Greetings family and friends,
Marilyn and I are approaching the end of our first week here
at Tenwek and are again reminded that we are no longer “in the world” as we
know it back home. The realization came
a bit slower this time around, as I’ll explain below. Our travel to Kenya was fairly uneventful, but
grueling and uncomfortable as always.
Once here, we breezed through customs (no custom agents on duty…so no
bag checks, no complicated explanations of why we were packing fetal monitors,
endoscopy catheters, surgical supplies, expired (but sterilizable) instruments,
etc….just a “get out of jail free” card…thanks be to God!). Once free of the airport, we spent the night
in the Nairobi Doubletree Hotel, …hardly typical Kenyan accomodations….followed
by a fabulous buffet breakfast on our way out of Nairobi. This year, I decided to try to establish a
Kenyan phone number to allow easier communication between ourselves, our
families, and the long-term medical
staff, so we made a trip to a local Safaricom cellphone store to purchase a SIM
card and some airtime. Unfortunately, I
had not charged my old I-phone before leaving the U.S. I had planned to use this as a “local phone”,
but it was DOA at the store. This meant
that rather than getting everything set up before leaving Nairobi, I was tasked
with getting my airtime transferred to my phone after it was fully charged….a
very “simple” process of setting up an M-Pesa account (a funding account
managed by Safaricom), putting some money into the M-Pesa account, and later,
using this funding account to purchase my airtime…sounds simple right?! Needless to say, 3 days into our stay, and
10-15 toll-free calls to Safaricom later, I still had not been able to purchase
airtime for my phone! There were any
number of absurdities encountered….responses such as: “your SIM card needs to
be enabled to receive M-Pesa funds” (WHAT??!!), to “ you’ve used up all your
airtime, and M-Pesa requires a small amount of airtime to make the transfer”!!!! By day 4, I was ready to flush the “local
phone” down the loo, (or “choo” as they call it here)…. Fortunately, I stumbled upon a setting on my
phone, which allowed me to make the transfer of funds myself…what jubilation
and satisfaction I experienced! (maybe for the ONLY time this week, since I am again
humbled by the medical complexity of the patients here, and the absolute lack
of preparation for Kenyan medicine that American medicine provides). So…halfway into our first week here, and I am
still struggling with first world problems, right?....Wah, Wah, Wah. The reality that is Kenya was suddenly thrust
upon us yesterday, when a young Masaai warrior walked into our casualty area
(Emergency room) after an intra-tribal altercation with another Masaai. He had been shot in the nose with an arrow,
had broken off the end of the shaft, but still had a good 1-2 feet of the shaft
sticking out of his face. As is typical
of the people here, he was not complaining of pain, sat quietly in casualty
area waiting to be cared for, then
walked himself over to radiology for his x-rays and CT scan (see below). Amazingly, the tip of the arrow had
penetrated to the back of his head, near his cervical spine, and had narrowly
missed hitting the internal carotid, and vertebral arteries (puncture of either
one of which would have likely been fatal).
Even more amazingly, we had a maxillofacial surgeon here who was
scheduled to leave on safari, but had not yet done so. Needless to say, his departure was postponed,
and he was able to “open up the face” of this young Masaai, remove the barbs on
the arrow, and extract the arrow without damage to any vital structures. God was certainly with this young man, and
His hand was apparent in every aspect of this situation. So once again, I am shamed by my seemingly
insignificant struggles and aggravations, when faced with the reality of life
here. Once again, God smacks me up the
side the head and reminds me, “this isn’t about you”…. “you’re here to join MY
work among these people…now put your phone down and get with the
program”…message ruefully received… I
am scheduled to be on-call this weekend, and am somewhat anxiously looking
forward to seeing what else God has planned for me/us here at Tenwek….hopefully
just more “plain vanilla” tuberculosis, HIV, meningitis, and pneumonia…stay
tuned!
Please also continue to pray for the patients under our care
here, and for wisdom and discernment in our decision-making.
With love,
Randy and Marilyn.
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When this image was shown to one volunteer's girlfriend back home, her response was: "I see the arrow, but what's it pointing to?"....one has to find humor in the tragedy I guess... |
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