Wraping up the Design

Well sorry it's been a few days, but it's been incredibly busy here! We worked late into the night last night and all day today right up to our in-country presentation for some of the doctors and hospital administrators. The design won't be completed for several months, but we had a good presentation for everyone to see the basic floor plan, building location, demolition required. About 4 people shared the different sections that had been worked on. The staff was receptive but understandably hesitant because it will cost about $1.5 million to build the building and make the recommended upgrades to the power, water, and sewer systems. Most of this money will be raised back in the US.

My mom said she wanted me to keep saying what I was eating so here it goes for the last two days! Yesterday for lunch we had a chicken tomato soup. For dinner we went to the head missionary surgeon's house for dinner. We had beef and carrots and mashed potatoes. For lunch today we had more of the soup from yesterday and for dinner we had vegetables and rice. There are some wonderful pineapples and mangoes cut for us to eat. They are SO yummy!

The surgeon whose house we ate at has been at Tenwek for many years. He had an amazing story for us. When he first came to Tenwek for his residency, there was only one other surgeon who was a bit burned out. This doctor followed him around for 5 days and then the other surgeon left him to take a vacation. The doctor has framed 5 metal and painful looking arrows that he removed from people that night with a plack that says "One Night On Call at Tenwek Hospital!" Arrow injuries are frequent here!

After dinner tonight four of us went up to the maternity ward to see the babies. We were in the room with the really premature babies. It was so different than America. We just asked if we could hold them and washed our hands and wore an apron. They were so tiny. There are about 22 babies born every day here and only about half survive. It was amazing how small they were. I'll post pictures later.

We'll I'm exhaused and ready for bed! We're leaving Tenwek in the morning, so I may not be able to update until I get home on Tuesday. I'll be sure to post more pictures and give more details then!