Morning on Mount Motigo

You may have wondered what kind of leisure activities are available to us here in rural Kenya. Well, we're not exactly clubbers anyway, so most of the home activities, like playing games and watching movies, are still available to us. But, truth be told, though there are exotic locales within shot for a 3-day weekend, there isn't exactly an extensive city park system, for the rare Saturday morning off.

However, this morning, during one of Maggie's naps, we decided to take one of the few popular local sojourns: a quick hike up and down (2 hours) "Mount" Motigo (which is more of a hill, though the highest hill around. It started off well, by traversing the bridge over the Tenwek dam, which provides hydroelectric power for all of our homes and the hospital.

With some directional assistance from a few friends, we didn't have any trouble going up the dirt road, then off the road through the Motigo Secondary School grounds, to the grassy bald summit of Mt. Motigo. There are some great 360 degree views, including of the Tenwek village, and Rachel befriended a sheep at the top.

One the way down, we got a chance to again admire the tea fields that are scattered around here, Kenya being the 3rd largest tea-producing country in the world, after India and Sri Lanka. Recent interesting fact: a mature tea tree (which are about waist-high) gets its leaves picked every 17 days. Talk about prolific!

Our re-crossing of the waterfall bridge was slightly detained by a pack of quite stubborn donkeys that had to make their way across first. All in all, we made it back. Maggie was still sleeping, and the Cropseys (who were manning the baby monitor) never had to check in on her. Excellent. I'm sure we'll take this little jaunt again.

Cake, the First

Martha Stewart, I am not. However, sometimes I aspire to be on around the same level as a 1950s housewife, I think. June Cleaver, maybe, minus the vacuuming and lipstick and high heels. You know, homemade pie crusts and fresh baked bread and all that. Here in Kenya, without the option of mixes and bakeries and pre-made anything, I'm finding my chance. I'm moving on to at least a basic mastery of pie crusts, and yeast breads, and was quite successful at carmel sticky buns, if I do say so myself. So when I was asked to bake a birthday cake for a friend's birthday yesterday, I decided to take the plunge and try...a layer cake. Yes, yes. Quite adventurous.

Problem #1: I forgot about making said cake until 10pm the night before, as I was finishing entertaining 14 people at my house for dinner. Since I worked all day the next day (her birthday), it was 10pm at night or never, so I'd have enough time to assemble and frost the next day.

Problem #2: Is directly related to problem #1. I got out the Betty Crocker cookbook, which no 1950s housewife should be without (seriously, it's awesome), and assembled the ingredients for the standard chocolate cake (devil's food). Mixed it, greased and floured 2 8” cake pans, poured it in, popped it in the oven for, sigh, 30-35min. As soon as they came out of the oven, I decided to go to bed. Had I paid more attention to Betty's sage advice, I would have waited 10 minutes for the cakes to cool slightly, then removed them from the pans to continue cooling. Instead, I took them out the next afternoon. Unfortunately, that left about 1/3 of each cake stuck to the bottom of the pans. Argh!

Problem #3: Layer cakes can be pieced back together, but when you try to frost them, beware....I decided that even though a good portion of the cakes were still in the pans, I could scrape the mostly intact bottoms OUT of the pans and stick them back to the rest of the cake with lots and lots of frosting. Now, the frosting was by far the most successful part of the experience, as I altered a chocolate frosting recipe by adding liquid coffee instead of milk. Voila, mocha frosting! The first layer reassembled pretty well, but then when I tried to apply a layer of frosting, the crumbling started. Long story short, the key seems to be lots of frosting and minimal spreading.

The end result was a cake that has a definite top slope, and some crumbly chocolate cake showing through the frosting on the sides, but when I put some sprinkles and candles on top, I think the deficiencies could be overlooked. And in the end, it tasted great. I think the key here is to continue baking as many cakes as possible to gain experience. Many well frosted cakes. Yes....mmmm.....

"BFF"

Two little cruisers, having lots of fun...Good thing Maggie and Abi Fader seem to get along well, because they have to spend the next 18 years of their lives together. We hope. :) Incidentally, Abi was over for a visit because Heather just broke her foot and a physical therapist was teaching her how to climb stairs on crutches, which she'll need for the next six weeks. Pray for quick healing!

