Thanks so much for your prayers. I feel them all the way over here. This morning I woke up feeling pretty much like myself! I ended up spending most of yesterday in bed, reading my book. In the late afternoon, I got up and showered and we had a pretty bland dinner (rice and scrambled eggs). It rained at bedtime so I fell asleep to the sound of rain on the metal roof. Very comforting. I've got blueberry muffins in the oven and actually look forward to eating them. I am thankful for a return to health!
T/T will be presenting this morning for "grand rounds" on their ideas about how PT and OT can make a difference here in people's lives. I don't have long to blog as they need the computer for their powerpoint presentation. But I did want to get on and thank you all for your prayers. Bon jour!
Tuesday, July 19, 2011
Unclean, unclean!
Illness has arrived at Triplex 1. My stomach woke me up in the night and demanded a bathroom trip. I'm still feeling queasy this morning so I'm taking it very easy and may crawl back into bed after I post this. John and Theresa aren't feeling great, Ryan didn't feel well Sunday night but they all went down to the hospital this morning for their work shifts anyway. I guess some things are just the same in Gabon-health care workers don't take sick days! Hopefully, we are the last group to get this and the gift that keeps on giving will end with us. I'm just glad that we have a few days before we travel back up to Libreville to recuperate. I don't want to ride on the bumpy roads or airplane feeling like this. BTW, you can be praying about our return trip. We don't know how we are traveling on Friday to Libreville. If Air Nationale is not on strike, we will drive 2 hours to Mouila and take the plane. If the strike is still on, we will have to drive all the way to Libreville in a yet to be determined bus/taxi/goat? Thankfully, we have great hosts who figure this out for us.
Despite illness, we have been having a very good time. It has been very good to get to know Tammy and Theresa and they have been having fun taking jungle walks and other little excursions on their own. The Bongolo Water Park has been shut down due to illness (no one is up for going!) so we've been content to do our work in the day and enjoy a nice dinner with a different family each night. T/T went out to a village church on Sunday with Dr. Renee and Nurse Lisa. Their visit was cause for a big celebration-special food, dances, etc. They really enjoyed it. We attended the Bongolo church with the Thelanders and got to hear Keir preach. I'm a bit of a local celebrity due to my work with the shipping containers so I have some kind of connection to a lot of folks. Sunday night we enjoyed a pizza dinner with Paul and Meladee Davis. Paul has been a godsend to Bongolo with his skills of keeping all the systems running here. He is the busiest guy here after the physicians. Every day we have some kind of power outage. Right now the new water filter is working consistently and we are enjoying the clear water. We aren't drinking it because they are unable to chlorinate the water (cost issues) but it is great for showers and laundry. I'm on drinking water duty for our group, filling the passive filter at night and filling bottles in the morning.
Last night, we had dinner at Dave and Becki Thompson's home. They live in a beautiful old home at the very top of the hill. Becki has a way with decorating that makes it a neat mix of American and Gabonese cultures. We enjoyed a great meal (I don't have food poisoning) and they shared their stories of growing up as MKs. Dave's parents were martyed in Vietnam when he was a freshman in college and Becki's dad was marched off into the jungle and she never saw him again. Her mom was later taken prisoner herself for 9 months. It is amazing how God helped both of them through these tragedies. I'm glad T/T got to hear their stories as they don't attend CMA churches and so have never heard these stories before.
My tummy is rumbling so I'm going to lay down. Keep praying!
Despite illness, we have been having a very good time. It has been very good to get to know Tammy and Theresa and they have been having fun taking jungle walks and other little excursions on their own. The Bongolo Water Park has been shut down due to illness (no one is up for going!) so we've been content to do our work in the day and enjoy a nice dinner with a different family each night. T/T went out to a village church on Sunday with Dr. Renee and Nurse Lisa. Their visit was cause for a big celebration-special food, dances, etc. They really enjoyed it. We attended the Bongolo church with the Thelanders and got to hear Keir preach. I'm a bit of a local celebrity due to my work with the shipping containers so I have some kind of connection to a lot of folks. Sunday night we enjoyed a pizza dinner with Paul and Meladee Davis. Paul has been a godsend to Bongolo with his skills of keeping all the systems running here. He is the busiest guy here after the physicians. Every day we have some kind of power outage. Right now the new water filter is working consistently and we are enjoying the clear water. We aren't drinking it because they are unable to chlorinate the water (cost issues) but it is great for showers and laundry. I'm on drinking water duty for our group, filling the passive filter at night and filling bottles in the morning.
