Greece Part 1

For those who care, I'll be telling about our trip to Greece in 3 parts.  We headed to Nairobi on Saturday afternoon, April 26th and went to dinner, put the kids to bed at 8 and then had to wake everyone up at 12:30 to head to the airport! Luckily (or unluckily, depending on how you look at it) there were TV screens on every seat, so our kids were in heaven. Cole never slept again. The others slept varying amounts throughout the next 6 hours. Tucker managed to spill an entire cup of water on my lap and need a diaper change in the world’s smallest changing area, an airplane bathroom.  Tucker was also a huge hit with the Turkish airline stewardesses. Once he decided he was done with his car seat and was walking around, they literally were all over him, kissing him. This one lady must have kissed him 30 times! Then she brought him chocolate. J Eastern Europeans love children, random people in the airport in Istanbul would stop and touch them, try to hold them and even kiss them!

Crazy kids killin time in the Instanbul airport!

Turkish Delight!

We were traveling with our friends the Kelleys and the Davis’s, so we had 6 adults and 9 kids to keep track of as we navigated the airports. It was quite a herd. We entered the 1^st world again in the Istanbul airport, to a huge mall area, something we hadn’t seen in 9 months. Lots of white people (unusual) and lots of things that had not been available in some time. We spent 2 ½ hours there before leaving for our destination....Greece! We arrived in Athens around 2:30, very tired but ready to be there! The first thing I saw as we flew in was an Ikea! We’re not in Africa anymore, baby!

            Monday was a free day for Eric so we spent the morning exploring the grounds. We found the playground, the beach and the pool. It wasn’t that warm (60’s) but the boys insisted on going swimming. So they got in the freezing cold water for a while. The meals are served buffet style in a big cafeteria. The food was awesome. The two littles and I took a nap in the afternoon. There was a huge rainstorm in the afternoon. We hung around dinner for a while extra and then came back and put the boys to bed.

The ocean!

The freezing cold pool, so much fun!

            Tuesday Eric started classes with an ultrasound class. I got up and ran before he left and then took the boys to breakfast. There is Nutella and croissants, which was a favorite among the kids. They begged and begged to go swimming again so I took them all to get ready and they swam in the freezing cold water for approximately 10 seconds and then ran around the pool for the next hour+. They played with their friends Josiah and Annie and then we met up with Eric for lunch. Afterward I kept all the kids in while the littles napped. It was akin to torture for the older two. That evening we had a main session where everyone came (there are 700 people here) and it was an introduction, naming all the countries people came from and we were all to wear dress from our country. Very cool. 

Going to Greek School!

    Wednesday the kids went to class for the first time. Overall they did really well. The bigger boys really loved it. They did some sort of a Greek VBS theme. Eric went to different medical sessions and I went to the spouse’s group. We have a speaker that speaks every morning for awhile and then different women share about their fields and their joys/struggles. Then we break off into a small group for prayer/discussion. We then go and get lunch and there are other spouse’s activities in the afternoons, lessons, painting, crocheting J, haircuts and manicures (done on each other!) but I take the littles back for naps. The big boys go back to class. That ends around 4:30 when we all somehow end up back at the freezing cold pool J Dinner and then we usually have to skip the evening session to get the boys to bed to start all over again! Next time I’ll tell about our weekend trip to Athens!

Running Tales

So it’s no secret that I am not the world’s greatest runner. I am an exercise runner, not a pleasure runner. There are those rare days when I actually do enjoy my run, but for the most part I am panting and praying (mostly that my lungs don’t give out and I die during this run).

However, running in Kenya is much more exciting than running on my treadmill in Kentwood. The most exciting thing that happened on my treadmill runs was the occasional child-destroying-the-house while I tried to run or me tripping and falling off (I swear that only happened a few times).

Here, however, there are all kinds of exciting things. Let me tell you about some:

*I get up at 5:45 to run. It is usually very dark (especially if there is no moon) but I am not alone out there! There are many, many school children walking to school at this time (yes, you read that correctly)

*You may know that I like to run alone. However, I rarely run alone these days. Those same school children run with me. In front of me, behind me, beside me. Yes, I am a human ham sandwich. Yes, it is claustrophobic. But they are so excited to run with me.

