Jarretts Ministry

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
Volume 5, Number 5
February 17, 2004

Dear Friends and Family:
I know that I just wrote 3 days ago, but I wanted to update some of the situations here for your prayers and tell you how God has answered some prayers for us. Thanks for praying for us. We know that prayer works; God answers prayer and continually meets our needs.
I have had a very busy schedule starting with this past weekend on call. Since Sunday morning [about 2 and ½ days], I have done 10 cesarean sections, had two patient deaths, and have wrestled with a decision to begin another patient on dialysis.
Even in the deaths of these patients, we have seen God working. I mentioned in my last letter a patient who came in with worsened pneumonia; she was showing evidence of AIDS. She seemed to improve initially with our therapy, although she was still requiring oxygen. The chaplain visited with her on Sunday, and she prayed to receive Christ as her savior. In the early hours of Tuesday morning, she suddenly worsened and died. The baby was too small to save.
On the 12th of February, we had admitted 27-year-old Nancy to the gynecology ward. She had miscarried her fourth pregnancy 3 days before at about 20 weeks gestation. She had quite a bit of bleeding afterwards; she came in with a hemoglobin of 3.6 [normal 12-14] and a fever, leading the intern to think that her uterus might be infected. She was started on 3 antibiotics right away and received two units of blood. Despite this supportive therapy, she seemed to become worse. She became somewhat psychotic — talking to people who weren’t there and yelling in a loud voice. Her husband visited frequently; he stated that her mental status was normal before the miscarriage. We wondered about an emotional reaction to the pregnancy loss, but the high fever made us more suspicious of a physical cause for her behavior.
My examination didn’t really suggest that she had a uterine infection. Malaria didn’t fit the picture perfectly either. We asked a visiting internist from Birmingham, AL to check her over. He found evidence of a heart murmur and suggested endocarditis [infection of the heart valves] as a possibility. A chest x-ray then confirmed the patient had a very large heart; she probably had rheumatic heart disease that was now complicated by a destructive infection. We started another antibiotic, but the situation now appeared grim. The next morning there was evidence of fluid build-up in the lungs suggesting heart failure was worsening. We gave diuretics and digitalis, but it seemed even more hopeless. I talked with the husband about the patient’s spiritual condition. He confirmed that she was not a believer in Jesus, and that he had lost faith himself. It concerned me that the husband didn’t seem to accept the seriousness of her condition. He wondered if she had been bewitched – a common belief among many Africans. I told him “no, her heart is failing”.
Nancy seemed lucid on Sunday morning the 15th, so I asked the Chaplain to visit her. She also prayed to receive Christ. She had a fairly good day that day, but soon she began to have even more difficulty in her breathing. She deteriorated steadily over the next 24 hours, so that this morning on rounds we noted that she didn’t have long. Still the husband didn’t seem to accept her situation.
We began a series of 3 c-sections [fetal distress, repeat c-section for the third time, and finally a set of twins who were too big for the mother of 8 to deliver – they seemed to collide with each other trying to get into the birth canal, so that even this veteran mother and veteran obstetrician couldn't get the lead baby to come down. Both babies were nearly 8 pounds and did very well. It seemed like the Biblical passage of the children struggling within the womb.
When I finished, I passed by the gynecology ward one more time to check on Nancy. It was a visiting hour, so the ward was crowded with visitors. Nancy lay still in the first bed without any signs of breathing. I came closer to her just as the husband arrived. Her body was warm, but her heart wasn't beating. Her pupils were fixed and dilated; she had passed into eternity. The husband wanted us to do more, but there was nothing to be done. His behavior continued to be strange – she wasn't dead, someone gave her an injection and killed her – nothing he was saying made much sense. A visitor for a patient in the next bed tried talking with him, and I asked that the chaplain be called right away. He didn't seem to get violent which I thought might be the next problem. I kept looking over my shoulder as I filled out the death certificate. Later I noticed him sitting outside on a bench, talking with the visitor who was obviously ministering to him. Please pray for Nancy's husband – he seems like a very lost soul.

