Moments From Our Month: July
Every month we try to send out an update on what’s going on with us (link to sign up at the bottom of this page if you want to join). There’s never enough room in an email to say share all details or all the photos I’d like - so consider this the expanded version of what our current days here in Kenya have looked like this month!
Our main goal is focusing on learning Swahili right now, although Jack has worked a couple of weekends and will take consults at the hospital, and I’m beginning to work on marketing as I have time. This month I quickly put together this thank you video for one of the projects here that recently wrapped up. It isn’t much, but it will give you a taste of some of what my work here will look like - and also the amazing renovation project made possible through donors!
More on Language Learning
As I said in our newsletter, Jack and I each get two hours of language learning with our helper, Beatrice, each day and spend more time studying on our own. They say you need about 500-1,000 words to have an everyday conversation in a new language. According to my flashcards, I’ve got about 300-ish thus far. So right now I’m speaking like a two year old in Swahili. 😂
But as I said, Kenyans are very encouraging, despite the fact I am butchering their language. They are more than happy to see you trying and encourage you with a big smile on their face. And the nice thing is, many people still speak English, so I always have an out if I’m truly just lost in what they are saying.
While I feel you can find most things in Kenya, one thing I immediately wished I brought when we arrived was a rugged, durable double stroller. Long story short, there was a family who recently came to serve here for two weeks (with three kids - which means free stroller can be checked on airline) and we were able to coordinate them very graciously bringing us a stroller! It felt was a divine gift that just 15 minutes from their house in Ft. Myers I found the exact stroller I wanted, in excellent condition, at 80% off the original price on FB marketplace.
Walking to our new friend Felix’s house.
Now that we have our awesome new stroller, it’s so much easier to get out into the community (about a 10 minute walk up the hill towards the hospital) and greet people, praticing the little bit of Swahili we know. Not only does this really motivate us to continue learning, but also helps solidfy what we know, and spark questions of what we want to continue to learn. We are quite the scene here though, with heads constantly turning as we pass. Our Kenyan friends tell us they’ve never seen a double stroller before. I tell people it’s a “piki piki ya watoto”, or a motorbike for kids.
One nice thing about Swahili is that you write the words *exactly* like they sound, which means it’s very easy to read and write. On the other hard, a challenging part of Swahili is that the verbs and adjectives are complicated. Here are several versions of the same verb, “Kuuza”, which means “to sell”
Niliuuza - I sold
Nitauuza - I will sell
Nitakuuzia - I will sell to you
Nilikuuzia - I sold to you
As you can see in a small way, one verb can look MANY different ways, and one word can mean what would be an entire sentence in English. And while somewhat simple to decode on paper, it can be tricky to hear it when someone is speaking quickly and to understand, as even two letters can change the entire meaning.
BUT! We look back on where we were when we began and we see lots of progress, so we continue to take heart and press forward with confidence!
Also - one last note on language. There isn’t really an “ay” sound in Swahili, as in “Regan” here. So when I introduce myself, if I say my name is “Regan” they just look at me, confused. But if I say my name is “Ree-gan”, they smile and understand. (And apparently - Reegan is a boy’s name here, so there’s that too).
Sage’s Cat Scratch
Unfortunately, we had to take an emergency trip to Nairobi this month. Long story short - there are a couple of cats that hang out around here. This one was the baby daddy to some of the recent kittens. I am always very careful with Sage around animals as she’s obviously a toddler, but it’s an understatement to say that Sage loves animals. Nevertheless, as I was talking to some ladies, Sage had found the cat, and as I turned, in an instant I saw her step on it’s tail and the cat swipe at her arm and run away.
[Side note: I called my mom to tell her about what happened. She reminded me how when I was about Sage’s age, I ate a roach poison pill while we were camping. That made me feel a little better.]
