random thoughts that don’t fit into a complete post. . .

1. David went on to the homes of patients this week to see how they were doing after discharge. As a thank you for the care they had received at Kijabe, the family of triplets gave us a chicken – Bibi (which means girlfriend or wife – named after it’s home town of Ndabibi). It is humbling to receive a gift  from a family who has so little, and wonderful to see the little ones growing healthy and strong.  
2. Belle had malaria last week. . .fever, headaches, fast heart rate. Mardi made a house call. Jennifer answered my questions by text, and she got better quickly with the right drugs. Coartem is an amazing medicine, and I am grateful for wise friends that comforted me when I had to be the mom, not the doctor.
3. Kenya is in the middle of a terrible drought. . .it increases the number of kids with malnutrition, has dried out river beds, and causes shortages of all sorts of things, including butter which is nowhere to be found.  Friends just returned from Mombasa with several small packages.
4. This time of year, the skies are clearer and less dusty than others.  Beautiful views of the volcanoes.  
5. Arianna a mole biopsied this week in Kijabe by our visiting pathology doctors. The entire cost -$2.70.  Definitely didn’t break the bank.
6. Power – each year there are more and more lights in the valley and on nearby Kenton Hill.  Our power at home only drops an hour or two per week.  At the hospital it is 99.9% reliable.  High voltage lines carry power from the sub-station near the geothermal plant to us.  
7. After months on the road, we had a break on the coast for a week to recover and relax in preparation for the return to Kijabe.  GoPro video of Madeline and David jumping from a handmade fishing boat in the Indian ocean.
8. I started reading The Climb, tour-de-france winner Christopher Froome’s autobiography.  He grew up in Kenya, and the first chapter is about riding through the Ngong Hills with David Kinja, a Kenyan Olympian rider I have met several times.  We had a Serge retreat over Easter weekend and did some riding in those hills – virtually unclimbable unless you plan to grow up and win the tour.
9. Easter morning we planned to have a sunrise service, but it was bitter cold, foggy, and windy.  We did a short service, then regrouped after coffee indoors to continue.  A good metaphor for hope, patience, and faith – the burning African sun was somewhere behind all the fog and was rising even though we were unable to see it clearly.  
10. Our room is finally arranged – several coats of paint, a new desk and new closet made with scrap wood from past projects and barn-door hangers from amazon that we brought with us. Arianna recovered the chairs and we put up gifts and canvases.  So, so nice to have better storage and a good work space.  Bonus – this picture was taken with a real tilt-shift thanks to my brother – perfect for photographing rooms like this!