SURVIVING IN GABON !

Yes, I am SURVIVING in Gabon! For one thing, I had my physical exam this past week and had a good checkup. I have been SURVIVING Ovarian Cancer since June 2004!

I teach in the Bongolo Hospital Nursing School and I survived the first week and a half of teaching Pathology class. I’m not sure though if my students successfully SURVIVED their first exam which they took this afternoon. I still need to correct the exam.

Our hospital maintenance man Henri has given notice and will leave us in a couple of months. We have good news that a couple from the Midwest is interested in selling all and moving to Gabon to help us with our maintenance needs. Praise the Lord! Pray that they be able to sell their house. In the meantime, pray that we SURVIVE the time between Henri’s leaving and the arrival of this couple. Our station is huge with much electrical, plumping, building, telephone, yard-work problems that need overseeing.

The Memba Chapel is having problems SURVIVING. In a village of about 800 people, this chapel only has about 10-15 regular attendees on Sunday morning. The only other church in town did not survive. This one is struggling. They have no resident Pastor so I help out with teaching in Sundays. Pray for the believers in Memba, that they would not neglect getting together for Sunday worship time or the Memba Chapel might not SURVIVE. The church is not just a building, it is PEOPLE.

Yesterday a cargo boat sank at the Port in Libreville Gabon. We have expected a container of items that we shipped to Gabon and that ship with container was to have arrived about NOW. We were very grateful that the ship that sank was NOT the ship that has our container on board and “our ship” SURVIVED! Please pray though as now there is a delay in docking “our” ship, the one that has the container that we had shipped!

I am back to my theme of SURVIVING in GABON. I have been a missionary in Gabon for thirty one years, since 1977. Some things from my past that no longer exist or things that still exist and I continue to survive include: a gasoline powered wringer wash machine, two years without the electric turbine, using lamp light, Kerosene refrigerator, malaria twice, bad roads, car breakdowns without AAA, Congo Fever, no see-um bugs but they bite anyway, snakes, rats living under the stove, “outhouse” boards that gave way, jigger fleas, flashlights instead of street lights, 18 years of using a ferry boat to get to the main part of town, mail delivery taking up to three months, breaking a leg that needed surgery in our jungle hospital, using bug spray, asthma, hardly any stores in town, no restaurants (no Fast Food), many missionaries coming but then leaving, goodbyes, the life and death of three cats (I apparently have more lives then them), and I could go on and on!

How am I SURVIVING? Well, now I have 24 electricity (when it works), satellite TV, electric stove, wash machine and refrigerator, toaster, Magic Bullet, microwave, bread maker, bridge over the Louetsi River, a borrowed cat when the neighbor is on a trip, lots of shops in town, African restaurants (still no Fast Food), indoor plumbing (have always had that in my house), email, Internet, Vonage phone, a new NISSAN PATROL vehicle (my old one still needs to sell) and I could go on and on! I am blessed!

In June and July the TV series “Survivor Gabon: Earth’s Last Eden” was filmed in Gabon. The filming was not done near the hospital where I live. Some missionaries living in the capital city were able to meet some of the film crew. This TV series will have its two hour CBS Premier this Thursday evening, September 25, 2008. I have seen very few of the other Survivor series but this one, well, it’s from Gabon! What can I say? My brother will record at least the first one for me. It won’t be shown here until probably next year! I do not promote this TV series. I merely know that there are a lot of you who watch it and I want you to know that Gabon is where I live!

Click below for Previews of “Survivor Gabon: Earth’s Last Eden”. These links will tell you a lot about the country where I live, work and SURVIVE!

Survivor: Gabon Season17 Preview

“Survivor: Gabon Preview Part I”

Thanks to all of you who have prayed for me and have supported me financially for all these years. You are loved.

Joyfully Surviving in Gabon,

Carolyn

My New Nissan Patrol !

I am so excited to have a new vehicle to drive, a Nissan Patrol Van. My trip to Libreville went like this:

Monday: Drive ten hours over dirt and paved roads.
Tuesday: Shop at different Car dealerships. I was looking for a diesel, 4 wheel drive vehicle that would last me for the next six years, until my planned retirement.
Wednesday. Go with the Mission Business Agent to the Nissan dealership to pay for a Nissan Patrol. It is listed as a van but I always thought that vans had a sliding side door. I guess not. The only colors available were black and white. The only color available immediately, was black.
Thursday: Wait all day until 6pm when my new, already licensed van was delivered to the Mission.
Friday: Be driven to pick up the Insurance card for my Nissan and then go shopping for school and hospital paper supplies. In the afternoon I drove myself shopping at our "mall". It's mostly a grocery store.
Saturday: Also went shopping a bit, getting used to the new vehicle.
Sunday: Drive back home. Because I drove on Sunday there were no logging trucks on the road and hardly any traffic. None of the police checkpoints stopped me to look at my papers. The trip took only 9 hours.

Today, Monday, I ache all over. If you haven't driven on African roads, you may not know know what it's like to "grip" the steering wheel as you go over all the bumps and avoid the holes in the road. At least the road has recently been road graded. I always ache all over the day after taking that drive. A little Ibuprofen should take care of it for awhile.

I want you to know that I talk about "my new car" that it was not paid for by my personal account. People, some I know, some I don't know, have given money to the church for me to have this new car. I am very grateful. I also want you to know that I dove my old car to Libreville for selling. It did make it up there but then we found one major bolt had rattled off and it is now not drivable before it is first repaired. I have my new car just in time!! God is good!

Thanks to those who gave towards my car and to those who prayed for it!