Dinner and Anne's and Dan's

 

The last time I was in Kijabe, the head nurse was Anne Mukweyi.  You can see a picture of the younger Anne in my first posting of this blog.  She is the one sitting a bit further back at the nursing station on the Paediatrics ward. Anne is a very competent Nandi nurse who ran the ward with efficiency and a good deal of wisdom when I was originally at Kijabe in 2002.

Since then we have corresponded.  She got married in 2007 to Daniel who is a Luo.  The social difference between the two tribes was imperceptible until the election troubles of 2007.  The troubles went from election controversies to property violence to murder and then to parliamentary shenanigans since then.  The recent elections earlier this year have finally ended the strife.  Daniel was a district nurse at Naivasha, a town in the GRV north and west of here, when the two first got married.  He now works in Nairobi with an AIDS program funded by the University of Maryland.  They had planned to be married when the troubles started.  Anne was in legitimate danger as she lived “outside the wall,” but on hospital grounds.  Anne’s pastor had urged Anne and Daniel to delay the ceremony because “it was no time for you two to be married.”  Anne and Daniel countered that it was, in fact, the best time to be married…and did.

They have two children:  Favor, 3, and Felix, 9 months.  We spent an enjoyable evening talking politics (Kenyan and American), gas prices, soccer matches and religion while, with infinite patience, Favor’s braids were undone and Felix’s explorations of the mysteries of cruising around a coffee table were observed.  Anne is now the “matron” (read hospital administrator) for the Bethany Kids- Kijabe Hospital, the pediatric ward of the hospital.

We had lamb stew with rice and chapatti (Indian flat bread which has been adopted by Kenya enthusiastically).  Dinner was finished with a glass of hot water.  I walked back from their cottage with the hadadas crying in the trees.

It had taken me a while to identify the owners of the cry: a cross between the croak of a crow and the quack of a large duck.  To my surprise, the calls belonged to a flock of scimitar-beaked, goose-sized, short-legged ibis, the hadada, who, despite their appearance, roost in the foliage of trees.  Their cry is supposed to be “haaadaadaah.”  Were it me, I would not call attention to my deficiencies of grace and beauty. 

I attended staff prayers on schedule and we sang a cappella “What a friend we have in Jesus,” the small group of Kenyans and Westerners mingling their voices in the music of that old good song.  We shared the deaths of patients. 

“All our sins and griefs to bear”

I prayed with Elinor, a Kenyan nurse, for the hopes of a new academic year and completion of her master’s degree.

“What a privilege to carry

 everything to God in prayer”

I suppose I can share a few words about my living arrangements.  I live in Heron House (all of the cottages have bird names with the exception of Pathology House).  It is the designated “boy’s house” and I share it with 3 other docs currently.  One is Matt who is a visiting radiologist from Birmingham.  The hospital has a CT scanner and the films done are generally excellent.  Shawn is a Christian, born in Goa, India, raised in Nairobi and currently a Pediatrics resident at Agha Kahn Hospital, the premier private hospital in the country.  He is doing a rotation in Pediatric Surgery here and for the first two weeks I thought he was a mirage, rising before the dawn and not coming back until I had turned in.  His initial take on Kijabe is the major alteration in work ethic.  He reported that he was floored when he came onto a ward to find a visiting American doc waiting patiently for a patient to arrive.  Private docs wait to be called at home in Kenya.  Prayer before rounds and surgery is a delight for him.

The last housemate is “The Great Oohmmz.”  Omar is one of ten children of a Muslim family and will be entering the government Neuro-Surgery Program next month when he returns to Nairobi.  He is tall, painfully thin, opinionated, gracious and garrulous.  He speaks with authority about most any subject and has the fine grace to make jokes at my expense as I do at his. All food found on the counter is free-range.  Food in the cupboards is safe from predation.

My own health is not as good as it could be as I got a cold and it has caused a flare in my respiratory problems.  I am better but my voice is a croak and I talk all day to its detriment.

The nursery is relatively light but hot (88 F and 60% humidity) and in consequence, wearing.  A baby born 3 weeks ago weighing about 2.5 lbs. with moderately bad lung disease had an initial rocky course.  Her lung disease resolved and she was finally on her upward leg with weight gain and good feedings.  Today she suffered a setback and is on a ventilator.  Please pray for Grace’s baby girl.

“Carry everything to God in Prayer.”