Work in the basement

So it is high time I get a blog post up. I have been debating about what to write those of you wanting stories from the hospital it’s the same as last time. My ventilators don’t always work, patients are very sick, and I am enjoying being part of the team here.

Today I have been having a new adventure. Tenwek being a mission hospital gets many things donated. These things all end up on the shelves in Central Supply, much of the donated equipment is used and put to good use however among every container of donated supplies is the junk. Things are donated because they are no longer needed by the place that donated them. Maybe it was a mistaken purchase so its fine for us to use or it is something completely random that would never be used – ever. When I was here two years ago I spent some time in Central Supply familiarizing myself with the items on the “respiratory shelves” which is a lot of equipment from little connectors to 40 feet of oxygen tubing.  Amoung these shelves I also find the obscure like hoods – no clue what these hoods are for – I think maybe the OR. Although now that I am writing this I should double check and see if they’re oxyhoods. Anyway I was asked today to assist the staff in going through these shelves. It is tedious dusty work but I am enjoying it. We emptied one whole shelf today. I found some treasures: in-line suction catheters and incentive spirometers, and sent some things to the trash: water traps are useless when your humidification is HME. I also have matched up some supplies to other areas of the hospital such as double lumen endo tubes to the thoracic surgeon, he did not know we had them – we have 38.

I will probably end up spending a week down there taking breaks to see my patients and respond to pages. Today breaks involved doing CPR, chest physiotherapy and some ventilator checks, as well as a few e-mails to Europe as someone there has some equipment he wants to donate and wants to be sure its appropriate, I am so thankful he asks.

I will end with a few pics of my work. 

I head to work around 7am and caught this beautiful sunrise out my front door.

We have been having trouble with the power to our CT scan, so we now have all these batteries to  hopefully fix it.

This is currently behind the hospital, not sure why?

Today I emptied the shelf on the left tomorrow the right, then the next one. 

Home at Tenwek

So I should be preparing my lecture for next week, or figuring out how the new (to me) spirometer works or reviewing my Swahili. But I think you all deserve an update on what I am up to so I will write this instead, and work on the rest later.  I work the best under pressure.

I finished language school with my final oral exam on May 9 and the next day headed to Tenwek. I got here just in time for new missionary orientation. This was a time spent with missionaries who have been in Kenya from anywhere from 8 months to a few days. This was a good start to my life at Tenwek, although it did delay the unpacking a bit. I gave myself Monday off to get settled in and meet my house help, a wonderful lady who will be coming 2 days a week to help me out with cooking, cleaning, shopping and laundry. Her help is an excellent bridge into the culture around me as well as frees me up to spend more time in ministry – whether working at the hospital or the surrounding community.

I am staying in the home of a long term missionary who is currently on furlough. She has generously let me use her furniture and kitchen stuff. It is great to move into a furnished home all I had to do was unpack the bags and hang pictures on the wall.

I made it to Tenwek just in time for a graduation ceremony of one of the Family Practice residents I worked a lot with in my last term at Tenwek. Dr M. is a wonderful doctor and I am sad to see him go. We had a fun graduation evening. I skipped out of some of the speeches to play with his 2 young boys who thought this Muzungu (white person) who attempted to talk Swahili was interesting.

Sugar high=Smiles

Good-bye Dr M, we will miss you. 

I headed to work Tuesday morning. Introduced and reintroduced myself to many of the staff here many names and forgot many of them – a challenge of working everywhere in the hospital is I work with almost everyone and it makes for a lot of names to remember or more often forget.

All set for my first day at work

My days have been busy the first day I attended 3 different codes, assisted with 2 intubations and functioned as a ventilator as we waited to get a bed in ICU. I am quickly refamiliarizing myself with our equipment and the challenges we face here;  I have already had to bag patients because of malfunctioning oxygen system, my pockets are overflowing with all sorts of necessities from Peep valves to hand sanitizer, and  I have been called out of bed at midnight to help out with our ventilator that has its idiosyncrasies. I have been busy working from 7:00 or 7:30am until  5:30 or 6:00pm, long days however I am loving it. It is great to help out the career missionaries and shoulder some of the load of working here. I also love sharing knowledge with the staff as we learn from each other.

I have appreciated my time spent learning Swahili. I have been having chai with the nurses and being able to be a part of, or at least understand, some of the conversation going on around me has been great. The staff has also been very encouraging speaking to me in Swahili and saying it again when I ask and telling me what word is what. I have been able to do basic respiratory assessments in Swahili  it’s not always right but I am learning and when the patient laughs at my Swahili mistakes it’s a good form of chest physiotherapy.

