Toby Photo Shoot

Last Saturday I had a good time playing around with our camera and Picasa on the computer.  Toby will be six months on Tuesday and that's around the age when I had formal photos done of Maggie and Ben.  Of course, there are no JC Penney or Sears studios within a few miles of here, so I had to try it myself.  A few blankets, a chair, and a bedsheet in the front yard made up my studio.  Here are the best results:

International Grooming

I think almost any guy would consider it a boast to have pretty minimal trappings when it comes to grooming, and I would say the same.  Yet, it struck me the other day that, simple though it may seem, daily grooming has taken on quite a complex history.

1.  Showering.  Here in Banga, if there is power (+/- running water), I will take a bucket sponge bath every other morning.  The reason for the power is that I prefer to use one kettle full of boiling water.  Both the shampoo and the kettle are from a Chinese store here in the capital, and it takes a special adapter to plug it into the wall here.  The soap is Burundian.
2. Brushing teeth.  Tooth care is culturally interesting, and I have come to believe that no one prioritizes it like Americans.  We have a Colgate "herbal" flavored toothpaste we got in Kenya.  The toothbrush is American.  I have a stockpile of American floss that a friend brought out.  Good luck finding reasonably-priced dental floss anywhere else, including Europe.
3. Deodorant.  Another very cultural thing.  Unthinkable in many parts of the world.  In Kenya, I once found a roll-on stick made by Umbro, the soccer-shorts people, but it didn't last long.  In France, I tried a spray, but the scent left something to be desired (per Rachel).  I thought I would go back to stockpiling American stuff, but found a French store with a good option just before leaving, and that's what I have here in Burundi.
4. Shaving.  Though shaving cream is hard to come by in Burundi, normally this is not a hard one.  I have cream and razors from France, as well as a set of 220V clippers from France.
5. Meds.  My allergies flare up in setting of blooming green foliage, which is most of the time here in the equatorial highlands of Africa.  When I got to Kenya, I asked the pharmacy to order some nasal steroids, so I have a stash from Kenya.  A visiting eye doc got me some allergy eye drops, and I'm not sure where they are from, but a lot of there stuff is manufactured in India.

And now, I'm ready to go.  I mean, I can still consider myself a low-maintenance guy, right?  It only takes the USA, France, Kenya, China, Burundi, and possibly India to get me through daily grooming.  Oh yeah, and electricity.

Kindle + Library = Revolution

Yes, we like books.

Yes, we moved to rural Africa (again).

So, what does one do in that setting?

Well, really there are several options.  One can fill a container with books that you got free at a rockin' venue in Baltimore, called the Baltimore Book Thing.  You can also load your Kindle with every free book (published before 1923) that you've ever wanted to read.  Lastly, you can raid the personal library of every anglophone family you encounter.

And we have done all those things.

Yet, there are a few holes.  We like to read some more obscure books, hard to find at cast-off library sales.  And then there are new books.

And then the eBook world met up with the public library world.  All you need is a library card, and you can download library books from the comfort of your own home.  Even if your home is in Burundi.

And part of the beauty of this is that Kindle books are amazingly small, usually less than 500kb, making them downloadable even with really slow connections.  Suddenly new books by favorite authors are available to us.  The latest Newbery winners are available to us.  In short, we have shifted from "what is around to read?" to "what would we like to read?"  Whoa.

Brief Update

Sorry for the long blog silence!  Internet is pretty sketchy here in Burundi (at least, upcountry where we are staying for language study).  I am taking advantage of a Bujumbura weekend to post a few pics.  We are focusing most of our internet efforts on email and the McCropder blog, but thought I'd post a few kid pics (for the grandmas). 

First, Toby has been growing like a weed!  Almost 19 lbs now and I think I can say, officially a sitter.  He has rolled front to back, back to front, and inches a lot by flailing his legs while lying on his back.  Such a sweet kid.  Not a great sleeper, but always cheerful.  We tried him on bananas (which he really enjoyed) but he slept particularly bad those days, and spit up a lot more, so maybe we'll hold off another few weeks before more solids.

Ben is now 2 1/2 and potty training pretty well, actually.  His favorite activity is playing "bad guys."  He is pictured below with his "sword" and "bad guy hat."

