Squish Banana

There is sweet little boy named Gabe on station.  I have Swahili lessons several times a week up at RVA outside the Titchie classrooms.  Towards the end of class, school lets out for lunch, and the little ones swoop down on Edward, begging for candy.  The only requirement is that they speak some Swahili – Tafadhali for please, or Asante for thank you.  But Gabe is so excited that he can’t seem to say Asante Sana, which is thank you very much.  Instead out comes Squish Banana, the next line of Rafiki’s song in the Lion King.  So for the remainder of this post, and all time, squish banana = thank you.

We really do want to say Squish Banana right now.  Christmas keeps coming, as boxes and cards still arrive every few days.  The girls are going to be spoiled rotten before spring comes and the supply of marshmallows runs out!!

Happy Fridge!!

As many people do, we have an advent calendar, but this year after counting the days until Christmas, we started counting backwards, the number of days until “Aunt” Suzie comes.  (We’ve named a few honorary aunts – Susan is a dear friend and definitely deserves the title!)  It is fitting that Susan will be our first guest in Africa, as she flew to visit us in Taiwan nearly 10 years ago now!  Thankfully it has been dry and hot this week – I think it will be safe to assume that she won’t be landing in typhoon rains this journey, and we pray that her trip will be smooth as peanut butter.

Our favorite peanut butter – “I’m smooth want my autograph?”

We’ve been wondering how my role would evolve here in Kijabe.  A wonderful person and good friend had been doing a huge amount of website/public-relations/fundraising work for the hospital over the past few years and was ready for a break.  A good deal of what needs doing fits within the skill-set we have from running the photography business.  Simple book-keeping once a month, e-mailing and saying thank you’s, updating Facebook and the website, and creating new marketing ideas.  It will be a ton of work, and hopefully I can pace myself, but I’m excited about the necessity of getting into the hospital and taking pictures on a regular basis, the necessity of meeting new doctors and staff, the necessity of digging out stories and finding new ways to share with the world just how amazing is the work that Kijabe hospital does.  I’m excited to have to talk things through with Arianna; learning medical terminology, attending meetings, and getting more involved in the healthcare side of life.

If you do want to keep up with what I’ve been doing for work, you can follow the hospital facebook page – https://www.facebook.com/AICKijabeHospital to see a lot of our work pictures and the incredible work that the team here in Kijabe is doing.

Along with the excitement about new beginnings comes the reality. . .I spent all day trying to get a pdf on the website and an email “campaign” ready to send out.  And though we have the fastest internet in town, I can’t get the pdf to load correctly, the email system won’t behave, and the website is just unruly today.  I feel just a little bit like poor Juma from my Swahili lesson:

But tired brain aside, I am still so squish banana that the girls are happy, that we have a fridge covered with the beautiful families of people who love us, that our Christmas tree is still up as we approach February.  I am squish banana that we survived stomach bugs and are back to ourselves again.  I’m squish banana for the wonderfully kind Kenyans we work, live with, and serve; who say thank you and worship even in the midst of the deepest grief.  I’m squish banana that Arianna is making strong, deep connections with her co-workers and that the interns really respect her and enjoy learning from her.  I’m squish banana that we are really beginning to feel at home here, and that two homes – in both worlds – is better than one.  We love you, miss you, and thank you always!

Peds department having a meeting in our yard!