Cultural Sunday at Kijabe A.I.C.

It was a week that came in like a lion and out like a lamb. 

While the weather in Kijabe is cool, never reaching 77F, the weather in the Nursery is always hot and humid.  If it ever gets down to 84F and 60% humidity, I haven’t been able to catch it.  Part of this is construction as it is a long masonry room with one small window to the outside world.  Some of it is crowding, as we get 16 to 20 babies in this space, their mothers, half a dozen nursing students, 4 nurses, three house officers, all the heat generating equipment …and me.  Most of it is an understanding that babies need it warm (true) and a lack of understanding that too much of a good thing is bad (equally true).  The average well, term newborn never goes anywhere without being wrapped in two to three large blankets, having two pairs of socks on his feet as well as woolen mittens, a wool cap, three layers of clothes and a nappy.  The single 4” x 3” square of naked skin allowed to breathe is usually shaded by blankets and solicitous mothers.  Fevers are epidemic.  Not to worry, the treatment is to exhume the baby from his clothes and to wait for him to radiate heat to the environment. It takes hours with mothers clucking at our cavalier exposure of their precious babies.  The down side to the experience is that, as it is in the USA, it is easier to give the baby antibiotics and keep them in the hospital for a week than it is to decide who actually may need the treatment.  This is my task for my remaining few weeks.

Follow-up:  The boy with “measles” had a herpes infection, and has gone home with treatment.  Lydia’s baby is on full feeds but is failing to grow.  Faith has recovered and has been sent back to Eldoret.  We have had two deaths: one a 3 lb. baby who died at 12 days from lung hemorrhage and a term infant with brain damage at birth.  God has shown his grace to our babies.  Please pray for these grieving families.

There were more than enough volunteers to fill beds in the nursery over the last weekend so the beginning of the week was even hotter and more humid than usual.  By the end of the week we were almost not-crazy.

One snapshot: Baby boy of Esther was delivered Wednesday at term (or perhaps a bit more) with no problems except that he was blue, flaccid, unbreathing and unmoving with a slow heart rate.  For those of you who know Apgars, they were: 0, 2, 2, 4, 4, 5, 5, and 7 at 1,5,10, 15,25,35,45 & 55 minutes despite care which I would be happy to see in the USA.  We brought him to the nursery and an hour later he was crying and moving around normally.  Currently he is requiring a little oxygen and we have started feedings.  He has a normal head ultrasound.  Please pray for Esther’s baby.

Today was Cultural Sunday at Kijabe A.I.C. Church.  The five tribes with representatives in the area got together to present how they sang and danced “in the times long ago.”  Each tribe (Kikuyu,

Kamba

, Ambagusii

, Turkana

, and Maasi

) gave a brief explanation of their dominant tribal beliefs, how they have been affected by the news about Mungu (The Lord God, in Kiswahili) and Yesu (a better transliteration of Yeshua than we use) and what words they have put to their own songs. Just to keep this in perspective, the background slide for the Cultural Sunday was a very nice photograph of Stonehenge on the Wiltshire Moors of pagan England. http://www.google.co.ke/imgres?imgurl=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/content/images/iphone/stonehenge-iphone.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/daysout/properties/stonehenge/&h=201&w=251&sz=1&tbnid=bY2Y_IZzNp5EnM:&tbnh=160&tbnw=199&zoom=1&usg=__X2iHmkqVRGdv_rwEPV8eOwnVf-g=&docid=8eQ3aNfFC-kboM&itg=1&sa=X&ei=G5AHUraDHcnRtAbohIDQAg&ved=0CKgBEPwdMAs

Afterward we were offered samples of their traditional foods (taken in the hand, while the other hand supports the wrist as no gift is so small to need only one hand to support it).  I had: Chickpeas, beans, lentils, greens, corn porridge, sorghum drink (a thick pink, sweet and slightly sour libation) and came back to Heron house well satisfied. 

This whole event was designed to raise 350,000 Kenyan shillings (~$4200) for a combined medical, beneficent and evangelical mission to East Polkot the end of this month. 

My observations have been that in the USA, Africa is viewed as a singular.  It is indeed a complication kaleidoscope of cultures that have their own history.  Tribes have fought and killed each other for generations but have found peace together in the common bonds of being the adopted of Christ, no more nor less than we are.  The past is not forgotten; the blood does not evaporate.  But as a Turkana missionary told us in Kiswahili:

Isaiah 43: “I am the Lord God, your Holy one…your King.  Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past.  See I am doing a new thing! … I provide water in the dessert…to give drink to my people.”

This week please pray for the Kijabe outreach mission to East Polkot, August 22 to 27, for those who will hear the message and for the safety of those who bring the Word.