Well I should end there, and get some lectures written. I ask for your prayers in the continued months as the novelty of working here will wear off and become routine I will need strength both physical as the days are long and emotional as I see a lot of death each week. I need to continually remind myself that healing the physical body is a good goal but the spiritual body is even more important. 

Last few days of School

I have completed my last few days of language school. May 10^thI will be moving again, for the last time for a while, to Tenwek. My classmate finished last week  so that left just me in my class for the last week and a half. I  stopped working through the textbook and instead I had the teachers teach me medical things. Medicine in Kenya is done in English(the staff all communicate in English regarding medical matters) but the patients may only speak Swahili and their tribal language, or just their tribal language– in which case my learning will not be helpful but this is still time well spent.

To illustrate the importance of the time I have spent learning Swahili over the last three months here is a true story from last week. It was a holiday in Kenya and I took the opportunity to head into Limuru to pickup a few things. I went by matatu (after walking a mile to the main road). I got in a matatu where not much communication is needed, after you are seated you get a tap on the shoulder and/or a look that is your cue to pass up your fare and say where you are going. No need to speak Swahili there. After I had paid there was some confusion between the tout (guy who collects the fare, not the driver) and a passenger over the fare. This fellow ended getting off thematatu early saying in English “how would I know I don’t speak Swahili”. Now this fellow blended into the population much better than I did, and when he got off there were a few murmurs of “he should speak the national language”. At this point I turned to my seat mate and said “Nasema Kiswahili” (I speak Swahili).This spread some smiles around the matatu, and it reminded me that communication is only one of the goals of language it is also to be a part of the culture, to show respect and to be able to be one of the crowd.

So since last weeks holiday, I returned to school and continued to make my lovely mistakes. The other day I mistakenly said “when my brothers and I were cows” Instead of when my brothers and I had cows – introduced much laughter to our lunch break. I am sure that was not my last mistake and I will daily make more.

I ask that you pray for me in these final days of formal language study – that I will continue to learn and that I will know how to best focus my class time. These past 2 weeks have been fun. During the mornings I create my lesson plan – we joke that I have a clinic, and it’s not far from the truth. I am explaining, in Swahili, how to manage asthma and we are doing “spirometries”. One of my teachers desires to be an actor and he is loving putting his skills to use when I tell him – Ok you are coming to the clinic because you are short of breath. I have  learned the words to use during chest physiotherapy – interesting as the best word we have is "beat the patient", hopefully I don’t scare them away.

My next post will be from Tenwek my home for the next 2 years - the time has finally come.

Various Adventures and the Push to the Finish.

In my last post I mentioned how I would be off on retreat, I returned from the coast the middle of last week. It was a great long weekend spent at the coast enjoying the sun, friends (new & old), and a challenging speaker. Mornings and evenings were spent either in meetings learning more about mission operations or listening to our speaker. The speaker, Dr Patrick was Canadian which was a nice bonus. Dr Patrick is an extremely smart man who has experience working in the developing world and currently teaches at Augusting College in Ottawa – a year of study there would be very interesting.

Afternoons during the retreat were free time. Given the choice of reading a book or playing with the children in the pool – the pool won out everytime. I pulled out some of my old swimming lesson techniques and had a lot of fun with these missionary kids who will be a big part of my life the next few years.

Getting back to school after retreat was a little tough as I have less than three weeks left. It is easy at this point to stop caring but I really need to make the most of these final weeks. Please pray with me for continued motivation.

My school took a field trip this week which included some motivation to continue in my Swahili studies. We went to Toi (pronounced like toy) Market. A large “outdoor” market in Nairobi, outdoor in quotations as there is plastic sheeting covering it. Anyway you can buy almost anything there. Many of the products are thrift store cast-offs from around the world. I saw more than one Value Village price tag. I knew when I came to Kenya that I would need to buy a few things to set up house. When I priced them out at the local “Walmart”equivalent I was shocked by the prices – twice as much or more than what I would pay at home. So Toi market was a gold mine. I managed to buy bedding, towels,crocs, and material for a reasonable price. I did have to barter and my Swahili, halting as it is, did help as it told the shopkeeper that I was not a tourist. I felt like I got fair prices, although I am sure I will hear of someone who got what I got in better quality for half the price but that is the nature of shopping.