Waiting for the daddies...

And excited about the arrival!

My Rice Krispies Come From Egypt

As I described earlier, in a moment of laudable vulnerability, I have a weakness for the exotic, even when it's really only the perception of the exotic. Living in Kenya provides many indulgences for this. Kenya, compared to many other African nations, does quite a bit of manufacturing, but still they have a lot of imported goods. Thus, at any given time, in our kitchen, foods from all over the world can be found.

There is an interesting brand, called American Garden, manufactured in Florida, that makes a lot of American condiments, like ketchup, mustard, and a ripoff of Fruit Loops, but you'll never find them on American grocery shelves.

In addition to this and a number of Kenyan products, India, the UK, and the Middle East have a strong manufacturing presence. So, our breakfast cereals are Egyptian, our pasta is Iranian, our dates are from Saudi Arabia, our lentils from India, our rice from Thailand, and Maggie's new favorite snack is British digestive biscuits. Sadly Nutella is about the same price as in the states, thus it continues to be a luxury item.

And on that note, let me publicly express my new love for Weetabix Fruit & Nut cereal.

Birthday Party Fun

With all the little munchkins running around here at Tenwek, we have been to quite a few first birthday parties so far. Maggie is still waiting patiently for her turn at the chocolate cake...only 7 weeks to go until I am the mother of a one year old (wow!). But in the meantime, we hosted a birthday for Liam Banks last week. His parents are the ones who graciously prepared a gourmet birthday dinner for me, and we also went to Masai Mara with them in February. Logan and Julie are here for five months as part of an international family practice fellowship, and it's been great getting to know them. Their apartment is on the edge of the Tenwek compound, so we volunteered to have the party here, a more central location for people to pop by.

Maggie enjoying her party hat prior to the guests arriving

There were probably around 30 people in our rather small living room, over half of which were kids. Julie organized an impromptu game of hot potato, and Eric provided the music on his snoozle (melodica).
Julie amazes me with her hostessing skills. She fashioned a giraffe cake out of several 9x13 cakes and decorated it with orange and chocolate frosting. The kids were totally enthralled.
And here's Liam, the birthday boy...not sure how to blow out the candles yet, but plenty of volunteers to help. Happy birthday, little man!

How Kenya Pronounces 'McLaughlin'

We have known for some time that even Americans can have a hard time with our last name (seen above in a recent art project of ours), but its a special struggle for many ethnic groups. In residency, I just encouraged all my Latino patients not to try, and just call me Eric. However, in a formal culture such as Kenya, such informalities have no place, so people are ardent in their attempts to wrap their tongues around "McLaughlin". Two such attempts:

1. Eric in the ICU.

Kenyan nurse: "Daktari, I'm sorry, but how do you pronounce your last name?"

Eric: "Mick-lof-lin"

Kenyan nurse: "(something definitely not the same)"

Eric: "Um, that's close..."

Another Kenyan nurse: "It sounds like 'hemoglobin'. I'll just call you Dr. Hemoglobin."

2. Rachel with her OB team.

Team of interns to Rachel: "We have decided your name is to hard to pronounce, and so we are giving you a new name. Dr. McCheka."

Rachel: "McCheka?"

Team: "Yes, -cheka is the Kiswahili word for laugh."

Rachel: "Aha..."

"Maggie Smile"

This picture was from a while ago, but Phil Uttz, my sister's father-in-law, who took it, just sent it to us, and we love it and wanted to share it. It was Brian Beise who said that Maggie smiles like a muppet, i.e. straight open-mouth. Sometimes it looks a lot more like a smile than this, but it's still very cute. Here's a tribute to the Maggie Smile by various members of the McLaughlin family just last month, on the other side of the world.

Rachel's Birthday

Today my lovely wife celebrates her birthday. I look forward to many more years with her. Here's how some friends helped us make it special in the middle of rural Kenya.

5-Star Airlines

I became curious about airline rankings after John Cropsey boasted about taking Qatar airlines to Nepal. So, today I looked up the star-ranking system. Here's the link to the list.

Interesting facts:

1. The six 5-star airlines in the world are located in Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, South Korea, Qatar, and India.

2. The highest a US airline gets is a 3-star ranking (in fact they are all 3-star) with the surprising exception of JetBlue.

