Well I've made it to a month here in the Masa Mara and I'm still really loving it here. Mara West camp is so amazing. I'm posting a movie below of what it's like to wake up here, hear the singing birds, roaring lions, and zebras and giraffes. At Mara West camp I feel so spoiled- as the chef is constantly making me gourmet food and all the workers are so kind. Mara West Camp is a place where many visitors come from safaris and I've made a few international friends from staying here. I love my safari tent.
On April 1st I will move to the clinic where I will be living for most of the remaining time. I will be cooking and cleaning for myself now- and it will have to be all local food that can be boiled or fried. There are not many vegetables or fruits here. There is a lot of rice and beans and there is cow milk potatoes carrots and watermelon and oranges. As I've mentioned before the Masai love cows.. and they also LOVE tea.
I am beginning to love tea more and more. Here the people make chai- which is like a black tea with milk and sugar mixed over a fire. SO DELICIOUS.
I also love waking up and watching the sunset and doing some morning yoga. Sometimes I feel like I should have just been a hippie child. The women here are great artisans and they love to bead and sell beautiful jewelry.
After I wake up, I ride the motorcycle to the clinic and then I normally stay til 3-4 pm. I mostly do women's health treatments and baby immunizations and checks, but sometimes I help on the other clinic side with burns or wounds. Today I did a home visit on the motorcycle to a little boy's house who got bit by a dog. The boy is 10 years old and the wound was about 2 inches wide and 1 inch deep. We have been cleaning the wound and the boy has been getting rabies shots and its looking a lot better.
I used to be really nervous about births but now I love them! I still have so much to learn, but I love learning. I wonder if maybe when I get back to the states I will want to be a midwife. I have helped with 8 births os far and I can't wait to help with many more.
I am enjoying helping at the clinic and the clinic workers are so kind. The nurse and doctor here is so talented and they are teaching me so much. Sometimes I feel inadequate or incompetent, because they do SO much here. But God is teaching and humbling me and I love what I'm learning. Days are much slower here in the Mara- sometimes there are times when there are only one or two patients all day. Sometimes at night I get really lonely here at the camp or when it rains.
Overall though I feel so full of blessings and thankful to be here.