All the teachers came with us to the market and it was typical: the ladies loved every minute of it and the guys waited around aimlessly until we were done. We did go out for pizza afterwards which I hope made it worth it for them.

I will end here with some pics of the coast and our outing.

I woke up early to see the sunrise

The adult (quite/boring) pool with the ocean in the backgorund

One of the MK's who is graduating this year, we had an evening to celebrate and encourage them

Pizza after the Market, 

My fellow students showing of their purchases

Easter at Tenwek

So 2 weeks ago I finally made it out to Tenwek. Since myarrival in Kenya on Jan 4 I have been living in and around Nairobi. Between mypracticum, language school and recommended travel restrictions during electionsI have not been able to make the 4 hours (1 way) trip to Tenwek, my futurehome. Finally with Easter the opportunity came.

I enjoyed the drive out, the rains have caused Maasai landto turn green and beautiful. I arrived at Tenwek, dug my lab coat, stethoscope,and pulse-ox out of my bag and out of the door and up the hill I went,  heading to the hospital. It was great to greetold friends and to get back to work. It had been months since I have dealt withpatients, touched a ventilator and used my critical thinking skills as I triedto make things work. In some ways it feels like I never left as so many thingswere the same. However there were new faces and other things that made me feela little like a visitor again.

The weekend at Tenwek was also a great time to reconnectwith my Tenwek family. There are new faces to the family who I had yet to meet.I met some of these families as the kids ran around,  and met the adults as I ran around the hospitaland attended various Easter services.

Since then I have returned to school I have just over 3 weeksof class left. This week was busy studying as I wrote a test and prepared for adevotional on Thursday morning. By the time you will be reading this post Iwill be skipping school again as Tenwek’s annual retreat is this weekend. It isa time of rest and relaxation. Spiritual and community growth as well as anopportunity for me to get to know all these new faces better without the stressof hospital life.

One other thing I am hoping to retreat from is the bugs. Ihave been writing this cowering under my mosquito net with the light off as therains have driven all sorts of bugs into the house. The light attracts them andthis evening I had about a dozen flying termites in my room. I think my flip flopweapon killed them all but I am enjoying the (false) security of my mosquitonet.

should have kept this guy, as he would have eaten some of the bugs

As well as bugs in the house the birds are quick to fly in though a  open window or door. The other day I turned around to see these 2 standing in my room. 

The great GREEN Rift Valley

Tenwek Easter Cross

Training

 So back in summer of 2011 when the decision to return to Kenya was made, a list was created of all the things I would have to do.  World Gospel Mission (WGM) had recommended trainings for all those going through their Missionary Discipleship program to complete. Through various reasons (mainly being Canadian) I was not sent by WGM but Samaritan's Purse. Samaritan's Purse does not send medical people long term so they did not have recommended training. Thinking some training would still be a good thing I wrote down a list of the training WGM would have required of me and set out to do them. I’m thankful Samaritan’s purse was very supportive of these training courses and allowed me to use some of my raised funds to cover the cost of these courses.

                The first course I took was called Perspectives. This was a compact course that explained everything it could in a week of seven hour classes. We learned about missions, why we do them – To glorify God, history of missions, lessons we can learn from previous mistakes and how God can use anybody. This was a great course; I still have the textbook – somewhere, and will probably find it again someday.

                The second course I took was called PLANT’s, this is a Canadian version of a course offered in the States called PILAT. It was out in Ontario and fit better in my schedule as well as allowed me to spend some great time with my Ontario relatives. This course was all about language – learning styles, methods in and out of the classroom, how long it will take etc. It was a helpful course and I use some of the methods in my current studies.

                The last course that I took on North American soil was called SPLICE  - all about living cross culturally, sacrifices and joys and meeting a wonderful community of people.

                That leaves me with the 4^th and final training language learning. After being taught French from grades 4-12 and being able to speak very little I was not looking forward to this time. I prayed that I would catch on quick, and be able to endure it. Six weeks in and at the halfway point I am very thankful for what God has done. Not only am I learning the language I am enjoying it.  The grammar is fun (I hate English grammar, and Shawna who edits each and every blog post can attest to the fact that I am horrible at it). Being able to have a conversation in another language is exciting, and a week after you learn a word to hear it and recognize it outside of school reminds me that this learning is a good thing. I am so thankful that God has given me ear to hear and mouth to speak this language and he is going beyond what I asked for and has allowed me to enjoy it. I still make many mistakes and you can hear my teacher's and my laughter carrying out of the classroom. This week I confused the word think and horse saying “I horse”.  I also made coffee into a verb and when I was told “no” I put in the people class making it human – I argued, to no avail, that coffee is necessary for life and therefore should have human like adjectives. Mistakes I have learned from, although I may make again.

