So my little friend with the burns… she went for her skin graft surgery last week. All four of us went to the theater (operating room) to watch. We held her hands while she was put under anesthesia. The surgery went really well. For any of you who have never seen a skin graft surgery, it is quite interesting. I am going to describe the surgery, so if you don’t want to read about it, here is your warning. First, she was laying on her back so that Dr. Ngeera could access the good skin on the front of her thigh. That was pretty much the only place where there was good skin. The tool that he used to harvest the skin was similar to a bread knife- long and serrated- and he just moved it back and forth across her thigh. The pieces of skin that he harvested were quite small. I think he got about 6 pieces that were maybe 2 x 3 inches. Next, he spread the harvested pieces of skin on a wooden block and made little holes in them with a scalpel. This was so that he could stretch the small pieces of skin over the large surface of her back. We all helped in flipping her over onto her stomach, and then I was the chosen one to remove the dressing that was on her back. I had done it before when she was awake, and it was horrible. Previously, we would remove one piece of gauze at a time. This time, however, I was not allowed to be quite as gentle. I was having a bit of a hard time- I was worried that even though she was under anesthesia, she could still feel the pain. Dr. Ngeera told me to rip it off- that in order for the skin graft to work, he needed the wound to bleed. He said: “Just do it! This is what you signed up for!” He said that if you choose nursing, you can’t just choose parts of it- you have to do all of it, and you have to grow and become better every day and never stop improving yourself. My heart still hurts when I think of removing the dressing. Moving on. While the girl laid on her stomach with her burnt back exposed, the doctor strategically placed the freshly harvested skin on her burn and sutured it in place. The whole burn was not covered, but the harvested skin will eventually grow and spread over the entire burn. As he was finishing up, the doctor said: “There. I’ve done my best. Now, I leave the rest up to God and the nurses.” A very wise man. We assisted in applying a new dressing, and Dr. Ngeera gave us instructions on how to take care of it. Since Allison and I were the ones on the surgery unit that week, he made us responsible for taking care of her. No problem. So it was time to wake her up. Sometimes, when people wake from anesthesia, they thrash around a bit. She thrashed around a lot. She kept trying to roll onto her back, which is obviously not recommended after skin graft surgery. The doctor started shouting: “Lift! Lift!” You can imagine how hard it was to lift a 10-year-old girl with burns over most of her body, and hold her still… Valium it is. She fell back asleep. We visited her several times for the rest of the day, but she was very sleepy. I did meet her father, though. He lives very far away and it is expensive for him to come to see her, so he only visits once in a while. He had stayed with her in the hospital for the first month, but eventually had to go home. He was a very sweet man- from what I could tell. He couldn’t speak any English and I can only speak a few words in Swahili- none of which were helpful for conversing with him.
The next day, we went back to visit. I think she was still feeling the effects of anesthesia, and she was feeling pain. She was not interested in talking to us. That evening, we returned again. I taught most of the girls to crochet since we’ve been here, and Allison made a blanket that she decided to give to the girl. We gave it to her with a little note that we had one of the nurses translate. It said that she is a very brave and beautiful girl, and that we are very proud of her. She was quite shy about it. She accepted the gift, but did not say much. We wished her goodnight and left. Because it was a while ago, I am getting the days mixed up. I think it was the next day. I went in to see her, and she was wide awake and full of smiles. The lady in the next bed has been very kind and has been translating for us. I sat on the girl’s bed and talked for about 45 minutes. She said that she was very happy to see me. She told me that she loved me and wondered if I loved her too. Another moment that I will never forget. We keep saying that we feel like the Grinch- when his heart grew three sizes! I think our hearts have probably grown a thousand sizes since we’ve been in Kenya! The girl asked if I had gone to eat lunch yet- I hadn’t. She said that she felt mercy for me because I must be hungry. She offered to share her lunch with me, though figured I probably would not like it. I told her that I like Kenyan food and I named all of the foods that I know: mokimo, chapatti, samosas, mandazis… She laughed at that. She said that she was very appreciative of the gifts that we gave her- the gift bag with the toy, candy and Canada pen, and the blanket. She wondered, though, if I would feel badly if she asked me to buy her a new pair of shoes. I told her that I would be honored. Our friendship is slowly becoming more comfortable. She is still nervous around us at times. We are trying to get her to say our names and do funny handshakes. She thinks we are crazy. The other day, she followed us around at different times during the day and would kind of hide behind walls or posts and then peek out and stick her tongue out at us. Yesterday, I as I was walking by, I reached out my hand to shake hers and she grabbed onto my hand and pulled me around the corner to sit on a bench with her. I gave her a Canada flag pin and stuck it to the shawl that she wears. Later, as I was going home, she grabbed my blood pressure cuff from me and pretended to run away with it. I thought she was going to follow me home. I am really going to miss her. I am going to get her address from her father the next time I see him so that I can write letters to her when I go home.
