First night in country:
We arrive in Nairobi at the "Midnight Guest House" in what felt like midnight.
Wake up in the morning to the happiest kid anywhere. "Ahhhh, when I look out the window and see that (green tropical garden and trees full of birds),  it just makes me so happy!" says the Man-Cub.

First drive through the valley:
We have a 4th year med student and a senior resident on a global health elective rotation with us.  It's a great job that we get to be doing this and call it work. Kenya is changing.  There is a new section of railway being built.  And Kenya is much the same; now in a new segment of an old story.

First Call:
Daktari on call on the first weekend here.
The hospital has open one ward for males and another open ward for females.  20 beds in a room and lots of very sick people sharing space with family members and each other.  There is a 35 yr old man who had a bleeding ulcer.  He was stable but he suddenly coded and died in the night.  35. Ulcer.
Directly across from him our friend was coding a 1 yr old child.  She also died last night. 1 year old. Next morning before church, found out a second man in his 30's also died unexpectedly before the code team could even be notified.  How it happens like an angel of death sweeping over the place, I don't know.

First weekend:
We were invited to lunch at our friend's house in the village over the river.  It was lovely to be out there again.  Real people doing real life:  growing banana trees, sugar cane, grass to feed the milk cow.  Eating real Kenyan food: chapati, greens, rice, beans, beef, and steaming hot sweet chai. Thankful for these nourishing relationships that keep pulling us back to this place.

First meals:
We were also invited to dinner with a missionary family who recounted the traumatic events of last weekend, just a week before we arrived.  Tenwek had a terrible fire at night.  Around 8 pm the kitchen caught fire and burned up an entire building of offices and the kitchen.  They community was really dramatically impacted. It was like a story of Gideon in the Old Testament and how he took his tiny army and some flash lights to defeat the enormous Midianite army.  Here in Kenya there is no EMS.  The closest thing to a fire engine was a water tank truck in town and the wheels were off for repair.  One missionary drove for an hour to the next town to look for a fire engine.  Meanwhile the missionaries and staff and local folks were tossing buckets of tap water onto the huge flames.  One man we know who is a master builder, climbed on the roof of the building to knock off all the wood trim that would spread the fire to other buildings.  The boiler room and back up generator with tons of diesel fuel were directly next door to the burning building.  The patient wards were all around being evacuated.  The Lord directly protected and contained the fire to that one building and we are all full of thanks and praise!  Not a single person was even hurt.  It was miraculous.

First impressions:
The daktari kids noticed that some of the ground rules in the community have changed for how they are allowed/expected to play.  However, they still ask if we can stay here for years and years.  It is their glory days all over again.  At least, that's their first impressions.