KENYA - safari

In case anyone was wondering about this man cave. John and I have our own room. Mosquito nets and all. Nila

Nicaragua

Our mission is complete...Karl, Sue, Carolyn and Dean are on their way to Little Corn for some much needed and deserving R&R.  Cole, Catherine and I will take the second flight to Managua, spend the night and head to NE tomorrow.  This has been another mountain top experience.  We truly are ONE team here even though we come from different areas.  Dennis is doing extremely well and is staying with the Orphange nurse for a few weeks to monitor his recovery process.  God has blessed us beyond belief and it has been an honor serving HIM.  Until next year...Tamra

KENYA Friday 2/15/13

I finally have reliable Internet and a little uninterrupted time to write. We've had quite the trip and quite the day. There are so many new things every time I turn around. This is not for the faint of heart. 

The week of surgery was full of ups and downs. It was a little frustrating because most of what I found to do was tonsils which is a slick and easy thing to do for the most part.......  Unless the electricity and equipment doesn't work and then it's a nightmare!  Dr. Stice had it right when she brought what she calls her entire OR with her including her scrub nurse and a supersonic electrical transformer. I think I wore out Kristy, Wendy, Megan and Kevin, who took turns scrubbing for me. They were all enthusiastic and quick learners (thank goodness) and helped each other out as they switched back and forth but I'm sure they all have a new respect for an experienced scrub nurse just as we've all come to respect the areas we've gotten to participate in that are outside our usual comfort zone!

The weird ear tumor I found the first day in clinic popped out like a marble. He's got terrible ear disease deep inside his head still though he said the pain was much better and now he can sleep. Patients like this tend to bury their heads in the sand about the ear as long as it doesn't bother them but it will come back to haunt him some day so I told him he will need to go into Nairobi to see someone who has the ear equipment that Naivasha doesn't have. I got a lead on an ear microscope from an ear group in Michigan that they might donate. We (mainly Dr. Stice) are sending a large container of medical equipment when we get the $10,000 cost to ship it so we might get the microscope to send along. A new microscope will cost $20,000 so it's a bargain if it gets donated. The new hospital isn't open yet for lack of the proper electricity. Surprised?  We saw a huge electric station on our drive today. They get electricity from thermal power from nearby volcanoes. 

The drive to the Maasai region today was littered with goat and cattle herds grazing along the roadside. You couldn't drive a half mile without seeing them. There are scattered donkeys in the mix. In Naivasha there are donkeys pulling cards with water barrels. They buy water at the Catholic Church, which has a well. Then they drive along the road selling it to households and businesses. 

John has been befriended by everyone around the hospital with something to fix and that's about everybody. The maintenance guy is eyeing his tools so John will give an in service on how everything works next week and leave the tools with them. 

I wish I could post some more pictures but I'm using Johns iPad and most of the pictures are on my good camera so I can't easily transfer them. Please read The links to Kevin, Wendy and Megan's blogs. I think you have to join to read Megan's but the others you can just click on. Also Molly and Erin are posting lots on their FB pages and I'm putting others on FB Columbus Medical Mission Team - Africa. You can look at it even if you are not on FB since its a public page I think. 

Well, I'd better head to bed. We have a wake up call at 5:30 am. We leave for the safari into the Maasai Mara game preserve at 6 which they say is prime rhino time. We get tea and coffee before leaving and eat breakfast and lunch in the "bush". NN

KENYA Safari

Somehow Cindy managed to get us Kenyan rates on both he hotel in Naivasha and the safari. I've had the most fun I've had for a long time! Laughed so hard I thought I'd die! We traveled 4 hrs. 3 on good highway and 1 on a very bumpy dusty road to get to the Olerro hotel in the Maasai region. They had us walk through the bush for a bush supper. We saw zebras etc along the way. Then a 5 course meal and topped off with Maasai worrier tour guides for tomorrow's safari! They drove us back to the hotel in the land rovers we'll use tomorrow. John and I are in a suite "the man cave" with Ray, Kevin and Tony. It's awesome. Look it up in the Internet if you're interested. Molly knew what to expect. I'll post a picture of the room. Gotta go to bed. We're getting a wake up call at 5:30 for the Maasai Mara.

