Update Letter DRC- Nov 2015

Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! I’ve just hit the six month mark of living and working in the DRC, but it doesn’t feel like I’ve been here that long.

This is partly due to keeping busy with work, but I’ve also had a couple visitors in the short time I’ve been here. A few months ago I was able to spend four weeks with my friend Kimiko, a general surgeon living and working in Saginaw, MI. She grew up in Nyankunde and has started coming back one month every year to work and help the people. Not only was it great to see her, but I typically live alone, so it was nice to have a good friend around to laugh and spend time with. She jokes that I just had her here to help with the cooking… And she might be right as she’s an excellent cook!

After she returned home, I focused on moving the maternity ward back into the newly refurbished building. It was a big job, but, with a lot of help from the nursing students, we were able to do it in two days. We organized, threw away things that didn’t work and couldn’t be reutilized, and stocked the new operating room as best as we could.

The satisfaction of completing the move was coupled with a celebration with the boy and his family who helped fund the building project. His mom shared the story of how they started by raising money for a goat and ended up raising money for a hospital with the support of their community. They’d wanted to have a goal that was unreasonable, something to “stretch their faith” in what God could do, and he provided.

With the project complete, I began to settle into a routine: seeing patients, performing surgery, and helping teach the training doctors. I also started preparing for an autumn visitor: my younger sister, Sarah. Now, the long trip to the DRC is usually an adventure in and of itself, but after getting turned away from her original flight for only having five months left on her passport rather than the six required for her short stay in Uganda, Sarah had to rush to the passport office in Detroit the following morning to get an emergency extension. Thankfully the airline staff worked with her, and she eventually ended up on a flight with one less layover, no extra fees, and the bonus of having to spend less time in Uganda. But, of course, once she arrived in the DRC, it turned out her visa, which was in the old passport, had been annulled by the passport official who’d stamped two holes in it!

Sarah did finally make it into the country, and after such an exciting entrance, she also got to experience my new norm: being ill. The day after she came, I started showing signs of malaria and was hospitalized two days later. I stayed in the maternity ward and even got to use the new latrines. After treatment and a lot of rest, I started feeling better, and then she got to battle a head cold.

With only a couple weeks left in her visit, we were actually feeling better and spent some time outdoors. She was able to meet some people, and I started back at work, gradually augmenting my hours. As you read this, we’re hopefully, after some passport shenanigans of my own, at the end of a short stay in Uganda to fulfill Sarah’s dream of seeing African animals in the wild. And today she heads home.

But, you’ll be surprised to read, she won’t be travelling alone. After several discussions with Samaritan’s Purse and the hospital, we decided I should head back to the US for some medical tests and evaluation after being ill for half of my time here. So I’ll be flying back to Michigan with Sarah and will be spending a month stateside. I’ll be in Saginaw the majority of the time (Nov 21-Dec18) and will spend the holidays in the Detroit area with family (Dec 19-27).  On December 27^th I’ll fly out to spend a few days in Switzerland, and then it’s back home to Nyankunde.

Even though the trip is last minute and unexpected, I hope to spend time with friends and family, regain strength, and be able to scare up more supplies for the maternity ward and hospital. Sometimes I have my own schedule and plans, thinking I control what happens, but, thankfully, God determines my steps and has a reason for this “vacation”.

Thank you for your prayer and support through all of this. I will continue to keep my blog up-to-date, and I look forward, as always, to your emails and notes.

Prayer requests:

·         That all medical tests and exams will be completed before I leave Michigan.

·         That I’m able to avoid more illness, especially since I’m coming to a cold climate during flu season.

·         That I’ll be able to establish a routine and regain health and strength.

·         Peace for the people in Nyankunde. Many of them are worried I will not return.