Jet lag

Sunday, March 22

Jet lag makes you want to sleep all day and cuss all night.  More on that.

When we arrived at Tenwek on Saturday it was about 2:00 in the afternoon and we were greeted right away by the visitor coordinator, Lisa, and the cook, Livingston.  So friendly and welcoming.  Livingston took us to our apartment where the Mitchell family was waiting to welcome us and show us the ropes.  The Mitchells are at Tenwek with their four sweet boys finishing up their two year commitment with the SP post-residency program.  They are our “host family” and are helping to get us acclimated to all the newness – show us where things are, how everything works, answer questions, etc.  I so appreciate their help! We visited with them and also gave them the few things we had brought for them from the states.  We unpacked a little in our appartment and then had dinner at the guest house/community kitchen here – beef stew, rice and cornbread. I didn’t have to cook it and it was great.  For the first two days we will be fed at the guesthouse and then we are on our own for food. 

Saturday night the kids were exhausted.  We tucked them into their beds wrapped with mosquito nets and planned to get up for church at 9:00.  That most certainly didn’t happen.  

Around midnight all of the girls were awake.  I was awake and couldn’t sleep either.  We played musical beds for a little while and then I gave up trying to get everyone to sleep and they just stayed up and colored.  Around 2:00 am we all decided to tip toe in the kitchen for peanut butter sandwiches.  Will came in wondering what in the world we were doing.  Finally around 6:00 am Charley fell asleep in bed with Will.  Liam at some point got in bed with them too.  Hayden and Harper gave in to sleep in their beds and I crawled into Liam’s empty bed.  We are all seriously confused.

I was woken up about 9:15 by Will and Charley bringing me breakfast in bed – a plate of eggs, toast and fruit.  They had woken up before everyone, taken a shower and fixed breakfast.  The older kids didn’t wander out of their beds until 10ish.  We spent the morning around our apartment then went to Dan and Heather Galat’s house for chai and pumpkin cake.  

Dan Galat trained in orthopedic surgery at Mayo and then moved to Tenwek with his family I think 7 years ago.  They have raised their family here and it was so good to talk with them and hear their perspective.  They have 5 kids and one on the way.  We also have several mutual connections in Rochester.  As we sat talking with them I felt like I wanted to cry.  Probably exhaustion and hormones.  And just a lot to take in.  Really hope to spend more time with the Galats while we are here.