Nicaragua 2013

Nicaragua 2013

Nicaragua 2013

KENYA - GOING ON SAFARI

We didn't have internet last night so didn't get a chance to blog.  I had a record day.........  When I took my gown and gloves off after my last case my entire scrub suit was drenched in sweat from my neck to my knees.  I have to admit sweat dripped into the edge of the field a couple times, but not in the wound.    A lady walked in during the morning with a large neck mass.  I thought Dr. Wachira and I were doing it together, but in the end he went to eat a bite, then when he came back he thought it was going so well I didn't need any more help so left without me knowing.  He lives in a different city.  At any rate, in spite of no AC and John spending about an hour on the floor trying to connect and reconnect the suction and cautery along with the fan we did well and she looked like a million bucks today.  She was in her 20's and had the mass growing for a couple years.  I'll try to post a couple pictures. The drain situation is interesting.  The little tube I thought would be a suction drain, but then realized we can't do suction drains so I put in a penrose drain (the larger one).  I rebandaged it and she'll stay in the hospital over the weekend while we're on safari.  

Gotta go.  Safari leaving.


 Then I helped Dr. Stice with a huge ulcerated scalp.  You can't imagine it.  We removed about 2/3 of his scalp.  Thing of the worst cystic acne x 10 and add large open ulcers grapefruit and pineapple size with skin 3" thick in places.  He lost a lot of blood like you could imagine if you've ever had a cut on your scalp.  I won't post pictures of that.

Nicaragua

Sorry but I forgot to mention how busy Karl has been.  He has been working on the house for a nurse who takes care of kids at the orphanage.  He house has been broken in several times and is quite delipidated.  Karl, along with RJ, have been working on fixing up her house and making it safer for her.  He is the all around fix it guy and is surely the most popular person here.  EVERYONE wants Karl!  We could not get along without him. 

Now, off to supper.    Carolyn

Nicaragua

Can't believe we've been gone a week!  We have been VERY busy so unfortunately, we didn't have time to blog on Wed.

Our day started off yesterday with a young boy (Dennis) being brought to the compound from a village in the jungle a day away north of here.  He was accompanied by a man who was his present caretaker.  He had a very nasty looking cleft lip.  He was evaluated by the doctors here and was immediately sent to the hospital to prepare for surgery later in the day.  As his story unfolded, we learned that he was 16 yrs. old and looked no more than 12 due to years of malnutrition.  His mother had died and his stepfather had beaten him.  Dennis had been wandering through the jungle.  It was very emotional for all of us to see such a sweet boy and know that he has a miserable life.  He got to ride in a pickup to the hospital and didn't even know how to open the door.  He hid his face as he was ashamed of the way he looked.  Many a tear were shed over him yesterday and last evening.  He is doing well post-op and was expected to leave the hospital this afternoon.  We hope his life will be improved with his "new lip".

Tamra and I have been working almost non-stop helping the Dr.'s with minor procedures such as scar revisions, mole removals, biopies to evaluate for skin cancers, keloid removals, etc. We have worked with all 4 of the doctors but primarily Dr. Gomez who was one of the co-founders of Nicaplast and who runs a medical school in Leon. Today we did 22 procedures by 1:00.  Would have done more but we had to give up the operating room that we were working in to a Nicaragua dr. 

Dean & Sue have kept very busy in the OR's, Catherine with the children's ministry & Cole has been everywhere helping wherever he has been needed.  He has done a great job and we're all hoping he chooses medicine for his career.  He would be a great assest to any medical community he would choose.  He has the loving and caring spirit that would make him a wonderful dr.  Catherine's experience as a teacher has served her well.  The children have enjoyed their time with her and have been blessed by her talents. 

We have been so blessed to be working with 4 wonderful doctors.  They LOVE their patients and it shows.  They are very caring and take special care with each and every one of them.  Dr. Kurt shared with us last evening some of his story and said that his faith in God has become much stronger because of his experience with us this week.  He was very touched by Dennis' story as well, and felt very honored to have been involved with his care and treatment.  Dr. Taez (not sure if spelling is correct), ENT, is a pastor in Bluefields and has been a joy to work with too.  Dr. Gomez has shared many of his experiences with us and is a very interesting gentleman.

A special treat for me last evening was being able to attend Mass and Ash Wednesday services at 1 of 3 Catholic churches here in Puerto Cabezas.  It was a big church and was completely full.  That was a pleasant surprise to see so many people there in spite of the heat.  I found out during a procedure with Dr. Gomez during the day that he was Catholic and was hoping to go to Ash Wed. services.  He invited me to go along if time allowed and it all worked out.  I was a bit nervous on the cab ride back to the compound though.  It's pretty scary being out at night here in PC and we've heard stories!  Services started at 6:00 and we didn't get back to the compound till almost 8:00.  Dean & others were worried when I was gone so long and I promised that I wouldn't go out again when I would be after dark getting back.  I surely didn't realize services would be so long.  But it was a good experience. 

