Tuesday, November 30, 2010
I’m loosing track of where I am in life…
It’s been extremely difficult remembering what I have shared with people and what I haven’t. I even loose track in my journal. I’m happy to say… HAPPY THANKSGIVING!:)…Belated. The week of thanksgiving and following have been a bit hectic, but God has not put me in a situation that I cannot handle. I was beginning to get anxious and worried about some problems in the hospital. I started to talk to a good friend of mine one day about it. He comforted me and told me to pray about it. The very next day when I was reading my Bible, it was a complete answer to prayer. “Do not be anxious about ANYTHING. Instead, in every situation, through prayer and petition with thanksgiving, tell your requests to God. And the peace that surpasses all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus.” Phil 4:6. I have had peace because the Lord is in control and he is taking care of the people at the hospital.
If I haven’t told you already, I get off work every day at 2. I tend to go back later in the day to check on some patients that I helped earlier in the day. I am surprised at how much work they put me through when I come. I have done countless NG tubes and IV’s when I step through the doors. At the beginning of this trip, I made it a point to show my earnest hard work, so now they know to work me hard. I have been quite exhausted because of it, but it feels good?
I should tell you about Thanksgiving Day! I had been worried about this day for a while because Cailtin and I invited 25 people to visit our home. We were planning it all the way up until the day. We asked the Administrator if we could get off of work at 12 pm to prepare. I did not know how much preparation would go into this meal until Zara came over to the house. They had brought 4 chickens to kill, potatoes, noodles; we had beans and beef… the whole shebang! (I know, I am not vegetarian… its offending when I refuse food here). Zara and Isaiah were in charge of the meat and Caitlin and I started making “Pumpkin Pie” made out of squash. We also made mash potatoes with the sweet potatoes we traveled the day before to get. It took us a total of 6 hours to prepare everything. Since Caitlin and I were the host, we were responsible for making the house appropriate. Every time anyone comes into our home who’ve known the shanks, the comment on how desolate it looks… so we tried to decorate with the flowers outside. It was absolutely GORDEOUS if I do say so myself. We decorated everything! Caitlin and I decided to make a twister on the floor so we cut up construction paper and taped it on the floor. When everyone arrived, we had a candle lit dinner. We went around the table saying what each person was thankful for that day. It was incredible! Later, when those who needed to go home went, we partied Adventist style. They loved twister! I have epic pictures to show in 7 months. I’m happy to tell you that everyone had an amazing time.
I forgot to mention the morning before. Thankfully, I had gone to sleep early the night before Thanksgiving because at 3 AM I got a call from Kalda telling me to come to the hospital. With much stumbling around for a few minutes because there was no light in the house, I finally got everything I needed and ran out of the house. He ended up picking me up with his mototaxi. When I arrived at the hospital, I was shocked to find a man lying on the ground in a pool of blood by his ankle. Apparently that night some thieves came into the village where Karnas lives, and were shooting. There were two men we had to x-rays on. One had a huge gash in his leg, complaining that it was broken. The other man had a broken ankle. We took x-rays and brought the man with the ankle into the surgery room. Anyone could tell that his ankle was broken. You could move it around like a rag doll. He had been drinking that night, so when we put the medication in the IV, he was still struggling. I held him down as they tried to fix his leg. He was never unconscious. They put his leg in place, and sent him to one of the hospital rooms. During the operation, he cried a few times… “Eliza, Eliza”… I didn’t even know he knew I was in the room. He didn’t even know me. We removed three bullets!!! That took the whole morning, or enough for me to go back home around 6:50 AM and make it to work by 7:30. This was Thanksgiving Day, so I was exhausted after it was all over. Praise God for rest?
Bahana took us to his school party the next day. When we showed up, literally EVERY EYE WAS ON US. I’m getting use to the fact that everyone caters to me no matter what I say. As we went to see what was happening, Bahana made someone go get us a bench… still everyone starring. All I wanted was to just be part of the crowd, but that will never happen. On top of that, the announcers for the soccer game that the students played later, insisted on translating everything in English. It was the most hilarious thing to hear. They didn’t speak very good English. The announcer talked about Cholora when the game was paused and he said, “Yes… Cholora is bad disease and don’t use bad water”. Caitlin and I had to laugh, but we were right next to him so we choked it up as much as we could. Bahana took us home on his friends mototaxi later that day. I was holding on for dear life because I was in a dress so I had to sit on the side. I don’t know if he wanted to impress us or what but he was going a little on the fast side. I’m alive…
