After attempting to post this tour of our cozy abode for days, I think it might finally work! Ella is playing outside with our neighbor and Sam is taking his afternoon nap. A perfect time to write.
Welcome to Apartment #7. You can find us on the ground level right in the middle of our building. We are surrounded by families from all over the world who are working here at Tenwek. Two of the families have small kids, and there are more kids in the houses just down the grassy hill. It’s a perfect set up for Ella and for this mama. I can sit in the house or on the porch while Ella plays and Sam naps and still see Ella as she runs laps around our building with the kids. I also spend a lot of time sitting in the grass with a couple of the other parents in the morning. We talk about all kinds of things, including what it’s like to live here for years and years while raising kids. Obviously, that’s very helpful information for me. Someday I hope to do the same.
On to the tour. We start in our bedroom. Here you can see our double bed with a mosquito net. We tie it up first thing in the morning so the little bugs can’t get inside, and then we pull it down over us as we crawl into bed. It gets pleasantly cool at night, so the heavier blanket is just right.
Ella and Sam share the other bedroom, which is actually working very well. Sam sleeps in his little tent that we’ve bought just after he was born. We wanted him to get used to sleeping in it before getting to Kenya. It’s far, far easier to travel with than a Pack n Play. And we can completely close it to keep the bugs out.
Miss Ella wanted to show off her room. There are her “Acita” dresses that she loves to wear.
We are fortunate and have a very nice size bathroom. The pitcher next to the sink is for brushing our teeth since we can’t use the water in the faucet. It would likely make us sick.
I’m so happy to have a bathtub! Giving baths in it is a little funny, since the water comes out a little muddy. Dirt remains in the bottom of the tub when we drain the water. Ella goes in so dirty that even having dirty water is an improvement for her, so it’s not a big deal. I’m thankful it gives us nice hot water!
And this is our great big kitchen. Isn’t it lovely?! I was quite pleased when I saw it for the first time.
This is another view of the kitchen.
And here is our living room. This is the only room I’ve decorated since we’re here such a short time. I wanted to make this a comfortable room, though, since we do spend a decent amount of time in it. I’ll describe my simple decorations in another post.
Here you can see our table. We’ve had some great meals there. The door on the left leads to the kitchen while the door on the right leads to a hallway where the bathroom and bedrooms are.
And that is that! I do have photos of the outside, but I’m just hoping these will post for now. We are very happy with our apartment. It’s much larger and more comfortable than we had imagined. That may not be in the case as we travel in February, so we’re greatly enjoying the space we have.
********** Do you have questions about what it’s like or what we’re doing in Kenya? I would love to hear them! I can either include the answers in future posts or write a post just with answers to your questions. Any question is great. You can either post them in the comments section at the bottom of this post or post them to me on Facebook. We do have a Little Olsen page that is dedicated to this trip. I’ll put a spot there for your questions.
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And now it’s starting to rain, so I’m off to play a few inside games with Ella.
First, an update on the sleep situation around here. It was suggested by a seasoned missionary that we not allow Ella to nap for a few days. She has seven kids, I think, so I trusted her advice. Turns out, it worked! Ella has slept through the last three nights, but if you’ve spent time with little kids, you know what happens when they miss naps for several days, even when nighttime sleep is good. Today I only let her play outside for a short time in the afternoon due to her mood swings. Poor thing. Tomorrow we’ll be back to naps. I’m glad this worked for night time sleep, though. It’s something we’ll surely keep in mind for future travel.
Pete had the entire day off today. We began the day with granola bars and milk from a box (how we drink it here) before a short walk to church. The service today was English-speaking with many hospital employees in attendance. It was a nice, full service. Next week we hope to attend a different local church with new friends. It will likely be in Swahili, which is fine with us. We’re looking forward to the experience.
After lunch Pete and Ella headed outside to play. I took Sam out on a blanket in the grass so he could watch the kids. It didn’t take long before numerous young girls were surrounding him. Such a little ladies’ man already. Most of the girls are very good with babies since they probably help a lot with them at home. Sam loves the attention.
While Sam and I were sitting in the grass, a group of about 8 boys between ages 4 and 12, I’d say, ran up to Pete, asking to play. He had played with them a little the previous day and clearly, they loved it. I really enjoyed watching him interact with them. He makes sure everyone is getting a chance to participate and calls them “friend,” which I know they like.