The surgery crew is still at the hospital but those of us that are at the compound will be eating pretty soon.  Hope all is well back home.  The time is flying by quickly for us here. We're all well here!
Carolyn

KENYA UPDATE

I'm up sitting on the balcony with Tony and Kevin. We decided to post an update on the various jobs here.  I'll start with Tony Waweru.  He's been giving anesthesia in the OR.  He's working Dr. Betty O. and Wycliff O, CRNA.  We have 2 ORs with 2 tables in one room and one in the other.  Only 2 anesthesia machines are currently working so the 3rd table has locals and sedation.  We have an anesthesiologist also, Jeff Hawthorn who is working mostly with Wycliff.  Tony (originally from Kijabe, Kenya) says his biggest challenge is finding where stuff is.  A scrub tech, Micheal, seems to be in charge and is THE GUY who knows where things are.  Tony says he's using it for job security. The picture is Mary, who does instruments, Wycliff and Micheal.  He is the best interpreter around.

Kevin worked in clinic today.  He helped Laura do wound care on the wards also.  There are some horrendous wounds.  I will not post those pictures.  His biggest challenge the language.  He's used to speaking Spanish so this is hard.  Some patients seem to know some English, but not much.  The illnesses he's seeing, especially the burns on children are heartbreaking.  Laura scrubs and debrides them while they are screaming.

Our OB/GYN team is really busy.  Dr. Norton and Dr. Schulte brought in an emergency C section with the Medical Resident from Washington holding his hand inside with the mother on her elbows and knees, pushing the baby off the prolapsed cord, counting the heart rate.  They got everything ready, rolled her over onto her back, put to sleep, C section as fast as you could blink.  Turns out she had TWINS!!!  Mom knew because she had 2 blankets and 2 hats.  Everyone else was surprised.  She was prolapsed when she walked in.  Molly, Erin and Wendy are in their element in L&D, but we stole Wendy and Megan today to scrub for me (Dr. N).  Kristy scrubbed for me yesterday, but when we realized there was no one in Recovery and that's what she does back home, we rearranged.

Wendy and Megan traded off scrubbing for me today.  Wendy just walked up here.  She says the hardest part is paying for Kevin's pop and water (LOL).  The hard part is knowing what she needs before you need it.  The suture makes her crazy.  We've got tons of spread all over in cupboards and totes in the new and old hospital.  I think she's locked in for tomorrow at least.  We wore out Megan in the morning.  It was pretty hot and the cautery smoke did her in.  She ended up going shopping later with some of our other women to the place that hires HIV, disabled, orphaned and criminal folks to give them work.  They make beautiful stuff and the rest of us will get there sometime.  Wendy finished up my last case and then helped out Dr. Stice, Diana and Joan doing some major burn scars on a 16 year old who was playing with gasoline near a fire months ago.  Bad idea.

Wendy, Dr. N, Med Student in OR.

Kristy with my first tonsil in PACU

John baled us out on the cautery and sharpened the adenoid currette at the blacksmith and got the tool to sharpen the other ones. HERO
Dr. Dumitru lectured on CHF and Caitlin worked on the stove project.  She's extremely enthusiastic so it will be interesting to see how it goes.  Good day today.  NN

KENYA 2-13-13

Dr. Schulte doing an ectopic pregnancy that came in through the ER right as we were preparing to start surgery. Then there's a picture of one of the many signs posted in the hospital with the costs on them. These signs are also in Swahili. This is quite different from other missions I've been on. Working side by side with the local ENT doctor and having lots of students along slows things down immensely. Then add in equipment failures, using Kenyan equipment and electrical problems it can be quite frustrating. My ENT colleague had never seen the tonsil mouth gag I use or how to do a tonsil with cautery. She said they only pack the adenoid and if its still bleeding some surgeons hold the babies upside down so they don't choke on blood. A novel approach. She also
Was very curious about the nasal septum I did as she apparently doesn't do them at all or does them very differently. The L&D nurses are trying to convince the nurses that fetal monitoring, fundal checks and Oxygen on newborns who don't move much are useful things to do. Today they are going to work on post parting things I won't go into here. They are extremely enthusiastic. We're going early today to make rounds. Two of the horrible tumors are going to Nairobi. It looks like both are lymphoma and need chemotherapy rather than surgery. The parotid mass almost fits under my hand if its fully stretched out. She can't hardly move her head and also is HIV positive. She can't go start chemo till she has $200 to be seen in Nairobi and so will probably die soon.
It turns out there is stew at every meal so guess. What we're eating?! NN