Maggie is loving her preschool (with Micah and Abi) and was recently featured in a play about David Livingstone healing a chief's daughter of appendicitis.  She was the tribal chief and was (in my humble opinion) awesome.  Deadpan delivery, didn't forget any lines, classic.  "If she dies, you will die."  I see a future.

 And just for fun, our kiddos loved a friend's slip and slide this weekend in Buja.  It was so hot and sticky, an afternoon in the water was perfect!  Even Toby stuck his feet in.

A Few More Pictures

Who would have thought that I would ever say this, but I sure will miss Kenyan internet. :)  We leave for Burundi tomorrow AM and have been frantically using the faster (or even present) bandwidth before we enter the next three months of unknown but possibly absent internet.  Our last chances to skype, download files, post pictures...you get the idea.  So, the last of our Kenya photos for your viewing enjoyment (we realize Toby got the short end of the stick in the Tenwek photo blog since he was napping most of the time that Mags and Ben were out playing).

My "team" on OB: Moses, Vincent, Mary, and Sinkeet were my interns, and Dr. Joy Draper is the OB consultant at Tenwek for 2 yrs.  We had a great time!

 On my last day, the theatre and OB staff prepared a little goodbye sendoff.  Also holding the cake is Valentine, one of the PAACS residents rotating on GYN

 A new swing for Tenwek, still loved by the kiddos (and easier to ride that the circular one)

 Family photo with our beloved house helper, Rose

 The kids loved the wildlife viewing on the way to Nairobi...a truck in front of us threw maize to the waiting baboons, who were QUITE close as you can see.  Just another baboon adventure with the McLaughlins...

 Toby has been such a happy guy this month!

 Starting to sit up a little on his own, although he still needs a hand in the back.

And his loving sister...

What Is Worth Knowing?

Maggie and Ben are constantly asking us to tell them stories.  We do our best, but they admittedly can wear us down at times.  Ben asked for one today, and I didn't really know it, so I suggested they tell me.  Maggie busted out an incredible recitation.  It's called "The Night Kitchen", an old Maurice Sendak story that we have an animated version of.  She can't have seen it more than six times, but she went on for minutes, reciting it perfectly.

Never has my brain felt so old.

Throughout my medical training, I often would think back to my undergraduate self, sitting in class, no notes to be found anywhere, soaking in what was being said with rapt attention.

Then I'd shake myself back to the lecture already in progress, and realize that, despite my concession to take notes, I wasn't going to take away much from this hour of listening.  It's not a dramatic shift, and my overall capacity for learning is fine, but the change feels real.

And so now Maggie's brain, my college brain, and my current brain seem to be points on a straight line, of which the slope is not positive.

Sad?

Not really.  It depends on what I'm trying to steer my mind towards, but the crux of the matter is that I'm finally learning that not everything is equally worth knowing.

"Here in the information age, what is it exactly that we are so incredibly well-informed about?"  A quote passed on from James Paternoster.

Some things are very worth knowing.  Given my life, the French language and the Kirundi language are two of them.  Scores of medical concepts are worth knowing.  But not all of them.

I've had years of devouring books, going from a lecture at work to an NPR article in the car to an evening of reading.  I'm thankful for these things, but there is much vanity here, and I'm pretty sure many of us run a risk in the digital age of being reduced to info-mongering.

What is worth knowing?

"Knowledge puffs up, but love builds up."

If my brain is gradually slowing down, but that which I know is more apt, more useful, more true, more beautiful, have I just gotten a consolation prize?  Or is it a trade only a self-centered info-mongerer would turn down?

I'm glad for the stories.  I'm glad for the wisdom of so many that I've gained from.  And yet it may just be that a few minutes of solitude would express something more worth knowing.

By the way, rural Africa should be a pretty good place to learn this lesson, but there is still a choice to be made.

Life at Tenwek (take II)

We have very much been enjoying our second stay at Tenwek.  In some ways it feels like we have only been gone a few months!  Rachel has been working 3 days a week at the hospital and taking call, and Eric has been helping the medicine and peds teams round on her off days, as well as leading worship at church and taking care of the kiddos.  We feel like we've settled into as much routine as we could have hoped for, given that this is only a 4 week stopover on our way to Burundi.  Thought we'd share some photo highlights with you from our 2 1/2 weeks so far.

