Week at the Mission ends with a tragedy....

I have been "lurking" around the mission this week.  The house is liveable.  I have been hearing bats around the house at about 4am every morning tho.  So yesterday, one of the shop workers came to check it out.  He thinks he got them all out of the attic and has blocked the holes.  I sure hope so, cuz if he blocked the holes and the bats are still in there they will come out into the house.  AND I don't want that....but I also do not what to compete with the "bat church".  

Monday morning, I visited the secondary school for morning devo.  The CBI Director, Garry Hill, was the speaker.  This was my first time at the school for morning bell.  It reminded me alot of my time as Headmistress in Ghana.  The students were cleaning the yard and trimming the grass when we arrived at 7:15.  The bell rang at 7:30 and they quickly came to the designated area and lined up in their classes (called forms here).  Form 1, 2, 3 and 4.  Below are some pics from devo.

The students making sure their school grounds look good.

 

Here are the students lining up in their forms.  There are so many, I cannot get them all in one picture.

These 3 little ones were carrying this big bucket of trash from the primary school to the pit, which was a good distance.  They did not know I was taking their picture as I was far from them and using my zoom.  They would carry it for a short distance, stop a minute and then continue until they reached the pit. 

 

 

 

 

They final made it.  This little girls looks like she sees me, but really she is just looking to see what is going on.

 

 





Garry Hill, with Ezekial interpreting, preaching this week at the Church of Christ located on the mission.  Below is a picture to show you the size of this congregation.

 

 I am not sure of the numbers, but the church is good sized and usually pretty full.  The primary school children attend church here, but the secondary school children have their own church services at the school.

 

 

This is a picture of the pavillion at the hospital.  I attended morning devo one morning there.  Many of the hospital staff, patients and family members come to this devo.

 

 

The speaker for this particular morning was Bernard, who is the hospital administrator.

 

 



 

While there are a few more pictures I would like to show from this week, I must stop with the pictures and relay to you the news of today. I received a call this morning about 8:30 and was informed there had been a bad accident with lots of victims. I immediately headed for the hospital as did Cyndi, Bill and Randy Carroll. It was worse than one of the mass casualty trainings we hold in America. I will not have any pictures and I wont share any horror stories, but I feel I must share with you some of the gravity of the situation these doctors and nurses experience on occassion. And when I say "on occassion", I mean it happens about every 2-3 months or so. Much more than what I am used to seeing.

 

There was a truck load (and when I say truck load, I am talking a big dump truck like vehicle with as many people as can be possible loaded...some were probably even hanging off the back of the truck) of workers going to the rice fields to work. The driver took a curve much too fast and the truck rolled over. When I arrived at the hospital, which is square shaped with a big court yard in the middle, there were bodies laying every which way along the walkway around the big square. I headed straight for the "minor theatres" which are the treatment rooms. Doctors, nurses and many others were busy attempting to see the most critical and badly bleeding patients first. There were 4-5 patients in each of the 2 treatment rooms.

 

It is the rainy season here and has been raining for 2 days. The patients were not only covered in blood with severe head and facial lacerations, but were also covered with muddy sand and dirt. I cannot tell you how many patients I helped with, but I will tell you everyone was working well together to help patients as quickly as possible. The first patient I assisted with had an arterial bleed and he had a laceration to his face that went from above his left eye down the side, under the eye and deep into the cheek. Many, many people had severe large facial lacerations as did this patient.

 

I also don't know how many patients we saw before I was told there was no more suture supplies and very little iodine. We still had many patients who needed suturing. We simply had to clean and dress the wounds as best we could. When the worst had been stabalized, the head doctor began reassessing the patients. Many were transferred to other facilities and then the work continued on the more minor patients and the ones we had to admit. At the last report, we saw 135 patients and I know of a confirmed 4 dead. However, I anticipate being told the death report is higher because I believe many were dead at the scene.

 

This would have been a difficult task for a big American trauma center to handle with all their equipment and staff. I am so proud and awed by the hospital staff here for the way they tackled this situation. There was no panick or yelling which I have experienced in ER situations.  They were all calm and focused on the task at hand.  Is there a need for additional training, supply management and other areas of improvement to be addressed?  Absolutely.  But for today, God was with us and we helped everyone as best we could.