Earrings for Eddah

We had quite the milestone this weekend in our little corner of the world. Drumroll please.............Eddah got her ears pierced :). She said she was the ONLY girl in school who didn't have her ears pierced. Pole sana. Ahhhh.......so this is what my mom felt like :). I'm not a complete pushover though-Vinicent decided he wanted one if his ears pierced, but I put the kibosh on that pretty quickly. I carried ice in my purse and we walked fast to get to the little row of shops before it all melted. And thank goodness we iced her ear lobes, because on the first pierce she had a gun malfunction and the earring got stuck halfway in the gun and halfway in her ear. Poor baby. I was quite expecting her to pull the "I'm not doing that again" card, but she didn't say a word and nodded yes when we asked her if she wanted to try again. Apparently the beauty-knows-no-pain phenomena is worldwide :) Our saga had a happy ending when she left with 2 fully pierced-through ears and a huge smile.

Other than that, life is as usual here. I start every day waking up before my alarm, which is such a luxury I never have in my other life. After my morning tea and toast, I do ward rounds (see each patient in the male, female, pediatrics, and maternity wards). Then I help with whatever medical procedures need to be done, like debridements, dressing changes, and triage. One of the most needed skills here is organization, strangely enough. This week I have finally gained access to the locked and mysterious "supply room". There is a room off one of the operating theaters that is stacked high with bags and boxes covered in varying layers of dust and neglect. It is where all the donations are tossed that no one knows what to do with. I have found great dressing supplies, worthless equipment that won't work here, and everything in between. Did you know they used to make syringes out of glass?!............yup-even found some of those ;). The sorting, labeling, and throwing away will surely keep me busy for several more afternoons.

The amount of fun little boys can have (and how dirty they get) with a handful of rocks and a pile of dirt will never cease to amaze and delight me :) This is Arnold and Brian outside the house.

This is my view from the sunset rock........

I don't think the boys enjoyed the sunset as much as watching my less-than-graceful-mzungu-in-a-skirt dismount from the rock. Those boys rival Spider-Man both in their ability to scale great heights and their sticky hands.

What a sweet day it has been.

Jessie

 

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Bouquets and Bedsores

I am starting to feel like myself again, now that I am recovered from the worst jet lag I have ever experienced. I was feeling functional enough until I got to the Nairobi airport at 7 am. Customs took me a good 2 hours because I made friends with a lovely Scottish lady names Clare and her two precious children, Emma and Harry (pronounced 'Arry). She was traveling alone with the children(brave lady) and I had some time to kill, so we partnered up. Between the two of us we got two huge luggage trolleys, a stroller, 2 sweaty, tired children, and two even-more tired adults, through customs and visas. After I sent them on their way I had 3 more hours until my last little flight......and I hit the wall. Hit it and slide down it, turned to a pile of mush at the bottom. I somehow managed to drag myself onto the flight. The attendant had to wake me up to tell me to put my seatbelt on ;). Again, dragged myself off the plane, stumbled into waiting ambulance, in and out of consciousness back to Maseno (and that should be impressive to those of you who know the road). Just when I was starting to question my judgement to undertake such a ridiculous journey.......there were my children, waiting on the porch in their new Christmas outfits. And this was waiting for me on my bedroom door:

Now I am quite enjoying myself and managing to stay busy. I came home after a particularly long day this week to find this lovely site waiting for me. I had told them I love flowers, and now every unfortunate bush in the general vicinity of our house has been completely ravaged by small, determined hands.

Arranging flowers in my strangely-limp-mzungu hair has also become a favorite activity. I like to spend a few minutes in my favorite chair on the porch right when i get home as the sun is setting. Thats when they descend on me :) Naomi gently puts the blossoms around my face, while Arnold likes to securely matte the greenery and twig bits to the back of my head.......To each his own, I suppose.

