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.