"Population of Kenya...plus 1! ...+3 actually..."

Yes, the above is true...in a strange way...ill get to that in the following nonsense...

So i left off in eldoret, on our way to a place called Kerio View to celebrate William's birthday and my 21st birthday!! It was a fabulous place!! one of the most gorgeous, breathtaking places i have ever been...and ive seen some glorious parts of creation. the place is a little resort/restaurant. a very kenyan sort of resort but very classy. it is located on one of the highest cliffs in the rift valley, over looking miles and miles and miles of valley and cliffs...there were several of layers of earth, the plates. on each level, there were beautiful green valleys with farms and villages and rivers. my words just do not do it justice...maybe my pictures will help. i only took like 200. so we ordered our food (waaayy too much of it haha) and then, since they take an hour to cook it, we hiked all around the property, venturing down little trails right along the cliff, holding our breath as we climbed out on some rocks that hang out over a few thousand foot drop. it was glorious. i would have loved to have a hang glider or a giant zipline to just jump off and soar over it all. like soarin over california at disneyland...but instead, soaring over the great rift valley of africa...i think im on to something Dave Scott:) so anyway, we enjoyed an incredible lunch, ate waaayyy too much food but loved every second of it. we finished it off with a slice of vanilla chocolate marble cake with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and fudge on top. for a kenya dessert, it was really really good! no offense to kenyan desserts, but theyre usually not very sweet, but this one definitely surpassed my expetations. it was a great 21st birthday outting:)

On sunday, my actual birthday, we went to church and enjoyed several sermons in swahili and tons of singing and dancing. the rest of the day was great...i got everything i could possibly want on my 21st birthday in kenya...a hot shower, a nap, another incredible thunder storm, a nice long walk to a bridge that crossed the river with my kenyan brothers and sisters, 96 children sang me happy birthday (i filmed it!), didnt have to eat ugali, instead got to have chipatti!! (my favorite kenyan food...im gunna get the recipe so i can make it at home...its that good! and, i got to call home and talk to the fam and davis:) so it was a great day! before we went to bed, alie and i opened the stale, heart shaped birthday cake that she bought for me 2 weeks ago...it was rock hard when we bought it so you can imagine that 2 weeks later, it was a fossil. but for photo purposes, we opened it and bit into it and took some pictures...and then we spit it out and i thoroughly enjoyed a twix and a coke that i had bought from the grocery store.

On monday, we went with the social workers on some more home visits...similar to last week. this time we were prepared for the long muddy walk...we visited 3 different patients throughout the course of the day. all were wonderful, strong, inspiring people...we sat in their homes, chatted with them and prayed with them. on our walk, we happened upon "pride rock" from the lion king so we had to hike up it and enjoy the view and take some pictures. it was pretty cool...we saw simba and rafiki up there and they say jambo!! another ridiculous thunderstorm escourted us back to our hut just in time for it to dump...the power has been on and off (alot more off than on) the past couple of days and i am crossing my fingers right now that it will stay on long enough for me to post this blog!

so about my peculiar title for this blog...kenya, like the usa, does a census every 10 years, and we just so happened to be here right when they are conducting their census. since we are clearly white and clearly visitors, we didnt think much of it...until the census people were at the training center last night when we were walking back from the childrens home and the lady got to talking with us and followed us down to our hut, came inside and whipped out her "census taking book", looked just like a baseball score keeping book. we census-ed us...we were counted...as foreigners of course, but we were thoroughly counted...she stayed for a good 20 minutes and asked us tons of questions...how many children weve had, how many cows we have, etc...it was crazy!! she seemed very suspicious of us...like she knew that we were hiding 3 sheep under our bed and chickends in our shower..,.good think she didnt go look! so then she wrote on our glass door with chalk to show that we had been counted. wierd. so that is why "population of kenya...+2" is fitting.

so today started off great...got to open another card from dad:) always puts a smile on my face and encourages me! thanks dad! ur the BEST!!! today is a public holiday for the census so the clinic was really slow this morning. we had like 2 patients. so we just hungout and enjoyed a beautiful morning. since it was so slow, michelle gave us the afternoon off...but of course, we told her and kipto to call us if anything exciting like a delivery came in, not expecting anything at all. we went and happily (insert sarcasm) ate our corn and beans at the children's home. as i was eating, i felt my phone vibrate in my bag and immediate got excited, knowing that it had to be michelle calling! and michelle it was..."we have a delivery!! she's only 6cm tho so come around 4..." YAY!! so we took our time, came back to our hut, and listened to another raging thunderstorm roll in...not too long after that however, the phone rang...Kipto (the other nurse)...i couldnt quite understand him but i heard (contractions, fast, pushing, and soon...) so that was enough to tell me that we needed to book it over there once again! so we grabbed our bags, threw on our skirts and took off into one of the heaviest down pours ive ever seen!! 30 seconds in, we were SOAKED! we were sprinting, slipping and sliding the entire way! a muddy mess!! and not just mud but all those lovely cow pies that we avoid like death, were now all mixed into the muddy mess, getting all up in our tevas and exfoliating our feet...african style. so so sick!! our trail that we hike to the clinic had turned into a small river and we trecked on through it, our adrenaline keeping us going. we made it to the clinic, looking as if we had been swimming in a pool and kipto looked at us like we were crazy as we stood there, trying to wring out skirts out. it was a sight to see...we looked terrible!! and we were freezing! thank God, mom hadnt delivered yet but she was close...9cm. we gloved up, ready to help kipto deliver the baby...i got out the fetal heart doppler and found the baby's heart beat...nice and strong. the mom pushed twice and the kid popped right out!! he let out a nice strong cry to let us know his lungs were healthy and then he started peeing everywhere to let us know that he was a boy! i cut the cord and then alie and i began drying him off and cleaning him up while kipto worked on delivering the placenta...we moved the baby to another bed, finished drying him off and then swaddled him in 2 blankets and a bonnet. then we weighed him and took him to see his mommy:) holding a baby, 60 seconds after it has taken its first breath is absolutely incredible. i think every person needs to experience that!! i got a picture of the adorable little bundle. so precious. it was a perfect smooth delivery..."text book" as we would say in america. since we were still soaking wet and now shivering, we didnt stay long...we trecked back through the mud and the cow poo...the stream we always have to cross was now a raging river...we carefully walked through it, holding our skirts up as the water came up to our knees!! the brown, poop colored water!! lovely. we got back to our hut, stripped off all our drenched clothes and hopped into the cold shower...no power, remember...so we just rinsed our legs off and i scrubbed the heck out of my feet...trying to undo the cow poo exfoliation that the earth had so generously given me. we crawled into bed and were still shivering 2 hours later!! i have to say, it was ALL worth it tho, to get to witness another birth, african style. such an incredible miracle:) wow.

we are enjoying another wonderful american night at michelle and william's...spaghetti and green beans and hot cocoa!! michelle makes the most incredible hot cocoa with fresh milk from her goats...just kidding...her cows. i dont think goats milk hot cocoa would be very good. no, definitely not. so, this could very possibly be my last blog from kipkaren as we only have 5 days left here and probably wont be going to town again. so the next you'll hear from me will likely be from the nairobi airport on monday! hopefully ill have some great stories about our safari:)

I love you all and miss you tons!! thanks for all the continued support and comments on here...they are so encouraging!! cant wait to be at home and share all of africa with you. pray that alie and i have the strength to finish strong and stay healthy! sending my love home!!

love,
somerlyn

ps...sigalert update...things are moving...slowly...wreckage is mostly cleared. expect delays. stay tuned for more information.