Our January Travels

If any of you are still out there...we are here too! Its been a bit of a whirlwind...we've been like snails with our "house" on our back moving from place to place. Foxes have holes, birds have nests, we have our car (and generous friends and family that have provided homes for us).

A few of the highlights from January:

Visiting our friend Caiti in Boston- before they got all the snow! :)

Ice Skating 

Touring the TAZA Chocolate Factory

Ether Dome

The Ether Dome was on the top of my list of things to see in Boston. One of my attendings in residency would mention this place frequently- its where the first public demonstration of general anesthesia occurred.  Operating is so much better with good anesthesia!

Galmi reunion...complete with a game of Settlers.

We also enjoyed visiting with good friends from college and medical school...and meeting some new members of the their families!

Have we really known each other for almost 15 years?!

 

So fun catching up in person!

And Luke fulfilled on of his New Years Resolutions from January...."Buy a dozen Krispy Kreme donuts and see how many I can eat."   

We helped him...but they didn't last more than a day or two.

We've come very close to completing our "fun" list of things to do while back in America. Now, if only we could figure out some more things on the "important" list. Like, where are we going to live?

Last leg

The time has come to leave this continent and return to the continent of our origin. Our time in Burundi has gone by very quickly and has been a great time of transition and also gaining new perspectives on medical work in the developing world. We have a lot to think about and process. But, right now we are SUPER excited about our return. I have a list of about 50 things I'm looking forward to in America: Friend and family (of course), a COLD Christmas, Red Robin, blue cheese, Trader Joes, movies in the theater, fast internet...and the list goes on.

On the other hand, we are returning to America after spending two years in a totally different culture that has come to feel almost normal. It feels like we are about to jump off a cliff into the unknown sea of reverse culture shock. I'm quite interested and a little frightened to see what that's like. We'll let you know. 

is this another planet?

After a semi-eventful trans-African journey (including an unexpected night in a very nice Ethiopian hotel), we have arrived in Burundi. And, well, we aren't in the desert anymore.

they messed up our flights...but at least this is a pretty sweet hotel 

free dinner...with fish

Burundi...definitely not the desert! It was green like this for the whole 2.5 hour drive 

and then we found this in our refrigerator!!! biggest avocado we've ever seen  (turns out there are huge avocado trees here...with avocados just laying around on the ground). All you can eat avocados, WHAT?!?!

and it wasn't even rotten inside

Guacamole and homemade tortillas (nope, didn't add meat or anything else)

Took a short hike to the top of the hill...its so GREEN!

In many ways, our experience here has been the opposite of the last two years. It rains every day. We are cold and wear our jackets and socks all the time, even inside, and sleep with four blankets on our bed. Our refrigerator is so full of fresh produce we don't know what to do with it all. Tab hasn't had that much work to do at the hospital- I guess the word got out that there was no surgeon here...so this might change soon.

Luke is still trying to fix everything broken.

Some other things are exactly the same, bad power, lack of resources, language struggles, and the ever present cultural misunderstandings. 

We are still looking forward to flying home soon. In two days we will have been gone for two years. It doesn't seem that long. Oh well, all things must come to an end.

goodbye

Leaving. I knew it would be a sad day. I had no idea it would be this sad. The last two years were the most challenging, difficult, and intense years of my life. To leave the ones who were there through all the hard, exciting, and heart-breaking experiences...words cannot describe the loss we feel.

Our month of goodbyes in pictures. We said goodbye to those who we became good friends during our first few months of language learning.  We give these folks credit for keeping us alive when we first arrived.

We said goodbye to the operating room and surgical nursing staff at a lovely farewell dinner.

We said goodbye to M, who is a lovely friend and helped keep us fed by cooking beans and rice, tortillas, and bread for us.

We enjoyed an early Thanksgiving dinner with the entire compound.

we said goodbye in church (Luke spoke in Hausa...which was kindly translated into "better" Hausa that everyone could understand). :)

we (thankfully) said goodbye to Luke's beard :)

The schoolkids had a farewell party for us and gave us lovely custom tie-dyed pillowcases

we will miss you Buddy :(

Finally, a bunch of people (including most of the operating room staff) came to the airstrip to say final goodbyes. Many tears were shed.

As you can see, there were so many goodbyes to so many people we have come to know and love.
And, this isn't everyone. There were many more good byes with many more people, but you get the idea.  It has been one of the saddest months of our lives. But we are also excited to get home and see our families and see our friends that have been praying for us and supporting us these two long years and to tell them of the great adventures that we have had. Mixed emotions, Argh!!!!

we'll miss you, too, Martin

To all the peeps!