The waterfall:  a classic Tenwek photo op. :)  The kids loved throwing rocks in the water.  We loved reminiscing about all our previous hikes.  Thought we had taken some previous family pictures (in 2010/11) at the waterfall but I guess not.

The chai ritual!  A great part of Kenyan life is the daily chai break, at home and at the hospital.  Rose, our beloved househelper who watched Maggie when I was at work, is working for another family here but they just happened to be on vacation during our month long stay.  So she agreed to come and help us out!  It is so great to see her again, and of course she makes awesome chai.  The kids can't get enough (since it's mostly milk and sugar).

The giggle tree:  We are staying at the guesthouse, not our old house down in the "lower compound."  It has its plusses and minuses.  One of the plusses is this tree.  Even Ben can climb up on the lowest branches, which are less than a foot off the ground.  There is also a trampoline and swing at the house next door to us, so there are lots of fun things to do all day outside.  And since the weather is perfect...

The turtles:  A long term family has always had at least a couple of turtles.  Maggie used to love going to visit, and in fact turtle (tuh-duh) was one of her first words.  Now there are 6 turtles and Ben enjoys them as much as Maggie.

The treehouse:  When we lived here before, a missionary kid and his grandpa built a treehouse right in front of the apartment building we stayed in.  In fact, it's more of a tree fortress and required supporting pillars under the tree branches.  Nice to see it's alive and well and being loved by many kids.

The guesthouse:  We never spent much time here during our previous stay, since it's just short termers who stay here.  But it's been fun this time to meet people (new visitors come almost daily), use the porch swing, play in the activity room, and run up and down all the stairs.

Jolly Green:  Our great McCropder van is still around!  We had sold it to another missionary family, who decided they were looking for something different, and sold it to a Kenyan pastor from Kericho.  He just happened to be taking some folks on a mission trip to Bomet and stopped by Tenwek to wash the van.  Looks like he has taken very good care of it.  John Cropsey's name is still clearly stenciled by the driver's side door. :)

Bethesda worship:  The regular worship leaders wasted no time in enlisting Eric and Jason to help lead worship.  Even though Eric didn't have a voice the first Sunday due to an unfortunate bout of laryngitis, he still played piano and guitar.  It has been wonderful to sing all our favorite Swahili songs again.  A careful observer will note the drummer, Asante Musyoka, all of about 6 yrs old.  He's actually quite good.

More of Bethesda...Maggie and Ben went to Sunday school last week, which was led by a short term missions team from Indiana. They loved the puppet show and then got to help act out the story of Noah.  Lots of little Kenyan kiddos and my two blondies, sitting in the back.

New friends!  There is a Urologist and his family here for 2 yrs, staying just down the sidewalk from us.  Their 3 yr old daughter Ivey has become fast friends with both Ben and Maggie.  Here they are playing in our kitchen cupboard (staying in the guesthouse means lots of empty cupboards for playing in, since we don't have anything to PUT in the cupboards!).

Learning some African drumming skills!

So, all in all we're having a great time!  We'll be here until August 2, then head back to Nairobi for a few days before leaving for Burundi August 5.  It's been a perfect transition for our family between France and Burundi.

A "New" Album: C-Sides

Little unrefined extra songs are often known as "B-Sides".  One could argue all my albums to be "B-Sides", so this collection will be called "C-Sides".  I think the audience for this one might be a bit small, but recognizing that I am graced with a few people who have really thoroughly explored my prior albums, I would offer this as well, a collection of orphaned demos.  The epiphany for me was the fact that I really like these songs, and the only reason they never made it on to a prior album was that the recording seemed unfinished or just not quite what I was looking for.  So, I hope you enjoy it.  Please do give me feedback on these rarely-heard songs.  

Click here to download the record.

Here's a little explanation of the tunes.

1.  Shot Through.  (2009) When Annie Dillard exclaimed one August "Where was I while the world was being eaten?", I thought I found my metaphor.  Becoming a doctor meant seeing people's wounds and problems way more than before.  The corollary is that you have to draw near to that if you want to bring healing, and the corollary to that is that Christ has thus treated us.