Nicaragua

Hello, my turn today.  It was another busy day at the hospital today.  From what I could see,things moved more smoothly today, but a lot of that is being in the rhythm on that second day and knowing what you are facing.  However, by way of a disclaimer, I am in the childrens ministry end of things, so have a very different perspective from the docs and nurses.  I have the wonderful job of coloring with and meeting the children who throng the hospital, children who are patients, children who are with patients, or children who just wander in from the neighborhood because the hospital is a safe place to hang out.  They are precious.  My Spanish may be useful, but today I found that it would have been a lot more useful to know Moskito.  Most of the children that came today spoke Moskito as their primary language.  Luckily there were bilingual children, too.  Yesterday I was very distressed that there were any kids there because here it was the first day of the new school  year and they should all have been in school.  According to many of the children they do not go to school because they cannot afford the uniforms and supplies.  Others say that education is not a priority for many of the people.  Either way, by today I had had an epiphany.  I was there to do school for them.  We covered a wall with beautiful art throughout the day and I think we succeeded in raising the morale for some of the patients and families that passed by also.  The place is so bleak, peeling walls, trash everywhere, dogs eating the trash in the middle of the courtyard in the middle of the hospital, an old army barracks, open plan with outside corridors.  Our team is a model of efficiency passing by the chaos with patients on gurneys, doing incredible things.  We have a new nickname for Cole, which is Dr. Cole.  He has been observing in the OR and has been witnessing some amazing things.  Today he spoke of the removal of a cancerous tumour on a ninety year old, which involved some plastic surgery for reconstruction.  He said it was incredible to watch.  Something quite interesting today.  There was a team from Lincoln, Nebraska, Union College, in fact.  They had run into some trouble and had had a large amount of money stolen, which was holding up their trip, but they were learning about things at the hospital, and then two of the California team members took them on a tour of the orphanage here at the compound.  Speaking of the California team, they are so much fun to work with.  I for one am learning a lot from them.  Karl and RJ continued their work on Maria Elenas house after getting everyone shuttled to and from the hospital, and shuttling drinks and lunches and fixing things as needed.  Ask Karl to tell you about the six head cattle drive along the main street followed by a vaquero cowboy on a bicycle. Sue said to say that surgery is going remarkably well and we are blessed with some amazing surgeons and she is blown away by their expertise.  We have also commented that the doctors are some wonderful human beings that are great fun to get to know, who are not at all standoffish, and happy to share their knowledge.  It is a blessing to be here to be a blessing.  Thanks to everyone for their support and prayers.  Catherine

KENYA

The hotel rooms.

KENYA

This is our hotel. You can see 4 rooms. Kevin, Ray and Tony are upper left. John and I at right below them with the open door. The other two rooms have some of the women.

KENYA - Tuesday 2-12-13

Just before we left for the hospital yesterday Nila with Megan, Erin, Molly and Caitlin in the restaurant at our hotel.  You can see what the view is like.

These are some pictures of the hospital.  It's surprisingly clean all in all.  I haven't seen a dog, horse or vulture yet.  Rumor has it that dogs make it in there.  Megan took particular interest in the ambulance.

Below are birds nesting on Lake Naivasha on our hippo tour, then is our boat driver, Paul and the long awaited hippo.  We saw maybe 15-20 total, but this was the only one who would fully get out of the water to accommodate my camera.

Nicaragua Monday evening

Monday February 11

We are finished with Monday - At the hospital it went good the docs did amazing work and it got off to a great start for the week.  There were tons of kids at the hospital and about wore the childrens ministry out.  This is the day to do our shopping trip around town and get a few things that we were not  able to get in the totes.  Right now we are done with supper and we are getting showers and doing our skyping and our magic jack phone calls.  So far it has kept up the tradition of raining - much but enough to raise the humidity that is already at about 90+ .  Tomorrow RJ - Oscar and I are working on a house that belongs to the nurse at the orphanage.  It has been broken into several times and has had their pots and pans stolen and etc. Steve from the church put in a new door on the front today and new knobs and locks that RJ brought from Cal.  Tomorrow we will put in the back door and put some new siding on and do some work on the windows - shutters - windows - bars-  Thank you all for all of your support -  we could not be here without your support.   God Bless You. 

