Top Chef

My friends back on Portland Street gather every week to watch Top Chef and apparently a new session has begun! Andy and I love to cook and we really enjoy the show. Even though we can't watch Top Chef here, I feel like we have had our own Top Chef in ways. New items we have made from scratch for Top Chef Kenya include Flat bread, tortillas, tortilla chips, English muffins, chocolate syrup, salsa, guacamole, bread crumbs, cinnamon rolls, barbecue sauce and collard greens. I am loving the cook book "New Comers guide to Cooking in Africa: Cooking American from scratch" it has all kinds of recipes including marshmellows!

Volcano in Iceland

Now I don’t know any details of the volcano that has erupted in Iceland, but I am praying that no one was hurt. I do know that it has affected us here at Tenwek in a few ways. The Sawatsky’s parents were to come to Kenya tonight, but because all the airports are closed in Europe they had to cancel their trip. This is affecting Adam and Christon’s plans as well as Christon and Eli were to travel back to the states with them. We are praying that Christon will be able to get her plane ticket changed so that she can go back with Adam. If not, she will have a 20 hour journey with Eli. Additionally, because Tenwek does rely somewhat on visiting physicians, there are some physician who are stuck in Kenya, and some who can’t get in. Please pray for the families traveling to and from Tenwek and that Christon is able to get her flight changed.

Another week of working at the hospital and many more experience. Last night was a long call night. I went up to the hospital for a twin c-section only to see a four day old infant being carried into the NICU. We unwrapped the child to find her pulseless and not breathing. Over the next two hours me and my intern coded the child. After that long intervention we were able to get her to a stable condition except for the fact she was not spontaneously breathing on her own. If I could only have a vent to get the child through that peroid of stress. The next morning I awoke to find the child had died six hours later. The last week has brought five deaths so far. On the flip side there have been countless children who would have died without the interventions were are blessed to have available. keep praying as we continue to work for three more weeks and even more for the interns and long term doctors who will be working in this environment for years to come.

I am sorry the posts have been few and far between, it is hard to get a hold of a computer + working Internet on a regular basis.
This weekend we had the opportunity to go on a safari. Originally we didn't think we would be able to go on one because of Andy's schedule. We also didn't know if it would be safe for Arathena, but we are glad we talked with the Larson's who encouraged us that it would be safe for her. Last time we went our friend Christy slammed her head on the metal frame of the vehicle as our driver tried to race the storm, so we were hesitant, but glad we brought her.
We had a wonderful time and feel so blessed for the opportunity.

Some highlight of going on Safari with a toddler:

• As we were 10 feet away from 2 male lions, I hear my daughter scream...apparently Andy let her have her pacifier and she dropped it outside of the vehicle...Agh! So this isn't any pacifier, our friend Lisa gave it to Arathena one day when I couldn't find hers and it is her favorite. I looked everywhere to buy another one before we left for Kenya but could not find it. Apparently, Lisa got it when she was at a specialty store at an outlet mall because it was the only place that sold pacifiers and she needed one for her baby. I seriously considered jumping out of the vehicle to get the pacifier:) Fortunately our driver was willing to wait till the lions passed and reversed the car and reached down and saved the day
• Morning vomiting
  
• Losing hat x2 but close to safer animals than lions
  
  

Overall it was a great experience. It is sad Arathena is probably too young to remember it:(

Arathena

Arathena has been slowly adjusting to her new environment. She likes spending her days running around the missionary compound, playing with the kids and animals, and giving her mama a hard time about eating.
The Bemms have 3 turtles that she enjoys watching and she loves two dogs; Samson and Walker. She will search the whole compound till she finds Walker, her favorite. She gave us a hard time with eating for the first week, but has been eating pretty consistently since. She is quite the diva with her pink sunglasses, pink purse, and mostly pink attire; she is defiantly Andy’s kidJ
She has also had to adjust to not being the only child in the family. Since we are living with the Sawatsky’s she has a little brother by her side. This has been interesting since Eli enjoys touching her all the time, but by the time we leave she will be so sad to be apart from him.
Arathena has also gotten to go up to the hospital and see the kids in the pediatric ward. She was sad that they had boo boos, but I assured her that her daddy was taking care of them. She has learned the Kiswahili and Kipsigi greeting and says hello to everyone she meets.
Overall I think Arathena has transitioned well and is happy here. It will be exciting to take her to see the animals this weekend.

Cooking

Cooking here has been interesting, but because we were here in 2006, I was much more prepared. We make everything from scratch which is fun but time consuming. Some things we have made that I don’t make back home include hamburger buns, bread, tortillas, pizza dough, kidney beans (I buy canned ones, already cooked). It has been hard for us to get vegetables so our diet has been limited. Fortunately, we just found a place that sells some vegetables by the hospital. There are plenty of avocados for guacamole and bananas.
We can’t use the water from the tap for cooking or drinking, so we catch rain water, boil it, then put it through a filter. We have to use filtered water to clean vegetables and for all cooking, including boiling pasta, so making sure we have enough water is important.
Also, we have to light our stove and oven with a match in order to cook. I do not like matches, but I have grown to be less scared of this process.
Cooking does consume a lot of our time but for the most part it has been enjoyable. For example it took 3 people 4 hours to prep and cook a meal of hamburgers, french fries and some sides. I do feel like I have been cooking for months and it has only been a week!

Andy

I have been hard at work from the time we reached Tenwek. It is surreal that I am considered an Attending level physician here. The first week has been like a whole year of residency compacted in 7 days. So far I have cared for Cutaneous Anthrax, Tetanus, Fulminant Liver Failure, Gastroschesis, Omphaloceles, NEC, CHF, Malaria, Typhoid ferver, TB, HIV, Chronic Osteomyelitis,Wilms Tumor, neonatal seizures, Lymphoma, Meningoma, Severe Burns, Hydrocephalus, Osteogensis Imperfecta, Protein Energy Malnutrition, Multiple levels of severity of mengitis and pneumonia. Every day I am rounding on 40 patients on the regular ward, 2-4 patients in the ICU and 30-40 patients in the NICU. Luckily I have been fortunate enough to have 4 wonderful interns who are all exceptional. Four more weeks to go and I do not know how I will continue to see so many new things.
Besides the overwhelming medical experience, Kenya has been a beautiful place to live for this short time period. I have been waking up early and running. Those times of running through the country side has been an experience I can not even put into words. The rolling hills with small tea farms arranged on hillsides or running through the small roadside towns has been on overwhelming experience.
More to come about our experience soon……