Just some more updates...

Last Sunday (April 13th)– Well…we went to church here at the mission. Meagan had started to feel bad that morning, but trudged onward since we were having company that day. Sam and Nancy Shewmaker and Sam’s sister and husband were visiting the mission to see about possibilities of Sam’s sister and brother-in-law moving somewhere here in Zambia. From their conversations, it seems as though they are interested in moving to Lusaka so he could start teaching in the medical program. He is an ENT doctor that has worked in places such as Colorado and Missouri. It was really great to just get to know all of them a little better. I especially enjoyed talking to Sam and Nancy. I had Mr. Shewmaker in class at Harding and I don’t think I fully appreciated the work he and his wife have done in the world missions area while I had him in class. We chomped on red beans, rice, and sausage we had made while they had brought over some cabbage for us to enjoy. Louisa made a brownie mix from the states that someone had sent over…so yummy! That night at church was the first Sunday night church that the power wasn’t out or some kind of craziness came up that we didn’t miss.

Monday (14th)– I have become known to Louisa some days as “Little Laura”. I acquired that name from Louisa because Laura Oldenburg is a missionary, who with her husband were here at Namwianga until he had some health issues that have kept them in the states for a bit. She is a nurse from the states and was in the middle of organizing the clinic when they had to leave. Well, I’ve really picked up where she left off. On days that we don’t really have many programs, I’ll go to the clinic and for half of the day; I will go through lots of boxes, trunks, and supplies that people have sent over. They are trying to get one ward set up to house patients overnight. I’m organizing supplies so that they will be able to do that and also just know what is in all those boxes! I’m really surprised about how much they do have. It’s just a slow process going through all the stuff and having people organize it that actually know what the supplies are and where they should go. Sadly, I really enjoy organizing all the supplies. I have been scared by a few half dead lizards or fully alive lizards that like to jump out of boxes. I did scream pretty loud once and scared a bunch of men that were standing outside. I’m not scared of lizards, but I’m still a girl. That afternoon I went over to the orphanage to mainly hold babies, but got roped into taking a couple of sick babes to the clinic. One of them needed some injections and another needed a malaria slide done. That took most of the afternoon so then I mostly held a couple of babies and just fed them.

Tuesday (15th)– Another day of fun with Louisa and her crew on the mobile HIV outreach. I may not be spelling this village right, but we went to Nazabula (sounds exactly how I spelled it). This was the first time they have been to this village since December because the roads were too bad to travel during the rainy season. This means that they had to pay for themselves to travel to Kalomo to get their testing done, any other medical treatment, and to get their ARV’s. This just means more money (that they don’t have) to spend on their treatment that we could have helped them with if the roads were passable. Anyways, we get there and they are so happy to see Louisa… just clapping and all smiles. Louisa said it was just nice to see all their smiling faces and to know that most of them have been pretty healthy since seeing them last. We had to see a bunch of people and it took longer because we had to do a more thorough assessment and I had to draw most of the patients blood since we hadn’t been there in months.(Mom…I know you are wondering if I was careful. Yes, of course, I was. I double gloved, wore goggles for transferring the blood, etc… I know how you are. I love you.) The patients were easy to get blood on, but why is it that the boys/men are always the biggest babies. Just wondering. Probably because most of these women have had at least 4-5 kids and they walked to the hospital while they were in labor or rode in the back of a truck with 20 other people while in labor. Just a thought. Anyways, it took most of the day to get done with them and then quickly went to see some other patients in the program on the way back. On the way back, we had a hilarious time with our fellow team members. We laughed pretty much the whole way back because we made them say hard words for them and they made us do the same in Tonga. The hardest word for them was “parallel”. They really don’t even use the “Rrr” sound in their language and they usually switch “R” and “L” (for some reason) when translating to English. So, the word parallel came out as “Pau”. It may not seem funny, but we got a big kick out of Rogers trying to say it over and over….Anyways, we came home to find out that baby Meagan had died that day. It has been some hard luck at the orphanage lately. It’s just that the orphanage has just been given some very sick babies from the moment they arrive and we really don’t know what they could be already sick with when they arrive. Most of the time, we assume that the mothers have died of HIV, but really it could have been anything. The families never really have much information to give us when they drop the babies off.

Wednesday (16th)– I organized in the morning and then actually got to hold babies in the afternoon. Got peed on. That’s about it.

Thursday (17th) – The ladies conference started here at Namwianga. They were expecting around 3,000 ladies at the conference and the final count was 3, 991 women excluding children! Crazy! Anyways, it started Thursday morning and we went to the first speaker. It was great. We sat by one of the girls that could translate for us because they were already translating in Tonga and Bimba. After lunch, Meagan and I went to the orphanage and found that baby Jennifer was doing even worse. She honestly looked like she could go anytime. After a long discussion with some others, Meagan and I decided to go ahead and take here to see the clinical officer to see if there was anything else we could do. We took here and there was a few things we could try, but we all knew in our hearts that the inevitable was coming…we just weren’t sure when. It took most of the afternoon to get all the programs done, but we got back to the clinic around 1600 and I started an IV (because we didn’t want her to stay at Kalomo hospital-you would know why if you saw it) on Jennifer to give her bolus so hopefully she could make it through the night. After I started the IV, Meagan left to go get us some food at home while we waited for the bolus to finish. After she came back a lady in labor came by and needed a ride to the hospital. So, I called Louisa and she then headed our way to take her to the hospital. The problem was that I looked out the window and saw that this woman was walking away from us! Some how in the communication between me and the translator, he forgot to tell her to sit on the bench and wait for the truck. She was going to walk the whole way there…I’m sure it’s a good mile or two….in labor!

Friday – (18th) Us girls went to town in the morning to pick up some groceries and for Louisa and Meagan to meet up with one their Peace Corps friends. We took Kathi and Lola with us (their pictures were in the blog before this one) and they were treated to some ice cream. We then rushed home to hear Kathi Merritt speak at the ladies conference on disciplining children. She should know…She has had three of her own, adopted who knows how many, is in charge of the Havens, and keeps street orphans in her home.
We went back home for lunch and Kathi came by with the news that baby Jennifer had just died at the orphanage. The good thing was that her family was there to visit at that time because we had called them the day before to tell them how sick she was. I was glad they were there with her. So, we went to the orphanage to find that they were going to go ahead and have the funeral since her family was there. I had my first experience of a baby’s funeral earlier this year when I attended the funeral of a patient that had spent her whole life at Vanderbilt. I can’t even describe the feelings that come inside my heart when thinking about that time. It was a first for me and maybe the last of one of my patient’s I attend. It’s not supposed to go that way. Mothers really aren’t supposed to bury their babies. That’s one talk God and I will have to have when I talk to Him. Anyways, I now have attended my first funeral for a baby in Africa. A much different experience, but I’m not sure how I feel about it yet. Just as sad, but it was different. It was sad though that her mother wasn’t there. Her aunts were there who had lost their sister a month before and now their niece. Sometimes it’s just too heartbreaking to think too much about, but we have faith and know that there is an ultimate plan that I don’t have to always understand. I don’t.