Give Thanks!

 It seems the longer I am in Kenya, the harder it gets to update. The last month has flown by!

Here are some of the highlights:

• A LIMBS leg came in for repair.  I spent the day making a new top block for the knee. Below is me sanding the block into shape. The black particulate that results from sanding is the same size as sawdust so if I don't cover everything, I get it in my hair, mouth, eyes, shirt, etc.. In the background, you can see the socket of the leg this knee belongs to.

• Thanksgiving with Ex-pats

This year I was really blessed! I was invited to join two different groups for Thanksgiving meals. Since Thanksgiving is an American holiday, I worked until lunch and then celebrated the rest of the day.

At lunch, I ate with two missionary families that live about a 10 minute walk from my house.

My lunch plate (clockwise from the top):
Turkey, roll, broccoli casserole, potato gunk, stuffing, and cranberry sauce (imported from  USA)

After lunch, we got to talk and fellowship with each other. The host and hostess are engineers working in facilities planning in Kijabe hospital (located next to CURE where I am stationed). The other family that was there is designing a house to build in Kijabe and the former are helping them with the floor plans. Anyway, all that to say, I got to see the plans and offer suggestions as to how to make the changes the family wanted. I guess once you get a taste of facilities planning you always enjoy dabbling in it from time to time. I really enjoyed talking shop with other engineers and eating cranberry sauce (Did I mention that it is one of my favorite holiday foods?)

At around 6 pm, I joined a large group of singles in the boardroom at CURE for Thanksgiving supper. 

My plate at supper:
Stuffing, vegetables, crescent rolls, turkey, chicken,
mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, and broccoli casserole 

I was stuffed after eating but the singles brought A LOT of food so we had lots of leftovers. We gave most of the leftovers to the people on night shift at CURE hospital. However, I am still eating leftovers from that meal (a week later). I have about two meals worth of potatoes left. 

This Thanksgiving was so different from last year's. This year, I got to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thursday. Last year, I was on a mobile clinic and couldn't celebrate until Saturday. Last year, I knew almost no one. Now, I know many. So many, in fact, that I had to turn some down.  

• Worked my tail off in the department this week

The orthopedic department is already understaffed so if anyone technologist is out of the department for a day it creates problems. Well, on Wednesday, two technologists were out and Thursday, two technologists and a student were out. Because of this, I sat down for only about 10 minutes between 10 am and 5pm on Wednesday and on Thursday, I didn't leave the department until 8pm. I arrived back at the department today (Friday) at around 7:15 am. Thankfully, all the patients were seen and now I can write this update.

• I have been taking care of a 6 month old puppy for the last week. My house is very small and I also have a cat for pest control. A friend in my Bible Study is visiting family in the USA and asked for volunteers to care for her puppy. Two other families volunteered to care for him during the last four weeks she is gone, so I volunteered to watch him the first week. I forgot how time consuming caring for a dog is! After the first 5 days, I found a system that works to care for him. However, my week is now over and now he moves to the next family. 

So there you have it, an outline of my life!

PRAYER & PRAISE

Praise

• My Christmas shopping is done. All I need to do now is pack it up to send with  a friend going to the States for Christmas.
• I received an unexpected donation from my home church that will enable me to meet a friend working in Rwanda for Christmas.
• I got to talk with my family on Thanksgiving. 
• I got to celebrate Thanksgiving on Thanksgiving Day!!!!!!!!!1

Requests

• There is very little unity in the Orthopedic Department right now. One technologist is tattling on another. Blame is being passed back and forth. There is major under-staffing (which is probably part of what is causing the tension), especially during mobile clinic days. PLEASE PRAY for UNITY in the department.
• I have a major decision to make in the coming months that I cannot go into detail about. God knows what it is and that's what is important. Please pray that I will have wisdom and discernment in this situation!
• My emotions have been everywhere recently. Please pray that I would remain Christ honoring in all I say and do.
• I am planning to fly to Rwanda on December 18th and then travel with my friend through Uganda and back to Kenya for Christmas. Please pray for us as we work out the details and pray for safety in travelling.

God is Faithful!

So much has happened during the last 2 weeks! There was thanksgiving, a wedding, travel, rain, and more.

I have finished all the documents needed to run the evaluation/testing of the LIMBS low-cost M1 Polycentric Prosthetic Knee. 5 locations have been selected to participate in the trial. Now, I just have to GET it running at these locations. Overseeing and ensuring the success and completion of this evaluation is one of the reasons I am here.

But on to more interesting things!

God has blessed me so much. The week of Thanksgiving (last week) was very busy. The internet being very unreliable as usual, Alex (the Head of the Orthopedic department at CURE-Kenya) and I decided to purchased an unlimited week of internet.   He needed to make a Skype call on Tuesday and I needed to use Skype Wednesday (or so I thought) and Thursday evenings, so getting unlimited data for the week made sense. As it turned out the meeting I thought I needed Skype for on Wednesday was cancelled because of Thanksgiving. (Duh, I know, but the thought that it was the day before Thanksgiving never even crossed my mind!) Instead, I got to talk to a friend of mine in Korea.

Since Thanksgiving is an American Holiday, it is not celebrated in Kenya. This means business as usual. However, for me, it was not business as usual. I had the opportunity to join the CURE team for my first mobile clinic experience. We had to leave by 6am to get to the clinic site in Nakuru, about 2 hours away. I overslept, but everyone was gracious and picked me up on the way out. (They pass my road on the way to the Highway) This was not just an experience trip for me though, I had business to conduct with the head Orthopedic Technologist at the hospital in Nakuru. This hospital is going to be one of the testing centers of the LIMBS knee and I needed to discuss the details with him. Meeting with the head of a department (HOD) can be a challenge, especially during a clinic day, so I helped my co-worker (a Orthopedic Technologist) from CURE in the clinic. Mostly by handing him wet Plaster of Paris bandages and recording patient details. During mobile clinics, the rehab department and the orthopedic department work together. The rehab department mostly removes and reapplies casts and the Ortho department fits orthoses and measure patients for new ones. However, when there are an overwhelming number of patients waiting for measurement, the rehab department steps in to help. It was really encouraging to see everyone works together so well!

