My phone rang at 7:05 am. If you had been here you would have heard this:

Hi Beatrice.

No progress?

Joyce wants shoes?

Ok. Anything else?

Gilbert and I remade the truck bed,

got Joyce’s shoes, and headed back to Kitengela

and a very tired Joyce and Mbini.

Needle disposal at the Kitengela clinic. Click on the photo and you
will see the green- tipped needle stuck in the IV bottle.

O2 tank in its upside-down stool stand

We could go to Kajiodo or Machakos, but Mbini needed a hospital. Machakos is where Mary lives, a reasonable thirty kilometer trip in the daytime, and a better road.

Last night I was afraid Mbini would have the bumpy-road-induced delivery in the truck. Today I was more afraid she wouldn’t.

We followed her part way.

and the jacaranda trees were waiting for us there.

Machakos District Hospital. Into the registration room. That’s Gilbert through the door grate.

With a minimum of wrangling and confusion, and several polite denials of paternity by yours truly, Mbini was now in hospital, about to be examined again. I went outside to see what I could find.

One of the hospital’s laundry facilities

This is the classic and wondrous straight-legged-bent-at-the-waist-like-a-gate-swinging African posture. This woman is doing laundry. Because the back is perfectly
straight Kenyans can bend like this for hours a day and even after decades suffer no real back problems. They are champion benders. Of course, a lot of stuff would pop out of joint or roll up like a lamp shade before most of us could ever get in this position, but it is a revelation nonetheless.

I met this dignified gent.

He had dressed a swelling in his foot, and made his way here as a back up.

Jennifer, a lovely third year nursing student and I exchanged contacts. She proved to be the much needed point guard for our team, calling with updates — no progress yet — we have given antibiotics– etc.

So we packed up the (non) delivery Toyota Hi Lux and headed for the hardware store

and some more lumber.

Joyce rested in the cab while these 19 foot 2×2’s were ripped for us and tied on to our new, very strong truck rack.

We paid Mary a quick visit,

and that room contained more grace, wisdom, beauty and genuine celebrity at the first meeting of these two women than all the runways of Paris in Fall.

This is the conversation you would have heard the next morning:

Hi Jennifer.

At 10:00 am?

2.8 kilos? (6 lbs. 2 oz)

A girl.

Thank you. Thank you.

The first shaky portrait

Angelina and Brad surprised by paparazzi on their recent trip to Kenya.

Madonna and child

The baby was released wrapped only in a small blanket.

Mbini had no clothes for her. A consideration that hadn’t occurred to me.

But I knew who it had occurred to, and we found Mary and got some baby duds and a few supplies.

A few liters of hand pumped petrol and we were homeward bound. All of us, finally.

A better back-of-the-truck experience than Mbini had

Mbini, Joyce, myself, and little Anna, named by Joyce for my mother, Ann Saunders.

Anna was born on Friday, October 12th, her birthday, and was brought home Saturday, October 13th, on mine.

Under slightly different circumstances it may have gone differently for Anna. On her behalf, thank you for helping to change things here, one at a time.

Now you have to stay and look at a few “since then” baby photos. These are worth a click, and happily need no commentary.

17 October

20 October

So long for now.

For the kids,

David

Posted on October 22nd, 2007 by david
Filed under: David's Journal