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We are finally back in Ewaso Ng'iro, we spent the past week in Talek working in a medical clinic. We were supposed to help out with water projects this past week but plans changed. I don't mind though, I enjoy the medical scene.

The team plus the medical staff after

our week's work in Talek

The place we stayed at in Talek was challenging. The bathroom was a square hole in the ground-I squatted and aimed. Ha! I am getting more and more used to bucket baths but they are not as nice as showers. I smell out here, big time. My hair is greasy and my face is breaking out with acne, wonderful! Not really. I guess sacrifice has to be made when helping people out but I really like being clean and looking nice. I don't. Oh well. I am so grateful to be back in Ewaso Ng'iro: I have an outhouse with a seat that I can sit on. I have a mirror. I have my own room. I can make my own food instead of eating goat stew every day. Thank goodness for being home!

It was a 2 1/2 hour drive from Talek back to Ewaso Ng'iro, me and MB both felt really sick. The pot-holes did not help us any. We both got sick right when we got home, we slept 10 hours and feel much better.

Today we are spending our time in Narok doing some grocery shopping and catching up with people via internet. It feels good to be on a computer.

This bite ended up staying with me
for the duration of my stay in Kenya,
and is now a nice scar on my leg. Lovely! 

Another bit of information...I was bit by what we think was a Nairobi fly? It left a blister with swelling surrounding it. It feels like I burned myself and has been a little uncomfortable. I have put antibiotic ointment on it but it has done nothing so far. I had one of the Indiana doctors look at it and since it hadn't gone away in the week he ended up giving me antibiotics for it. I've been antibiotics for around 3 days now and it doesn't seem like it is working as well. I hope it will go away soon.

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Baby Delivery

6-16-10

Me and the little baby. I was so excited to be
present for this delivery

We spent another day at the clinic but today the team from Indiana was not present. It was us and the nationals who run the clinics. It was a slow day. Kinda boring. At the end of the day me and my team were exploring the hospital when all of a sudden a woman came in with a ton of women helping her, some of the team was confused as to what was happening but I knew exactly what was going on. I was going to see a delivery-how exciting! The woman laid down on a bed and pushed once and out came a beautiful little boy. The doctor just left the baby at the end of the bed crying while he was going to pull out the placenta, what the heck? Don't they clear the baby's mouth/lungs first? Blood test? height or weight? Nope. I couldn't stand to see the child cry at the end of the bed so I asked if I could hold the baby while he was finishing up with the mother. The mother and doctor consented, so I was able to wipe down the infant and hold him. It was an amazing experience but was rather horrified as to how the mother gave birth. She was not taken care of whatsoever, or her child for that matter.

I got into a long discussion with my team later that evening about what we saw. Maybe the clinic doesn't have the funds or the right equipment for deliveries but something has to be done about it, right? There were no sheets on the bed, no pillow, no gown for the mother to change into. Heck, there were no blankets for the baby to be wrapped in. The mother sat in her own blood and bodily fluids. Was this a normal birth? Yep. Since the mother had no complications while giving birth she would be sent back to her village later on in the evening, ridiculous! I am so impressed with these women here. I could never do it. I never want to give birth Kenyan style. Never.

I am still frustrated by what I saw and I believe change needs to happen. My team saw what I was saying but we had different views, someone said, "There are many things that the clinic could change but we need to be proud of what they have accomplished-do we want it to be more like the states?" No! Of course not, I just mentioned one aspect of the clinic that I didn't like and people started disagreeing with me. Someone else said, "Change doesn't happen overnight, Anna, it's a process..." I know it is but who starts the change? We saw a birth and didn't like the way things were done. Who makes the first move in making a change? Are we gonna wait to get things accomplished? I hope not. I see the positive in things but I also see the negative. When I see negative aspects I see the chance for change, a chance for improvement.
Luckily, I was able to chat with the two doctors from IN and told them of the delivery. They thought it would be a good idea to implement a delivery and neonatal class when they come back in October, thank goodness! I made one move but I feel there is more for me to do with this....will I be able to come back with this team in October to implement this informative class? How can I get my hands on hospital gowns, sheets and baby blankets? I'm looking into it. :-)

I'm still upset by what I saw. Women are not cared for enough out here. It makes me sad.

"You must be the change you wish to see in the world."
-Mahatma Gandhi

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Serving

6-15-10

Me and MB counting various pills

Another day at the clinic, today we saw 160 patients! I was working in the pharmacy again but also shadowed one of the doctors from Indiana. We saw patients with Malaria, Brucellosis, Syphilis, HIV, Yellow Fever, and many parasites and common colds. One of my favorite patients was a boy who was 15. He was out herding his cattle when he stepped on a sharp stick and it went in between his big and second toe. It had been 4 days since the accident, the wound was deep. It smelled. We cleaned it and put a dressing on it and told him to keep off of it as much as possible. The poor kid could barely walk.

Children waiting to see the Doctors

I really enjoyed shadowing Doctor Peter. He is in residency at a hospital in IN. He is married and has 2 little kids. He worked great with the patients that came through-a very kind, compassionate and loving person. I've had a hard time with the men around here and well, seeing Peter serving and interacting with the people made me happy! As MB put it, "God placed someone in your path who helped you re-knew your faith in men-yay!" Thank goodness for men who are leaders and doers.

"When you say a situation or a person is hopeless, you're slamming the door in the face of God." -Charles C. Allen

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Mobile Medical Clinic

6-14-10

This morning our team split up, me and Josh went to help a medical team from Indiana go to a school and set up a mobile clinic. I started out as a pharmacist and have been counting pills galore! The second half the day I was testing patients for HIV. I prefer the hands-on working with patients. We saw around 107 patients, mainly women and children.