This happens at different intervals. Some will be with me in the beginning and then turn off at their school, others I will pick up at a different point in my path. All are wearing school shoes, backpacks, coats and hats. (and they still could beat me hands-down in a sprint). Once I tried to avoid them by switching sides of the road when I saw them coming. They simply chased me to the other side.

*Some children I pass  are walking the opposite way I am running. These children yell things at me (mostly Hello! How are you?! occasional snide comments) and expect me to high five every one of them.

*I have to be on the look-out for donkeys. It is dark remember, so I am sometimes surprised by them. I just need to watch out that I don’t run by the back of them and startle them. No one wants a morning donkey kick. Ain’t nobody got time for that.

I also get stopped by groups of cows or donkeys passing, taking up the whole road with their “shepherd” (is that what you’d call them??) smacking them with a twig.

*The real runners are out now, training. Their legs are about as long as my whole body and when they pass me, I think “was that lightening?”Oh no, just a real Kenyan runner passing me as if I were standing still. They are beautiful to watch though.

[ Side note: Kenyan runners don’t care at all about their time in race, it’s all about the place that they finish in. They will be known to quit a race if they can tell they aren’t going to finish at the front]

*There is a man that often runs by me in dress shoes carrying 4 containers of milk. I don’t know why he’s in such a hurry.

*By far my favorite experience is when I pass the man who walks up the road playing Celine Dion on his phone. I just love some good Celine first thing in the morning. 

Remembering our Mounds of Stone

Today is my two year anniversary- two years ago I was given life back- a true gift. Time is so funny, it seems like a lifetime ago and yet the memories are still very fresh in my mind.

  There are questions: Was I really in the hospital that long? How was I so blessed with such a sacrificial mother? How did Eric endure the stress of not knowing if I’d recover? How did my kids really do through this time?

  There are many memories. Hours of lying in a hospital bed. Reading. Praying. Pain. Sleeping. Checking emails. Opening cards. Visits from friends. Watching TV. Eating hospital food. Retaining water. IV’s. Walks down the hall. Abscesses. Drains. CT’s. Trips to the ER. Re-admissions. Prayers of the Saints. Friendships deepened. Phone calls. Exhaustion. Pain. Naps. Doctors. Hope. Gifts. More gifts. Visits from the kids. Bible reading. Games. Mitchell Grand Plan. Open wound. Dressing changes. Nurses. New nurses. Bad nurses. Great nurses. Meals to my family. Help with the kids. Dad traveling every weekend. Eric sleeping on the chair. Much love. Pain. Struggling. Healing.

   Through it all the Lord was so faithful. He healed me. Would He have still been good if He let me die? Absolutely. Not all get to be healed. Some die. I lived. Why? I don’t know. All I know is that I must be faithful with the gift of life I was given. I better not squander my extra time.

  The Lord gives and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name of the Lord. 

OB Miracles

It was 4pm on a Monday.  For reasons I'll describe later, I was hanging out on the OB ward with Dr. Rebekah (the OB equivalent of me here at Tenwek) when a stretcher rolled into the labor/triage area carrying a pale, sick looking woman.  The trail of blood tracing back to the entrance of the hospital told us immediately what was wrong, that this woman was bleeding to death.  We got the full history from Dr. Terer, a Kenyan OB doctor at Tenwek who happened to be working that day at the small rural clinic this lady stumbled into.  "Her name is Janeth, and she began bleeding after her home birth this morning," said Dr. Terer.  "When I saw how much she was bleeding and that her pulse was 160, I did for her all I could at the clinic, then got here as quick as I could."  By saying he had done all he could, Dr. Terer had started an IV, given her IV fluids, and gotten her blood type.  We estimated that she had bled out over half of her blood volume and we needed to get her to theatre quickly.

General surgeons on the mission field truly are general surgeons.  Instead of focusing only on the areas I was trained in, I am also expected to know some basics of neurosurgery, ENT, pediatric surgery, Urology, orthopedics and yes...OB/GYN.  Since I did zero C-sections in residency and could count the number of hysterectomies on two fingers, I decided to hang out with the OB/GYN team for the month of March and get comfortable taking care of the patients general surgeons always try to avoid.  "Getting my feet wet" in the world of OB/GYN meant that on this day they were going to get wet with blood.  

