Hospital Staff

The Bongolo Hospital Staff has an extra heavy patient load these days because of a nationwide strike of medical personnel who work in other hospitals. The Bongolo Hospital is a private, church owned hospital.

Pictured are some of the 70 or so hospital staff members. Pray for them that they work extra hard to take care of the medical and spiritual needs of their patients. Pray that they would be encouraged as they minister in this way and that they would not also want to strike for more salary!

Great Quote!

Inauguration Day!

In honor of the Inauguration of President Elect Barack Obama, I show you the photo of the new "Cafe Pub Barack Obama" that is now in my little town here in the jungles of Africa! I hear that there is also a second new cafe in town that has a similar name.

I have satellite TV so will be turning on CNN at 5pm to watch the Inauguration program and of course at 6pm (my time) when Barack Obama is sworn in as the 44th President of the United States of America

I have had company over for dinner so many times lately that for tonight I invited a few people over but asked them to bring their own "picnic". We'll eat together while watching the Inauguration but I will not have to fix it! That way I will be able to eat a simple, healthy meal and not have to fix food fit for company!

HELP! Army Ants!

Where I live in Africa we have invasions of "Driver Ants". We also call them "Army Ants". When they are hunting for food they scatter about but when they have found food and are transporting it to their hideout, they march in columns. To see a YouTube video of Driver Ants, check out this link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=taYMcraitqo

These ants have pincers so do NOT step on a column of ants. If even one goes up your leg, "he" will grab on to your skin with his pincers causing PAIN. You will have not be able to just brush him off of you, you will have to pick him off. Now imagine if you have several driver ants crawling up your legs. Sometimes the only way to get them off of you is to take your jeans/slacks off and start taking them off of you one by one!

When Driver ants enter a home they go in search of food so they easily find your kitchen. You had better hope that you washed or rinsed your dishes that day! They will scatter all over the kitchen, looking for food that is available. When they have eaten or carried off what food they want, they will leave.

If you start killing ants, you will have a real mess to clean up. It is best to just let them clean your kitchen for you!

Once I was in bed and I woke to a few ants pinching me. I got up and slept in the living room for the rest of the night because they had not come there. The ants were gone from the house in the morning. P.S. I was NOT eating in bed. Sometimes these ants check out the whole house and some people have even moved OUT for the night!

P.S. More about Ants can be found at the following link:

http://antbase.org/ants/africa/dorylinae/anomma.htm

Traveling Tales!

Yesterday I made a 10 1/2 hour trip to and from the airport in order to pick up visitors who were coming to do construction at the Bongolo hospital. Traveling in Africa is not always easy. The bridge to the left is an example of how some of the bridges are built. Logs are put across the stream and then running boards are attached to the logs. This bridge (not one that I crossed yesterday) seems to be collapsing. Fortunately, it has been fixed.

The alternative to building bridges is the use of the ferry. For the first 17 or so years of my life in Africa (I've lived here over 30 years) I had to cross a ferry each time I wanted to go from my side of town to the side of town that had the grocery stores and post office! Fortunately there now is a nice, well built, steel bridge that crosses "our" river. I am so thankful for the bridge over the Louetsi River (see below)!

NEW YEAR- 2009

I had a lovely Christmas 2008 leading into a New Year's Eve party.

Dec.20- Christmas Cookie making party .

Dec. 21- Christmas church service at Memba Chapel. There were 13 people who made decisions for Christ during the service.

Dec. 24- Christmas Eve dinner with five friends.
Dec. 25- am.. Breakfast and opening gifts with friends.

Dec. 25- 1 pm Christmas dinner with the whole missionary family. We played games and had fun all day, stayed for supper leftovers and did not get home til about 8pm.

Dec. 29- 2nd Annual White Elephant gift party followed by a three hour game of Mexican Dominoes.

Happy New Year 2009!