Last night, we had dinner at Dave and Becki Thompson's home. They live in a beautiful old home at the very top of the hill. Becki has a way with decorating that makes it a neat mix of American and Gabonese cultures. We enjoyed a great meal (I don't have food poisoning) and they shared their stories of growing up as MKs. Dave's parents were martyed in Vietnam when he was a freshman in college and Becki's dad was marched off into the jungle and she never saw him again. Her mom was later taken prisoner herself for 9 months. It is amazing how God helped both of them through these tragedies. I'm glad T/T got to hear their stories as they don't attend CMA churches and so have never heard these stories before.
My tummy is rumbling so I'm going to lay down. Keep praying!
Saturday, July 16, 2011
Sickness in the camp
Good morning all. It's nice knowing that when I post in the morning, you all are still asleep (I hope), so I can post and it will be waiting for you when you wake up and fire up the old computer. I am the only one up right now which is good so I can get to the computer before everyone else takes a turn. I'm seriously thinking that it might be nice to have my own laptop so I could post whenever I want and not have to wait for John to finish a lecture, etc. I am so thankful that we have internet again. Keir was able to beam a signal down the hill that reaches most of the homes here (after they moved a pile of dirt that was blocking the signal!). He's decided to leave the big job of splicing the fiberoptics until the construction at the top of the hill is finished. Wise move!
Where to begin? So much happens in a single day here that it's hard to condense it down for you. And yet we are not crazy busy so I guess it's just the newness of so many things that makes the day seem so full. First of all, a little update on our team. Tammy (PT) and Theresa (OT) are proving to be awesome additions to our team. When John first told me he wanted to bring additional people out here with us, I was a little skeptical. How would others fit in? Would there be meaningful things for them to do? How would I control myself in my relationships with John and Ryan while others were with us all the time? I'm happy to report that we are getting along wonderfully. Tammy and Theresa are becoming our friends, there is more than enough for them to do professionally at the hospital, and I am curbing my natural tendency to correct and pick at my husband and son by having the accountability of strangers with me 24/7. It's a great thing! Tammy is very much like me-a little compulsive about cleanliness and critters. Believe me, those compulsions get tested on a regular basis. It's a gift from God to lay down in your bed at night and just fall asleep. If you let yourself start in on "critter-worrying" you will never fall asleep! I'm really proud of Tammy. There are two little lizardy things in their room right now and she is managing to fall asleep! Theresa is a little more laid back and has a wonderful sense of humor. She provides us with lots of laughs and has a wonderfully tender heart.
We are learning important things about the local culture. Yesterday Tammy was working with a girl, helping her to improve her gait immensely. After Tammy finished working with her, the mother asked if her daughter was going to receive treatment! It turns out that the Gabonese consider a pill, surgery, or some kind of a potion to be treatment. So Tammy rubbed some lotion on the girl and the mother was satisfied that her daughter had received their money's worth! So Tammy is planning to take her bottle of Eucerin to clinic next week and rub down her patients after their therapy sessions!
re:the title of this post. A stomach virus has been spreading through the camp. It started in the Envision group (15-20 young people on short-term missions) and has spread to others, including Joanna, Luke and Sarah. I've spent lots of time with JLS so I am waiting to see if it will hit. I was relieved to wake up this morning without any nighttime bathroom runs. I hope that if we are to get sick it will happen soon so that we have plenty of time to recuperate before we leave beginning Friday. Please pray for our return trip. The in-country airline is on strike so we may have to drive up to Libreville on Friday and how that is going to happen is in question. I'm so glad that we have such support here. We don't have to figure this out ourselves. So we might be on the Hitu (pronounced hee two) bus again. I have been getting laughs out of calling it the "hit you" bus!
