6/25/98: Managed to find a ride up to Kijabe by connections over at the Mayfield Guesthouse, the one run by AIM here in Nairobi…
NOTE: The blurry action photo above shows me jumping out of the way as Ruth glides down a zip line somewhere on the campus of the AIM hospital and boarding school in Kijabe, Kenya.
6/25/23: Bill & Carol J. were in Nairobi for the day and were willing to take us out to Kijabe, where we had a work assignment planned with the Kijabe Medical Center, run by AIM (Africa Inland Mission).
They even took us along on their errands so we could also stop at the bank and grocery store before leaving the city! Bill was a Physio Therapist at the new rehab clinic associated with the hospital and worked closely with Dr. Dick B., who was the fellow with whom we were going to work. Talk about a small world.
After we settled in to the AIM guest house in Kijabe, we wandered over to the AIC Kijabe Hospital and rehab clinic to find Dr. B. His welcome was brief and manner rushed because he was so busy with running everything. He told Ruth to go see “So and so at the hospital as far as planning a possible epidemiology consult,” and said he’d “be glad if I could take some pictures… talk to my daughter to make a plan…” It was a bustling place, so we understood the need for brevity. Bill & Carol J. had us over for dinner and we met their three boys: Will, Troy, and Sellers. It was a very nice time and a delicious meal.
We were feeling a little awkward about it all though, because things seemed blurry and off-balance. Our plans to work with Dr. B. at Kijabe, and later with Stan B. back in Nairobi, had come together only quite recently, unlike most of our plans for the trip which had been worked out far in advance. We were a little worried that we may have put these folks off balance and out of sorts, imposing rather than helping. It turned out fine in the end, but those first two days in Kenya caused us a little bit of anxiety.