Easter

Here are some pictures we'd like to share from last weekend's Easter festivities. Good Friday and Monday were considered holidays so we had a four day weekend with the kids. Even in Kenya, there was plenty of Easter fun for Anna and Leo.

On Friday, the kids decorated sugar cookies at Dr. Carol Spears' house.


On Saturday, all the kids on the compound joined together for an Easter Egg Hunt with plenty of candy-filled eggs for everyone.

We then had a "surprise treat". One of the pet turtles, Baringo, died and Uncle Jason Fader decided to perform an autopsy to find the cause of death. Gruesome but quite interesting. The kids on the compound loved it...how often will they ever get a chance to be this close to turtle anatomy. Cause of death...likely cancer (a lot of swollen lymph nodes, but then again, do we really know what normal-sized turtle lymph nodes are?).

Sunday started with an amazing sunrise Easter service. We woke up and walked out our front door...the service was held on our front lawn since we get a beautiful view of the sun coming up over the hills at 6:20am. Everyone brought flowers to place on the cross.



Monday, we took a leisurely hike down to the waterfall which was a great ending to our Easter weekend.

Architect or Future Band Member?

Leo woke up today with a 102F fever. He was pretty subdued and sleepy since he was up most of the night coughing. Needless to say, he didn't go to preschool today. Instead, he spent the morning with us, laying on the couch while Anna was homeschooling. The ibuprofen must have kicked in, because he started wanting to play with his Trio building set (similar to Legos).

Without any guidance or help from us, he started putting pieces together. We realized he was working on a musical theme.

His first creation- a violin...

guitar...

drums...OK, not so creative but I think his fever was coming back.

Leo, however, redeemed himself. He went back to building his most favorite thing in the world...DINOSAURS!

Hungry Baboons

We noticed the over-abundance of baboons at Nakuru National Park. Initially, we thought they were kind of cute, especially the babies. We soon realized why the baboons were also very interested in us.

We drove up to Baboon Cliff where you can look down and see most of the park. Park guards approached us and told us to roll up our windows since the baboons like to steal food from cars. We followed their recommendations. We then noticed a very large baboon checking us out. We very carefully took some pictures of the baboon, then decided to leave.

Before we drove off, I decided to go into the trunk to get a snack out of the cooler for the kids. Big Mistake. All of a sudden, I heard a loud thud next to me. My first thought was, "I thought I buckled the kids in. How did one of them get out of their car seat and jump back here??" Next thing I knew, a big hairy arm reached in front of me, knocked the lid off the cooler, and snatched a ziplock bag of fruit. The baboon then took off with the park guards trying to chase after him. All of this happened in a matter of seconds! It took awhile to get over the shock that a baboon was inches from me. Bryan said he looked in the rear view mirror when he heard the noise. All he saw was "my wife with a big hairy baboon next to her". Thanks Bryan.

Leo was very sad because the baboon stole our only fruit. I have to admit I was pretty sad also. We can only buy apples and pears in Nairobi. "He stole our last 2 red apples, 2 green apples, and 2 green pears and our plastic bag" states Leo anytime he retells the story. Ziplock bags are valuable here in Kenya and reused multiple times.

Notice the baboon staking out our car. We should've known...

After recovering from this altercation, we decided to go eat lunch at the lodge. We were seated at a lovely table outside. We noticed some baboons on the other side of the fence. Anna was very worried that one would jump the fence and come after us. Bryan told her to keep a watch on the baboons.

Well, you know where this is going...Anna's eyes got as big as saucers. "Daddy, daddy - a baboon's coming!" Bryan looks up to see a baboon running towards our table. All of a sudden, Bryan starts making ridiculous noises to scare the baboon. He said he was speaking baboon. Again, thanks Bryan. The baboon ran up to our table and stole my mom's cheeseburger - all before we can say, "shoo". Our server was nice enough to bring my mom another cheeseburger, but we had all lost our appetite.