Highlights from the last 24 hours: telling stories with Tammy and Theresa; teaching a little lesson on South Korea to LS, complete with a kimbop (seaweed/rice roll) demonstration; enjoying a great dinner with Renee (physician) and Lisa (nurse); babysitting for Baby Esther so her mom could work while her dad suffered with the virus, doing laundry Bongolo style (US washer with cold water only, hanging to dry on our screened in porch with the ceiling fan on high to speed drying time). Never a dull moment here, plenty of answers from God to see! Please pray for Justin as he has training sessions in Wheaton today and leaves for the Ukraine tomorrow.
Where to begin? So much happens in a single day here that it's hard to condense it down for you. And yet we are not crazy busy so I guess it's just the newness of so many things that makes the day seem so full. First of all, a little update on our team. Tammy (PT) and Theresa (OT) are proving to be awesome additions to our team. When John first told me he wanted to bring additional people out here with us, I was a little skeptical. How would others fit in? Would there be meaningful things for them to do? How would I control myself in my relationships with John and Ryan while others were with us all the time? I'm happy to report that we are getting along wonderfully. Tammy and Theresa are becoming our friends, there is more than enough for them to do professionally at the hospital, and I am curbing my natural tendency to correct and pick at my husband and son by having the accountability of strangers with me 24/7. It's a great thing! Tammy is very much like me-a little compulsive about cleanliness and critters. Believe me, those compulsions get tested on a regular basis. It's a gift from God to lay down in your bed at night and just fall asleep. If you let yourself start in on "critter-worrying" you will never fall asleep! I'm really proud of Tammy. There are two little lizardy things in their room right now and she is managing to fall asleep! Theresa is a little more laid back and has a wonderful sense of humor. She provides us with lots of laughs and has a wonderfully tender heart.
We are learning important things about the local culture. Yesterday Tammy was working with a girl, helping her to improve her gait immensely. After Tammy finished working with her, the mother asked if her daughter was going to receive treatment! It turns out that the Gabonese consider a pill, surgery, or some kind of a potion to be treatment. So Tammy rubbed some lotion on the girl and the mother was satisfied that her daughter had received their money's worth! So Tammy is planning to take her bottle of Eucerin to clinic next week and rub down her patients after their therapy sessions!
re:the title of this post. A stomach virus has been spreading through the camp. It started in the Envision group (15-20 young people on short-term missions) and has spread to others, including Joanna, Luke and Sarah. I've spent lots of time with JLS so I am waiting to see if it will hit. I was relieved to wake up this morning without any nighttime bathroom runs. I hope that if we are to get sick it will happen soon so that we have plenty of time to recuperate before we leave beginning Friday. Please pray for our return trip. The in-country airline is on strike so we may have to drive up to Libreville on Friday and how that is going to happen is in question. I'm so glad that we have such support here. We don't have to figure this out ourselves. So we might be on the Hitu (pronounced hee two) bus again. I have been getting laughs out of calling it the "hit you" bus!
Highlights from the last 24 hours: telling stories with Tammy and Theresa; teaching a little lesson on South Korea to LS, complete with a kimbop (seaweed/rice roll) demonstration; enjoying a great dinner with Renee (physician) and Lisa (nurse); babysitting for Baby Esther so her mom could work while her dad suffered with the virus, doing laundry Bongolo style (US washer with cold water only, hanging to dry on our screened in porch with the ceiling fan on high to speed drying time). Never a dull moment here, plenty of answers from God to see! Please pray for Justin as he has training sessions in Wheaton today and leaves for the Ukraine tomorrow.
Thursday, July 14, 2011
Real life in Bongolo
Well, we are experiencing real life in Bongolo. Yesterday an African work crew began some excavating work in the area where the main fiberoptic cables providing internet to the station are buried. Despite more than adequate warning the crew dug right through the cable, disconnecting the bulk of the station from the outside world. That also ended the interstation phone service (I can't call Joanna from our house) and the Vonage phone (very low cost phone to the US). The biggest problem is that this will require an immense amount of work from Keir to splice the cables and he is already busy enough with his real job of main surgeon. Please pray for miraculous things-either that the cable heals or Keir has time to do it.
