When I left the hospital tonight I thought about walking around the hospital to avoid ‘the band’. I was tired from working and was ready to just crawl into my bed. I had not heard any noise yet so I figured it was safe to walk the normal way. Nuhu is the anesthesiologist and we found out the other day that he is also the manager of a band in town. Of course he is. We hired him to bring his band and put on a show for us. When I arrived to the front of the hospital Ashley and Mark were sitting on the hospital step while the band was setting up. I knew I was going to have to stay to witness this… the bass was just getting warmed up playing Amazing Grace while some other people were watering the sand in front of where the rest of the band was setting up. I sat down next to Ashley and we looked at each other and reminded each other that this is just another day in Niger, watching someone water the sand while instruments are being brought in and people are arriving. It didn’t take long to realize why they were watering the sand. That would be the dance floor. When the music started there were four girls who shuffled along in a line and danced, or shuffled, in a large circle through the sand. We all jumped in and followed and before long the fistula women from the village started wandering in from behind the hospital. They came and sat along the step to the hospital but after one or two of them got up and danced I knew the best was yet to come. People from all over the hospital, compound, nearby towns started showing up. I think we emptied out the village and all the fistula women came, even the two patients from the ward who had surgery were there. There were people dancing on the walkway to the hospital, on the ground, and as the circle continued to shuffle its way around and around I kept thinking to myself: John 10:10. This is living life to the full. Not just for me, but for the fistula women. Looking at all the women there laughing, jumping as Dr Steve had a laser pen he kept scaring them with, dancing, chatting, going up to dance then running back and giggling, just sitting and watching, laughing more. This is living life to the full. Even the woman who brought me to tears just a couple days ago knowing the chance of her being dry was slim, she was out there dancing, singing and laughing. I don’t think I have seen such a large group of VVF women laughing so much and just living without fear or shame. They were women sharing their lives together. The teenagers danced together. The older women sat and laughed. Everyone in between lived. No fear. Just John 10:10, living life to the full.
Friday, February 10, 2012
Life to the Full
Night Shift
Today was the first day of surgery! It was supposed to be on Tuesday but things can get a bit crazy when the minister of health decided to visit the day before you are supposed to open. We had to push the first surgical day back a couple days but it did give us more time to continue screening the mass of women we have staying out in the village.
I have enjoyed the clinic days. Two days a week we will have the clinic open so we can screen any women which have arrived and are waiting to see the doctor. We started by seeing any new women, those who have not had surgery here before, then moved on to those who have had surgery and need more help. I love seeing the women come back, those I have known from previous trips being here. One woman came in, basically to just say hello. She sat on the exam table and started talking and talking and talking and even though I couldn’t understand her verbal language, her body language said it all as she would get angry faces and pretend to spit and then smile. She was telling us that before the surgery, people would spit on her and avoid her and now she has found a new husband and people don’t spit on her anymore. She lives very close to here so I’m hoping to see her again. Another woman who I knew from before came in. She sat on the exam table and was completely wet. I knew what was coming, what the doctor was going to say, so I stood a bit behind her so she couldn’t see my face. I then had to leave the room because I couldn’t stop crying. The women who I know from before, I see them as my friends. I want the best for them, for all of them, but sometimes we are just about at the end of what we can do to heal them. I stood on the other side of the door and listened as the surgeon explained options to her, none of which are easy.
This morning we came to the hospital early to collect the three women from the village who would have surgery today. Today was a day of learning, to say the least. Everything from bathing to eating to handovers to making beds, everything was a first for here. To try and make this a place that will last and to do it well, you have to analyze every little thing. Why did it take over an hour for three women to bathe and have a sitz bath? Oh, the many reasons, but next week it will be easier. How do we get food from the kitchen to the patients? How can we change the beds so we aren’t constantly hitting our heads on the mosquito net frames? Ashley and I were sitting tonight talking about all the many things on our long lists of things to do and fix and review and none of them are bad. They are just things to have to work through and find answers to. All part of opening a 42 bed hospital.
