late entry for 8/17

(nb: the following was composed yesterday before I actually had unlimited internet access...)

I'm here at Tenwek Hospital, where I arrived safely last night. If you're scratching your head right now and thinking, "Wait... Carolyn's in Kenya already?" don't worry. I feel the same way - time flies.

My trip was pretty uneventful, although I think I really did one of the worst jobs of trying to time out my naps that I've ever done and consequently found myself pretty wide awake at 2:00 Saturday morning. Conveniently, Chuck Bemm (the pediatrician at Tenwek) had to bring their youngest daughter, Hannah, into Nairobi on Saturday morning for a doctor's appointment, so I was able to get a ride back to Tenwek with them yesterday afternoon. I spent the morning drinking Dormans coffee and finally finishing off Blue Like Jazz, which I've been meaning to read for over a year now. The drive back through the Rift Valley was pleasant, if somewhat treacherously dusty on occasion, and it was a good chance to catch up on what's been going on at the hospital with Chuck. Among a few surprises when I arrived at Tenwek was the fact that I'd been assigned a pager! I think some of the long-term doctors are less excited about the advent of the paging system, but to me it means not being so tightly leashed to the phone on call nights, which is exciting. I had dinner with the Whites and managed to stay up until about 10 before hitting the hay. I think I got the best sleep last night that I've had in at least a few weeks, which - for the second night in a dramatically different time zone - is a pretty sad commentary on my recent sleep patterns. But it felt nice. :)

Church was this morning, and it was great to see many of my friends from last time again. I found it a bit ominous, though, when Carol Spears (one of the surgeons) greeted me with a huge hug and said,"Welcome back! I'm so sorry... we're going to just about kill you while you're here!" So after lunch, I made my way up to the hospital to take a look at the attending call schedule, but really, it's not so bad. I'm going to be on the peds wards for the four weeks, and I'm only on call twice this week, including tomorrow, before being on both days next weekend. (That said, it doesn't mean that I won't appreciate prayers for strength!) And in spite of the fact that the peds ward looks pretty crammed, Russ White assures me that more than thirty of the patients are primarily surgical... as I walked by, I saw a rather unfortunate child who appeared to have both legs in vertical traction! Poor thing. I popped my head into nursery, too, which has acquired several gorgeous new warmer beds since February, one of which was occupied by a two-day-old baby with gastroschisis, which is not an easy thing to deal with here. I know that all the staff - particularly the med/peds people - are feeling stretched right now, so definitely pray for endurance.