Anyway, back to my meeting with the HOD. The meeting went well and I am hoping to get the evaluation/testing started soon. Praise the Lord!

We (the CURE team and I ) got back late (8 pm-ish) from Nakuru. Overall, it was a good trip!

Then I got to get on Skype and SEE my family!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This was the highlight of my day/night! For those of you who don't know, Skype has a video feature that enables the caller and recipient to see each other. Therefore I got to "attend" Thanksgiving lunch with my Mom's side of the family (10pm my time)and "visit" after Thanksgiving Supper with my Dad's side of the family (5am my time). =)  I slept between visits. It was wonderful to actually see all my extended relatives even if i wasn't able to be there in person. My great-uncle even tried to offer me so food through the computer!

AND SINCE I WAS ALREADY AWAKE, I went Black Friday shopping online! hehe! I have never been Black Friday shopping before, but being up while normal Americans are asleep has its advantages. Amazon.com had some really great deals if you could catch them. What fun! So what if I was exhausted when I got to work, at least until I drank some coffee. (Yeah, you heard right, I drank some instant coffee diluted with chai for milk. I was wired after that!)

I took half a day off on Friday to celebrate Thanksgiving with some other American ex-pats. We had turkey, potato gunk (cubed scalloped potatoes), green beans, rolls, cornbread (made with maizemeal), and pickled mango (a substitution for cranberry sauce). Yumm!

For dessert there was cheesecake topped with Mangoes and Mango-Rhubarb crisp! Both were absolutely delicious!!

 This past Saturday I got to attend a Kenyan Catholic Wedding. It was bittersweet. On the one hand, it was an interesting experience and the bride was gorgeous! On the other hand, my friend joined the Catholic church. This saddened me because there is so much in the Catholic church that I disagree with and I thought she believed the same way. =(  Its in God's hands now!

The ceremony was long and beautiful. Most of the service was in Swahili, so I understood only a little of what was said. The preacher gave a charge to the bride, the groom, the groom's parents, and the bride's parents. The whole service was about three hours. I was one of 5 white people at the wedding. My friend, Nancy, works at Moffat Bible College which is mostly taught by foreigners (ie. white people). Therefore, I was not the only American in attendance. 

It rained off and on during the outdoor reception. We were served a full meal of traditional Kikuyu foods. Most of it was good. I'm not sure how this happened, but I got seated in an honored seat where they brought us food instead of us standing in line to get it.When the bridal party arrived, all the women went out to meet the bride and dance back to where the rest of the guests were. 

There were some speeches (in Swahili), then presentation of gifts, and finally they cut the cake.

Some of the gifts

Cutting the cake

One thing that is done differently in Kenya than in the US is how they serve the cake. In Kenya, the pieces of cake put in a baskets and the guests take one bite-sized piece of cake as the brides maids bring around the baskets. The special guests are fed their pieces by the bride and groom.

Basket that used to contain pieces of cake

Feeding the marriage counselor . I love Moses' (the groom) face!

In other news, I has been raining  here in Kijabe every day for the last week and a half! Some have said they have never seen a greener November. This has been great for the gardens and nature, however, sometimes its not so good for me! I am a klutz and therefore find every chance to fall in the mud. My shoes WERE silver/gray at some point, now they are a bronze/brown color. Also, perpetual rain means no drying clothes. My clothes had to be re-washed last Saturday because they were starting to smell of mildew. But PRAISE THE LORD! Today has been sunny, so I will have dry, clean clothes again! (OR NOT. It just started raining again!)

Also, there is a chance I may be able to come to the US for Christmas! My aunt is playing travel agent. We'll see how everything goes. 

I have really been blessed to have such a wonderful prayer and support team! Everyone of you make a difference to me!

Praises:

• I got to see my family for Thanksgiving. Praise that the internet worked here AND there. Praise that I did not break down upon seeing everyone. 
• We have rain. Kenya has been going through a severe drought, so the rain is a blessing. 
•  I found my small Bible. It had been missing. Apparently, I left it at the church during the choir competition. 
•  No more uninvited guests!
• I have a wonderful, loving family and support team (both financial and prayer)
• I have my health
• I have cooking gas

Prayer Requests:

• Please pray for Trevor. He is a 4 year-old boy in the CURE Hospital ward right now. I first met him in Nakuru during the mobile clinic. He came to have his casted leg (he had surgery at CURE November 9th)  checked out by the doctors because it was causing him pain. It turns out there was a major infection INSIDE the wound. His Mother was told to bring him to Kijabe so they could clean it out. (Pus was continually oozing out of the opening in the skin after the initial spurt upon removing the cast HE was screaming bloody murder.) According to another person at the hospital, this is not the first time this wound has been infected. Please pray that he will make a full and rapid recovery! He has been in so much pain already. 
• God's Will be done in regards to my Christmas holiday.
• The evaluation will start running smoothly and that I can (with God's help) get it running in all the clinics before December 16th. (when CURE closes and many people all over the country begin travel for the holidays)
• Nancy. That she will look into what the Catholic Church really believes and if she really believes that as well. Prayer that God's Will be done. 
• There is a natural gas (or whatever is used to cook here) shortage in Kenya. Please pray that this gets resolved quickly.  
• Please pray that my ankle heals completely.
• Good nights sleep
• Reliable internet
• Patience under pressure!