Marie Cecil woke me up on Saturday morning because she has lent all of her plates for us to use for Thanksgiving (we have almost nothing). I slowly fell out of bed and ran to her house, carrying the plates on my head like a real African? I stopped by the hospital not realizing how much I would be doing. I had to put an NG tube in two children and two IV’s, one that was in an infant’s head (first one I’ve put in a head. He didn’t have any other visible veins). It was successful so thank goodness. Later, I had to go to church. I need strength because it seems that the weekends (which is only Saturday for me) would be relaxing but because I’m apart of this choir, we practice almost non-stop all weakened long. God spoke to me the other day with the verse “Do everything without grumbling or complaining”… That was a slap in the face because that day my choir group was fasting and I had a really bad attitude about it. It ended up going really well. We danced and played matching bible games all day as we fasted. I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. God knows.
I went to Avava’s office the other day to chat with him. He was distraught and wanted me to talk to him. After sharing much grief about needed to lend family money and not knowing what and how to do it, I tried to listen. As he started to tell me that his faith was faltering, I heard a song on his computer that always seems to come to my mind or play when I’m going through the same situation. “The Voice of Truth”. I don’t him that God brought me to his office at such a time, and I asked him if I could pray for him. He was thankful, and my faith was strengthened as well.
A little boy came to our house the other day; he always stops by because he loves seeing us. He doesn’t speak English, but he likes hanging out. As we were cooking some pie in the oven, we invited him in. He continued to tell us that the only other sibling in his family passed away a week ago, and he is the last one. We brought him in, and comforted him. Why does this world have to be so corrupt? He ended up staying in one of our extra rooms. I pray for him everyday now. Caitlin and I have been impressed to be willing to give our food and service to anyone who comes to our door. It’s tiring, but the blessing of it is far more than we have imagined. We get people who come just to color in our coloring books. God has brought us here for just a time as this.
Yesterday was the first day without Kalda at the hospital. It was really rough for me because I work with Kalda everyday, and he is one of the most compassionate nurses I know. I ended up doing rounds by myself. There were only two people in Aile I so I took my time. I noticed that one of the patients had an irregular heartbeat. I quickly took the chart and talked to Jacque to come and look at her. Sure enough, she had to get an x-ray and they gave her medication later for arrhythmia. I’m learning a lot. I have now been able to prescribe people with different problems such as pneumonia, malaria, typhoid, gastritis, and amebas. It’s very easy to see the signs and symptoms because everyone comes in at the last minute, and it is the most extreme case. I pray each day that God gives me healing hands.
As the day progressed without Kalda, it got busier and busier. I had to do rounds as well as help the lab… when I thought it was over, Caitlin called me over to Maternity. I was informed that there was a woman having a baby, and I was going to be the only one in the room. The doctor had another case that he was doing. I was already prepared for the challenge. She didn’t end up delivering till later, so Ganava came in and watched. I delivered the baby perfectly. The woman’s uterus had not contracted well, so she was loosing a lot of blood rapidly. I ran over to the lab to grab supplies for hct test. The machine must not have been working because it said she was 34% but hear oxygen level and her blood pressure was going down rapidly… I quickly took her blood type. A positive. We tried to find a donner but there was no one around… this was an Emergency. When I came to my senses about my blood type I quickly sat down in the chair. I am A negative. As soon as they took 500 ml (in less than 5 min) I ran to Maternity. She was ok thank goodness. I sat in that room for hours with her afterwards just holding her baby and watching her slowly come back to life. Ganava was worried as well as the family, but the woman is healthy now with a beautiful baby boy. They thanked me over and over again. I’m glad I got to be apart of her recovery.
I am happy to say that, as of today, there are 3 doctors that will be here on and off for the rest of the time I’m on my mission. I haven’t worked with them yet, but one of them is from America. His name is James Appell. I’m forever grateful for your prayers and intercession. I’m exceedingly happy to finally have them here with us. Please continue to pray for God to be present at this hospital. That He would become real not only to the patients, but amongst the hospital staff as well. I am tired and warn out, but God is giving me strength each day at a time. I don’t have to worry about tomorrow for tomorrow will worry about itself.
If this blog post does not make much sense, I cannot help you because I wrote it in a hurry. Until next time! Bonne Jounne! (Good Day)

Posted by Elissa

Shanksteps Student Missionary in Koza #10

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