Update!

March 24, 2011 UPDATE from Carolyn!

March 24, 2011

Thanks for your prayers for the Bongolo Hospital Nursing School. This past quarter I taught the Pharmacology course. The students just finished their second full quarter of classes and I am happy to report that all eleven students passed and will be admitted into the third quarter of classes. They are now on a one week vacation before classes resume again on Monday, March 28th. I will not be teaching a class to students nurses during the third quarter.

I had been teaching two new Nurses (Annushka and Martine) a one year course in Midwifery but this third quarter of classes we now have an additional student, Dina. Dina's husband was just transferred to the Bongolo Hospital Surgery Residency program from one that closed down in the Cameroon. Dina was already a nurse with experience in Maternity but she had had no additional classes in Midwifery. Annushka, Martine and Dina are doing well with their classes. They will finish third trimester theory on April 14th except for a term paper "care study" that will be due before the end of May. I will teach Dina the first two quarters of material this summer. Pray that the three nurses get good learning experiences in during their clinical work.

A month ago I became the Bongolo Hospital Bookkeeper again, after a break of two years. Until this week I did not have time to actually work in that office but my African helper, Christine, and I have worked every day this week and it's going smoothly.

I continue to attend church at Nzoundou Chapel, the next small village out the back road from Lebamba where the Bongolo Hospital is located. From our high of 94 people who attended for the Christmas service with following meal, the chapel is back down to having about 40+ each Sunday morning. An African couple, Felix and Adele, go with me each Sunday. Between Felix, Adele and the village nurse, Parfait, we four take turns giving the Sunday message.

Thanks for your prayers.

Blessings,
Carolyn

Visiting Hope House!

I drove up to Libreville on Friday to do some bookkeeping this next week.  There is an Alliance Orphanage here called Hope House. Most of my colleagues have visited there but yesterday was my first visit. The 30 kids live in this temporary home, awaiting construction of their new home.



I went with others. Upon arrival, some of the kids were finishing their spaghetti lunch. We got lots of hugs as the kids were so excited to see us.



I did not get to meet their "house parents" as they were out for the day but I did get to meet a young man who lives in the house and helps out with the kids.

A few of the kids tried to teach me a game with my hands, I'll call it "patty cake" but I had really no ideas who's hand to "slap" and when. I guess I won the game though because they told me so!



I gave an impromptu English class to about a half dozen kids, mostly teens.

We were at the orphanage about two hours. It was fun.These kids are getting a solid Christian upbringing.
I'm glad I got to go and I would go back if given the chance.

33+ Years without DRINKABLE TAP WATER!

For over 33 years I have lived in Africa and worked as a nurse at Bongolo Hospital. The water that comes into our houses and into the hospital wards has been pumped directly from the Louetsi river into a reservoir and then it has come into our houses by gravity.

At first I had a BUCKET FILTER SYSTEM. With a bucket of tap water (from the river) on the top.... and a filter in that bucket. The water would enter the filter and then go by plastic tube down to a lower bucket that received the filtered water. I would drink the water in the bottom bucket.

In recent years I have had an inline filter connected directly to the tap so that I could drink water that came through that filter. I fill up bottles so that I already have filtered water when I need it.

In the past ten days a team of four men have been on our hospital compound to install a PROFESSIONAL FILTERING SYSTEM that has started to filter all of the water that comes out of our taps! It also chlorinates the water.



This afternoon some of us had a tour of the facilities, so we could be convinced that the water was potable, pure. After all, I have been filtering my water for over 33 years! That means that I haven't even brushed my teeth using the tap water. Some of us needed to be convinced!  Here are some photos from the tour.


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After a few weeks of this purified water going through our old pipes to clean them out, the chlorine level coming out of the taps in our homes will be checked to make sure that they have the correct amount of chlorination. At that point our water will be DRINKABLE!
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Today's Positives:
1. We will soon be able to drink the water coming out of our home taps without first filtering it!
2. The patients at the hospital will now have drinkable water instead of having to buy it from other sources.
3. The water is not only pure, it is clear. The water in our house has had so much dirty sediment that sometimes washing our clothes changed them to a dingy color instead of whitening them!

Now..... if I only liked to DRINK WATER!

Happy Valentine's Day everyone!

Shall I give them Away?

Yesterday afternoon I got in the mood for Oatmeal cookies. What I really wanted was an Oatmeal- Peanut Butter cookie (healthily made) like I had eaten at a SparkFriend's house on Friday. Well, I went into the Kitchen to make cookies but did not have the right recipe and I really wanted peanut butter to be in my oatmeal cookie.

I spotted a package of brownie mix that really needed to be used up because it was old and I had fresher mixes in the house. I decided to make the Brownies. They were no fuss and were done in about 40 minutes, complete with putting them together. I ate two brownies right away!

What they tasted like was................ old. I had saved the package tooo long. I don't know what an old package mix tastes like in the States but on the very humid African Equator, well, if we keep things around too long they taste.... well. I can't even let you know other than OLD.

Now for my dilemma. Should I save them and eat them? If I frosted them would the frosting make them taste better? I really didn't want to waste the frosting. Should I give them to the lady who cleans house for me and maybe she or her kids would like them? It's not that they were tooo bad but I just knew that they weren't .... well, they were old tasting. They looked ok.... see the photo!



What should I do? What would YOU do?

Today's Positives:
1. After warning the cleaning lady that perhaps only her kids would like them, I gave all my brownies away today! 
2. I've been on track with my eating today!
3. I will go for a walk outside today!

Thanks everyone who follows my blog.

Moving Day!

Today the new Outpatient Clinic Building of the hospital was opened. After our 7:30 am prayer time, all the hospital personnel walked over to the new building to have a Prayer of Dedication for the building, those who will work there and those patients who will be consulted there. After the prayer, the building opened for service! Here are a couple of photos.





Today's Positives:

1. I was going supervise Nursing Students today but instead I worked with the one nursing student who was working in this new building. I helped direct patients who were not sure where to go because of the building switch. I also weighed patients and my student took their blood pressure. I was on my FEET for 5 hours and this is better than SITTING!

2. I am about ready to leave the house to go Nordic Pole Walking!

I am having a good day!

Christmas at Nzoundou Chapel!

Yesterday morning (Friday) we had our Christmas service at the Nzoundou Chapel. There were 91 people at the church which was more than normal. We had two pastors with us. One of them gave the Christmas message and the other did a communion service. Normally it is us laypeople who take care of the church so the people were really happy to have Pastors at their Christmas service.

After church we had a Church Dinner. They had not had a dinner together for over ten years. Here are a few photos. First of the little service.



Now for some of the foods: fermented manioc (cassava) root, two kinds of green leafy veggies and rice. We also had chicken wings that are not shown here.







After the adults were given food, the children came up the the food table and I helped serve them. There was plenty of food for everyone present.



Today's Positives:
1. Two SparkFriends came over for brunch. I served an egg casserole and we had a coffee bread that another friend had given us.
2. I had a Christmas meal at 2pm with about 18 other Americans working here at the hospital.
3. Two days of days of Christmas eating are over and my eating will get back on track!

It is 10:30 pm Christmas night and I'm headed to bed. Good night.