news from katie!

hello everyone!
I have been able to keep my quite busy even though I came to Tenwek with basically no plans, which of course is no problem for me, and I actually like a lot being busy. So I will give you the short run down of my week here. As mom told you on Sunday, I got to see a baby born! It was my first time ever seeing a baby born and so I really had no idea what to expect because our friend Carrie who was delivering it just saw me on the porch and asked me if I wanted to come (and of course I did) right as she was walking up to the hospital. And thus I had no time to prepare my thoughts or have mom tell me all about births. But it still was really amazing. I was a little taken aback by the mess ie bodily fluids but it was really amazing to watch this coming into life, which I now know is truly a miracle. The now new mother had just delivered her 11th baby who I now know is a health baby boy (as I did not see him in the nursery of sick babies today).
Tuesday, I went to watch endoscopy which made me a little uncomfortable at the beginning of the day as the patients are not put under any anesthesia as this long scope is put down their throat and goes all the way down through some of the intestines, and thus they would sometimes gag and make uncomfortable noises. I was also a little scared because our first patient was very confused and to me looked so scarily "like death." But as the day went on it got to be very interesting, two patients were doing a research study, and the last patient (my favorite sight) had a huge tumor (of cancer) in her esophagus and I got to watch the doctor put a stent in! It was really sweet to see the before (almost fully blocked by the cancer) and after (opened from the stent) views of this woman's esophagus. It is really great to instantly see the product of your work as well, I feel. Mom must be very strong because she rarely instantaneously sees the effects of her work on patients as she more often has to wait for medicines to do their job.
Both Yesterday and today, I have been doing just some projects for the missionaries here. Today, I also went to community health today so see if I could go out into the community on one of their clinics next week, and ended up just staying and helping count some pills. In the afternoon, I went to the nursery where sick babies go. Normal babies just don't go to the nursery, and stay with their moms in the maternity ward. Some of the babies look better than the others, and we just have to pray they stay strong.
But thats about it, tomorrow I am going to follow a surgeon which I am really excited for! We truly are having a great trip, and are embracing the changes in culture to the lifestyles of the kenyans (our favorite is the daily chai break with delicious chai mmmmmm) from the go go go of american life. It really is vacation like because the kenyans are so type b and laid back.
Much love to everyone back at home!
Katie