I am sitting in the nurse’s station right now. It’s almost 10:30 at night and the three patients are tucked in, sleeping. Day shift. Night shift. How to make this work as well? The women were all asleep when I tucked their mosquito nets around them. I felt like a mother tucking in her kids. Before they fell asleep, two of the patients were laying in their beds facing each other, talking. Ashley and I were sitting in here wondering what they were talking about. I was mentioning things my friends and I would talk about when we would spend the night at each others houses and what we would say when we first turned the light off (Bridget). Ashley said they were talking about if they would be going back to their husbands now. Who knows what they were saying to each other, but they were super cute lying there in a stark white bed frame with a blue sheet on their bed. Each of them with their catheter so tonight they are dry.
Sunday, February 5, 2012
Scorpion
What made me jump this week? Not as many things as before. I am getting used to the spiders. We were moving the maintenance room out of the middle of the ward and behind a box I moved was a scorpion chilling on the wall. I thought it was dead. It wasn’t. Ashley was the brave one to kill it. Just a small one though. I hear they get pretty big here. The gecko still lives in my drain. We are becoming more understanding of one another’s space. I still laugh as he runs and squeezes his fat little body down my drain when I come in, but we are learning to live together and share the space in my sink.
In Maradi there is a ‘French Club’ which has a swimming pool and tennis court. It’s a good place to go on the weekend to relax. We went there last weekend and played tennis. It was fabulous! Ashely and I both brought our tennis rackets so we could play. I loved it! It was great way to relax. I’m wondering how we can make a court here… Put that on my list of things to do!
What a week this has been! The transformation of the hospital has been incredible, really. It’s been a ton of work but even through the early mornings and late nights putting shelving units together, unpacking boxes and scrubbing floors, I wake up thankful to be here and excited to head down to the hospital. It really still surprises me, although it shouldn’t by now, just how God gives you the strength and grace for wherever it is that He calls you to.
Dr. Steve and the rest of the team arrived this past week. Today was our first full staff meeting. Ready or not, Monday is almost here. Monday we will start screening the thirty something women already waiting to be seen. I wish I would have had more time to spend with them this past week but that time will come. On Tuesday we will start our first surgeries. We are starting slow and I’m grateful for that. Starting from the beginning means training everyone and working out all the kinks. Even things like this should go there or who was supposed to clean that and all the little details we may have overlooked. This will be a full week but I’m really excited! I do feel so privileged to be here for such a time as this. I couldn’t imagine being anywhere else right now.
Please continue to pray for my Hausa. I have been getting better but still a long way to go. It was helpful having cleaners in the ward this past week. Zo, come. Shigo, come in… I threw out any and all words I knew to practice on them. They laughed, knowing I was doing my best but then they helped to teach me as well. Please pray for this coming week that kinks will be worked out and policies will be written and women will start to be healed. Thanks!
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Another Step Closer
What a week this has been so far! Monday morning we started cleaning the hospital. It had not been touched in months so we knew a major job was ahead of us. We were able to hire ten workers to help us and overall they were great. We were able to bust that place out in two and a half days. When we finally started putting the beds into the ward the tears started. I cannot wait for that place to be filled with women. They have already started coming. If you build it, they will come, and they have. Two women from previous trips are already here. About six more and their children are waiting as well. They are staying in the huts. The huts are the cement dwellings behind the hospital where the women can stay pre or post operatively, especially if they need further follow up but they live too far to return every day. So the initial cleaning is done. 42 beds have been moved in with their mosquito net frames. All the windows have been cleaned. Hundreds upon hundreds of spiders killed. Every wall bleached. All floors mopped. All fans dusted. Laundry done, for the most part. The operating room looks great. More spiders killed. Now we are waiting on the container to arrive so we can have the supplies we need to begin.
