Country:United States State:Minnesota Metro:St. Paul Gender:Female
Interests:Family, Friends, MKs and TCKS, Nursing, missions, Liberia, training Liberian nurses, and more Expertise:Not sure I can say I'm an expert - I'd like to be an expert nurse at some point. :)
(Okay, here's the disclaimer... I wrote this on January 6 and have taken until now to be able to post it - I'm finally catching up on stuff online!)
I made a comment on Facebook about the funny things that happen in Greenville… so I thought I would share what some of those funny things are.
-Kou and I have been trying for the past year or more to get (and keep) the hospital dispensary organized, with the drugs in alphabetical order.Every time we go there we re-organize it, because people keep making up their own alphabet.
-We have an old man who “brushes” in our yard.Brushing is cutting the grass with a cutlass (machete).Our house is built on a place that used to be swamp, and it doesn’t take long at all for the whole place to be overgrown.Kou and I wanted to plant flowers in front of the house, so we asked him to prepare the place – both of us trying to describe a flower bed, where he would just dig up all the packed-down dirt in one area that we can come and plant flowers in.Every time we walk in or out the gate today, we find another way that he (mis)understands us.First there were five or six little tiny holes in the yard.Then there was a very narrow line of ground that he dug up.Then he understood the idea of a flower bed, but we told him that he should look for black dirt to replace the rocky stuff that he dug up.We showed him where to put the dirt that he took out to even out part of the driveway.When we left the house a little bit ago, we left little mountains of dirt all over the place.I don’t know if we’ll ever describe our intention correctly!The crazy thing is, he seems to understand me with my “sirese” (American English) better than Kou, a native Liberian English speaker!
-Along with the same old man, we have one old man named Sunday who is a security guard.He’s my favorite, (is it all right to have a favorite staff member?) but at the same time he’s a very simple man.Anyway, all day today while the other old man has been trying to understand how we want the flower bed, Sunday has been on duty, supervising the man.So every time one of us went to correct anything, Sunday would say “Okay….Uh-huh… Yeah I got it now” and then would proceed to make sure that the man was doing whatever we had told him to do. (So Sunday may have contributed to all the misunderstanding!!!)
-Sunday is the same man that Kou and I sent to buy some food for us a few weeks back.It was in the evening, and we wanted bread and roasted meat.We gave him 30 Liberian Dollars (LD) to buy 3 pieces of bread, and 150 LD to buy 3 portions of roasted meat.We all started laughing as soon as he came back – carrying 2 portions of meat (100 LD worth) and 8 pieces of bread (80 LD worth).When we told him his mistake, we laughed even harder because his response was, “It’s not bad… you can eat it all” – but then when we told him we didn’t want to eat all that bread, his next response was, “It’s not bad – I will go back and change it.”And I was surprised, but he really was able to go back and convince the people to take back 5 pieces of bread so he could get the money to buy the other portion of meat!
-Let’s see… I just heard the Sinoe County police passing with their sirens on.They just received two pickups in December.The first two or three days that they had their pickups they drove crazily all over the place, with sirens screaming the whole time.Early in the morning, late at night, they were driving around crazily with their sirens on showing everyone their new toys.Until they drove over a piece of metal that was in a mud hole and cut a hole in the bed of one of the pickups!After about a week both of the pickups were rather banged up.
-This one has a sobering aspect, but has a funny part as well.The part of it that makes me sad is that it involves a little 16-year-old girl who is HIV-positive and just had a baby.Kou and I, along with the HIV counselor at the hospital, had spent quite some time with the girl and her mother (who is only like 31, the girl’s mother also has a 7-month-old baby), trying to explain to them and teach them about what it means to be HIV-positive.Anyway, we hadn’t seen these people since the baby was born.They came to the hospital yesterday and were trying to register the new baby.When they register a baby they ask the mother’s name and the father’s name.So the registrar and Kou spent about 10 minutes talking to the girl trying to figure out her “husband’s” name (he started paying her dowry and all… her family consider him her husband!)All she kept saying was something like “Dokydo” which is like a nickname.Finally they had to ask the girl’s mother, and she said the girl’s husband’s name was Augustine.Then to find out the last name was another few minutes while the girl and her mother discussed what the real last name was!Finally, they asked the location where the child lives.As we started comparing the patient’s charts, we found out that the girl and her mother (who live in the same village) had reported living in different places on their charts, and the place they said the new little baby was from (like a week old) was a totally different place!
Anyway, some of that may not be too funny to anyone who’s never lived in Greenville or doesn’t know the people involved… but that’s my story of the funny stuff happening in Greenville.I guess the bottom line is that although things can get really really frustrating in Greenville, I feel blessed to be able to laugh about lots of things, and to have someone like Kou to laugh with!
