Happy Birthday Rachael!

Some kids in Malava wanted to say Happy Birthday! I hope you have a great day! Remember when you turned twenty-one and got a cake made out of candy and we played with the pinata in the backyard! Miss you tons buddy

Well other than the fact that Rachael Valley becomes a year older, theres not much for me to report. Life has been pretty normal around here recently. I did get my final birthday package last week, filled with great new reading and listening material. Big thanks to everyone who sent something for my birthday!

Last Friday I made my second driving trip to Eldoret, skipping the epilespy clinic to take one of our clients-Luka- to see a pediatric cardiology at the teaching and referral hospital. It was an incredibly long day since I first had to get him from the hospital in Kakamega where he was admitted, drive the two and a half hours to Eldoret and then drive him back. But it was really important b/c he's suffering from failure to thrive and the docs at Malava and Kakamega just can't figure out why. So I took him to get an echo and see the cardiologist. I have to say that the Moi Teaching and referral Hospital was clean and efficient. In an hour we got in, paid, had the echo and talked to the pediatrician. There was nothing wrong with his heart, which I guess is good and bad. Good b/c fixing heart problems can be VERY expensive and this is a very poor family. But on the other hand, we still don't know whats going on with his malnutrition.

The weekends was relatively uneventful. Went to Kakamega on Saturday and got some new movies. Sunday I made brunch at the boys house (chili...yum) and watched the Exorcist whie it stormed outside. This week at work has been nothing out of the ordinary and today was slow, so tom and I sat in the office and studied Swahili. Next weekend is a four day holiday weekend and I think we're going to go to Mt. Elgon for the weekend...so there should be some good pictures of wild elephants. This weekend we might take a hike up to the ridge that runs along all of the western province. Its part of the Nandi escarpment which runs along all the way up from Kisumu.

Hope everyone at home has a wonderful memorial day weekend and the beginning of summer!

Happy Mother's Day

Happy (belated- sorry I'm a bad daughter) birthday and Mother's Day Mom! I hope you're been having a wonderful and pampered weekend! Happy Mother's Day to all the other wonderful women in my life who've been keeping up with my stories!

This week has finally felt like life is back on track. I feel like I've finally gotten back into my groove. that said, there's not much to report.
Last Sunday we went for a hike in the Kakamega rainforest with the other two CMMB volunteers in Kenya- Cristy and Lauren. They live in Karungu which is on Lake Victoria, near the border with Tanzania. They live two hours from the closest dirt road and their town has no electricity or running water. Needless to say, our little place in Kenya felt like a wonderful slice of civilization. We had a chance to hike up to an overlook that the sister had told me about with incredible views of the countryside and the Nandi Escarpment- check out the pics on my Picasa page.
Work this week was like any other with a little bit of play therapy mixed in with admin tasks and reading the news paper. Friday the center had a training on epilepsy that I missed to go with Judi to the Provintial Hospital in Kakamega. One of our clients- Luka- is failing to thrive and the docs in Malava are stumped. He saw the peds specialist at the hospital in Kakamega and told us that malnutrition is his biggest problem- which we already knew b/c the family is very poor- but that he also needed to have his heart checked out. He needs an echo from a hospital in Eldoret so for now he's admitted in Kakamega and I'll take him for an echo next week. I got Mariah Carey and Bob Marley tapes from a store in Kakamega for the long drive there and back. It looks like I'll be driving when ever Judi needs me to so if anyone wants to send me their old cassette tapes from home- that would be great. Remember, small padded envelops only take about ten days to get here!
Otherwise, life has been pretty normal. A large group of children have taken to playing at Michael and Tom's house in the afternoons so I got to play with them for a little while yesterday and today. They're such good kids, Michael and Tom are really lucky to have their company.

Thats all for this week.

For anyone who is interested, I finally posted some pictures from our coast vacation. Check them out on my Picasa page...the link is on the right side of this page!