In the last two days, I’ve seen something beautiful return in my husband. When I first met him a little more than seven years ago, he was working quite a bit with the Sunday afternoon kids’ group at our church in downtown Duluth. He would head out on the bus from the church to pick kids up on the Central Hillside, an area that houses a lot of at-risk kids of all ages. The bus would bring them back to the church where they would play, hear Bible stories, and be loved on. I only saw Pete with the kids a handful of times, but he was amazing with them. He exhibited a pure heart and great love when they interacted. Yesterday and today, I saw that part of him coming back. I had almost forgotten it existed. Medical school and residency have taken so much of his time and energy, making it easy to understand why he hasn’t been able to spend time like that with kids in Duluth. Today he ran and played so hard that he fell asleep shortly after coming in the house, and he just might need some ibuprofen in the morning.
When the boys approached Pete today, they were full of hope that he would want to spend time with them. I could read it in their eyes. As soon as he said yes, their bodies seemed to fill with energy and every one of them either tackled Pete or ran away to start a game of tag. Eventually, a few girls joined the game, too. The pack ran back and forth, up and down the grassy hill, laughing and calling out, “You’re it!” in playful voices. At one point, many of them, including Pete, ended up in the tree house. As soon as they were back on the ground, they kept running. This went on for at least an hour, at which time someone realized how thirsty they were (probably Pete) and they all came running onto our porch.
By this time I was inside with Sam, so I mixed up a quick pitcher of Crystal Light and poured glasses as quickly as I could. I think we did about three pitchers before running out of clean water. We have a couple ways of getting clean drinking water here, but the fastest is to walk up to a big filter near the hospital and fill giant blue jugs. What better task for a big group of energetic boys? Off they went, with Pete as their guide, and all was quiet again on the porch.
The quiet vanished the moment they returned, of course. I saw Pete running down the path with a big blue jug in each hand and a boy on his shoulders. They were racing. And Ella wasn’t far behind. She’s certainly not one to miss out, even if the other kids are more than twice her age. Pete quickly ducked into our neighbor’s apartment to borrow The Jesus Storybook Bible. Without a moment of hesitation, he drew the kids around him in the grass beneath a giant tree and began reading the story of Noah. They were transfixed on what he was saying. He did more than read. He explained things and painted pictures they could understand. I’m guessing that many of these kids go to church with their families, but it was like they had never heard the story before. As soon as the story was over, they jumped back into running and laughing and playing.
What I saw today gave me a glimpse into what God has in store for us. It’s hard to remember the feelings of freedom and play during a packed, often frustratingly so, residency schedule at home. Sometimes it feels like that’s all life is. But we know that God has called us to Africa and that He has brought us here right now to renew our hope in that whole big plan. It’s not going to always be about medicine. Even though we haven’t been here long, we’re experiencing days that include medicine and many other things we love. We had a big family dinner together tonight that I cooked. We don’t get to do that very often at home. It’s so good for our hearts to feel what our future holds.
So even though it may not have been a day of physical rest, it was certainly a day of renewal. For that, I am incredibly thankful.
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Yesterday I got to do something I have been wanting to do for a long time. Ladies and gentlemen, I made my very own baby food. What made it so great, in my opinion, was that I was able to use the incredibly fresh fruit and veggies I bought at my own door. Food stands are very common here. On Friday, as I was walking back from an errand at the hospital, I met a young woman named Amy (about my age) who has a stand near the back gate of the hospital grounds. After talking, I told her I wouldn’t be able to buy anything from her that day, but that she should come by so I could purchase something the next day. That’s another common occurrence. Vendors come right to the door with bags of whatever they are selling on a particular day. (What would we have to do to get that going in Duluth?) I bought squash, bananas, and oranges and added those to my stash of apples, pears, and green beans. After bleaching everything (a requirement for nearly all produce), I cooked and pureed batches of squash, apples, bananas, and pears. I froze a good amount of the squash in an ice cube tray for easy storage. Later this week I’ll make more. It’s a bit time consuming, but it’s really the only option here. And it’s super inexpensive.
