Philly cheese steaks take on Kijabe

1/23/2010

Day 16

This morning did not quite go as planned. I arrived at the hospital to find that one of our patients with heart failure, an 8 month old named Stance, passed suddenly in the night. Despite his heart issues, he seemed to be one of the healthier, chubbier, more adorable kids on our service. He had been doing much better over the past few days. He likely had some sort of arrhythmia. Apparently around 11 am he had a brief seizure (no past seizure history) and then died. The on-call doc attempted to resuscitate him to no avail. This morning I went to give my condolences to his mother who clung to me and cried on my shoulder. The unexpectedness of it all left me in a bit of a haze.

I came home to find Ben and Matt had gone for a run around Kijabe. They are apparently impervious to altitude and jet-lag (as well as insomnia. Ben slept better last night than I have my whole time here). They met a few people along the road (a pastor who invited them to church tomorrow) and saw some Colobus monkeys swinging in the trees.

I regrouped a bit and then we headed to the Rift Valley Academy. RVA is a missionary school (K-12) just up the road from our place. It is a massive compound enclosed by wrought iron gates. I think there are about 500 students there, the majority of whom board there as well. It is very academically rigorous and well known throughout Africa and the missionary community world-wide.

Today was a big day at RVA. It was some sort of annual fund-raiser fun fair type event. We saw throngs of white families do slip-and-slide, bean bag toss, and frolic on the soccer field. Lunch was an American’s dream: bbq burgers (plain, cheese, or bacon double cheese), philly cheese steaks (Ben of course had to partake and said it was no Gino’s or Pat’s. We're still unsure of the type of meat.), sausages, taco salad, ice cream, and donuts. I had a delicious German sausage and a chocolate donut or two. It was filling and calorie-rich, which was a shock to my system after days of light Kenyan fare. We found the RVA scene fascinating, though, and attempted to imagine what it would be like to be schooled here in Kijabe as an ex-pat. Julie and I had dinner with a missionary family our first week here who have 5 children, all schooled in Kijabe. They told us that they moved back to the US for one school year and all their kids were homesick and miserable away from Kijabe.

After the fair we came home to take a load off. As soon as we crossed the threshold into the sitaplex the sky opened up. It poured rain for longer than I have ever seen here in Kijabe – at least over an hour. This, of course, made the power flicker in and out. We didn’t mind though. I napped a little on the couch to the pounding of raindrops on the window panes.

Unbeknownst to us, Julie had been at the fair as well, after rounding on her patients and doing a few procedures in theatre. She came back drenched and then we engaged in a long discussion about safari planning. We are setting an agenda for next weekend, which is to be our big tourist stretch. There are so many amazing adventures to be had it is a little overwhelming to choose. Tent or lodge safari? Hot air balloon or drive safari? Arrive by car or by plane? These questions have kept us occupied for the past few hours. It also takes a few hours to research the options online given the tortoise-speed internet connection.

Tonight we are planning to have our neighbors Phil and Kerry (the ones from Mayo hospital) over for dinner. We may just have to make mac n cheese from scratch seeing as though today has been a smorgasborg of American food. Tomorrow it is off to Lake Naivasha for prime animal viewing. I have to admit it is a little strange to have a day and a half off (it’s been 2 weeks!) and not to be running around the hospital like a rabid dog (we have those here, did I mention that?). I think I will soak it in a bit more now and take another cat (leopard?) nap.