Friday, November 28, 2014

Around the Web

From the BBC:
 My other children, the orphan gorillas of Vrunga


Park ranger Andre Bauma has been taking care of orphaned mountain gorillas at Virunga, Africa's oldest national park, for the past seven years, and he says he loves them as if they were his own children.


Thursday, November 27, 2014

Happy Thanksgiving!

Happy Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving 2014 finds us celebrating in yet another country!
Stephen has a normal work day, and we will have a small meal with friends this evening.
We are going to have the traditional American Thanksgiving on Saturday.
However your day is spent today, we hope you have a blessed day.

Thanksgiving 2012- Our 4th Thanksgiving in Congo!  We had the meal at our house in Impfondo.  Stephen was doing surgery, and I was sick, so Sarah Speer graciously agreed to serve as our hostess!  We had chicken, duck, dressing, pumpkin pie and more.  Isabelle and Joyce Samoutou took pictures to commemorate the event.

Thanksgiving weekend 2013- We were in Savannah, GA at the house of Stephen's brother.  We had all the wonderful, traditional foods that I love- YEAH for TURKEY!  I guess I was too busy eating to take pictures, but we also toured a fort and did some shopping over the weekend.

Wednesday, November 26, 2014

Market Day

There is a local market that is open two days a week.
I haven't had a chance to go, but another visitor was kind enough to share photos.





Thanks again to Scott for the pictures!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

Learning Surgery

This month, Stephen is working with Dr. Bob Green to learn orthopedic surgery, focusing on SIGN nails to repair fractures.






Special thanks to Scott for the pictures from the hospital!

Monday, November 24, 2014

POTD

Young girls carrying heavy loads

Stephen and Dr. Green returning after a day of surgery

Making a fence out of dried grasses
We see many donkeys around town

A busy intersection in Soddo

Friday, November 21, 2014

Meanwhile, back at the farm....

Some of you may be wondering what is going on in Impfondo during our absence...

We have some good news: DR Congo is declared Ebola free

From Lauren Lunsford via Facebook:



One of my favorite parts about being a nurse is watching the formerly critically ill go home.
This is Mondesi. The doctors told his family repeatedly that they should prepare for his death, that he wasn't going to make the week. He had sickle cell, severe malnutrition, multiple abdominal surgeries, and needed abscesses cut open every week. BUT he had a mother and an aunt who prayed for him without ceasing. When one woman wanted to sleep the other would get on her hands and knees and pray so that someone was always praying. This boy could not even sit by himself without excruciating pain and weeping. And yesterday I watched him literally pick up his mat and walk home. God is a God of miracles even for today.

{Read more about Mondesi's story: Despite Our Presence or Absence}

This is Esther. She came in a few months ago very malnourished after drinking lye. She had a G-tube placed and is looking significantly better. It's so nice to see success stories every once in a while. 

 On Reigning in Life, Sarah Tenpenny shares about HIV Counseling
Often patients are diagnosed with HIV for the first time at the hospital. Our lab workers do their best to tell them about their diagnosis but sometimes it takes time to truly sink in. Often after they hear the words, “you have HIV” nothing else is heard after that. For so many years in Africa the disease was a death sentence. Over the last few years, especially due to PEPFAR that President Bush put into place a few years back to fund AIDS medication, this in no longer the case. The problem is, each patient must come back in regularly for medications and testing.

It takes significant time and kind, loving words to share this diagnosis. One such patient recently came into clinic with a new diagnosis, but understanding little. Her first questions was “How long do I have to take these medications?”. She was totally shocked and started crying when we told her “for the rest of your life”. She refused and got up to leave. Through kind words of encouragement and prayer the young woman began to accept this. We prayed with her and she committed herself to the treatment for her disease and better understood that she had not really been given a death sentence.
******************

From New Sight Congo
Happy Patients, Happy Staff, Happy us.
Have a happy day!
With love and thanks from the Congo

Wednesday, November 19, 2014

Out and about in Soddo

A few pictures from the town of Soddo...





Monday, November 17, 2014

10 things you might experience as a TCK

Stephen teaching
the nurses to use the PPE
Growing up as a Third Culture Kid (TCK) brings some interesting opportunities your way.  Here are some things you might experience.

1. Your cat wakes you up at 4:30AM to admire the bat he killed.  "Good kitty!  Now can I go back to sleep?"  The same cat may have been known to bring a "not dead yet" rat to play with under your bed.  But all is forgiven when you remember that one time that he cornered the potentially poisonous snake that had entered your bedroom.

2. Not only do you know more about Ebola than the average person in the US; you know more about Ebola than the average medical professional in the US.

3. When people come to the door looking for your father, you can tell them, "He is not here; go to the hospital"  in three languages.... even if you prefer to say, "Mommy, somebody's at the door looking for Daddy!"

Baby Honey Badger
4. School is often interrupted by interesting animals.  Who else gets a honey badger offered at their front door?  Unfortunately, your mom turns them away every time.

5. You don't get school delays due to bad weather or power outages.  But you do get delays for things like your mother biking to the ATM to get cash to buy diesel fuel so that your father can do surgery.  (What would we call that type of delay?)

