Day Two

Days 2

Note: I wrote this post last night, but Dr. Dan took the computer, before I could post it, to the hospital so some patients could watch a movie about Christ in Tonga (their native language). I am sorry I have not been able to post in the last couple days!

It is Friday evening already! We can hardly believe it. I apologize for not posting yesterday; we lost power for most of the evening. Apparently the power grid in Zambia is a little screwy, because they purposely cut off power sometimes to distribute it somewhere else. When the power went out yesterday evening, Dr. Kari, Barb, Lori, Kari and the African assistants were in surgery but luckily the hospital has a generator. The power-outage turned out to be an awesome experience because it made us have an amazing feast by candlelight (from a giant candelabrum!). And, we went outside for a bit and saw the most amazing stars most of us have ever seen. There were not lights for miles, making the stars extremely bright and multiple! It was truly beautiful.

In our other activities yesterday, the nurses (Lori and Kari) made morning rounds like they did the first day. They spent time in both the Men’s and Women’s wards. They also said that they are trying to be good influences on the Zambian nurses on getting lab work done. The work ethic in Zambia is very different. This is partly because the government pays all the hospital employees and they are paid whether they come to work or not. So many people who are employed do not show up for months at a time, and the workers who do come to work are not very motivated. Lori and Kari are helping motivate these workers.

Dr. Kari and Barb did many surgeries yesterday. They work together the entire time because Barb provides the anesthesia while Kari operates. They have mostly performed hysterectomies. They work with the Zambian hospital employees on all of these surgeries.

Bob spend yesterday morning visiting the patients in the hospital with a translator, Ana. He said that he really enjoyed praying and talking with the patients. He got to go to every ward, which is unusually because men are usually not allowed in the maternity ward.

Tehanne and Lindsay spent the day trying to organize the pharmacy at the hospital. The hospital is not very organized, so often times the staff will try to treat various things without the best materials even when they have the materials because they do not know where to find them.

Larry and John spent the day figuring out how to hook up the plumbing to the water tank. It was difficult because Dennis, the maintenance man they were working with, left unexpectantly for Livingstone for the day. But they were able to get some planning done and Larry spent some time preparing a program they are going to present to the Zambian church about finances.

I went over to the school in the morning and the assistant headmaster set me up with the head science teacher. They decided to have me teach 9^th grade science once a day for a whole week! I am pretty excited about this! They set me up with a textbook and let me select a section to teach. So I took the text home and made a lesson plan for most of the day.

It is getting late, so I am going to write another post soon on our activities from Friday. Everyone is doing well; we have not had any sickness or injury. We are continuing to pray for everyone at home. God bless!