On the clinical front I am keeping busy and learning quite a lot. There are some new Daktaris here that I really like. I can now confidently diagnose gangrene from 5 feet away with just my nose. I am currently treating a woman with the wort pressure sores I have ever seen.....and probably ever will. When I first saw them, it was only the last 7 years of learning to control my gag and gasp reflex that kept me quiet. I do love the challenge of a good wound though-the possibility for fresh new skin, the different ways to care for it to keep it clean, uninfected, and healing. I now see her everyday, and feel like I have met her whole family and know them by name. She's paralyzed for the waist down, so she needs to be repositioned frequently. Her aunt is a teacher, and runs home on her breaks between lessons to reposition and clean her since they couldn't find anyone to help at home that could manage her medical needs. Wow. And you thought home health in the US was hard to come by....... I am training two of her aunts to do the dressings at home, so she can get back to her life.

I spent the better part of today helping in the theatre (operating room), between c-sections and wound debridements. I've also had two palliative care cases, which are pretty rare here, so I've gotten to use what little expertise I have.

We had a patient that was pregnant with twins and had pre-eclampsia (dangerously high blood pressure). Apparently our anesthesiologist doesn't like pre-eclampsia c-sections (who does??) and won't do them. The initial consensus was to let her try to deliver naturally and see how it went(nooooooo!), but after much discussion we finally decided to refer her out. For all the Downton Abbey fans out there, that is how poor Sybil met her demise. Before she left, I gave her some pads and reusable diapers (thanks Em!) and she was delighted.

Other than that, I have just been working in the hospital, tackling the never-ending list of projects that needs to be done at the rotary house (like fix the shower so my visitors don't get scalded), and hanging out with my ragamuffins.

All my love,

Jessie

 

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Airports and Amsterdam

Ahhh, my restless heart is once again free to roam the world. I have explored Amsterdam today, in between my marathon flights. I flew to NYC first- Interesting new development to report in airport security; I didn't have to remove my shoes or take anything out of my bag. They say this is an attempt to get people through faster. And it was-until we got to the bottleneck of one guy holding an ipad. Each person had to walk up and touch the screen. After you touched it it would show you a gigantic arrow to the left (or occasionally the right if you had a walker or a stroller) and then you had to go that way to get in line. Apparently the human post holding up the ipad wasn't allowed to touch it for you, so he had to explain it to each person. Now I am in the international line, so the older-and-non-English-speaking population was really struggling. As was the human post. Very entertaining to watch though. Though it may save that poor man carpal tunnel syndrome in the future from endlessly sweeping his arm to the left, the mental toll might not be worth it. Not sure this is the best use of tax dollars and state of the art technology........just my humble opinion.

Anyway, my first taste of Amsterdam was quite lovely, and I hope to sample more in the future. I packed soley for weather on the equator, which I bitterly regretted when I saw the outside temp was about 40 degrees. I put on everything I had with me, which included compression socks with sandals, leggings, a long skirt and a raincoat. Shexy, I know :) thankfully the Dutch are a little more free and loose with their fashion, so I wasn't too much of a spectacle.

Amsterdam is quite a beautiful city. So pretty in fact, that I took several pictures of a mall before I realized the palace was one more block down :). Whoops.

This is the view from right outside Anne Frank's front door. That was a sobering, but amazing place to be. It's hard to believe such things were ever allowed to happen. Also amazing what the human spirit can endure, and still remain hopeful. I'd like to think I would have had an attic full of Jews if I'd been alive then.

The flower markets are actually on floating barges that come right up to the sidewalk :)

And this lady is my hero. I can only hope to be rocking sassy red heels and handbags, while on a bike, when my hair is white. Something to aspire to.......

Jessie

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Bee Suits and Magnificent Beasts

The last leg of my journey took us to the Maasai Mara. As always, my dear friend Issac was in change of the safari magic. I made a little stop off in Narok, the last city before it becomes nothing but the great and wild game reserve. His lovely wife, Leah, cooked for us. Oh. My. Goodness. She can do wonders with goat meat.

(My friend Isaac and his doll baby girl, Tatiana).

