Impfondo found Around the Web

Some of our colleagues in Impfondo have blogs, too.   The Harveys have been in the Republic of Congo since 1995.  Their newsletters can be found at Congo Harveys.

The Samoutous are operating New Sight Congo, the first eye center in our area.  They are also our neighbors in Impfondo.

 Dr. Laura Foudy was in Impfondo for about 2 1/2 years.  She's heading to the "other Congo" for three months.  We hope she'll be back in Impfondo soon.

The Tenpenneys are our newest arrival in Impfondo!

Update

Recently, our hospital received a container of medical supplies from Samaritan's Purse. The supplies have been running low at the hospital, and many of these items were desperately needed.

The container arrived in Pointe Noire on January 20. After a lengthy process, the container was released on March 25, and transported to Brazzaville via cargo flight. There is no way to get the entire container to Brazzaville at one time; we are bringing items as there is space available on cargo planes or humanitarian flights.

While on an unexpected trip to Brazzaville for the dentist, we were able to help prioritize the most urgent items for shipment.



The following is an excerpt from Dr. Harvey's latest newsletter. It explains some of the difficulties with the transportation of the items. Life here can be challenging, but we continue to remember God's faithfulness in the midst of difficulties.

One friend commented, “Tell us about the shipment having arrived and being all squared away and tidy and useful…”

I wish I could. In reality, over a month has come and gone since our container was released from port, but still only 1/6^th of the contents have made it to Impfondo. We still have 8 ½ tons of donated supplies and equipment sitting in our warehouse in Brazzaville (900 km to the South), with no way to get them here. (Thank God for the warehouse). For 2 months we have had 1 ton of medicines that we ordered from Europe (and paid for) back in September, sitting in a storeroom in Bangui (200 km to the North). (Thank God the medicines have made it thus far). No boats are coming to Impfondo, because the river is too low. The humanitarian flights that are supposed to bring our stuff for free have begun charging $2 a pound, or are alternately cancelled or too full. (Thank God a commercial airline has agreed to start bringing things a little at a time for 50 cents a pound, and 118 boxes arrived yesterday). Every day at the hospital, many times a day, people tell me “we are out of suture” or “we are out of bandages” or “we are about to run out of IV fluids.” We are also out of fuel and natural gas (which we use for refrigeration and cooking). I don’t know what to tell them except “they’re in Brazzaville” or “we bought some 8 months ago that hasn’t arrived yet.” I try not to get discouraged. . .

Read the full newsletter at Congo Harveys.

Life here can be challenging, but we continue to remember God's faithfulness in the midst of difficulties.

Brief Update

We had an enjoyable visit in Brazzaville while attending the CMA conference. We ended up being there 5 more days than we had planned. (That's what travel is like here sometimes.)
We have stayed busy since returning, but other people have done updates, so I thought I would just use theirs for now.

An expert from the Harvey's latest news letter:
After visiting Pioneer Christian Hospital a couple of weeks ago, the Honorable Alan Eastham, US Ambassador to the Republic of Congo commented, "Impfondo is the most positive place in Congo...at least with the Harveys and the rest of the team."You can read the rest of the newsletter at Congo Harvey's.

The Ralston's latest newsletter is available at Laborers for the Harvest.

Updates

The following is an excerpt from the Harvey's newsletter.

We have received 36 war-wounded, 30 very sick refugees, 12 suspected cases of severe H1N1 infection, 12 cases of malnutrition, and 6 high-level government & UN delegations, in addition to all our regular patients, in the past two months. Many of the wounded and malnourished take a long time to heal. We have gone through a year's supply of pain medicine, compresses, and rolled bandages in one month, because of the daily dressing changes. We continue to field questions from the media.
To read the complete newsletter visit Congo Harveys.

More Updates

Here are the most recent updates from the Ralstons and the Harveys. The hospital is full, and we continue to be very busy. Pictures to come soon.

Christmas, Update on the DRC Conflict (from the Ralsons blog)

Prayer Net 306b (from the Harveys)

Hospital Update

The following is a hospital update from Dr. Harvey. To read the complete newsletter visit Congo Harveys.

Things have been busy at the hospital. There is a new armed conflict going on northeast of Impfondo in the Equateur Region of neighboring Democratic Republic of Congo. About 26,000 refugees have crossed to our side of the Oubangui River in the past month or so. At Pioneer Christian Hospital we have received 3 waves of wounded refugees, injured in the chaotic violence. We are taking care of 7 patients (ages 11 to 57) with gunshot wounds, and 4 with serious machete wounds. All have had one or two surgeries, and most need more to reattach tendons and further mend broken bones. Our hospital is now a stop on the humanitarian assistance/UN/government/media circuit as a number of delegations have come through to assess the situation. The Congo-Brazzaville & Congo-Kinshasa governments have responded quickly and effectively to the needs that we have presented, and we and our patients are very grateful.

Our need for nurses is even more critical than ever! It's really good to have 3 doctors on full-time staff now, but we don't have nearly enough nurses to carry out the doctors' orders. We hope to start a nursing school in January, which should help in the future, but we need nurses now! Often we have only 1 nurse on duty for 25-35 inpatients! This is unacceptable. Please pray for God to provide 4 RN's, 2 physician's assistants or nurse practitioners, and 4 LPN's as soon as possible.

Back in Town

Well the Wegners are coming back into MT tomorrow and I will begin work again at the Blackfeet Community Hospital.

We had a good time with our family and friends and I even had a couple of opportunities to share about our vision God gave us for the Republic of Congo.

I will confess that as we got closer to MT I struggled with some disappointment of not making it to Language school this winter, but I know God is good and I am excited for the opportunity to build some more relationships with churches in the area and also to do some more work with the IHS in Browning.

Tomorrow I have an opportunity to speak at the CMA church in Cody for another 10min slot.

We also received another email from the Harveys and some snippets follow of what God is doing at the Pioneer Christian Hospital.

• a 3-year old boy named Moses who spent two weeks in respiratory distress due to a pleural effusion from pneumonia, started getting better and now he's ready to go home.
• we were able to start our first 2 AIDS patients on anti-retroviral therapy.

Last week 4 year-old Roselyn's mother carried her to the hospital. Her right leg was tender and swollen and she couldn't stand or walk. Her father cancelled his business trip when, after 24 hours, there was little improvement. We discovered that Roselyn has sickle cell anemia, and started her on appropriate treatment. The next 24 hours brought remarkable improvement, and in 3 days she was running around the pediatric ward, ready to go home.

Lobilo is a young Aka (pygmy) man who fell out of a palm tree and broke his back several years ago, resulting in partial paralysis. Because of this, he developed sores on one foot that smelled so bad, no one wanted to touch him, like a modern day leper. Dr. Fuka operated on his foot, removing some dead and infected bone. His feet are now clean, and his room has been cleansed.

21-year-old Mireille couldn't hear. Her family found her lying on the street near her village after her husband had gone to Impfondo to sell her manioc leaves. They thought she was having a temper tantrum, but our thermometer showed she had a fever. Cerebral malaria was the culprit. After 24 hours on IV malaria medicine, she woke up, could hear and talk again, and was able to go home on oral medicine.

56-year old Lucien started breathing funny after an all night vigil at a "church" that worships waves on the river. About 20 extended family members brought him to the hospital in a profound coma. Several times during his first week in the hospital, the women in his family started wailing. He was so close to death, they started measuring him for a casket. A careful history finally revealed that he was suffering from alcohol withdrawl with delirium tremens. Thiamine injections did the trick, and he has been coming to our chapel services every Sunday since, on his own power.


Praise God.