October 13, 2005

  • Thinga Are Heating Up

    October 8, 2005

     

     

     

    Things are heating up….this is the very HOT time of the year everyone keeps telling us about …until the rains come. Needless to say…my prayer is “Lord, Send Your Rain.”   This dry and thirsty land needs not only physical rain but spiritual rain…the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.  Isaiah 35 is my prayer for this land and these people.

     

    While we wait however, we continue to be faithful in the day to day routine.  We saw 205 patients in the clinic in September and we didn’t start until the 9th of the month.  This week alone we saw 134 more….word is spreading.  People are coming from the surrounding villages and are walking for hours to get here.  Imagine being sick with a fever and stomach pains and walking two hours in one direction in intense heat on stony dirt roads and paths with flip flops or no shoes just hoping to get medicine.  I continue to marvel at just how blessed we are in America!.....and I understand why the Bible talks about washing feet!!  I think I also have an understanding of why Esther had to go through one year of beauty treatments before she was suitable to be presented to the king…I’ll just let you ponder on that one!!

     

                With the extended gas tank in the Defender and two containers of Diesel just in case, we set out again for another 5 hour trip to Lusaka with the Jones’.  A very productive 24 hours later, we had our work permit in hand and I am registered for the Nursing test on December 1st.  In addition, we were able to acquire medications from the distributor in Lusaka at discounted prices.  We also ordered a mosquito net because I found out that you are not safe with just screens….evidently the malaria mosquito is very tiny and gets through the screens!

     

    Upon our return, the second exam room that  had previously been cleaned, grouted, painted and the cement floor polished, was sprayed for ants and then we began moving everything out of the first room so that the same thing could be done to it. We have hired our first worker for the clinic who will start Monday morning.  She is a young woman planning to go to nursing school next June and eager to work in a medical setting.  She was working for Joanne in the orphanage but has been released to work for us.  She will register the patients, set-up and file charts, assist with exams and interpret…and of course the proverbial “other duties as assigned” (like cleaning and teaching us Tonga!) 

     

                Pastor Jerry and his team are at the farm as I write this….he brought a lot of little goodies for me including more Velcro…yes I’m still working on screens even though they won’t help with the malaria mosquito…they do help with the other thousand varieties of insects!!!  He also brought updated pictures of the grandchildren which is always a joy to see. 

     

                Of course I saved the best for last….just a few hours ago, Joanne came and got Sal and I out of worship practice at the church because someone was in labor and had sent for Joanne to come to her hut and help.  Joanne delivered a baby last year in the back of the vehicle while Linda was driving to the hospital, so now she is the one to call!!! Well we walked to the woman’s hut on the farm (about 15 minutes) with an OB kit in hand.  When we got to the home site, a woman came out of the hut and said “It is a girl.”

     

    Joanne and I entered the hut and Sal remained outside if needed.  The hut, made of grass, was dark and small with a twin size bed to one side.  The woman was on all fours on the bed and I did not hear any crying nor see a baby.  Upon further inspection, the baby was on the bed between the woman’s knees with the cord still attached.  The baby had just been born yet I heard no screaming or moaning from the mother.  Joanne told me that Zambian women do not utter a sound while in labor or during the birth because they are told it is a sign of weakness. Remember there are no epidurals or drugs here ladies….and no episiotomies!  I assisted Joanne with cutting the cord and with the delivery of the placenta after making sure the baby was alive.  We wrapped up the baby and handed her to Sal outside in the daylight so he could assess her while we continued to clean up inside.  The village woman who was helping had placed some kind of burlap underneath the mother…I came to find out later that was the bag that their mealy-meal grain product comes in. Well, it served its purpose of protecting the bed.  After making sure the afterbirth was complete, we wrapped it all up along with the burlap and placed it in a bag to be buried as is their custom. Mother and baby were doing well when we left….baby was not to be washed until the next day and was not to be put to the breast for a few hours.   Mom was tired but happy.  Where was dad in all this time??  Dad was working but even if they told him, most Zambian men don’t want to be around….It definitely is a woman thing!  We walked back home, took showers and praised the Lord….thankful for all His blessings…..Lord what will you put before me tomorrow????