Rainbows and Hospitals

I'm sitting here listening to Mariah Carey (You'll always be my baby). I love how old school music is popular here. Yesterday was a day of blessings and of testing my patience. Julie and I first went to Sarah Junior school where we had the kids color rainbows and put cotton on the ends for clouds and blue paper for rain hanging down. As we were doing this, and let me tell you it was a challenge with 65 kids; but i was so overcome with thankfulness. i started thanking God so much for this opportunity b/c i have been dreaming about coming to Africa for 2 years, and to finally have it happen and to be able to make art with kids is more than i could have hoped for. for most of these students, it was the first time to do anything like this. my host mom keeps telling me that i'm so creative, and i really haven't done anything. it's just that they've never seen anything like this here.

afterwards we met a friend of julie's who is kenyan. she took us to her house for lunch. it was amazing. her family is pretty well off i think and they were so shocked to hear that we are living without running water most of the time. honestly, it's so normal now, i don't even care. but i had wonderful food there, and i think this will be a good person to keep in touch with if i ever need anything.

then we went to the hospital b/c i have not been feeling well. please do pray for me guys. i'm having stomach pains, and it doesn't seem to be anything serious, but i would really like it to go away. here's what the hospital was like: first I waited in line to pay a consultation fee. the i waited in the waiting room. then i was called in to take my temperature and blood pressure. they take your temp under your armpit. then i go back to the waiting room. then i'm called back and the doctor looks at me for 2 minutes and orders some tests. then you go pay for the tests. then i go to the lab by going outside first. then you wait at the lab. then they call you and do the tests. then i waited an hour for the test. then i took the results back to the other building and waited. then the doctor looked at them and said, oh we should have done this too. so i had to go pay for another test then go back to the lab. i waited again and then got the results. i took results to the doctor. then he gave me some medicine. i then went to the pharmacy by the waiting room. i waited to pay for the medicine. then i waited and waited and finally they gave me medicine. all this took 4 1/2 hours. so long...T.I.A. (This is Africa...that's what we say all the time around here.) everyone goes to a hospital instead of a doctor's office b/c it's cheaper, hence the long lines.

i did mention we had a new MST, Patrick. I'm not sure if i said he was german and a skateboarder. it's funny to see new people's reactions to life here b/c it reminds you of how you first felt. he had to go to this meeting yesterday and it drove him crazy. he said, all of this could have been covered in about 20 minutes but it took 2 hours. we all laughed b/c we feel the same way. T.I.A. as much as we try to make things more efficient, you really can't completely change a culture. you just have to make the best of it and always have a book handy to fill the time.