Sorry to have missed a day or so blogging. I came down with a nasty cold and was out of commission for a day or so. There are lots of germs floating around here especially at RVA. Currently there are 70 kids who are in the infirmary which means that they are running temperatures. Some have been sick for over a week with a respiratory virus. Because it is a boarding school it is very hard to isolate people. It must be difficult for these children to be away from their parents and to be ill. Likewise I would imagine that the parents are very concerned and sad about the separation. We all want our “Mom” when we are ill! Please keep this situation in your prayers. On a joyful note, the student who was in the ICU with malaria woke up this morning after being in a coma for 4 days! Everyone is very relieved and thankful!
On Monday I gathered a van load of ladies (short termers) for a field trip to a tea plantation which was about 40 minutes from here. We had such a “lovely” time! Our host was the owner, Fiona, whose ancestors arrived here from England over 100 years ago. So I guess you could say that she is Kenyan now. She explained how tea is grown, harvested, dried, graded, and finally shipped out of Mombasa, Kenya’s large port on the Indian Ocean. Her charming home was built by her grandfather in the 30’s and is surrounded by a beautiful English garden. They have preserved an indigenous forest on the property and so we took a walk in it prior to having a delicious lunch from her garden in the dining room. Afterwards we made a quick trip to Nairobi to pick up a few items and then were home around 6PM. It was a fun “chick” day!
This morning I went to my last hospital chapel and sat next to Mercy, the pediatric chaplain. She really lives up to her name and does such good work here. Mercy is probably 60 years old, but she exudes energy and love and is on the wards daily bringing the good news and joy into lives that are going through great challenges. She is a saint.
Tonight we are having a potluck with the other residents of our “apartment” building. We come from Canada, Switzerland, Cameroon, Michigan, North Carolina, Kenya and Utah! Meeting notpeople was all over the world is another joy of this experience! Talk about meeting people, Dad had a funny experience yesterday. He came into the hall in maternity and was surrounded by a group of white young people, one wearing a Calvin College t-shirt! The story is that this group has spent interim studying in Kenya and was on their way to Nairobi to return to the states. They had planned to do some college recruiting at RVA but due to the illness they were not allowed to go there. While some of them toured the hospital Dad went for chai with the others in the hospital restaurant. He really enjoyed meeting them!
Well I must run up to RVA and read with the fifth graders. I hope that I don’t give them my cold or they give me one of their bugs.
Love to all,
Mom
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