The last time I heard- "Water and Electricity DON'T Mix!" Thirdly, we once again tried to push the Land Cruiser back to push start it... however this time it was a success! But after we sweated and pushed the Land Cruiser to the appropriate push starting location, we realized that if the battery isn't working whatsoever, that push starting the car will be useless. Fourthly, the mechanics had no idea how to fix the car so then we had to wait for the other mechanic to get back from his outing in Kisumu. Fifthly, before the mechanics got there, a random man came with several "spanners" and pliers. But the spanners were not the right size, and the pliers were frozen stuck... so the momma dumped oil on them and they were still stuck and no use to us. And Lastly, it turns out that the problem was the battery. A matatu driver came randomly and fixed the Land Cruiser in 2 minutes time... and he did the same thing to the battery that Desmond had done before we even went into Kennedy's home.

So back on the road, our next stop was "Potential New Patient" who was supposed to be very down. As we pulled up, a nearby school was releasing the children for lunch break, so it was an adventure getting through the mob of children screaming "Mzungu" and then trying to park the Land Cruiser away from the mob. Then, just as I was rolling up the window, a very old, very drunk Kenyan man came up to the car and greeted us and said "Mzungu, I'm so hungry"... so Desmond told me to give him a banana then he'd go away. Ok, well, he didn't go away. Instead, he said, "Oh I love you! OOOO AAAAAA OOOOO AAAAAA I love Mary" Creepy- he heard someone say my name. So we quickly walked into the patient's home. The patient looked very healthy and very well. Her only qualm was that sometimes her chest hurt. Desmond suggested she get an X-ray at the clinic... so she chimed in by saying that she didn't have the money. Well, we know that the X-rays at the clinic are completely free. So at that point we realized that she wouldn't be a good candidate to be a Christ's Hope patient... but also by this point, we'd attracted quite the crowd in the house... including creepy drunk Kenyan man. He sang us a song about the Bible, and then it was clearly time for us to leave. And yet, the drunk man followed us all the way back to the car. It was a very interesting visit...

After that crazy adventure, we were quite ready for a craziness break. So after we took our Coke and Mandazi lunch break, we went to see Julianna. I had been waiting for this moment all day! She is doing fine! She was walking around and playing with the children at her house. Steven was very helpful and was clearly looking after the other 6 or so children at the house. Pray for him, he has so much responsibility at home I'm just hoping and praying that he can learn at school and not have to stay home all the time to look after the younger children. We then walked down the lane to see Little George. His whole family have been patients of ours in the past, but now they are all stronger, except little George. George is 2 or 3 years old, but he barely looks 1. He's so tiny and so unhealthy looking. But, he's in a good home, with lots of love and care. It was nice to meet their family, even though they have a troubled past and a lot of burdens to share. I loved seeing these children :)

From the children's homes, we picked up Lydia to help us translate for the last 3 patients who speak nearly no English at all. We went to Marilyn's house... and that's when I almost fell out of the Land Cruiser... Shhhh, don't tell my momma! This is the 3rd consecutive week I've been to her home, and so every week I've wanted to take pictures of the "road" because it really is more like a walking path... and more like a leisurely hike that we take the Land Cruiser on. So this week, I took a video... which will be posted soon, I promise! Well, at one point, the most dismal point on the road, Desmond hit a bump and I don't really remember it, but stuff was flying off the dash, I was flying out of my seat and I didn't know which was up and which was down and that's when I almost fell out the window. We were all fine... but it's quite funny because since the video was running, everyone was trying to be quiet to not mess up the video... but really I was just cracking up that we got it on tape and then our reactions to the incident.

When we arrived at Marilyn's house I was so excited to see all the kids- Esther, Emmanuel, and Geoffrey. Geoffrey's legs still weren't looking great, but today we had more bandages for them. Pray that they continue to heal. Emmanuel was very excited to see us as always. Marilyn was complaining of a headache... which if it's the back of the head/neck headache can be meningitis, which can be very dangerous and deadly. We warned her of this and told her that if her headache gets at all worse, she needs to go to the clinic immediately. She lamented that it's tough for her to get to the clinic, and I don't blame her... but pray that her headache does not worsen, that it goes away, and if need be, she'll take the steps necessary to get to the clinic and get proper treatment. What thrilled me from this visit the most was Esther. When we got there, she didn't scream or shrink away from us, but instead shook my hand confidently and smiled. Yes, this little girl who was terrified a few weeks back met us with a smile. Not only that, but she reminded Emmanuel to give me the gift they gathered just for me! The gift was a type of fruit, not to sure what it is, but it looks like a long grape but tastes like badly processed lunch meat. I was still grateful and so appreciative of this gift from the children. At the end of the visit, Geoffrey set her on top of a large rock and like a good big brother, he left her there. And I was so thrilled when she reached out for only me to help her off. I think it's safe to say that Esther and I are good friends now :)

Our last 2 patients were Arthur and Angeline (who I thought was named Evelyn in last weeks blog). Arthur made it to Chemotherapy last week, and was looking better than last weeks visit. He's still very weak but his hope is in the Lord for sure. When I read scripture to him, Lydia translated, and then he repeated out loud each word. It was a really special time. Angeline is pregnant and we have no idea when she is due. She is going to the clinic regularly, but in Kenyan culture, people don't acknowledge pregnancy until the baby is born. So she was very private and wouldn't even disclose when the baby should be due with us. So not only pray that Angeline opens up to us so that we can best help her, but pray for the culture to shift so that all babies get the proper care and mothers get the proper education before the baby is born.


After a long day, but a hilarious day, we made our way back to Kisumu. Last week, we had Roger (a previous volunteer from the Netherlands) and his 4 friends over for dinner while they're on holiday. So this week, they offered to cook for us, which of course none of us would ever pass up! Unfortunately, we ran out of gas for the stove... and Kisumu pretty much ran out of cooking gas entirely. Instead of figuring out the Jiko cooker (the grill type thing that most Kenyans use) like we did last night to make pancakes, the guys decided to bring us take out Chinese food. It was very nice- and it still boggles my mind to think that I'm in Kenya, in a house full of Dutch people, eating some of the best take out Chinese food I've ever had. Internationalness rocks.


And throughout the whole day- I just couldn't help but see how the prayers that you blog readers are praying are being answered weekly. Thank you for your faithfulness in reading the blog and praying. Thank you for remembering Jessica and I and the work we're doing for the Lord. And thank you for responding to the whisper of God to pray for Kisumu and Christ's Hope ministry.


Lala Salama,
Mary