Merry Christmas, everyone! I have greatly enjoyed my time in Monrovia through the Christmas season - two highlights are spending time with people I don't get to see very often (and with people who I'm just getting to know) and having time to read good books. This Christmas Day evening, I am not thinking about a lot of traditionally Christmassy stuff, but of the ups and downs of a life of obedience to Christ. I'm thinking about people in Guinea who are uncertain what will happen next since their president died this week. I'm thinking of families who are struggling to make the right decisions for the well-being of their kids, and wondering why things don't seem to be working out as smoothly as they had hoped. I'm thinking of a friend who has not relaxed to celebrate Christmas much because of the stresses of work. And I'm thinking about my own frustrations with working in Sinoe County.
In the middle of those thoughts, I started reading The Roots of Endurance, by John Piper. Already I have jotted down so many quotes from it, and I haven't even finished the introduction! I'm wishing I had a paper copy (I downloaded it from Desiring God), as I wish I could just underline and star all the great thoughts. Anyway, this book is about three men who Piper recognizes for their endurance in their lives of faith and obedience. I want to be like these men.
If you know me well, you know that I consider myself a runner, and dream of being a marathoner one day. I think this is partly why the theme of endurance strikes a chord with me. Piper describes Christians who are guided by a heart truly submitted to the Lord like this: "Coronary Christians are like the heart in the causes they serve. Adrenal Christians are like adrenaline – a spurt of energy and then fatigue.What we need in the cause of social justice (for example, against racism and abortion), and the cause of world missions (to plant churches among the unreached peoples of the world), and the cause of personal holiness and evangelism (to lead people to Christ and love them no matter what) is not spurts of energy, but people who endure for the long haul.Marathoners, not sprinters." Then he quoted William Wilberforce: "I daily become more sensible that my work must be affected by constant and regular exertions rather than by sudden and violent ones."
If you read the book, you will see the connection that Piper makes between enduring and glorifying God in our lives. The theme of God being glorified in my daily life is something that has stood out to me so much as I read the Word - have you ever noticed how many times in Ezekiel it says "Then they will know that I am the Lord" or a similar phrase directing you back to the purpose God had in His actions? That's the key - we are here to glorify God. I can use up all my energy and all the talents God has given me doing good things - but if I am not glorifying Him, what good is it? One last quote from the introduction to this book: "The aim of all our endurance is that Christ be seen and savored in the world as our glorious God."
I know, I know, it seems strange to be sweating in hot, humid weather and talking about signs of Christmas!But there are signs of Christmas all around!Even though I didn’t really celebrate a traditional American Thanksgiving (okay, to be quite honest, I forgot that it was Thanksgiving that day until my parents called…), I still observed my usual routine: once Thanksgiving is past, it’s time to pull out the Christmas music!This afternoon I was sitting at our partner organization’s office using the internet, and another expatriate (a British guy who works for the other organization) walked out into the common area where I had Christmas music playing on my computer.He was almost shocked by the fact that he was hearing Christmas music!What I told him is true – something I learned from my Mom a long time ago is that no matter where you are, you just have to make Christmas happen.You have to do something to get yourself into the spirit of Christmas.So for me, that means Christmas decorations, Christmas music, a nice cinnamon scented candle, and reading my favorite Christmas book – “The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.”
So it’s not like some of you are seeing signs of Christmas; there aren’t stores having big sales, there isn’t any snow, and no Christmas baking happening around me.But there are still signs all around – I saw my first “Christmas bird” of the year on Sunday morning when I woke up.Christmas birds are these white birds that migrate through here, and they are always around in December.And if I go downtown in Greenville in the next few weeks, I can anticipate seeing more people selling beautiful lappas (cloth that is used for sewing clothes), hair extensions, trinkets, toys, and all kinds of other little things for Christmas.Already yesterday one woman started asking me for her “season” – the little bit of money that everyone (children, adults, everyone) begs for as it gets closer to Christmas.
While these are all outward things, they remind me that I need to consciously get my mind and heart ready to celebrate the season.This is the time of year that I miss being in my church in the States – where there is an advent candle lit every week, and a special focus on preparing for “the reason for the season.”While all the outward things – baking, candles, music, and decorations – all help me feel excited about Christmas, it’s even more important that I take the time to think on the sacrifice Jesus made in coming as a little baby to atone for my sins!
I really didn't feel like going to church yesterday. I'm in Monrovia, enjoying the weekend away from Greenville, and my friend Annette had invited me to her church - or rather, she had informed me I was coming. I didn't have any good reason not to go, but just had a hard time getting my mind in the right gear. I want my attitude to always be, "I was glad when they said unto me let us go into the house of the Lord;" however, Annette's church was having their 12th anniversary program yesterday and I was dreading having to go to a program, knowing that it would be long and would involve fundraising. Actually, the thing I was really dreading was the chance that I would be seated up in the front, on the platform, as has usually happened when I go to Annette's church.
But I went - and was humbled by how God worked on my attitude. The first thing was that the usher let me sit with Annette, rather than marching me up to the front to be a spectacle. Then during the time between Sunday School and church, all the ladies I had ever met from this church came to me with big hugs and welcomed me wholeheartedly. These are ladies that sell in the market, or have very small businesses - but are so generous with their time and the little that they have. I was happy that the church clothes I happened to bring to Monrovia with me were sewn from the cloth they had given me as a gift when I was living at ELWA - a few of them recognized it and remembered, and thought I had planned it so that they would be able to see that I liked the cloth they had given me!
