This will be the last entry of the trip!!
Hello everyone!!
This will most likely be the last posting while I am in Africa because we are leaving Kisii tomorrow morning. We were supposed to be leaving Kisii on Thursday morning but we have to do something in Nairobi before we leave for our safari on Friday so we need to leave tomorrow morning. So all day today we are going around Kisii saying goodbye to everyone and thanking them for all their hospitality. I’m sure I will have many tears today. I can not believe that I am coming home next week and it still has not hit me yet that we are leaving. It is going to be torture to say goodbye to our family here but it is not a goodbye, it is a see you later!
The update on the woman at the hospital with the baby that initially she did not want the child is all good news. We saw her on Friday and talked to her about everything and made sure that she understands how to be a good mother and how she should be so happy to have a healthy child. She named the baby boy Dalton, which I thought was such a good choice because she had to have thought deeply about that name. Dalton is not a name that you just come up with to name someone you don’t love. I truely believe she now loves her child. She thanked us for helping her and making her realize what she realizes now. We also got her contact information and gave her ours to tell us if she moves because we want to help her anyway we can. Even $10 a month or something goes an extremely long way here and I am willing to do what it takes to make sure that this baby boy stays safe. There is also a nurse at the hospital that lives near to her and we got her contact information as well to check up on things. We also saw some crazy things on Friday. There was a baby that was born through c/s and was born with hydrocephalis, and it had the biggest head I have ever seen. The head was filled with fluid and it has stretched so much it looked like an alien. The child did not make it. Then right after that we found out that the woman in labor right next to us was about to deliver a baby with anaencephaly. This condition is when the fetus never develops a skull. The baby was 3 months early and was breach. I knew immediately I wanted to see this so we stayed a little late that day to make sure we saw it. When it was born it looked like a frog or something and was so extremely tiny with basically no head. It had eyes and a mouth but no top…just brain. It was absolutely shocking to see and I lost my breath for a couple of minutes. This child did not make it either. So our goal for today which is our last day at the hospital is to see a good healthy baby born.
This weekend we just spend getting organized and cleaning out our room and all our stuff. I can not believe that we are leaving for home next week on Thursday. This trip has been such a learning experience that I’m sure will take me weeks to actually realize what it means and how it will change my life. The people here and the experiences we have had I would never trade for anything in this world. They will all be in my heart forever.
Well this will be the last update until I get home and I can tell you all how our safari goes and how the last few days in Nairobi are. Thank you for all your love and support, I could not have done this without you.
I love you.
Ashley