Eunice is another patient who could use your prayers. She came in last week with eclampsia – seizures as a result of high blood pressure in pregnancy. Her case was unusual in that she was age 39, having her fourth child with no history of previous difficulty. We treated her with magnesium sulfate to stop the seizures initially; fortunately, she had delivered a healthy baby before her arrival. Over the next few days, her mind cleared, but it was obvious she had suffered a mild stroke that left her left side weak. Her kidney function wasn't great either; her creatinine was 2.6 instead of a maximum normal of 1.2.
She made progress daily with some success in walking with assistance. She was caring for the baby, and impressed us with her positive attitude. She is a school teacher who speaks English well, which makes it far easier for me to communicate with her. She had several visitors assisting her, so we were very hopeful for a rapid recovery. The fact that her creatinine was going up higher and higher was disconcerting, however. Next it was 5.6 and then 8.0. The serum potassium was also going higher. All this indicated that her kidneys just weren't clearing out the waste products as they should. At some point this will cause complications of uremia [too much waste in the blood], heart irregularities from the increased potassium, or even inflammation of the sac around the heart [pericarditis]. The only treatment of these complications is dialysis [artificial removal of the waste]. The problem is that we can’t do dialysis at Tenwek.
On Sunday, Eunice began hallucinating. She wouldn’t feed the baby. This signaled uremia to me, and I retested the creatinine. It was 9.2 and the potassium was 5.8. Both are much too high for my comfort. I asked the nurses on Sunday night to alert the family of the possible need to transfer Eunice to Nairobi on Monday morning. She also needed a blood transfusion. The family seemed to have the resources to get her to Nairobi unlike most families in this area, but they also seemed to have strong faith as well. They began to pray for Eunice more specifically.
By Monday morning Eunice had suddenly turned the corner. She was clear minded and feeding the baby. Her left sided weakness was also much improved. I cancelled plans for transfer and put out a request for blood donors. One of the visiting doctors donated a pint. Today, Eunice was able to walk without assistance and her creatinine was down to 8.0. Her potassium was normal at 4.2. Again, I think that God intervened in a timely manner in answer to the prayers of the family. Or we just observed another coincidence of timing of sudden reversal of a serious disease. Please pray for complete recovery for Eunice. She is a Christian.
Another answer to prayer was for Marty’s lost locket. Sunday night, I was out multiple times, all night long. I have a routine of dressing and undressing so that I can do it completely in the dark without turning on the light to wake up Marty. My clothes are in order in the drawers, my keys, pen, hearing aids, glasses, and flashlight are on the top of the dresser. I can find everything I need in the dark just by feel. But Marty put her necklace with a small locket near my things, and I knocked it off onto the floor without noticing it.
Monday morning, Marty found the necklace on the floor, but the locket was gone! She turned the room upside down looking for it. I searched my pockets; the locket was nowhere to be found. She and the girls [and I] prayed for her locket to be found. We couldn’t imagine where it could be. Today, the laundry was washed and hung on the line as is the usual routine. My first set of scrub pants and shirt was on the line. Marty asked Laura to check under the clothes line very carefully. She checked and then rechecked; she spotted the locket in the grass. It must have fallen into a pocket of my scrubs on the floor, gone through the wash, and fallen out while hanging on the line. So today, we were all rejoicing in this answer to prayer.
Our triplets are all doing well. Thanks for your prayers. I won’t detail a lot more of the medical cases from the weekend, except to say that on Monday, I did 2 cesarean sections back to back for the placenta previa condition where the afterbirth is blocking the birth canal. Both were surprise conditions at term without the bleeding to indicate the possibility earlier. Even more disconcerting were earlier ultrasound exams which had missed the potentially fatal condition. Both times my examination didn’t precipitate a major catastrophe by disrupting the placenta on digital examination. Sometimes I think God must have to send a lot of angels to keep me out of trouble.
Please continue to pray for us and the staff at Tenwek Hospital. God is still working here in a mighty way.

Paul, for the Jarretts at Tenwek

PS. Drop us a note when you have the opportunity. It always helps to hear that you’re out there and praying. We know that the girl’s friends are there – they write every day. Marty and I try not to be jealous of their voluminous mailboxes.

