A Evening by Firelight

Tonight we enjoyed the warmth of a fire in our fireplace here on the edge of the Rift Valley protected from the winds and the rain outside. Not only was a small load of wood delivered, but we had one of the Africans arrange and start the fire for us tonight. (How come my attempts at fires never work quite so well???)
The house has been a little cool in the evenings and the warmth of the fire had all of us looking to curl up and fall asleep in its glow.

I am continually amazed at the resources available here at Kijabe. I had two cases today. The first, a young man from RVA came for a repair of his ACL ligament in his knee. I had some trepidation entering into this case but those thoughts quickly vanished as I saw the surgeon review the MRI films with his team, and saw virtually the same arthroscopic equipment that we use in Saskatoon – with even the same struggles to get some pieces to work. My second case was for a 96 year old Kenyan that presented with a bowel obstruction. Upon emerging from his anesthetic, he commented on how well he felt and thanked us all for his care. I am on for ICU again tonight and hope to avoid the craziness that we had on the weekend.

Tomorrow we will take a day and travel to Lake Naivasha and Crescent Island. It is about an hour away down in the Rift Valley and should be much warmer than we have been experiencing in Kijabe. Elisha, (ee lee sha) one of the local “tour guides” will escort us for the day. This will be our first sojourn into the “country” and we have each begun our malaria prophlaxis as we leave the protection of the altitude at Kijabe.

I tired to change some US currency at the hospital today, but was informed that they would not accept any “bills” older that 2000. I will have to go back and sort through my cash to try to find some acceptable money to exchange. Go figure.

Gary