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Please pray for continued peace here in Kenya as the national elections approach on March 4. Last Thursday and Friday were the primary elections, and things went fairly well. We had originally been scheduled to be in Kenya until March 8, but now we’ll be leaving before the elections. Possibly March 1. In 2007 the country erupted after the elections. We think it will be best to leave the country early in case anything does happen. We’re praying for peace over the people here.
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Big day for Ella tomorrow…she’s starting preschool! She doesn’t know yet. I wanted her to be able to sleep tonight. Many of the local families have children around her age, so they have preschool three mornings a week. Ella is going to be thrilled. It will also give me some time to have chai with some of the women here I’ve really been wanting to meet.
We have arrived. I still can’t believe this has really happened! I’m slightly jet lagged, so I can’t even tell you how many days we’ve been here without looking at a calendar. Even then I’m a bit confused. We flew nine hours ahead of our Central Time and are now just south of the Equator. It’s the first time in my life I’ve flown over the Atlantic and the first time I’ve crossed to the Southern Hemisphere. There have been a lot of firsts since we left a blustery, snowy Minnesota on Sunday, and we hope for many, many more.
If you had asked me before leaving Duluth what my biggest fear of the trip was, I would have quickly answered that it was the flight over. Ella and Sam had never flown and the longest flight I had ever been on was 3 ½ hours. The first little jump from Duluth to Minneapolis was a breeze. Ella sat by the window and watched us leave the ground and float up through the clouds. Our second flight was 8 ½ hours from Minneapolis to Amsterdam. We had really hoped Ella would sleep (the Benadryl should have done the trick), but she didn’t get a wink the entire flight. (We had even done a few practice runs with the Benadryl before leaving!) I think she was as giddy as I was about the personal movie screens and hot meals. Seriously, I really did look over at Pete after about an hour in the air and told him how excited I was as I started The Perks of Being a Wallflower and opened my plastic wrapped tray of chicken and mashed potatoes. (It doesn’t take a whole lot to impress me.) Not that the entire flight was without issue, but as a whole it was pretty good.
not actually how he flew, but wasn’t he cute?
When we arrived in Amsterdam, Pete and I had to part ways as we were told that one of our carry-ons that we checked at the gate was not accessible, though our stroller was. They had put it down below with the other checked bags, which I’ve never had happen on a domestic flight. Maybe it’s a regular thing on international flights, but we didn’t know that and needed the bag. After he worked with the airline to track it down, we were informed that it probably never even left Minneapolis. Awful. We had all our meds in the bag including Sam’s nebulizer. We could do without the clothes, but my glasses (and make-up!) were also inside. We carried the anxiety of a lost bag on our very crowded 9-hour flight from Amsterdam to Nairobi. Sam and I were up a row from Pete and Ella so that we could use the plane’s bassinet. I’m so very glad someone brought these amazing contraptions to my attention before we left. They attach right to a dividing wall in the plane. The baby can sleep inside it during the flight…if they choose to sleep. Poor Sammy clearly wasn’t feeling well on the final flight and insisted on being held. At last, we saw the lights of Nairobi. Our bodies had no idea what time it was, but the time in Kenya was about 9:30pm. After making our way through immigration, we were overjoyed to see our missing bag on the baggage belt. Praise the Lord! We were thrilled!
Dr Olsen on his first day at Tenwek Hospital
After making our way through customs we were taken to a mission guesthouse for our first night in Kenya and our first night under mosquito nets. We were all completely exhausted! Tuesday morning we were taken to a grocery complex (general groceries in one shop, meat in another, and produce in another) and then made the four-hour trek by mission van to the town of Bomet and Tenwek Hospital. I cannot even express how gorgeous the drive was. There were open spaces overlooking immense, lush valleys and small towns. That same beauty now surrounds us in our apartment near the hospital. We can see rolling mountains by looking past the avocado trees and brick houses in front of our kitchen window. The grass is green and the air is warm but not hot. Not at all like Minnesota this time of year.
