Love and Life

This is definitely one of the quietest Valentine’s days the Shirks will ever have.  3 out of 4 of us have a stomach bug, so Arianna is the only one of up and doing anything, catching up on sewing projects and making sure we drink and don’t get dehydrated. We are grateful, as the past weeks have been crazy.  Arianna took call as usual in addition to giving 5 lectures this week to the residents and nurses!

I started a new job for the hospital, with resource mobilization, which is an amalgamation of donor relations, marketing, accounting, and lots of emailing.  It’s fun, daunting, and a wonderful way to get really involved in the massive work that Kijabe does.

Part of that means walking around the hospital more often with a camera, which was very intimidating at first.  But six months into our time here, it is much easier – mainly because of Arianna.  She is primarily teaching the Medical Officers and Clinical Officers, who are through med-school or PA school and here for their first year of training.  They rotate through different specialties, and Arianna has loved working with them; teaching, lecturing, and hosting dinners.  Which means when I show up on wards with a camera, I am Arianna’s husband – someone who can be trusted – not a stranger.

So while I feel like I have pretty free reign to take pictures of staff, and have figured out how to scrub into the Operating Theater, stay out of the sterile field, and make sure I have my lead vest ready before walking into the Orthopedic OR; patient pictures are a very different story.  It’s sensitive and I don’t want to upset or worry anyone who is already going through a tough time in their hospital stay.

Usually I wait until asked by a staff person to take a picture, or try to get them interacting with a patient; taking cues from the care provider.  Other times, I feel like the best thing to do is shake hands, smile, say a quick prayer, and not take pictures at all.  Then there was a morning when I had a few free moments and ran into a man I met at eye clinic an hour earlier.  He seemed like a lot of fun, so I bought him chai and maandazi, and we chatted for a little while before taking a couple of pictures.  I asked why was he so happy?

“I was born happy.  My parents were always happy too!”

So, we hope you are as happy as he is this Valentine’s Day!  Much love & big hugs from Kenya!!

p.s. if you want to keep up with my work for the hospital, two ways you can do it are:

1. like the Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/AICKijabeHospital  

2.  receive email updates from the hospital – send me an email to resmob.kh@gmail.com with “email me” in the subject line.