I am still learning so much on a daily basis. Did you know that when you make popcorn on the stovetop you should make sure your pot has a lid so the popcorn doesn’t end up all over your kitchen? This is a fact. Did you know that home made yogurt is perhaps the only type of yogurt I will eat now? Absolutely amazing stuff! Did you know that Sarah actually translates into hausa to be Saratu but they drop the ‘h’ and this disappoints me a little. I have been proud of the ‘h’ on my name so I may be the only Saratu spelling her name Sarahtu. Did you know that in hausa the word for sing and the word for wash sound very similar so when the cute little girls from church came over to sing for me I thought they were telling me to go wash, not sing.
Maybe I’ll start having a section on here called: Things That Made Sarah Jump This Week. On Tuesday I had just returned to my home when I put my key in my door to lock it from the inside. As soon as I started turning the key a little head with big eyes shot out from the top of the lock where there was a small gap. I don’t know what type of animal, big game I think, these eyes belonged to but I do know that I yelled loud enough for Ashley to hear me and I kept jumping around my place thinking it was crawling all over me. I have gotten better though. I don’t live in fear anymore of a snake jumping out at me whenever I open a cupboard or door. I think this is a big improvement in a week.
An update on the current snake situation: just about everyone here knows of my fear of these rancid animals. Some still like to report on the daily snake sightings though. Two were found in my neighbors hut outside their home which they use for storage. I never saw them but I know they were quickly killed then burned. Oh, and get this. There is an area on the compound that we frequently walk down which one of the boys here called snake city yesterday. I think I will walk another way from now on.
From all this cleaning my back has gone crazy. Please pray for the pain to go away. We have a long journey ahead of us and I can’t be hurting. Please continue to pray too for our hausa lessons as well. We had our first one Tuesday and another tonight. Please pray that it will all sink in quickly for both Ashley and I. We have a great teacher, but languages have never been a strong area for me. I have learned that when people see you are trying they want to help you out and get excited for you when they know you learned another word or greeting. I look forward to the day when I can talk to the women without a translator! Thank you all for your prayers!
Sunday, January 22, 2012
Foodies of the Desert
Yesterday I came to this realization that I will survive. Don’t take this to mean I didn’t think I would but yesterday I saw and learned that cooking here is doable. I am not the greatest cook and even with my limited cooking ability there is usually some sort of processed something in there. There are four other houses here filled with missionaries who have been on the field for years. Nancy has lived in Niger for fourteen years and I guess you could say she is a foodie of the desert. She was just going to teach Ashley and I how to make yogurt but then she asked if we wanted to learn to make tortillas. No question there. I was tempted to even pack some when I came but no room was left in my luggage. We went back to her place later in the day for our tortilla class. Well tortilla class turned into bread class, which turned into sweet roll class, which turned into icing class, which turned into vinaigrette class. All this in under three hours even. I’ll admit, for some reason making your own yogurt kind of freaked me out a bit. Leaving my warm glass jar wrapped in a towel on my counter in the heat of the day kind of concerned me but this is what you do. Tonight I made myself finally try it. It was bitter but as soon as I added a bit of sugar, I am already hooked! No more buying yogurt in the store. Beyond easy too. All you need is powdered milk, water, and a small bit of yogurt starter. Done. I’m already thinking about how to make frozen yogurt and using the yogurt for baking and mango yogurt and vanilla yogurt and… We documented our entire cooking day, basically step by step but I can’t seem to get pictures on here, sorry. I am sure more cooking days and stories are to come!
Friday, January 20, 2012
Guess What Is In My Drain...
Sanu! I have made it safely to Niger. I have been here almost five days. Wow. It seems like I have been here weeks already. My flight here was pretty uneventful. Nothing too exciting to report on that. I met up with Ashley, the OR supervisor, at the airport in Paris and we flew the last leg of the trip together. It was great to finally meet. We arrived in Niamey and stayed three nights at a guesthouse there before we could catch our final flight here. All my previous trips through Niamey were really short so it was great to look around a bit. Found an amazing Indian restaurant close to where we stayed.