Love Karl

KENYA - Day 1 at the hospital

I will keep it short as there isn't good internet tonight for some reason.  There's lots to tell.
It looks like it won't let me load any pictures.

Today was the first day working in the hospital.  We had 3 clinics; Plastics, GYN and ENT.  We sent 'troops' all over the hospital, but mostly to OB and Pediatrics to see what they want us to do.  The nurses were frustrated by their lack of resuscitation of newborns and the new hospital isn't up and running yet, so we'll work out of the old one.  We had a warm welcome from the CEO at the hospital and were surprised to find an physician from Washington University in Seattle who is living here for a year.  The have a program to help improve medical education here and she's involved.  I won't go into the details, but it's a very ambitious program which includes students and residents from the US and Nairobi who do rotations here so we'll be working with all of them.  As far as my clinic, the patients were preselected by the ENT who comes here from Nairobi 2 days a week.  It was tonsil, tonsil, tonsil, tonsil, horrible tumor, then tonsil, tonsil, tonsil, horrible tumor, tonsil, tonsil, tonsil, inoperable horrible tumor that looked like a large melanoma in the roof of the mouth.  Only one nasal septum, but almost every patient needed surgery.  Very interesting clinic.

There is a lady in the women's ward with a huge parotid tumor covered with a bandage who just came in today.  Maybe big as a grapefruit if you partially flattened it on the side of the head.  We'll do a bandage change tomorrow and get a better look at it.  The pediatric ward is 4 rooms side by side with large glass windows for walls with 8 metal, white paint peeling beds in each room.  Most of the kids have what appears to be a mother with them, but some are orphans.

KENYA

We made it to Naivasha after stopping first at the elephant orphanage then
on a scenic outlook over the Rift Valley. It's something like Grand Canyon stretching from Israel to Mozambique. It's quite a view. We had a boat tour of Lake Naivasha and saw hippos, giraffes, zebra, waterbuck, wildebeest and tons of birds. It was amazing. Especially the giraffe and zebras didn't run away. The hotel is nice. I'll post I tires when I have more time. We're off to the hospital this morning. I'll include a view of our rooms from the restaurant where we're having breakfast. It's like a row of cottages. We slept under mosquito nets last night. John and I decided this is the most exotic place we've ever been. NN

Nicaragua

Sunday
Greetings!  What a day!  We went to a 3 hour church service, lunch after and then finished gathering supplies to take to the hospital.  It is always quite a job sorting through totes and organizing what we need to take. 

We had a ditzel clinic which consisted of scar revisions, skin cancer excisions, mole removals, etc. and lots of teaching from the docs. We worked with 3 Nicaraguan doctors and an American living in Nicaragua.  For those of you Iowans reading this, he just happens to originally be from Ackley, IA!  He is a world renowned physician and is the founder of Nicaplast which is a group of plastic surgeons who do cleft lip and palate surgery in Nicaragua.  One of the doctors is a general and plastic surgeon, another and ENT dr. and the other is the founder of the medical school in Leon, Nic.  They are wonderful doctors and we have had a great time working with them already and have also enjoyed our interactions with them away from work.  We are looking forward to the week once the surgeries start in the morning. 

Sue, Tamra, and I helped the doctors in the clinic today and it is good to get back in the groove with old friends at work again. 

There have been some difficulties with no water in some of the bathrooms on the compound or no air conditioning.  Most of the rooms that missionaries stay in have air conditioning now which has been a blessing but equipment just does not last here.  Dean and I have been without it the last few nights and got moved to another room today after a Virginia team left.  Tamra and Cole have been without water off and on and I think Catherine and Sue and Karls accomodations have been good. 

Time to shower and get to bed.  Hope is all well with everyone at home. More blogs to follow as time allows.     Carolyn

KENYA

Breakfast at Country Lodge.

Nicaragua 13

We arrived in Puerto Cabezas yesterday afternoon and hit the ground running. The California people arrived as well and all our totes made it through customs! Have been very busy!  We have met the Nicaraguan doctors we will be working with and they are absolutely wonderful.  So friendly, helpful and accomadating in every way.  Today we had our clinic and saw several hundred patients and have a very full schedule of surgeries for the week.  With several doctors, we will also be having a large ditzel clinic which will amount to a lot of mole removals, scar revisions, etc.

