Settling into life at Tenwek Hospital
“Behold, how good and pleasant it is when brothers dwell in unity!”
Psalm 133:1
How sweet it has been to meet together with the community of missionaries. They work closely together and have formed a sophisticated way to meet the basic needs of living in this region. But more importantly it is a close group that we are growing to love. We commune together at church on Sundays, family worship Sunday nights, prayer time Monday nights and share meals.
Our days are heating up as we continue to learn the language, work in ENT clinic, and get involved in the community work. We ran in a 10 K fund raiser from Tenwek Hospital to the local town of Bomet. I am pictured with the #5 winner who ran in 23 minutes. I was just glad to complete the run which was more demanding with the many hills and 7000 foot altitude.
Our language training is progressing. We have a tutor for 2.5-3 hrs 3 days a week and are to study 2-3 hrs a day (if not distracted). We can not carry on much of a conversation yet but are definitely able to understand some conversations. Flash cards are very helpful as we work to memorize the loads of vocabulary. We are hopeful God will do a miracle here!
Jimmy is settling into his position as Field Director. He will be a liaison between the Tenwek Hospital Field and US donors/ Friends of Tenwek. Water filter distribution has been to Tenwek staff who have been using the river as their water source. Students at Bomet University have requested access to clean water which is a potential upcoming project.
I have been working in the hospital at least 2 days a week and this feels like familiar ground for me. There are already more stories than I have room to describe. We operated on a 2.5 month old infant with a large retropharyngeal abscess (infection in the back of the throat) that was obstructing her breathing passage. This is a rare case in such a young child and was probably caused by trauma at birth. She has been quite sick but is now recovering well. The clinic is busy as the word is out on my arrival. There has been a parade of advanced cancers. On average I diagnose head and neck cancer on at least 3 patients every clinic day I will never cease to be amazed at the young age of these cancer victims. We will be operating on a 44 year old female with a tongue cancer next week. I will have plenty of help with general surgery and plastic surgery during the resection and reconstruction.
On Friday we treated a large lymphangioma of the neck. This is caused by a malformation of lymphatic vessels and has a propensity to recur if not completely resected. We elected to do needle drainage of the cyst using ultrasound followed by a sclerosing agent to scar down the cyst. He responded well and will be returning next month for a second treatment.
This little boy’s story needs to be told. He is a 3 year old orphan with cerebral palsy. He was abandoned at birth and lives in The Precious Children’s Home in Northern Kenya. This social worker traveled 6 hours on a motor bike with him strapped to her back in order to have him seen. There are 130 children in this home and 80% of them are disabled just like him. There are 30 “moms” that care for the 130 children. He has poor muscle tone with difficulty swallowing and some aspiration events. Unfortunately, Adenotonsillectomy will not be helpful for him. We covered them in prayer and their story lives in my heart. This is why we are here, to treat “the least of these”
Thank you for your prayers and support. We could not do it without you.
Jimmy and Chase
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