a whirlwind.

It has been a whirlwind of activities this past week. 

When do we ever get to take a breath?

When do things ever go as planned?

T.I.A.: This Is Africa. Amy Johnson would say. 

And I would be thinking, Transient Ischemic Attack.

Yes, certainly a spontaneous stroke will result from all this action. 

A good friend of mine has been saying to me, “a lot of water will pass beneath your bridge this summer, Olvie”. And surely there has been an unusual amount of rain for dry season this year. 

Banana Bonanza, July 14^th, 2011

Sarah and I had a baking frenzy where we made 3 loaves of banana bread, 2 loaves of carrot cake, and 3 batches of peanut butter & maple cookies. For what? As the Africans would say (they often ask rhetorical questions ending in ‘what’). For our weekend of hosting guests. A medical team of 5 young and aspiring medical school-bound/post-nursing school females, along with an older couple leading them, joined us on Saturday. It was refreshing to meet other like-minded and mission-passionate people my age, yet it was an exhausting end to our week! 

Storage Room Make-over

The health centre paeds ward reeks of a pungent mix of urine, body odour, and strange anti-septic solutions. The locked storage room (where World Harvest keeps their stock of medical supplies) is a safe haven from the gut-wrenching smell, except it is draped in cobwebs, blanketed in thick snowy dust, sprinkled with lizard poop, and filled with tattered boxes and medical supplies in disarray. Quite frankly, it is a horror to look at and a scary room to be in despite the freedom from sickly human body odour. 

St. Peter’s United Church in Sudbury, generously gave me $500 CAN to purchase medical supplies for the mission. Back home at Shoppers Drug Mart, before I came, I was dumbfounded. I didn’t have a clue what these dying children needed in expensive bottles of vitamins from Canada. So the team suggested I wait until I arrived in Bundibugyo to purchase the meds. I’m so glad I did.

Jessica, Sarah, and I spent the entire morning to de-shroud the room of cobwebs. I think I swept up enough dirt & sand to build a sand castle too. We reorganized all the supplies, categorized them in colourful plastic bins and labelled each section. For once, in our time in Africa, there was some sort of order.

Dr. Jessica took an inventory of what was existing. She made a little wish list.

And so we went into Bundibugyo town the next day, and went straight to the Pharmacy. We were greeted by an Indian and a Pakistani man. 

It felt like we were at a candy store, because we were able to get everything on the wish list and more! Every time we stopped to calculate the balance, we always found ourselves with more money left over to get more medical supplies! 

Imagine picking out your favourite candy, except this kind saves lives. Thank you St. Peter’s Church in Sudbury, and thank you Jesus. 

Storage Room at Nyahuka Healthcentre before the big clean-up

After the clean-up:)

So I guess my friend was right. A surge of rich & refreshing experiences has, and will continue to, flow under my bridge this summer. 

Beautiful Canadian

It was a 9:00am meeting that started at 10:00am.

A the CME (Continuing Medical Education) meeting last Friday, Sarah & I had the role of assisting with training the staff about record keeping so that UNICEF may continue to give us the formula for severely malnourished children. The meeting was supposed to begin at 9:00am and we even prepared hot cereal and Mendazi (Ugandan doughnuts) to entice the staff, but people did not show up until 10:00am, which is not shocking. 

But praise the Lord, because Olupah, the head nurse, who knows more about this healthcare system than anyone else, led the meeting and gave an insightful lecture. It was encouraging to hear that although they have such a poor system, they do have a level of standard and quality. Living here, I can see that they are long ways from complete structure and order in the healthcare field, but they are slowly improving and changing for the better. 

So while we sat on the benches outside where meetings are often held, a few people joined us. One man named Rogers sat across from Jessica, Sarah and I. Dr. Jessica was conversing with Roger and introduced us. Rogers then refers to me, 

“Oliver (which is my Ugandan name) looks like she is from Canada”.

Jessica: “Canada? Really? Most people from Canada do not look like her”.

Then I responded rather defensively: “Well, Canada IS a very multi-cultural country”

Rogers: “She is from Canada because there are many beautiful women in Canada”.

Then he asks me afterwards if I knew Celine Dion. 

That made my day.

Prayer Updates:

• Dr. Travis has recovered significantly and started doing rounds at the healthcentre again. Thanks for your prayers!
• The CME meeting that Sarah and I were in charge of, went well because their own people led it instead. We are finishing up on the malnutrition program records to send in to UNICEF. 

Prayer request: at a beautiful home we stayed in Fort Portal (just 2 weeks ago), which was nestled in miles of tea fields, belongs to a long-time World Harvest missionary, Pat Abbot who is currently in the US, was just burned down. We received a phone call yesterday informing us an explosion happened at this house. Please pray for Pat Abbot who is planning to return in 3 weeks, but does not have a home anymore. Praise God that no one was inside (but just a little less than 2 weeks ago, the entire Johnson Family and Sarah & I too were inside!).