Gotcha

Here is a short clip of Tim and Robyn's chameleon getting fed grasshoppers.
Not very good quality but the best we can do on the internet that we have....

Evidence of the unrest just outside Eldoret.

Walk to the orphanage. Reminds me of 'Sound of Music'- the cows even have bells.

Our water purification plant.

Mennonite guest house in Nairobi.

Homestead around Kapsowar.

Getting to Kapsowar- a taxi being pushed up the hill of mud.

Nairobi- doesn't do justice to the nightmare driving especially around the round abouts (traffic circles).

The orphanage is the structure in the distance.

Donkey cart in Eldoret.

Downtown Kapsowar.

Most of the planting is done on steep slopes- all the work is by hand.


Some locals wanted us to take a picture of them on one of our walks.

Just letting you know that we have arrived safely in Kapsowar.

Enjoyable flight to Nairobi, then spent the night at the Mennonite guest house and flew up to Eldoret early the next morning.
All went smoothly. We were met by the hospital ambulance (Toyota Landcruiser) who took us shopping for supplies- trying to do 2 months shopping in 1 hr is a little challenging!! He detoured past the tents where all the resettled people were staying- quite an eye opener.

We were then brought here to Kapsowar. Quite an interesting ride with the last hr being on mud and clay and fairly steep hills. We were sliding around more than once but the driver was excellent and we made it without us having to push. At one hill there was a tractor pulling up some vehicles- we were able to 'slide' down the hill as we were traveling in the opposite direction.
I can't see us getting out of here until we leave.
Everyone here is very friendly and have welcomed us warmly. We have a nice little 3 bedroom house with brown running water and surging electricity and a gas stove.

Drinking water is purified by leaving water in a clear plastic bottle in the sun for at least 4 hrs and then putting it through a ceramic filter to take out the 'brown' part.
So far so good and we remain healthy.

All the long term docs have left for periods of time- Steve Lee the medical director left early April for 6 month furlough, Bill Rhodes the surgeon left on Thurs for 6 weeks (we arrived Tues), Paul Larson left Fri to lecture in Somalia and will be gone about 10 days.
We still have a good complement of staff though- Joy arrived on Wed from the USA for 1 month and is an OBGYN, Sam is a Kenyan doctor here for 1 week and Philip arrived yesterday and is a Kenyan surgical resident here for 1 week.
There is the promise of more doctors coming so the future staffing wise looks fairly good, although things can change rapidly.

The hospital appears well run and the staff are very helpful. The most amazing thing here is that most of the staff and administration are Christian and speaking to the patients about Jesus and salvation is encouraged. I even came across a chart order from one of the clinical officers (advanced nurse that does admissions) "Referal to chaplain to discuss salvation". The chaplain seems very organized and even has a special referral form that he uses to refer the patient onto their nearest church.
So far the work has not been too overwhelming although is very different from what I was doing in Swaziland. I do not need to do obstetrics at this time as Joy is here, but I am still trying to refresh my surgical skills as Joy is leaving before we do. My C/S skills are very rusty, so it is great to have an Obstetrician to teach me.
Most of the obstetrics is done by the midwives and they only call if there are problems which generally means a C/S is needed.

Yesterday we went for a walk through town- a "strip mall" about 500m long with 'shops' both sides. Very exciting.
We are able to buy white bread and fruit in season (presently green oranges and occasional bananas). There are also potatoes and spinach and cabbage. There is lamb and beef although one wants to be there when the animal is killed as the 'butcher' shops do not have refrigeration. So we won't starve!
Also there are people coming and going fairly regularly so we should be able to supplement our supplies if we need to from Elderet.

We then walked down to a river and looped up and around. A walk of about 2 hours through the countryside. Very beautiful. We met lots of friendly locals and were even escorted by one for about 30mins- he was chatting to Lynne the whole time but I don't think she understood much!!

It is the planting season so they are all out hoeing the fields by hand. The land is very steep so must be quite challenging!
It is also the rainy season so every evening there is a heavy rainfall, but during the day so far there has been sunlight (which we need to sterilize our water).
The kids seem happy and play with the local kids in the compound. The Larson's have young kids Robyn's age but are gone for now.

Tim and Robyn have just caught a chameleon and are now in the garden looking for crickets to feed it!

This afternoon we went for a walk to a nearby orphanage (1 hr each way walking). Unfortunately most of the children were away at a church camp, but Lynne plans on returning soon to see if there is anything that she can do to help out.

We find the locals very welcoming and often had to stop on the way to shake their hands.

So I think that we will all enjoy our time here and will definitely be filling a need.

This is to Christina from Robyn- special request to show off her African colour.

We have said a sad goodbye to Swaziland and are now on the move again.

We have really appreciated catching up with our friends in Swaziland and all the opportunities that we had there-for the kids in particular they are sad to leave their new friends (and the horses and dogs).

Lynne's sister and family from Pretoria were able to spend a week with us over Easter which was amazing.

Just before we left we had the most amazing long week end in Mozambique- a country adjacent Swaziland and South Africa. Will try to upload some pictures- we went to a beach resort with Jono and Helen and family and Helen's sister and her family. To get there we had to drive about 8 hrs and then for the last 30km needed to lower the pressure in the tires to travel on the beach sand roads. Despite this we got stuck and had to push and pull each other- lots of excitement. There were 2 Land Rover defenders and we were in a Misubishi 4 X 4.

At the resort we were the only group there.

Right on the beach and beautiful palm thatch houses. Just off shore was a long reef that we went snorkeling every day and in the evening the local fishermen brought us lobster and shrimp….

Very enjoyable.

We then drove to Howick to say goodbye to Lynne's mother and sister and we are now at Hibberdene saying goodbye to David's parents.

Tomorrow we head up to Pretoria where we will need to pack our bags for our trip to Kenya.

So life is still full of adventure and excitement for us.

Everyone is doing well- school work takes a bit of a dip during these times of travel, but I am sure that the kids are benefiting in many other ways.

I am not sure what our internet access will be like in Kenya, but as soon as we are able we will update you on our progress there.

It appears that there is still some sporadic unrest happening, but it is felt that we will be safe going in. We will not be using ground transport but rather we will be flying from Nairobi to Eldoret and then the hospital transport will be picking us up there. We will be purchasing all our supplies from Eldoret and as we are only going to be there 2 months now this will not be an issue.

Here are our Mozambique photos:

Well loaded bus and pickup...

All out of order again!!
Here is a picture of the beach. You can see a small island and to the right of it (look at the white water) is the reef that we snorkeled on at low tide. Absolutely incredible!!
Another beach view.

Here is our accomadation.


Supper!!!

Mozambique has a Portugese backround.


Some locals sitting around town.

Sunrise at Casa de Mar.

Driving on the beach. The kids loved this.


"Daisy"- kitted out for a 9 month trip through Africa. This is Helen's sisters Landi.


Fisherman
Another spear fisherman.



Here are some left over pictures from the last post:
You know how much Lynne loves her Zebra's: here we are walking in Milwane game reserve (Swaziland) (unguided) with all the animals around us. Quite exciting.

The END.

Still havn't got this right. pictures come in the opposite order that I want.... One day I will get it right.

Lynne's hair salon.


Another interesting house.


Lynne asked this lady to pose outside her house.


Interesting house in Siteki.


Fruit at the local market.
Sad farewell to Mabuda Farm and Swaziland.


Here is Lynne riding- what a cowgirl!!!


Lynne's sisters family visiting and all going on an outride.