We are approaching the quarter pole of our African journey. Our break in Europe for a couple weeks gave us the chance to step back and think about all that we have accomplished over the past year and a half. Tab did so many surgical procedures she practically completed a second residency. I learned so much about computer networks and bio-medical equipment that I feel like I could actually be of value to a medical center somewhere.

We also started to realize that our time here is winding down. I decided to make a list of goals that I want to complete before I leave. I know this sounds like a procrastinator panicking but, this was something that I couldn't do before.  It took over a year to begin to understand where we are and where we would like to see this place go. With a lot of work and little luck we might get an electronic medical records system up and running here before I leave. It will be huge task but also a huge step forward for this hospital. Tab is just hoping to make it through the next several months of every other night call. We'll see how it goes and keep you informed.

And finally, I would like to give a HUGE shout out to all the people that have sent us care packages over the past year and a half. The little tastes and sights of America have been an incredible encouragement and fun respite from the realities of being so far from home. But now, since our time in Africa is coming to an end (for now) we must ask that you cease and desist. Or, if you are going to send them, send them now! :) Well, you don't have to, we just might not be here to enjoy it. But there will probably be people here that would enjoy it for us...

This picture pretty much says it all. I couldn't eat all of these. But wait...I almost have!  I still have some. Fourth of July peeps woot woot.

Papa

On our last day in Rome, we went to visit the Vatican and St. Peter's Basilica. We spent several hours touring the infinite Vatican museum, which was full of amazing stuff...more that we ever thought possible. Then, we traipsed over to St Peter's. I don't know what I wasn't expecting but the church was just so MASSIVE. As we wandered up to the front of the the basilica we were a bit disappointed that it was closed for mass. Out of curiosity, we joined a small group of people watching the procession leave mass.

the procession leaving mass

And then...everyone started pushing and shoving us and we soon saw why:

Pope Francis

There was the Pope! We didn't get a good picture because everyone was pushing and shoving and exclaiming "Papa, Papa!" and he walked by and gave his papal blessing.  Nevertheless, it was pretty cool to be only a few feet away from such a famous personality. Not a bad last day in Rome.

these are a few of our favorite things...

Vacation in Italy was great. The Colosseum was amazing, the Mediterranean sea was beautiful, and the leaning tower of Pisa was a sight to see. But we were just excited about some things slightly more amazing. Have you ever thought about what a miracle cheese is?

Hamburgers! Yep, we were those American's on vacation in Italy who ordered hamburgers...but they weren't for our kids. They were for us and they were amazing! 

Fresh strawberry and hazelnut gelato (and raspberry, lemon, berry....). 

Laundry fresh out of the dryer...so soft, warm, and fresh-smelling! We tried to find another laundromat in Greece to repeat the experience. Unfortunately we couldn't find one...which then led to the Luke accidentally bleaching some clothes when he washed them in the hotel bathtub because he can't read Greek at all. Whoops. (can you spot us inside the washing machine?)

Look at all that blue cheese! Blue cheese on a buffet! And it tasted just like blue cheese in America. 

All in all it was an awesome trip with awesome food. We'll put up some pictures of some of the places we went later. It is all down-hill from here because the food was the best part.

where to begin...

Um, its been almost a month since I wrote a blog. And now there is so much that I could write about that I don't know where to begin. So I haven't. To get up and running again I'm just going to start small. :)

there...

After spending three weeks away in Greece and Italy, We've now been back for a week. Lets just say it has been, once again, quite the adjustment. It is quite shocking, really, one week to be walking down a Roman street lined with Ferrari and Louis Vuitton stores and the next week to be on a street lined with mud-brick huts filled with people just hoping for enough rain this year so they can feed their families.

...and here

Its impossible to describe the emotions, thoughts, and feelings that come with the jump between worlds. It feels like we have returned from another planet, far, far away. But, we are slowly adjusting back to life in the desert. More vacation stories to come. :)

would you rather....

There are three ways to travel from our remote hospital to the capital city: plane, bus, or car. We don't have a car, but it is our preferred method of transportation if we can catch a ride with someone else. The plane is convenient, fun, fast, and reliable...but it is expensive (and not always available). The buses are cheap and widely available...but you are taking your chances on reliability and comfort. So, we often choose the bus.

Of our last four bus trips, three of them have involved vomiting:
  

First, a lady vomited in the aisle. Someone put some sand over it. It still slid up and down the aisle the whole rest of the trip..