My last stop on the way out of the park was to the village of my good friend, John. John got into beekeeping several years ago and I have been visiting him every since to see how his honey-raising efforts are going. He currently has two Kenyan top bar hives that seem to be thriving. In Kenya it is neither a possibility or a necessity to purchase bees, the way we do in the states. Bees are much too plentiful (and scary) for anyone to pay for them. John told me when he put out his new hive a few months ago, it was colonized with wild bees within 24 hours. Crazy :). Even crazier still, was the fact that John harvested his honey without a bee suit. He said he tightly wraps himself in a shuka (the red Masaai blankets) and does it as fast as he can. For those of who have experienced the wrath of the Africanized bee, you are also probably wondering how he is still alive.

Notice John had to hang his hives because elephants have a way of stomping anything close to the ground that happens to be under a tree that they would like to eat from :). A beekeeping challenge that is quite unique to the Maasai villages.....
Before I left, I received a very generous donation of three fantastic, full-body bee suits from Bailey Bee Supply in Hillsborough, NC. I had already given one to Thomas, and now got to give John the other two. Needless to say he was delighted. Thank you, thank you, thank you David Bailey!

I were soon surrounded by a group of curious Masaai warriors who wanted to see the intricate functions of the many zippers the suit contained :). From the bottomless Adidas bag of goodies I also presented him with 2 pairs of gum boots (rubber boots) and 2 pairs of the thickest leather gloves I could find. I advised him to sew the gloves to the sleeves of the suit since those wiley little buggers have discovered the only way to breach the fortress of these suit is via the wrinkle-crevasses the gloves make. He understood all too well :)

John gave me an educational tour of their new village, and showed me all his other projects, that include raising goats, planting a tree nursery, and helping construct the new village. He explained how the Maasai people are historically nomadic people, but that has all changed since their children started attending stationary schools. The traditional Maasai houses, made of timbers and mud/cow dung, typically last about 10 yrs, which is what used to prompt them to move along. Now that they have been in this location for about 10 yrs it was time to start building new houses. Instead of moving far away and essentially emptying out the entire school, they are relocating the village about 50 yards away. Very clever. In the pic below I am learning about house construction (done entirely by the women). Who knew there were so many uses for cow dung ?!

I realized the blue stuff in the pic above are strips of mosquito nets. Hopefully they were old, worn out ones. Not much goes to waste here :)
Below are just a few of the amazing moments from my time in Maasai land.

Yup.....they get pretty close......

I think my favorite part of seeing these breath-taking beasts in the wild is getting to see their fierce, beautiful eyes. Still gives me scared-thrilled chills if they look right at me:)

I swear, as long as I live, I will never get tired of seeing these magnificent animals in this amazing land.....
Until next time,
Jessie