We have also had other exciting experiences. Last weekend, we went to Masai Mara. The nutrition girls had been organizing the trip with our travel agent, Henry. We had requested David, the driver that we had when we first arrived in Kenya. Those silly nutrition girls decided to play a trick on us and told us that Henry was sending a different driver. We were all very disappointed, because David is the best! So, Wednesday evening, we were sitting at the table eating supper and we heard a knock on the door. We all looked at each other and said: “Ugh… it’s probably the driver……..” The door opened and we heard: “Hi! It’s David!!!” We all jumped up and ran to give him a hug. Best surprise ever!! So, Thursday morning, we headed out for a long drive. We drove to Nakuru (through the Great Rift Valley) to pick up Vionna, one of the vet students, and then headed to Nairobi for the night. We at the Java House- which was amazing!! The first homey food that we have had in a long time. We did a bit of shopping, and visited Henry in his office. Then we went to our hotel. It was really nice for being super cheap. But… the walls were paper thing and there were people making noise all night. AND SINGING HAPPY BIRTHDAY AT 5AM!!!! We were not happy. Oh well. We got back in the combi very early and drove another looooong drive to Masai Mara. It was worth it. There is a game park there and we stayed in a beautiful hotel. We went on three safaris and saw some pretty amazing things. We saw a lion eating a zebra, which was pretty much the most exciting thing ever. We drove THROUGH the famous wildebeest migration, which was also pretty cool. There were thousands of them. They travel from the Serengeti to Masai this time of year. You may have seen it on Planet Earth. Or The Lion King. We also saw hyenas, a cheetah, three leopards, many zebras, giraffes, elephants, and a whole bunch of other things. While sitting by the pool, we saw several vervot monkeys who were endowed with some very interesting private parts. When we jumped in the pool, they tried to get into our purses- until the bartender ran over and chased them away with sticks. He didn’t hit them though- just scared them. Early Sunday morning, we piled back into the combi to drive all the way from Masai Mara to Nakuru and back to Kiirua. I don’t know how many kilometers it was, but it took something like 12 hours. We made a stop at this river where hippo families live. We took a boat ride through the river, which was really cool. Kind of scary when huge hippo would stare at us and then disappear under water for a few minutes. We thought we were going to be eaten. We weren’t, though, so don’t worry. The movie Out of Africa was filmed on a little island on the river. Pretty cool. Anyway, the 12 hour drive on bumpy Kenyan roads was not fun. Most roads do not have yellow lines painted on them, so the drivers drive all over the place and pass people when there is oncoming traffic. It was especially scary when it got dark and started raining. But our driver extraordinaire got us home safely.
Oh yes, and I better not forget to mention the 7 animals that we discovered at Masai Mara that had never been seen there before.
Well… that is all for today. We are going on outreach today and then tomorrow, we are going back to the children’s home. We haven’t been to either place in two weeks. We miss all of the little darlings, so we’re very excited to go! See you all in one month!!
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