Anyway - there were a lot of little things that I sensed God was using to change my attitude. But there was one big thing - a very old man (I'm sure he doesn't really know how old he is) had been invited to attend this special program and to pray during the service. When he stood to pray, leaning heavily on his cane, he said very simply, "I am not well. But my Lord allowed me to be here today to pray for you, and that gives me joy." With as slow as he moved, I can only imagine the ordeal it was for him to come to the church that morning - yet he was filled with joy!
It was a great service, with a sermon given by a guest preacher who boldly spoke the truth - not just what people wanted to hear. As I left from there, I kept thinking, "Wow, Naomi, you're really selfish - and your attitude almost made you miss out on something that was good for your heart!" This morning while I was reading it came back to me again, that I have to continue to remind myself that it's not all about me! 2 Corinthians 5:14-15 stood out to me: "For the love of Christ controls us... that those who live might no longer live for themselves but for him who for their sake died and was raised." I want this to be my attitude every day!
Recently we have had a long period of time without any doctor consistently in Greenville again. One of the reasons we got involved in this project was to reduce the number of women who had to travel to Buchanan or Monrovia by road for "emergency" C-sections. In the dry season, when the road was pretty good, the fastest I have ever gotten from Greenville to Buchanan was about 5 1/2 hours. Anyway, our goal is to always have a doctor on the ground in Greenville. And if we don't, we do our best to make sure that we are prepared to make timely referrals.
So, anytime there is no doctor in Greenville, part of my job is arranging referrals for patients. Normally the process should be pretty simple: 1. Hospital calls me and explains the situation; we determine how urgent the referral is. 2. I contact our driver (if our vehicle is available) 3. I contact our logistics guys to fuel the vehicle 4. We go to the hospital, get the patient and one family member and one nurse or midwife and send them on their way. Easy, right?
Well, recently it hasn't been so easy. Sometimes our vehicle is not in town. Then we contact our partner organization who are implementing the clinic portion of our project, and usually they are able to help us, especially since they also support the hospital in Buchanan where we send our referrals. But even that is just more phone calls, not too difficult.
Sunday this was a whole new game, or so it seemed. Here's how my Sunday morning went:
5:50 AM - First phone call from the hospital about a woman who was bleeding in late pregnancy. I knew a little bit about her, as she had been in the hospital the previous week, at which time we were just monitoring her and planning to send her with any vehicle that was travelling, as it did not yet seem urgent to send her to Buchanan. Overnight her bleeding had increased, so the PA who was in charge at the hospital contacted me to refer her that day.
As of Saturday, we had received word that one of the bridges on the road from Greenville to Buchanan that had a hole in it was not safe to cross with vehicles anymore. This had been a bridge we had been concerned about, but Saturday we had gotten instruction not to cross with any of our vehicles again. So we knew that rather than simply arranging for our vehicle to go to Buchanan, we needed to make a swap - send our vehicle to the bridge and get Buchanan to send a vehicle to the bridge, and transfer the patient from one vehicle to another at the bridge. Again, it's a good thing our partner organization is supporting the hospital in Buchanan, because they are able to help facilitate these kind of swaps.
So it's Sunday morning. My first calls were to the project coordinator for our partner organization's office in Greenville, asking her to help arrange the Buchanan side of the swap. And then a few phone calls back to the hospital, updating them on what we thought was going to be pretty quick progress.
The first phone calls resulted in getting phone numbers of people at the Buchanan hospital, as they have an ambulance that would potentially be available to do the swap. And from that point on, the major cell phone network (Lonestar) dropped in Buchanan. Which wouldn't be a big deal, except that all the numbers we had for people in Buchanan were Lonestar numbers.
When we realized we couldn't get through on the phone, we thought maybe the radio would work. But there was a storm, so we couldn't reach Buchanan by radio. The Project Coordinator for our partner organization tried things like calling Monrovia and asking them to radio, all unsuccessfully. Finally I remembered that someone I know used to live and work in Buchanan, with the organization supporting the hospital there. So it was worth a shot to try and see if he knew anyone with any other cell phone company - and guess what? He did! The one Cellcom number he had was for the hospital administrator in Buchanan, which was perfect!
Finally, at 10:45 our car was on its way to the bridge for the swap, patient on board and all. They had to wait for some time for the ambulance to get there, apparently our driver drives faster than the ambulance driver! But the ambulance picked up the patient, and took her to Monrovia (because there was no doctor in Buchanan at the time, either), where she finally had a C-section.
The lesson? Don't have an obstetric emergency in Sinoe County! Seriously, this is the thing that's the toughest. I have so many friends who have recently had kids in the States or Canada, and at least half of them have had C-sections. I am so happy that they were able to have safe and timely C-sections - but I hate the fact that despite our work in Sinoe, we still have women travelling over the road for hours when they need an emergency surgery. So many of these women do not seek medical attention until it is already late... but even then, it seems like they shouldn't have to wait a whole day before they can get the care they really need!