3. The world's only 1-star airline is Koryo, based out of exotic Pyongyang, North Korea.

Parasite #1, and then Cute Maggie Pictures

It's official. After almost three months of living in the developing world, the McLaughlin family has acquired their first parasite (that we know of)! Sort of gross, like all parasites, but better than intestinal worms, or worms that live in your skin, or . . . well, I could go on but I'm feeling nauseated. Yup, we've got the scabies. First noticed it on Maggie: she developed a slight rash just under her chin, which became worse and started spreading around her neck, and then onto her hands. Then I started thinking about how I've been really itchy lately, and suddenly all the pieces came together. For those of you who don't know, scabies are like lice, only on the skin instead of in the hair, and they're difficult to see. We've been undergoing treatment, which involved applying this lotion stuff (pronounced SKAYB-kill, not SCAB-kill) overnight for two nights, and washing every last piece of clothing and bedding in super hot water. Yuck. All part and parcel of living here and working in the hospital, though. So we're hoping the lotion does the trick, and we don't have to repeat the steps, since Mags was NOT a fan.

On a happier note, in honor of her 10 month birthday, we're posting a few gratuitously cute pictures. The Magster has been cruising the furniture in a big way lately. Watch out world!

Friendly hug...or captive prisoner? Approximately 5 sec after the picture was taken, Mags started screaming. Apparently she decided on the latter.

Attempt Great Things

I saw this lectern in Westminster Abbey when I was 19 years old. I wrote it on a bookmark and discovered it again about 5 years later. As we try to figure out what to do in the future, this simple phrase keeps coming back to me. Simply "Go for it. The Lord is with you."

(For some reason, I had thought it was a Lord Byron quote, but it's actually from William Carey, the founder of modern missions, and the full quote is "Expect great things from God. Attempt great things for God.")

It has seemed to me that the appropriate corollary to this is the Apostle Paul to the Phillipians. "But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from you faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you." Thus, attempt, and even if it is nothing more than an attempt, then your life is an offering poured out. So be it.

Ubiquitous

This was taken outside Nairobi. If you understand it, the humor needs no explanation. If you don't, it's not worth explaining.

Farther than We've Ever Been

Sam: If I take one more step, it'll be the farthest away from home I've ever been.

Frodo: Come on, Sam. Remember what Bilbo used to say: "It's a dangerous business, Frodo, going out your door. You step onto the road, and if you don't keep your feet, there's no knowing where you might be swept off to."

It's official: This is now the longest period of time Eric and I have ever been away from the United States. One-twelfth of our time in Kenya has come to a close. It is different, not being here for a short trip. It's starting to feel like home instead of this weird foreign country. Not even thinking about it much, it feels natural to be meeting people, getting used to life at the hospital, investing. We of course mostly miss the easy communication with family and friends. But otherwise, we've compiled a list of things we do and do not miss about the US. Maybe it will be a surprise what we don't miss!

Things we miss:

Family

Knox (both the church and the community)

Being able to go out--to a movie, to dinner, to anywhere

Trader Joe's

Target

Wine

Great L&D nurses at St. Joe's

Ancillary staff

Things getting done at the hospital when you write an order...

Chinese dumplings

Washtenaw Dairy

Our bikes

Fast internet

Surgeries getting started on time

Being able to effectively communicate with at least 90% of our patients

Things we don't miss:

HIPPA

Documentation and dictation

Traffic/commuting to work--only a 5 minute walk

Cold weather

Monthly cell phone bills (pay as you go!)

Owning a home and all the maintenance that comes with it

Doing our own dishes (mostly)

Convincing patients they don't need antibiotics with a viral disease

Owning lots of stuff

Television

Trying to convince a doctor from another specialty to help you take care of your patient (since we all know each other, it's a very friendly process)

Evil Michigan squirrels...the Mara safari park is a nice trade off

Our garden (we have a larger one here!)

Good neighbors (while we had some great ones in Ypsi, the Faders and the Cropseys suffice!)

