Only in Kenya

We apologize for not blogging in the last two weeks. No need to worry – we are okay. As a matter of fact, we are better than okay. Our dear friends, Steve and Beth Rolfsen, are visiting us from Michigan. They left their three wonderful kids with trusted family and are spending two weeks with us. We are thrilled that they are able to share in our Kenya experience. Steve and Beth arrived February 13th and hit the ground running.

After just 24 hours to recover from jetlag, Steve and Beth went with Tenwek Community Health to a clinic in Tembu, a village about 45 minutes from Tenwek. They worked all day seeing pregnant women (weighing and taking blood pressures) and immunizing babies. They saw over 100 patients and skipped eating lunch. They returned to Tenwek exhausted but filled with the desire to see more.

Just as we were about to eat dinner, we received a call that one of our postpartum patients (s/p cesarean section complicated by a wound infection) was actively bleeding from her abdominal drains that were placed to drain her infection. She needed O positive blood stat. Beth volunteered to donate. So we quickly fed her a PBJ sandwich and took her to donate blood. Bryan and I took the patient back to the OR and packed her abdomen to slow the bleeding while she received the blood transfusion. Our patient survived the night and is still in critical condition in the ICU. Steve and Beth were quickly introduced to missionary life.

We did give Steve and Beth some R&R this past weekend. We left Anna and Leo with friends and took the Rolfsens on safari. We had some much needed time to talk and catch up and see some amazing animals.


Today, Beth and I went out with Tenwek Community Health to educate local school children about HIV prevention. It was a typical day in Kenya - filled with many frustrations and many joys. As we have mentioned in previous blogs, nothing happens at a fast pace here. We are on “Kenyan time”.

Beth and I promptly arrived at 9:30am. No one at Community Health seemed to be in a hurry to leave. 10am – time for chai tea - which delays our departure even more. By 10:50 am, we were finally ready to leave. What should have been a 45-minute drive, turned into a two-hour trip. We had to pull over at a gas station to get the spare tire patched (30 minutes). We then go to get gas – why didn’t we get gas while we were waiting for the spare tire?? Beth and I were asking the same question. Weren’t the kids at the school waiting for us? We get back on the road only to stop 30 minutes later to fix the back two tires - which felt “loose” to Cosmos, our driver. This was a 45-minute detour. 3 ½ hours after showing up at Community Health, we arrive at Lelaitich Primary School by 1pm.

But wait, our frustrations do not end there. 1 pm is when the kids walk home for lunch. So once again, Beth and I wait. Thank goodness we were together and could spend the time talking. The kids started to return from lunch and one by one they run to see us. Pretty soon, Beth and I were surrounded by smiling, curious kids (approximately 100 kids). Of course, the Community Health workers by this time were nowhere in sight. So Beth and I started teaching the kids some English and they, in turn, taught us some Swahili. We realized that this is why we came – to be with the children.


Lelaitich School has over 500 students with only 10 teachers. The school has no electricity so our team had brought a generator to power the video on HIV. The children learned today about HIV and HIV prevention. We also discussed how important education is and encouraged them to continue to study hard. What a joy it was to see how happy the kids were to have us at their school.


Lelaitich School

After a rewarding afternoon with the school children, we were ready to head home. Although Beth and I were eager to get home, we were not excited that Cosmos was driving like a maniac on the horrible roads. When asked why he was driving so fast, he answered, “I am not driving. God is driving”. I know I should have found comfort that God was driving and in control, but all I could think of was that my children are too young to lose their mom. But praise God, we made it home safely.

I should mention that on our way home, we made several detours and stops to pick up various Community Health workers that were heading to Tenwek. Just when Beth and I thought we were so close to getting home, we would make a random stop and someone would climb in with his/her belongings. After all was said and done, we had 10 people piled into a 5 passenger SUV. Also in our car was a generator (leaking gasoline), two VCRs, a large speaker circa 1980s, a stereo amplifier, and a projector. I am so happy that Beth was able to share in all the frustrations and joys from today. As we bounced around on the bumpy roads, I had to smile and think…only in Kenya.