Notes from Nairobi

Off to the hospital again this morning. I have no idea how long it takes to get from here to there because as soon as I get in the car I lose all sense of time and space and just grip the dash and pray for mercy. My mother is an excellent driver–muscling her ramshackle land rover over potholes and around roundabouts with alacrity and venom. It’s not her, its the vast swath of humanity who drive according to their own feelings and inclinations, with no thought for what tomorrow may bring.

The very nice by-pass that lets us avoid the city center is made more exciting than necessary by the fact that many drivers around here have never learned the mores of merging, nor the useful device of the signal. Also, large herds of cows occasionally amble across the wide smooth road, searching out a bite of grass where the most nearsighted person can see that there is no grass.

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Nairobi Hospital is a first rate facility. For all those in the US concerned about the downturn of the health care industry, this might be a nice place to come and learn about the old ways of humane medical care. Dinner and Breakfast and Tea are served on glass plates. The nursing staff is phenomenal–competent, kind, friendly, un-harried, attentive. No one is exhausted by filling out forms.

My dad is tiring of the menu though. He has tried everything, and is having to start over back at the beginning, which is a great discouragement.

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Indeed, I would say that discouragement is kind of my word for the day. It’s taking a long time to get forms signed and sent back and forth from Dubai to Houston and back round again. The sitting in the hospital watching my dad, by turns exhausted and frustrated, seems interminable. The waking up in the middle of the night thinking that it is already the day, wearying.

I’m really grateful that so many people are praying because I’m having a hard time looking God in the face right now–the whole experience is too raw, too stressful, and I don’t really want to know whatever it is that God is playing at. So I am so grateful for all of you who are praying, and who have unwavering trust in God’s provident goodness. I am wandering around in the dark, trying not to think too deeply about anything, just waiting for the next thing.

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So, what we, and by that I mean you, must surely be praying for, is
-that my dad AND mom will get on my flight on Wednesday. Or, barring that, I’ll be able to change my ticket to go with them.
-that my kids will all get over their cough and that their father won’t get it before we get home.
-that the doctors in the states will immediately have clarity and that God will give them wisdom and curiosity.
-that the airline will be nice to us and make his travel as comfortable as possible.
-that violence around Nairobi will die down.
-for an end to all ethnic strife and political corruption Everywhere, here and across the sea.

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And now I will leave this nice bright roaring fire that is pushing off the Nairobi damp, and go on to the next thing. Pip pip.