Mon. Aug. 8, 2016

Monday, August 8, 2016

We have been in Rwanda for a week and a half now.  Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers for our family.  We are adjusting well - I’d say better than expected.  We are taking things slowly on the home-front, getting used to our new home and surroundings, getting organized and figuring out how to spend our days well.  Visitors come to our house every day.  They come to say hello and greet us.  They come to ask for money.  They come to use the internet and our computer.  They come for dinner.  They come to ask for work.  We aren’t lonely.  

Joel has begun working at the hospital.  The same challenges face him head on year after year.  And it is frustrating, exhausting and daunting.  But it always gets better, sort of.  Today he came home at lunch for a quick bite to eat and he looked spent.  He shared about how the instruments he needed during a case weren’t sterilized yet.  Other things he needed were “expired”  And the staff was afraid to take responsibility, so he found them huddled together in the hall outside the operating room … maybe searching thoroughly for his requested items, or maybe drawing straws to see who had to tell Joel they weren’t prepared.  

Language barriers.  An enormous list of patients to see daily.  Insufficient supplies.  Fear of displeasing the doctor.  Failure to monitor patients closely and knowledge deficits.  These are just a few of the many, many difficulties for Joel at the hospital.  But God.