Kedong Ranch

We are so happy, but have definitely been crazy busy at the hospital, so we were thrilled to get away for a couple of days.

Arianna and wonderful friend Susan, our first visitor!  They have had a wonderful time working together at the hospital, and we took the weekend to relax and get out of Kijabe for a bit to a ranch nearby in the valley.  It’s fascinating to see how things are orchestrated – Susan is a Pediatric Hem-Oncology doctor, and suddenly, a week before her arrival, cancer patients started rolling in – 4 since she arrived a week ago and a cacophony of hematology patients as well.  So she’s been seeing them and working with one of Arianna’s colleagues to create a cancer protocol for the hospital.  Her visit has been timely, wonderful, and too perfect to be just coincidence.

Annabelle has learned to read in the past few months, and found a perfect tree to climb and read Amelia Bedelia books.  Madeline and I spent a good hour or so waiting by the watering hole for the zebra to come drink.  They never did get over their fear, so we went out to follow them.  The picture below is a similar failed effort of mine to get close enough for a good picture.  If they run away, why not run with them?  At one point the herd decided to circle me before running off over the ridge – it was pretty much amazing.  I do have to say, this was one of the most epic running experiences of my life. . .hundreds of bouncing gazelles, the ping-pong balls of Africa, provide endless targets to chase, and at one point I realized that I was running along with literally hundreds of animals!  (no predators at Kedong Ranch – they do have cape buffalo, but I never saw any when I was out exploring)

Baby gazelle, our visitor at breakfast-time!

A new moon and good strong winds to drive away the dust have given us several amazing starry nights lately. . .along with the impetus of a guest to delay a warm bed to take night pictures!

We’ll share some more pictures of Arianna at work soon – she is on wards this month, which means lots of time to teach.  Most mornings she can be found with a flock of interns surrounding her as they sort through the complicated scenarios facing many of our patients!  I’ve been doing a lot of work for the hospital in the past weeks as well – you can see some of the pictures I’ve been shooting for work at www.facebook.com/AICKijabehospital