Monday, March 30, 2015

Sorry for the photo overload... and less writing.... I think the pictures are so much fun & speak volumes about what it is like here.

We are hanging in there - we've made it through our 2-3 week mark that always brings confused feelings & mixed emotions.  Around that time both Anna & Lauren cried about missing home & Levi talked about home & his bedroom & familiar things a lot.  Around that time, I had my usual break-down (but no tears this year!) and Joel sort of crumbled under the weight of cultural & language barriers at the hospital.  But we kept walking & are back on top of the valley instead if walking through the trench.

I have really been enjoying "homeschooling" the kids.  I thrive in routine (and so do they.... despite what our life usually looks like - ha ha!)  Our typical schedule is something like this:  the kids get up & around in the morning, play around our house or read while I get showered & ready for the day... breakfast (usually toast & maybe eggs or fruit or homemade granola if I've made any)... make beds & then go out on our porch to begin school about 8:30am.   Lauren is usually scooting around on a scooter or playing with her buddy, Deste.

We have "recess" at 10:30 and let the kids on the mission play together.  Have a snack & finish up school by lunch.  Amazing what can be accomplished in a short amount of time with focus!

Joel & Tall Lauren & Rachel come home sometime during lunchtime & we eat together, then everyone goes back to work.  Our afternoons are filled with playing, running to the dukas for random things like beans or flour or sugar, cooking, napping, games, jumping on the trampoline, swinging, etc....  We will be heading to pediatrics in the afternoons, soon, I hope.

The pediatric building is brand new - it is much, MUCH larger & nicer than the previous one.  There are 4 wards inside, an ICU, 2 private rooms, flush toilets & even showers!  They even have a little "dining room" with a TV and some plastic chairs for the kids.... we'll see if the TV ever turns on.  We had a great weekend 2 weeks ago painting the building inside with fun colors & decorations!  There isn't anything like this here at Kibogora & it is so friendly & welcoming & just for kids!  I love it!  Move-the-kids-in-day was last Monday & it went pretty smoothly.  Some things that you wouldn't anticipate in the US..... the need to "teach" the moms how to use a flush toilet.  And although the rooms are large & there are plenty of beds, all of the moms & children flocked together & felt better stuffed close to each other.   They seem to prefer sleeping in beds together instead of spreading out.

There is an English program (conversational) that has begun & the people here at the mission have been recruited as teachers.  Rachel & I have the beginner's class.  We now teach Tuesday evenings.  Last week was our first class & we had no idea what level our students would be.  Turns out they are at the very basic, beginner level.  We went over the alphabet & how to pronounce each letter.  We went over numbers 1-10 and then some basic greetings.  It will be really fun - I'm looking forward to tomorrow.  They are adults & older than me.  They are eager, but shy & try hard.

Levi is getting used to feeling very comfortable in Africa.  He & Brandon & Zach are always off doing whatever.... jumping on the trampoline, building tree forts, or walking to the dukas nearby to purchase candy or see what new trinket has been put on the shelves.  They sometimes walk all the way to Tyazo without an adult.  I'm still a bit nervous about this.... but trying to let go a bit.  It's not even a mile & we usually see many people we know along the way.... and everyone in the community knows exactly where the muzungu (white) kids live.  Joel is comfortable if Levi is with 15 year old Zach.  Ok.  Relax.

Joel enjoys working at the hospital - although it's tough on so many levels.  He loves teaching so much & has had a lot of fun teaching Ronald.  Ronald is a Rwandan doc who is currently in a PAACS residency program in Ethiopia.  (Pan African Academy of Christian Surgeons).  He is doing an "away rotation" back here in his home country & working under Joel.  Awesome benefits for Joel are that Ronald "rounds"on the patients early, so Joel can show up at 7am instead of much earlier.  And Ronald is a great help/assistant in the operating room, not to mention he is obviously fluent in the language (Kinyarwanda), as well as English, so he is a much-needed translator for Joel.

Last week was hard.  There were some late nights - like after 9pm and 11:30pm.... and then on Friday night, Joel was called in around 12:30am.  He was still not home after our household was up & around for the day on Saturday.... so we ended up taking a "girl's trip" to Kemembe (about an hour away) to get some groceries and get off of our 1/2 mild radius for a day.  We got home at 5:30pm and Joel had gotten home just before us!  It was a sad day.  He can fill in the medical details, but there was a motorcycle/car accident the night before & Joel & his staff worked on the patient for 11 hours... and he ended up dying.  The immediately following patient was a little 7 year old girl who.... also died.  It was emotional.  One of Joel's Rwandan co-workers was crying.  They had a hard day.
We rest in God's providence.  We praise God that He has numbered our days.  And if it's your day to live, nobody can kill you.  If it's your day to die, nobody can save you.  This is what Joel shared with the staff who operated with him.

Our family is good friends with another in the community (both parents work at the hospital).  Emmanuel has worked with Joel over the years we have been coming & his wife MaryAnn is a sweet friend.  They have 3 kids - two boys & a little girl.  Last week we had a day of rain that wouldn't stop.  It was beautiful & comforting & awesome.... but the next day Joel received a text from Emmanuel that said, "My house fell down.  I will not be at work today."  So we went to visit later that evening & sure enough, the greater part of their home had fallen in.  The neighbors were there with shovels & were digging them out - saving some of the mud bricks to rebuild with.  We offered them a place to stay with us at the mission - but they refused saying that someone would come to what's left of their empty house and rob them.  The children have been sleeping at a neighbor's house.  Money is already tight, super tight, despite them both working in respected positions at the hospital.  We will help them finance rebuilding.  When is the last time someone who is at "doctor status" in your community had their house fall in due to rain?  The world continues to be so shockingly unbalanced.

I continue to be so very, very thankful for Rachel & Lauren who live with us.  It has been life-giving to have sweet friends - adults - who come home at reasonable hours & who get super excited for the weekend - because it truly is a weekend.  (Joel sort of gets weekends - but he works a lot).  Sometimes we stay up late & talk & eat the chocolate that my amazing friends back home sent with us (honestly, Joel usually joins in on these fun girly nights!)  Sometimes we watch girly movies & just let the discomforts of the days evaporate.  We cry.  It's different here.  It's nothing like nursing back home for them & every day has unique challenges.  I enjoy cooking with them, or for them & being a constant at our house.... maybe it's more for me than them, but I like it.  They are God-given gifts.

One of those nights when Joel operated into the night last week, he came home with a picture he'd taken on his phone of the ICU.  There are 8 beds in the ICU.  The beds were packed with people & the floor was covered with people.  The lights were on.  Family members, spouses, children, etc... the care-givers for each patient - were crowded in that room trying to sleep.  There was a blanket laid out on the floor between two beds & 3 people were squished onto it.  Imagine what has been on that floor.... or don't because it's gross.  Imagine the creepy crawly things that come out at night..... I remembered that picture when I woke up at 5:30am one morning with something tickling my neck.... in my comfy cozy bed.... that has plenty of blankets & a pillow... I don't really know what it was because I just grabbed it & threw it in the dark.... probably a millipede.

Blessings!!!!!!!!!!!!
Paula