Along the same lines as delays- you don't get snow days.  But you do get surprise days off for things like "We almost evacuated, but then we didn't and we really need a day off."  Since that's too long, we'll just call them "mental health appreciation days!"

6. Your playground equipment is trees, and you have have more fun on that than any playground because you use your imagination.

Another plane ride
7. You have been flying since before you can remember, and you never worry about crashing.  Your biggest concern is who gets the window seat.  You may have been known to think it was funny to yell "We're going to crash!!" as loud as you can while the plane lands.  Good thing it was on a flight with few English speakers!

8. You've heard "Don't you know there's starving kids in Africa?" when you don't want to eat your vegetables.  You know that eating those green beans or not eating them isn't going to help the kids one way or another.  While you are willing to help with the preparation and delivery of malnutrition supplements, those green beans are staying on your plate!  After all, whatever you don't eat won't go to waste.  It will be eaten by an employee or patient in the hospital.  You're off the hook.  ;)

Caleb in Thailand
9. While most kids are discouraged from playing with matches, your parents are just glad that you can light the candles when the power goes out- again.

10. You have a desire to visit all the continents of the world, and you have a good start by the time you are seven years old - four checked off- North America, Europe, Africa and Asia.  Caleb really wants to go to Australia next, and I told him I would love to go with him.  For Antarctica, he's going to be on his own!


* Bonus: You have a "swat to kill" order on all cockroaches in the house.  You can earn 30 minutes of game time on the computer or other devices.  The opportunities abound!



We spend lots of time
looking at this map!
More reading:
Twenty Four Reasons I Love the Fact that My Kids are TCK's
Funny Things Third Culture Kids Say
Raising Resilient MKs
Living Between Worlds- A Post on TCKs

Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Soddo Christian Hospital


Front Gate
Guard station

Emergency Room entrance

Pediatrics

Random sheep- I'm not sure if he's there as an all natural lawn mower or a food supply


Eye clinic seen from the main street


Our guest house
You can read the history behind the hospital:
History of the Mission to Soddo, Pt 1
History of the Mission to Soddo, Pt 2
A Church Born in War- History, Pt 3
Medicine + the Gospel- History, Pt 4

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Soddo

We arrived in Soddo Friday evening, and jumped right into life here.
Stephen spent Saturday morning rounding with the ortho doctors- a change of pace for him.
Since the pediatrician is currently traveling, they also had him check on one of their pediatric patients.
I spent the morning visiting some of the shops.
I was most impressed with the beef- inexpensive and great quality!
The kids spent the morning on the playground, trampoline, and in the trees.


See more pictures of our first morning on Facebook.

POTD

Nov 2- Lunch with friends on Stephen's birthday

Nov 3- Waiting at the Brazzaville airport

Nov 4- The streets of Addis Ababa


Nov 5- This picture shows the juxtaposition between poverty and wealth in Addis Ababa
Nov 6- The kids are enjoying some food & drinks in one of the small cafes

Monday, November 10, 2014

Around the Web

Map: The Africa without Ebola

"In the case of this Ebola outbreak, a problem which does not yet have a scientific solution and which started in a village in the developing world is actually visiting New York City and the West," he writes. "Eventually the rich world will realize that it makes no sense to leave one part of the world struggling in poverty with such terrible national infrastructures. Before it's done, this Ebola outbreak might teach them all that."



Dear Missionaries,

I like to tell people I'm a missionary convert, because I wear this genesis of my faith journey proudly like a badge of honor. I heard the story of Jesus from your lips, sang the songs of worship in your language, and prayed for the concerns in your heart. You taught me how to be Christian.

You humble me so much with your sacrificial love. You leave behind your family, your support system, your familiar ways of life, in order to enter into our lives. You care for our poor, sick, and needy like very few other groups of people are willing to do. I am thankful and inspired. But the highest cost you pay is not giving up the creaturely comforts of a higher standard of lifestyle. The highest cost you pay will be holding the value system that carries your faith loosely. This is hard, because your faith is why you came. Yet the best hope for this transfer of faith to take root in our own culture is if you're willing to let us do the slow labor of cultivating our own faith. This means you will need to allow us to make mistakes without judgment. Please remember the history of your own faith is not without blemish. Let us make our own mistakes and learn without the anxieties you bring from your context.

In return, we hope we can bless you with our own stories. Let us show you how to be Christian in ways you have never imagined before. Let us show you how big is God's grace that covers all of our multitude of mistakes. Let us grow together as equal brothers and sisters in Christ, and spur each other on towards greater love and good deeds.
***********
The picture below is a photo of a young child gathering pods to harvest cocoa beans. There are hundreds of thousands of children in West Africa who do this work. Young children. Children who should be attending school and having a childhood. And they are working for most of the mainstream chocolate providers in the USA. A report from the International Institute of Tropical Agriculture about cocoa farms in the Ivory Coast estimated there were 284,000 children working on cocoa farms in hazardous conditions. Some of them have been taken from their families, or sold as servants. U.S. chocolate manufacturers have claimed they are not responsible for the conditions on cocoa plantations since they don't own them. This includes Hershey, Mars, Nestle, and the US division of Cadbury . . . who collectively represent pretty much every snack-size candy bar that will be available in stores this Halloween.