My Journey

 For the many of the children here and in other developing countries.  This week we had a young boy, 11 months old who came in for an abdominal hernia.  The day he was due to be discharged, I went to check on him and found him to be malnourished.  He also has a twin sister, but she is much healthier.  Many times patients want to be discharged as quickly as possible as they cannot afford to pay for a long stay.  I spoke with the mother and a friend of hers about the concerns I had for the child.  His name is Benic.  I encouraged her to stay 4-5 more days to see if we could get his weight up.  A normal 11 month old should weigh around 19 pounds,  Benic weighed 12.5 pounds when I first saw him.  After 5 days of high calorie diet which included “Plumpy Nut”, which is protein high peanut butter, he weight 14.5 pounds.  He looked much better and so we let them go home.  He will follow-up with us at our malnutrition clinic next T...

Complications and issues to address.  Looks like I will be busy for a while.   My days have become a little routine of late…but I am sure they will lead to some pretty busy days in the near future.  Up at 6 and down to morning devo at the center of the hospital in the gazebo by 7:30.  Most days I make it a little earlier and check in on each of the patient wards just to say morning greetings and see how many patients we have.  Then I meet with Exavery who is the acting Hospital Secretary (Katibu). We discuss what will be happening today and the items we need to check up on from earlier days. The rest of the day is filled with meeting those who have been asked to do or make some changes to make sure thanks are moving in the right directions.  And, we have some potential hospital plans coming up in the near future which we have also been working on.  I will let you in on those things as we get started.   The hospital was all paper charts when I was ...

Are a great success!   I will admit that traveling from US to Chimala is not as easy for me as it used to be.  It was a long and stressful week as I mentioned last week.  This week, I spent all my time at the hospital re-orienting myself to the daily activities and condition of the hospital.  It was much what I expected and some what I didn’t.    Today, I made a trip with Frank from CSOP to Kapunga to meet 2 children with the same birth defect.  They do not have rectums and therefore have ostomies.  One of the children, Brayan, is  10 years old who lives with his grandmother.  In the Chimala newsletter a few months ago, Brayan was featured with a large abdomen due to a non-functioning ostomy.  Since that article, Brayan has had a large surgery to re-do his ostomy.  We praise the Lord for his full recovery.  The new ostomy is working for now.   However, Brayan has not been going to his follow-up appointments due to the...

 I seem to have left them in America!! My feet are nothing to look at, but if you look closely…..my ankles have disappeared!  They were gone when I got off the plane and after a week, I still have not found them! On a more pleasant note….I have made it to Chimala!  The trip here had many challenges, but I am now on the other side.  It was such a blessing to see the beauty of the green mountains and plains which I remember with such fondness.  And better yet was the sight of my many friends whom I have missed so much!  I arrived here late Friday night.  On Saturday, I unpacked and greeted those who came by the house to greet me.  Sunday, I visited the Chimala Mission church to let them know I was here.  On Sunday evening, we (Menard who interprets for me and I) went to the Chosi A church.  Those who have visited in the past will remember this church by two other fond names we have given it.  The first was “The Bat” church.  When...

 To Go and Trust in the Lord.  You know, I mentioned a few weeks ago how I struggle sometimes between whether God is speaking or I am wanting.  Well, I know without a doubt that God is telling me to go to Tanzania to help those I can.  I know He will be beside me in all I do.  Several weeks ago when I was informed to wait for the government paperwork, I delayed my trip.  I also prayed to God and told Him I was turning this over to Him.  At that time, there was nothing else I could do from here.  I had sent in all the papers requested from my side and all that was left was the approvals from the Tanzanian side. I listened to those who said wait and waited an extra 5 weeks to leave.  At this time, I am being pulled to go.  The time is now.  God is in control and He wants me to trust in Him as I go.  I will leave on Tuesday, March 22nd for Tanzania.  I plan to meet with the man who is working on my papers on Thursday to see w...

 I was all set to leave this next Tuesday.  However, just yesterday, I was informed I needed to delay my trip for another 3 weeks!  I must say that my heart fell just a bit.  I have been talking with people in Chimala and they are as excited about my return as I am.  I have already requested some paperwork from them and started doing some reviewing so I am up to speed when I arrive.   When I was getting ready to update you with this delay, I was trying to come up with some interesting way to tie this update to my last post of Speed-bumps and Hiccups.  I thought you might be interested in learning that there is one main Highway which goes from the east coast of Tanzania across the country and enters Malawi.  This highway is called the Tanzam Highway.  Once you enter Malawi on this highway you can continue on this highway all the way to South Africa.  Many refer to this highway as The Great Northern Road.  When I first started in Chim...

 Don’t you just love speed bumps.  They slow down your progress, but they can’t really stop you.  You just take them in stride and continue on.  Now I am sure you have had a few really bad encounters with speed bumps, just like I have.  I mean sometimes you find a speed bump where you lest expect it and you are cruising along when you hit it before you can slow down.  “Wham!”  You hit it hard and everyone in the vehicle flys out of their seat, hitting their heads on the ceiling or on the window.  Everyone yells “OW!”. Or how about the incessant episodes of hiccups that never seem to end.  They usually come out of nowhere, last so long that you start hurting with each hiccup.  Others around you try to make you stop with all their home remedies for them.  These episodes may slow you down for a short time, but eventually they go away and you continue on with what you were doing. Well,  My plans to return to Chimala have hit a smal...