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
Volume 5, Number 4
February 14, 2004

Dear Friends and Family:

I’ve wanted to write to you all week, but haven’t been able to get computer time. The power is off every day until 5:30 pm, so there isn’t much opportunity. Even today on the weekend, I’m on battery power. In the evenings, the girls want to write their friends, or I’m too tired to do anything creative. The dry season seems to be in full swing, so there’s no prospect of things changing for some time. It’s very expensive for the hospital to run on the diesel generator 24/7 so they ration power to the residences.

Things continue to be abnormal as far as the patient volume; there are very few commercial vehicles running. I was even concerned to go to Nairobi last weekend for fear of riots. All was quiet, however; apparently people are fed up with the abusive matatu syndicate and unsafe conditions, so they are putting up with the inconveniences. Traffic in Nairobi was heavier than usual as people must drive their own cars into the city instead of taking public transportation. And the streets are crowded with people on foot. I wonder how long the public will remain patient.

We’ve seen a few instances of patients suffering from delayed transportation to the hospital. Last weekend there were two maternal deaths. One was a lady with a uterine rupture of probably two day’s duration. She died shortly after surgery; they couldn’t maintain blood pressure despite their best efforts. The other was a mother who was brought in DOA. Apparently she had been having seizures for awhile. That set up the situation for one of the more unusual cesarean sections that I’ve participated in here at Tenwek.

Two days later, the family wanted the baby removed from the mother for separate burial. I can’t comment on the social custom and whether this is a common practice, but we were requested to assist. So the OB team went to the morgue and removed the baby via cesarean section. We removed the lifeless little girl and sewed the abdomen back together with a single strong suture. We then talked briefly with the family who waited outside. They seemed to appreciate our help. Sometimes ministry is just going above and beyond the call of duty in strange situations.

Thursday was a day of mixture of sadness and happiness. Little Cherono died at three weeks of age. Our little premature baby had fought bravely for quite a while and captured the hearts of all the staff. Then she became feverish, and her little abdomen became distended. Despite antibiotics, she went downhill quickly. She probably developed pneumonia, and perhaps some of her intestinal tract may have died from the infection.

The happiness was celebration of life in an unexpected way. Our househelper, Richard, and his wife, Mary, were expecting twins in another six weeks. Mary had lost their 7th child last year, so I’m sure they were somewhat apprehensive about another potentially difficult delivery. The doctors had done an ultrasound 10 weeks previous that showed a boy and a girl. The day started strangely enough for Richard when he fell while tending the chicken coop. He seemed to have sprained his wrist. After lunch, I went back to the hospital and Marty sent Richard home early. I was surprised to find Mary on one of the delivery tables; the nurses asked me to assess her labor. I found that she was ready to deliver the first child. We broke the water, and a 4-lb. boy soon followed. Then I broke another water sac, and a 4-lb. girl came right out. Evaline, the nurse, checked the abdomen and said that she thought there might be another baby inside. Sure enough, I found another water sac which I broke, and another girl came out weighing 4 and ½ lbs. Each of the triplets is in great shape; they’re doing well in the nursery today. I’m sure Richard and Mary would appreciate your prayers for their family and the new babies. We are all excited for their family as are each of them. They are very dear to us.

Evaline is the nurse whom I treated for possible rabies exposure at the end of her pregnancy last year. The baby boy did well and was named Jarrett. The cat, which disappeared shortly after biting Evaline, didn’t fare as well as she later met her death in a canine encounter, but she didn’t die of rabies.

Thanks for praying for our clinic assistant, Agnes. She is feeling much better and returned to work. We hope the remaining seven weeks of her pregnancy are uneventful.