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Egg dishes and epic moments

I have a special fondness for epic movies that highlight the struggle for goodness, and the eventual triumph in the end, even if it is bittersweet. There is always a scene somewhere near the end that involves the hero, often emotionally or phyically wounded, walking away from their battle and triumph, with exultant music crescendoing behind them as there is some sort of explosion of glory. Take a minute......I know you are picturing your favorite lord of the rings or Harry potter moment. Okay-now bring it back. I've always wondered why real life rarely yields such moments......until now. I may have had my first one.
My last night in Maseno, I was feeling pretty snarky as a sinus infection was fighting to take control of my head. I really just wanted to go to bed early. But I had spent the day decorating the house, since it was going to be the kids first night in their new home. I went down to my house for a quick shower and power nap-neither of which made me feel better. Jacky was making their first dinner up at the house though, so I dragged myself back up the hill. This was the first time Jacky had used her gas cooker, and she made a lovely meal of ugali, Scumawiki, and some sort of egg dish. It was new to me. Also new was the feeling of great peaceful calm that washed over me like warm water as I sat in that clean, safe home, full of the children who have occupied my both my head and my heart for the last few years. I will always worry over them, but it will never be for lack of food, shelter, safely, and most importantly, love, ever again. The last few weeks seems to have transformed these kids. I guess I never fully understood the weight even such small children can carry when they don't know who loves them, and who will feed them and protect them from day to day. I saw it most noticeable in Naomy, who has changed from a sad, haunting child into bubbly, joyful little girl. The sound of her tinkling-bell-baby laughter is quite possibly the most beautiful sound I have ever heard, and it has been known to stop me many a time outside their room-just to listen.......and count myself so ridiculously blessed.
After dinner we sat all crammed into the bottom bunks of the boys room and listened to Eddah (13 yrs) reading out loud from their new school books. Naomy, Arnold, and Brian swiftly fell asleep in a little pile of bare feet and snoring after spending a good hour pretending to be ungas (puppies), licking my hands and crawling all over my feet. No matter where you are in the world, reading out loud is still the fastest way to put the wee ones to sleep, as evidenced by Daniel, who fell asleep in the gas cooker box he was playing in :). Presh.
I finally kissed goodnight the 2 that were still awake and handed the key over to Jacky. Had Hollywood been involved, my epic, monumental music would have started to play, and life would have slowed down for just a moment as we walked away from that house that was lit up like a beacon in the dark night. Although I am no Harry or Frodo, as I tiptoed down that little dark path between the cornfields of our houses, I was delightfully aware that this will always be one of the sweetest and most beautiful moments of my life. And it was so completely and utterly worth all the struggle and heartache it took to get here. I would do it all over again for just one night like tonight.

The kids playing outside.

Just a little rough housing.........

First day at Wonderland Academy.

The path to school.

Me, Jacky, and our darlings: Eddah (13), Vinicent (12), Brian (7), Arnold (6), Daniel (9), and Naomy (6).

Eddah and I walking to the market.

Vinicent did some painting for me so he could make a little money to buy a few rabbits, which he would like to start raising. Thankfully that is latex paint all over his face............

Jessie

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Apiaries and Bee-attacks

You know those killer heels that you love but they absolutely tear your feet up? If you wear them infrequently enough, you will surely put them on again with that it-really-wasnt-that-painful-last-time mindset........and as soon as you are far enough away from your closet to turn back......you are suddenly-and painfully-aware of why you swore to never wear them again.

Well, so it went with my experience with the infamous Afrian killer bees. I have been away long enough to forget your merciless ferocity.......but you did not let me forget for long.

(Notice the ignorant bliss of confidence before disaster strikes.......)

I went out with my dear friend, Thomas, to check on his bees, and possibly try to harvest. He insisted we do it at night, as it was just too dangerous to do it in the daytime (you might think that would have raised my level of alarm, but alas-it did not). We got out to his apiary at dusk. After getting the smoker lit, we wrestled into our full body bee suits, which always make me feel like an astronaut, and usually elicit my imitation of slow-motion moon running :) The bee suits were generously donated my Bailey's Bee Supply in Hillsborough, NC. The owner, David Bailey, has been a great source of helpful advice, both for my sweet American bees, and the fiesty demon bees of this land. David-if you are reading this, I cannot fully express my gratitude for having such a well-made suit between my skin and those little beasts.

We inspected the apiary-Thomas has 10 hives that are in pretty good shape. We walked around and looked at the condition of the hives, all the while the bees were quiet and calm-appearing......just biding their time. We approached the hive that should have been ready to harvest. Thomas lifted the lid and smoked them. There was a little bit of comb built on the lid, so he didn't remove it all the way to we could scrape the comb off......and the next thing I know the bees were all over us like flies on stink.

(Inspecting the apiary.......)

( 10 seconds after lifting the lid......)

Thomas said they were a little too aggressive at the moment and we shouldn't harvest in case they wanted to attack us. I hate to be contrary Thomas......BUT I THINK WE ARE ALREADY THERE. 