We’ve now settled into our apartment. It’s the perfect size for us with two bedrooms, a bathroom, a living room, and a kitchen. I’ll post photos soon. We’re in a building with four other families from all over the world. Pete walks to work in the morning and has even been able to make it home for lunch. That’s something that very rarely happens in the States. I’ve spent the mornings with Sam sitting in the grass under the big trees outside. I chat with the neighbors while Ella has the time of her life running barefoot through the grass with the many, many kids around us.
she’s in heaven
Today our focus was primarily to get Ella over her jet lag. The poor girl (or poor mama, really) was wide awake at 12:30 last night, begging to play outside. That went on for a couple hours. It was recommended to me today that I don’t let her nap so she’ll (hopefully!) sleep through the night. She went to bed about 10 minutes ago and was exhausted. Please, oh please, don’t wake in the night! I’ll let you know how it goes.
So that’s how we’ve begun! We’re loving…LOVING…being here where we know God has called us. Thank you so much, again, for your continued prayers. Here are a few things today to pray for:
I really want to be bold in seeking relationships with other parents in the area. It’s been going well so far, but sometimes I get pretty intimidated and don’t step out to ask others to spend time with me. There are really great people here and I do want to get to know them and learn from their experiences.
Friday Pete will be on-call on his own in one of the departments. He feels good about what he is doing in the hospital, but extra prayer for being on his own would really be appreciated.
Please pray that Ella will be on track with sleeping by tomorrow. It would help this mama.
Sam has a bit of a cold. He’s slept a lot today, which will certainly help.
Chai tea is a very important drink in Kenya. Today Ella and I had our first cups. Ella approves!
Passports are in place, plane tickets will be purchased within days, and we’re making our packing lists. We’re going to Kenya!!
a photo from the Tenwek Hospital website
I’m so excited my hands are shaking as I write this. We’ve been talking and praying and dreaming about it for so long that I cannot believe the time has finally arrived. (I wrote about it in February in this post.) God has thrown doors wide, wide open and we’re busting through because there is no way we’re passing on this opportunity.
We’ve watched over the last few months as things have fallen into place to make this trip possible. Okay, we haven’t just watched, we’ve had to push in some cases. I’m so thankful to be married to man who has a strong vision and whose desire to make that vision happen is just as strong. He met with many people and had long phone conversations to make this come together. Pete had to make sure that there would be US board certified physicians in Kenya to oversee his work and then had to work hard to make our trip a part of his residency training. And he (and God!) made it happen. Half of our time away will count toward his training, which means his time in residency will only be extended one month this summer.
the arrow points to where we’ll be living
We’re still nailing down our exact travel dates, but we’ll roughly be gone January 13 through March 8. Those are the dates that Pete has open. He’ll be working at Tenwek Hospital in Bomet, Kenya. Tenwek was founded in 1937 by World Gospel Misison, the same organization I spent a year and a half working with in Honduras in 2002-2003. The hospital is well-established and is known for offering high-quality care to many who can’t afford it. (Their gynecology unit has 72 beds!) They also train Kenyan doctors and nurses who then go out into other parts of Kenya to serve small communities. There are lots of great photos on their website if you click HERE.
Tewek Hospital
We’ll be traveling under Wold Medical Mission, a part of Samaritan’s Purse, which was established by Billy Graham’s son, Franklin Graham. They take care of all of the travel details like flights, visas, Pete’s medical license in Kenya, our apartment, insurance, and so on. While Pete works in the hospital, I’ll be exploring daily life with Ella and Sam. I hope to befriend other women in the area (missionaries, doctor’s wives, and nationals) and tag along on everyday trips like shopping at the market and going to church. I also hope to check out some of the local schools to get an idea of what the school system is like for future teaching opportunities. I’m also curious to see what school might someday be like for Ella and Sam. So much to do in two months!
in Bomet, Kenya
Some of you know our long-term plans but some of you do not, so here they are. Pete will finish residency in late July of the coming summer. Then he hopes to work in the area for two years while we pay off school loans, find a large organization to work under, and prepare to move to Africa. There may be another exploratory trip in there, too, as we’re not exactly sure which part of Africa we’ll be going long-term. We have lots of questions, but we hope the trip this winter will answer many of them.
hoping to see a few of these
I’ve been waiting years to go abroad with my family. Practically my entire life. I’ve known this would be my path since I was very little, but I sometimes can’t believe I actually get to do it. Now I have a strong, determined husband and two amazing little ones that will be traveling with me. How am I so blessed?
Ella talks about going on a plane to “Acita” after Christmas to see zebras, elephants, and giraffes. I hope she gets to see those things and so much more. One thing I can promise she won’t be seeing, though, is snow.