Now, back to the fun we've been having. We arrived in Libreville Monday night, right on schedule. All our bags made it with everything intact. On Tuesday, we woke up at 5:45 am to be ready when the Hitu bus came at 6:30 ish. Well the bus came at 6:40 but "just to check if we were ready". They found we were ready and left. . . without us! At 7:45 am they returned to pick us up. Welcome to Africa! We loaded all our bags, the five of us, and our driver and took off. . . slowly. Because of our late departure, we hit "rush hour" and drove very slowly through the city. We got to see many furniture "stores". Now I know why I am buying furniture in the US and shipping it all the way to Bongolo.
Our trip down was uneventful (no vomitting, no flat tires, no roadkill) other than fast driving, passing on blind curves, swerving around giant potholes, driving over dirt roads that felt like rumble strips, and visiting bathrooms with toilets. We were very fortunate not to have to use the jungle toilets. We arrived at about 4:30 to a July snowfall. Melodee Davis came down to through fake snow on us that I've been sending to her husband, Paul, as a running joke. Joanna, Luke and Sarah were there too to welcome us. We quickly brought our things in the Triplex apartment where we are staying and unpacked some of the goodies we brought. Visitors are an important source of necessary supplies as well as goodies like precooked bacon, candy, DVDs that make life in the remote jungle much more tolerable. Carolyn Thorson, the original nurse at the hospital, hosted us for dinner that night. We enjoyed hearing stories about what it was like back in the 70s when she first came.
Yesterday was a full day. Tammy and Theresa held an OT/PT clinic for a number of patients. They came away feeling a little overwhelmed with the needs and their inability to address all of them adequately. John and Ryan spent their day in surgery with Keir on some very complex cases. Keir often operates outside of his training as he is the surgeon who is available. He's a very courageous, innovative guy. They sometimes are consulting the textbooks/internet while they operate. I spent my day with Joanna, Luke and Sarah. We made a friendship bracelet and mostly just caught up on each other's lives. In the evening we were hosted by the Thelanders for a wonderful dinner. We enjoyed hearing lots of stories about life in Bongolo.
Well, the internet "cafe" has closed so I need to sign off and get down the hill to my house to make lunch for the gang after their busy morning at the hospital. We are off to Lebamba to shop this afternoon. We will have dinner at the Hofmans. She is the opthamologist and just had a baby girl, Esther. I'm looking forward to holding a baby.
We miss you all and especially all the conveniences of life in the US. But Bongolo Hospital has an awesome mission and some wonderful people we love dearly. We are blessed to be here even without wifi in our apartment.
Now, back to the fun we've been having. We arrived in Libreville Monday night, right on schedule. All our bags made it with everything intact. On Tuesday, we woke up at 5:45 am to be ready when the Hitu bus came at 6:30 ish. Well the bus came at 6:40 but "just to check if we were ready". They found we were ready and left. . . without us! At 7:45 am they returned to pick us up. Welcome to Africa! We loaded all our bags, the five of us, and our driver and took off. . . slowly. Because of our late departure, we hit "rush hour" and drove very slowly through the city. We got to see many furniture "stores". Now I know why I am buying furniture in the US and shipping it all the way to Bongolo.
Our trip down was uneventful (no vomitting, no flat tires, no roadkill) other than fast driving, passing on blind curves, swerving around giant potholes, driving over dirt roads that felt like rumble strips, and visiting bathrooms with toilets. We were very fortunate not to have to use the jungle toilets. We arrived at about 4:30 to a July snowfall. Melodee Davis came down to through fake snow on us that I've been sending to her husband, Paul, as a running joke. Joanna, Luke and Sarah were there too to welcome us. We quickly brought our things in the Triplex apartment where we are staying and unpacked some of the goodies we brought. Visitors are an important source of necessary supplies as well as goodies like precooked bacon, candy, DVDs that make life in the remote jungle much more tolerable. Carolyn Thorson, the original nurse at the hospital, hosted us for dinner that night. We enjoyed hearing stories about what it was like back in the 70s when she first came.