It is great to be back to Nicaragua and connect with old friends again and we will definitely have many new friendships when we leave here.  We are very anxious to get started working with the doctors.  They share the spiritual commitments that our team has and that is as important as the physical care that they will give their patients. 

Keep us in your prayers as we begin a long week.   Carolyn

After supper tonight we were invited to one of our favorite Nicaraguan nurse Rigbys home. It was her 60th birthday.  The evening was filled with music, dancing and laughter.   Our doctors this year have proved to be very entertaining leading the dancing.  They are joy filled and we are looking forward to a spirited week.
SUE

KENYA - Country Lodge Nairobi

We made it to Nairobi after one short flight to Detroit where we lost one bag, the two LONG flights 7+ hours to Amsterdam and then Nairobi.  We were picked up at the airport with 3 vans and taken to the Country Lodge which is really nice.  I'm feeling guilty I'm not suffering yet, but they say we should take a good long shower here since the showers in Naivasha are not as good.  We'll head there tomorrow, stopping at the elephant orphanage around noon, then go on a hippo boat tour in the afternoon.  Then we promise we will get to work!  We went to the adjoining restaurant for a break before heading to bed.  We're 9 hours ahead of Nebraska so there will be some jet lag involved.  I stayed awake most of the trip (yes, I napped some) so I could sleep tonight since I don't often go to bed for the night at 2 pm!  The pictures below are from the Nairobi airport and the hotel.

Megan and Molly at Nairobi airport

Our Baggage

Dr. Ray Schulte

Caitlin and her mom Dr. Stice

John & Kevin

Diana, Wendy, Dr. Dumitru, Kristi

Jeff & Joan H.

One of the vans to the hotel.

Restaurant near hotel.

The team at the airport.

I see some of the pictures on the last 3 posts are out of order.  I posted them from my cell phone and they didn't send in order.  Operator error!
We had to use our key card 3 times and go through an additional guarded gate to get back into our hotel from the restaurant next door.  I think we are safe!
Nila

Kenya- Amsterdam

Didn't sleep much overnight but here we are waiting in Amsterdam for the third leg. There are Dutch shoes and tulips everywhere. It's now 8am here but somewhere in the middle of the night back home. We're hoping to be so tired by the time we hit Nairobi we'll be able to sleep well tonight. N

Kenya

Megan Kresha also has a blog. http://www.tumblr.com/blog/columbusmedicalmission
She's sitting by Kevin on the plane to Amsterdam.

Nairobi, Kenya

Checking in at Country Lodge in Nairobi. Only one lost suitcase! It's close to the Isreali embassy so it's very secure 😉Nila

Kenya links

Www.wendys1stmissiontrip2013.blogspot.com
Wendy Kallhoff is also blogging on our trip. Follow her also.

Nicaragua '13

Good Morning from Managua!  We have had some difficulty getting to this point of being able to post so bear with us.  Tryng to navigate through all the questions, problems of e-mails in a 3rd world country is frustrating.

We arrived in Managua last evening around 8:30 with good connecting flights the whole way.  Our totes arrived with us (sigh of relief) and then we got through customs after 3 were searched (another sigh of relief!).  They were looking for drugs and since we didn't take any medications with us, we were OK.  We had pretty tight connections so didn't have time for meals yesterday so were glad to hear the restaurant at our hotel was still open.  We gathered for a late evening meal before going to bed.

We have just had breakfast at the hotel and will be going across the street to the airport to catch our last leg of our flight to Puerto Cabezas.  We will have 2 doctors from Nicaragua joining us and the rest will come later with the California group. 

This afternoon will be very busy going through totes, trying to organize things for our clinic tomorrow, getting surgical trays made up, etc., etc.  And hopefully the sterilizer will run after a year of idle time.  Lots to do and hope we will be able to continue to post.  Continue to keep us in your prayers.       Carolyn

Kenya

All checked in at Eppley airfield. Dr. Schulte and Dr. Stice are here. Dr. Schulte is traveling in our plane. The rest are meeting us in Detroit. Megan brought a ziplock full of pizza! No pizza left behind!

KENYA

Taking off from Columbus at 3 am. John, Kevin, Wendy and Nila.