Birthday

Jason celebrated his birthday (35th) earlier this month. We really miss our family and friends back in the States at those times, but we had a great celebration here anyway. Nicole picked him up after school and took him out for a nice steak dinner (it is actually hard to find a really great steak here, but we found one. Cows that have to forage for survival don't always taste the best - go figure!).

After a fancy dinner Nicole and Jason went back to the compound to get the kids. The family who had been watching the kids had planned a surprise birthday party for him. Lexi and Nate helped bake the cake (guess who picked out the frosting color). It was a great party spent with family and friends. Here are some pictures of the two cutest bakers in the world, and some of the best MK's anywhere.

New Baby!

Bet the title made you want to read this!

Recently Nicole had the opportunity to go with another missionary wife to take a Kenyan woman, Christine, to the hospital to deliver her baby. The private hospital where Christine was going to deliver her baby was quite impressive. It looked and smelled very clean. There was a waiting room and two exam rooms. After being checked, the nurse midwife said that Christine had placenta previa and could not deliver at that place. So we had to take her to a public hospital.

We parked at the public hospital and had to walk Momma to the furthest building which was the maternity building. When we walked up to the building there were 8 Babas (fathers) waiting outside (in Kenya no one is allowed to be with the Mommas while they are giving birth, not even the fathers). Walking inside there was a small corridor with glass windows as the far wall looking into the big rooms. The rooms the corridor looked into were big because they were common rooms with beds tightly lined up on each wall (about 15-20 beds in each room). There were pregnant women in all of the beds and some women had to share beds (one bed was shared by three women nursing their babies). The corridor was also packed with pregnant women waiting to be examined and waiting for beds. This public hospital smelled a bit like a toilet and looked very dirty.

Momma was taken into a small exam room (about the size of a large closet) to be examined and then she laid on the floor until we made a big fuss and she was given a bed. Christine’s husband Edwin had to wait outside the whole time she was in labor and was only told that the baby was born around 11:30. He was not told anything about the well being of Momma and baby. Edwin was not allowed to see his wife or new baby until the morning after the baby was born. Brandi is the baby’s name, she was a little over 2 Kilos (about 4 pounds) and momma took her home from the hospital the day after she was born. They were in the hospital about 16 hours. The total cost of the hospital stay and delivery was 2,300 Ksh (about 30 US Dollars). Here is a picture of the new big sister playing with our kids (actually enjoying hot chocolate during a break).

Puppies

Our compound is losing our guard dog when the McGee's return - his name is Buster, and he belongs to them. (The McGees are moving to a new home on the Rosslyn Campus - where they will be able to be closer to the place they minister). Anyway, the compound decided it was time to start thinking about new guard dogs.

We bought two German Shepherd puppies. They aren't exactly the most ferocious looking animals, but we are sure glad we have them. Lexi and Jason got to go pick them out - from a litter of 8. (One of them had a pink ribbon tied around it's neck - any guesses how that one got picked?) There are several small children on our compound, so all of the kids take turns "acclimating" the puppies to children - so that when they are bigger they will be friendly with kids.

The guard dogs are let out at night to roam the compound. They bark if they notice anything out of the ordinary, and help alert our guards. It is ok if their bark is worse than their bite - with kids all over, that is a good thing.

As a rule, Kenyans don't really like dogs. It is a hard life for a dog here. They tend to roam all over, scavenging for food when they can get it. Villagers chase them and throw sticks at them. I think Kenyans think Americans are a little crazy in regards to our love of pets - maybe we are.

Our puppies are named "Ginger" and "Masala". They are a lot of fun, and spend at least 1 day a week with Lexi and Nate.

Here are some pictures. WARNING: the images you are about to see might be a little frightening!

Water

This week has been a crazy week with water. For whatever reason, it has been coming out of the tap very, very dirty - some days brown. So before we filter it, we actually need to let all of the dirt settle. One day it came out clean, but smelled like bleach. Hmmm. Makes you wonder.
Obviously we try to avoid washing clothes when the water we are attempting to clean in is dirtier than the clothes.
Good friends of ours travel all over Kenya helping villages get good wells so they can have access to clean water. Much sickness and death could be avoided here by simply having good water. Someone told me this week that almost 60% of the deaths in children between birth - 4 years could be avoided by people simply washing their hands at least once a day with soap (even if the water was dirty). Hard to comprehend.
All in all, we are thankful for the water we have access to. Not much of a post this week, but honestly, the water was filthy. Here is a picture of the ceramic filters. We cleaned them about 4 days before this picture was taken.