Knox Kids Update

We are really blessed to have a great "home" church in Ann Arbor, which we've mentioned before (Knox Presbyterian). So many people have supported us--financially, through prayer, or encouragement. Before we left, we had several chances to share with the entire congregation what we're doing, and another fun aspect was getting to share with the kids' Sunday school classes about our work in Kenya. The kids were pretty receptive, and each McCropder family was adopted by several Sunday school classes. We recently received a binder full of pictures and notes from our classes, grades 1 and 2. They asked lots of questions, and I just wanted to share our "newsletter" response with all of you as well. There were pictures as a part of this, but I couldn't get the letter up on our blog in "letter" format, and besides, all the pictures we used have already been posted on our blog.

Dear first and second grade classes at Knox,

Greetings from Kenya! We have been here for two months now and are getting used to living in Africa. It has been very fun so far. Dr. Eric and Dr. Rachel work in the hospital—Dr. Eric takes care of babies, and Dr. Rachel takes care of mommies. Maggie stays home and plays. We live next door to the Fader family and the Cropsey family. There is a nice church that we walk to every Sunday, but we miss going to Knox with all of you!

We had Christmas here at the hospital (Tenwek) and it was fun. There were lots of parties, and singing, and some church services. Maggie's grandma lives in Arizona, but she got to watch Maggie opening up her presents on the computer! We shared a nice meal with the Cropseys and

Faders, as well as some new friends in Kenya.

Here are the answers to some of your questions:

What kind of sports do you play in Kenya?

We have played soccer (but they call it football here), frisbee, and racquetball so far.

Are there forests/mountains/ jungles/trees/oceans/flowers in Kenya?

There are some forests and mountains where we live. The hospital is at 7,000

feet elevation, more than a mile high! There are beautiful flowers, some you'd recognize (roses outside our door) and some exotic ones, too. Kenya is on an ocean, the Indian Ocean. But that's a long ways from our house, so we haven't seen it yet. There are no jungles where we live.

What language do you speak?

We are able to speak mostly English, but are also trying to learn Swahili. Do you remember some Swahili words we taught you last spring? Jambo means “hello”, rafiki means “friend”, and habari is “how are you?”

What kind of animals are in Kenya?

There are lots of cool animals here. On a daily basis, we just see cows and dogs and birds. But there are some special places called game reserves where the animals live, and we just went to visit. We saw giraffes, zebras, lions, wildebeasts, jackals, elephants, rhinos, buffalo, hippos, crocodiles, baboons, and lots of kinds of gazelles. There are also leopards and cheetahs, but we didn't see those.

Are there shepherds in Kenya?

Yes! There is a tribe of people that live near us called the Masai, and they herd sheep,

goats, and cows. Many times they don't have a permanent house, but travel with their animals all over the country.

Are there schools in Kenya?

Yes. Most children go to school, although you have to pay a fee. And they all have to wear the same uniform. Some children even live at the school.

What kinds of food do you eat in Kenya?

We eat mostly all the same food as you do. Some unique foods that we eat here, like the Kenyans, are called ugali and sukumu wiki. Ugali is a corn mush (like cream of wheat, only

thicker and you eat it with your hands) and sukumu wiki is a green vegetable like

spinach.

How do you go to the bathroom/take a shower in Kenya?

We have a regular bathroom and shower in our house with flush toilets and running

water. It's even hot water!

What kind of clothes do they wear in Kenya?

Most people wear the same clothes as we do, except women don't wear pants

here, only skirts and dresses. Some people also have a special brightly colored cloth that they can wear as a skirt or shawl, called a kikoy.

Thanks for all your questions! It's nice to know that you're remembering us and praying

for us. Let us know if you have any more questions.

Love,

Eric, Rachel, and Maggie McLaughlin

Truancy

What? 11 days and no blogging? Are Eric and Rachel becoming "one of those blogs"? You know what I'm talking about. Take heart, and allow me to allay the fears that I'm sure have been plaguing your days and your nights for the last 10 days and 23 hours. We recognize the problem and will be working to fix it. There have been a couple temporary roadblocks, namely Eric out of town for a conference with no internet access, and downage of our home internet as well. Things are slightly improved now.

While out of town, Eric did not lodge at the above hotel. However, there have been requests for pics of our nearby surroundings, and this venue is right outside the hospital. There's actually another titled "Extreme Hotel", and I confirm that it indeed looks much more extreme, but maybe not in an advertising-friendly sort of way.