March has been a long month. To all the mothers out there, I don't know how you do it. I always knew it was a hard job but after three and a half weeks I can say I am done for a while. Thankfully Carol, the woman who works here was cooking Peter and James lunch and dinner so I did not have to worry too much about that. Just had to make sure there was enough food in the house.
The only major problem we had while Kieren was gone was Peter having a very low white blood cell count. When he goes in for chemo he has to have blood work done before to make sure his WBC is high enough to handle treatment. It was extremely low a few weeks ago and I could tell something was wrong because he was sleeping all the time and not talking much, and just seemed off. He had to go get shots everyday for five days to up his count and after a few days I could tell a difference already.
Peter had another CT Scan a two weeks ago and the results are amazing. The tumor is pretty much all gone which is amazing in itself, but to have it gone in just a few months is incredible. Another test came back and revealed that the tumor was more of nerve tumor than a gland tumor which it was initially thought to be. This means that the treatment is going to change and instead of going for chemo once a week for a year he is now going to be going once every three weeks for eight months. The doctors are going to be doing a dye contrast test this coming week to see where the cancer is and then continue treatment for the eight months and redo the test when they think they are finished to make sure they got it all. His next appointment is at the end of next week. Peter and James moved back to Cheryl's from Thursday until Monday, so the house is very quiet now.
Two weeks ago some of the boys in class six and seven came over to hang out with Peter. While we were at the home to pick them up to bring them back to the house one of the girls asked if she could use my camera. I told her sure, but that I was only staying for a few minutes and then leaving again. Of course in the process of getting the boys ready to leave and making sure they had everything they needed for the day, I forgot my camera. Knowing the kids knew how to use it and have used it plenty of times I was not too worried. I called James who was at Cheryl's and asked him to bring it back to the house with him when he came back. Unfortunately, one of the kids dropped it in a bucket of water while it was on. There is no coming back from that. Cameras, even the cheap ones, are twice as much here as they are in the states, plus I have my old one back home too.
Last Saturday, Kieren, myself, and a few other volunteers went to the National Park for the day. I have yet to venture out of Nairobi this trip, so it was nice to pretend that I was somewhere outside of the city. It was strange being in a national park and also being able to see the largest city in east Africa in the background. Nairobi has been consistently growing around the park for the past ten years and one day, sooner rather than later, the whole park will be surrounded by the city and the animals will no longer be able to come and go as they please. We saw rhinos, zebra, giraffe, monkeys, buffalo, birds, wildebeest, and many kinds of antelope (some of the just look like graceful deer). One giraffe was on the road when we were on our way to the lookout point so we stopped to admire t as it was feeding on the surrounding trees. Thinking that it would cross over into the grass area if we slowly crept along, we inched forward but the giraffe had other plans. He was not at all phased but the car and walked right by us, pretty much touching the car. It was incredible. We went to the hippo pools to try to see...well, hippos, but there were none. On the walk back from the pools we saw some monkeys and were able to get very close to them, some of them were about an inch away with their babies hanging onto them. We turned down a dirt road hoping to see a leopard but instead all we saw were mud puddles. I thought we were either going to get stuck in one of them or loose control of the car and swerve into a bush or tree. Thank goodness Kieren can handle the car and al we got was muddy. Even though we did not get to see any cats it was still a nice relaxing day. It was also nice to be able to enjoy things seeing them and not looking through a camera screen the whole time. (Pretty much just trying to make myself feel better for not having a camera).
Chris left a week ago. The last few days he was here we tied up some loose ends and had as much roasted meat as we could since it's pretty much illegal back home. We went into town and became tourists for the day, going up to the top of the conference center and seeing the whole of Nairobi from the top. Its supposed to cost 400 shillings each but we told the woman at the counter we were residents so it was 200 shillings each. I was skeptical at first, paying to go up to the top of a building but it was worth it. I have never seen the city like that. It looked so peaceful, even though I know better than to think that for too long. I will put up some pictures when I get them from Chris.
The rainy season has begun. Earlier in the week the power went out for the evening. James and Kieren played checkers while Peter and I played cards by candle light. Last night Kieren and I went to go see the woman who lives in the guest house on the compound, Maia, who is in a band, play in Karen. It was so nice to hear live music that I enjoy and to eat some delicious food. We were sitting outside so thankfully it didn't rain, but as we were driving home the ground as we got closer to home was soaked. Its so strange that it will rain in one part of the city and not another.
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