Since this cat isn’t a pet, it’s wild, so you can’t be sure it doesn’t have rabies (and there have been several rabid dogs here in the past). And while you can’t really get rabies from a scratch, I wasn’t willing to say with total certainty she wasn’t bit. Which means - there was a very small chance she could have been exposed to rabies, which is fatal.
Sage had just had her first rabies vaccine two days before this incident (administered by our neighbor in our living room, ha), but you need two doses to be protected. So while we know it’s unlikely she was exposed, you can’t sleep at night knowing there’s a chance your child could have a deadly disease. Sage needed a rabies immunoglobulin shot, which is only found in Nairobi, an 8 hour drive away. It also needs to be given within 24 hours of exposure to be most effective. I am always grateful that Jack is a pediatrician, but times like these, I am extra grateful.
This all happened at 5pm. After putting the kids down for bed, we booked a driver and flights and we were out the door by 4:30am. We took the 1.5 hour drive to Eldoret, took a 7:30am flight, and were in a private hospital in Nairobi by 9:30am where Sage got the rabies immunoglobulin and vaccine shots she needed. We stayed in a hotel and we flew home the next morning at 6am. Micah was excited to be on a plane again but confused the whole time - after so much transition over the past year, he thought our hotel was his new home, ha.
All in all, it was a pretty stressful 36 hours. We are so grateful to have access to the medicine we needed relatively quickly.
On the way to Nairobi
24 hours later on the way from Nairobi - can you tell how exhausted we were?!
Micah was so tired he was using the diapers as a pillow to sleep in the cart as we picked up a few items in Nairobi, ha!
A zoom in of Sage at her finest 😂
The whole incident certainly puts our life here in perspective in several ways. A cat scratch wouldn’t have been reason for much concern back home as most cats are domesticated, or at worst it would have been a 10-minute drive to the ER. Here, it’s an entire plane flight away.
Nevertheless, on the other side of the spectrum, there are plenty of places in Africa who don’t even have this antibody shot in country. We feel grateful to have the modern city of Nairobi a plane flight away, not to mention the means to get there, which is something many Kenyan families do not have here.
Since we’ve been home, Sage still chases that cat around wanting to pet it.
I don’t think I’ll let her pet a cat again until she’s 18 years old.
A few more miscellaneous moments from our lives this month!
One Sunday, buses started parking in front of our house, with people pouring into town. People were coming for the opening of the new megachurch up the road. I took Micah and we walked up to join the festivities. The church was literally too packed with people to get into the auditorium, so we sat outside where they had it streaming from TV’s. Despite the 15 second delay, I was impressed!
Apparently, the new church building is quite a big deal - so much so that the former president’s son, who is now a Senator, was at the event. He came by helicopter. 😳 If you know Micah you know he LOVES all things that fly, so he was thrilled that the pilot let him sit in the cockpit! We don’t hear planes ever in this rural area, so it was quite a treat to see this land here.
Jack helped “dissect” our neighbors chicken recently and brought it home to cook.
It happened to be our 7 year anniversary that weekend - what a sweet gift. 😂 But I’m not going to lie, it was a little hard to eat this knowing it was walking around earlier that morning.
We walked to our friend Felix’s house this past weekend. Kenyans consider it a huge honor to have visitors at their home so we were happy to come meet his wife and two young children. He works as a plumber at the hospital and is such a kind and gentle soul. His wife will be joining our ladies entrepreneur group (more on that later!).
Our house helper and Swahili teacher, Beatrice, and I were on a walk one day. On a whim, we swung by her old school where she was a pre-school teacher. It was fun for her to see old friends, and for me to see what a local school is like. The kids were happy to greet me, and I was happy to chat a bit in Swahili. I love these unexpected, joyful adventurous throughout the day. And I also love the flexibility of Kenyan life - no need for plans, you just show up and visit whenever!
I hope that helps you see the patterns and also the variety that make up our days here so far. We feel more and more settled every day, and more confident in our Swahili each day. Thank you for your prayers and support!