Peter is Home!

Yes, it's true--Peter finally got discharged from the hospital, and it seemed to happen almost effortlessly.  Ok, maybe that's not true.  I've spent days and days seeking information and asking when he can go home and begging people to inform me.  I had planned to call and possibly visit the hospital yesterday afternoon b/c they were going to look at his leg in the morning.  I expected to wait hours for a doctor to give me information.  Instead, we were in Kibera yesterday with the women making beads.  Alex came in a bit late and made a casual comment about how the hospital called and Peter was being discharged.  And I'm like, Whoa....wait, what??  I then called and talked to the surgeon and she said that the skin graft looked good enough for him to recover at home.  The catch was that I only had 2 hours to get to the hospital and sign paperwork or we would be charged for another day.  Now 2 hours might seem like plenty of time, but it's really not when you have to get there using public transportation.  Plus we were deep in Kibera and someone always has to walk me out b/c i'm completely lost in there.  so off we trudged out of Kibera carrying 21 straw baskets that Emily, one of the ladies, made for us.  Oh, and we also had 2 wash basins, 2 thermos of hot water (all for washing the babies in the afternoon), jam and butter from making tea for the ladies, and lots of other stuff.  We looked ridiculous and Joyce, who's house we were at, couldn't understand why I was in such a hurry.  I ended up going to the hospital by myself so that Alex and Rach could go meet with the street women.  I got there in record time; it only took about 1 hour 15 minutes...hooray for no traffic.  I signed some papers, went and picked up his medicine from the pharmacy, found out I'm getting a small amount of money back from the hospital, and that was it.  I think it's the only day I've smiled while at Aga Khan.  So at this point he was free to go, but I didn't want to take a taxi with him myself, so I had to wait 3 hours for Alex and Rachel to come.  Peter was asleep, so i found some lunch and finally finished a book I've been trying to read the whole summer.  Around 5:00 we finally left for home.  Peter seems glad to go home, although I just don't think he was truly understanding how careful he has to be.  We have been reiterating this over and over.  Rach and I have insisted he can only get up to use the bathroom and that's about it.  They didn't give him crutches or anything and we have no chairs in our house, or any furniture except a falling apart stool, so he is pretty much confined to the mattresses.  We go back on Monday for a follow up with the plastic surgeon.  Thank you so much for your prayers for Peter and continue praying for his recovery.

Also please be praying for Rachel and I as we prepare to come home in a week.  We are both really struggling with not wanting to leave and we try not to talk about it too much. I don't really know how to merge these 2 lives of mine together.  I know it will be difficult leaving everyone behind here, and I think it's going to be a hard transition for me.  I pray that I may take the good things that I have learned from America and Kenya and that they may shape who I am wherever I am living.