                So by the middle of May my training that had been spread out over a year, almost to the day, will be complete and I will get to work. This year of training has stretched my brain, and had me in many places and one of the best parts has been to meet so many missionaries headed out all over the world. I plan on putting up a map surrounded by prayer cards of all my friends around the globe.

             
 Aside from language I have been exploring the beautiful country of Kenya I visited the Tigoni fall’s last weekend and this weekend I hiked mount Longonot, a dormant volcano. I have some pictures of both for you to enjoy. For Easter I will be heading to Tenwek. As Tenwek is  about four hours from Nairobi I have not been there since I arrived in Kenya almost three months ago. I am looking forward to seeing friends both old and new.

Tigoni Falls

The view from Mt. Longonot - the lake is Lake Naivasha

3 of us hikers on the rim we are scouting out the cape buffalo

Levi, one of my teacher and our friend and "guide" for the day.  the crater of Longonot is in the background

Shade School of Language & Culture

I have been at language school for five weeks now – passed my first exam and now in a class of just myself as I go Haraka, Haraka (quickly)to catch up with a class that started a few weeks before I did. It was good to get back to class on Monday after a week off for the election. I am very happy that the election was peaceful, we (the mission organization) were very prepared but I am thankful it was not needed.

I’m writing this post for two reasons, the first to give you a window of what life is like here and the second to provide some free advertising for the my language school – The Shade School of Language &Culture. If you stumbled across this blog while researching the school you have come to the right place. I am not paid by the school to do this, I’m just a simple Canadian girl called to missions and taking three months of Swahili lessons.

The school is located about 30min outside of (the outskirts of Nairobi). My commute is easy as I wake up and walk downstairs for breakfast and around the back of the house to my classroom. The house where the school is located is an interesting design – I’m not sure how each room was used when it was a home as some only have access from the outside but it works quite well for the purpose of the school. I live upstairs in one of the four bedrooms, there are also four bathrooms upstairs which helps maintain a healthy relationship with my housemates. There is a small sitting room upstairs with familiar looking Kenyan furniture – we don’t use it much. There is a small front and back balcony, most mornings you will  find someone sitting there doing their devotions. The back balcony also has our laundryroom  - consisting of clothes lines and a sink.

The school is very well organized and runs on more of a western than an African timetable. We start at 8:30am with each of us going to our respective classes, 10:30 is Chai time. The school provides tea, coffee, and hot chocolate as well as some sort of snack. After Chai it is back to class until 12:00. The first few weeks class was done at noon – it was like kindergarten, only half days as that is all your brain can take. I now have class until 3:00. We have a lunch break from 12-1 and are fed a Kenyan lunch often Githeri(Potatoes, beans, corn & carrots all cooked together), Rice &Beans, or lentils and  chapatti. In the afternoon we have an hour of grammar and an hour of conversation. Conversation is one-on-one time with an instructor or good Swahili speaker, that the school has hired for that purpose. I love to talk so this hour is great, however I do stumble through the Swahili. Today I am hoping to do more listening than talking. I find by now I can get my point across in my halting Swahili but listening takes work. I occasionally think conversation time is just pure entertainment for the language helper as I often string together words in the strangest ways.

I started with a class with three others of a more experienced generation.People learn at different speeds especially when there is a large age gap. As I am only here for 3 months and want to maximize my time I have requested to join a class that started a few weeks before I did. The instructors have been most generous and this week I have been in a class by myself, occasionally joining my former class for shared grammar lessons. It just so happens that the class I wish to join will all be away next week – this works well as when they are back I should be caught up to where they left off. Being in a class of one is an interesting dynamic. All the questions are up to me to answer so by the end of the day my voice is tired from all the translating from English to Swahili. I know some of you are astonished that my voice is capable of wearing out. In the afternoons it’s my free time. I occasionally walk to Tigoni where I can buy most basic things or catch a ride with my housemates to Village Market if I need more wazungu (white people) things. My evenings are filled with grammar review,vocab flashcards, and staying in touch with friends and family back home. All the brain work makes me tired and I am thankful to duck under my mosquito net (thankfully I brought one) and go to bed early

I will end here with some pictures of the school and my home.

Dining room from the kitchen

One of the classrooms

Kitchen, the fridge/freezer is off to the side