I have noticed a big increase in the number of AIDS patients on our maternity ward. Previously, we have had a few HIV positive patients who were fairly healthy, but this year we have patients who have been HIV+ long enough to be sick with it. As the immune system deteriorates, “opportunistic” diseases begin to occur. These are diseases caused by bacteria, fungi, or viruses that a healthy immune system will reject. These patients have lost a lot of body fat and muscle, so they appear “wasted”. Many of them have oral thrush, similar to what a normal newborn might develop until his immune system has matured. Diarrhea diseases become common as well as pneumonia, both bacterial and TB. And malaria resistance, which is already low in pregnancy, drops even lower.

One young woman, Winny, came in last week with diarrhea, oral thrush, and some wasting. She consented to be tested for HIV, even though we suspected what the outcome of the test would be beforehand. There is some advantage in knowing for sure so that measures can be taken to prevent spread of the disease to the newborn at delivery. Despite this, many patients refuse testing, the social stigma being so great. Winny began to improve with treatment, and the test came out positive for HIV. The intern counseled her with the results; she seemed to suffer an unusual mental reaction to the news, however. The nurses restrained her from jumping off the balcony, and shortly thereafter she had some seizures. As a result she has been paralyzed on the left side of her body all this week. A spinal tap was done which is completely normal. Some of these things that we see here are completely mystifying.

Another patient with AIDS pneumonia [PCP] responded very well to treatment and was discharged. She didn’t come back to clinic on time and 4 days later, she is sicker than even before. I think she might have malaria now. At the clinic visit that she missed, we had planned on offering her ARV [antiretroviral therapy] which is now available in Kenya. Many of the AIDS fighting drugs have been made available in Africa at reduced cost. However, even greatly reduced cost [$25 per month] is more than most can afford. Average family income would be $50 and usually more than one individual is sick. [In Winny's case, there are 3 wives and a husband as well as children in the home, but it's not certain that others are sick or even infected.] If the patient has the money for drugs, she must come for uninterrupted treatment on a long term basis. If she fails three doses, the medicine won’t work anymore, and she will require a higher level of drug treatment thereafter that is even more expensive. Another patient had a cesarean section, but the wound hasn’t healed properly. Her test is also HIV+, but she is refusing to hear the results of the test. Our nurses and doctors face difficult challenges in this AIDS infected population; the challenges will continue to increase over the next decade even if HIV’s spread is limited.

Thanks for praying for Beth. Her trip to Romania was very successful in her eyes; she is greatly looking forward to returning to this ministry next fall after her baseball season which will begin in a few weeks with Florida spring training. Our trip to Nairobi to take her to the airport was very good; the vehicle worked well, and the roll of duct tape is no smaller than at the beginning of the trip.

We stopped in Narok at the Kenol service station and gave one of the young men a soccer ball. Elijah wants to start a ministry with young people using the model that we began last year with two other young men. We met one of them, Evans, who reported that he has been meeting with 8 boys on a regular basis sharing the Bible and playing soccer. We purchased 35 more soccer balls in Nairobi and brought them home to Tenwek. Our hope is to get these into the hands of local pastors who can present the balls to the local schools and develop relationships with students and teachers in their communities.

I’ve been waiting to give you an update on our orphan ministries but needed some additional information before reporting to you. The Education Fund for orphans and children of widows has undergone some changes since last year when the government of Kenya began paying for tuition for the children through the eighth grade. This reduced the number of children that we needed to assist from a high of 365 children last year. Now the fund is being used nearly exclusively for sending the older orphans to high school. This is much more expensive per student than for the elementary school fees. We now have 54 students in school at an average cost of $25 per student per month. Because of the greater expense for high school, it is difficult to increase the numbers of students supported to meet the needs of all of the applicants. There are 21 on the list who have been interviewed and could have started this year in January; but the funds were insufficient to allow this. In fact, donations of nearly $5400 are needed just to meet tuition expenses for the 54 students for the first term [this upfront cost is 50 – 70% of the need for the whole year]. The impact on the lives of these students is difficult to measure, but it would seem very great given the response that we have seen in meeting with these young people. Our prayers are that a large number of them will follow Jesus all their lives and that many will enter full-time Christian service. We are praying for wisdom in counseling the committee as to how we can be the best stewards of the donated funds. The number of orphans and their needs is increasing at such an alarming rate that without our trust and hope in the Lord, we would be very discouraged. Matthew 19:26 “With men this is impossible, but with God all things are possible.”

