On Sunday, October 1, we were scheduled to fly back to Kenya but we didn’t – we are still here. When we arrived home at the beginning of September, our first few weeks were spent going to a number of medical appointments, one of which was to a dermatologist. Approximately 10 days ago, Wes was notified that one of the moles that was removed turned out to be a squamous cell carcinoma. Because of the location (side of his nose), a Moh’s procedure needs to be performed which brings us to why we are still here. We are currently waiting to hear from the dermatologist’s office in Bismarck to schedule the procedure. We were told it could take several weeks to be scheduled so in the meantime, we continue to do things around our home and yard and will also find time to visit a few people we didn’t think we would be able to. We don’t care for the reason our return trip to Kenya is delayed a while longer but at the same time we are grateful for the extra time allotted to spend more time with family and friends as well as just being home and enjoying the fall season.
In the past month, in addition to visiting family and friends, we have been able to go to a few places and do some things such as camping in Medora including golfing at Bully Pulpit – the guys golfed while Kathy enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We also traveled to Minneapolis to take in a Twins and Vikings game. The only disappointment of the weekend was the Vikings losing to the San Diego Chargers! Fall is one of our favorite seasons and we have not been disappointed. The weather has been beautiful and being able to watch the leaves changing colors has been awesome. In Kenya, the leaves are always green which is nice but there is nothing like being able to see the different colors especially in the Badlands not to mention how green it is for this time of the year.
We have kept in touch with those at the Mission and the work there continues with the different programs. The new house is progressing and the architect and Wes have had a couple of conversations as the workers continue to build the cabinets for the bedrooms, bathrooms, office, chapel, etc., though the architect is hoping we are back by the time they make the kitchen cabinets. Fr. David mentioned that in the first couple of weeks after we left, they had 10 inches of rain which is great – to us that means the cistern is filling with water. It was getting very low before we left so we are grateful they finally got the rains the people were counting on so they could plant their crops.
At this point we are not sure of when will be returning to Kenya but once we know a date, we will put out a short blog. In the meantime, we keep you, the Mission, and those we serve in our prayers. Mungu Akubariki!
We decided to post a few photos from our time home. Those can be seen by clicking on the link below. Note: If unable to view the photos using this link, you can still view them by going to St. Joseph’s Parish website and scrolling down to the section titled Kenya Mission – photo album. The website: www.stjparish.com