Lake Nakuru

I travelled to Nakuru last week with several other health care workers from Tenwek for a conference on ARVs (medication for AIDS). The conference was quite beneficial in provided further information on the status of AIDS in Kenya and the most recent Kenyan guidelines on how to treat these patients. I especially appreciated the information on pediatric HIV/AIDS and preventing mother to child transmission as I rarely saw children with HIV during residency in the States but am caring for them daily here. I also enjoyed another opportunity for more immersion into the Kenyan culture through interacting with the other conference participants.

Beyond the educational value of the conference, though, was the benefit of the hospitality of missionaries Jim and Alice Vanderhoof. I really enjoyed getting to know them better and hearing their stories of how God has been faithful through the 26 years they have lived as missionaries in Kenya. Jim and Alice are pictured here with myself and Eric McLaughlin - another post resident working with his family at Tenwek (http://www.doctorsmclaughlin.blogspot.com/).

The highlight of the week was a tour of Lake Nakuru - a national park filled with amazing wildlife. We even saw a herd of 22 giraffes!

Lake Nakuru is most famous for the many flamingos which create a pink rim around the lake.

I am thankful to not be driving in Kenya (left side of the road, right side of the car, inexperienced drivers on the road, suboptimal road conditions, etc) even moreso now as in the past week, we had a dead battery at Lake Nakuru and a flat tire on the way home to Tenwek. Thankfully the drivers knew what to do - even without AAA! Praise the Lord for bringing us back home to Tenwek safely.