Our involvement with the orphanage project has been much less direct than the education fund. For the last two years, we were praying about how to develop some land that was donated into an orphanage for children who had no place to live. We wanted to come alongside the local church to assist them in the development of this project that we hoped would become a model to be replicated throughout the area. Progress was made last term with completion of buildings and placement of 11 orphans by the harvest season in August and September. The director has gotten some assistance from some other charitable organizations for a water tank and other buildings, so that the orphanage has been functioning on a small scale.

What has not occurred is the development of support from the local churches and the administration of the Africa Gospel Church. The hang-up has been that the director never gave ownership of the land to the church. It reminded me a little of the Annanias and Saphira story in the Book of Acts. We have met with the director ourselves and have told him in no uncertain terms of the need to complete the donation to the church and cede all authority to the church, but to this date he has been unwilling or unable to do so. He is discouraged and is fighting bitterness towards the church. Consequently, it would seem that the church can not endorse and support him in what amounts to a private enterprise. We will continue to supply clothing and other items to the children and pray that things will work out, but right now it appears that Satan may have won this round. We’ve read at the end of the Book that he loses the war.

Last night Betty Feltner and I went to Bomet with David Kilel to visit six orphans who are living in a building (shack) outside the AGC church in Bomet. They have been there for nearly a year since their single mother died of malaria. The local church has been looking after them, but greater organization is needed in the effort. After praying last night, Betty and Marty feel that perhaps the next step may be to organize a committee of 3-4 members in each of the local churches with instruction on how to look after orphans and organize donations of food before beginning a building project that will require even greater support. Perhaps we have had the cart before the horse in our thinking. Please pray with us for wisdom for this situation. The number of orphans is so great and increasing daily. Something must be done by the local churches to care for them. God commands His church to be involved; this truth has to be spread. We also pray that the local pastors will be able to effectively teach God’s word regarding this previously ignored issue of utmost importance. The pastors have not only a new message to teach but also a cultural tradition to overcome that treats widows and orphans as outcasts.

Laura has applied to go with our church’s youth group on a ministry project in Japan in June. She certainly seems to be developing a heart for ministry. She met with the young man in Nairobi that she was witnessing to last week and brought him a Bible as she had promised. Please continue to pray for Stephen. We found out that his sister is one of Marty’s shopping ministry friends who is a Christian. Laura hopes to hear this week whether she has been selected to go on the trip to Japan. Please pray for God’s will in this matter.

Please pray for Pat and Lisa as they leave this Thursday for Kenya with Elissa, Nathan, and Katie. We’ll go to Nairobi on Friday in order to pick them up on Saturday morning and return to Tenwek.

Thanks for all your prayers for our family and the ministry at Tenwek.
Serving Jesus with you,
Paul, for the Jarretts in Kenya

AGC Tenwek Area Education Fund [sending orphans to school] contributions: Checks payable to and send to: Christian Foundation of Indiana, 8445 Keystone Crossing Blvd, Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN 46240. Indicate for Tenwek on a separate piece of paper.

Jarrett’s Prayer Letter
February 2, 2004
Volume 5, Number 3

Dear Friends and Family:

Thank you for your prayers for our family. We returned safely from a trip to Nairobi and the Aberdare Mountains area, although not without some excitement. I will detail that in a minute. Thanks, also, for your prayers for our patients and orphans.

Cherono, our mighty mite in the nursery, continues to do very well. I visited her this afternoon, and Agnes said that she was very happy and thanked you for your prayers. Alice, the patient with the cervical incompetence operation came in on Tuesday with leaking membranes, so this pregnancy has been lost despite our best efforts.

The girls had a great time on safari watching lion cubs and cheetahs as well as many other animals. They got stuck in the mud only once out on the Mara. They had to get out of the vehicle to push and finally transferred to another vehicle under the observation of some very satiated and bored Cheetahs who slept through most of the spectacle. The lions may refer to the safari cars as “Meals on Wheels”, but the cheetahs prefer a good chase [and never on a full stomach].

