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!
Hey sweet Linda. I hope you get feeling better. I had one day of intestinal unhappiness in Haiti. Fortunately it fell on Saturday which was only a half work day so I rested in the afternoon. By Sunday morning it had passed. So glad for that with a full day of travel on Monday. Hope to compare trips with you soon. Love You.
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