Day by Day….

This is the next installment of life with the leisters. Of course not a lot of change at the immediate time, but plenty on the way. We'll update as everything unfolds. Currently we are enjoying the hot rainy season of Kisumu. Actually I think I used a blanket for part of last night because it was cooling down a bit. I guess that's life on the ecuador.

Tekoa and Eliza certainly love each other, although they already express the common sibling syndrome; "Best Friend and Greatest Foe" Here they are doing well and working together to consume all the raisins. Tekoa eats them from a bowl, but drops a few here and there which Eliza quickly scrambles to eat them off the floor before someone stops her.

Eliza is starting to stand a lot more these days. For a while she had no interest in it at all. So I had to pull out the trusty "Stander." Actually it has no name, its just a frame I built to help Tekoa stand and walk. We hang toys off the center arm so the kids have some incentive and they like it. It slides well on the tile floor so when she is strong enough she will be able to push it around and practice walking with support. It has only caused a few minor injuries in the past so we hope it will be safe for the princess.

Isn't that just a beautiful smile. This girl has so much personality. She is going to give Tekoa a run for his money. Oh don't worry that is me in the tie and not some other skinny white guy trying to get close to my daughter.

Aahhh one of Tekoa's favorite past times, bubbles. Rachel whipped him up some super soap mixture, which required sugar I might add, and Tekoa had a blast making big bubbles. The bubble is in the picture if you look hard enough.

It was a week of adventure for sure. This is one of the slight mishaps Tekoa had on Friday. Of course I was slightly to blame at least in Rachel's mind. I filled the space between the wall and stairs with pillows so Tekoa had a soft place to jump around. Well then came the boom, the pause, and then the cry. He didn't cry for too long because we knocked him out, just kidding.
This experience was three days after the little boy went climbing. We live in a housing estate that isn't finished yet so there are several unfinished buildings around. Here all buildings are blocks or brick. Tekoa and a little friend of his went exploring in one of these skeleton structures and we couldn't figure out where he was. After calling his name a bit and walking around he finally made some noise. As we looked up three stories Tekoa was standing on the edge of the roof top of the unfinished building, looking at us bewildered as if we had nothing to worry about. Rachel started the "don't jump" speech will I rushed up the inside to gather the boys from the top of the building. Needless to say I beat them, but only enough for them not to enjoy their last minutes on the roof. Tekoa also lost his out of site play privileges. Isn't life fun!

Trip to Tenwek Mission Hospital

Last Friday we had the joy of escaping Kisumu for a day trip. We traveled to a part of Kenya we had never seen before and thus experienced a new climate and a new people. We drove up the grade twisting back and forth into the highlands of Rift Valley province.

The gorgeous green landscape was evidence of the rainy season which has been nearly nonexistent in so many other parts of the country and the cool air boasted a high in the mid 70s (a delightful change from the heat of Kisumu). Tea fields exquisitely and uniformly carpeted the country side as we wandered our way into Bomet District and just a few kilometers from Bomet town we found Tenwek Mission Hospital.

The purpose of our visit was mostly to try it on like a new pair of basketball shoes that would hopefully give me the extra advantage to win the big game. Tenwek is one of six mission hospitals that are qualified to train Clinical Officer interns and there for may be a great place for me to spend a year learning the hands-on aspect of medicine (a crucial part of my training as you might suspect). Rachel and I wanted to put our feet on the ground and discern if this might be a place for us, because a year is a long time to spend in the wrong place.

It really is a beautiful hospital in a rural setting. The pictures you see were a bit hard to take as it was raining at the time, hence no body in the picture because they didn't want to get wet. Despite the rain we took a tour of the hospital and grounds with the Medical Superintendent who was a very gracious and hospitable man. After the tour and grilling him with endless questions he invited us to his house for lunch.(unfortunately not pictured either) We met his lovely wife and discussed more of our background and testimony.

This is Rachel holding a little Kenyan baby in the home of another doctor on staff. Eliza is just enjoying life as you can see with other bodies her size in the room. Rachel was chatting with the wife and I was outside discussing intern options with the intern director. He also was a very kind man but left me hanging as was the only option. Though a lot was discussed and we were all excited about the prospects of me being an intern at Tenwek (the only non-Kenyan clinical officer to ever apply of course) it still came down to me filling out an application going through the process.

Ultimately Rachel and I feel like it will be a great fit for us. We have previously visited another mission hospital and have experienced several government hospitals and this one seems to be more for us. So we ask everyone to pray that as the interview process ensues we would have favor and find ourselves at Tenwek for a year starting in January 2012. The usually receive about 100 applications and take only 8 for interns, but we'll trust Jesus to place us where we should be.

I like this sign.