My workload shifted gears this week to a slower pace. On Monday, I assisted a general surgeon, Dr. Mike Chupp, who operated on a Maasai woman who was about 14 weeks pregnant. She had developed very large cystic [fluid filled] masses in her abdomen. The concern was that these represented echinococcal cysts which would rupture later during the pregnancy.

The Maasai are herdsmen who live with their cows, sheep, and goats. They also have dogs living with them in very close proximity which is the recipe for trouble with the echinococcus, or dog tapeworm. Humans get infected with this parasite as a side track to the normal life cycle of the worm. A dog that has the worm will drop the eggs in its stools which then are ingested by the sheep, for example, or other domestic animals. The parasite then grows in the intestine of the sheep and reproduces. The sheep that die have the parasite in the intestines which are fed to the dogs , and even some of the wild animals may also become infected. That completes the cycle as the parasite reaches the dog intestine and eggs are dropped out again. When humans get the parasite in their body, they larvae get into the liver, lung, or other body part and form a cyst filled with the larvae. But the parasite has no way out and the growth just continues. If the cyst breaks, parasites spread out and form daughter cysts which eventually kill the human unless he is treated. Control of the parasite is through education to stop its spread in the dog population, and with medication. But the human hosts need medicine and often surgery to cure the problem if he or she is to survive.

Our patient had two large cysts originating from behind the liver near the spinal column. Again, I had the opportunity to operate in parts of the body that I normally would try my best to stay out of. An obstetrician does not belong behind the liver alongside the spinal column under the diaphragm. He has no business messing with the duodenum and kidneys. Structures like the ureters and ovarian veins were pushed forward from the back of the body to the very front where they could easily be injured if not properly identified. The pregnant uterus was not itself affected, which was the main reason for my being in on the surgery. We removed as much of the cyst wall as possible, but couldn’t remove it all because of its involvement with vital structures beneath it. The strategy was to remove the infected fluid from inside and replace it with formalin [embalming fluid] for a few minutes to kill all the parasites. Then the formalin was removed and the cyst removed insofar as possible. Then a drain was placed to the outside world for a few days. Our patient left the hospital in good condition 6 days after surgery on medicine to kill any remaining parasites. We would request your prayers for her and the baby that the treatment will be successful.

Clinic on Wednesday was another marathon day with many infertility patients; this can actually be a little frustrating when much of the day is spent on many “hopeless” infertility cases while patients who have cancer and treatable conditions are backed up and perhaps even not seen because of the delay. But I have to remember that God has brought these patients as well to us, and we must do our best for them, even when it doesn’t seem like very much. So we pray for the couple where the husband has just found out he has no sperm, or the woman with hopelessly blocked fallopian tubes. I also had to hospitalize one of my clinic helpers with complications during her pregnancy. Talk about shooting yourself in the foot. Please pray for Agnes, as she is still in the hospital.

Thursday morning, our family plus Alicia and Olivia left for Nairobi. The plan was for some shopping and tourist stuff that afternoon, an overnight stay, and on to the Aberdare Country Club for two days. Betty Feltner went to a resort lodge in the forest in Kakamega with some other visitors. We reached the halfway point at Narok where we delivered some Bibles to the attendants who had requested them. But one noticed that a rear shock absorber on our car was no longer attached to the frame. The bracket that it attaches to had broken completely in two. Thus begun a series of mechanical problems with the car which plagued us the entire trip.

Narok is a hot, dusty, desert town situated on a river several miles up a slow rise on the western side of the Great Rift Valley. It serves as the main trading and repair center for a lot of the southern portion of central Kenya. The mechanic at the station said that the bracket could be welded right away. He removed the shock and we drove across the bridge to a welding “shop”. The shop was a welding tank sitting amongst a group of broken down vehicles at the edge of the river. On behind this shop was a series of auto parts stores, other welding shops, butcher shops, and who knows what else all crammed together in a row leading towards the town center along the river bank. There was no pavement in front of the businesses, but a dusty, trash strewn open area where people were working on cars, loitering, and herding goats and cows through on the way to the river; men and women passed by heading into the businesses. An old Maasai man wandered by hitting at the trash with a stick for no apparent reason.