On Wednesday we flew the last leg of our flight to Maradi. Had a rocky start to the flight but the rest of the two hour flight was smooth. I’m still in awe as we fly across Niger. With there being only one paved road across the country and tons of small villages converged upon by small walking paths, it’s no wonder why VVF exists.
I was thinking the other day how God changes our hearts. I never imagined I would be living in the desert. Not in a million years. I grew up on the beach and love the water. I definitely have sand, but no water. Take away all the times I have jumped or screamed the past two days from random things that have spooked me and I can almost say I love it here. Daily I have been getting more relaxed with where I am. I am not as afraid to open a cupboard and think that a snake will jump out at me. Tonight I was in my bathroom and jumped then laughed and stood in disbelief as I watched a gecko shove its fat little head down the drain in my sink. He is now down in my drain and I don’t know if he can get out. He’s chilling right under the drain. I’m afraid to use it. It was the most random thing to see. It’s little body was wriggling all around as it forced its head down the drain…
The last two days have been filled to overflowing with information overload. There are four other houses in the same compound where I am living that house four families with enough mission experience to last multiple lifetimes. They have all been great in teaching Ashley and I how to live. Tonight we got a good introduction on how to light our stove. Yesterday we did the market. In all the time I have lived in West Africa I have not had to do all my own cooking and cleaning and clothes washing, and I mean by hand. I saw the market yesterday in a whole new light. It was great to have people to translate for us and tell us how to find the best produce and what to do with it once we got home. I bought flour and sugar by the kilo from a nice man on the corner with a scale. I now have flour and sugar in my freezer to kill the weebles in it. I was told the stuff I bought was fresh so I didn’t have to do it but at this point if you tell me there is a chance I have bugs in my flour or sugar I will do anything I can to kill them. Things that back in the states would take minutes to do can and do take hours here. After the market your day is not over. Now you have to clean everything. By cleaning I mean first washing it with soap and water and then letting it soak in bleach then rinsing it again. Lettuce is the most annoying one. Every piece of lettuce is washed this way. You definitely learn how to appreciate what you eat. Something else I learned was that you need to know what you find in different seasons. Right now as you drive through Maradi you see sellers with plates of carrots on their heads. Carrots are everywhere. It’s carrot season. I’m told that in a few months you won’t find any so now is the time to freeze them so you will have some to eat later. After going through the long washing process now you cut them up to freeze them. I have carrots, bell peppers, onions, cilantro and flour and sugar in my freezer. I’m so thankful I went to the Brown’s for dinner tonight. I would have stuck with a granola bar if I hadn’t.
Yesterday evening we went to see the hospital. Once it is cleaned it will be so beautiful. I can’t wait to see it filled with women. The ward is huge. The operating room is amazing. The hospital has been locked up for months except for a construction team and it is FILTHY. It seems like an overwhelming project but starting Monday we will start cleaning, hopefully with a team of workers. The amount of spiders everywhere in there could possibly set a record though. We opening one door and in the door frame was a gross pregnant spider. What scared us even more was the egg sac next to her. This egg sac was cream colored and covered with spikes. I came home a googled it and I’m wondering if it is a brown widow spider??? I kind of don’t want to know. Either way it is still there and we are hoping the eggs don’t hatch anytime soon. SO GROSS! That is how I feel about that.
We met with our hausa teacher today. We’ll start lessons next week. That is really the biggest prayer request I have right now. I am awful at languages and not only do I need to learn hausa, I need to eventually learn French as well. Hausa is first since most of the women speak it since they don’t live in the cities. Everyone else speaks French though. Please pray that I will be able to pick them both up quickly.
Tomorrow is a new day. I think I will try and cook something on my gas stove now that I think I know how to fiddle with it to make it work. I can’t thank you all enough for your prayers. Please keep them coming and let me know how I can be praying for you too!