It is pretty nice. However, that roof is metal and on hot days, which is most of them, it’s like an oven inside. We do have A/C in one room so I stay in there most of the time.
Always a lot of fun and really the most practical way to get around on dirt roads. Most of my days are spent at work but on my days off its laundry, cooking, cleaning, all the same stuff that occupy days off in the US.
Working at the hospital here is my ministry and why I am here. We do shifts, either days or nights and when I am on I am responsible for all of the medicine patients. We are extremely pediatrics heavy and on most days, 80-90% of the admitted patients are pediatrics. We also have a very busy NICU and usually at least have 3-4 preemie infants admitted as well. During a normal day, I will round in the morning and then take care of any urgent or ER type patients that may come in. There are some days when I am like, “yep I got this, no worries.” But there are many when I plead with the Lord for help because I don’t have the right answer or know exactly what the right thing is to do. The Psalmist says it plainly, “I lift up my eyes to the hills, from where does my help come? My help comes from the Lord who made heaven and earth.” Psalm 121: 1-2. I find myself praying this prayer often.
It is hard to be here at times. There is so much poverty, illness, death, and disease. We try fiercely, as a medical staff, to stand in the gap and to intervene when we can but death still comes. It comes like a thief in the night. We are in malaria season now and every year this disease breaks my heart as I see it steal kids from this life so quickly or it devastates them to the point of needing full time care and a feeding tube. 1 – 3 million people …..that is a big number. That is roughly the population of cities like Houston or Chicago. That is also the number of people that die every year from Malaria. Of those 1-3 million deaths, 80-90% are children under the age of 5.
A limp child is brought in to the ER area. He is unresponsive. His breathing is not good. Glucose check and its normal. We start bagging. Heart rate is ok. As we work, the family gives the story, 2 days of vomiting and fever at home. They took him to a clinic today, had a malaria test that was positive and he got a shot and told to come here for anemia. We continue to bag him while an IV is placed and IVF given. Labs are drawn and he starts breathing better. He’s placed on oxygen and I walk away for a few minutes. I am then called back over shortly and he is again not breathing. I check his pupils and they are now both fully dilated and fixed. He has no respirations at all. And just like that malaria has taken another one. I talk with the family through and translator and tell them how sorry I am but their child is dead. The nurses go about taking out the IV and cleaning everything up and I go back to another chart, another patient. All women here carry their children on their backs, held there by a piece of material. It is like a better but different baby bjorn. I happen to look over a few minutes later and the family is helping to put the child on the mom’s back so they can take him home for burial. This was not a new site for me, I have seen families carry out dead kids on their backs before but every time, including this one, I just stopped and my heart ached for them….They came for healing and with hope and it was too late….there was nothing to do….the thief of malaria had taken another one.
Twins are prevalent here….we see them no uncommonly. However recently we had 6 sets of premature twins admitted in our hospital. I am pretty sure that is a record for us. They are super cute but given their prematurity and all of the potential complications that come with that they are a ton of work. And, it’s very confusing trying to keep them all straight J. Are these the boy twins, the girl twins, are they one boy and one girl. Are you sure this is baby “A” and that’s baby “B”? So, for a long time now, even when our numbers of twins have not been this high, we started wrapping tape around one leg of each to “label” them as “A” or “B.”
This is one set here that is close to being discharged.
Photo used with permission
Sometimes, after they are discharged and come back for follow up appointments, they still have the tape markers on. These kids are usually in the hospital for a month or two so it allows us to easily make relationships with the mom. She is a captive audience so to speak of all that is happening and going on. Please pray for us that we can display the love of Christ to her in how we care for her and for her babies. As we walk through this very up and down course that is preemie care, may these moms see Christ in us. Often, we don’t have the words to comfort or to console but may our actions display His love to them. So, as cute as they are, I am ready for all the twins to stop for a while. JThese kids rack up quite a bill for their stay, especially with twins. We have a fund that helps these families subsidize their hospital bill and if you ever feel like contributing you may do so through www.abwe.org then go to support….missionaries & projects….HOH Togo Pediatric Care.
Sacrifice to prayer…..
Many of you know and follow my story of Tama and how his family have become Christians since his death. This tribe is GanGam and very spiritually dark. They do sacrifices, have witch doctors, and have some of the darkest practices that I have ever heard about. I remember the first few times I met Tama’s dad and how I could just feel the oppression in him. He was a witch doctor in this tribe before becoming a Christian. There is now a church in their village where the two Bible studies have merged to form this body of believers. I attend when I can and I am not working. So, not often but I try. Here are a couple pictures of the church.
The service is conducted in a tribal language of which I only know the greeting, so for most of it, I just sit and smile. There is always singing and even without the language, you can hear the joy. This past week, a woman got up at the end and gave a report about how she used to do sacrifices, according to tribal custom, when she needed something or had an affliction in hopes that the sacrifice would appease whomever or whatever and the thing she was asking for or needed would happen. But now, she says that since she has Jesus, she no longer needs to find a sacrifice or to do those rituals anymore because she can just pray about it and bring it before the Lord. From darkness to light is happening here and it is an amazing thing to see the Lord bring these people to Himself first-hand.