I was instructed to back the car up to the welding tank and the mechanic unhooked the battery. He and the welder crawled under the car in the dust and began the welding process using no eye protection of any kind. A piece of cardboard was laid down to serve to keep their already dirty clothes from getting dirtier. I could see that this might take a little while, so I asked the mechanic about replacing the windshield wiper blades which were falling apart. He ran off to find a source for this. I stayed with the car watching the mechanics reassembling non-moving wrecks into movable wrecks that would soon be menacing the highway once again.

The mechanic returned with a friend who worked in one of the auto parts stores. He brought a blade that wasn’t the right size. He returned 5 minutes later with another that wasn’t right. Then he removed the blade to take it around town to find a match. I feared that this repair might take more time than the welding. When the welder pronounced the car ready to roll, the other man returned with new blades for 300 Shillings [$4.00] which he snapped into place. He needed a 100 Shilling tip, the welder wanted 500 Shillings [$6.50], and I gave my mechanic 200 Shillings for his work. We were on the road within an hour of beginning the repairs having spent $14.50 for parts and labor.

The next part of the trip is the middle 10-20 kilometers that takes so long to pass because of the disintegration of the road. As we bumped along I noticed a crack forming in the bottom of the windshield. I could see it beginning to run up the side as I drove along. Then a windshield wiper blade fell off when the wipers turned on for no reason other than they feel like doing that when you hit the brakes. I stopped and snapped the blade back into position; then the car wouldn’t start. I raised the hood and found that the positive battery terminal had jumped off after being inadequately tightened in Narok. I didn’t have a wrench in the car for some reason, as I normally do. I put the terminal back on the post and started again. A few miles down the road, we repeated the same series of problems with the windshield wiper blade coming off, and the car not starting. This was a job for Captain Duct Tape. I taped the windshield wiper blade into place, taped the terminal down, and taped the crack in the windshield. We had no further problems with the car getting to Nairobi.

We visited the giraffe feeding park that afternoon after a brief stop at the green grocery. We ate a late lunch at a restaurant, stopped at a grocery, and headed back to the WGM guesthouse as it was getting close to dark. We slept seven to a room with Beth taking the couch in the TV room. The guesthouse has one large room with beds for four and another room with two beds that was already occupied. We took an inflatable mattress and used another futon mattress to accommodate all of us. When you’re as tired as we were, it made little difference that we were wall to wall people.

The following morning we went to the Village Market for an hour’s shopping for Marty and the girls while Rachel and I went to the grocery. We exchanged some money, and the girls dropped off pictures for development at the one-hour photo. This upscale shopping center is the nicest in Nairobi, but on Friday each week, the Maasai set up shop in the parking lot with a variety of their crafts which are popular with visitors. Laura spent most of the time talking with a vendor who asked about her Evangelism Explosion button with the two question marks. They had a serious conversation, and he promised to think about it this week; she is bringing him a Bible next week. Please pray for Stephen.

We finished our shopping in a hurry, as we were to drive 2 or more hours north to Aberdare Country Club in time for lunch. I had planned the route from Village Market out of town without retracing to the center of town. We passed the embassies for Greece, Hungary, Norway, Canada, and other countries in this “United Nations East” section of Nairobi. The route was flawless without unplanned detours; having been through part of it before made easier those instantaneous decisions of which unmarked road to take.

The route north took 2 and ½ hours. The road was good in most areas which helped us to make good time. The distance made us realize the difficulty the British had during the Mau Mau rebellion before Kenyan Independence. The guerillas hid in the forests of the Aberdare Mountains and those surrounding Mt. Kenya during the entire period without detection by the Colonial government based in Nairobi. The area was just too vast to search effectively, even with airplanes. The impenetrable rain forest provided too much cover. We had trouble finding our hotel with road maps and road signs and having been there before; the British were looking for a needle in a haystack.