Second, I (Tab) vomited on Luke's lap. I was feeling sick that morning so I had a ziploc bag with me just in case. At least the vomiting was pretty controlled. Luke still likes to tell everyone that I vomited in his lap.

Third, a Fulani boy vomited sour milk on us. Within the first 20 minutes of an 9 hour bus ride. Luke almost lost his cookies, too, just from the smell. He hates rotten milk (whole other story).

The fourth bus trip involved minor neck injury from banging my head on the ceiling when we hit a huge speed bump (we were in back row of the bus). That was also the bus ride where we waited three hours in 110 degree weather for the bus to pick us up.

Yesterday the "vomit on the bus streak" ended, only to be replaced by something worse: total bus breakdown.

The ride was going well. We had arrived at the bus station at 7:30am as instructed and by 8:30 the bus had arrived and we were on our way. We didn't have a problem finding seats, but by 10:00 the bus was starting to get very warm. I thought, "I wish we were on an air-conditioned bus, because this is going to be very uncomfortable when it is 120F this afternoon."  Then, the air-conditioner came on! I thought, "This isn't so bad" and we settled in for a nice ride. Two hours later we smelled burning rubber. Shortly thereafter, the bus driver turned off the air conditioner and the bus slowed way down...and we pulled over to the side of the road next to a big tree. Uh oh.

by the side of the road

People slowly filed off the bus. The driver set up his cot under the tree. No announcement was made. We all knew something was broken, and out in the middle of the desert it can take a long time to fix anything. So we waited. A bush taxi pulled over and a few men grabbed their bags and ran to catch a ride.

at least there was some shade

people from the nearby village brought mangoes and water to sell 

Eventually, a couple of buses from other companies stopped and the fastest, most prepared 2-3 people ran to catch a ride in their available seats. One hour passed. Then two. Then three. We were still at least three hours from our destination and were starting to wonder how we would get there. We made a back-up plan to have someone from the capital come and get us if it took much longer. Then, after almost four hours of waiting, another bus from our bus company stopped. Everyone grabbed their bags and rushed to the bus door.

boarding the bus (didn't get a good picture of the crowd, but it didn't always look this calm)

We hurried but we were almost the last in line to get on the new bus. But, we eventually got a seat that we shared thanks to the insistence of a lovely Christian pregnant lady that ended up sitting on a cooler in the aisle. The bus had seats for 48 people but now there were an additional 20 people on it. To say the bus was overcrowded would be an understatement.There were eight people between the bus driver and the door and another 8 standing in the aisle.

the front of the bus (see Luke and the right) with 8 people crammed between the driver and the door!

Before long,  the bus started to overheat and the bus driver turned of the air conditioner. Only, this time we didn't mind the heat so much. We were just happy to have a ride!

It is amazing to me how calm and relaxed the bus passengers remained throughout the whole ordeal. There was barely any complaining and the only pushing/yelling happened at the very end when everyone was trying to get on the new bus (a few people still didn't make it).

So, would you rather ride a moving bus with some vomit or have your bus break down for hours in 110 degree weather? I'll take the vomit, thank-you. 

real vacation

Our time in Kenya was amazing...it was the first real vacation I've had in years in that it lasted longer than 9 days and I wasn't studying for boards or preparing to move to Africa! We did have some work/training...but even that was a chance to catch up with friends and be encouraged! Much of our time was spent celebrating and enjoying life, food, and creation:

I celebrated my birthday along with some friend's birthdays.

Happy Birthday to us! 

A beautiful, delicious, hand-decorated cake (Thanks, K!)

We celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary (on our real anniversary I was on call doing C-sections).

And, on our way home, we bought ourselves an early Christmas present:

A small chest freezer!!!

Its amazing. I can freeze vegetables and we won't have to go months without eating anything green. I can cook and freeze meals on the weekends so during the week we just have to pull something out of the freezer and bam- dinner! The possibilities are endless. :)

we're back

After almost four weeks away we have returned to our African home. We've had several interesting adventures since our safari....but for now I will leave you with some random photos from our last week in Kenya.

Since there are no Halloween or Thanksgiving celebrations, its already Christmas season in Kenya!

We watched the solar eclipse in Kenya...the small half-moon shaped light is a projection of the eclipse.

Cappuccinos and strawberry milkshakes...amazing!

love this

So, while in Kenya I was tempted to buy an American magazine to peruse ...but $19 was the cheapest I saw. Yikes! Needless to say, I did not make that purchase.