We began resuscitating Janeth in the OB theatre with IVF and all the A positive blood the blood bank could offer.  From my experience with trauma, I felt comfortable taking care of a hemorrhaging patient and knew what treatments were needed.  I knew by her vitals and altered level of consciousness that she was in severe hemorrhagic shock.  I knew she needed blood, and that we needed to stop the bleeding.  However, I had absolutely no experience with a bleeding postpartum uterus and was glad that Drs. Rebekah and Terer were with me that day.  After what seemed like an eternity of trying different maneuvers and medicines, we had slowed the bleeding but not stopped it.  There was talk of a hysterectomy, but we knew that she had bled so much that she was in DIC and surgery would not have a good outcome.  (DIC is a bad problem where your blood can't clot anymore because all the clotting proteins are used up.)  With the alarm of the monitor informing us that her blood pressure was still low, 70/30, and that her heart rate was still in the 160's, we needed a miracle. Dr. Terer suggested that we pray and all the staff in the room stopped and laid hands on Janeth.  As we lifted our heads, Dr. Rebekah immediately said, "Why don't we try a Bakri balloon." In the quiet of our prayer, God put into Dr. Rebekah's mind one option we hadn't tried yet.  The bleeding was tamponaded and slowed to a stop.  Another couple units of fresh blood still warm from the missionaries who donated them gave our patient the clotting factors that she needed.  Janeth stabilized overnight in the ICU, and once she was fully conscious she became aware of how close to death she was.  During her hospital stay, Janeth understood God's plan for salvation and accepted Christ as her savior.  By God's grace she is alive today in more ways than one, and is on her way home to follow Christ and take care of her four children.  

After Janeth stopped bleeding and began to improve, we all knew we had been part of something special.  Dr. Terer said it best when he told us, "We get the joy, but God gets the glory."  I loved that saying, and plan on using it for years to come. 

Taking care of Janeth brought back memories of a different OB patient I took care of about this time two years ago.  On March 15th, Tucker turns two years old, and it marks the anniversary of when Erin got sick and nearly died.  I learned a lot through that experience, about how faith can be strengthened through difficult circumstances, about how faithful God is in times of trial, and about the power of prayer.  For months after Erin’s hospitalization I couldn’t stop thinking about all that we had been through and how God forced us to depend on Him.  However, as time passed, memories faded and the clarity of God’s lessons became less sharp then when they were first learned. Two years later, God reminded me of those lessons through taking care of Janeth.   God is present in times of trial.  He puts us though tough situations to strengthen our faith and dependence on Him.  Prayer is powerful as we verbally acknowledge the frailty of our humanness and openly state our dependence on God.  And, when miracles happen, we get the joy, but He gets the glory. 

Our trip to Ethiopia

We are back from our mandatory trip out of East Africa! We headed to Nairobi last Wednesday, ate lunch (our first time in a restaurant in 6 months!) and headed to the airport to go to Ethiopia.  Instead of going on and on about our trip I thought I’d do a few bullet points to fill you in.

Highlights of our Trip (and yes, some would be considered low-lights)

-Getting to eat at Java House in Nairobi before going to the airport-yum!

-Trying to let the boys watch a video in the airport while we wait for our plane only to have T-25 (work out video)stuck in the DVD drive. Come on boys, 25 sit-ups instead!

- On the airplane- here we go again! Tucker singing “Holy, Holy, Holy” (that’s the only part of the song he knows) at the top of his lungs. I think it’s adorable, but maybe others wouldn’t.

-I may or may not have accidentally opened the airplane bathroom door, only to find someone still in it.

-They served couscous as our dinner meal on the flight. Couscous. People, could you think of ANYTHING that would make more of a mess on an airplane?? I think there is still couscous falling out of my clothes, purse, etc.

-We stayed with some lovely folks, the Weeks, who even picked us up from the airport. Their friends that they were supposed to be dropping off that night had a canceled flight so we all 11 piled into their Landcrusier with our 5 bags tied to the roof.

-Traffic in Addis is as bad as traffic in Nairobi. Boo.