 I had on thick leather elbow-high gloves, and the bees couldn't sting through it.....but they were certainly trying. When a bee is trying to sting you, they do a little vibration thing with their abdomen that feels like a little buzz. My gloves were so covered with bees trying to sting me that it felt like someone was holding a tuning fork on my wrist. I repeated the phrase my dad taught me in my head, "I trust my suit......I trust my suit......I trust my suit......." That was until the bees found a little fold that buckled around the wrist because the gloves were so thick, and they launched a full blown invasion. It was then I lost all fondness for them. Instead of trying to somewhat gently brush them off, we just ripped off tree branches and started hitting each other with them to squash them(something I would never do to my sweet ladies here).

Don't let the smile fool you.......my knees are still wobbly....

We got in the house and crawled out of our space suits. And yes-I am wearing my raincoat underneath. Thomas insisted I needed every layer I brought for protection......turns out he was right. As the adrenaline rush wears off, I am left wobbly kneed, and drenched in fear sweat (raincoats don't breath much), and very thankful I didn't need my epi-pen.

I have not decided yet if the experience was worth the risk. I certainly must give Thomas props for doing this all the time. Beekeepers are crazy. Either way, I made it home safe and slept like a baby.

Until the next adventure......

Jessie

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Sweet and Peaceful

I am almost hesitant to say this in case it evokes the wrath of irony...... but things are going so well here. So much better than expected. For those of you who may be new to the Jess-orphan-babies-Saga, I am in the process of taking responsibility for 6 kids in the form of a small children's home. I fell in love with these pumpkins several years ago when i met them in an orphange. The orphanage has disgustingly corrupt leadership who are taking the donation money meant to provide for the children, and it got to the point where I could not bear to see them in those condtions anymore. I already moved two of the kids and gave their mother a job at the guest house, but there were 4 remaining that I didn't feel like it was safe to take them last time. So this time I came fully prepared to go trekking all over the bush with insufficient directions to find their grandfather (who proably doesnt speak English) in order to get him to sign the consent for relocation to my home. (I'm trying to avoid being accused of being a baby snatcher by the crazy-thief-orphanage lady).
On the morning I was planning on heading out on this grandfather hunt, there was a commotion at my door at 7 am. There was a woman waiting on my porch whom the children call their auntie (I think she is actually a neighbor). The oldest girl had called her to come meet me. I found out that she found the kids living in a hut they made of grass and leaves on the side of the grandfathers home, and asked if she could take me them to her home. She got a document from the village chief and the grandfather actually gave her custody. She also has children of her own and was really struggling to care for them, which is how they ended up in the a phoebe house. She also knew the conditions at the orphanage were horrendous, and had been praying and looking for somewhere else for the kids to go. She was a wonderful lady, and so thankful for a safe, happy place for the kids to go. She went to Phoebe House herself and told them she was taking the kids back to her home, so I didn't have to deal with them again, and now they don't even know the kids are here with me. Blessings! Within 12 hours of meeting her, the kids are now in my home, and in my care.

She told me when she first took the children, the oldest girl, Mideva, would only sleep during the day because she was used to sitting up all night. The shelter they were living in was apparently not very secure (one can only do so much with grass and sticks after all) and she was worried the wild dogs that roam at night would "carry off the littlest one", being Naomy. Heart strings......wrenched.

The first night they were all here they stayed up until almost midnight because they were just so excited. I am repainting the house, one room at a time, so they all hung out in the room I was working in and made up dances to the music on my phone I was listening to. Presh. They're staying at rotary house with me until the fundi (carpenter) finishes their new bunk beds. There are plenty of beds here, but they still wanted to sleep 3 to a bed. I had to show Naomy and Brian how to get under the sheet/blanket on the bed, since they had never had them before and they were trying to fold the blanket backwards and curl up under it. Awwwww.........

(Arnold literally face-planted in bed and did not stir the whole evening after his first day of school).

I have started to sneak into their room every night to make sure they are all asleep, and to just look at them, sweet and peaceful. This mzungu girl is feeling very happy and blessed right now. The children I love dearly are now finally safe, happy and loved. They will never go hungry, or sit up at night again. I can also rest easy at night once again. God is especially good today :)

Naomy: the kind of tired that only baby school can induce.....

Jacky and Mideva in the kitchen at Rotary House.

Jessie

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