A Much Needed Break

My friend, Chrisie, came to visit me feb 3, along with her mom, Sue, and her boys, Shaunnie and Jack.

It's an honor when someone comes to visit from another state in the USA. But when they travel 8,000 miles across the ocean and many landforms to see you, it's more than an honor: it's a true BLESSING. 

Chrisie, attempting to carry something on her head the way the Rwandans do!  It's an art form!

The timing of the visit couldn't have been more perfect. Due to our month late school start this year, topped off with the typical poor Internet and Sam's case of mono which lasted more than 6 weeks and slowed him down considerably, we've been working super-intensely hard at Sam's school assignments, oftentimes covering three or four days' worth of assignments into one l-o-n-g day. Sam's been a great sport, and has somehow kept his grades up. I bet his online teachers (to whom we submit all his assignments and tests for grading) are a little surprised when lessons 1,2,3 and 4 of a math week all come in at the same time as lesson 5, which is the weekly test!

Once Shaun and Jack arrived, with their homework assignments from KISD, it made school much more fun - or at least, endurable. Now he has buds to study with! 

Sam also has someone - two someones!! - to play with who speak English!!! It has been so fun for me to see him enjoying his old neighborhood buds. 

In addition to school, it seems that since Tim and I made the firm decision to stay, we've been inundated with about a thousand new decisions to make, all of which of course require time, study, thought and that dreaded word, compromise. 😊

Also, Tim's been very busy at the hospital. Some awesome residents have been visiting, finishing a fellowship in "missionary medicine" by studying under a missionary surgeon (that would be my husband). He has taught them important things like how to operate by the light of your cell phone when the power goes out in the middle of surgery. Haha. Just kidding. Sorta. 

I've felt that my heart couldn't break anymore due to the tension between wanting to be home in Texas for loved ones and wanting to keep working here. 

Deste adores playing with (deceased) Grandma Berg's old Nativity Set.
He plays with it almost every
day after school! 

Esperance with her new school uniforms and supplies!  She started
school on Wednesday of this week.  Yay! 

Dr. Matt Croft gave Jules a thorough physical.
Good News:  He is HIV Negative!
Woo Hoo!  So happy for him!
Not as Good News (but totally treatable!):
He has Giardia, and the fungus we thought he had
on his toe and fingernails is actually a burrowing chigger.
The treatment for the first is an easy round of
anti-biotics, which he is taking right now.  The treatment
for the chiggers is pretty painful and lengthier, and will
start when we return from Kenya.  :(  Poor guy.  

This sweet girl, Sarah, has captured all our hearts.  She is
dying of cancer.  It has metastasized everywhere.  :(  She
has such a dear, dear heart.  

Somehow, being able to share the burden I feel for my new friends with my old friend has not only validated my purpose here (pardon the pop-psychology wording, please) but also lightened the emotional load. 

To share that load with someone else who knows where I'm from, who knows the luxuries to which I'm accustomed, who sees the pain of daily seeing so many in need (ESP the kids and moms/widows) yet not being able to help most of them - it has encouraged and refreshed me more than I even realized it would. 

Joel and his new eyedrops to fight the eye infection in his good eye!  Yay!

This mama monkey and her cute little baby were hanging out in the parking lot!  Too adorable!

Love these masks.....

Peek a boo!

I could never grow tired of watching these majestic creatures.  

This tongue is something like 48 cm long....... ewwwwww

Claustrophia, much?

Some new shoes for some new friends in honor of my old friend's mama, Georgia!!  <3

Now that's one handsome boy. 

On the walking safari with Chrisie and company....

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Jack and his new friends! 

Just hangin out in his new SCHOOL UNIFORM.  Deste loves school!  (D.B., don't you love the colors?) 

Chrisie went on a shoe buying spree for her new friends.  She's so sweet.  

And now we are all in Kenya together! Yesterday, I took the tourists to the giraffe orphanage, where we practically had the whole place to ourselves (it was delightful!) and then we went on a "walking safari" at the Nairobi Park (The "Walking Safari" is something that otherwise would be known as something really, really similar to the San Antonio Zoo, except for a much more exotic name and being way cheaper to get in, at only $3 each! I guess that's because they don't have to transport the animals as far to get them in this zoo.  LOL). 

At first, we were downright disappointed as we quickly realized, after paying our $3 entry fee, that we had signed up for something we could do in the USA on a preschool field trip:  go to the ZOO.  But then, my friends had amazing Muzungu luck and got to watch folks feeding the animals just after the Zoo, er, Walking Safari, closed.   They even got to PET a cheetah and get super up close to a huge male lion and several females. We saw a leopard, which is a very hard animal to see bc they hide a lot, and a bunch of other animals, up close and personal. Wow.  Hanging out with lucky muzungus is a real treat!  

I cannot believe how renewed and e dressed I feel after only 1 1/2 days away! 

So thankful for traveling friends! 

And now, the icing on the cake: we are almost at RVA to pick up Stephen and Ruthie for their midterm break. Yahoo! I've typed this post on the hour drive to their school from Nairobi. Amazed I didn't get too carsick doing that. 

Signing off for now. Hope you all have a wonderful Valentines' Day.