When we arrived, we went straight to lunch. We then registered and unpacked the car, but the car wouldn’t restart to move to the parking lot. Could my duct tape have failed? I raised the hood to find the negative battery terminal cable to be broken. The duct tape still held the positive. I shifted the battery and duct-taped a penny that had dropped out of a suitcase to one side of the negative cable for better contact. The car roared into action once again.

We thoroughly enjoyed relaxing in the beautiful setting of the Aberdare Country Club. Flowers and trees were in bloom everywhere. Bougainvilleas of nearly every color were in profusion. Poinsettia bushes rose twenty feet tall – that‘s why you need to keep watering those Christmas presents – they become trees. Other flowers and cacti were blooming everywhere. Peacocks strut around the ground begging handouts of bread. Mt. Kenya was visible all morning before the clouds surrounded it by early afternoon. It is usually only showing a few hours in the morning.

We rode horses for an hour to see the giraffe, zebra, elands, impala, and wart hogs. We later walked out to the meadow with a guide; ever since a tourist was killed by a giraffe when he got too close, a guide has been required. By kicking either forwards or backwards, a male giraffe can kill a lion that gets too close. A friendly tourist’s intentions are probably not understood by a wild giraffe.

Our time of rest and relaxation ended all too soon. We were getting used to the three meals served each day along with afternoon tea. We passed out our remaining Bible tracts in Swahili to the staff of the hotel. Reality called us back to Tenwek.

The trip back would take all day [nearly seven hours through Nakuru rather than Nairobi]. The wiper blade on the opposite side fell off before too long. Duct tape once more came to the rescue. The car wouldn’t start again. The battery’s shifting with the bumps would pull loose the broken cable despite the duct tape. The front shock absorbers were now bottoming out with large bumps indicating the end of their brief lifespan. The brakes didn’t seem to be stopping us quite as quickly as usual, and they squealed like new pads would soon be needed. I decided to stop only once in Nakuru for gas since the battery wasn’t getting recharged as we drove. I was concerned that one time it might not have power to restart the engine, and we would need girl power instead of horsepower to start us off. The bathroom facilities were unsuitable for women at the gas station, so I let them go in the supermarket where they bought some ice cream and cookies while I kept the engine running outside.

We drove through police checks in each village – far more than usual. We were waved through. We saw very few busses and matatus on Sunday. We then realized that this was the first weekend for enforcement of new regulations requiring seat belts for all passengers in vehicles. In November there had been strikes protesting the regulation, but the courts upheld the law which is now in force. Suddenly there were very few public transportation vehicles on the road. People seemed more desperate than usual who were seeking rides.

At the hospital this morning, I saw other effects of the new law. Many of our interns were late in arriving, having been stranded away from the hospital. Clinics were not crowded. Patients were having trouble getting to the hospital. A young first-time mother in the labor room had been unable to get transportation; she had been in labor for three days, and the baby was now dead. She needed a cesarean section to save her life from the obstructed labor. How long will it take the transportation system to recover from this new law? Prices are already higher for the remaining vehicles which can’t carry as many passengers as before. We even need to put seat belts in the back of our car to comply with the law – not a bad idea anyway. Hopefully more lives will be saved from the numerous motor vehicle accidents; passengers will be belted in if they’re not sitting on the new belts.

We will return to Nairobi on Thursday to take Beth to the airport. Please pray for her travel home via Romania. Wesley has already fixed the battery cable, got new shocks in place, tightened the windshield wipers, welded a spot on the bumper grill, and is working on the seat belts and brakes. And he’ll super glue the windshield providing he can get my duct tape off. I will probably need my son, Patrick, to bring more duct tape when he and some of his family visit us later this month. I’m going through my supply pretty quickly. Laura is trying to remove a wart with it as well. One of my Christmas gifts this year was a daily calendar entitled “365 days of duct tape”. I have only scratched the surface.

I have 3 major surgeries and 5 minors on the schedule for tomorrow. Pray for strength and wisdom for these cases.

Thanks so much for “sticking with us” in prayer. We appreciate you all very much.

Serving Jesus with you,

Paul, for the Jarretts in Kenya