"Breaking news...massive sigalert on the 110 freeway..."

Jambo sana!! (hi...very much hi?!) my swahili is terrible! its a craqzy language...i think when ppl speak in tongues, theyre actually just speakinn swahili. anyway, it has been an eventful few deays since my last blog...not surprising. never a dull moment in africa!

so in coming to kenya and working at the clinic, one of the things i was really hoping to get to witness is a delivery (no, not a dominoes delivery, although that sounds delectable right now)...a baby delivery. michelle said they deliver 2-6 babies per month so i figured i had a pretty good chance but with only 1 week to go, i was losing hope.well, that all changed early thursday morning the 20th (ems birthday!!) with a call from michelle..."we have a delivery! shes 8 cm so book it over here!!"and so book it we did! we threw on the nearest skirt and shirt and dashed out the door, sprinting the whole mile uphill to the clinic...our adre3naline kept us going. we got there and sure enough she was in labor. this aint to huntington memorial or hoag...just a bed with an iv of pitocin hanging from the window. no epidural (no pain killer at all), no fancy fetal heart monitor, no sterile field, no room service, no incubator, no ultrasound, no option of emergency c-section, no technology hardly at all. just the bare essentials. the mom's pelvis was narrow so they were a bit worried about the baby fitting out. in childbirth, the women dont make much noise here. she said "seesta, seesta!" and "jesus, oh jesus!" a bunch of times but that was it. it got re3ally intense when she had been pushing hard for awhile...the baby's head finally came out...but the body was firmly stuck inside. it stayed like that for what felt like 30 mins. i was horrified cuz i thot the baby was dead. my eyes began to well up with tears and i began to pray silently, "Lord, get thsi baby out and let her be alive, fill her lungs and let her cry please God dont let this baby die." my mind was spinning when finally the baby came out. oh, wat a relief...now if this were a white baby, it would have been blue and would have totally failed it's APGARS. but you couldnt tell her color. she looked flaccid and floppy. after michelle suctioned here, cut the cord, stimulated her and wrapped her up, she began to cry!! oh wat a sweet sweet sound it was...the sound of new life. a miracle. i was so relieved but still a bit traumatized. a 3rd world delivery is an eye opening experience. mom and baby napped for a few hours and thne got up and walked on home. wow.

Ugali, cow parts, corn...it just keeps coming! coming in...but not coming out. see, thats where the real problem exists. its like a sigalert on the 110 freeway. if you have good drivers (healthy good food) traffic flows smoothly, but if you have bad drivers (the ugali) like most of LA they come in and cause a huge wreck and stop up the entire frweeway (the intestines) for hours (more like days!) and if youre not from LA (Africa) and arent used to the traffic (ugali, corn etc)you get pretty uncomfortable witht he traffic jam (constipation) and its time to call for backup...or help for your "backup" some "towtrucks" (laxatives) to come in and clear the freeway for thru traffic to again, flow smoothly. so the sigalert is bad, fatalities involved, backup (yes "body drain-o") has been called and the wreckage is being cleared. but its a mess, all 5 lanes blocked. stay tuned for more3 traffic updates...reporting live from kipkaren, kenya.

on a different note, the afternoon storms have been raging! thursday afternoon it POURED harder than we have ever seen for a solid 2 hours! it came with huge, booming crackling bursts of thunder that make u sit in awe of the one who created it. we sat in our hut with the windows open and soaked it all in. along those lines, i electricuted myself twice on thrusday...i touched the shower head (which is electric to heat the water) and got zapped. then, an hour later, i went to turn the lamp on and grabbed a part of the cord with wires hanging out that i didnt see and man, i really got hit ahrd that time...it went all the way to my toes! my body wasw still tiwtching 7 hours later when i went to bed. im such an idiot. note to self...dont tuch anything electric.

at the children's home, the kids are nuts!! i tried teaching some of the boyd how to make string bracelets the other night...FAIL! theyre boys. theyre good at killing chickens and innocent birds (RIP Kidogo) they are3 so much fun tho!! ive taken hundreds of pix of them. they love life and each other and really really love Jesus. it is incredibly inspiring.

Friday came fast this week. I went with the "Tumaini Na Afia" (hope and health) team to take people with AIDS to a treatment center. its run by an organization called Ampath and is all free!! on the drive home, we had 16 people cramme3d in the "ambulance" (land rover with a light on top). oh, africa!

today, saturday, we are on a fun little outing with michelle and william...we drive thru eldoret to do a few things (blog, buy more chocolate, etc) and we are heading now to "Kario-view"...im sure i butchered the spelling but its a famour location in the heart of the rift valley where two of the earths techtonic plates are shifting and apparently is really beautiful and theres a great restaurant at the top that we will eat at. were celebrating williams birthday (next friday) and my 21st, TOMORROW!! yaaayyyyy! so fun to get to celebrate in Africa...but cant wait to celebrate back in America!! tamely of course... ;)

we have just 1 week left here before we come home to america. pray that i have the strength to finish strong!! and pray for the sigalert too. haha:) cant wait for an exciting homecoming and to share all my crazy stories and thousands of pictures with all of you!! love you all TONS!! thanks for the great comments...they are SO fun to read! see you soon!!

love, Somey