Leo- not so sure about finishing his lunch

Daniel and Christian

We had the privilege of caring for two Kenyan children in our home. Both Daniel and Christian are orphans and they are cared for at the AGC Baby Center. When the children at the Baby Center need hospital admission, they are brought to Tenwek. Occasionally, the children are well enough to be discharged but do not have a ride back to Nakuru immediately. That's when we get to step in. We help care for the children until they go back to the Baby Center. Daniel stayed with us in November and Christian in December. What a blessing. Anna and Leo helped care for them and showered them with hugs and kisses.

Daniel

Christian

Anna and Leo were so excited to visit Daniel and Christian at the Baby Center. How the boys have grown - Christian was drinking out of a cup!


Anna spending a special moment with Daniel

Ba Ngoai's Visit

Sadly, we had to say goodbye to my mom who returned to the US. We had a wonderful three weeks with her. I think she would agree that her visit calmed many of her fears about us living in a third world country. During her visit, we exposed her to as many aspects of missionary life as we could. Here are some of the highlights...

Sewing blankets for the newborn babies at the hospital. It was so memorable to take her and the kids up to the hospital to give out the blankets and donated baby clothes.


Being a pharmacist, she was able to work at Tenwek's pharmacy for a few days.

Traveling out into the local villages and visiting hospice patients with Tenwek's Community Health program.

Cooking a Vietnamese meal for 14 missionaries (not including us!). Pho...yummy!

Watching Butler (she's a Butler alum too!) in the NCAA Championship game--but let's not dwell on the details of that horrible game.

Seeing giraffes, lions, rhinos, buffalos, & baboons at Nakuru Game Park.


Spending an amazing day at AGC Baby Center in Nakuru. This was definitely the highlight for all of us. The Baby Center houses over 40 orphaned and abandoned children, ranging from newborns to 4 year olds. Children are brought to the center based on referrals from hospitals (including Tenwek), families, and police who need to find homes for these abandoned children. We were able to play with the kids, help feed them at lunch time, and just shower them with love and attention. Although it was heartbreaking to see how much they devoured any attention they received, it was very obvious they were well-cared for by the staff at the center. It was also heartbreaking to leave the beautiful children since Anna and Leo wanted to take each and every one of them home with us.







As you can see, my mom had a very full three weeks, but I think she enjoyed every bit of it. By the end of her visit, she was already making plans for her next trip to Africa with us! (Thanks Ba Ngoai for all that you contributed while you were here and thanks Ong Ngoai for sharing her with us! We miss you both.)

Baby Toanh

Today I had the honor of having a baby named after me. That's right--there is now a Kenyan baby girl with a Vietnamese name! I have to admit I was secretly hoping that one day someone would name their baby after me. After all, Bryan has had a few babies named after him (one Kenyan boy too). I guess "Bryan" is a little more mainstream than "Toanh". I was so touched that I hugged the patient and pretty much told everyone in the recovery room. Bryan's comment was "poor kid".

I also had the privilege of having my mom watch me operate today. We are so excited to have her visit us for three weeks. She has never been able to see me at work. So we put her in scrubs, a scrub hat, and a face mask and brought her to the operating theatre. She actually saw me deliver Baby Toanh by cesarean section. Bryan stood by her and explained the surgery. As I was closing the patient's incision, I was struggling with tying a very short suture. My mom leaned over (very close to contaminating the surgical field) and said, "Why don't you ask for another suture?" Bryan and I had to laugh. Moms will always be moms.

Here We Go Again!

We dragged ourselves out of bed at 2 am this morning to walk over to the Tenwek Guesthouse. For the next 90 minutes, we were on the edge of our seats - yelling, cheering, covering our eyes - as we cheered on the Butler Bulldogs in their Final Four game against VCU. The score (72-60) certainly did not reflect the nail-biting closeness of the game.

We felt fortunate that we could watch the game live and cheer on our Bulldogs all the way from Africa. We were joined by some fellow missionaries from the Midwest which made it all the more fun. The stress from watching the game and the lack of sleep were well worth it to celebrate Butler's advance to the National Championship. So we are setting our alarms to wake us up at 3 am Tuesday morning - hopefully to watch Butler beat U.Conn!