Yesterday was a full day. Tammy and Theresa held an OT/PT clinic for a number of patients. They came away feeling a little overwhelmed with the needs and their inability to address all of them adequately. John and Ryan spent their day in surgery with Keir on some very complex cases. Keir often operates outside of his training as he is the surgeon who is available. He's a very courageous, innovative guy. They sometimes are consulting the textbooks/internet while they operate. I spent my day with Joanna, Luke and Sarah. We made a friendship bracelet and mostly just caught up on each other's lives. In the evening we were hosted by the Thelanders for a wonderful dinner. We enjoyed hearing lots of stories about life in Bongolo.
Well, the internet "cafe" has closed so I need to sign off and get down the hill to my house to make lunch for the gang after their busy morning at the hospital. We are off to Lebamba to shop this afternoon. We will have dinner at the Hofmans. She is the opthamologist and just had a baby girl, Esther. I'm looking forward to holding a baby.
We miss you all and especially all the conveniences of life in the US. But Bongolo Hospital has an awesome mission and some wonderful people we love dearly. We are blessed to be here even without wifi in our apartment.
Monday, July 11, 2011
Linda in Librevillle!
After 3 flights, we are finally in Libreville at the CMA guesthouse for an overnight stay. All went amazingly well for which we are immensely grateful. All our bags made it through just fine with only one opened by TSA. John's visa was a non-issue. They asked for it at Frankfurt. I held my breath and the agent looked like this happens all the time, people presenting a current visa in an expired passport. A big answer to prayer! Going through passport control in Libreville went as smoothly as I can imagine although they looked us all over like we were criminals or something. Everyone had their photo taken except me. I think that's because I'm a local celebrity here for my work with the container shipping! I plan to sign autographs for $ on the rest of the trip.
Well it will soon be time to sleep again (or try) and get ready for tomorrow's road trip. We've heard the bus has A/C, is a "charter" so no sharing with goats, and that there are bathrooms all along the way (no toilets, just lots of grass and trees). I'm sure I'll have lots to report!
Thanks for praying. We are seeing God at work!
Well it will soon be time to sleep again (or try) and get ready for tomorrow's road trip. We've heard the bus has A/C, is a "charter" so no sharing with goats, and that there are bathrooms all along the way (no toilets, just lots of grass and trees). I'm sure I'll have lots to report!
Thanks for praying. We are seeing God at work!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Lunch in Canada, eh?
We are now in Canda (Toronto). We had a nice lunch with Tammy (PT) and Theresa (OT) and are now trying to find ways to fill our 5 hour layover. Not much to do here as we are kind of captive in a limited area (for customers with connecting flights). No good deals as the exchange rate is about even. Bummer! But another answer to prayer, we were able to get seats together in the BULKHEAD ROW! EXTRA LEGROOM! Gotta love that Gold Elite Status. Next time I won't complain about the cost. 48 hours to go until we see the Thelanders!
First answer to prayer!
We are in the Cleveland airport. I'm happy to report our first answer to prayer! We parked the car, got a helpful shuttle bus driver who helped load and unload our many items and then, courtesy of John's Gold status (which we paid some serious $ to renew, well worth it today) got in a very short line, had an awesome check-in agent who gave us the good news that all our bags would check-in for free! She worked extra hard to get them checked all the way through and was genuinely interested in what we're up to. Then we breezed through security (in a special Gold line). The ultrasound machine went through without a hitch! So that is actually 2 answers to prayer-no checked bag fees/hassle and no security hassles! Tammy and Theresa (our OT and PT traveling companions from Metro) are here too. Next up-safe flights to Canada, Germany and on to Gabon! I don't know if I'll have free WiFi until Libreville. If I do, I'll try to update. Keep praying!
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