2.  Lalibela.  (2008) In Ethiopia, there are a few ancient churches which were built by hollowing a church building out of the stone of a hill.  I became fascinated by the concept of descending into emptiness to worship, and what that might mean.  This is the first of several tracks here that were recorded with a $20 Radio Shack mic and some creative use of the Windows accessory known as "Sound Recorder".

3.  Lady of the Wood.  (2005) These next two songs were recorded for the 5-song disc that we gave away as our wedding favor.  It was inspired mostly by a journal I bought for Rachel with a cool leafy pattern.  Thanks to Jeff Bourque for the extra guitar licks.

4.  As He Gives.  (2005) Another wedding song, with the first verse full of snapshots of a trip to Turkey that Rachel and I thoroughly enjoyed.  As I listen to it now, I think this song may be the best love song I've written for Rachel.

5.  I Just Want to Cover My Eyes.  (2001) My friend Ryan and I recorded this at Belmont University at the same time as Queen of Flight from the "6 years" album.  I've always been sheepish about the drum loop, but Rachel and others swear that they enjoy it, so here it is.  I wrote this after a college road trip to the Grand Canyon, and the first two lines of the chorus are still some of my favorite cadence that I've ever written.

6.  Sky and Soul.  (2007) Victor Hugo wrote something like: "There is a spectacle grander than the sea, and that is the sky.  There is a spectacle grander than the sky, and that is the interior of the human soul."  I liked that, and it opened up some interesting comparisons between the Sky and the Soul.  Another Sound Recorder effort.

7.  The Years of Man.  (2008) There is a lot that I like about this one.  At its heart, it is trying to express just how unwilling we all are to believe that time actually does pass.  It continues to shock me.

8.  Being Known.  (2004) I recorded this in our bedroom the week before we got married.  It's possible that every time we cross the bridge from "knowing about" to "knowing" someone, something miraculous has taken place.

9.  Rings True.  (2008) The complexity of Christianity is mirrored in the complexity of reality as I encounter it, even within my own self.  If you look for it, you'll find a Narnia reference, as well as a nod to the odd juxtaposition of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes.

10.  Of the Father's Love Begotten.  (2007) My favorite Christmas hymn, performed at our church in Ann Arbor.

Parapente

Prior to leaving France, we decided to join a group of students in one of the region's attractions:  Parapente, or in English, paragliding.  Apparently, this sport was invented in our alpine region of France, where the combination of the heights, and the lakes (which provide some kind of thermal updraft), make this sport possible.

We had often seen these parachutes while driving around, so we figured we'd give it a try.  Overall, to sum up the experience is a bit long and complicated.  The weather was a bit iffy, and there were a couple injuries in our group, as well as delay for everyone.  I won't give the whole story.  Needless to say that, for us, it was an incredible 10-minute ride from the side of the cliff down to the landing ground.  Here are a few pictures:

Our friend Hudson at the top of the take-off area.  Lake behind him.

Eric after lift-off.

Lac d'Annecy in the background.

The two of us after safe landings for both of us.

Grandma! (and "friends")

We were VERY excited to welcome three special visitors in June:  Grandma, Auntie Joan, and Auntie Lois.  My mom and her 2 sisters met up in New York City for a few days (Lois and her husband live in Manhattan) and then flew to Paris for a fun 5 day whirlwind tour.  They then braved the train to come and stay with us in Albertville for a week!  (my mom actually stayed two weeks)  It was so much fun to see them, the kids loved having so much attention (and presents) and Eric and I enjoyed a much needed break, with more time to study for our French exams (which occurred during my mom's second week here).  

The first night...everyone wanted to sit by grandma.

Toby was not set down the entire time!

The second day they were here, we all took a hike up to Conflans to see the beautiful views.

Three Senechal sisters for 3 kiddos...perfect!

After they had been here a few days, Albertville experienced a heatwave!  Seriously, it was in the upper 80s for 3-4 days, hotter by at least 10 degrees than any other day we've lived here, with the exception of our first weeks in August.  The kids spent a lot of time without clothing on.

We also made it to Annecy for a day, which was really pleasant weather.

(Maggie wanted to show off her new princess ballerina crown from Aunt Joan)

Thanks for coming!  We loved having you. :)  (and Toby was a really smiley guy!)