Mobile Clinic: Kids waiting outside

During our lunch break our team was invited to a nearby village. The village was celebrating a fertility ceremony. There were around 100 women present from the ages of 14 on up. They were all dressed in traditional clothing with an animal hide as a covering. The women were adorned with beautiful necklaces and bracelets. The women went into a hut to get their faces painted with a rustic orange paint, once they were painted they formed into a large circle. They started singing and dancing, waiting for their turn to be blessed by the men in the community. Once each woman was blessed she went straight to her home, if she stopped to greet anyone she would lose her blessing. At midnight the fertility blessing would begin (lots of baby making tonight...). One of the guys told me he better not see me in the middle of the ceremony, ha! I told him he didn't need to worry about me one bit. :-)

Mobile Clinic: We had a system set up-patients
would stop by each station.

It was a neat experience to be present since the fertility blessing ceremony only occurs every 5-10 years depending....on what? I'm not sure. I just can't imagine being 14 and asking God for babies, wow!

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A Life of Faith

Thoughts and notes from a sermon:
6-6-10
The church had so much diversity, I loved it! The message the pastor gave was really powerful- We read from Genesis 22 and the pastor spoke on Abraham, how he believed and followed God out of obedience. He went on to say how God uses trials and temptations to evaluate our spiritual growth. As God tested Abraham so He does with each of us, "Our faith is not really tested until God asks us to bear what seems unbearable, and expect what seems impossible."
I question God a lot. I want explanations of where He is leading me or what I'll be doing, or why a certain experience happened to me. Yet, God's best interests and purposes don't exist to make me happy, they are not founded on my needs. God's commitments are first to His Kingdom and not my desires. Wow! So much of the time I feel/want myself to be the center of God's plan, but it isn't. I want attention. I want the world to revolve around me but it can't. It won't. I need to learn to live by God's promises and not by explanations. "God's will never contradicts His promises."
When God told Abraham to sacrifice his son, Issac, Abraham was being tested. He had no clue what the outcome would be but he obeyed God. In James 2 it discusses how true faith is always proved by obedience. Abraham had faith. "God did not want Isaac's life, He wanted Abraham's heart." How many times does God put us through trials and testing only to have us become totally surrendered to His will? I have such a hard time during testing, why is it such a struggle? I hate releasing control.
"When it feels like everything has been taken away was it snatched from us or did we withhold nothing?" "God has withhold nothing from me, what am I withholding from Him?" I don't want to withhold anything from Him but I know I do. God doesn't owe me anything, I am in-debted to Him. I pray that I will be able to live a surrendered life for Him. I don't want to continually live my life for myself.

I look toward the cross
Where my Savior died
Suffered in my place
The perfect sacrifice
For me so I can know

Now I am forgiven
I have been set free
Through the blood of Jesus
I have been made clean
Now I know His mercy
Because He died for me
I have been redeemed

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Frustration Beyond Belief

Journal Entry: 6-11-10

What am I doing here? I'm in Africa and I feel like I'm doing nothing. I don't really want to be around people, I've been escaping to my room. This isn't me. It sucks. Why am I afraid? Why can't I love these people? I am rather discouraged. I want to be comfortable here but I feel out of my element.
"If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith, so as to remove mountains but have not love, I am nothing. If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing." 1 Corinthians 13:1-3
I don't want to leave Africa without loving the people here. I need to search for ways to love. I need courage.
"And like our Savior, who poured out His life and blood so we have reason to rejoice, we were made to lay down our lives and give until it hurts." -Francis Chan
My desire is to lay down my life and give until it hurts. Let me follow You, all the days of my life.

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Lace apron

I finally have internet again. What should I write? I was going to have journal entries to keep everyone up to-date but after re-reading some of them I've decided I shouldn't post everything....too personal. So, I am going to be selective in what I write. I do want everyone to know what God is doing in my life so the posts you'll read is what I've been experiencing the past week. Enjoy! Ha!

6-10-10
The most challenging thing I've had to deal with is understanding the role of the women in the Maasai culture. The women do everything around here: they make the houses (out of sticks, mud and cow dung), they prepare the food (serve men first), they clean, have babies, take care of the children. Women go through circumcision around the age of 14 and are given to a man a few months later, they can't even choose their own husband. The more items the Maasai men have the wealthier he becomes so the men try to gain as many women as they can afford and try to have as many babies as possible. Women have very little rights, they can't decide anything on their own and it makes me sad. There are so many expectations and the women have to meet them. This culture paints an even bigger picture in my mind as to how men are lazy beings, who take women for granted. No one marries for love, they marry because it is required. It seems everywhere I look I see relationships fail, not representing what God had intended and it makes me sad.

Me and MB were cleaning and Chris our language teacher told us that we were doing really good, the "work of women." It made me so mad! It is not my job to clean, men are very capable of cleaning. I understand that Chris is very proud of his culture as I am of mine (most of the time). Me and MB are asked to serve the men chai and bread and butter and it is killing me, one of the most humbling things ever. I love serving but not when I am told or expected to. I never thought I would have a problem in serving but here I do, it's eating me alive! I know people would probably say I'm silly and just get over it but I can't. I question as to why I am so strong-willed and opinionated...I don't have an answer for that question. Ha!
I hate lace. I don't like aprons. I was talking to a guy friend once and he said something that has really stuck, "Anna, sometimes I believe God calls us to do things we detest and for you it might be to stick on that lace apron and serve." He wasn't saying literally stick on a disgusting old lace apron, but he was saying you have to be willing to serve even when you really dislike it. That is exactly what I have been doing. I've been putting on the lace apron and serving. It's humbling but God is teaching me through it.

"Experience is a doorway, not a final goal."
-Oswald Chambers

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