- Our kids think that ET is better than Disney World since we literally did every fun thing there is to do there in the 2 days we were there.  I keep trying to tell them that the rest of the world doesn’t go to ET for vaca.

-Cooper was so generous in sharing his cold with all of us. We appreciated it mostly in the middle of the night when Tucker was coughing up a lung.

-We went to probably the fanciest place in all of Ethiopia for the day, the Sheridan Hotel, to swim. It was a lovely way to spend my birthday, topped off by the fact that they sold ice cream there.

-Since it was so fancy we opted to take our lunch (PB and Nutella sandwhiches and knock off Prinlges- people, we are high class). I tried to take a butter knife in with me to spread the PB, but they took it away from me when I went through the full body scanner at the door.

- To keep things lively Alex tried to drown twice in the pool we went swimming in.

-Our children have to go to the bathroom ALL THE TIME, everywhere we go.I think it is contagious.

-Yod Absinnia is a really cool restaurant. Traditional Ethiopian food, served at a teeny tiny table in the middle of large chairs that our kids only fell off of 2 or 3 times. No silverware! Eat with your hands! Super yummy food. There was even a wedding party that came in to dine with us!

-We got to go bowling on our adventure day 2. It was pretty funny, there were always only 9 pins and half-way through we had to switch lanes because ours just quit working. Tucker absolutely loved it and would do a happy dance after every turn.

-Friday night is homemade pizza night at Tenwek and we got to continue the tradition by going OUT for pizza with the Weeks and Semme (our driver) on Friday night. The 9 of us polished off 5 pizzas. Our kids are vacuum cleaners. Skin and bones Cooper ate 5 pieces.

-Ethiopians are beautiful people. We wish we had more time to get to know them and hear more of their stories.

Fun Facts about ET

They consider a year to have 13 months, so to them it is still 2006. Hey, I’m 28 there! I like it!

They start time at dawn, calling it 12:00. So 7 a.m. to them is 1 p.m. Who knew they were so independent from the rest of the world?

Ethiopia is the birthplace of coffee. They have “coffee ceremonies” in which they boil the water in a coffee pot of sorts over charcoal and then they burn incense on the charcoal.

Their money is called a birr and it is 20 birr to 1 US dollar

Natives call it “Etiopia”, no “th”

Quoteable Quotes from the trip

-(Squeal!!) It’s blast-offing!! – Alex as he watches a plane take off

-“In case of emergency please remove your high heels and store them under the seat in front of you” – ET in-flight message

- Eric: We are going to this really nice ice cream restaurant so you better behave. Cooper: Oh! Like Spoonlickers?”

-Alex at the pool: We should have something over our mouths to keep water out. Eric: We do, they are called lips.

Trying to fit all our stuff on the top!

Day at the pool

Our yummy ET dinner

Semme, Emily and Travis

There’s more we could tell, but that covers the important stuff. Thanks so much for your prayers that got us there and back! Praise the Lord that Kenya allowed us back in. Please, please pray that Eric’s work permit comes SOON so we don’t have to do this again!

To ET we go!

Well, we are about to embark on an adventure! To Ethiopia!

When coming to Kenya as a missionary doctor, you have to obtain a work permit. While you are waiting for a work permit, you are granted a visitor’s visa that lasts for 3 months. After that, you are able to renew the visitor’s visa one time (3 more months) hoping that your work permit comes in that time.

In our case, if that work permit does not come, they make you leave East Africa (not just Kenya) for a period of time (that no one seems quite certain of) and then come back. At that time you are granted a 3 month visitor visa again (for the pretty price of $50 a person) and you start the process over again.

Our visitor visa expires on the best day of the year, February 13^th! We have looked at all our options and the cheapest place to go, by far, is Ethiopia. So, to Ethiopia we go! We leave next week and will be gone for...some period of time.

It will be my most interesting birthday yet!

Thanks so much to those who have helped us with info about Addis Ababa, the capital, where we will be staying. While we were praying and hoping to avoid this extra inconvenience, we now are looking at it as a divine appointment from the Lord and hope to enjoy the adventure! We’d appreciate your prayers over us as we travel and try to navigate a new place with 4 little explorers in tow!